All Episodes
Previous Next
July 16, 2025 - Sean Hannity Show
30:43
Truth on Autopen - July 15th, Hour 3
| Copy link to current segment

Time Text
This is an iHeart podcast.
Stay right here for our final news roundup and information overload.
All right, news roundup and information overload hour.
Here is our toll-free telephone number.
It's 800-941-Sean, if you want to be a part of the program.
We've got some real issues and problems as it relates to what the hell is going on with Joe Biden at the end of his administration.
What was going on?
with all these auto pens.
I'd like to know.
And, you know, we went into this in some specificity and detail last night, but the scandal around Biden's use of the auto pen has grown worse by the day.
So the New York Times does an interview that they published, what, yesterday or the day before, I forget.
And Biden actually admitted he did not approve each individual pardon.
The former president claimed he, quote, made every decision about clemencies, but later admitted that he had his staff replicate his signature because he said, quote, we're talking about a lot of people.
And what's even more alarming in this, according to the New York Times, is Biden discussed pardons with his advisors on January the 19th.
That's his last night in office.
And after messages circulated among his advisors summarizing the meeting, it was Biden's then chief of staff, Jeff Zeintz, who sent an email reading, quote, I approve the use of the auto pen for the execution of all of the following pardons.
Now, the New York Times also said that Biden just put parameters around the issuance of clemency for people, but he didn't sign off on specific cases.
That is not the same as him deciding who to pardon or to offer clemency to.
So they admitting here that he didn't make the ultimate decision, that he just put parameters around what his staff can choose or not choose, because that constitutional power, authority, which is absolute, there's no doubt about that.
It appears less than clear that Biden made the decisions.
Matter of fact, it sounds and reads to me like he didn't make the specific decisions.
So we have that issue.
And then we have this other issue of the report from John Solomon, who we had on the program yesterday.
The FBI now is looking at all the years of weaponization of the federal government, opening the door now for a special prosecutor to look into everything, starting with the Russia hoax and PISA abuse, straight on through Jack Smith and the special counsel.
Anyway, here to weigh in on all of this is the chairman of the House Committee of Oversight and Government Reform, Chairman James Comer, is with us.
Congressman, welcome back.
How are you?
I'm great.
Thanks for having me on, Charles.
So I read this article, and I read it that Biden is admitting he didn't approve each individual pardon and clemency here, and that it was his chief of staff that signed off on these last day clemencies.
Biden acknowledging he didn't agree to the name of every person who received a pardon.
I made every decision, he says, about the clemencies before admitting that he had his staff replicate the signature because we're talking about a lot of people.
And then his team used an auto pen on 25 warrants for pardons and commutations in December and January, but two of the warrants granted clemency to thousands of people.
And then Biden commuted roughly 1,500 sentences and outright pardoned 39 more.
And three days before he left office, he commuted the sentence of nearly 2,500 federal inmates convicted of crack cocaine offenses.
And even the New York Times is saying that Biden approved the standards that would be used in which convicts would qualify for a pardon or commutation while his staff sorted out the details.
Well, that doesn't sound like tell me if I'm wrong, but I didn't know that the power of the pardon, which is absolute for a president, that he could just put parameters around what the criteria would be and not actually specifically sign off on each individual.
You're exactly right, Sean.
He is not allowed to do that.
That's not how it works.
He has to do them individually, and he has to sign with his own signature.
Think about all the time and effort that prosecutors went in to convicting these people of crimes, of various crimes over the years.
You had a jury in most cases, and you had a huge expense to the taxpayers.
And then all at once, Joe Biden supposedly gives his unnamed, unelected bureaucratic staffer the authority to pardon him, just diminish everything that was determined in the court of law.
That's not how it works.
And by Joe Biden's own admission to the New York Times, then those pardons should be ruled void in a court of law.
And I think, you know, it's about more than the pardon, Sean.
It's about the executive orders.
And it's about the fact that there's no evidence that shows that there was any formal process where Joe Biden told the individuals who were using that AUTOPIN for pardons and executive orders that he knew exactly which pardon or which executive order he was talking about.
He had read it inside and out.
And I want you to sign my AUTOPIN because I'm out of town.
The other problem, Sean, is that 75% of the time they use the AUTOPIN, Joe Biden, according to the White House logs, was in the White House.
I mean, none of this makes sense.
It all begs to the question, did Joe Biden have any idea what his signature was being signed on?
And thus far, I can say I haven't seen any evidence that would suggest he did.
All right.
So you're the chairman of the very powerful House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
You have been doing interviews with people in the Biden White House.
I know you have other interviews scheduled, and you put out subpoenas for people, and some people are cooperating, and others are not.
So what is the status?
What are you learning as you interview these people?
We're learning pretty much what the New York Times reported: that there's no evidence that Joe Biden had any idea, the overwhelming majority, of what was being signed using the Auto-Pen.
There's no formal process.
The people that have stuck the documents in, the staffers that suck the documents in and hit the power button to sign Joe Biden's signature, never heard from Joe Biden directly.
In fact, in some cases, they went long periods of time without even seeing Joe Biden.
So there was a very select few that were calling the shots in the White House.
You mentioned we've had several depositions and transcribed interviews.
We have several more scheduled.
In fact, one tomorrow with Joe Biden's former chief of staff, who already declined a scheduled interview we had.
So I had to subpoena him and bring him in.
But we're going to get to the answers of who was, in fact, calling the shots.
We brought the doctor in, Dr. O'Connor, to see if, you know, the first question we asked Dr. O'Connor, did anyone ever try to get you to lie about Joe Biden's health?
And he pled the fifth, Sean.
I mean, so I mean, there's nothing good is coming out of this at the end of the day.
Did he plead the fifth throughout the entire interview?
Through the whole interview, through the whole interview.
The only question he answered was his name at the very beginning of the deposition.
You have to state your name.
And he did that.
Everything else, he pled the fifth.
We're going to interview everyone, give everyone their due process, give everyone an opportunity to tell the truth.
Then we're going to publish a report based on facts, hand it over to Pam Bondi at the Attorney General's office and let them go from there.
Because when you talk about accountability, the things that I want to see, many of these executive orders and pardons, these pardons like for the Biden family, are you kidding me?
Were a direct result of our investigation on the Oversight Committee for finding all the money they took from people in foreign countries.
Now you've got executive orders that were signed in the last two weeks of the Biden administration.
They were signed using the auto pen.
There's no evidence Joe Biden knew anything about it.
He never had a bill signing ceremony, never had anything like that.
And they were done for the sole purpose of Trump-proofing the Trump administration.
They're making it harder for Donald Trump to shut down the government agency.
They're making it harder for Donald Trump to deport the criminal illegals.
These were based on executive orders that were signed using the auto pen on days when Joe Biden was supposedly in the White House, but he never answered questions about it.
They never issued any statements.
We think all of these could very easily be declared void in a court of law, and that would go a long way to helping President Trump accomplish his agenda.
All right.
So let me ask you this.
Would it not invalidate all of these clemencies and pardons, especially in the waning days of the administration?
If there's evidence or if he just laid out standards that should be applied by his team and was not knowledgeable about every single pardon clemency, whatever he was offering people, and he just laid out a criteria for his, I guess, staff to follow, and then an auto pen was used.
It seems to me that that would invalidate it.
Is there anything illegal that you can see here?
Well, again, you know, what Joe Biden admitted to was he gave the authority, he verbally gave the authority to his staff to use his signature to pardon anyone.
That's not legal.
That's not legal.
So Joe Biden's already admitted to the New York Times, which is funny, that should have been a slam dunk interview for Joe Biden.
Instead, it incriminated him even more.
That's illegal.
We question Joe Biden's mental fitness.
We're going to try to do some things to create a situation where possibly the doctor can have immunity to try to answer our questions.
That still doesn't mean he'll answer them or not.
But we're going to try to go to great lengths to get a medical analysis from Joe Biden's doctors as to what his true mental and physical health condition was to determine whether or not these staffers were even communicating with Joe Biden.
They may have just been acting unilaterally, which the evidence would suggest.
I think everything that was signed with the auto pen, especially on days when Joe Biden was in the White House, Sean, I think everything can be ruled invalid in a court of law.
All right.
Let me go to this other issue.
And we had you on TV last night with John Solomon.
He was also on this radio program yesterday.
And, you know, we have covered at length, I can't tell you how many years we spent on Russia, Russia, Russia.
And we had a small ensemble cast of us that were able to unpeel every layer of the onion and get to the bottom and get to the truth of that entire story.
The most frightening part of it is that they knew from the beginning that this was a Hillary Clinton campaign bought and paid for dirty Russian disinformation dossier.
And then even though James Comey in particular was warned that it was a political document of all people in August of 2016, although he was warned in July as well, not to trust it, he still used it.
It was the basis of not one, but four FISA applications.
He signed three of the four of them.
He years later went before Senator Graham before a committee hearing and admitted knowing what he knows now, as did every other person that signed those FISA applications.
admitted that knowing what they know now, they never would have used it.
But they did know then, and that's the problem.
Now, what's happening is we now have the door has been open for a special prosecutor to look into everything ranging from Russia and the Russia hoax to FISA abuse to 51 former Intel agents that knew absolutely nothing about the very real Hunter Biden laptop.
All these incidences, the impact weaponization against Donald Trump, false valuation of Mar-a-Lago, the novel legal theory used by Alvin Bragg when the statute of limitations had run out on a legal non-disclosure agreement, which is only a misdemeanor, and he turned it into 34 felony counts.
And to the ex all the way through Jack Smith and the double standard with the raid at Mar-a-Lago versus Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden and their top secret classified materials that they had, and they didn't get the same treatment.
Now, where do you see this going?
Because that to me seems like a 10-year deep dive investigation.
Yeah, well, I think a lot of these committees have already investigated.
I think you go back to the work that Devin Nunes did when he was there.
He was the first person when he was a ranking member of the intelligence committee going up against Adam Schiff to say that this was all a joke, a hoax.
Then you've got, you know, there's been stuff that the House Judiciary Committee's done, House Oversight Committee.
I think a lot of the investigative work's done, if what you're seeing now from John Radcliffe and hopefully Cash Patel, they're going to continue to expose the truth about how this was all a hoax generated by the Clinton campaigns, the Obama campaigns to try to take Trump down.
I think that the committees where Comey and Brendan ever testified and lied, that's perjury.
I think they should have criminal referrals to the Department of Justice.
I think that the CIA and the FBI should issue reports and hand over to the Department of Justice.
And I think the Attorney General should just start in now and try to get some accountability here for perjury, for abuse of power.
I mean, the list goes on and on and on and set an example out of these deep state actors.
The truth is known now.
The evidence is out there.
There have been investigations from various committees.
There have been Senate committees, Senator Grashley, Ron Johnson.
I mean, there are a lot of different investigations that I think could be pieced together without having a special counsel and just go ahead and start the prosecution of these criminals now because that's what they are, criminals.
I think the evidence is overwhelming.
Well, we appreciate all your hard work and always being generous with your time to share with us and update us on what's going on.
These are very critical issues we need to get to the bottom of.
James Comer, Chairman, House Government Reform and Oversight Committee.
We appreciate your time, sir.
Thank you, Sean.
Appreciate it.
Now, till the top of the hour.
We'll get to your calls in just a minute here.
Listen, thanks to your generosity, your thoughtfulness, your kindness, the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, they're making lasting differences in real lives, lives like the Ernst family.
And when U.S. Navy Chief Petty Officer Michael Thomas Ernst was killed in a training accident, well, the Tunnel to Towers, they had the money you provided and generously donated, and they were able to provide this family a mortgage-free home.
And his loving family had that burden lifted off of them.
And since Tunnel to Towers was founded in the aftermath of 9-11, the Ernst family is one of many that you have been able to help, and your help is desperately still needed today.
And you have now helped empower our most catastrophically injured vets and first responders to reclaim their independence and help provide specially adapted smart homes.
But there is a lot more to do.
Many heroes, many of their families, they are still in need.
We can't forget America's heroes have given so much.
And together, you know, we can all say thank you in a very lasting and a very meaningful way.
Anyway, please join us at Team Hannity.
Support the Tunnel to Towers Foundation.
Go to their website.
It's the letter T, the number two, the letter T.org, the letter T, the number two, the letter T.org for the Tunnel to Towers Foundation.
All right, so there was a short gaggle earlier today before the president headed to Pennsylvania to talk about oil and gas and AI and a variety of issues.
Let me play a little bit of that, and then we'll get to your calls.
Mr. President, your reaction to the latest numbers from the Labor Department saying that inflation rose slightly last month.
Very slight.
Essentially, they were exactly as anticipated.
Very low inflation.
So what you should do is lower the rate.
The Fed should lower the rate immediately.
It's a terrorist.
We had a big win with the Supreme Court on the Department of Education.
As you know, we want to bring education back to the states, take the federal government out of it.
A little tiny bit of supervision, but very little, almost nothing, like to make sure they speak English.
That's about all we need.
Yes, you've given Russia 50 days.
What happens now?
Do you talk to Vladimir Putin?
Well, at the end of 50 days, if we don't have a deal, it's going to be too bad.
Should Zelensky get more aggressive?
Yeah, the tariffs are going to go on and other sanctions go on.
Should Zelensky target Moscow?
Should Zelensky target Moscow, sir?
Should Zelensky target Moscow or deeper into Russia?
He shouldn't target Moscow.
Oh, I don't think 50 days is very long, and it could be sooner than that.
I don't think 50 days is very long.
You should have asked that same question to Biden.
Why did he get us into this war?
You should ask that question.
Yeah, and what did he tell you?
Why did he get us into this war?
You know why he got us in?
Because he's a dummy, that's why.
And you don't cover it right.
But you should be asking that question to Biden.
Why did he get us into this war?
Because he's incompetent.
It would have never happened if I were president.
In Texas, sir.
Do you believe you're a pair of minus less for inflation to increase last month?
Do you think they had any growth?
Well, we had very little inflation.
I don't know.
Who do you work for?
What?
USA Today.
Oh, well, they wrote me a beautiful article the other day, so I can't get angry at you.
USA Today just wrote a very good article about me.
What's that all about?
So I can't get angry at you.
I'm Texas, sir.
There was very little inflation, as you know.
The numbers were very good, very much inside the margin.
So we've had no inflation.
All we have is we're making a fortune.
We are taking in hundreds of billions of dollars.
You saw we had a surplus of $25 billion last month, which we haven't had in many, many years.
Mr. President, how do you know?
Mr. President, how do you know, Mr. President?
We are doing it because I got to, because I'm able to do it.
Nobody else would be able to do it.
We have tariffs going on because we want tariffs and we want the money coming into the United States.
But more important than the money, there's two aspects to tariffs.
There's the money, which comes in.
The other aspect is that rather than paying the tariffs, the country or the company will build in the United States, make their product in the United States, and that creates jobs.
And I would say of the two, probably the more important to me is that.
Yeah.
Are you on the Ukrainian side now?
No, I'm on nobody's side.
I'm the no.
You know the side I'm on?
Humanity side.
I want to stop the killing of thousands of people a week.
I want to stop the killing.
I want the killing to stop in the Ukraine-Russia war.
That's the side I'm on.
Mr. President, you're going.
Mr. President, your daughter-in-law said that there should be transparency in the Epstein case.
Do you agree with her, sir?
The Attorney General's handled that very well.
She's really done a very good job.
And I think that when you look at it, you'll understand that.
I would like to see that also.
But I think the Attorney General, the credibility is very important.
And you want credible evidence for something like that.
And I think the Attorney General has handled it very well.
How many more?
The Attorney General briefed you on the DOJ and FBI review, the findings of that review.
The Attorney General briefed you on the budget.
On what?
On a DOJ and FBI.
On what?
On what subject?
FDA.
On FDA.
General Pamboni's.
A very, very quick briefing.
Did she tell you, what did she tell you about the UN specifically?
Did she tell you about all that your name appeared in the United States?
No, no.
She's given us just a very quick briefing.
And in terms of the credibility of the different things that they've seen, and I would say that, you know, these files were made up by Comey.
They were made up by Obama.
They were made up by the Biden information.
And we went through years of that with the Russia, Russia-Russia hoax, with all of the different things that we had to go through.
We've gone through years of it.
But she's handled it very well.
And it's going to be up to her.
Whatever she thinks is credible, she should release.
On Texas, on Texas, how many more seats do you want the Republicans to draw?
And then what if California, New York, Illinois, and other blue states?
Yeah, well, that's okay, too, but five.
I think we get five.
And there could be some other states.
We're going to get another three or four or five in addition.
Texas would be the biggest one.
Are you calling in for a complete redrawing of the congressional map?
Just a very simple redrawing.
We pick up five seats.
And we have a couple of other states where we'll pick up seats also.
What's up there?
What was the last time you spoke with him?
Well, when he was in my office.
And what did you tell him when he was in your office?
I told him he's doing a very bad job.
He's way late.
That's why I call him too late.
Jerome Powell is too late.
He's way late.
Interest rates should be coming down.
We have a very, very successful country.
We should have the lowest interest rate anywhere in the world.
And we don't.
Jerome Powell has done a terrible job.
And frankly, I don't think he could do a worse job.
He's called everything wrong.
So they had a report come out the other day, 71 different economists, and me.
You know who is right?
Me.
Mr. President.
Did you know that?
I was right.
Mr. President, are you going to appoint Mr. Powell to another term that states there?
Mr. President, what are your thoughts on Andrew Cuomo?
To waste the question like this.
We are talking to the EU and we're making progress.
But look, you know, we already have a deal with the EU.
It's called the letter that was sent out.
I think it was 30%.
That's the EU.
But we, at the same time, we are talking to him.
But Andrew Cuomo shows up.
No, no, go ahead.
Well, Mr. President, your reaction to Andrew Cuomo staying in the New York City mayor's race.
Andrew Cuomo staying in the New York City mayor's race.
I think he should stay.
I think he has a shot.
Would you prefer him over?
Well, I don't want to say, you know, I'm a Republican.
He's a Democrat or an Independent.
No, I think Andrew would have a good shot of winning.
He's got to run a tough campaign.
You know, he's running against the communists.
I would think that he would have a good shot of winning.
Tell us about your trip to Scotland, sir.
What are you going to do on your trip to Scotland?
We're going to be meeting with the British Prime Minister, very respected.
And we are going to have a meeting with him probably in Aberdeen.
And we're going to do a lot of different things.
And we're going to also refine the trade deal that we've made.
So we'll be meeting mostly with the at probably one of my properties or maybe not, depending on what happens.
will be in Aberdeen in Scotland meeting with the Prime Minister.
Mr. President, be very clear.
Mr. President, would the EU if they retaliate from the affairs?
Well, I don't know how they can retaliate.
You know, they've made a lot of money.
They've treated us very badly, but now they're treating us very nicely.
And I think we'll end up, I think everybody's going to be happy with the EU.
Is there any plans?
Any plans to meet with Pope Leo in the near future, sir?
Not a plan.
I would do it.
I have a lot of respect.
I really like his brother.
His brother is a major, serious Trumper.
You know that.
He's MAGA all the way.
I like the Pope's brother.
And I think I'd like the Pope.
But the Pope's brother lives in Florida.
I met him.
And he is MAGA.
He's got MAGA signs all over the house.
He likes Trump and I like him.
Mr. President, what's the latest on Iran?
How about you?
Iran.
We're going to meet President Putin.
We sit down to discuss this race.
Well, we're going to see what happens with President Putin.
So far, I've been very disappointed with President Putin.
I've solved a lot of wars in the last three months, but I haven't gotten this one yet.
This is a Biden war.
It's not a Trump war.
I'm here to try and get us out of that mess.
Any messages for what?
Yeah, go ahead.
Do I have a what?
I don't know.
For the people of Brazil?
Yes.
Are you from Brazil?
I am.
Okay.
He's going to trial now, right?
Yes.
When is that trial starting?
When is the trial for Bolsonaro starting?
When is it?
How is it going?
Now we are asking him to find him guilty.
But they haven't found him guilty, have they?
But have they found him guilty?
No.
On Iran.
President Bolsonaro is a good man.
I've gotten to know a lot of prime ministers and presidents and kings and queens.
And I know, and I'm pretty good at this.
President Bolsonaro is not a dishonest man.
He loves the people of Brazil.
He fought hard for the people of Brazil.
He negotiated trade deals against me for the people of Brazil, and he was very tough.
And he was tough because he wanted to do a good deal for his country.
He was not a dishonest man.
And I believe it's a witch hunt, and it shouldn't be happening.
It's not that I know him that, look, he's not like a friend of mine.
He's somebody that I know.
And I know him as a representative of millions of people, Brazilians.
They're great people.
And he loves the country, and he fought hard for those people, and they want to put him in jail.
And I think that's a witch hunt, and I think it's very unfortunate.
And nobody's happy with what Brazil is doing because Bolsonaro was a respected president.
Very respected.
You want Adam Ship brought to justice.
I would love to see him brought to justice.
I think, I'll tell you what, I think Adam Schiff is one of the lowest of the low.
I would love to see him brought to justice.
He's a dishonest, crooked guy.
I don't know about the individual charge, if that even happens, but Adam Schiff is a serious lowlifer.
And tomorrow morning here in Washington, AOC is hosting Goran Mohdani for breakfast.
Are you invited?
I'd love to be.
I'd really love to go.
I mean, I look forward to meeting them both.
I know them both very well through what I read and through what I see.
Look, he's a communist.
I don't think our country is ready for a communist, but we're going to see.
And I don't think that race is over yet either.
You do have a couple of people running against, and it'll be an interesting thing.
Things are coming out about him which aren't good.
And, you know, AOC, look, I think she's very nice, but she's very low IQ.
And we really don't need low IQ.
Between her and Crockett, we're going to give them both an IQ test to see who comes out best.
Now, I took my test.
I took a real test at Walter Reed Medical Center, and I aced it.
I got every one of all those questions right.
Now it's time for them to take a test.
Anyway, have a good time.
I like Dan Bongino, yes.
Do you think Trump is taxing the fixed country?
All right, that was the president from earlier today, a gaggle he held prior to going to Pennsylvania to talk about the issues of energy, AI, and all the things that are going to hopefully make the economy grow at a level we've never seen before.
That's my hope.
To wrap things up for today, we've got a great Hannity.
Set you DVR, 9 Eastern, on the Fox News Channel.
Newt Gingrich will be with us.
We'll get his historic view of Trump's first six months.
Dan Turntine is going to join us on the absolute meltdown of his Democratic Party, Mark Wayne Mullins tonight.
Larry Kudlow on Trump calling on Jerome Powell to lower interest rates once and for all.
Also our friend Clay Travis.
Set you DVR 9 Eastern.
Hannity on Fox.
We'll see you tonight back here tomorrow.
Thank you for making this show possible.
▲
Export Selection