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Nov. 11, 2025 - Sean Hannity Show
28:40
Shutdown's Real Impact
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This is an iHeart podcast.
All right, news roundup and information overload hour.
Here's our toll free telephone number.
It's 800-941-Sean, if you want to be a part of the program.
So, really, the country's on pins and needles.
You know, we have 42 million Americans dependent on government benefits for SNAP that are, you know, down desperate.
It's probably time if you have time and you have a local food bank maybe to help them out if you can afford it.
I'm not asking people to do something that they can't afford to do.
I remember it was a big deal to me during COVID, and I'm going to get in touch with my local food bank today and see if I can't help them out.
But it looks like if Democrats don't get that aggressive, and I think a lot of Democrats want to go home, that there probably is just enough votes to actually get the government open again.
And we'll watch this very, very closely.
Dick Durbin, I want you to hear the comments that he made about this.
The fate of this effort depends on both the Senate and the House of Representatives.
After a seven-week absence, the Speaker Johnson needs to call his members back and join us in the hard work that lies ahead.
Many of my friends are unhappy.
They think we should have kept our government closed indefinitely to protest the policies of the Trump administration.
I share their opinions of this administration, but cannot accept a strategy which wages political battle at the expense of my neighbor's paycheck or the food for his children.
Okay.
And John Fetterman, Senator Angus King.
And, you know, we just have just barely enough Democrats.
And I think the House vote is going to be like a one-vote margin.
Anyway, here to break down where we are in all of this.
Carol Roth, two-time New York Times best-selling author, You Will Own Nothing, and recovering investment banker.
Also, Mark Simone, host of the number one morning show on our affiliate in New York, AM710, W-O-R.
Like Curtis Sleewa, he is, you know, born and raised in New York, born and bred.
And when he dies, he'll be New York dead.
And he ain't ever giving up on New York City.
Am I wrong about that, Mark Simone?
Well, actually, I was born in the Midwest.
I'm from Michigan, but I always wanted to come to New York.
It was like the ultimate place to be.
You're never leaving, are you?
No.
And you'll want to go back on your prediction after I left two years ago when you said I'll be back.
You think I'm really ever coming back?
One day you'll all be back here.
No, no, no, there won't be that day.
You're getting worse by the hour.
But look, this shutdown continues, and it's a disaster.
Let me play for both of you before we really get into it.
Let me play this Southwest airline pilot.
Listen to this.
This is how desperate things are.
I mean, things are so bad in the skies because we can't.
There's been 15 times Democrats have rejected a continuing resolution, that which they themselves have advocated for regularly throughout the decades.
And now all of a sudden the Schumer shut down for the first time in his career.
No, he's going to hold the line and they're going to use the American people as leverage.
How do we know?
Because they keep saying it.
Listen.
I don't really care what your political persuasion is, but you should really call your senator.
Because I'll tell you, this is costing the airlines millions of dollars.
And just think of 30 airplanes with one engine running.
And it's going to take us at least 90 minutes to take off.
So it's frustrating.
It's really frustrating for me.
Because right now it's going to cost about two hours of our lives on the ground before we even take off, spend all that gas, all that money, and it just rolls into the rest of this system.
So right now we're at a 4% reduction in flight capacity.
Next week we go to 10.
Watch that I had a six-hour delay in Houston, and the weather was perfect.
It's because the air traffic controllers aren't getting paid.
So it's a weekend.
Today alone, 5,300 delays and 1,800 cancellations alone so far today.
Carol, your thoughts on, you know, what has the Democratic strategy been here?
What's the point of all this?
I mean, they are basically holding Americans hostage for no reason.
And for people who, you know, keep saying how concerned they are about getting air traffic controllers paid and making sure that Americans have access to SNAP benefits and don't starve, they don't seem to be willing to do anything about it.
So it's a bit frustrating.
That original spot that you played from Dick Durbin is the biggest ad I've ever heard for term limits because Dick Durbin, who is my senator here in Illinois, has announced that he is not running for reelection.
So if he was running for reelection, I can guarantee you, Sean, based on his voting history, that he would not have made the right decision.
But because he does not have to worry about being reelected, he is able to do what's right.
And that tells you everything that is wrong with our system today.
I think that's well stated.
Let's get your take, my friend Mark Simone.
Well, shutdowns accomplished nothing.
Neither party, nobody's ever achieved anything with a shutdown.
The shutdown caucus is 0 for 14.
This will get settled.
You know, 10-hour air traffic delay is ridiculous.
We can get down to the usual three-hour delay that we have at most airports.
And we still got to settle this whole Obamacare crisis.
And the media has never asked the real question, which is if it's called the Affordable Care Act, if it's affordable, why would you need subsidies to pay for it?
That's got to be fixed.
I think that's a great line.
I'm going to steal that and not give you attribution, if you don't mind.
I think that's really well said.
Liberal Joe this morning urging Democrats to take the win on the shutdown deal.
What's the win?
The American people have suffered needlessly.
Democrats proved nothing.
Okay, they'll get their vote.
And you make the great point, which is, okay, the Affordable Care Act isn't affordable.
Otherwise, you wouldn't need subsidies, which, by the way, Democrats voted to be temporary.
Listen.
So all this fear and loathing and all this whining, I wish Democrats for once, just once, could take a win and then understand the Republicans, they were never going to help working Americans.
They learned that through this process.
So you know who else learned that through this process?
The American voter.
Donald Trump was exposed and the administration was exposed.
And Republicans were exposed as the party that fought like hell to give tax cuts to billionaires, to multinational corporations, to the richest of the rich.
And we learned just last week they were trying to extend those tax cuts to even more billionaires to give them even bigger tax cuts.
At the same time, they were fighting like hell to stop working Americans from getting basic food assistance.
And just a helping hand, just a little helping hand with our health care costs.
Just a little helping hand.
You know, okay, even for people 800% above the poverty line, Carol Roth, again, Mark said it perfectly.
The Affordable Care Act needs subsidies.
Yeah, it's unbelievable.
The Democrats like to engage in their favorite hobby, Sean, which is gaslighting.
That's all they do.
They go on TV, they go on the radio, and they gaslight.
But you know what's happening is that the American people are not buying that.
If you look at the polls and you look at who is to blame for this shutdown, it's very transparent.
And the American people know that it's the Democrats who have been responsible for this.
And Main Street has been the one who's been helped over and over again.
However, the Affordable Care Act is one of the things that is creating the unaffordability in their life.
And they were the ones that told us that, oh, it was going to be affordable.
You could keep your doctor, all these wonderful things.
And I don't note any of them coming up with any solution.
So we need to actually solve this issue.
And just kicking the can down the road like they like to do and them gaslighting us about it is not going to achieve that.
I mean, what do they stand for now?
I mean, here's the interesting thing to me.
And let me play for you, Mark Simone, your soon-to-be new mayor, Zoran Marx's Kami Mamdani.
I know you voted for him, right?
Hey, we're lucky he was available.
We're lucky he was available.
He made this comment, which is really, really.
Government will confiscate privately owned buildings if landlords don't pay fines or make assessed repairs that he determines they must make.
Listen.
That's why I'm announcing a plan to overhaul the mayor's office to protect tenants, bringing code enforcement under one roof and making sure that agencies are working together to hold bad landlords accountable.
Starting on day one, we will expand the city's special enforcement programs, doubling fines for hazardous violations and tripling them for conditions that are immediately dangerous.
And when a really bad landlord like this guy refuses to fix it, the city's going to step in, make the repairs, and send them the bill.
If that doesn't work, the city's taking over the building.
We're putting the worst landlords out of business.
And we're going to transform 311 by bringing the latest in cutting-edge technology.
Scheduling appointments with inspectors so you actually know when they're showing up to your apartment.
And the best part, you're going to pay for this.
But actually, bad landlords are going to pay for this.
We're going to fund this expanded enforcement in the most obvious way by actually collecting the fines and enforcing the violations.
Wow.
Let's just confiscate your house, Mark Simone.
I think, you know, it should be given to homeless people.
Well, if you take all the buildings that have the worst problems, the worst conditions that most need a repair, you'll find it's the city housing project.
So they're going to be seizing their own buildings.
So good luck with that.
He's just going to spend his whole life in court.
You know, he can't seize anything.
All this stuff, free buses.
He has no control over the price of buses.
He has no control over taxes, maybe property tax, but he's just going to spend his whole life in court fighting this.
We went through eight years of Bill de Blasio.
He was our last socialist mayor.
We got through that.
It wasn't easy, but we got through it.
And we'll get through this guy.
You're so optimistic.
Good luck with that, you know, sending in the social worker.
So there's going to be a conflict.
And let me ask you, do you avoid the subways?
No, I take them now and then.
I mean, they're pretty good.
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Now and then.
What does that mean?
Like if it's an emergency and you can't get an Uber or a cab?
Well, it's New York.
You can walk most every place.
And if it's way downtown, you don't want to sit in traffic.
You take the subway.
But you do it only in case of an emergency, Mark Simone.
That's what I'm hearing out of you.
Well, I'm not courtesy.
I don't take it at four in the morning on the that's a good point.
And you do know, what do you think about sending in the social workers?
You like that idea?
I was talking to our greatest police commissioner, Ray Kelly, commissioner about 20 years.
He said the NYPD has tried that program 12 different times over 30 years.
It never works.
Nobody hates it more than the social workers because half of them get injured, killed.
It's been tried.
It doesn't work.
It's not going to work.
Pick break more with Mark Simone, Carol Roth, and then your calls coming up on the other side.
800-941-Sean as we continue this Monday.
I would continue with Carol Roth and Mark Simone.
Carol, there's a part of me that feels bad for people like Curtis and Mark and some of my colleagues that work out of New York City.
I've been blessed to been able to get out of there.
And, you know, some people chastise me.
Well, why'd you give up?
I'm like, because there's no more hope.
And the same with Chicago, same with Illinois.
I'm not sure why you stay there.
Yeah, no, we paid the stupid family tax because our family wants to be here.
And that's what's drawn us to the center.
But I can tell you, having lived through Lori Lightfoot and barely survived the Brandon Johnson regime, it's very, very challenging.
This idea that you're going to get all this free stuff and that you're going to live in la-la land, you know, you might as well count on getting a unicorn because it's not going to happen.
And it makes the city less safe.
People want to spend less time here.
It makes everything more expensive.
And the biggest issue, going back to where you started with, you know, seizing private property is that businesses don't want to make investments.
And this is what they don't understand.
There's a shrinking tax base.
You don't get the businesses making investments.
If you don't get that, you don't get the employment and you don't get the money that then gets spread around the economy.
And, you know, I just kind of, I imagine there's going to be a big wake-up call, Sean.
It was funny at the Zorhan Mamdani victory party, one of his supporters was lamenting that there was a cash bar and it cost $13 for a Bud Light.
$13 for a beer.
Yeah.
And so imagine what they're going to think when they find out how much all the other free stuff is going to cost them.
$13.
Were you at that party, Mark Simone?
You usually emcee party in New York.
Yeah, I was a little busy that night.
Listen, he's already done some good for New York.
He got rid of Andrew Cuomo.
I think once and for all, we'll never have to see that guy again.
He say he's talking about moving to Florida.
Oh, good, good.
Let him be your problem.
Let him run for stuff down there.
I don't think he's running for anything anymore, and I don't think he can win anything in the free state of Florida.
Not going to happen.
I just, let me ask you, do you worry that there is an appeal that is growing in the country now that AOC, Mamdani, the squad, Bernie Sanders, Pocahontas have taken over the party, that this is going to grow?
Yeah, it'll grow for a while.
George Will, if you'll pardon the expression, actually said the other day, we got to go through this every 25 years because younger people don't know how bad socialism.
They got to see it with their own eyes.
The Democrats have been through this before.
They go way too far to the left.
And then somebody, a Bill Clinton, somebody rises up and leads them back to the center.
So we haven't seen that person yet, but they'll show up in another year and lead them back to the center.
All right, Mark Simone, Carol Roth.
Thank you both.
800-941 Sean, our number, if you want to be a part of the program.
By the way, Linda, you didn't tell me if you watched the Patriot Awards.
I watched a lot of the Patriot Awards, actually, and I actually have some snippets in case anybody else missed it.
I don't know if I want to play the snippets.
Well, these are extra touch sheet.
Well, I see the snippets.
I think you singing is a highlight.
You know, I've told you for years you're a closet rock star, and that's fine.
Okay, let's singer on the show.
But you let that flag fly.
I'm proud of you.
Good for you.
Let's play it.
That'll be fun.
Let's play that part.
No, no, no.
But I'm going to need help because I can't sing to save my life.
So we're going to put the words on the screen here.
So Stan, if you don't mind, please stand.
And this is just a small little itsy bitsy sample.
This is what Sean Hannity does at 2 o'clock in the morning, and I wasn't even drinking.
We'll put it up.
Start spreading the news.
I'm leaving today.
No longer want to be a part of it.
High tax New York.
These commie mamdani blues are longing to leave right to the very heart of it.
Bye-bye, New York.
All right, that's enough.
That's enough.
I thought it was great.
The reason I didn't play the Joe Paggs version is because people.
No, it's not that they didn't let me.
I just thought about there are people in that room that are depressed over what happened with Zoran Kame Mamdani.
By the way, I wrote that weeks ago.
I know you did.
You sent it to me.
I'm fully aware.
I sent it to you.
Joe Paggs, we sat on it for a couple of weeks.
Joe Paggs cut it in record time.
He sings it great.
I mean, he's amazing.
And I had it queued in, and I'm like, this is going to upset people if I play the whole thing because they're freaking out.
Well, let's play something that you said that I thought was really beautiful, which was Cut 28, Jay.
This is perfect what you said here.
What an honor to be here.
I'm happy to be back.
I was born and raised in Long Island, New York.
I was here, and we are here tonight as a family.
This is unlike any other award show that ever takes place.
We're not patting ourselves on the back like Hollywood and the Grammys and the Oscars.
Although all of you look great on the red carpet tonight, we are here to honor America's true patriots.
We are here to honor the U.S. service members around the globe and in our country, the first responders, other heroes that put their lives on the line for us and our liberty and our freedom every single day.
They protect all of us because they love us and they sacrifice for us.
That's why we're here tonight.
I mean, that was incredible.
You know, you did a great job on that.
You got to the point.
You're definitely losing your voice because I'm sure you talked for hours and you're like screaming.
I had no voice Friday.
It was all I was going to, I was going to work Friday.
There's no, as you know, I couldn't.
This is impossible.
You're not going to have any voice left.
Well, when you're on stage, I have to project at a whole different level.
I mean, it took me all weekend to get my voice back.
And I saw the white jacket.
Well done.
Good for you.
Did you see somebody?
I liked it.
I didn't even know it was where he was sitting because you can't see anything from the stage.
No, the lights are so bright.
I know.
Oh, Don from Lake Warren Conqueror.
Were you there, Don?
Sean, I, you definitely was there.
And my friend, I got to tell you, you certainly did under promise and over-delivered.
I was at that Patriot Awards, and it was absolutely the best medicine for those who endured or have endured the government shutdown and an unpleasant election day.
And I got to tell you, the audience certainly got their aerobics in with the voluminous standing ovations.
It was a challenge.
You know, I will tell you, I mean, like, for example, DJ Daniel, remember, he was honored at the joint session of Congress.
All these heroes, you know, whenever I see people that have these unbelievable challenges and they gave up so much for us, I'm embarrassed that I think in my heart and mind that I have problems at times.
It's embarrassing.
Because compared to them, you don't.
I got to kick out of Eden Alexander, the New Jersey Jewish IDF soldier, captured for 584 days, and he goes back to his unit.
What a tremendous guy.
And that's Skylar Darrington, that 12-year-old Texas flood survivor of the Mystic Camp.
Unbelievable.
You can't look at this and then not look at your own life and say, wow.
I'm so grateful that people like that exist in our country.
I will tell you, it is the greatest honor of my life to be able to host those awards, MC those awards.
And it kind of just fell into my lap because two weeks before last year's awards, Pete Hegseth was ripped away from us to be the head of the Department of War.
And I will tell you this.
I write every word of it myself, for good or for bad.
Did I make the right call just doing a shorter version of New York, New York?
What's that?
Did I make the right call and not do the three and a half minute version of New York New York?
Yes, that was wonderful.
Thank you very much, Sean.
I got to tell you, on the drive home after that event, I thought about other award shows whose hosts and artists have for years used the exposure to spout far-left political activism.
And they try to de-do each other with vulgar presentations.
This award show was absolutely amazing.
I can't, I'm looking forward to it.
I'm glad you were there.
You've been such a good friend and supporter of this show for so many decades now.
You're a remarkable man in your own right and an amazing patriot in your own right.
And I'm glad you were there.
I'm glad you got in.
I'm glad you liked it.
When I said to people, I knew the guest list.
I knew that Jason Aldean was performing.
I knew Melania Trump would be there.
I knew Erica Kirk would be there, but I was not allowed to tell anybody.
I knew the great patriots that were going to be honored that night.
And I was not allowed to tell anybody.
I just kept saying, you're going to want to be there.
I never overpromise and under deliver.
And I think everybody had a great night.
I'm just honored to be a small part of it, to be honest.
Oh, it was fab.
Sean, I got to tell you one more thing.
That Patriot Award itself was fascinating.
They used the melted down Revolutionary War musket balls and Mount Vernon Elm Tree.
It was crazy, right?
I mean, that's stuff that you're into, because I know you're a craftsman in your own right, but it's pretty special.
Tom, we love you.
Thanks, man.
Jim in Illinois.
Jim, you're on the Sean Hannity show.
Hi.
Hey, Sean.
Nice to talk to you.
I was listening last week, and I just want to chime in on a topic you were talking about, why do bad things happen to good people.
And it's not so much that.
Did you notice how angry that atheist was?
Pretty angry guy.
Yeah, you're right.
But I just wanted to chime in on that, why bad things happen to good people.
It happens to everyone.
Rainfalls on the good as well as the bad, but God allows it.
That's the real point because of the grace that comes through suffering.
In even the smallest form, we gain grace just like through prayer, we gain it through suffering.
But we actually, God allows it because it gives us the opportunity through our free will to take that grace and to multiply it by trillions.
Excuse me, I'm getting a little bit nervous here, but the thing is, is we do that by accepting that suffering.
When we accept it, we make it sanctifying grace, just like Christ.
Well, I think you're right, and I think it's a mystery that, you know, I think in many ways, you know, life was designed to be challenging.
There's nobody, I don't care your background, whatever, everybody has problems in life.
And some have very big problems, and some have, you know, just day-to-day survival sometimes is a problem.
And, you know, we still live in the greatest country God gave man, and we have less problems than a lot of other people in the world because we live in a country that if you work hard and just put your head down and bring your talents to fruition, you're going to, I don't believe you can fail if you really set your mind to it.
I mean, really dedicate your life to being successful and however you define success.
And that is the beauty of America.
That's the American dream.
But, you know, I'm never going to convince an atheist that they're wrong.
And, you know, but then you start tearing apart their argument and he goes, well, the quantum particles that I'm like, well, where the quantum particles come from?
Because if you believe there's no God, creator, then you're basically telling me that you think something can come from nothing.
At least an agnostic acknowledges the possibility of a God as one of the answers, but they don't have the answer.
Anyway, my friend, I'm going to keep moving along.
I do appreciate your call.
God bless you, 800-941-Sean, if you want to be a part of the program.
Andrew is in the great state of Georgia.
Andrew, how are you?
Glad you called.
Hey, Sean, thanks for taking my call.
Appreciate it.
Thank you.
What's going on?
Not much.
I do want to encourage you or at least give you recommendation for future programming in what I saw on one of your shows a couple of weeks ago.
So what happened a couple of weeks ago was you basically were calling out the Democrats Bluff by actually reading their legislation on air when they came up with their junkie proposal where you said, where they're like, oh, you're not funding, we're not going to fund illegal immigration or funding healthcare for illegal immigrants.
Yeah, that's not exactly true.
Here's the exact page and here's the exact verbiage.
And I would like to see encourage more of that if we see more garbage coming from the less.
Listen, that's my job.
I immerse myself in this every single solitary day.
I know everybody's busy.
So if you tune into this show, or we got a great TV show tonight, for example.
By the way, Stephen A. Smith is on.
John Fetterman's on.
Lindsey Graham's on.
We got great people tonight.
And we're going to go through the crackup that is now the Democratic Party.
It is officially now a five-alarm fire, and they're all ready to kill each other.
And I'm perfectly happy with that.
We'll get another quick call, Andrew.
God bless you.
Let's say hi to Elizabeth in Kentucky.
Hey, Elizabeth, how are you?
Hi, Sean.
It's a pleasure to talk to you.
I actually was calling about the atheists from last week, too.
Apparently, lots of us heard.
I got a lot of response this weekend on that.
What's going on?
Well, I'm just going to disagree actually with your previous caller two calls ago.
I don't believe that God allows bad things to happen.
God created a perfect world.
And through that creation, he created a perfect Adam and Eve, but he also gave them that will to choose.
And they chose to disobey him, which caused sin to enter the world.
And because sin entered the world, that separated us from God, which caused the bad things to happen.
That's why we have the cancer and the hurricanes and all that.
So, but God then created or allowed Jesus to come to restore that fellowship with him.
And when we believe that Jesus came and died and we confess our sins, then we restore that fellowship with God.
So unfortunately, until God creates a new perfect world again, we will always have bad things that happen to good people.
But it's the sin that separates us that causes those bad things to happen.
Well, through one man and woman, I guess you could say, sin came into the world.
And yes, through grace and salvation, this is the myth.
Liberals try to portray Christians as self-righteous, sanctimonious, and that they're always trying to proselytize.
That's not who I am, or I don't think who you are.
To be a Christian to me is to acknowledge you're a failure.
To be a Christian means you're acknowledging your transgressions and you are seeking help to be a better person.
And once you get to that point, that is the ultimate humility and you open your heart up to salvation.
That's what I believe.
I'm not trying to get other people to think the way I do, but it's worked for me in my life and helped me tremendously.
And I don't think I'd be anywhere near the person I am without that blessing in my life.
And you said it way, you were way more articulate than I could ever say it.
I do appreciate your call, though.
All right, that's going to wrap things up for today.
We are expecting key votes tonight during Hannity 9 Eastern.
We will check in with Senators John Fetterman, Lindsey Graham.
Also, the one and only Stephen A. Smith will join us.
I love how we have, he's blaming Democrats for the shutdown.
Did you know that, Linda?
That's going to be great.
Ari Fleischer, Lawrence Jones, LJ, and more, 9 Eastern, Satan DVR.
Hannity on Fox.
See you then back here tomorrow.
Thank you for making this show possible.
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