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We've got so much in the news today, so much happening today.
Also, in the course of this program, Maria Carino Machado, the leader of Venezuela's Democratic opposition, will join us.
She told me on television last night she's planning to give her Nobel Peace Prize to President Trump.
And she, you know, all these years, even after Maduro took her off the ballot after she won the primary with 92% plus of the vote, that, you know, she stayed in her home country knowing her life was in jeopardy.
And, you know, with things, you know, there's not the security stability that you want at this time.
You got Maduro loyalists, you got Trende Aragua, you got narco-terrorists.
And, you know, it's a precarious situation.
She's planning on going home and going home soon.
We'll talk to her.
I hope everyone will keep her in your prayers.
I think it's extraordinarily brave, but it is, you know, I mean, what is the definition of courage, right?
I mean, she embodies it.
We have a lot of news out of Iran.
There's a lot of speculation that Cuba is on the brink of falling.
In the case of Iran, you have Iranian reports of Iranian police that there's these massive protests.
And this one in Basij, members, you know, the police and other military people climbed onto a police station roof.
They showed the crowd they were laying down their weapons, raising their hands in support towards the protesters.
That's something that only occurred in the 1979 revolution that brought the Ayatollah Khomeini back into power, who'd been in exile.
That was the fall of the Shah of Iran.
Iranian security forces opened fire on an anti-regime protest.
Inflation is getting way, way out of control.
There's now widespread reporting that the Ayatollah Khomeini has a full escape plan to flee to Moscow.
If, in fact, these protests get much larger, the Ayatollah Ali Khomeini has said he has an escape plan, and apparently that plan is some sort of pillage the country with as much money as possible and stick it on a plane and fly to Russia.
I'm sure that Vladimir will get his cut and he'll live out the rest of his miserable life in Russia before he heads straight and descends straight into hell.
Just guessing in all likelihood.
But you have protesters also clashing with security forces in Tehran's Grand Bazaar.
And there's one report saying that the government cannot handle this alone, that the security forces are not even willing to fight back at this point.
AP reporting, security forces clashing with protesters in Iran's main market, at least 36 people killed in demonstrations there, but people are showing up in even larger numbers by the hour.
Iran is now offering citizens $7 a month.
Oh, I'm sure, Glinda, $7 a month.
I'm sure that's really going to appeal to people.
That's really going to inspire people to want to stay there.
We have Lindsey Graham went on record as predicting that Cuba.
Now, remember this.
Cuba's economy has been cut off and shut off from American investment for a long, long time.
And I think one of the biggest, if Cuba falls, all of those old American cars, so if you see images that come out of Cuba, it's like America retro 1950s in terms of like these old Chevies.
Remember, we used to make those big, big, you know, Chevy cars, and I don't know, I guess they're using, you know, tape and whatever they can get a hold of to keep these engines running on these cars, but I'm sure that's going to be a big business.
Linda, I'm sure you're going to be in there probably buying one of those old relics and put it in your driveway.
I'm sure you've been dying to get on my wishlist.
You want a 57 Chevy?
You want a convertible?
Which one do you want?
Absolutely.
Can't you just picture that?
Show up to work, my 57 Chevy, come right down Fifth Avenue, make Mom Dami so happy.
I'm sure it probably would.
He probably likes communist Cuba.
My favorite line back going back over the years is Michael Moore, you know, bragging about how great the health care system was in Cuba.
And then we get images out of hospitals in Cuba that are filthy, dirty, with zero equipment, zero supplies, basically empty, and you're pretty much on your own.
But there's no way, as Senator Graham was saying, that this communist dictatorship will be able to survive after the takedown of Maduro because that was their sole energy source.
That's it.
I mean, Venezuela, basically just a hop, skip, and a jump from Cuba.
The Cuban president, Miguel Diaz-Canal, succeeding Raul Castro as the country's leader in 2021.
Months later, the largest anti-government demonstrations in nearly three decades occurred amid food, medicine shortages during the pandemic.
President Trump telling reporters on Air Force One on Sunday that the Cuban regime is ready to fall.
The Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, whose own parents left Cuba.
I mean, if you haven't heard Marco's story, personal life story, it is really inspiring.
I got to see the Secretary of State over the holiday and spend a little time.
I met him and his wife.
They're just lovely people.
I mean, and this, you know, many are calling Venezuela and Cuba falling Marco's revenge.
But anyway, his parents left Cuba for the U.S. during the reign of Batista.
And anyway, the Cuban regime should be concerned in the wake of Maduro's capture.
It's very similar to Venezuela in the sense that we want to help the people in Cuba, but we want to also help the people who are forced out of Cuba and living in this country.
And the Cuban government, meanwhile, condemned the operation.
The only thing that's keeping the Cuban economy afloat, to be very honest, is the generosity of the Cuban-American community in this country.
That is the lifeblood, you know, people sending money to their families to keep them afloat and to keep food in their stomachs.
And supplies are limited.
And now energy will be scarce, if non-existent, as a result of the fall of Maduro.
So that's the next shoe to probably drop.
Look, we're living through a time of very of dramatic change, and I would argue change for the better.
It doesn't mean that all of this is going to be smooth.
It doesn't mean that all of this is going to be perfect.
I mean, and we'll get into this in great detail with Maria Karina Machado because you still have, I mean, reports that, you know, for example, 14 journalists have been arrested.
They're trying to seek out people that are pro-Trump in Venezuela right now, but those forces will not survive.
86% of the people in Venezuela live in poverty, and they live in poverty because the entire government is corrupt and has been corrupted first under Hugo Chavez and now under Nicolas Maduro.
And it's just a matter of time.
I think one of the most untold stories of all of this is Maduro's Chinese and Russian-built air defense systems.
He had air defense systems.
Now, it's not been widely reported on, but he had them, and it was given to them by China and by Russia.
And, you know, one of the geopolitical strategic wins in all of this is Russia, China, Iran were all looking for a foothold in our hemisphere.
And they look to Maduro.
And in exchange, they got cheap energy, cheap oil, cheap gas.
Remember, when they nationalized the oil industry in Venezuela, what they did is they stole, you know, the American oil companies have been on the ground there since the 1920s.
I went through a history of that yesterday.
And we built out that infrastructure.
They have what's described by people in the industry as dirty oil, meaning it needs a lot more refining than, you know, cleaner crude oil.
That's basically all it means.
And we have the capacity to do it.
Many other people do not.
And as we speak today, the energy secretary is meeting with the heads of energy companies, oil companies in America to see how fast they can get the oil up and running efficiently enough to produce enough wealth, not only to take care of the people of Venezuela, but also all these companies that were ripped off, all their equipment, all their hard work after the nationalization took place.
I believe the year was 1976.
Jimmy Carter was president.
But all these air defense systems of China and Russia, turns out President Trump's description of Venezuela's operation, one of the most stunning and powerful displays of American military might and competence was pretty spot on because the U.S. was able to paralyze and shut down because of our cyber warfare capabilities, Venezuela's entire electricity and communications grid, America's defense establishment have been working on these cyber weapons now for decades.
And then there was the extraordinary ability to suppress Venezuela's air defense systems that, according to all my military sources, say is very sophisticated.
The country had advanced Russian-made long-range S-300 surface-to-air missiles, medium-range bug missiles, short-range, you know, shoulder-launch missiles, which could be lethal for slow-moving helicopters carrying U.S. special forces.
And it just, you know, it shows the might, the advancement of American military technology is second to none.
Now, Venezuela had installed also an estimated seven units of the Chinese-made JY-27A radar systems, touted as being able to detect even U.S. stealth bombers.
And indeed, only a few weeks ago, the Venezuelan defense minister boasted that these Chinese installations accurately locked on F-35 fighter jets at a distance of 75 kilometers from Venezuela's shores.
But neither the Russian nor the Chinese air defense system appears to have made the slightest bit of difference, which is a combination of real-time U.S. intel, electronic warfare, and precision weapons knocked them all out.
And the single U.S. aircraft that was hit, and this was a Chinook helicopter during the operation, appears only to have been damaged by scattered bullets.
That's where I believe the one or two injuries took place, but again, not life-threatening.
But the total dismantling of Venezuela's air defense systems mirrors exactly what Israel achieved during their 12-day war against Iran going back to June.
And it's likely to cause a lot of head scratching among military planners in Moscow and Beijing, our top geopolitical foes, for it serves as a very clear indication that the U.S. military's superiority in this domain and many others remains unchallenged.
And a handful of other militaries around the world possess capabilities to mount similar operations.
None can do it on the scale of the United States military.
And in pure military terms, the U.S. military continues to reign supreme.
Now, this may also, there is this China-Iran-Russia component to all of this.
For example, China's top diplomat.
What was interesting, too, is a Chinese delegation had arrived the very day that we attacked, just before the attack.
But anyway, you know, they're just them and the U.S., the United Nations is useless.
I don't know why we spend billions of dollars a year.
Linda, don't you love it in the fall of every year when the UN and all these leaders of all these corrupt countries show up in New York City?
I know you're now Pennsylvania, but.
I would love for the UN to be anywhere but the United States.
I think they should put it over with Ursula from the WEF.
Let her handle it.
I think it would be beautiful wherever she wants to put it in the EU.
Maybe London, you know, one of her countries.
I think that'd be very good.
I could tell you for a fact, Europe is done.
Right, so let them take the UN and they can die together.
It'll be wonderful.
Okay, that's very warm.
This is like your new year.
Yeah, new year, new me.
Right to the point.
Okay, it's a new year, but it's not a new you.
That is quintessential you.
That's the scary part of you.
Oh, I got my first-huh on air for the year.
I know you already got the one off air, and I get the one on air.
Look at you.
That usually means that's Linda's way of expressing disagreement without using the F-bomb.
That's right.
Let's be honest.
I'm just being blunt with the audience.
Yeah, they love it.
Now, we had two illegal truck drivers now accused of smuggling 300 pounds of cocaine across Indiana.
And you know what the problem is with all of these drugs?
You have no idea.
These dealers for $10, $20, $50, $100, they don't care what they put in it.
They're not chemists.
They didn't, in most cases, go to MIT.
They didn't go to medical or study chemistry in college.
They didn't go to Havot.
They didn't go to any of these elite institutions.
They don't care who they kill for $10.
I mean, if you ever watch NatGeo and the traffickers and the drug dealers that are under, I mean, it's horrible.
They know they're putting fentanyl that could kill people in it.
They just don't care.
If you look at the Maduro indictment, it accuses the Venezuelan dictator of direct involvement in trafficking thousands of tons of cocaine to the U.S.
We lose about 200 Americans a day because of drug overdoses in this country.
Anyway, the indictment accuses Maduro of partnering with some of the worst, the most violent, prolific drug traffickers, narco-terrorists in the world to allow for the shipment of thousands of tons of cocaine into the U.S.
They allege powerful and violent drug trafficking organizations, the Sonola cartel, the Trende Aragua gang, worked directly with the Venezuelan government, then sent profits to high-ranking officials who helped protect them in exchange.
I mean, it's a criminal, you know, it's a crime family.
By the way, the indictment accuses Maduro and his wife of ordering kidnappings, beatings, murders against those who owed drug money. or otherwise undermine their drug trafficking operation, includes the killing of local drug boss, a local drug boss in Caracas, according to the indictment.
Nephews of Maduro's wife were heard during recorded messages with confidential U.S. government sources in 2015 agreeing to send multi-hundred kilogram cocaine shipments from Maduro's presidential hangar at a Venezuelan airport.
Nephews recorded the meetings and explained that they were at war with the United States, according to the indictment, resulting in as much as 250 tons of cocaine trafficked through Venezuela annually by 2020.
Maduro's thugs in Venezuela are trying to go door to door hunting for any supporter of Donald Trump.
And, you know, there's going to be a lot of cleanup.
The key to success long term here, and this is not going to be without complications.
I want to just give everybody fair warning, is going to be how quickly American energy companies can innovate and get and extract the oil and refine it and get money into the economy because 86% of the Venezuelan people live in poverty.
And we'll talk to Maria Corino Machado, the opposition leader, coming up later in the program about this very issue today.
About 10 million Venezuelans have fled that country because of the conditions being so awful.
I mentioned yesterday, remember Jorge Ramos went to Venezuela, you know, should be one of the, they are the most energy-rich, oil-rich country on earth.
They should be the richest country on the face of the earth.
And they're not.
They're one of the poorest because of all of this corruption that has existed there.
So, you know, they've got a lot of work ahead.
And, you know, we'll talk about what this transition, how long it's going to take, and so on and so forth, what it means for the people in Venezuela.
And I hope it means a lot of good for them.
Linda, are you there?
I'm always here.
Did you hear the story?
Department of Homeland Security, Hilton Hotels, released a statement.
Now, one of their properties denied entry to Department of Homeland Security agents.
Either way, shouldn't shock you in Tim Walz, Minnesota.
Hours earlier, the Department of Homeland Security accused Hilton of launching a coordinated campaign to refuse services to DHS law enforcement, including in the tweet or screenshots of emails that agents received.
The email specifically cited the immigration work connected to your name as the reason the reservations were suddenly canceled.
Another screenshot, the hotel representative explicitly said that the property will not house anyone associated with immigration enforcement.
We have a word for that.
Isn't that called discrimination?
I think that's called discrimination, isn't it?
Yeah.
And Nick Sortor, who we love, another citizen journalist, went in there and filmed them because they came out with a press release.
And they were like, no, it was a misunderstanding.
So he goes in and says, well, what's going on?
And the guy's like, no, my manager just came in and told me I'm not allowed to let anybody in here.
He's like, I don't know what's going on with the PR.
He's like, but we are not giving reservations to ICE agents or law enforcement that's here for anything to do with this operation.
So I'll tell you what, I got a thousand Hilton points.
I'm never using them.
I'll never go back.
I don't know if I'd give up the free points.
I mean, that's free state.
I'm kidding.
Problem.
So Hilton, the company, put out a statement saying that their hotels were welcoming places for all after one of their properties canceled the reservations for ICE.
It says Hilton will have to do more.
I'm looking at this and I'm saying because they push back that they're siding with murderers and rapists.
Now, according to the statement attained by our friend Bill Melusian, my colleague at Fox, Hilton Hotels is as welcoming places for all.
This hotel is independently owned and operated, and the actions referenced are not reflective of Hilton values.
We are investigating this matter with this individual hotel and can confirm that Hilton works with governments, law enforcement, and community leaders around the world to ensure our properties are open and inviting to everyone.
I'm not sure.
And Britt Hume made this point.
Hilton's going to have to do a lot more than this to keep this episode from becoming a public relations disaster.
Now, I can accept that this is probably independently owned and operated.
However, if they have the rights to the Hilton name, you can't convince me easily, if at all, that Hilton does not have the ability and the right, and frankly, the responsibility to go in and put an end to that practice or fight them in court and take back their name.
Because if that was my good name and it was Hannity Hotels, I would fight back.
Unbelievable.
I mean, I will be curious to see what happens.
I will be curious to see if they're going to stand by the hotel or if they're going to stand by their patrons.
Their patrons are speaking very loudly.
It is viral on every single social media platform, and people are, they're on the boycott.
They've got every single type of Hilton hotel out there.
They've got all the numbers, the locations.
They either need to take that franchise over and figure out who that manager is, fire them, and do like a press conference from there welcoming the ICE agents in.
I mean, they have to do something.
Otherwise, it's going down.
It's going to burn in flames.
Yeah, definitely.
All right, let me move on.
By the way, the deranged hammer-wielding alleged vandal accused of busting windows at Vice President Vance's home in Cincinnati, reportedly the son of a prominent millionaire family, appears to have been going by the name Julia, according to the New York Post.
William DeFour, 26, arrested after allegedly shattering four windows of Vance's Cincinnati home.
Police say DeFour was attempting to break into the home around midnight.
The Vance's obviously weren't there, thank goodness.
It is unclear whether Defour, according to the New York Post, identifies as transgender or non-binary.
And he recently appeared to be posting under the name Julia Defour.
Cops did list the suspect's name as William and his gender as male.
That probably will anger some.
Anyway, the family donated a lot of money to Kamala Harris, et cetera.
All right.
Let me tell you something.
There's a lot going on, and I don't have time to really do a deep dive.
We'll do some of this on Hannity tonight.
Remember during the campaign for Marxist Kami Mamdani, and he said this about white people.
We went on your website and realized there's a policy proposal that says your plan, and I'm going to quote it for folks, is to shift the tax burden from overtaxed homeowners in the outer boroughs to more expensive homes in richer and whiter neighborhoods.
Explain why you are bringing race into your tax proposal.
That is just a description of what we see right now.
It's not driven by race.
It's more of an assessment of what neighborhoods are being undertaxed versus overtaxed.
We've seen again.
Stop.
If it's not driven by race, why would you mention it?
He's just a liar.
Anyway, we will transition from treating.
Now, by the way, one of the core tenants of capitalism is ownership of private property.
No, not New York City.
They have a tenant director.
The tenant director's name is Sia.
It's CEA Weaver.
Did I say that right?
I don't know how to say it.
This is a quote from the tenants director of Mamdani.
Well, transition from treating property as an individual good to a collective good.
Whites, especially, will be impacted.
Listen.
I think the reality is that for centuries, we've really treated property as an individualized good and not a collective good.
And we are going to, and transitioning to treating it as a collective good and towards a model of shared equity will require that we think about it differently.
And it will mean that families, especially white families, but some POC families who are homeowners as well, are going to have a different relationship to property than the one that we currently have.
Yeah, I kind of have.
Well, Linda, what is the word that we would use if we were talking about Hispanic Americans or Asian Americans or African Americans or any other, you know, basically anybody but white people.
Yeah, it's called racism, racial discrimination.
What she's saying.
She thinks horrible.
Check your text, by the way.
I just sent you something.
By the way, Harmeed Dillon, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the DOJ, said that the feds were ready to, quote, swoop in to protect big Apple residents in response to the shocking view.
They shall be put on notice that they're on high scrutiny.
Yeah, that's what the Civil Rights Division would do.
That's their job.
All right.
What am I looking at here?
We got an update while we were talking about it.
It's good news.
Hilton dropped Minneapolis Hotel that lied about the immigration agents.
So what, they took away their name?
Good for them.
Hilton is booting an independently franchised Minneapolis hotel from operating under its name after it's oh, good.
Okay, they did the right thing.
All right, good for the Hiltons.
I like that.
Finally, somebody does the right thing.
I'm glad you didn't give away your Hilton rewards.
I know.
It's a close call.
That's a close call.
It's a close call.
By the way, bus fares are on the rise in New York City.
Didn't Kami Marxist Mamdani promise to make bus rides free?
Well, apparently they're not.
You know, on September 30th, the MTA approved changes to fares that took effect on Sunday.
Well, he was mayor on Sunday.
The base fare for buses, subways, and access a ride increased by 10 cents to $2.90 to $3.
By the way, Mamdani lieutenants, they're serious about this C's private property thing.
I was elected a Democratic socialist.
I will govern as a Democratic socialist.
We will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism, he said during his big inauguration speech.
And then he goes on to talk about public housing as he was sworn in on January 1st.
By the way, you know who's coming on TV tonight to talk about all this stuff is Comrade de Blasio.
He loves Kami Mamdani.
Loves him.
I think Mamdani's doing everything that I think he wished he could do.
But anyway, he's showing his true colors, behaving like the socialist that he is.
Oh, and he's going forward with his tax on wealthy people in New York.
Guess what's going to happen?
The free state of Florida is going to see a major influx of people.
By the way, we are going to update you throughout the show today.
The president, you know, this, we know about Tim Walz dropping out, leaving.
He lost his mind, by the way, when he dropped out.
We'll talk about this coming up in the next half hour of the show.
You know, he's not seeking re-election.
Talks about I can kick most of their asses.
He said Trump and his allies want to poison the people against each other.
Everything except the fact that whistleblowers warned him about this corruption that was institutionalized, robbing taxpayer dollars.