All Episodes
Previous Next
Aug. 15, 2025 - Sean Hannity Show
31:47
The Great State of Alaska - August 14th, Hour 1
| Copy link to current segment

Time Text
This is an iHeart Podcast.
I'm going in to speak to Vladimir Putin.
And I'm going to be telling him, you've got to end this war.
You got to end it.
I like Conla.
She's a friend of mine, but she was her core consultants.
You know, we're heavily influenced by very wealthy people.
Listen, you may say to yourself, well, those aren't the rules.
There are no reps in this game.
F the rules.
We are going to win whatever it takes.
Freight is back in style.
Welcome to the revolution.
Yeah, we're coming to your center.
Going to play our guitars and sing you a country song.
Sean Hannity.
The new Sean Hannity Show.
More behind the scenes information on breaking news and more bold, inspired solutions for America.
All right.
Thank you, Scott Shannon, and thanks to all of you for being with us.
Write down our toll-free telephone number.
If you want to be a part of the program, it's 800-941 Sean.
If you'd like to join us, we are in beautiful Anchorage.
We are in Alaska, giving you a preview of tomorrow's big summit with President Trump and Vladimir Putin.
We have a lot of news to get to surrounding that.
We're also going to be breaking news tonight on Hannity with all the declassified information and a grand conspiracy investigation and all the news that John Solomon is breaking all week has been breaking and we've been reporting on and all the investigations now going on.
Brennan Clapper, Comey, Adam Schiff, et cetera.
Kash Patel, the FBI director, will weigh in on all these investigations.
I am hopeful.
I know we have been there many times before.
We think that something is going to happen and then it just never seems to materialize.
This time seems very real to me.
Then we'll follow that up with an interview with the Attorney General, Pam Bondi, who has convened a grand jury.
I will tell you this.
It's kind of cool for me because arriving in Anchorage, arriving here in Alaska, it is the last state of the 50 states that I've ever visited.
I had not visited Alaska before this trip.
And I think it's really cool that I get to be here.
Now, I do have the temperatures all throughout the year, and it's actually really not bad if you look.
I mean, year-wise, the yearly average high in Anchorage is 46 degrees.
Not exactly the free state of Florida in terms of weather.
The average low is 32 degrees.
The average low is 32 degrees.
The worst months are like January is the worst.
It has a high average 25, low of 14.
February, high of 29, low of 17.
December, high of 26, low of 15.
I mean, there's a lot of cold months in here.
But I will tell you, it's absolutely picturesque.
The people are amazing.
The food is amazing, which we'll get to later in the program because Linda's answer was, well, let's heat up some crab cakes from the night before.
And you can eat that for breakfast because she failed to inform me that the store that we were going to order from was closed, but that's a different story for later.
It's just a cool state.
So I just got interested on my own and I started reading all about Alaska while I'm coming here.
I'm thinking most of you may not know this, so I'll share some of it with you.
Alaska is 591,000 square miles.
It is twice the size of Texas.
I'm looking at a map of Alaska right now.
The land mass is huge.
It's massive.
It is probably one of the most energy rich, one of the most natural mineral rich.
It is one of, I mean, the amount of money they take in every year, it's spectacular in terms of oil, energy, especially now that Donald Trump's going to be in office, that money is going to go through the roof because, yes, he's opening up Anwar, which was the purpose for getting Anwar in the first place.
But also gold.
It is the only state in the United States that produces platinum.
I bet most people didn't know that.
When you look at the story of Alaska, it's phenomenal.
The people of Alaska, they don't pay income taxes.
They don't pay sales taxes.
They don't have an estate tax when you croak after you died and you pay taxes your entire life on your income.
And then they want to come in and they want another bite of the apple.
That doesn't happen in this state.
And, you know, its natural beauty from bald eagles to black bears, grizzly bears, polar bears, you name it is incredible.
And then you look at the deal.
Alaska was purchased by the United States from Russia in March of 1867.
What do you think they paid per acre?
Two cents.
Remember, they called it Seward's Folly.
They thought it was, well, why'd you waste money on that land?
Well, it ends up being one of the most, in terms of natural resources, one of the richest areas in the entire world.
So some folly is pretty incredible.
And, you know, what's interesting, too, about the fun fact, Alaska purchased from Russia for two cents an acre.
In part, Russia sold it to offset the debt of their current, the war that they were having because they needed the money because of the economic liability of the Russians who were struggling with debt after the disastrous Crimean War, which took place from 1853 to 1856.
So there's a ton of fun facts here.
Their constitution here in Alaska was adopted in 1956.
They became the 49th state in 1959.
And again, twice the size of Texas, 1,400 miles north to south, 2,700 miles east to west.
It has the lowest population density in the entire country.
It has 17 of the highest peaks in the United States.
They're all located here in Alaska, and they're beautiful.
I mean, absolutely stunning.
If you recall, in World War II, Japan invaded some of the Alaskan islands, which started a 1,000-mile war, which was the first battle fought on American soil since the Civil War.
The transatlantic pipeline moves 88,000 barrels of oil an hour.
It is, in terms of its seafood industry, the state's largest private sector employer.
I've been obsessed with the state.
I mean, I can't even calculate how many hours I've spent watching Life Below Zero or Deadliest Catch, which is narrated by our friend Mike Rowe.
The fact that people live off the grid.
Now, that's not Anchorage.
Anchorage is a little bit different.
It would be your quintessential American neighborhood with really good restaurants if you know where to look and great breakfast place if you know where to look.
This way you don't have to eat old crab cakes from the night before.
I would love to be invited to a nice breakfast place.
Anyway, absolutely.
Alaska has five species of salmon, king salmon, silver salmon, red, chum, and pink.
Alaskan moose is the largest member of the deer family.
Now, on the menu at breakfast today, they did have reindeer sausage.
I got pork sausage.
I just was not in the mood to be experimental today.
I mean, I wouldn't want to eat Rudolph either that early.
I feel you.
That's a thing.
Okay, so do you eat Moomu the cow?
I don't know.
It appears most of America eats leftovers.
What's the difference?
What is the difference if you eat Moo Moo the cow or, you know, Charlie the Chicken?
I'm telling you right now, I'm not saying I'm right.
I hire an assassin.
I know I'm wrong.
I'm just saying.
What do you mean you know you're wrong?
Because I feel bad.
Like, there's certain animals.
Like, I couldn't eat a bunny.
I couldn't eat a sheep.
I couldn't eat a lamb.
Rabbit's delicious.
Forget about it.
But you can eat the chicken and you can eat the fish and you can eat.
I don't have any problem.
I got four.
You can eat the beef and the cow.
I'm on my own.
And they have names.
And I feel guilty every morning when I see them and I feed them.
And I feel guilty because I probably ate their budget on the floor.
Do you have chickens?
I do.
How many chickens do you?
I have soup.
I have four.
Abbey, lily, butter, and honey.
A reindeer, did you know, is a domesticated caribou?
No, I did not know that.
I don't even know what a caribou really is.
Both male and female caribou grow antlers.
Did you know that?
Unlike deal?
No.
Deer?
No.
You didn't know that?
No.
And, you know, I'm teaching you all sorts of fun facts.
But I just love the fact that people live this way.
1926, a youngster, 13-year-old Benny Benson from Cognag, Alaska, designed the state's flag.
Pretty cool story.
A third of Alaska lies within the Arctic Circle.
It has the largest national forest in the U.S. Polar bears are considered a marine mammal protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
Great white sharks have been found in southeast Alaskan waters.
I mean, I can keep going, but I don't know if you really want to hear it.
Musk ox, not a type of ox, but closely related to sheep and goats, believe it or not.
And it's just pretty cool.
It's a very cool place.
And if you watch the shows, the people that live off the grid fascinate me.
You know what you could never do?
I could live off the grid.
You could not.
Oh, my God.
You're so full of it.
You wouldn't last one second without your cell phone.
Imagine having to wait more than 45 minutes for a toilet.
That's what Starlink is about.
I'm sorry.
How's that being off the grid?
I can stay on the grid with Starlink.
Why, but isn't that the whole thing?
If you're off the grid, you're off the grid.
You don't say why I have a different version of it.
You're off the grid, meaning you're providing your own communication.
Oh, there's a Hannity.
There's Hannity.
For example, it's reality off the grid.
You provide your own generator for power so you can have heat and air conditioning if you want for the three days that you might need air conditioning.
So there's people that camp and people that glamp.
You're a glamper.
No, you know.
You're a glamorous guy.
It's fine.
You know.
You're glamorous.
You don't eat leftovers.
You have generated.
Can I finish?
By the way, you don't know a thing about America agrees with Linda.
What's the find Alpha on X says heat eat weak old crab cakes?
I am silky says eat the slop, improve your intestinal fortitude.
You know what, though?
Anybody that's responding did not walk into the room where you got one.
I'm not penguin icebreaker.
Stake yes, old seafood.
Old seafood.
No way, Sean.
If anybody walked into the room where you had placed the old crab cakes.
Those crab cakes were placed with love.
Can I finish?
They were placed with love, but they stunk to high heaven.
They were heated in a microwave.
It was the most disgusting smell I've ever walked into, and I wanted to walk out of the studio immediately.
You're going to make it life-blood.
And I'm going to finish.
3,000 rivers, 3 million lakes in Alaska, 100,000 glaciers.
How many lakes?
3 million.
Oh, my God.
Estimated 100,000 glaciers.
That's 5% of the state.
More than 100 volcanoes.
It has the most diverse wildlife, as we were talking about, from moose and whales and polar bears, etc.
Oh, my.
Then, of course, the beauty of northern lights.
If you've not seen a video of it, it's incredible.
It has the lowest recorded temperature in the U.S., minus 80 degrees Fahrenheit, which might even make Linda's old, disgusting, smelly crab cakes frozen, which would take the smell away.
And it just has a unique history in every regard.
It's nicknamed The Last Frontier.
And it is the largest U.S. state, the lowest population density, as I said, and also known for extreme temperatures and all of this.
They do have giant vegetables due to the long summer days.
Alaska is known for their giant vegetables, including a record-breaking cabbage that weighed more than 94 pounds.
And they have a lot of indigenous cultures here as well.
You're sucking up to Linda.
It's disgusting.
People, you know what it is on X?
People are hysterical.
One guy just asked if you were day drinking because anybody would eat that beautiful breakfast I made you.
See that?
Maybe you were day drinking because it was already lunchtime.
Oh, you're only showing her the favorable one.
I can't even say that on air.
Robert Woods says Linda is hot.
I would eat anything she reheated.
I can't say that.
Robert can have whatever she's cooking.
And Robert can have her, too.
Oh, I'm taking.
I'm taking.
All right.
Take it easy.
I'm just saying.
I mean, it's pretty amazing.
So we're here for an important reason, and I'm going to get into that on the other side of this.
And I kind of go back to where I was yesterday, and that is that, you know, you think of every world leader, who is the only person that would be able to even pull this off.
And that this is the oddest thing.
European leaders are trying to weigh in and tell Trump what he can and cannot do at the summit.
Trump's been very clear.
He says he thinks he'll know in two minutes if he's going to get a deal.
Number one.
Number two, Vladimir Putin in the lead up to this, and I'll tell you about this in a second, had a lot of nice things to say about Donald Trump.
Number three, there really isn't a lot in this for the U.S., except that it's in everybody's best interest for the world to get along, and it's in everybody's best interest, if you can, to stop the killing and the murder of innocent men, women, and children.
And it is in the best interest of Europe, but there's not a single European leader that can pull off what Donald Trump's pulling off here.
Not one, not any that thought about it.
Joe Biden never once even called Putin as he was amassing troops on the Ukrainian border.
So it's a pretty historic time.
We're looking forward to see what the outcome is.
I'm going to game out for you where I think this might go.
And the president even acknowledged today that there's a 25% chance that, you know what, he might stand up, walk out of the room, and say net, like Reagan did it at Reykjavik.
But I'll tell you this: if Putin doesn't make a deal, I know exactly what Trump is going to do.
He's going to squeeze them.
They're already struggling economically.
Their economy is struggling.
He's going to squeeze them economically.
Speaking of your economy, what if you have a problem with the IRS?
Do not ever deal with them on your own, ever.
You know, and if you filed an extension, it means you might owe the money.
You might have owned the money for years.
Now, the extension deadline is almost here.
So what do you do?
You call the only company that I trust that I recommend, and they've been helping our listeners for over a decade.
It's rushtaxresolution.com.
It's 800-299-8077.
You're crazy if you deal with the IRS on your own.
They can take your passport, drain your bank account, levy your wages.
If you're a business owner, you're behind on payroll taxes, they can shut your business down, come after you personally.
Please, so many of my listeners over the last decade called Rush Tax Resolution.
Their tax problems are over.
Now it is your turn.
And if you go to rushtaxresolution.com or call 800-299-8077, they will give you upfront and for free an IRS transcript investigation.
And the best, best, best part, they only take your case if they know that they can help you.
Anyway, 800-299-8077, rushtaxresolution.com from the great state of Alaska, from the great city of Anchorage.
It's a Sean Hennedy show.
So here we are in Anchorage, and Alaska is a very cool state.
It's so unique.
It's so different.
And I've now traveled as of today.
I've been to all 50 states, and they're all unique and beautiful in their own way.
A lot of similarities in the lower 48 that, you know, you're going to have a strip ball.
You're going to have your and I saw McDonald's here too in Anchorage.
But you're going to see a lot of similarities.
A lot of Alaska is just unique and different.
It's incredible.
So it's kind of like a very special place.
And those people that do live off the grid are amazing.
Now, living off the grid means that you provide your own energy.
You prepare your own food.
You store your own food.
It doesn't mean that you can't have Starlink.
That doesn't mean, oh, you're not really living off the grid.
So what I think I should do is I should reach out to Mike Rowe.
He was just on last week.
And I should say to him, Mike, let me ask you something.
If we talk to the people, let me ask you something.
I got a question.
Yo, Mike, what's up?
Listen, you can talk to him the way you talk.
However, you talk.
You say stuff weird now that you live in sunny, you know, Florida.
I don't know.
It's a little weird.
It doesn't sound like you're from Franklin Square anymore.
I'm not sure.
I'm not.
No.
Sunny Florida.
No.
That's correct.
I am a proud Floridian.
All right.
So, anyways.
Never going back.
I know.
You've made it very clear.
I mean, Ethan Nathan Lane made a song about you.
So, all that to say, I think we asked Mike Rowe and the guys from Life Below Zero if they think that having a generator and heating and air conditioning.
Don't watch the show.
Absolutely not.
I'm not saying I watch the show.
You wouldn't have to answer that question.
You'd need that question answered because they do have generators.
They do.
Oh, yeah.
And they have tractors.
And is this for their Starlink?
They have communication capability.
Yes, that would include satellite technology.
Off the grid means the government's not bringing in your power line, your gas line, and every other thing in between.
So untrackable.
You've got to do it yourself.
So you got some secrets.
You need to keep it tight.
You need to get off the grid.
I like it.
Okay.
And if you're injured, you've got to have an emergency plan.
You plow a runway area for an emergency flight out of where you are.
And the odds are great that you may not make it.
And these people live off the grid.
I love those people.
Those people are brave, courageous.
They're pioneers.
But they have fire.
They have wood that they chop.
And they were allowed to have all those things.
What do you mean that they're not?
What do you think?
You're going to be in a freezing house and freeze to death that's 25 below zero?
I thought it was you versus nature.
Oh, go swim with the polar bear.
You know what?
I think you should drown yourself in that smelly old crab cake that you were cooking for breakfast.
So you know you're losing.
The audience agrees with me.
You can keep crying all the time.
The audience did not walk in the studio and smell the disgusting smell that you created that we had to air out.
Everybody knows when you reheat fish, it's a little stinky.
It's a little stinky.
It's a little stinky.
Okay.
It was disgusting.
But you were now I eat leftovers almost every day.
I love crab.
On Sunday, I'll make my ribs for the week.
I'll make my steak for the week.
I'll make chicken for the week.
I'll make chicken reheat.
I'll eat the steak that I reheated for you today.
Okay.
Did you eat the steak?
After the smell of fish, it took away my appetite.
It was so repulsively disgusting.
Let me get my violin out.
Hang on a minute.
So I want to go to this summit because this is important.
We are here for a reason, not just to argue about Linda's disgusting reheating of her food.
And it's not that I love, as a matter of fact, some things taste better the next day.
I think my ribs like a good ribs taste better.
Okay, I don't want your food anymore.
I will never eat your food.
The crap you eat is disgusting.
That projectile green vomit puke drink that you have, it's like Linda Blair and the exorcist, projectile vomiting.
It's disgusting.
Anyway, so what separates President Trump from his predecessors and all these so-called leaders in Europe, now, remember, they've been the ones funding Putin's war machine.
They've been buying his energy.
That's why Angela Merkel got the white flag of surrender.
But Donald Trump is not like anyone else.
You know, every other politician, I don't care if it's historically in the U.S., any president you can think of.
And you got a guy that is not making a list of what could go right, what could go wrong, sitting there with advisors, calculating political risk.
No.
Donald Trump sees a need to stop killing and stop war and stop a potential escalation in Europe.
And he realizes that he's in the unique position that he has the best chance of making this happen.
And I don't believe there's a predetermined outcome tomorrow.
I really don't.
A lot of times that is the case.
And I would argue, and President Trump said it himself today.
He thinks there's a 25% chance it doesn't work.
He said, you know, if this works, how he will define success is he wants to immediately have another summit, and that would include Zelensky, maybe some other European leaders, and just try to resolve this and make this go away so the killing stops.
And there's not going to be any complicated land swapping or security issue discussions at all.
The question is going to be: do you want to make a deal?
What are the parameters that we could set up to create the conditions to make this deal?
That's really why we're here.
That is the big question.
So I want people to understand what it is.
Now, this is all Joe Biden's mess.
Just like Crimea annexed in 2014, Obama, Biden, president, vice president.
Putin's accumulating weapons and troops along the Ukrainian border, and Joe Biden didn't pick up a phone and try and call him and then say, Don't, don't.
Maybe the dumbest line ever uttered, which is why Kamal Harris echoed it.
And then saying, well, it depends about it's a minor incursion.
But, you know, I will tell you that there are real reasons why Vladimir Putin's coming to the table.
One is Donald Trump fed up with the fact that he tried to do it the easy way with Putin.
And Putin, just like the Iranians, said no.
Okay, fine.
I'm going to arm the Ukrainians, but unlike Joe, they're going to pay for the weaponry.
Then he said to India, I'm going to put a 50% tariff on you if you import Putin's oil and fund his war machine.
Three, he does a trade deal with the European Union, and instead of buying Putin's oil and funding his war machine, they commit to a trillion dollars in American energy.
And all of that got Putin's attention.
If this doesn't fail, I'm sorry, if this doesn't succeed, it's not a failure because all of those strategies will be implemented.
The entire Russian economy, which is kind of failing already, is dependent on the lifeblood of every world economy, and that is energy.
He stopped selling energy.
Donald Trump forces countries to stop doing business with him.
Guess what?
You know what?
All the war machine money he has is gone.
Now, Donald Trump is willing to expend political capital.
Most people aren't willing to do that.
Most elected officials don't have that level of courage.
There's really not a lot here for the United States to gain.
Actually, if you want to know the truth, we would probably gain more if the war continued because the Ukrainians would be buying our weaponry, which would be American manufacturing, soaring and making massive profits.
That would probably be a better scenario if we were selfishly looking out for our country.
No, but America has a heart, a conscience, and a soul.
And like we care about innocent life taken by illegal immigrants, like we care about law and order in our nation's capital, we so too care about our fellow human beings around the world.
And if we can help, I don't think that goes against or in any way violates the Trump doctrine.
Actually, I think it reinforces it.
Peace through strength actually brings about more peace, not less peace.
So we're going to see what happens.
And it's going to get very, very interesting.
Now, Ukraine's neighbor, Belarus, announced that they are conducting nuclear weapons exercises.
This is just saber-rattling.
Now, Trump did reveal his game plan for meeting with Putin.
He said it's like chess.
And he said earlier today, I think he was on with Killmead.
He estimates a 25% chance Alaska meeting will fail.
That's actually, that was my percent.
It's 25, 30% chance yesterday I said that.
And Trump telling Zelensky and his allies, because Europe wanted to lecture him.
Now, don't get into discussions about what land swaps may take place or what security measures might be guaranteed as it relates to Ukraine.
But the president had said it the day before.
He said it's really going to be up to Europe and it's really going to be up to Ukraine.
And I am here to facilitate this and give them an opportunity because none of them are able to do it or have the political will or courage to do it.
Now, the president did threaten very severe consequences if Russia does not agree to end this war.
Those consequences, it's not going to be a war between the U.S. and Russia.
No, we were fighting a proxy war when Joe Biden was president because he was paying for all the weaponry that the Ukrainians were using.
Now, Ukrainians have fought valiantly.
They deserve a lot of credit.
I give them a lot of credit.
However, I don't think they can win this war.
My calculation, when you start drafting people that are over 60, you're desperate.
That means too many people have died.
There's been too much damage.
If you let it continue, there's not going to be a country left called Ukraine.
You just, you'll never be able to rebuild the destruction that currently exists.
Scott Bessant confirms what I'm saying, that tariffs on any major purchaser of Russian oil could go through the roof if this talk fails.
That's the long-term, almost guaranteed success for Trump.
I don't see a lot of risk.
This is what I was telling O'Reilly yesterday.
I don't think he was understanding me.
Long, oh, Hennedy, big risk for the president.
I don't think so.
Because if it fails, the game's not over.
At that point, you've got to see this through the prism of what's his plan B?
I know what his plan B is.
His plan B is to bankrupt Russia.
His plan B is to get the world to stop funding the war machine.
His plan B is to force him back to the table, which is very similar to the strategy that Reagan used.
You know, it turned out the former Soviet Union couldn't buy guns and butter at the same time.
Best case scenario, we'd get a ceasefire tomorrow.
That would be the best case, not guaranteed at all by any stretch.
That's why it's going to be so interesting.
Vladimir Putin in the lead up to this gave an interview with NBC News, and he said that, what did he say?
A day ahead of the summit, he convened a meeting of advisors to inform you about how the negotiation process on the Ukrainian crisis is going.
He said of the Trump administration, quote, they are making, in my opinion, quite energetic and sincere efforts to stop the fighting, stop the crisis, reach agreements that are in the interest of all parties involved in the conflict.
Okay, I still don't trust Putin as far as I can throw him, but he's kind of signaling that, you know, maybe the time is now.
The number of civilian casualties in Ukraine hit a three-year high.
You know, 286 civilians killed, 1,388 injured.
The July casualty number, the highest since May of 2022.
So things are not getting better in terms of if you put a value on human life and Ukraine is doing their part.
Ukraine is fighting back as they have the entire time.
If you would have told me that three years into this, the Ukrainians would still be fighting with Europe not fully on board or the continent of Europe and European nations not doing their fair share or contributing their fair share and that Ukraine is still in this to the extent they are, I wouldn't have believed it.
They have fought valiantly.
Ukraine is now targeting Russian oil facilities with these drone attacks.
They understand what Trump understands.
That is their lifeline.
They don't have an economy without oil.
Ukrainian media is reporting that 990 Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded in the last 24 hours.
So they've got their own, you know, the damage they're inflicting is severe.
By the way, interestingly, the base that we will be broadcasting from tomorrow, the military base, long been used to counter Russia.
Pretty interesting.
A couple of other side notes: there's talk about a possible minerals for peace deal that could be arranged between the three nations.
The U.S. and Russia propose a West Bank-style occupation of certain areas.
I mean, I think the Donbass region is gone.
I think that 80% Russian nationals being there.
But no president would risk it.
I give Trump all the credit in the world.
Oh, he doesn't have an immediate agreement.
This is a not.
No, it's not.
Because Donald Trump's going to leave.
If that's the case, he's going to leave pissed off.
You know what that means?
▲
Export Selection