In this opening hour of The Sean Hannity Show, Sean breaks down escalating tensions in the Middle East after a U.S. fighter jet shoots down an Iranian drone threatening the USS Abraham Lincoln. Sean explains why Iran’s provocations are a dangerous miscalculation under President Trump and why deterrence—not weakness—keeps America safe. The hour also covers the temporary end to the government shutdown, economic parallels to the Reagan years, and why radical Democrats continue doubling down instead of moderating. Hannity closes by warning that America’s adversaries are watching—and strength still matters.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Thanks to all of you for being with us right down our toe.
Free telephone number you want to be.
That's a great way to start the show.
Thanks for listening.
I apologize.
We've got a lot to get to.
800 9.1 Sean is on number.
You want to be a part of this extravaganza.
Joe Biden's ex-husband, the former first lady, her ex-husband arrested on charges he murdered his wife in their Delaware home.
Wow.
We have an update on Billie Eilish, who was at the Grammys the other night, and it was actually pretty funny.
And anyway, she gave this, railed against ICE, insisted, no one is illegal on stolen land.
No one is illegal on stolen land.
Okay.
If you are illegal, that sounds like an invitation to me to go live there.
Well, apparently she's not willing to give up her multi-million dollar home.
We'll get to that.
The U.S. military has shot down an Iranian drone that apparently was aggressively approaching the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft.
The Iranians are just being cocky right now.
They're making all their pronouncements about the instability in the region and that it'll be a regional war.
And if they think they're going to intimidate Donald Trump away, they've got another thing coming.
U.S. military shot down this drone that was aggressively approaching the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea.
The drone, as it made its approach, according to a CENTCOM spokesperson, Tim Hawkins, telling Fox News, the USS Abraham Lincoln was in the Arabian Sea, approximately 500 miles from Iran's southern coast, when an Iranian drone unnecessarily maneuvered towards the ship.
The Iranian drone continued to fly towards the ship despite a de-escalatory measure being taken by U.S. forces.
According to CENCON, an F-35C fighter jet from the Abraham Lincoln shot it down in self-defense to protect the aircraft carrier and personnel on board.
Okay, just keep it up because it's going to happen.
It is now.
It's sort of like, I know they were talking about negotiating.
They were saying Friday, but I think the Iranians are scared to death that Donald Trump is now in position to strike and they know it.
And there was talk about, well, there's going to be, we want to negotiate.
What is there left to negotiate?
They don't have a nuclear weapons program and they won't have one as long as Donald Trump is president.
I mean, somebody else becomes president.
You know, I guess their only hope is that they can wait out President Trump, but acting like this is almost guaranteeing what's going to happen next.
The Iranian regime has been spreading nothing but death and terror around the world.
And they have killed Americans in Iraq and elsewhere.
Number one state sponsor of terror.
This is the home of General Soleimani, who killed untold thousands of people.
And why they keep messing with Donald Trump, I don't know.
To me, there's only really one negotiation that can be had.
I'll give you 72 hours.
You can pillage the country, which they probably already have.
Reports by Scott Besant that they've been transferring money all over the world to banks anyplace they'll take them.
I would imagine the planes that they have on runways waiting for them if they have to escape are probably full of gold, silver, and other currencies.
And I'd imagine that, in fact, You know, they're planning on going to Moscow just like Assad did.
And I wouldn't be surprised that this happens sooner than later.
Hannity, you sound like a warmonger.
I don't sound like a warmbonger.
I'm just saying that Donald Trump made a promise.
And when he makes a promise, I think Donald Trump means what he said.
He told them they can't have a nuclear program.
They no longer have a nuclear program.
They dropped 14 bunker buster bombs on their nuclear locations because they refused to do it peacefully.
And I think when he says that help is on the way, I think he means what he says.
We do have an end to the government shutdown, at least temporarily.
House passed roughly $1.2 trillion in a spending package to end the partial government shutdown.
It cleared a bipartisan vote that President Trump had been pushing for.
I mean, you got to fund the government, period, under sentence.
I think if patterns continue, and I see a lot of correlations on the economy with the Reagan years, Reagan at the time gave us the largest tax cuts in history.
Reagan, at the time, dropped the top marginal rate from 70 to 28 percent.
Reagan, at the time, it did take about 18 months for his policies to kick in.
He, after eight years in office, had doubled the amount of money that the federal government was taking in, counterintuitive to the leftist socialist mindset, which is you've got to tax people more to increase revenues.
That's not how it works.
Rising tide lifts all boats.
A growing economy similarly will lift all boats.
And Reagan created 21 million new jobs.
At the time, it became the longest period of peacetime economic growth in history.
In Donald Trump's first term, his tax cuts accelerated by 100% depreciation.
But this time is very different.
And this is where the Democrats now find themselves in a bit of a quandary dilemma.
They're having difficulty figuring this out, and they're just doubling down on their radicalism.
This is the problem with Democratic leadership.
They cannot give into their radicalized base.
They can't.
And so they have to be radicalized themselves, or at least appear to be.
That's why Hakeem Jeffries is not the leader of the Democrats in the House.
That leadership, really, that power lies with the likes of AOC and the squad and Jasmine Crockett.
Schumer is not the minority leader in the House.
No, they're both minority leaders, and neither one of them has any power.
They have to give into their radical base.
And if they don't, they know that their days will be numbered.
Just like Kathy Hochle is not the governor of New York.
I mean, she's basically a chief of staff.
Mamdani is the real governor of New York because whatever Mamdani wants or needs, Kathy Hochle is going to give it to him because she knows she can't maintain power without his base of support, which is the radical leftist crazy base that elected Mamdani in New York City.
And so we're living in very strange, odd times.
There are very few voices of reason out there in the Democratic Party.
I mean, they're pretty hard to find.
John Fetterman is one.
I think Josh Shapiro has been trying to do it, but not doing a very good job of it.
These interviews, I saw the interview we had with Brett Baird.
It was not particularly, I don't think he particularly helped himself.
And so, and nor do I think a Fetterman or any moderate Democrat could win the Democratic nomination because usually in primaries, it's the base of the party that will turn out to vote.
And so these are just very, very interesting times to watch.
Now, this measure, just so you know, funds most of the federal government through September the 30th while providing the Department of Homeland Security with a short-term CR for two weeks.
So we're going to be back fighting.
If Democrats, as I said yesterday, if they want to die on the hill of defund, dismantle, no bail, reimagine the police, if they want to fund a run on defunding the Department of Homeland Security and ICE, ICE that has been arresting thousands of violent criminals allowed into this country by Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Alejandro Millorkis that lied to the American people for four years.
They have been arresting the worst of the worst, child molesters, murderers, rapists, other violent criminals, and known terrorists and cartel members and gang members and drug dealers.
That is the vast majority of people that they have been arresting.
If they want to run on that, that's fine.
They now are stuck with a vote for the largest tax increase in the history of the country.
They can run on that too, voting against working men and women.
They used to claim they were the party of working men and women.
No.
By the way, I want Republicans to be, I want conservatives to be the party of working men and women.
Those are my roots.
That's my background.
That's where I came from.
And let me tell you, if you're working in the service industry, no tax on tips is a big freaking deal.
That means you save a lot of money.
Right now, Americans are paying less in taxes than they were paying last year.
Take-home pay is higher as a result of the president's policies, and they're paying less on an annual basis thanks to the president's policies.
Never mind, we ostensibly got a huge tax cut because this president is open to energy dominance, and he has implemented those policies.
I mean, there are a number of states in the country where you can get gasoline for under two bucks a gallon.
In most states, it's around two and change a gallon compared to Biden and Harris, three, four, $5 a gallon.
And the only states you're paying a ton is like states like California that just put high taxes on everything.
One thing that I want everybody to be aware of, and it's fascinating to watch this migration grow, too.
There's an article in the New York Post today where I don't know if you've heard the name Ken Griffin.
He's the Citadel founder, CEO, or if you've heard the name Steve Ross.
I think Steve Ross owns the Dolphins, doesn't he, Linda?
I'm pretty sure.
Or he's a part owner of the Dolphins.
I think he's connected somehow to the Dolphins.
He's building like crazy in South Florida.
I've been telling you that Wall Street South is real.
Ken Griffin's entire company now has moved to South Florida.
Steve Ross is building like crazy in South Florida, and so is Ken Griffin.
And so are all of these private equity companies.
You know, when J.P. Morgan, a name so identified with New York City, has more employees in Texas than they do in New York, that ought to be a wake-up call.
And they just keep chasing people out.
When California, 20 of 21 billionaires in a recent survey are leaving now because they have this ballot initiative in November where they would have a wealth confiscation plan of 5%.
You know, I've met a couple of billionaires in my life, and they're not dumb people.
You don't become, I don't think you become a billionaire by being dumb.
I think there's got to be some level of intelligence, some level of a work ethic, maybe a little bit of luck, blessing, whatever you want to call it.
But in the case of Ross and Griffin, they're both relocated, you know, and they now are in South Florida, and they're convinced the best state in the country to run a business is Florida.
And they're now putting $10 million behind a new campaign to convince other CEOs and founders to follow suit.
A quantum company just left California because of this initiative on the ballot.
The people of California, I think, are likely to pass it because that's the whole idea.
You know, the left wants to empower their government to take other people's money and give it to them.
What do you think the Green New Deal is?
Taking one group of people's money, redistributing it, and creating a voter base for yourself so that you build your own power base.
But anyway, so they're quoted in this article as saying that the only place a CEO or founder can scale from 10 employees to 10,000 will be South Florida.
Steve Ross is quoted as saying in this article, he's right.
You know, Florida is the future.
I don't think he's wrong there either.
And I'm telling you, I'm seeing it in real time, and it's real.
One interesting thing, and I want to address this.
A new Fox News poll showed that American voters maintain healthy skepticism and a heightened anxiety about the progress of artificial intelligence.
Six in 10 of those surveyed say AI is moving too quickly, while one in three respondents say it's moving at about the right pace.
In addition, 63% of those polled lack confidence the federal government's ability to properly regulate AI technology.
The genie's out of the bottle.
I don't want this audience to be caught off guard.
AI is not about the future.
Hear me very closely.
AI is about the present.
And there might be some job disruption, but people like Elon Musk and Palantir, you know, had, you know, there is genuine fear and anxiety about potential job losses.
However, there's going to be a restructuring.
And if you're in this audience, I want you to accept the truth and understand that this is very real.
This technology is real.
If you don't believe me, get Grok, get whatever one you want to use, but I like Grok.
And start understanding artificial intelligence and don't fear it.
The Genie's Out of the Bottle00:08:05
And I don't care how old you are.
Everybody should embrace something called lifelong learning.
That means you never stop growing.
You never stop engaging.
You keep your mind engaged in everything.
And I think it's a good plan for good health long term, longevity.
By the way, Uncle James, if you can bring in that article, Linda, please tell them.
Uh-oh.
What did I tell you privately yesterday, Linda?
I don't want to express these things sometimes because it's scary.
There's hardly anybody I know in the public eye.
It's not discussed a lot, but it's real.
I spend a lot of time helping my colleagues in issues involving their personal safety and security.
And you've got to be careful.
Everybody has to be careful.
But if you're in the public eye, you tend to be a target.
The things that I've had to deal with over my life, most of which I've not talked about publicly.
And it's not fun, especially if you have a family.
There's now a report that TMZ has received an unverified ransom note about Savannah Guthrie's missing mother.
She's 84 years old.
Her name is Nancy.
I told you I've met Savannah Guthrie, lovely woman, honestly could not have been nicer.
Exact opposite of Katie Kirk.
Katie Kirk did not like me.
But anyway, this note demanding a substantial amount for Savannah's return.
A report today that she will not be anchoring the Olympics now, and how could she, right?
Praying for her and her family.
And I mean that.
I pray for victims of all crimes.
That's why I can't understand why the country, the left is so angry.
There's no objectivity in terms of all of the violent criminals and child molesters and murderers and rapists and other violent criminals and drug dealers and gang members and known terrorists that they've arrested bravely.
They never get credit for it.
They just get slandered and smeared and besmirched and attacked and called Nazis every five seconds.
Anyway, according to this report, TMZ got an unverified ransom note today demanding a substantial sum of money for the return of Savannah's missing mother.
Linda, what did I tell you where my gut was yesterday?
I said, uh-oh, I bet it's related to the fact that she's a public figure.
You know, and it's anyway, they've contacted, obviously, law enforcement.
I know Harvey Levin, he's a good guy.
I mean, anything like this, he wants to go all in and help.
He's just a good guy.
And in the accompanying video, they talked about how the note was sent to them by email.
Harvey Levin then stated that the message appeared to be a ransom note.
They're demanding a certain amount of money.
They didn't verify how much.
He said that at the bottom of the email, there are very specific things about what she was wearing and the damage that they did to the house that would essentially prove that whoever is behind the note is likely behind this disappearance.
Now, apparently, she's in real serious need of medication and medical support.
The outlet reported the person is demanding millions of dollars in Bitcoin, supplied a Bitcoin address for the transfer.
The outlet confirmed that the Bitcoin address is legitimate.
The note has demands as far as time constraints for the transfer of cryptocurrency or else.
TMZ contacted the Sheriff's Department and the email is being investigated.
I mean, this is just scary.
It's just horrible.
I mean, it's just, you know, no, but you don't want this for anybody.
But just like we want our country safe and secure, this is why I don't understand why people don't care about, you know, in January alone, 130 some odd people, you know, shot in Chicago and nearly 30 of them dead.
Nobody knows any of their names.
I think it's right to give attention to Savannah Guthrie's mother.
I think it's right that everybody knows what she looks like and everybody cares about her safe return.
That's just if you have human dignity and a soul.
That's why I didn't understand people not standing for Lake and Riley's family or Jocelyn Ungarry's family.
Another scary fact came to light from the L.A. Times today.
Authorities found blood inside the Tucson home of Nancy Guthrie and last seen Saturday night at her residence.
And we'll get into more of it later, but obviously police believe that there's foul play.
And I don't know what they know or don't know.
Just pray for her safe return and that they can, I don't know, you know, somehow get the person responsible for this.
Unbelievable the time we, the times we live in.
It really is unbelievable.
Insider Advantage, National Survey, Donald Trump bounces back to 50%.
60% say Melania Trump coverage.
Why can't they just leave the first lady alone?
Why do they attack Baron Trump?
He's 19 years old.
He goes to college.
Leave him alone.
I just don't get it.
Oh, we got to leave Hunter alone.
Hunter's just, you know, nobody's out there smoking crack and videos with them and a gun naked with hookers and drugs.
A little bit of a difference.
We have, you know, by the way, I did mention that the partial government shutdown has been averted.
That's done for now.
And so not much to talk about there.
Bill and Hillary Clinton have agreed to appear for depositions that will be transcribed, videotaped depositions concerning their relationship with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
What really offends me about this whole thing is everybody, you know, demanded that Donald Trump release all of this.
And it's clear inside a lot of this information are a lot of innuendo allegations, guilt by association, et cetera, et cetera.
And nobody ever demanded one time that I can think of that Joe Biden hand this over.
And the one person that seems the closest, you know, Donald Trump threw in spectacular fashion Epstein out of his club in Palm Beach, Florida.
And if you don't know, quote, Palm Beach society, that is not something you do lightly.
And it's very embarrassing for somebody to be spectacularly thrown out of a club like that.
And for the reasons stated by Donald Trump, because of how he treated young women.
And that was like 25 years ago.
Now, do you think Donald Trump then, granted he wasn't in politics, do you think he would have thrown him out if he had incriminating information on him?
I doubt it.
And yet we have pictures of Bill Clinton in swimming pools and hot tubs, the airplane here, there, and everywhere.
And then you have innuendo about Donald Trump, and yet nobody seems to want to account for the fact that Donald Trump threw this guy out of his club, which is a big deal.
I told you, James Carville, he's, I'm sorry, what are you saying to me?
In my ear?
Because it doesn't do any good if you're talking in my ear while I'm talking.
What?
What do you want to say?
I'm talking in Ethan's ear.
I apologize.
I don't know why it's bleeding through.
It's bleeding through into my ear.
Democrats And Sex Offenders00:05:34
It's getting very common.
I think you, I'm wondering if you might be losing because you don't know which button you're pushing.
This is happening more and more frequently.
I know.
We'll get to Silver Palopasta to us later.
You know, justthhenews.com did an investigation into 2,000 violent offenses in Tennessee, illegal immigrants committed.
More than 2,000.
In Tennessee, Tennessee is not known for its crime.
It's not New York.
It's not New Jersey.
It's not Illinois, and it's not California.
It's not like California.
It's not like that either.
Anyway, 41 homicides, 1,592 assaults, 145 sexual offenses, 11 child rapes, 40 aggravated kidnappings, 2,920 DUIs, 5,318 cases of driving without a license or on a suspended or revoke license, 966 carjackings, 36 felony firearms offenses, 66 assaults on police or first responders.
And they never get credit for this.
Figures released by the Biden Department of Homeland Security showed Biden and his administration released over 600,000 criminal illegals that they knew about just out of San Antonio.
Democrats, you know, the full court press to demonize and compare ICE agents that are arresting murderers, rapists, child molesters, violent criminals, drug dealers, even terrorists.
And you never hear this side of the story.
This is all caused by the Democrats.
And if they, again, they want to go back and they want to run on this platform, defunding ICE and defunding Department of Homeland Security.
I'd rather not get attacked again like we did on 9-11.
I'd rather not have that many criminals that are violent that they let into our country, but told us, no, the border's closed.
New York State released 7,000 criminal illegals from detention in just the last year.
U.S. Immigration Enforcement Director Todd Lyons sent a letter to New York Attorney General Letitia James calling on her to put the safety of Americans first and honor ICE arrest detainers of the more than 7,000 criminal, illegal aliens in that state's custody.
In New York State, 7,000 murderers, sexual predators, those convicted of or charged with weapons offenses.
You know, New York's failure to honor ICE detainers has now resulted in the release of 6,947 criminal, illegal aliens since January 20th.
Where are the protesters when you need them?
The paid protesters.
Democratic mayors, lawmakers now seeking to implement the anti-ICE rules in their sanctuary cities and states.
It's beginning to get some pushback from local police departments who are now saying they're not going to be used as a political pawn in their battle with the Trump administration.
Good for them.
You know, what possible justification do Democrats have for not letting ICE deport a sex offender or a murderer?
You know, Washington Examiner calls it democratic riot culture.
It's destroying politics.
It's endangering lives.
The lives being endangered first and foremost are the ICE agents on the front lines that are being called Nazis in Gestapo.
The next group of people would be the people in small towns and big cities that are victims of these crimes.
Now Trump is saying, okay, ask us nicely and we'll come help you.
And it's sort of like he's been pushed into a position.
Okay, you don't want us?
We'll abandon you.
Good luck.
And then every person that's murdered, raped, every child that's molested and raped.
You know, how many times have I said they all have blood on their hands, all of these people?
If you look at the weekend Roundup, multiple pedophiles residing illegally in the U.S. arrested by ICE over the weekend.
Do you ever get any of that from the media?
Minnesota ignores history warnings.
You know, what do they want?
They want to, there's a New York Post article.
They want to move towards Fort Sumter, that kind of moment in the country.
Because that's what you're hearing out of Mayor Smallfry and Tampon Tim.
You know, you had one gas station owner say, I don't support ICE, and then refused to actually let them use their facility.
Can you believe it?
To purchase something.
New York Post laid this out.
Grassroots anti-ICE campaigns funded by left-wing billionaires.
Nothing that you see on TV is real or organic.
None of it.
Rhode Island activists slamming adult-run nonprofit that promoted student-led anti-ICE school walkout.
The Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanch has outlined this underground fraud network behind these Minneapolis anti-ICE push that you see.
It's all astroturfed and it's all designed to create maximum chaos by the radicals that run the left.