All right, news roundup and information overload hour.
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It's 800-941-SHAWN if you want to join us. We are living through historic times. I guess the closest to watching the Berlin Wall come down to me with now new leadership, I mean, watching after the capture of Nicolas Maduro, In Venezuela and watching, you know, the remaining, I guess, supporters of him capitulate to every demand of Donald Trump,
50 million barrels of oil that are going to be sold at market prices for the benefit of the Venezuelan people, on top of also agreeing to only trade with the United States,
on top of political prisoners being released. One of the net consequences of that is what we discussed earlier in the program today, and that is the Cubans were able to get cheap and even free oil in exchange for providing security for Maduro. That is over. Cuba now teetering on the brink now of a total,
complete collapse. And inside of Iran, we're watching the likelihood of regime change. You know, growing hour by hour as protesters have been taken to the streets and Donald Trump pledging to the Iranian people that if they continue to be murdered and slaughtered,
as has been going on, that the president will in fact involve himself. Newt Gingrich, who's going to join us in a minute, put out an ex-post, says it's not enough to sympathize with the Iranian people and their struggle to get free from the dictatorship,
which is clearly killing dissidents and fighting for its very survival. It's not enough to have government leaders publicly talking about support for the Iranian people but failing to do anything real. It's also not enough to send token support but fail to take steps necessary to replace the dictatorship. In a few weeks,
either the dictatorship is gone or the Iranian people will have been defeated and suppressed and a campaign to find the ringleaders and kill them will have begun. There is no middle ground. The goal of every Western leader should be to destroy the Iranian dictatorship, he goes on. And he goes, at this moment, of vulnerability. And he further goes on to say that nothing will do more to move the Middle East towards peace, safety,
prosperity than the destruction of the Ayatollah's dictatorship, and the time to act is now. Anyway, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich is with us. These are really historic times we're living in, and you can't deny that Donald Trump has played a major role in all of it. Well, look, I mean, think of yourself. The Joe Biden that had been re-elected, or the Kamala Harris that had been elected,
we'd be in a totally different world. I mean, for all of his complications and difficulties and things you and I could probably agree on, in the end, when it really matters, President Trump is a truly historic figure. And he has the courage and he understands that he has the power of the most powerful nation in the world. And so unlike his recent predecessors,
which I would say would also include Obama, he is prepared to use the power of the United States to force change on a scale that nobody, and I include me, nobody could have predicted.
It's amazing to watch it happen.
He is so smart, as you know, because you've known him for 30 years.
He keeps absorbing information.
He keeps learning from what's going on.
And in a sense, he keeps mutating.
He's more aware, more in control, has a better sense of how the world works every single day.
And as a historian, it's amazing to live through.
It really, really is.
And, you know, it's interesting because there are people even within our movement, although I would argue that most of the people that I can think of have been kind of fair-weather supporters and friends of Donald Trump that are the most critical of him, but they have misinterpreted the Trump doctrine.
Donald Trump has a very clear understanding of the threat of radical Islam and radical Islamists.
That's why he defeated the caliphate, took out Soleimani and Baghdadian associates, dropped the mother of all bombs on Afghanistan and took out Iranian nuclear sites.
That was not done in a vacuum.
It was done with the understanding that convert or die and radical Islamists represent a clear and present danger to the United States, not just to Israel, not just to the region.
And not only did Israel benefit, but the world benefited and every other country in the region was breathing a sigh of relief when he took out their nuclear sites.
And I don't think some people understand that they interpret the Trump doctrine of no forever wars to mean isolation is.
and that's not what it means. Very directly and very briefly,
and not get bogged down. We got into a cycle with our elites where we just frankly, I would say starting with Vietnam, we fought sort of the academics wars, things that should have worked,
things that should have been understandable, and they were disasters. The intellectualization of warfare is one of the great failures of modern times. And what Trump has done,
and what Hegseth has done, is they have stripped it away. So instead of trying to deal a little here, a little there, you go in decisively, you hit them, you force change, and you back out. And you let other people then pick up the pieces. And I think so far, you know,
there's a lot to go yet. I'm actually writing a piece that the press conference and the final results aren't the same thing. I mean, they have begun in Venezuela. They have begun in Gaza. They have begun in Iran. In some ways, They've begun in Ukraine.
But none of them are done yet.
But they've begun in Cuba, too.
How does Cuba possibly survive without Venezuelan energy?
I don't see any chance that they can.
No, and I think that Marco Rubio, and actually, he and Klos and I happened to be together at the vote count in West Palm on election night.
We were standing there waiting for the president, and we were chatting about this because I knew from Marco's own background, with his parents both from Cuba, being a South Florida politician, And I thought it was fascinating.
So you're now not looking.
you could imagine a little bit of luck that you're going to roll up in a position which is the biggest, hardest, and most difficult. But I wouldn't be shocked next year to have Marco Rubio as Secretary of State. Given his unique knowledge of the region,
I think gives you tremendous leverage to actually get this done. There are many people that have been putting out all these memes on Marco Rubio, who I think has really,
really come into his own as Secretary of State. I think he's done a phenomenal job. Let me ask you, let's stay focused for a second, if we can, on Iran and what its future is. The crown prince of Iran on my TV show. He's going to be back on tonight. When he was on last week,
it went so viral in the region that, I mean, he was getting millions and millions and millions of views, and he's not looking to take the position necessarily himself. All he wants is a democracy for the people of Iran. He said as soon as possible he wants to return. The opposition leader who won 92 plus percent of the vote,
Maria Karina Machado, is going to be meeting with the president. Wants to give her the Nobel Peace Prize that she received. Wants to give it to President Trump. But here's Reza Pahlavi talking to me about the future of Iran being a secular democracy. Sean, at the call of my compatriots, I've stepped forward to lead this transition from this tyranny to a future democracy. My role is to help my compatriots achieve that goal,
to bring about a peaceful end by means of a national referendum and a constitutional assembly. I'm impartial as to what the ultimate result will be so long as it's a secular democracy. I've trained all my life to serve my nation. I'm there to serve and help them achieve that goal. And I'm more than ever ready to step in Iran as soon as the situation warrants itself. But you are pointing out something very profound in your post on X,
and that is that there's a window of opportunity here. Otherwise, too many people will die, and then too many people will return to their homes. That's right. I mean, you get to a point where either the regime starts to disintegrate, or it rebalances itself, and if it rebalances itself, it will crush the opposition, and it will then methodically, and it's done this on at least two other occasions,
it will methodically hunt down and kill all the people who are leading the demonstrations. This is a very delicate moment where you could have a huge impact by insisting on replacing the dictatorship, Which, after all, as late as Sunday, had people chanting death to America.
So we have some notion that this is a regime which is mortally opposed to the survival of either Israel or the United States.
My point would be, we have enough tools.
I'm starting with various cyber weapons and with just straight out propaganda and only if necessary, going to military capabilities.
We have enough tools to guarantee that the dictatorship does not survive.
But there's a time limit to that.
And so we need to act, We need to replace words, And it's nice to have the senior political leaders say, oh,
we're really with the Iranian people. The question then ought to be, really? What is really what the Iranian people mean? What are you actually doing? Don't just tell me you're posturing. And I've said this now several times today on X and gotten very strong response from people who understand that this is a historic turning point. And my hope is that President Trump will instruct his national security team,
starting with, you know, the And propaganda and a number of things are designed to break up the regime. You don't have to go straight to military, but you should begin mobilizing your military capabilities, not just for us, but also for our European allies and for some of our Arab allies in the region. The number of people who would like to replace the dictatorship is extraordinary,
and we should orchestrate that, bring it to bear, and two or three weeks from now. The Ayatollah should be gone and all the senior leadership should be gone and the Iranian people should be allowed then on their own in a free and fair way to choose the kind of leadership they want. A very big difference from the last time we saw people taking to the streets in Iran and Barack Obama who had,
you know, dropped cargo planes full of cash and other currencies to try to placate these radical mullahs. So we should,
among other things, be prepared to start taking out the headquarters and the training facilities of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. And we should make very clear that anybody who's engaged in violence should expect to be held accountable and only potentially be put in prison. I mean, there are a lot of steps we could take that would rapidly undermine the regime and then freeze it in place and cause it to become timid. And I think we also, the truth is,
we probably know where the Ayatollah is and we should probably consider seriously taking out whatever facility he's in. Well, I'll tell you, these are fascinating times we're living in. The only thing I can think of comparable in our lifetime is the fall of the Berlin Wall. Am I wrong? You're the historian. We have about 30 seconds. Look,
I think when you sweep the world from Venezuela to Iran, it's incomparable. Okay, former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich. Fascinating times we're living through. 800-941-SHAWN, our number if you want to be a part of the program. All right, let's get to our busy phones. Let us say hello to Jim in Arizona. Jim, hi. How are you? Glad you called, sir. Hi,
Sean. I just wanted to weigh in on the Minnesota incident. Actually, all incidents where officers have to pull their weapons out based on my own personal experience. Are you a former law enforcement or current law enforcement? No, no. I owe my life to these guys because what ended up happening is I got arrested 47 years ago when I was 18. An agent got in my car and pulled his badge in front of me, and he put a gun and pointed at me and said, Don't move or i'll shoot you.
And I complied.
I'm alive.
I had several law enforcement officers tell me it's time to grow up, stop this illegal behavior and get your life on track, and I truly owe my entire life now to the cops and they really do care about you.
Listen, I?
I don't know how in the minds of the left in this country that the police have become the enemy now.
There's always a few bad apples i've had.
I used to many.
Many years ago I mean 15 years ago I had a heavy foot.
I don't anymore uh, because I never want to have an accident and hurt an innocent person just because I needed to get somewhere a little faster.
Forget it, you don't get there faster anyway.
It doesn't really work um, but you know in the times that I got pulled over.
you know, cops are always very respectful. I haven't been pulled over in years because I don't speed. It's just not worth it to When I did, always yes, sir, no, sir. If I had a firearm,
because I've always had a license to carry with me, I put my hands outside the window, and the first thing I would do is inform the officer that I had a weapon with me, which is complying by law, you know, with my hands outside the window, and, you know, full compliance, total respect. And most occasions, if you're respectful, they will return that respect back to you. And the idea that these people were clearly, with the longer version of the tape, taunting, aggravating,
stalking even these ICE agents, it's unconscionable. You know, but when you hear on tape the partner of this woman that got killed, and it's a tragedy, but, you know, drive, drive, and she throws it in reverse and it accelerates right towards the officer, what is that person supposed to do? He had every right to defend himself. It's a tragedy, but a tragedy, I would argue,
Of their own making and it didn't need to happen.
And one of the saddest parts in all of this is the demonization of ICE agents constantly.
If Tim Wall's calling them a Gestapo, you know this idiot, mayor French Fry.
You know to get the F out of Minneapolis, yet they are the ones that have been aiding and abetting in the law.
Breaking is institutionalized corruption within the Somali community and ICE agents.
They're not going to stop doing their job because of this and DHS Secretary Noem and Tom Holman and others, that they've sent more agents into Minnesota and there's not a damn thing the people of Minnesota can do about it.
These elected officials and they have a job to do.
You know there's too many known terrorists, murderers.
rapists, gang members, cartel members, drug dealers, that we have allowed into this country. Our country's been ripped off, institutionalized, you know, theft, you know, by abusing the welfare system in this country. They, you know, in the case of Tim Walz, as people testified to last week, he knew about it, did nothing about it. I think that, you know, a lot is being exposed here. You know, I read this today. I have an article about this, that Democrats,
I got the article here. Let me pull it out of my stack. I'm brushers to always talk about a stack of stuff. And It was on Fake News CNN. They reported this, that liberal Democrats want to make defunding ICE part of the next government shutdown this month. Okay, good luck with that, because most people support law and order, and I don't think it's going to work out. I think that's going to backfire, like it backfired the last time, and we're not going to defund ICE. President Trump will never do it,
and nor should he. Republicans will never allow it to happen, nor should they. I urge people, be respectful. If you have an encounter with police, whatever that encounter happens to be, understand they don't know what they're dealing with. They do not know who you are. They have to assume the worst. They have their guard up, rightly so,
because that's how they're trained. And you have to defuse the situation. Let them know that you're being respectful. Just common sense, to be honest. Not very complicated. Anyway, appreciate the call. 800-941-SHAWN if you want to be a part of the program. Rick in Texas. God bless Texas. Rick,
how are you? I'm good, Sean. Thank you very much. It's a little bit off subject, but it's been on my mind a long time. Follow up. Mr. Comer and Mr. Jordan have done a fantastic job. Great work. And Doge. But then we never hear for a while. We don't really always hear back the result. Like, who authorized those crazy payments that were made? Who authorized it? Who was running the country? Did they figure that out with all the interviews that they did? And Adam Schiff, who I can't stand. Russia, Russia, Russia.
What happened?
I don't hear any more about him.
Anyway, just curious on those things.
One other thing, I think you have President Trump's ear.
You could suggest to him that maybe he gets on and talks to the country and explains to them why they started and what happened with all the.
Just remind him that it's not just about Well, I mean, I thought he gave a good speech at the end of the year, going into great specificity and detail on all that he's done in his first year. There's never been a president that has given more time to the media,
answered more questions than this president. I think And, you know, I did an interview with him last week. I've asked him every possible question. The world's changing before our eyes. I did focus a lot on what's going on around the world and the economy. I don't know what else he can do in terms of communicating. He's given an inordinate amount of time. I would argue if we add the minutes up,
probably more time in his first year in office than Joe Biden did in his four years in office by a long shot. So, you know, but the answer is who was running the country under Biden? It wasn't him. There's your answer, especially in the final years in office. I mean, as bad as he was going in, and I pointed out his cognitive decline in 2019. And, you know, I was excoriated for doing so. Turns out I was right. I wish I wasn't. All right, Rick, appreciate it,
my friend. God bless you. 800-941-SHAWN if you want to be a part of the program. Uh, let's say hi to Theo in Western New York. Theo, how are you? Glad you called, sir. Thank you, Mr. Hannity. It's a pleasure to speak to you. Pleasure is all mine. What's going on? Um, I was, uh, just calling because with, I wanted to talk just a little bit about what's going on in Minnesota and with the violence. And I just wanted to say, I think the most important part from, and I'm not the smartest guy in the world. Uh,
I don't really lean that far left.
I don't lean right.
But I think that more than anything, I think we just need to be taking a moment to take a pause in the moment and look at situations and let the dust settle before we kind of all run out and say, you know, this ICE guy is the worst guy in the world, or this protestor is the worst person in the world, because I feel like we fill everything up with this, you know, what we want to hear.
And then it makes it so hard for us to come back to the middle.
And I guess that's sort of...
Well, the rush to judgment is a phenomenon that we've spoken of a lot on this program.
And I've told the whole story about how I learned my lesson.
I was right about Richard Jewell when everyone at AJC went out with a story that he fits the profile of a lone bomber because he lived with his mother.
It turned out not to be true.
that he was not the terrorist, domestic terrorist. You know, it goes to every single case, Ferguson, Missouri, Freddie Gray in Baltimore, UVA, Duke Lacrosse. Uh, George Zimmerman down in, in Florida and my state, uh, it happens all the time. They rush to judgment, you know, in the case, you know, look at Ferguson, Missouri. I mean, hands up, don't shoot. Never happened. And we, and every one of these cases,
we get it right. They get it wrong. I never get credit for it. I'm not looking for credit. It's just, they never learned their lesson. And just like, you know, if you look at this video, and you look at this extended video, you see exactly what the truth is,
and it's like they live in a different reality. I mean, even though their eyes show them something very different, they don't care. They just care about a narrative. And meanwhile, how many people die every weekend and shot and shot and killed in Chicago? They never say a word because they can't weaponize that or politicize it,
and if they did, they would be criticizing themselves. However, if we go back to 2016 and you pull all the FBI statistics under every presidency, including Trump's, you'll find that 95% of the violence that's happening is actually from the right wing. 200 plots against the government in that amount of time, there's only five on the left-hand side. And we're creating this myth somehow that the right,
the guys that don't have 95% of the guns. Are somehow committing most of this violence. So I don't quite understand why we have the myth of that violence on the right, or on the left, rather, when all the data, even under Trump, Shows that the majority of that actual lethal violence seems to be coming from the right.
And if we're telling everybody on the right that it's the left it's so violent well, that's just gonna make them get more violence.
And I'd like to figure out what we could do to take the temperature down.
Well, I mean, I don't think the right is doing anything to take the temperature up.
I mean, in in the case of ice, they're enforcing the laws of our land.
Well then, the case of over 500.
I'm so sorry for interrupting, but there are over 500 cases of abuse, a type of abuse I don't know, I can say on air and other things that are happening, and they're all talking about alleged abuse and has.
Is law enforcement perfect?
No, they're not perfect.
Have are there.
Are there occasionally, bad apples?
Yes, you have to weed them out when you see them, do?
I think the 99.9% of agents are there to do a very difficult, hard job enforcing the laws of the land, which they were hired to do, while be simultaneously being called the Nazi or Gestapo or a fascist.
Tell the left to shut down their rhetoric and shut their mouths and stop us, you know, verbally assaulting these officers and physically assaulting them and threatening them because that's the, that's what they've been living under.
and doxing their homes, and putting their families at risk, and passing laws that they can't wear a mask to protect their identity, meanwhile all other law enforcement can. Anyway, I got to roll. Appreciate the call. 800-941-SHAWN if you want to be a part of the program. Let's say I had a Matthew in Arizona. Matthew, how are you? Glad you called. Hey, Sean. How you doing? I'm good, sir. What's going on? Happy Monday. There's no such thing, But happy Monday anyway.
Happy Monday to you, Sean.
Hey, long -time listener, our family loves you.
We love what you do.
Quick question.
I'm concerned about the Supreme Court decision on the tariffs.
And what would things look like if they ruled against Trump?
Would that entail giving money back?
Do you have any idea what that might entail?
Should they rule against them on the tariffs?
I know exactly what they're going to do, but I don't feel liberty to share it because it was told to me off the record.
But let me put it this way, It's very clever, and I believe it would work.
How's that?
Does that help you at all?
Indeed, But I'm cautiously optimistic.
I mean, Howard Lutnick, we've had him on the program.
He was right there for arguments.
I'm cautiously optimistic we're going to win that because I think it definitely goes right to the heart of the Article two constitutional powers by using tariffs.
It is it is part of the president's role.
It's a it's a weapon, if you will, in terms of his his role as commander in chief.
And I think that's the best argument they have.
But there there are other ways to thread that needle.
and I don't think that Donald Trump will miss a beat. But it would be better if we won that case for sure. Planned case, okay. All right, buddy, appreciate the call. 800-941-SHAWN if you want to be a part of the program. All right,
that's going to wrap things up for today. We've got a great Hannity. Set your DVR at 9 Eastern on the Fox News Channel. Reza Pahlavi, the exiled crown prince of Iran, is Iran on the brink of falling. Lindsey Graham thinks America should kind of push it over the edge. We'll talk to him about it. Energy Secretary Chris Wright will talk about Venezuela, The impact on Cuba.