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Aug. 23, 2025 - Sean Hannity Show
28:38
Bolton and National Security - August 22nd, Hour 2
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This isn't Scott Shannon.
Hour two, Sean Hannity Show, toll-free.
It's 800-941 Sean.
If you want to be a part of the program, it has been a huge breaking news week for our friend John Solomon, editor in chief, founder and chief investigative reporter, just the news.com.
John broke the big story about James Comey last night.
He's broken other stories this week.
We woke up to the news that in fact FBI agents have raided former National Security Advisor John Bolton's home.
Um I have sources.
I know what this is really all about, but uh we'll see what John's sources have to say first and then see if our see if uh our sources match.
Uh Mr. Solomon, you've had quite a week, and we're gonna do a little summary of the week.
You've had a a great investigative week.
I know how I know how hard you work.
We work for years together.
There's nobody that digs in deeper.
There's nobody that has deeper contacts than you, and uh I congratulate you on your hard work.
And in many ways, it's a culmination of all the work and all the reporting that you did for the years that we did Russia, Russia, Russia, Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine, and everything in between.
I mean, so I'm very proud of you, proud to be your friend, and thank you for all your hard work, and you've been proven right.
We've been proven right on this show, and we never get credit.
I don't think I'm getting a pulled surprise, uh, although you definitely deserve one.
Yeah, no, I don't want to pull it surprise.
I just love doing this, and I love telling the truth, and you you and I have been able to do so many amazing things together.
And you know, this morning we wake up to another sign of what law and order may look like in uh the Trump era, which is something that comes from a court, not from a political playbook in Hillary Clinton's basement or Barack Obama's basement.
A uh court gave the FBI permission and ordered it to search the home of former National Security Advisor, John Bolton.
Yeah, he's a critic of Donald Trump.
He's a critic of um Cash Patel.
He tried to, I think, oppose Cash Patel's nomination for FBI director.
But at the end of the day, they go to a court, they raise some concerns about classified information releases and maybe perhaps misuse of the classified information, they get a chance to um uh uh review his home, get the evidence out of the home, and then see where it leads.
Um this is an investigation that got stymied under Joe Biden today.
Uh it is back in motion, and it shows that no matter how powerful you are, no matter how uh many friends you have in Washington, how much distinguished work you did, he was a UN ambassador.
By the way, uh are there such things as friends in Washington, seriously?
Because if you want a friend in DC, you should get a dog.
I offered to get the President Trump a dog, he laughed at me.
Dog's a much better choice.
There's no doubt about it.
But you know, he obviously he's been in the establishment a long time, uh, four administrations he served in.
But at the end of the day, the law appears to be blind on this, and we'll see how they treat him, what they learn from the raid, what they get in the search warrant, and then see if there's anything that comes of it.
But uh that happened today, and I I think there's a you know, people say things are returning to normal.
It's like common sense settling over the city.
This is the way the Justice Department used to work before it got hijacked at the end of the Obama administration.
Courts approve things, things happen.
There's not a lot of politics involved.
There isn't uh a lot of uh, you know, uh political fanfare being stirred up.
Burrell went and did his job, they're not gonna talk about it, and they go on.
And I think that's the way the court system used to run before it got weaponized and politicized by the by the Democrats and their friends in government.
Uh so that that that's what happened today, and I think it's a reminder that maybe under Donald Trump things are getting back to normal.
Namo, I've had sources tell me that this this is more directly involved to intelligence that he had ax access to, and that it might have to do with foreign adversaries.
Uh have you heard anything similar?
Yeah, there's always that concern.
That's why there's a national security component to classified information.
You want to make sure that somebody either in neither intentionally or unwittingly uh provided information that could give comfort or aid or uh strategic advantage to a foreign enemy.
I think we ought to wait and see.
Let's see what comes of this information.
Let's see what waiting comes of the thing.
When John Bolton had a lot of clients, you know, he's a he's a foreign policy advisor, he has a business.
One of the places they uh searched this morning was his business office.
But I think one of the just like the justice system is getting back to being normal.
I think the way we in the media should treat things, which is let's give everybody the benefit of the doubt.
Let's see what the the search warrant returns.
The next thing we'll learn is somewhere in the next few weeks, uh the FBI will report to the court.
Here's the search warrant returns, and here is the affidavit of why we searched the court.
When we get that information, we'll have a little bit better sense of the scope.
But I do think anytime you're talking about a classified information league, the first concern is did this intentionally or unintentionally given assistance to one of our enemies, one of our foreign powers, and I think that is at the root of this case as well.
Let me give you a little background on uh my relationship with John Bolton, because there was a time we got along and and I did have respect for him.
And it was during very early on in when Donald Trump won the election in 2016.
I remember where I was when he called me.
We had a very long and at times a little bit heated conversation, and he was asking me if I would, you know, put in a good word with him with a president.
I'm like, well, that's not what I do.
I said I've known President Trump for 30 years.
I know he's looking for good people, but I said, John, I've known you a long time.
Your foreign policy does not match up, is not in sync with Donald Trump's.
And it really for me was that simple.
And he assured me over and over and over again.
Oh no, no, I'm I'm I'm I've evolved and I'm I'm I'm want to serve the president's foreign policy.
No, it seemed like very early on he had a very different agenda.
He was not, he do he did not live up to the promise that he was making me when he was begging me to to speak out on his behalf.
Yeah, listen, there's a moment, and um there's a gentleman that worked for John Bolton for a long time, uh very well respected former CIA analyst.
He became the chief of staff to the National Security Council and Trump won.
Uh uh Fred Flights.
And Fred Flights wrote a really powerful article on Fox News around the time that um John Bolton put his book out.
And the book is the first time that we had some questions about whether he had improperly released classified information or was going to release uh improperly classified information.
And um Fred Flights wrote a really thoughtful article, which is listen, John Bolton's had a lot of distinguished things in his career, made a lot of friends, he worked at the U.N., served multiple presidents, but this book is not a book to help the American people understand uh national policy or foreign policy.
It's a a vengeance book, a revenge book, and that is beneath John Bolton.
He really encouraged John Bolton not to publish the book, which was you know, for John Bolton, probably a shock.
This guy had always worked with him and they had a great relationship, but something happened at the end of the first um the uh Trump administration with John Bolton.
Obviously, he didn't see eye to eye with the president, the president fired him.
The president's foreign policy has proven to be very successful.
Many European leaders just admit it Monday in the White House.
But I think John Bolton went in a different direction.
And for the first time, a guy who seemed to be very buttoned up and really just about the policy and just about humbly serving the uh uh president, became a guy who thought he could challenge a president, and at the end of the day, I think he bet wrong.
I think the American people made a better bet than he did.
And the question now is in that drive, in that effort to become suddenly an opposition to a president he had served, did he do something that compromised national security?
And we'll we'll see what the FBI finds.
You know what's fascinating about it is, you know, there was a time he did not evolve with the advancement of military technology.
I mean, look at, for example, the impact drones are having in the conflict in the Middle East and the conflict in Europe.
Uh I've been arguing for some time the next generation of weaponry will enable wars to be fought in air-conditioned offices, not on a battlefield like like had been done historically.
And and there just seem to be people that want to cling to this old version of warfare.
And Donald Trump's not one of them.
He's talking about a golden dome that would keep this country safe.
It may, if he's successful at building it, I mean, he might that might end up being his greatest legacy.
The media made fun of strategic defense of Ronald Reagan when he proposed it, they called it Star Wars.
They mocked it, and they generated all this animation on TV, and you know, now it plays out in real time in the Middle East in Israel, and it's saving lives, you know, almost on a daily basis.
Um so I don't think he he really grew.
I don't think Liz Cheney or the Chaneys grew, and they they just they've come, they just have this hatred of Trump.
But with that said, I agree with you.
You know, people are innocent until proven guilty.
Let's see if my sources turn out to Be right.
I hear it has to do with national security secrets.
He wrote the book.
He didn't get permission.
All right.
Now let's move on to your uh one of the other big stories of the week, and you've had a lot of them, and that's James Comey.
Thanks.
Yeah, listen, this is important.
Uh uh when these documents were released a couple of weeks ago, we got a couple good scoops out of them.
One of them was the Adam Schiff story that Adam Schiff's own staffer went to the FBI and said he authorized the leak of classified information.
I think that's illegal, unethical, and treasonous.
That's the exact words that the Democrat staffer told the FBI, but of course Adam Schiff got a pass.
There was a large block of these documents that had a big black mark off.
They were redacted.
They were kept from scenes.
I believe they contained information that was not classified, nor was it covered by grand jury secrecy.
And so I appealed to uh Attorney General Pam Bondy and her team and and um and she agreed, and she uh uh alongside of Caspertell, they unredacted that information yesterday.
They sent it back to Congress.
I got a copy of it.
And what you see in that is that it Comey's own chief lawyer, his chief counsel, when he was FBI director, told the FBI that he, James Comey, uh James Baker, the lawyer, and the witness who's admitting to this, and the chief of staff for James Comey, James Rubicke, all at the FBI, the top three guys in the FBI worked together to illegally um uh leak classified information to the New York Times.
The first time in October 2016, right on the eve of the election where Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton were neck and neck, and then there were some concerns that that happened again afterwards.
Uh that is a rare moment when an insider in the inner circle of a person, a leaker admits that this happened, and uh uh uh it's rare that it got kept from us the first time that Cash Patel got these documents to the American public.
The Justice Department had made that redaction, they admit it was a mistake, they unredacted it.
We now know that the United States government had very strong evidence to s believe that James Comey had uh authorized the leak of classified information, information that would harm national security because it was released.
And the once again, just like the Hillary Clinton Foundation investigators, just like the IRS agents who tried to go after um uh Hunter Biden for the tax crimes, just like the agents who wanted to go after Hillary Clinton's um uh classified email server issues, uh the FBI, the Justice Department shut down this investigation and said you're not gonna indict anyone, we decided not to indict anyone.
In fact, there's a moment where they have a chance to get some emails that would be corroborating and really understand just how far the leaking may have been and just who was involved in it.
And uh the U.S. attorney's office, uh no, you don't need to go yet.
We're not gonna go get them.
So once again, an example of the dual system of justice, the lack of curiosity that seemed to occur whenever someone who was a Democrat or a friend of the Democrat in government was accused of wrongdoing.
They got protected and very different in the way than Donald Trump got uh treated and his followers got treated in that same system.
Uh, this is a story that's gonna be now people say is this just a history lesson, John.
Why why should I care?
The answer is there is a ten-year statute covering this potential type of disclosure of national intelligence information, and Pam Bondi was very clear in my story saying uh that uh people who were entrusted.
Um first of all, she said that James Comey, based on that what's in these documents, clearly engaged in abhorrent conduct along with his top leaders.
But he she this is what she added.
I think this is a warning sign to Comey.
If I'm Comey's lawyers, I'm a little more nervous today.
The quote this is directly from Pam Bondi.
There must be accountability for those who were entrusted with safeguarding our nation's secrets and failed to do so.
And I think that's a sign that with these grand juries coming up, the grand conspiracy case, the strike force that's been that uh James Comey may be looked at, and that this evidence may still be relevant to criminal charges going forward.
All right, quick break, right back more with John Solomon, editor-in-chief, founder and chief investigative reporter, just the news.com on the other side.
Uh also coming up later on the program, our friend Mark Howpern will join us.
And we continue with John Solomon.
He is the founder, editor and chief, chief investigative reporter of Justinews.com.
It's amazing that all of the reporting that if we go all the way back when Donald Trump came down the escalator, they've been out to get this guy.
And I would argue we have, you know, the grand conspiracy starts before the 2016 election, after the 2016 election, the pre-bunking of the Very real Hunter laptop, knowing that Bob Costello, then Rudy's attorney would leak it, and then lawfare from 2020 to 2024 to bloody Donald Trump up and render him incapable of running and even hopefully putting him in jail.
I think a very compelling case is coming up, and I I for the first time I really believe people will be held accountable.
I'll give you the last 30 seconds.
I think that's true.
Listen, the evidence is coming out that we didn't know about it stronger than we thought.
The the actions are worse than we thought.
And I think that you have in Pam Bondi and uh uh Cash Patel a dual-headed team, a great team with great instincts and great commitment to getting truth and accountability.
And we haven't had that in prior FBI's in Justice Department.
They could go down in history as one of the most consequential duoists ahead the D DOJ and FBI at the same time.
Let's see if they deliver that record.
But I think for those who want accountability, there's a growth and optimism from just a few short weeks ago.
I will tell you that that could be the dynamic duo.
Your piece points out how working together that you know justice is going to be served, uh, and a lot of accountability is coming.
Uh and uh I don't want to overpromise and underdeliver.
We've been disappointed too many times, but really a terrific, you know, newsbreaking week for you.
Thank you for sharing it with this audience.
We appreciate you as always, and uh I hope people will uh care about this as much as I do because if if we allow people to impact our elections and put cinder blocks on the scales of an election, we don't have a country.
John Solomon, editor-in-chief, founder, and chief investigative reporter, just the news.com.
Thank you, sir.
Have a great weekend.
You as well, Sean.
Thanks so much.
You know, we talk a lot about law and order and safety and security.
We've talked a lot about you know, thanks to Biden Harris, Mayorcus and all these Democrats and a complicit media lying.
Now we have known terrorists and murderers and rapists and cartel members and gang members in the country, on top of Americans that are murderers and rapists and drug dealers and violent criminals and gang members, et cetera.
I mean, I I wish that evil didn't exist.
Evil does exist.
Deliver us, you know, lead us not into temptation, but deliver deliver us from evil.
Actually wrote a whole book about it called Deliver Us from Evil.
And there are people that would, you know, wouldn't think twice about killing you and killing your family and killing you and killing your employees.
And so the president, to his credit, is out there, went on patrol yesterday, and is feeding the agents, the National Guard troops that have been out there on patrol, and lo and behold, we've had a successful week in the nation's capital.
Now, before President Trump got involved, Washington, D.C. is the number one capital city in terms of homicides, 41 per 100,000 people.
The next highest homicide rate is 16.
I mean, that's how bad it's gotten in Washington, D.C. And on top of that, what did we learn?
We learned that officers are now speaking out, whistleblowers are speaking out, the police union is speaking out, and they're saying, yeah, those numbers are inaccurate because they have been purposely cooking the books and lying to the country and lying to the people in D.C. Washington, D.C. averaged 3.6 murders a week in 2024, compared to zero murders since Donald Trump uh deployed the National Guard.
The message has gone out.
Pam Bondi is uh updating the arrest statistics.
They've got over six hundred and fifty six uh arrests at this point, including, by the way, eighty-six illegal guns.
They are making incredible progress.
Here's the president.
He was out on patrol yesterday.
He was handing out pizza and burgers and and thanking people, the guards and law enforcement for doing the great job they're doing to keep the people in DC safe and secure.
We've had uh some incredible results and results have come out, and uh it's like a different place.
It's like a different city, it's the capital, it's gonna be the best in the world.
We're gonna do what you're doing with law enforcement, and very importantly also we're gonna physically do it.
We're going back to Congress for some money, and we're gonna redo a lot of the pavement, a lot of the medians, a lot of the the graffiti's all coming off real fast.
It's gonna come down real fast, and we're gonna be not so much building, it's cleaning and fixing and uh redoing and putting brand new surfaces down on your roads and streets, and uh when people come in from the airport all the way to the Capitol, the White House, or any place else they go in, they're gonna say, Boy, this place is spotless.
You do the job on safety, and I'll get this place fixed up physically, and we're gonna be so proud of it.
At the end of six months, but let's say at the end of a year, uh this place will be maxed out in terms of beauty.
I talk all the time on this program that I have a personal safety security strategy for every situation that I know that I'm gonna find myself in when I go out at my home, when I'm at work.
Uh uh, you have to.
I've had too many threats over the course of my career, and I don't talk about them often, but I've had plenty of them.
And uh, you know, it's especially tough when you have young kids and you're getting real threats, including a fatwa on my head.
That was not a pleasant time in my life.
Uh, but I am urging everybody, you must have a personal safety security plan for you and your family.
There are bad evil people in this world.
I wish they didn't exist.
You know, I I said this when I wrote Deliver Us from Evil, is that it's very hard for good people to wrap their minds around the concept that evil does exist and evil doesn't think twice.
You know, an evil human being.
How evil do you have to be to harm a child, to rape a child?
Those pedophiles exist.
That is evil, the lowest scum of the earth, or people that wouldn't blink and take your life or take the life of your your spouse or your children.
They don't care.
So, you know, we have you know uh uh there is the lethal option, and I carry a pistol.
I've been a believer in the second amendment my entire life.
I usually carry the Sig Sour P365 in case you're interested.
But I also have my burner C L, which is a non-lethal option, and I've been urging all of you.
They're advertisers on this program, but that's not why I'm having them on today.
This is not an infomercial.
This is about how to protect yourself, your family if that God forbid moment ever comes.
And you see this in small towns and big cities all across the country.
This idiocy of defund, dismantle, no bail laws.
Look at this, you know, look the the recent criminal that got out what and killed somebody had been in jail, you know, for less than twenty-four hours before, and four separate arrests.
How many more people are gonna have to die?
What are you gonna do if the God forbid moment comes in your life?
I care too much about all of you in this audience.
The life I live, which is my dream that has come true, is only because of all of you.
And if I don't share with you, you know, my passionate belief that everybody needs a security and safety strategy, regardless of who you are, where you live, what your age is, what your sex is.
It doesn't matter.
It doesn't matter if if you're trained in situational self-defense as I am, because you may not have that opportunity.
I just urge everyone, I think one way, and and there are people that are afraid of of firearm, for example, but I don't think you'll be afraid of the non-lethal option.
It's legal in all 50 states.
You don't need a permit, you don't need a background check.
It fires very powerful projectiles, and that's tear gas, pepper spray, kinetic rounds, and you could incapacitate any perpetrator.
Uh, you can hit a target 40, 50, 60 feet away with incredible accuracy.
I know because I practice with my burner, and uh I can shoot that more than I can my pistol because of the hearing loss I've had with all these years that I've been on radio.
Anyway, uh we have Josh uh Gerard is with us.
He is director of law enforcement for burner and Brian Gann, CEO of Burner, and uh anyway, they both join us today.
You know, now that the nation's kind of dialed in and focusing their attention on on safety and security.
I I don't I can't tell you how many advertisers, and Linda come back uh can back me up on this.
People I'll give you an example.
Gambling companies.
They want betting betting sites.
They they have offered us millions of millions of millions of dollars to be advertisers on the program.
I did at one early point when they first started, but I had no idea become such a nationwide epidemic in terms of gambling addiction, and I don't really want to be a part of it.
The only advertisers I take and that I will give my endorsement to are products that I truly believe in.
And your product, Brian, when we first met, I knew right away that that this had the potential to really become big.
Now you've become bigger than ever.
Five hundred plus government agencies support this technology.
They're using your products.
Uh police departments, private security firms.
Um you know, I would just urge everybody, please look at their videos.
Educate yourself and then decide for yourself if this technology is good for you.
Anyway, what Brian, good to good to have you back.
And same with you, Josh, great to have you back.
Well, it's it's great to be on the show with you, Sean.
Thank you very much.
Uh you know, I remember the first time I came down to your house and we're out in the backyard and we're shooting, and I said, Look, you know, I I've been a gun owner my whole life, but you know, I don't know how quick I'd be to pull the trigger, and you know, and then I worry if I'd hesitate, is that a fatal hesitation for me?
I said, What do you think?
Do I represent five percent or ten percent of gun owners?
And I'll never forget this, Sean.
You said to me, he says, Brian, I'm a gun owner too, been a gun owner my whole life.
He said, You said, but 90% of gun owners live in mortal fear of having to pull the trigger and take a life.
Because the consequences of doing that, particularly in the society we live in today, are overwhelming.
I mean, legally, financially, and uh and with the burner, we give people the opportunity to stop an assailant without the risk of taking a life or causing permanent injury.
And um, you know, it's been very important to me, and I know it's been very important to you.
All right, quick break more with Josh Sherard and Brian Gans on the other side from Burner B Y R N A dot com, by the way.
The final hour of the Sean Hannity show is up next.
Hang on for Sean's conservative solutions.
This evil is real.
And the reality is people have to defend themselves.
And Josh, you know, maybe for people that are reluctant to go with a firearm and lethal force, at the very least, I think you need a burner in your household.
I have numerous burners that are strategically located all throughout my house, to be very honest.
I'm not giving away my personal security strategy.
I'm telling you, stay away from my house.
It's not gonna end well for you.
Yeah, absolutely.
I'm uh you know, I've been a cop for over twenty years and and carried a gun uh for that long as well.
But I also am a stats guy.
I'm I'm data driven, and I want to know not only do I want to prepare for the worst case scenario, I want to be able to be prepared for what's most likely to happen.
And when we look at stats historically, the chance of you having to use deadly force in the course of your life is astronomically low.
We're look we're talking in in uh 2023, 47 there were 471 justifiable homicides in the United States.
So 471 people had to utilize a gun to defend themselves and kill another individual.
That's one in 700,000 chance of you having to do that.
Now, when we look at the victimization of just violent crime in general of a lesser degree, your chances of being a victim of some sort of violent crime are about two one in two hundred and sixty.
One in two hundred and sixty.
So your chance of having to to use some sort of self-defense that's less than lethal self-defense is so much greater.
Why wouldn't you have some sort of plan?
Why wouldn't you have some sort of tool, some sort of device to be able to make sure that you can defend yourself um uh amongst so many different circumstances because you're not going to be uh taking someone's life.
The chance of you having to pull the trigger and and and kill someone in someone's life just is so so very low.
This is is really just so applicable to so many situations and so many different people.
Well, you know, Sean, it's interesting.
I was on a podcast the other day with John Locke, and I I don't know how many of your audience know him, but he's the guy that wrote the book, uh more guns, less crime.
And in his study, he came up with a statistic that uh if you use a gun to stop a crime, ninety-five percent of the time you don't need to pull the trigger.
Why?
Because most of these criminals are cowards.
If they see that you're prepared to fight back, in whatever way, uh they're gonna turn and they're gonna find, you know, an easier mark, an easier victim.
So when you're carrying the burner, which uh as you know looks very, very much like a real firearm, um we see this even Well, no, well, you it does look like a firearm if you get the color I get, which is black, which looks like a firearm.
Linda has pink, orange, and yellow.
Um it looks like a toy.
Well, you know, there there's some people that want it to look like a firearm, and there's some people that want it to look less lethal.
But if if you pull out this launcher and you point it at somebody, the vast majority of people are going to turn on their heel and and turn away.
And you know, there's something interesting with what's going on in DC.
I mean, you pointed out a very, very important statistic.
This is the murder capital of the world.
As soon as the president put uh uh uh troops on every corner, federalize the police, there've been no murders.
Why?
Because people see that there's cops out there and they're afraid.
If you're prepared to stand up, if you're prepared to defend yourself, you can get people to back off.
And I think that, you know, for most people, you are your first uh you you are your own first responder.
I mean, what is it normally?
The police seven minutes to get to you?
That's that's it it it if the quickest response team, whatever's gonna happen will have happened.
The quickest response team.
Uh listen, I urge people to please take a look at your product.
Um you're an advertiser, not because of any other reason, as I am a passionate believer in your technology.
Just go to their website, look at the videos, decide for yourself.
I think every one of you hearing my voice now should have one.
BY RNA dot com.
It is effective.
500 government agencies have adopted this technology for a reason.
Police departments are adopting it for a reason.
It works.
Uh Brian, appreciate you.
Josh, appreciate you as well.
Thank you both.
800 941 John, if you want to be a part of the program.
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