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Aug. 19, 2025 - Sean Hannity Show
30:11
Atrocities and the Path Forward - August 18th, Hour 3
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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, 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 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 gives sanctions a much, you know, a greater chance.
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 defense.
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, you'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.
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, B.I., you know how to spell it, B-I-T.
We'll put it there.
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, in this partisan era, you don't see that kind of bipartisanship.
You just don't see it.
Anyway, he joins us now to get his thoughts on 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, but it would involve land swaps.
Anyway, Senator Graham, welcome back.
How are you, sir?
Thank you.
That was a good summary.
I got it.
It's funny you mentioned about the atrocities.
I got some images last night sent to me from President Florenceki's folks.
Three young kids got killed last night.
And yeah, it's a brutal war.
Hats off to President Trump.
I see a light at the end of the tunnel.
I hope it's not a train, but I really do believe we're on track here to maybe end this thing only because Putin is rattled by Trump.
The way this war started is when 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 showed him that he's going to take he said the consequences would be severe.
I think upping NATO's NATO countries' contributions from 2% to 5%, 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 critical.
The tariffs on India and selling sophisticated weaponry to Ukraine, you know, that's been a pretty loud message from Donald J. Trump.
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, American-made weapons, is a nightmare for the Russian military.
Ukraine's outman 10 to 1.
But between their innovative technology and drones and the use of sophisticated American weapons, they have held their own and pushed 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 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 is going to 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 purchaser of Russian oil and gas in the world is India.
They buy oil in Russia below market, refine it, and then India and sell it at a profit.
The way you end this war, I think, is you deny 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 going to pick the American economy.
90% 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 destroy 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 going to take my bill.
I've also 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 with Russia if they have to face American tariffs.
How does this war end when she goes to Putin 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.
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 term security guarantees, including something similar to 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.
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 the world in which we live in is as follows.
Russia has control of about 20% of Ukraine.
I don't think Ukraine has the military ability to evict every Russian anytime 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, but we didn't attack either.
So over time, East Germany and West Germany became one.
So I'm realistic.
We're going to have to recognize that they're Russian control of certain parts of Ukraine that are going to be in Russian hands to end this war.
I don't want to give title to the land, but to end this war, I'm going to acknowledge that there's certain parts of Ukraine that Russia controls, but I'm not going to acknowledge as part of Russia.
Just look at North Korea, South Korea.
That's just the reality.
But the most important thing President Trump could do for the world is make sure there's no third invasion.
I think if we give 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.
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 sought by President Zelensky.
Yeah.
Can you cuss on the radio?
Yeah.
Well, it depends what you're going to say.
I mean, you can and you can't.
If it's that bad, I'll bleep it out, but don't worry, we're live.
I'm on a seven-second delay.
Okay, screw you.
We're not going to 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 going to do to prevent we're going to do to prevent a third invasion.
There will be NATO 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, starting tariffs on every country that does business with Russia, and you'll break them.
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.
How long would this take 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, I can't buy it anymore?
Well, especially now that he's 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 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.
He's the only one that can pull this.
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, of course, where he got six Arab nations to recognize Israel.
He'd get a Nobel Peace Prize for Azerbaijan and Armenia have been at war for 30-something years.
Rwando, Congo, been a bloodbath.
Remember, Hotel Rwanda?
I mean, he ended those things and nobody gave him any credit for it.
So he's going to 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 a 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.
There are going to 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 going to be hard on.
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 sit down with Putin and have Zelensky and all these European leaders three days later at the White House.
None of them.
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 to India, China, and Brazil, it definitely would work.
But the EU trade deal was magnificent for us because 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 Russian oil and gas.
A $750 billion trade deal where Europe will buy American oil and gas, not Russian oil and gas.
That's a tremendous blow.
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 going to get hit.
You're going to be denied access to the American economy without major tariffs, unless you pay major tariffs.
I think it's the right thing.
Senator, we're just out of time.
I'm going to have to let you go.
Senator Lindsey Graham, South Carolina, will hit the phones when we get back, and we'll play part of my interview with President Trump as well.
800-941, Sean.
Now till 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 to get to a peace deal.
We're going to 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.
You know, here it is Monday, and you have every European leader, N. Zelensky, at the White House all day.
And, you know, but in the seconds after the Putin summit, oh, failure, oh, an embarrassment, oh, disaster.
And it was anything but, how do you know?
Because today wouldn't have happened.
So we're there Friday.
We're in Alaska, and I have the interview with President Trump, which happened for Fox.
We didn't get a chance to play a lot of it 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.
And John Bolton has become dumber by the day.
You know, 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 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.
And it's, and Marco Rubio just humiliated these people on the Sunday show, just humiliated them on CBS and ABC because 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 was reluctant to give information because he doesn't want to negotiate publicly, which is smart.
But here's what he did say.
He said before the interview, you said, in two minutes, I will know.
I watched very closely when you met him 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 President Putin, and we would have done great things together in terms of, you know, their land is incredible.
The rear earth, the 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 11 time zones, if you can believe it.
That's big stuff.
But we would have done a lot of great things, but we had the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax, which stopped us from doing that.
We would have done so great, but 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 it was a rigged election and a horrible thing that took place in 2020.
But we would have had a great relationship, but we did amazingly well considering, you know, he would look and see what happened.
He would think we're crazy, you know, with the made-up Russia, Russia, Russia hoax.
So we had something very important, and we had a very good meeting today, but we'll see.
I mean, it's, you know, you have to get a deal.
We agreed on a lot of points.
I want to see people stop dying in Ukraine, and that's what's happening.
We're losing 5,000, 6, 7,000.
They're Russians, mostly Russians, and they're Ukrainian soldiers.
There's some people dying in cities and towns where they're trying to blow up missile manufacturers and other things in some cities.
I don't know if you know what's going on there, but 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 any of the specifics come up as to why he said that?
It did.
It doesn't matter at this point, but this war should never have happened.
You know, a lot of wars should never have happened.
Stupid things go down, and the wrong people are talking.
But Biden was a terrible president in so many ways.
He should have never let it happen.
And it did.
There are millions of people killed.
I mean, it's the worst thing since I see 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 negotiated on behalf of Ukraine and on behalf of the whole NATO situation where we're dealing very well with a lot of foreign countries that are great, European countries.
So, 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.
So did you have a loan time with him?
Yeah, I did.
I did actually after our speeches.
He made a very good speech, and I also finished it up.
And afterwards, we spoke right after that.
We spoke very sincerely.
I think he wants to see it done.
Yeah.
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 going to 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, still, it's not a done deal at all.
And Ukraine has to agree.
I mean, you know, 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 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're in the same room together versus, you know, talking to each other through the press.
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.
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 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 I would also say the European nations, they have to get involved a little bit.
But it's up to President Zelensky.
I think we are, and if they'd like, I'll be at that next meeting.
They're going to 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 have a pretty good chance of getting it done.
If you had to grade it on a scale of one to ten?
So I think the meeting was a ten in the sense that we got along great.
And it's good when 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 it's a big deal.
That's a big deal.
You never want to even mention that word, the word nuclear.
But 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 the greatest nuclear force.
We have the greatest military in the world, actually.
And they have a big nuclear presence also.
Well, you've got to respect it.
You always have to respect it.
You never want to use it.
If you use that, it could be the end of the world.
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% tariffs, if they import Russian oil.
Also, Vladimir Putin was 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?
Well, NATO is now paying 5% as opposed to 2%, 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.
The leaders I got to know him very well about six weeks ago.
And great relationship with NATO, European nations, basically, but a great relationship.
I don't want to say anything brought him to the table.
He's a very smart guy.
Nothing brought him to the table, so to speak.
I think that 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.
All those lives would be saved if they had a competent president.
If we had a competent president, those lives would have been saved.
It's so sad.
You know, I've negotiated five wars to their end, and wars that were tough.
India, Pakistan.
India, Pakistan, Israel, Iran in 12 days, Rwanda, the Congo, Serbia, Kosovo, Cambodia, Thailand, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Egypt, Cambodia.
You played a role in all of those, did you not?
I did.
I didn't want to include the decimation of the nuclear arsenal because I don't consider it necessarily 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 that 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 gross incompetence.
I mean, 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.
We have many things that are going well now.
Our economy is great.
We don't have inflation.
The price of 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 JPMorgan Chase.
He was the head of 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, it'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.
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, $100 billion.
What would your advice based on today, when you talked to Vladimir Zolensky?
What's your advice to make a deal?
Make the deal.
Got to make a deal, yeah.
All right, that was my interview with President Trump on Friday.
We'll have full coverage of all the events today.
We'll sum it up.
Either Steve Witkoff or Marco Rubio are on Hannity tonight.
Also, we have Governor Greg Abbott on tonight.
We've got a great show, Nine Eastern Hannity on the Fox News channel.
All right, that's going to wrap things up for today.
A lot of news at the White House with all these European leaders and President Zelensky going to meet with President Trump.
We'll have full coverage of today's developments.
Either Steve Witkoff or Marco Rubio, we expect to be a guest.
Greg Abbott on the next special session.
Now the Democrats are stopped hiding in Illinois.
We'll check in with the governor of Texas.
Christy Noam will join us.
Senator Cotton tonight.
Ari Fleischer, Hugh Hewitt.
Best coverage of today's events.
All the other news of the day that we haven't gotten to, as well as 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.
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