In this "Best of Hannity", Sean Hannity continues his in-depth conversation with Elie Sharabi, diving into the unimaginable details of his captivity — life underground in Hamas tunnels, starvation, psychological warfare, and his unbreakable will to live. Sharabi describes how he held on to hope, led fellow hostages, and found strength through routine and faith. Hannity explores Sharabi’s release, his meeting with President Donald Trump, and what the world must understand about Hamas and terrorism.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
That could only mean one thing on this radio program, and that is all things self-proclaimed, simple man.
That means all things, Bill O'Reilly.
That means all things, Bill O'Reilly.
When you go to billoreilly.com, I want to start with something.
I know you addressed this on your podcast, and that is our friend Stephen A. Smith, who's one of the nicest guys we know.
We're both very fond of him.
He's a great guy.
And, you know, he will tell you that when he was let go at one point from his job, that there were a few people that stood up for him, defended him, stood by him, and among them would be people like you, me, and Mark Levin.
And he never forgot that.
And now, obviously, his star has been rising, which I couldn't be happier about.
I'd love to see that.
And anyway, so this, I guess it's on fake news, CNN, some guy named Bakari Sellers.
Do you know who this guy is?
Yeah, I know who he is.
You want me to run it down?
No, and I want to play the tape, and then I'm going to let you run it down.
How's that?
Excellent.
Let's play the tape.
I know you stand on the shoulders of strong black men, and you are disappointing us every time you continue to chop down those people who are doing that real work.
And so, yeah, I think it's necessary that we call that out.
I think it's necessary we have that level of accountability, especially right now while you're appreciating the gaze of those individuals in the White House, the gaze of people like Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, but yet instill you're quiet as a church mouse pissing on cotton when Donald Trump is out here trying to take away our voting rights.
Okay, he's been anything but quiet in his criticisms about Donald Trump.
He is somebody that is not a radical leftist, but he's a Democrat.
And you can have a civil conversation with him.
You can laugh with him.
You can talk about other stuff.
I'm more friends with him than I am a political opponent of his.
And I find those remarks unfortunately too common and repulsive.
Let's get your take.
Well, Bakari Solars is a race baiter, in my opinion.
So that's what he does.
And then he said those things about Stephen A. Smith because he wants to intimidate Stephen A. Wasn't he.
By the way, good luck with that.
That's not going to happen.
No, but that was his motivation because Stephen A. has been critical of Congresswoman Crockett of Texas and questioned her veracity, her grasp of the issues, which is certainly legitimate, not just for Congresswoman Crockett, but for every politician.
And Sellers doesn't like it because he's a color-based guy.
If you're black, you're beyond criticism.
If you're white, then you are a suspect.
This is Bakari Sellers getting paid by CNN.
Now, he brings you and me into it because he's playing to a radical left group that doesn't like us.
And we're a symbol of white supremacy, I guess, Hannity.
I don't know.
I mean, when we go out, we have scrambled eggs and burgers.
I don't know if that's white supremacy.
I'm not eating a lot of pheasant under glass.
I don't think you are either.
Bill, we're both Christians.
We believe that God created every man, woman, and child.
I find that, Frankly, that cheap shot that is constantly thrown at people that are conservative or Republican, you know, I find it obnoxious.
I find it intellectually lazy because that is the antithesis of who we are.
I find it vicious.
So I'm upgrading from obnoxious.
So what I did was I laid out, as you did, that Stephen A. should be a man of respect.
And if you saw a week ago, the Three American Show at the Kennedy Center in D.C., where we had every point of view you could possibly have for two hours on the News Nation special.
And 23 million people accessed that program.
23 million.
So there's a hunger for that.
Well, they were tuning in for Stephen A.
They weren't tuning in for you.
Well, whatever they were tuning into, I was a beneficiary of it.
I'm just kidding.
You know, but the thing is, okay, this is what they cling to.
This is now what the left in this country is reduced to, racist, sexist, fascist, Hitler-Stalin, Mussolini.
sum it up that way and it's having i i don't think it's having the impact they want If it would have had any impact, it would have impacted the 2024 election because that was their closing argument, Bill.
Well, if it had the impact, Warner Discovery wouldn't be trying to sell CNN.
And I think you and I might want to buy that, by the way.
So it doesn't.
I want no part of it.
You can't resuscitate that, Brian.
I could.
I could.
But there would be a lot of blood in the street.
But I got a little personal with Sellers.
Last point I want to make on him.
Because, as you know, I have a charitable foundation named after my parents.
And I give an enormous amount of money to mentoring programs like Best Friends in Washington, D.C., and to black colleges, and to Brothers Keeper, and to Big Brothers and Sisters.
Because I believe the solution to poverty, not only African-American poverty, but poverty in general, is mentoring.
And one-on-one, we have successful people taking a very strong interest in poor kids, kids at risk.
Now, I put my money where my mouth is, and I challenge sellers.
Do you do that?
You know, let me know.
You're asking me if I have charitable causes I'm a part of.
I have many of them.
Yeah.
So why would he use me and you, who are using our affluence to benefit African Americans?
And that's a target of my foundation.
Why would you do that?
That's such a cheap shot.
So I'm glad.
I do it for two specific programs and have in the past done it for two specific programs to help minority youth get into athletics as an alternative to having nothing to do after school.
And they're both very successful.
Smith does that.
So look, the whole thing is a charade, and I'm glad that we can call it out because it's got to stop.
And you're right.
It doesn't have a lot of influence anymore.
The clear thinking people know what this racket is, this race-baiting racket, and they've rejected it.
Let me go to what's happening in your state.
And I've asked you many times on the program, Bill, why don't you pack up and leave?
You know, you're getting taxed to death.
You know, my accountant before I left New York, she said, would always say to me every year when we'd have our meeting, you know, whatever you do, don't die in New York.
And I always found that very funny.
But if you do, you know, on top of all the money you paid in taxes, then they come in and they take as a state 10% of whatever estate you have left, which is insane, a state to do that.
But it is what it is.
You've made your decision.
You're happy where you are.
I respect people that make that whatever choice.
But New York City is about to elect a Marxist communist.
I won't go through the checklist of every bizarre position he's taken.
We've covered that ad nauseum.
But the reality is, and now there's an inordinate amount of pressure that had been brought to bear on Curtis Sleewood to drop out of the race.
And Curtis, he says he's been offered as much as $10 million in a chauffeur limousine if he'd get out.
And, you know, I just push back on this notion that it's somehow Curtis's fault.
No, I think that Andrew Cuomo has not run a good campaign starting in the primary.
He's taken off 10 days since Labor Day, which in a race where you're behind, you don't take off any days if you really want to win that office.
He spent, in my view, what I read, too many days out in the Hamptons doing fundraising.
He's not down in the subways.
He's not out shaking hands.
And you remember Ed Koch would always be out there shaking hands with everybody if you want to go back to a Democrat.
I have yet to see a single poll head to head where Andrew Cuomo is even close to Zoron Kami, the Marxist Mamdaniel.
And I think the idea that you're going to put all of this on Curtis for being the one Republican in the race is unfair.
Now, I'll add one other thing to this.
If, you know, all of a sudden, I guess Governor Cuomo was on with Sid the other day and said, oh, I've never thought about the idea of maybe calling Curtis and maybe teaming up with him.
Well, that's on him that he didn't reach out if he thought that pairing up together might be a good thing to stop Mamdani.
You know, now everyone's in a state of panic, but the state of panic should have been after Cuomo lost big time the primary.
Well, let me give you some facts.
Number one, I have not asked for Curtis to drop out because I would feel very uneasy about doing that with anybody.
So if you are patriotic enough to run for office in any party at any time, it's not my job to tell you what to do.
So I have not done that.
And I'll add one other thing.
Don't we always say we want principled politicians that won't sell out?
And Curtis has offered all these jobs, no-show jobs, he's saying, and chauffeur limousines and all this sort of thing.
And, you know, and he's turned it down because he's fighting for what he believes in.
How do we, we say we want that, then when we get it, we say get out of the race.
Well, not me.
I'm not calling for it.
He's not going to get out of the race, I don't think.
No.
The Republicans are down five to one in voter registration, so he's not going to win.
And if he did get out of the race.
By the way, they're down about nine or ten to one.
Whatever it may be, but I think it's registration in the five boroughs is five to one.
It might be 10 to 1 in the surrounding area.
But I could be wrong on that.
But anyway, Cuomo would take up some votes if Curtis endorsed Cuomo.
But Curtis can endorse Cuomo because he's been as big as critic for the last 10 years, whatever.
Number two, there is a big foreign presence in New York City.
Half of the workers in New York were born overseas.
And a lot of people are struggling in the city to insolvency.
They don't have enough money because it's so expensive to live.
Mandami is promising all this stuff.
He'll never deliver.
It's a Fidel Castro playbook, all right, almost word for word.
But the real horror of this, and the final debate is tonight in New York City.
Yeah, Curtis will be on my show right after.
By the way, what you're referring to is the poll published by Patriot Polling, and the article starts out: decades of mass legal immigration in New York City propelled Jorah Mamdani's campaign to be the city's next mayor, according to the results, as foreign-born voters are lining up in droves to support Mamdani.
So that's what you're referring to.
Right.
And that is very important.
But the African-American vote, which is very powerful, and that's why Lee Zeldin was not elected governor here, came very close to beating Hoka last summer.
The African-American vote is not coalescing around Cuomo.
They don't like him.
And he's not a very likable guy.
Let's be honest about it.
So that's all that's not going to change.
So I believe Mandami will be the next mayor.
But people don't understand what exactly is going to happen.
If you call 911 under a mayor, Ma'am Donnie, nobody's going to show up.
Okay, so you're on your own.
Well, if you're lucky, the social workers may come in because he's a reimagined police and send in the social workers instead.
A lot of good a social worker is going to do in those situations.
Americans, when they're in trouble, when they're being menaced, they call 911.
And in most places, the police respond.
That will stop in New York City.
The police department is 10,000 under man now.
It is a record flight out.
Cops are getting out.
They cannot be replaced.
So you're not going to have a police presence.
That means a lot more debt.
Because I'm running out of time.
Let's assume he wins.
What happens to New York besides the crime, which I agree with?
I predict a mass exodus.
Wall Street South gets bigger.
They might have just small remaining offices in New York, symbolic for big customers that choose to remain there.
But they're out.
They're leaving, Bill.
They're going to leave in droves.
You'll have a lot more friends down in Florida, Harry.
My real estate here, I'm out eight miles outside of Queensland.
It has been up 20% since Mandami announced.
So, and they'll go to Florida.
You're saying you want Mamdani to win because you'll benefit financially.
That's what you're telling me, Bill.
I'm just giving you the stats.
Well, it'll give you more money to give away for your good charitable organization and your family trust that you have.
Well, that's always a good thing.
Your family foundation.
At my advanced age, I'm still working.
So anyway, look, your garbage's not going to be picked up.
There'll be far more violence in the city.
People will move out in droves.
The state of New York fiscally will collapse.
Hokul will lose.
That's the one good thing.
She will lose next November.
I'm not convinced Hokul will lose, but we'll see.
Bill O'Reilly, all things simple, man.
Thank you, my friend.
800-941 Sean is a number if you want to be a part of the program.
Nick in Pennsylvania, Nick, the Commonwealth.
What's going on, sir?
Hi, thanks for having me on, Sean.
Thank you.
What's going on?
So I attended the New Kings Rally on Saturday, and I just wanted to kind of give you a bird's eye view of what it was like, boots on the ground.
I'm dying to hear it.
What do you got?
What'd you see?
So I live in State College.
You know where Penn State is, the university.
And you'd expect, I mean, it was nothing but boomers at the protest.
The demographic was probably 50 plus.
Kind of expect a more young turnout for this kind of thing.
But I mean, it does reflect the voting base and everything.
I just think young people are kind of disinterested in politics and voting now.
They're so sick of the whirlwind of everything that's going on.
Well, from what I saw, there were a lot of, you know, aging hippies that showed up at these things, and there were some, you know, young people with, you know, pink and purple hair.
And, you know, but, you know, between the signs that I read, F-Trump, F-ICE, and the rhetoric I heard, you know, calling Charlie Kirk garbage, getting in front of a Charlie Kirk supporter and mimicking, mocking his being shot in the neck, calling for ICE agents to be shot, one saying that he wants to kill President Trump.
You know, it's to me, it is, it just is representative of where Democrats are today.
And this is a radicalized party.
This is why Chuck Schumer shut down the government.
This is why Democrats are afraid to take on the radicals in their party.
They won't stand up to them.
So as you had a segment yesterday when you were talking about, you don't know if any Democrats listen to your show.
I'm a Democrat.
I've been more definitely left of center than heavily left-leaning.
But I mean, anyone that can't condemn an act of political violence is just, that's not the way you do things, you know?
Well, let me ask you, tell me, let me ask you a question.
Let me go through a series of questions with you.
Let me see if I can help you really clarify your thinking.
So do you think we should have law and order at the border and legal immigration?
Of course I do.
Do you think that everybody that enters this country needs to be vetted?
Yes.
Are you in favor of law and order and regular policing, or do you support defund, dismantle, no bail laws, and reimagine the police?
No, I don't think that police need to be defunded or disbanded.
And I think that if you come over illegally.
Okay, check number two.
Check number three.
Do you think Americans are overtaxed or undertaxed?
Would you have supported Donald Trump's largest tax cut in American history or the Democrats' largest tax increase in American history?
So I do support aspects of the big beautiful bill.
I've seen it my entire life.
I'm asking a very specific question because that was the biggest part.
Do you support no tax on tips overtime and Social Security?
Oh, of course.
Okay.
So the Democrats were against all of that.
They voted for the largest tax increase in history.
Do you believe that energy is the lifeblood of the world's economy?
And because we have so many natural resources that we should be energy dominant?
I do.
I think we should be self-reliant on oil and, you know, the precious minerals that go into semiconductors and all the things that are used for the computer chips and everything.
Perfect.
Next question.
Do you think that men should have the right to play women's sports and be in women's locker rooms?
No.
Okay.
Next, and probably, I guess, my last question.
Do you believe that the world is an evil place and we need a president that understands evil exists and is building out the next generation of weaponry and is willing to use American power in instances, for example, to not allow Iranian mullahs that chant death to America to get nuclear weapons.
Is that the right call for you?
Yes, it is.
Can I ask you a question, Sean?
Okay, you can, but I'm just telling you right now, you're not a Democrat.
You're not.
I'm definitely more of a centrist.
I lead left.
You're not a centrist either.
You're a common sense American, and that means you can't vote for this Democratic Party.
Based on your answers, you are completely at odds with the Democratic Party.
All right, what's your question for me?
The last election, yes.
What's your question?
My question is, the same way aircraft carriers revolutionized the military in World War II, do you think drone technology is revolutionizing the way wars are fought now?
I absolutely believe the next generation of weaponry is critical, including, yes, drones.
We see the impact it's had in the Middle East and in the war in Europe with Ukraine and Russia.
I do believe the president's vision for the Golden Dome to protect America.
I think the next generation will surprise people.
I think laser defense is going to be the next generation.
That's my prediction.
Mark my words.
And I think that America is rightly getting ahead of all of this.
Thanks to President Trump, because Joe Biden let everything decline.
Look, I'm just going to tell you something.
How old are you?
You sound like a good kid.
I'm 25.
All right, you're 25 years old.
You know, when you become 25, you know, a young man's brain is not fully formed until it's 25, 26.
Did you know that?
I did know that, yeah.
Okay.
Your brain is now pretty much fully formed, and you are not.
You said you were a Democrat when we started this.
You're not.
And it's just a matter of you coming to grips with that part.
And I think that over time, you're going to realize that the value system of those people that you saw at this No Kings rally, you know, dressed up in mascot and furry, you know, uniforms and chanting and singing and holding up signs that say F Trump, F ICE, kill Trump, kill ICE, shoot ICE, all this nonsense.
That that's not who you are.
I know it's not who you are based on this one phone call.
That's not who you are.
And I think that you, you know, maybe there are things you don't like about President Trump's style.
I don't know, but it's neither here nor there.
It's the policies that impact lives.
And it's governance that will impact lives and it's winning elections.
But you are not a Democrat.
I'm telling you right now, you might as well change your party affiliation tomorrow because you're not.
So I'm a registered independent, but I just wanted to say, like, I see a lot of people that are just concerned, that are concerned about, you know, the income disparity in this country and, you know, people not being able to afford rent or groceries.
And it's just a lot of frustration, you know?
And there was a whole lot.
Well, let me ask you about that.
Okay, because President Trump has $17 trillion in new investments committed to this country for manufacturing.
That's going to be a lot of high-paying career jobs for people.
Opening up energy dominance is going to create a lot of high-paying career jobs for people.
The largest tax cut in history, Reagan cut taxes from 70 to 28%.
21 million new jobs were created, and we had the longest period of peacetime economic growth.
So those three things are in place.
For somebody like you, your age, what do you do for a living?
I work at a hotel.
Okay, and you're in the service industry?
Yeah, I am, yes.
Do you like it?
Do you want to make a career out of it?
Or do you want to do something else?
I'm a very social.
I have a degree in mechanical engineering, but I graduated during COVID.
So all the internships that were doing that, they were working from home at the time.
So I wasn't able to get any actual experience in my degree.
So it kind of fell by the wayside.
But I would like to get back into that in the future.
You know what?
Listen, I'm just going to tell you, dream big.
And everything that government touches, you know, the school systems are a disaster in most blue cities and states.
You know, no policing is a disaster.
They're not safe and secure.
Social security, Medicare, Medicaid, all headed for bankruptcy.
There's not one part of the Obamacare promise that was kept.
And I'm giving you the best advice anyone will give you.
Never in your life count on the government for anything.
Take control of your destiny.
And the way you do it is the old-fashioned way.
You roll up your sleeves.
You work harder than everybody else.
You never say no.
You work overtime.
You don't work 40-hour weeks.
You work 70-hour weeks.
And that will lead to prosperity and happiness for you.
And never give up and never stop applying and never stop chasing your dreams.
You're at a point right now.
I assume you're not married.
So you don't have obligations that are weighing you down.
And now is the time in your life where you should dream big and jump through, jump off every high board to achieve your dreams.
Okay?
All right.
Thank you, Sean.
All right.
I hope it helped you out a little bit.
800-941-Sean is our number if you want to be a part of the program.
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All right, quick break right back to our phones.
800-941-Sean.
We'd love to hear from you on the other side as we continue straight ahead.
Up next, final roundup and information overload.
All right, let's get back to our busy phones.
800-941-Sean is our number.
Nevada, Sean, next on the Sean Hannity Show.
What's going on?
How are you, sir?
Good.
Doing great, Sean.
You're a great American and a great name as well.
How do you spell your name?
That's the key.
See if you pass the test.
You would be, you'd be, so it's actually the Armenian version.
It's actually spelled S-H-A-U-N-T, believe it or not.
And people think it's Sean T.
And I'm like, no, believe me, it's a mess.
I could go to the whole dietright.
Well, I could deal with that.
I mean, there are many ways to spell it, but S-E-A-N is the Irish version of spelling.
But anyway, glad you called.
How are things out in Nevada?
They're good out here.
We got a good governor.
He's kind of riding the ship.
And so we drift between purple to red, hues of red, depending on where you live.
But it's been good.
But I am contemplating a move to Florida.
And I've really liked your comments and your feedback.
And what do you really think you think is going to happen in terms of post-Mamdani?
Is really Wall Street South going to be a permanent thing?
Are these companies going to leave in droves?
And I think once companies leave, it's going to hard to get them back, right?
So how permanent do you think that's going to be, Sean?
Well, first of all, it's already real.
It's already happened.
You know, Citadel, Ken Griffin, he moved all his operations for the most part with very little left behind in Chicago.
Texas, for example, has more JPMorgan employees than New York City does.
But if you look at every major financial firm, private equity group, every major bank that has defined Wall Street, you know, for nearly 200 years, if you will, they're all down here and their offices are growing by leaps and bounds.
And I just think this accelerates it.
Now, they'll probably keep, all of them will keep a small presence in New York because I imagine, you know, there's a certain amount of their business that they have to do there, but they're going to minimize it because they're going to, you know, I don't know rich people that got rich by being stupid.
I just don't.
You know, maybe some people are lucky.
I don't know, but they're pretty smart.
And if they're looking at a corporate rate that is the highest in the nation versus no corporate income taxes, it's not complicated when you're dealing with hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars to do the math and realize you're going to save a lot of money and make more money and pay your employees more money if you do so.
And I would expect that there's going to be another wave of exodus out of New York.
And I think that these companies have had it.
I think there's no way.
Now, people are saying, well, Mamdani will need Albany support, but I don't think Kathy Hochle has any control over Albany, to be very honest, unless she's going to be willing to take on the radical legislature up there.
It's just the same, a shame in so many ways because New York had so much potential.
I mean, I used to once call it the greatest city in the world, and it's become an Adam Schiffole.
It's awful.
Crime is out of control, quality of life out of control, homelessness out of control.
Poverty is everywhere.
Eric Adams, he could have easily won re-election had he done a good job and not opened up the city of New York to all the illegals and then later come to regret it because he had, you know, it became an unmitigated disaster for him.
And I think that's the main reason why his approval rating was in the tank and he had to, he had to bow out of even running for reelection.
You know, we'll see.
I will tell you, look, my own personal taste is I like being near the water.
I like the weather.
I like the people.
It's a night.
It's been a dramatic difference.
It got to a point in especially New York City where I felt that if I was going out to places you could read a room, utter disdain, disgust.
I felt like I was putting people in danger that I cared about.
And I just felt like it got too bad.
And that's probably the main reason I left.
And it was becoming untenable.
You won't regret it.
I tell you right now, you're going to love the weather.
You're going to love the people.
And there's a million places that are nice you can live in Florida.
All right, we'll have more on the other side.
Eli Shirabi coming up on the other side, 800-941-Sean, our number as we continue.
