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Aug. 20, 2025 - Sean Hannity Show
29:25
Crime in D.C. Plummets - August 19th, Hour 3
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Coming up next, our final news roundup and information overload hour.
All right, news roundup and information overload hour.
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Pretty amazing statistics that we now have.
New police statistics.
Now, remember, we learned a lot about D.C. because as soon as Donald Trump said that we cannot be in Washington, D.C. cannot be the number one homicide capital in the entire world.
In other words, in terms of countries and their capital cities, by far, Washington, D.C., with a rate of 41 per 100,000 homicides, the next closest would be 16 per 100,000 homicides in terms of population.
And so the president said enough is enough.
And the president said that he is going to send in troops and National Guard troops to help fight crime in our nation's capital.
Well, the results in just a few short days are in.
We have new police statistics showing D.C.'s violent crime rate plunging 22% since Donald Trump has gotten involved.
Carjacking's down a whopping 83%.
And what do we also learn in the process?
We learned that Washington, D.C., because the liberal talking point was, no, no, crime is down at a 30-year low.
And then we find out from the police union and rank and file police officers that they've been cooking the books and classifying violent crimes as like misdemeanors and things just to look better and make the city look better than it actually is.
But anyway, since the president got involved, announced he was deploying the National Guard to fight crime in our nation's capital, crime rates are plunging, violent crime down a whopping 22%, robberies down 46%, car theft down 21%, carjackings, which have actually killed people in D.C., they're down a staggering 83%.
So my advice to Democrats is keep complaining about Trump's National Guard deployment and keep defending those sky-high crime rates that we know are altered on purpose and keep complaining that the rights of criminals are being violated by police and keep advocating for protesters who enjoy spitting on cops while throwing feces at them because people who hate the police are now the Democratic Party's most loyal voters.
Good luck with that.
You know, good luck with every policy you've taken on.
They're championing the rights of men to play women's sports.
They're championing that they're not standing up for law-abiding citizens in our nation's capital.
They don't believe in law and order.
They continue to support defund dismantled no-bail laws.
They don't want our border secure.
They're the party of a Brego Garcia, not the party of enforcing the laws at our border.
And as a result, they're at an all-time low in terms of their popularity.
New poll out today shows, in fact, that Donald Trump, his popularity has surged 54%.
Anyway, let me play for you this, and then we'll get to our friend Mike Lee of Utah.
This is the Washington, D.C. crime report montage from 2025 before the federalization of police.
The shattered glass has been swept up, but you can see the bullet holes in a poster that lines the bus shelter at 7th and M Streets Northwest just outside one of the entrances to the Mount Vernon Square metro station.
Despite life-saving efforts, Eric Tarpinian Jackum did not survive his injuries.
He was an intern in the Capitol Hill office of Congressman Ron Estes of Kansas.
More than 140 shots fired in a northeast community, sending bullets flying Wednesday night.
Families with children having to run to safety as cars, homes, even a church were riddled with gunshots.
Breaking news off the top at 11 tonight, a deadly double shooting in northwest D.C., right near the FBI Washington field office and the Capitol Jewish Museum.
At this hour, Fox 5 News alert, two separate shootings in the district, leave two men dead, two others hurt.
We are following some developing news out of D.C. Police have been crisscrossing Northeast Washington today.
They've responded to three different shootings just hours apart.
Tragedy strikes again in the district, this time likely the youngest victim of gun violence in recent years.
Tonight, a family is holding on to hope, praying that their one-year-old daughter can't survive.
Breaking news on this Monday morning: a man has been shot and killed outside a four-star hotel, New Union Station.
This is along New Jersey Avenue in Northwest D.C. All right, joining us now is our friend Senator Mike Lee of Utah.
And he, by the way, took to X to release his take on the federalization of the D.C., a strong positions, also about Russia.
We'll get to that too.
Obviously, crime is better as a result of Donald Trump.
It's a lot better as a result of Donald Trump.
Look, part of the Democratic tantrum going on right now against President Trump cleaning up D.C. involves pretending that crime is not a problem and that it's not a problem in D.C.
These are the same people, Sean, who will see a carjacking and say, oh, that was somebody in a hurry to go visit their mother in the hospital, or who might see vandalism in the form of graffiti and say, oh, it's just somebody practicing their calligraphy.
But let's look at the facts.
This city has had real problems.
Our nation's capital, Washington, D.C., saw in 2023 the city recording more homicides than at any time in the last two decades.
Carjacking's doubled.
Tourists, residents, and government employees alike are now interchangeable prey.
Meanwhile, they take such a lax approach toward prosecuting juvenile offenders.
It's well known that juvenile offenders are not going to do significant time relative to the crime they commit.
And so certain organized crime rings in the city have exploited that and utilized juvenile offenders to engage in horrific, violent attacks, knowing that they won't be punished as severely as others would.
So this is the perfect time to remind the American people that under the Constitution, this city is federal.
When Trump talks about federalizing D.C., I applaud that.
And another way we could put it is to just re-federalize D.C., meaning restore that, which has always been the case.
Washington, D.C. is different than any other city in this country because not only is it our nation's capital, but as a result of the fact that it's our nation's capital, the responsibility for it is federal.
The lawmaking power exists within the Congress of the United States, and the power to administer those laws exists and the executive branch under the leadership of President Trump.
Let me ask you, because my understanding is that the president can assert this authority constitutionally for 30 days, then what happens?
Yeah, at that point, there has to be a vote in Congress as to whether to extend that or not.
And I hope and ask for my colleagues in the Senate and our counterparts in the House, whether they're Republicans or Democrats, to give him that power, assuming he seeks it, which I suspect he will and hope that he will, because this needs to continue.
Look, nobody wants to go back to where we were just over a week ago.
As I posted on X last night at Base Mike Lee account, I told the story of someone I had spoken to just last night who told me about a part of town, not very far from where my office is, but a different neighborhood.
Isn't somebody who told me that every day when he goes to work, he gets out of the metro station, the nearest subway stop, to his office and has to navigate through a minefield of human excrement, of trash and human waste that's been left there by vagrants, people who are just allowed to live in the streets wherever.
And he said all of a sudden, for the first time ever that he can recall, he doesn't have to navigate that.
Nobody wants to go back to the way it was before.
They want it clean and they want it safe, and we shouldn't turn away from that.
You know, if you look at it, I mean, Chuck Schumer basically, well, he used an expletive and me saying that there's no way that Democrats will lift a finger to help President Trump in his effort to clean up our nation's capital.
You know, when Baghdad is safer, Mexico City is safer, El Salvador is safer, and all of these other countries, you know, you got to sit back and wonder what part of law and order and safety and security, what part of the crime problem in D.C. and the homicide rate in D.C. are they not understanding?
And do they think there's some political advantage in not enforcing the laws of our country and the laws of our land?
Is there some political benefit at this late stage, knowing the failure of defund dismantle and no bail laws that maybe we're not seeing?
Because I don't see it resonating with the American people.
Ignoring the filth and danger inherent in a lawless city for whatever reason, reasons I can't fully comprehend, have become kind of the sacrament of the left.
They feel good about themselves when they see it this way.
Now, I still can't fully comprehend that.
The American people certainly can't.
The world tends to judge a country in many respects on the basis of its capital.
Paris, London, Rome, these are showcases of national ambition, and they're a source of pride for those countries.
So if that's the case, and it is, how might one judge the United States after visiting Washington, D.C., particularly parts of Washington, D.C. that are lawless?
They would understandably look at that and start to think of corruption, lawlessness, and lack of safety.
And look, we're going to be in a much better place when people are safe, when people live in a safer place.
The safety of that place affects all people.
But they'll live much better with no credit for it.
We see right through them.
If they can't get credit, and if it's being done by someone they hate and they seek to undermine, then they will try to stop that effort from succeeding.
And I fear that's exactly what's going on here.
Quick break, right back more with Utah Senator Mike Lee on the other side.
Then we'll get to your phone calls coming up, 800-941-Sean as we continue.
All right, we continue now.
Senator Mike Lee of Utah is with us.
We'll get to your calls coming up at the bottom of the half hour, 800-941, Sean, if you want to join us.
Let me move on to topics, and let's talk about and get your thoughts on what happened on Friday with Vladimir Putin in Alaska, what happened yesterday with NATO and European leaders at the White House.
And the next step seems to be, although I'm a little suspicious, I'm not sure if I would go in the same order as President Trump here, but they'd have bilateral meetings, Putin and Zelensky.
I'm not sure they can be in the same room together without killing each other.
And then if that goes well, then Donald Trump would be at the next meeting and then hopefully peace in Europe.
I think that would be a good thing for the world.
The fact that Trump got all these people to come to Washington, I think, was something that only he could accomplish.
I think that he got Putin to the table is something only he could accomplish.
Do I trust any of them?
I don't.
I think Europe has been impotent in dealing with Russia, and I think they've also been naive and stupid.
And I think they should have been having conversations with him over the years, and they never talked to him, just like Biden never talked to him as he was amassing troops and military equipment on the Ukrainian border.
I think we're better off talking than not talking, but I'm not sure how this ends.
But I do give the president a lot of credit for doing something nobody else could pull off.
Look, what President Trump has done over the last week has been nothing short of courageous and historic.
The fact that he got President Putin to fly to the United States of America and to sit down with him for many hours was itself breathtakingly heroic.
Then what happened yesterday at the White House with leaders from all over Europe coming to talk to him and President Zelensky about how to bring a peaceful resolution to this conflict?
This is amazing.
You know, with President Biden, all you had was fuel for the fire.
President Biden just put more and more accelerants into the fire in order to prolong the war while sinking a couple hundred billion U.S. dollars into the process.
President Trump is trying to bring about the peace.
How exactly it turns into peace remains to be seen.
There are a couple of things that I wonder about.
You know, last night, the Secretary General of NATO appeared on Laura Ingram's show, and he said something that I found perplexing.
He said, you know, the U.S. and others opposed NATO membership for Ukraine, so what's on the table now are Article 5 type security guarantees.
If I'm reading that correctly, I think that means essentially, no, no, of course, if you analogize this to an insurance policy, you know, with the adage that you don't insure a house that's already on fire, visualize Ukraine as a house already on fire.
NATO is a type of insurance policy.
They're saying, no, we're not going to sell Ukraine this insurance policy.
We're just going to give him the benefits of the insurance policy without him having to pay for it.
That appears to be what the NATO Secretary General was suggesting.
I hope that's not what he meant, but that is very dangerous.
The minute we start doing that, that is not only ensuring a house on fire, that is essentially putting the United States and all other NATO members in a real significant risk of direct conflict with Russia, which we love to engage in.
America under Donald Trump is not doing that.
We're not going to get involved that way.
Look, I'll tell you right now, if this doesn't work out, and there's a chance it won't work out, but if it doesn't work out, I can tell you how this is going to end.
The president is going to put massive, massive sanctions on any country that does any business with Russia, and they're going to feel it financially.
In terms of Ukraine, the president either will continue to sell them weapons or he may not, depending on how things unfold and who might be responsible for what.
So we'll see what happens.
Anyway, Senator, we do appreciate you.
Senator Mike Lee, Utah.
Thank you so much for being with us.
Thank you, Sean.
Levi, Alaska on the Sean Hannity Show.
What's up, Levi?
How are you?
Hey, I'm doing great.
How are you?
I'm good.
What's going on?
Hey, so I just had a question as to why does the United States feel that we have to be involved in every other country's foreign affairs?
I noticed like nobody is begrudging of Switzerland for staying neutral for almost 200 years and has really helped out with their economy.
And Lord knows we have plenty of our own problems to deal with in our own country.
And we've heard on other radios and talk shows, even YouTube, other leaders of other countries are also kind of getting annoyed with our constant presence when we have so many problems of our own.
Well, I mean, if you're talking about isolationism, and there are some people that claim to be part of the MAGA movement, and they have a very different interpretation of Trump's foreign policy than I do, or I call it the Trump doctrine.
Trump is not an isolationist.
The Trump doctrine is not isolationism.
You do know that, right?
Absolutely.
All right.
Now, I think that we certainly start with the notion that part of the Trump doctrine is no forever wars.
I think we start there.
But that doesn't mean that America doesn't play a significant role in the world.
You know, with the blessings and the strength that the United States has accumulated, we want to use that for the cause of good.
You know, we have the Monroe Doctrine, for example.
We're not going to allow communism so close to our country.
I think it's the right doctrine, even applicable to today.
I think the president, in every instance, he's used military force, most recently in Iran, made the right decision.
The idea of a nuclear-armed Iran, the number one state sponsor of terror, is a risk we couldn't take.
I think the president was right in his first term to take out the ISIS caliphate, convert or die.
I think he was right to take out the number one terrorist for 30 years, Solomani.
I think he was right to take out Baghdadi and associates.
I think at the time he was right to drop the mother of all bombs on Afghanistan.
The president today, commenting on Israel, he actually backs Bibi and said Hamas's destruction is the only way now to free hostages.
We've tried the peaceful route, but there are still Americans held hostage there.
And nobody's done more to get hostages freed than Donald Trump.
Why am I saying all of this?
If you're saying you want America to be Switzerland, you sound to me like you're advocating for isolationism.
Is that what you want America to be?
And not full isolationism.
I think during World War II, I do think we should have gotten involved a little bit sooner and we might have been able to save a lot more of Europe from the horror of war.
But I think there needs to be a higher level of accountability for our leaders.
Like, for instance, the whole Biden getting involved in Ukraine, we might have had the chance of completely avoiding all the conflict over there had he been held to a higher standard and a higher accountability level.
You know, I do think as America, we have a great responsibility to share our wealth and our legal system with other parts of the world that are less fortunate than us.
But I do wish we would be a little less involved in other affairs.
Let me put it this way: I shudder to think what the world would look like without the power, might, and not perfection, nobody's perfect, and the genuine goodness of the American people and our belief in the cause of freedom and advocating the cause of freedom without being the world's policeman and without the concept of forever wars.
Anyway, I appreciate the call, my friend.
Thank you.
Thoughtful discussion.
Our good friend Professor Katz in California is with us.
Now, I was just told by my staff that apparently you're not feeling well.
What's going on?
Oh, hi, Sean.
Well, yeah, I'm having surgery tomorrow.
I have kidney cancer, basically.
And I mean, thank God for all the modern technology that they were able to find out, you know, now.
It's just, there's never a good time for that.
Is it in an early stage?
Do you know if it's spread at all?
You know, they're not sure how, you know, far have spread, but it was kind of like, you know, we need to get in there right away.
You know, my son was, you know, told that, you know, there is no, you know, cure, that, you know, that's why they need to go in now and do what they need to do.
And, you know, so it was, yeah, that's why they had me like, you know, yo, you need to, you know, do you have a living trust?
Do you have all this stuff in order?
So it's like, you know, yeah.
My son just kind of said, listen, doctor, you know, I lost my dad to a sudden heart attack when I was, you know, 16 and I'm 24 and I don't want to lose my mom.
And, you know, so he said, you know, my mom's got a lot of things on her bucket list and, you know, I'm one of them.
And I said, exactly.
So.
Well, I'm saying this, you know, first of all, I do know a lot about medicine because a lot of my family's been in medicine.
If it's still localized, your five-year survival rate is like 95, 98%.
You know, and overall, even in more advanced stages, your odds are pretty high for survival.
So I would have, you know, take confidence.
Let's hope that they got it as early as possible.
Let's hope it didn't spread.
And there's no dying allowed for listeners of this show.
You're not allowed to die on me.
I'm not going to accept that as an outcome.
So, you know, you're going to be in every one of our thoughts and prayers.
And I know it's probably very scary time for you.
And I know it's not fun to deal with this crap.
It's a pain in the neck, but know that we're all going to be praying for you.
And we know you're going to be calling us, you know, after your surgery and letting us know that everything went okay.
And I'm sorry you have to go through this.
I mean that with all my heart.
Thank you.
That just means the world to me.
And absolutely.
And it has to work out because I mean, I get up every morning.
I know everybody out there has their like, you know, baggage of issues.
But, you know, I wake up in the morning and, you know, the term Yahoo Diju means to be grateful.
It comes from Toda.
And I am grateful every morning.
I wake up.
The first thing mom and I say is, you know, President Trump is in the White House.
Prime Minister Netanyahu's the Prime Minister.
And we get to, you know, listen to you and Sean, you and Linda on the radio.
And I get to watch you twice on the West Coast on Fox.
And so, you know, and I'm still.
I don't know if Linda's such a blessing in your life.
I mean.
Well, she talked to you the way she talked to me.
You might feel differently, but I'm only teasing.
I will tell you this.
The people that I find the most thoughtful in life, the people that are most aware, the people that are the most understanding are people that have been through very challenging times in their life.
And, you know, you've been a longtime caller to this radio show.
I know already you're one of those people.
You're also a much stronger person than you may even know yourself.
And I know that, you know, mental toughness, mental strength, mental, you know, your attitude and approach to a challenge or a problem like this is very critical in what the ultimate outcome is going to be.
Exactly.
Well, one of the things mom said is that, you know, you come from, you know, the greatest generation.
You know, dad was part of that greatest generation.
The young man who just called, I just want to say, you know what?
Thank God that my dad and all those who enlisted and fought in World War II didn't have that, you know, we are an island attitude because otherwise, you know, the real Hitler would have taken over.
President Trump and all his supporters get, you know, wrongfully chastised and called all kinds of names.
But, you know, they are the greatest generation who saved this world, and that's why we're free.
And mom is a survivor.
So when people say horrible things about ICE and about President Trump, not only do they demean mom and all those who were mass murdered in World War II in crematory and gas chambers, but they denigrate the memory of all those wonderful U.S. military who fought and saved this world.
And thank God that President Trump, when he said America first, he didn't mean America only.
And so, you know, we have a strong leader in the White House, and all the Democrats are just jealous because they don't have an agenda.
They don't have any policies to run on.
So all they can do is attack him 24-7.
And, you know, the same is true with, you know, all the Democrats here in the state and all the states where, you know, whether it's Gavin Newsom, you know, who, you know, still, we don't know.
But I think Gavin Newsom will probably find the missing $100 million from the fire aid after he finds the $100 billion from the high-speed rail and the $37 billion from all the homelessness and the $40 billion from affordable housing.
So to all those people who think, you know, and some are on our side of the aisle that, you know, you should just think about what goes on in your state.
It's like we're all Americans.
And what happens to one happens to all of us.
So, you know, get involved.
You know, get it.
I don't know how long this whole recovery thing, I hope I'm going to be able to be here to be recovering.
Well, listen, I'm going to tell you what I'm going to do for you.
We're going to be saying prayers for you.
And don't worry about the country right now.
Don't worry about the state of the world right now.
You know, go get through your surgery.
Have your son get in touch with us.
Let us know you're okay.
And as soon as you're feeling up to it, we're going to put you on the program.
We're going to talk about your future and the incredible advancement of modern medicine and how healthy you're going to be.
But we love you, Professor, and there's no dying on this show.
Understand?
That's a rule.
You have to follow.
Linda, that's a fair rule, right?
We love you, Professor Katz.
We're praying for you.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Yeah, so you just hang in there and you're going to be fine.
I know what a fighter you are, and you're going to be tough and get through this.
I know it's hard, and we're praying for you.
God bless you.
God bless you too.
Thank you so much.
Give my love to President Trump.
Tell him to keep up the good work.
He's amazing.
He is a superman and a wonderful man, just like you.
And we love you.
All right.
You get well soon.
And I look forward to talking to you, hopefully, in the next week.
Quickly, Matthew in Alaska.
We love our Alaska callers.
How are you, Matthew?
Glad you called.
I'm doing great, Mr. Hannity.
How are you?
I'm good.
What's going on?
Not much.
Just calling from the great state of Alaska, and I'd like to thank you for coming all the way up here and interviewing the president.
You did a great job, and we're just big fans of you.
My mom and dad introduced me to you when I was a little kid, and back when you and Combs were on together, and I listened to you in my earbuds while I'm mushing my flood dog team down the trail.
I mean, I did a rod musher and just a big fan.
Oh, wow, that's awesome.
That must be pretty cool to do.
I just don't know if I'd really like the cold, but I'd love watching it.
I admire the people.
I love those dogs.
They're beautiful.
Yeah, the dogs are awesome.
It is a little cold.
If I could find some hairless huskies, I'd probably mushing them on a beach somewhere, but they like the cold, so that's why I'm here.
It's pretty amazing.
How fast do they go?
Actually, we're just cruising about 10, 11 miles an hour, kind of a cross-country, steady-eddy kind of team.
Yeah.
And what do you feed them?
I assume you probably get a lot of salmon and you feed them salmon throughout the year.
Salmon, beaver, liver, tripe, horse, turkey, chicken, all the good stuff.
We joke that we eat beans and they eat steak.
So just got to treat them well.
You got to feed them well.
You got to take care of them.
Matthew, appreciate it, buddy.
God bless you.
Be safe.
800-941-Shot is our number.
You want to be a part of the program?
Wrap things up for today.
Steve Witkoff, he was in the meeting with Vladimir Putin in Alaska, and he was in the meetings yesterday with European and NATO leaders.
We'll get his insights into the possibilities of peace.
The one and only Stephen A. Smith will look at President Trump's rising approval rating with Matt Towery.
The great Stephen Miller, Mark Meadows, Joe Concha, set your DVR tonight.
Hannity, 9 Eastern, Fox News.
We'll see you tonight.
Back here tomorrow.
Thank you for making this show possible.
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