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Aug. 19, 2025 - Sean Hannity Show
30:13
Atrocities and the Path Forward - August 18th, Hour 3
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This is an iHeart Podcast.
Coming up next, our final news roundup and information overload hour.
All right, news roundup and information overload hour.
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So a close friend of mine is friends with well, somebody high up in the Ukrainian army.
And this individual sent him, and he has now shared it with me, uh, two very short videos of Russian war atrocities taken from the cell phones of dead Russian soldiers.
In one of the videos, I just watched it during the break.
You can't believe that evil on this level exists, but it does.
In one uh video, Ukrainian soldiers being killed and beheaded.
I mean, you can see it.
Now, you know, if you go back, you think, well, that can't happen.
Go back to remember ISIS on the beach or Wall Street Journal reporter back in the day, Daniel Pearl.
And, you know, people will ask me, why do you watch it?
I'm like, well, it's part of my job, and I cannot possibly explain in detail just the level of evil and depravity that goes on.
And I know we've had a lot of smart callers today hoping that you know give sanctions a much, you know, a greater chance.
And and hopefully that will bring Vladimir Putin back to the table faster.
Look, I would argue that Putin wouldn't have gone to Alaska, but for Donald Trump insisting that NATO pay more than double what they were paying in terms of their their defense.
Uh I don't think Putin would have gone to Alaska had it not been Donald Trump's trade deal with the European Union, and instead of them funding Putin's war machine, they're committing nearly a trillion dollars to purchase American energy.
I don't think he would have come to the table had President Trump not put a 50% tariff on India if they keep importing Russian energy.
And I think the fact that the president is selling the most sophisticated weaponry to the Ukrainians also is a big deal.
Uh in a second video, you see a Ukrainian soldier unarmed.
He's smoking like his last cigarette.
There are two Russian soldiers.
One says to the other, are you filming?
The other indicates yes.
The Ukrainian soldier says, Glory to Ukraine.
The Russians open fire with an automatic weapon.
And there the Ukrainian soldier lies dead, and the Russian says die uh BI, you know how to spell it.
B I T. We'll put it there.
Um, how does this end?
Now, a lot of you have mentioned sanctions today, and I said, I'm all for sanctions.
I think sanctions is a great idea.
I think the fact that Lindsey Graham put forward a bill and got 85 senators to sign on to it is almost you know you do in this partisan era, you don't see that kind of partisan uh bipartisanship.
You just don't see it.
Anyway, he joins us now to get his thoughts on what's ha what happened today, what the likely outcome is, whether I'm right or wrong in my prediction that if there's going to be an early end to the war, it's not going to be sanctions that will bring an early end to it, but it would probably involve land swaps and security guarantees, of which the president has said even Article 5, NATO Article 5 like security measures for Ukraine.
Um, but it would involve land swaps.
Uh anyway, Senator Graham, welcome back.
How are you, sir?
Thank you.
That's a good summary.
I got it funny you mentioned about the atrocities.
I got uh uh some images last night sent to me from uh uh President Flynn's folks, three young kids got killed last night, and uh yeah, it's a brutal war.
Uh hats off to President Trump.
Uh I see a light end of the tunnel.
I hope it's not a train.
But uh I really do believe we're we're we're on track here to maybe end this thing only because Putin is rattled by Trump.
The way this war started is when uh Biden withdrew from Afghanistan.
Putin seized the moment, saw weakness.
How does this war end when Putin believes that Trump will crush his economy, Putin's economy if he doesn't end this war?
Okay, but hasn't Donald Trump already, you know, showed him that he's gonna take He said the consequences would be severe.
I think upping NATO's uh NATO countries' contributions from two percent to five percent, that is significant.
I think the EU trade deal to buy energy from us, not Russia, and fund his war machine, I think that's that's critical.
The tariffs on India and selling sophisticated weaponry to Ukraine, you know, that's been a pretty loud message from Donald J. Trump.
Uh a huge message and it worked.
You know, Putin didn't go to Alaska to kind of look at the scenery and check on Alaska how well you're doing after we sold it to you.
He went to Alaska because of two really important things.
Selling weapons to Ukraine, America-made weapons is a nightmare for the Russian military.
Ukraine's outmanned 10 to 1, but between their innovative technology and drones and the use of sophisticated American weapons, they have held their own and push back and they're in the fight.
It's a nightmare for the Russian military for the Ukrainians to have access to American weapons in perpetuity.
By telling uh Europe, I will sell you the weapons, I will not give you the weapons, that changed the game.
That's good for us because the money from Europe helps us rebuild our military industrial complex, and it shows the Russians that Ukraine's gonna have American arms as far as the eye can see.
When he put a 50% tariff on India, now why did he do that?
The second largest purchase of Russian oil and gas in the world is India.
They buy uh oil in Russia below market, refine it in India and sell it at a profit.
The way you end this war, I think, is you deny uh Putin's customers the ability to buy cheap Russian oil without being tariffed.
If China, India, and Brazil have to pick between the American economy and buying cheap Russian oil or gas, they're gonna pick the American economy.
Ninety percent of the money coming in to fund the Putin war machine comes from oil and gas sales.
My bill goes after his customers, and when President Trump used that concept against India, Putin shows up in Alaska.
Where's China in all of this?
Because China is probably the biggest customer in terms of energy of Russia.
They're probably saying, oh crap.
Where is China in all this?
China is the largest customer of Russia.
They buy oil from Russia well below market, good for their economy.
They help Russia in different ways.
My belief is China is waiting and watching.
Now, there's one thing you left out as to why the game has changed under Trump.
When he obliterated the Iranian nuclear program, everybody said, Oh crap.
President Trump went all in to help Israel destroyed the nuclear infrastructure.
He obliterated those three sites in the conversion facility.
That got China's attention.
That got Putin's attention.
Here's what I think.
If we don't end this war honorably and justly soon, that President Trump's gonna take my bill.
I've also had a bill about the 19,000 Ukrainian kids kidnapped and sent to Russia, making Russia a state sponsor of terrorism under U.S. law.
China's worst nightmare is to do business uh with Russia if they have to face American tariffs.
How does this war end when she goes to Putin and say and says, you know, I've helped you before, but I can't help you anymore because you're hurting my economy.
Let me ask you this, because I did have a couple of callers in the last half hour bring up this notion.
Uh they don't like the idea of rewarding the aggressor in this case, Vladimir Putin, for his behavior and meaning that he ends up coming out of this deal with more land.
Now we use the term land swaps and we use the the term security guarantees, including something similar to uh NATO's Article 5, which is countries will align with Ukraine and say if you get attacked, we'll consider it an attack against us.
Right.
Um and a lot of people don't like the idea that Putin gets rewarded for that behavior.
Your reaction to that.
Well, I understand exactly what you're saying.
I'm sympathetic to you.
And uh the world in which we live in is as follows.
Uh Russia has control of about 20% of Ukraine.
I don't think Ukraine has The military ability to evict every Russian any time soon.
That means the war would go on and on and on.
Now how do you end conflicts?
In the Cold War, well, after World War II, we divided up Europe.
You had East Germany and West Germany.
We never recognized East Germany as a separate legitimate country.
Um, but we didn't attack either.
So over time, East Germany and West Germany became one.
So I'm realistic.
We're gonna have to recognize that there are Russian control of certain parts of Ukraine that are gonna be in Russian hands to end this war.
I don't want to give title to the land, but uh to end this war, I'm gonna acknowledge that there's certain parts of Ukraine that Russia can control, but I'm not gonna acknowledge as part of Russia.
Just look at North Korea, South Korea.
That's just the reality.
But the most important thing President Trump can do for the world is make sure there's no third invasion.
I think if we get security guarantees backing up Europe, let Europe be on the ground, we'll have their back, and we keep selling weapons to Ukraine, there will be no third invasion.
You advise President Trump to tell Putin if the war doesn't end justly, the U.S. will destroy Russia's economy.
Uh and this just breaking, you know, like nine minutes ago, the Russian foreign minister just outright rejected the idea that NATO forces could serve as peacekeepers in Ukraine, which was a provision sou sought by President Zelensky.
Yeah.
Can you cuss on the radio?
Yeah.
Well, depends what you're gonna say.
I mean, you can and you can.
If it's that bad, I'll bleep it out, but don't worry, we're live.
How about I'm on a seven second delay.
Okay, screw you.
Uh we're not gonna let the Russians tell us what to do to protect Ukraine.
They have no standing in my mind to have any idea about telling me or anybody else what they're gonna do to prevent, we're gonna do to prevent a third invasion.
There will be NATO uh uh uh European forces on the ground to prevent a third invasion.
There will be guarantees where if they go in to fight, we'll have their back.
If they don't like that, keep fighting.
And here's what I would say to President Trump.
You have the moral high ground, you're the right guy at the right time.
Start putting tariffs on China, but starting tariffs on every country that does business with Russia, and um you'll break 'em.
Show the determination you've shown in the past.
You will break them.
They can't survive without oil and gas revenue.
Make Russia state sponsored terrorism for kidnapping 19,000 Ukrainian kids and sending them back to Russia.
Go all in with destroying Russia's economy.
Ukraine's outmanned, they're outgunned, but they're still in the fight.
Russia is incredibly exposed.
They have one source of revenue oil and gas sales.
To really impact the Russians.
Months, not years.
It would impact China.
It would impact India, it would impact Brazil.
What would happen if all the major purchasers of Russian oil and gas all of a sudden said, uh I can't buy it anymore?
Oh, especially now that he is opening up energy dominance in this country, we'll have the ability to fill that gap and fill that void and maybe even sell it at a discounted price and and make it part of a larger trade deal with a lot of these countries.
Well, you know, all those who are criticizing Trump by what he's doing and the way he's doing it.
Well, he's the only one that can pull the.
I don't want to hear any more criticism from European leaders that have been impotent in dealing with Russia and frankly have helped fund his war machine by buying his energy.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So let's look at it this way.
If he had been a Democrat, he'd have two Nobel Peace Prizes for now.
One for the Abraham Accords where you got six Arab nations to recognize Israel.
He'd he'd get a Nobel Peace Prize for Azerbaijan and Armenia have been at war for 30-something years.
Rwando, Congo, then a bloodbath.
Remember Hotel Rwanda?
I mean, he ended those things and nobody gave him any credit for it.
So he's gonna end this war one way or the other.
Russia is either going to accept an honorable just outcome.
We're not out to humiliate Russia.
I'm not advocating for Ukraine to be in NATO.
I'm not pushing for that.
I'm not pushing for American troops on the ground.
I'm pushing for a guarantee, A backstop guarantee to European forces.
I'm trying to be practical here.
They're gonna be parts of Ukraine occupied by Russia until something changes down the road.
I want to end the war.
But here's what I would say.
I would say that Europe needs to follow President Trump's lead.
Why don't they put tariffs on Indian oil?
Why don't they go after China?
So I'm gonna be hard on on uh um well well up till now they're the ones that have been buying the oil, so I mean getting lectured by them is a joke, and not one of them has the moral standing or the strength to successfully you know pull this off and and sit down with Putin and and have Zelensky and all these European leaders three days later at the White House.
None of them.
You right.
So I've challenged European nations to put a 50% tariff on India, follow President Trump's lead.
If the European economy and the American economy had a joint message uh to India, China, and Brazil, it definitely would work.
But the EU trade deal was magnificent for us because you you you put your finger on it.
Putin's nightmare has been Trump.
Trump has given a pathway for American energy to go to Europe to replace it Russian oil and gas.
A 750 billion dollar trade deal where Europe will buy American oil and gas, not Russian oil and gas.
That's a tremendous flow.
So we're set up now to crush the fossil fuel economy of Putin.
Have American alternatives to Russian oil and gas, and tell the customers that prop up this war machine in Russia, you're gonna get hit.
You're gonna have be denied access to the American economy without major ter uh unless you pay major tariffs.
I think the right uh Senator, we're just out of time.
I'm gonna have to let you go.
Senator Lindsay Graham, South Carolina will hit the phones when we get back, and and we'll play part of my interview with President Trump as well.
800-941 Sean.
Now to the top of the hour, 800-941 Sean.
If you want to be a part of the program, it's been a very busy news afternoon.
And obviously, the president moving as expeditiously as possible uh to get to a peace deal.
Uh we're gonna play part of my interview with the president after he met with Putin on Friday, because it's so relevant to everything that has happened uh, you know, here it is Monday, and you have every European leader, Enzelinski at the White House all day.
And, you know, but i in in the seconds after the Putin summit, oh failure, oh, an embarrassment, oh disaster.
And and it was anything but uh how do you know?
Because today wouldn't have happened.
Um so we're there Friday.
We're in Alaska, and I have the interview of President Trump, uh, which happened for Fox.
We didn't get a chance to play a lot of it, but with all the news that's been breaking all day today.
And the president rightly lashing out at the fake news media, oh, major defeat of Donald Trump, a major embarrassment, Senator Chris Murphy said.
Uh and John Bolton has become dumber by the day, you know.
I uh it's I don't even know what to say.
I think Trump summed it up best, said, you know, I'm totally convinced that if Russia raised their hands and said, we give up, we concede, we surrender, we'll give Ukraine and the great United States of America, Moscow, St. Petersburg, and everything surrounding them for a thousand miles, the fake news media and the their democratic partners would say this was a bad humiliating day for Donald J. Trump, one of the worst days of our country.
He's not wrong.
Uh and it's uh Marco Rubio just humiliated these people on the Sunday show, just humiliated them on CBS and ABC.
Uh because they're d they're dumb as rocks.
I was there.
Today would not have happened.
Everything we've been reporting up till now had this meeting with Vladimir Putin not gone well.
Anyway, let me play some of my interview.
The president goes, he he was reluctant to give information because he doesn't want to negotiate publicly, which is smart.
But here's what he did say.
You said before the interview, you said, in two minutes, I will know.
I watched very closely when you met him uh on the red carpet after both your planes landed.
What vibe did you get in two minutes?
Well, you know, I always had a great relationship with uh President Putin, and we would have done great things together in terms of you know their land is incredible, they're the uh rare earth, the uh oil, gas, everything.
It's incredible.
It's the largest piece of land in the world as a nation by far.
I think they have eleven time zones, if you can believe it.
That's big stuff.
Uh but we would have done a lot of great things, but we had the Russia Russia Russia hoax, which uh stopped us from doing that.
We would have had we would have done so great.
But uh, we had the greatest one of the great hoaxes.
I mean, there were others like the election itself, as you know, as you covered better than anyone, but uh it was a rigged election and a horrible thing that took place in 2020.
But uh we would have had a great relationship, but we did amazingly well considering, you know, he he he would look and see what happened, he would think we're crazy, you know, with the made-up Russia-Russia-Russia hook.
So uh we had something uh very important, and uh we had a very good meeting today, but we'll see.
I mean, it's you know, you have to get a deal.
We we agreed at a lot of points.
I want to see people stop dying in Ukraine, and that's what's happening.
We're losing five, six, seven thousand.
Uh they're Russians, mostly Russians, and they're Ukrainian soldiers.
Uh, there's some people dying in cities and towns where they're trying to blow up missile uh manufacturers and other things in some cities.
I don't know if you know what's going on there, but uh there are a lot of people dying.
And if we can end that war, it would be very good.
And I was very happy to hear him say if I was president, that war would have never happened.
Mr. President, that was my next question.
He said at the joint press conference that if and you have said this many, many times, and he confirmed for the world today that if you were president, this wouldn't have happened.
Did it did any of the specifics come up as to why he said that?
Uh it did.
It doesn't matter at this point, but uh the that this war should never have happened.
You know, a lot of wars should never have happened.
There was stupid things go down and the wrong people are talking.
But uh Biden was a terrible president in so many ways.
He should have never let it happen.
And uh it did.
There are millions of people killed.
I mean, it's the worst thing since I see all everyone saying worst since World War II by far.
There's nothing even close.
But we had a very good meeting today, and I think a lot of points were uh negotiated.
Uh on behalf of Ukraine and on behalf of you know the whole NATO situation where we're dealing very well with a lot of foreign countries that are great, uh, European countries.
Uh so uh uh look, as far as I'm concerned, there's no deal until there's a deal.
But we did make a lot of progress.
The meeting took place in this room.
Yeah.
This is where you met.
Right in this room.
Let me examine it.
Oh, there it is.
That's where you were saying.
That's it.
I would say that's it.
Yep.
Um so did you have a loan time with him?
Yeah, I did.
And I did actually after our speeches.
Uh he made a very good speech, and uh I also finished it up.
And afterwards we uh spoke right after that.
Uh we spoke very sincerely.
I think he wants to see it done.
Yeah.
W in your press conference, you talked about a lot of things that you agreed on.
And maybe one big issue you don't agree on.
Are you prepared to go public with that?
No, I'd rather not.
I guess somebody's gonna go public with it, they'll figure it out.
But no, I don't want to do that.
I want to see if we can get it done.
You know, it's still it's not a done deal at all.
And uh you Ukraine has to agree.
I mean, you know, uh President Zelensky has to agree.
But it's a terrible war where he's losing a lot, and both of them are, and hopefully it can get uh completed.
That'll be a great achievement for them.
Forget about me for them.
And you'll save 7,000 lives a week.
That's a lot.
I spoke very briefly to Secretary of State Rubio, and he did say to me, he goes, There's a difference when you s in the same room together than versus, you know, talking to each other through the press.
Um did you even through the phone.
Even through the phone.
It's not the same thing.
When you're on a telephone, it's not the same thing either.
This was uh I mean, we were together almost three hours, and it was very extensive, and we agreed on a lot of points.
I mean, a lot of points were agreed on.
But there's not that much.
There's, you know, one or two pretty significant items, but I think they can be reached.
Now it's really up to President Zelensky to get it done.
And uh I would also say the European nations, uh, they have to Get involved a little bit, but it's up to President Zelensky.
I think we we are, and if they'd like, I'll be at that next meeting.
They're gonna set up a meeting now between President Zelensky and President Putin.
And myself, I guess, you know, I didn't even I didn't ask you about it.
Not that I want to be there, but I want to make sure it gets done.
And we we have a pretty good chance of getting it done.
If you had to grade it on a scale of one to ten.
So I I think the meeting was a ten in the sense that we got along great, and it's good when, you know, two big powers get along, especially when they're nuclear powers.
You know, we're number one, they're number two in the world.
And uh it's a big deal.
That's a big deal.
You never want to even mention that word, the word nuclear.
But uh we have a tremendous nuclear, you know.
I rebuilt it when I was president first term, and I hated to rebuild it.
It was the one thing I hated to rebuild, but we had to, and we have uh the greatest nuclear force.
We have the greatest military in the world, actually.
Uh and uh they have a big nuclear presence also.
Oh, you gotta you've got to respect it.
You got to always have to respect it.
You never want to use it.
Uh if you use that, uh it could be the end of the world.
That's how that's the kind of power we're talking about.
Let's talk about what brought President Putin to the table.
I would argue that there are four things in my mind.
If you think there are more, or you don't think they were a factor.
You did the trade deal with the European Union, and in that deal, you got nearly a trillion dollars in commitments to purchase American oil.
That's money that would otherwise be funding Putin's war machine.
That's number one.
India 50 percent tariffs if they import Russian oil.
You also Vladimir Putin wasn't moving at a speed you were comfortable with.
So you said you would, unlike Biden, you wouldn't give weapons to Ukraine, you would sell weapons to Ukraine.
The last thing, and I think I don't think it could be underestimated, is NATO is now paying twice what they were paying, and those countries that weren't paying their fair share are.
Were those the four factors that brought him into this room today?
Or NATO is now paying five percent as opposed to two percent, and they're paying it.
And you know, look, it's headed by, as you know, Mark, you know Mark very well, he's a great guy and great people.
Uh the leaders that got to know him very well about six weeks ago.
And uh great relationship with NATO, European nations basically, but a great relationship.
I I don't want to say anything brought him to the table.
He's a very smart guy, and no nothing brought him to the table, so to speak.
I think that uh he respects our country now.
He didn't respect it under Biden, I can tell you that.
He had no respect for it.
I was so happy when he said this would have never happened.
This all those lives would be saved if they had a competent.
If we had a competent president, those lives would have been saved.
It's so sh it's so sad.
You know, I've negotiated five wars to their end, and wars that were tough.
India and Pakistan.
India, Pakistan, Israel, Iran in twelve days, Rwanda, the Congo, Serbia, Kosovo, um, Cambodia, Thailand, uh, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Egypt, Cambodia.
You played a you played a role in all of those, did you not?
I did.
I didn't want to include the uh decimation of the nuclear arsenal in because it's I don't consider it necessarily, you know, conclusive, but we did something amazing because for 22 years no president was willing to do it.
We decimated the nuclear capability, potential nuclear capability, which I think would have taken place within a month of Iran.
And that was a big thing.
I have to go back.
This is too historic and deep and profound.
At a press conference, the president of Russia stated something that you had stated many, many times, and maybe people, your political opponents might have dismissed.
But he said this war would not have taken place if you were president.
Now, he did give you behind the scenes specific reasons why it happened under Biden.
He did give you reasons.
Yeah, he did, but I know the reason it's a gross incompetence.
I mean, uh we have a border that's totally closed now, and people come in, but they come in legally.
But we had zero, as you know.
The first time you heard it was three months ago, but we've done it now three times in a row.
Zero people coming in illegally.
Uh we have many things that are going well now.
Our economy is great.
We don't have inflation.
Uh the price of uh energy is down, the price of groceries Are down.
The price of everything is down.
People are happy.
We're saving Social Security.
You saw that the other day, where we have a genius in charge.
I took him out of JP Morgan Chase.
He was the head of I mean one of the top people in there, and he did great.
He went to one of the big funds, one of the top people.
They take a cut.
I think he said he's working for 1% of what he was working for.
These are unbelievable people.
And the job he's done in Social Security and making it really powerful and strong is amazing.
And we've done that with many things.
I love doing it.
I love seeing this country be great again.
And Vladimir said just a little while ago, he said, I've never seen anybody do so much so fast.
He said, Your country is like hot as a pistol.
And a year ago, he thought it was dead.
Everybody thought it was dead.
Most people, as they analyze this from the outside, this is how they almost everybody's kind of universal thinking.
How this ends.
There's going to be some land swaps.
There will be more Russian territory than there had been.
And what Ukraine wants and needs desperately is our security measures that won't be NATO related.
If you had to look into your crystal ball, is that how it ends?
Well, I think those are points that we negotiated.
And those are points that we largely have agreed on.
Actually, I think we've agreed on a lot.
And I can tell you the meeting was a very warm meeting.
You know, he's a strong guy.
He's tough as hell and all of that.
But the meeting was a very warm meeting between two very important countries.
And it's very good when they get along.
I think we're pretty close to it yet.
Now look, Ukraine has to agree to it.
Maybe they'll say no.
Because Biden handed out money like it was candy, and Europe gave him a lot of money.
You know, we gave him $350 billion.
Europe gave him much less, but still a lot.
A hundred billion dollars.
What would your advice based on today when you talk to Vladimir Zolinsky?
What's your advice to uh make a deal?
Make the deal.
Gotta make a deal, yeah.
All right, that was my interview with President Trump on uh Friday.
We'll have full coverage of all the events today.
We'll sum it up.
Uh I either Steve Whitkoff or Marco Rubio are on Hannity tonight.
Uh also we have govern Governor Greg Abbott on tonight.
We got a great show, nine Eastern Hannity on the Fox News Channel.
All right, that's gonna wrap things up for today.
A lot of news at the White House with all these European leaders and and President Zelensky uh going to meet with President Trump.
Uh we'll have full coverage of today's developments.
Either Steve Whitkoff or Marco Rubio, we expect to be a guest.
Uh Greg Abbott on the next special session.
Now the Democrats are stopped stopped hiding in in Illinois.
Uh we'll check in with the governor of Texas, Christy Nome will join us, Senator Cotton tonight, uh, Ari Fleischer, Hugh Hewitt.
Uh best coverage of today's events, all the other news of the day that we haven't gotten to, as well as uh whatever else breaks between now and then.
All coming up.
Nine Eastern Tonight, set your DVR.
Hannity, Fox News.
We'll see you tonight, back here tomorrow.
Thank you for making this show possible.
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