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Feb. 4, 2026 - Sean Hannity Show
28:23
Cost of Radical Rhetoric
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First Amendment Fights 00:15:02
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It is 800-941, Sean, if you want to be a part of the program.
It is amazing the times we're living in, and especially when we get into the issue of illegal immigrants, all the crimes they've committed, the thousands of criminals that have been deported and arrested and soon to be deported by ICE agents that bravely put their lives in harm's way.
They've gotten known terrorists, murderers, child molesters, rapists, other violent criminals, cartel members, gang members.
I mean, they are, the list gets longer and longer and longer.
And I keep reading every day, why would Democrats ever be against this?
For example, New York Post today, a previously deported illegal named Gerardo Miguel Mora, rap sheet includes attempted rape strangulation back in the New York City courtroom last week on a shoplifting charge, which according to the Post was his second arrest in the month of January, first being arrested for crack possession.
And the reason his most criminal case made news is that New York City judge, a New York City judge, allowed him to waltz right out of the courtroom despite being made aware of a federal criminal warrant for this guy's arrest.
This is now what the Democratic Party is embracing, aiding, abetting the worst of the worst.
And in spite of all of the courage, the thousands arrested, the millions now deported, especially when you have voluntary deportation, it just, the rhetoric continues.
Washington Examiner today, Democratic riot culture is destroying politics and it's endangering lives.
I mean, this is the sad part of what people like Tampon Tim and Mayor Smallfry are doing is they are inciting violence.
Now, there's another aspect to all of this that I'm not going to let go.
I mean, we discussed it a little bit in the last hour, but we're seeing more and more organization and funding New York Post grassroots anti-ICE campaigns funded by left-wing billionaire donors.
These are not organic protests.
Rhode Island activists slamming adult-run nonprofit that promoted student-led anti-ICE walkout.
Deputy AG is detailing a massive underground fraud network allegedly behind the Minneapolis anti-ICE push.
This is Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche who said all of this.
And if you look at the weekend roundup, you had convicted murderers, child sex abusers among the illegals nabbed by ICE all across the U.S., and they don't care.
You know, article in the New York Post also today, Minnesota ignores a history of warnings, you know, as they are setting up a confrontation with the federal government.
If they want that confrontation, they can have it.
And President Trump is saying, you know, ask nicely and we'll come in and help you out.
But, you know, in the meantime, innocent people are victims of all of this.
Now, on the issue of Don Lemon, I know he got a big applause at some Grammy pre-party that he was at, and he's now, he feels mortalized.
He's gotten, you know, more notoriety publicity than he's ever gotten in his life.
I've looked at the videos.
I see him giving out coffee and donuts to the people before they invade the church.
I hear his commentary inside the church.
It doesn't sound like he's doing citizen journalism to me.
Sounds like he's an activist posing as a journalist.
Pam Bondi said something last night that really stuck with me.
And that is, oh, anyone can just start filming something like a violation of the FACE Act and preventing people from practicing their faith, which is protected under the law, and just say, no, no, I'm being a citizen journalist.
Okay, we'll see how that works out in the end.
You know, here's a clip, by the way, of Don Lemon telling Morgan Freeman that he's tired of talking about race because racism is over.
This is 2014.
This probably get me in trouble, but I said to some of my colleagues recently, so I know that it's an issue, but I've been, it seems like every single day on television, I'm talking about race and it's because of the news cycle that's in the news.
But sometimes I get so tired of talking about it, I want to just go, this is over.
Can we move on?
And if you talk about it, it exists.
Right.
It's not like it exists.
I'm going to refuse to talk about it, but making it a bigger issue than it needs to be is a problem we have.
I mean, you're listening to two very successful Americans that happen to be African-American, and America did not prevent them from bringing their God-given talents to fruition.
Now here's Don Lemon telling people to F off because he's going to continue reporting.
This is what I have to say.
F off whoever you think is going to stop me from reporting.
I'll say it off.
If you think you're going to stop me from reporting, if you think that you are going to stop and diminish my voice, then you have, as again, as my grandmother would say, you have another thing coming because that ain't ever going to stop.
I don't care what you try to do to me.
I am a journalist through and through and through.
And I came from strong, sturdy, peasant stock that built this country for free.
This is my country through and through.
If anyone deserves the freedom and the rights and the constitution of this country, it is me, this little black boy from Louisiana that came from enslaved people who have not always and still don't always have the same freedoms as white people do in this country.
All right.
That was then.
This is now.
Katie Zakaria, Republican legal strategist, Horace Cooper, legal commentator, author of the bestseller, Put You All Back in Chains, How Biden's Policies Harm African American, Harm Blacks is what it's called.
Welcome both of you.
Katie, let's get your thoughts on all of this.
I looked at the video.
I want to give Don Lemon actually the benefit of the doubt.
He didn't seem to be acting in the capacity of somebody that was reporting.
He seemed to be part of the activism, which is clear, you know, and we've gone over the law many times on this program.
It's a clear violation of the FACE Act.
Yes.
And Don Lemon, I mean, he is so obviously interfering in other people's right, which is the FACE Act, other people's right to exercise their First Amendment.
And now he's pulled back and wants to be this martyr for everyone else for the Democrat Party and not be held responsible for his actions.
Look, he knew what he was doing, and he went in there with that exact intent.
And this will all likely get fed out and done in the legal proceedings.
But he had a clear intent.
I think this was even bigger, though, Sean.
He wanted to be the less martyr on this topic.
And honestly, he's doing a good job right now acting like it.
What's your take on all of this, Horace, seen through the lens of race then and now?
Well, first, let me say that there appear to be two crimes that Mr. Lemon has undertaken.
One is a crime against cable news with some of the lowest ratings possible getting him kicked off.
But the second is his idea that somehow, if you sit in the getaway car, drive people to the bank, then get out of the car and start filming it, you're not a bank robber.
There's just no reasonable way for that to succeed in a court of law.
He can get all the accolades that he wants.
If he isn't smart enough to understand you can't break the law and then podcast it and count that as some sort of exemption, then he's probably too silly or stupid for freedom.
Oh, I mean, look, everybody's entitled to their voice, but the FACE Act is clear, Katie, and this is the point.
You can't interfere, intimidate people inside a place of worship, a house of worship.
What's fascinating, Katie, to me is that the left embrace the FACE Act because it also, one of their provisions, provides for the right of women to be able to enter an abortion clinic unimpeded.
They like that part of it, but they don't like sections 247 and 248 that protects religious freedom.
Correct.
And we saw pro-life activists jailed during the Biden administration for that exact reason.
But now they're going to rally, as you just said, they're going to rally behind Don Lemon because he is in a church.
And this is them deciding to pick and choose.
This is symptomatic across the country.
Sanctuary laws.
We want to pick and choose which laws we want to follow, which laws apply to us and which laws we don't.
We want to pick and choose how we want to persecute the president, persecute pro-life activists, but we don't want those same laws to apply to us.
This is the Democrat Party right in front of us.
They think and they continue to say they are actually thinking they are above the law here, Sean.
Well, it's going to be interesting.
Now, he does have a good attorney, and I know you know him, Horace, Abby Lowell.
Although Abby Lowell did represent Hunter Biden, that didn't work out particularly well, but he's one of Washington's best attorneys.
There's no doubt about it.
And the argument is going to be that he was acting in the role as a, quote, journalist, as he's saying here.
So it's really going to come down to, I guess, a jury, I guess, interpreting what they see, his commentary, him giving out coffee and donuts, and whether or not he was an active participant and part of this radical activist group or not.
To me, it's clear.
And it doesn't really matter to me how much applause he gets at the Grammys.
That's meaningless.
I think what's going to matter is how other people view it.
And, you know, when they are read the actual law, I think it's very clear and transparent.
So Abby Lowell is probably going to work with Don Lemon to try to create the impression that race has played some issue here.
So presumably a jury might be more sympathetic.
But let's talk about the First Amendment.
There's another part of the First Amendment, which is speech.
When people showed up at abortion clinics and prayed in front of those abortion clinics, maybe so loud that some people were dissuaded, the Biden administration had those people prosecuted.
There was no defense called, well, I'm exercising my First Amendment, my protected right, while I am standing near this clinic.
As you point out, the statute also covers churches.
There simply is no protection.
I actually wonder if the Lowell process is going to be, Abby Lowell's process is going to be to sort of negotiate some non-prison punishment because this case is going to be very, very difficult, if not impossible, to win in a court of law.
The language, Katie, is by force, threat of force, or a physical obstruction, intentionally injuring, interfering, or attempting to interfere with any person who is lawfully exercising or seeking to exercise their First Amendment right of religious freedom at a place of religious worship, such as a church, synagogue, mosque, or other house of worship, intentionally damaging or destroying the property. or place of worship.
Now, one woman broke her arm.
Congregants were not allowed to leave the church.
Moms and dads were not allowed to go down to where their kids were, you know, in the church.
You know, they have an area where kids stay and play during service and maybe learn religious lessons.
They weren't allowed to retrieve their kids.
That seems to meet the definition by every standard.
Every single standard.
And when you look at the video footage and when you hear the testimonials of these people who not only did they break, did they go into the church and interfere with the right to worship, the interference of not being able to, as you just said, obtain their children.
So they were blocking them from being able to go.
They were keeping them away from getting their children.
Sean, I think for this case particularly, this highlights exactly what Pam Bondi, what they need to bring out is that there is a First Amendment violation.
And it's not Don Lemon.
It is the church congregants and parishioners who were at the service to worship.
And I think it's actually a pretty clear case.
I might disagree on that.
I think it's going to be very, very, very clear for Don Lemon.
I think it's clear.
The problem is, Horace, is I don't trust any judge in this country.
Well, I think we are increasingly finding out that when a judge walks out to the edge, we have to go through the tedious process of appealing that decision.
And if necessary, taking it to the Supreme Court.
Appellate courts have been smacking down these district court judges.
And that's also true for the Supreme Court.
I think ultimately what we're going to see is the other individuals that were with Don Lemon are going to be convicted.
And if they're convicted, there isn't some so-called journalistic broadcast exemption to the FACE Act.
There simply are no exemptions that are going to occur.
I think it's highly likely, as I said, that he will negotiate a plea deal so that because he's better than everybody else, that he could find a way not to actually have to go to prison.
But I don't see him walking away with no conviction on this whatsoever.
Look, the penalty is not that severe unless, I guess, if there's any physical altercation, although the one woman did break her arm, I don't think it's going to be a big deal, but I tend to agree with you.
I don't think this is going to be pushed off to the side.
I don't think this DOJ is going to allow this to happen.
State vs. County Tax Rulings 00:10:30
Anyway, appreciate both of you.
Horace Cooper, thank you.
Katie Zakaria, thank you.
800-941-Shauna's on number.
We'll get to your phone calls coming up in mere moments.
You know, the rhetoric of the left gets more insane by the minute, but I'm okay with this.
And the reason I'm okay with it, if Democrats, as I was saying yesterday, want to be the party of defund, dismantle, Nobel, reimagine the police, if they want to be the party of defunding ICE, I'm okay with it.
If they want to be the party that votes for the largest tax increase in history and Republicans vote for the largest tax cut in history, Republicans stand up for working men and women, no tax on tips or overtime.
They stand up for the elderly, no tax on Social Security.
They're working to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse in our disastrous health care system, which is good for every American.
That means more money will be available for every American.
If they want to cling to their climate alarmist cult and try and force cars into people's driveways that people don't want, let them be that party.
And the Republican Party will be the party of freedom.
And, you know, here's an example.
Delia Ramirez, Illinois.
ICE will be abolished.
Not if they'll be abolished, will be abolished.
DHS will be dismantled.
Listen.
But also, Americans are past reforms of a department that has used your taxpayer dollars to execute people in broad daylight.
Here's the bottom line, folks, that I'm getting off before Bonnie pushes me out.
We must have accountability and we must bring justice to every fascist in the administration.
And that includes Chrissy Noam.
That includes Stephen Miller.
And that includes Tom Holman.
ICE will be abolished.
VHS will be dismantled.
And together, we will get it done.
You go.
You get that done.
You fight hard for that.
That's my advice to you.
All right, let's get to our phones.
New Joysey, Phil.
Hi, Sean.
I'm glad it's working out for you in Florida, but let me ask you this.
You're from Nassau County originally, right?
I am.
Bruce Blakeman, by the way, is the county executive.
He's now going to run for governor.
I'm very fond of Bruce Blakeman.
I know him personally.
I saw him at the Fox Nation Patriot Awards.
Like him a lot.
Yeah, I don't know what town you're from.
Let me ask you this.
If Long Island, and what I mean by that is specifically Nassau and Suffolk County, if that were its own state, would you have considered staying there?
Maybe.
Okay.
I've been hearing your show and I've heard a lot of other people's show.
The problem that's going on.
But I'm going to be honest, now that I am really through and through a Floridian at this point, and that may sound strange to people.
Now, remember, I lived in, I was born and raised in Long Island.
I lived in Rhode Island five years, California five years.
I was a radio nomad.
Huntsville, Alabama, Atlanta, Georgia, back to New York when I started at Fox when they went on the air.
And I've been down here in my third year.
And I like it here the best.
I did like my place in Long Island, but I had to sell everything, get rid of every association with New York.
I talked to a guy.
He's been audited for 10 years by New York tax officials that harass him.
And if this happens, I'm making this the biggest public issue ever because I am gone.
Yeah.
And by the way, as far as I'm concerned, once you leave a state, that's it.
That state that you left has no business coming out.
Well, it should be.
Now, some people try to thwart the rules and they don't do it the right way.
But I hired an army of accountants and lawyers, and this is all they do.
And if the amount of money I had to spend to leave and leave cleanly is, you wouldn't believe it.
It's insane.
Of course.
And the point, and also, because the one I wanted to reach out was because of the problem I would say with New York City, New York State and other states like Illinois are the big cities.
New York State, New York City is the real problem when you think about it.
I mean, let's put it this way.
Look, Nassau County also has high taxes.
Now, Bruce Blakeman's done a lot to improve it, but it's not Florida.
I mean, let me give you an example.
I mean, Florida has some of the lowest gas taxes.
They have zero income taxes.
They have zero estate taxes.
You know, New York State has 10% estate tax.
After you paid money, they get another bite of the apple.
You have to pay to die.
Nassau County, where I lived, the second highest property tax county in the country outside of Westchester, which is also a nice area.
If you look at the map of New York, it's mostly red.
My biggest problem became it was untenable for me.
Like Fox has bureaus all over the country.
It just became untenable for me to be in New York City.
I mean, I needed a security guard to go to a restaurant.
I don't want to live my life that way.
No, never.
But if they did this, and this is just, I mean, I'm thinking hypothetically, but if they made New York City its own state, Long Island its own state, and the rest of maybe upstate New York, like New Amsterdam, New Albany, whatever.
And then you go out for other states like Illinois, if they split off Chicago, made that its own state, and left the rest of Illinois alone.
Maybe the problem with Minneapolis, with Minnesota, the Twin Cities there were its own state.
I'm just thinking outside the box there.
But then you go out west with the coastal.
Listen, I'm all in favor of California seceding.
Jesse Ventura wants Minnesota to secede.
No, no, I mean, splitting up.
Like, in other words, Eastern California, there's a representative out there named James Gallagher.
I could see this happening.
I mean, we're going to have reapportionment.
We're going to have the new census.
New York, New Jersey, Illinois, California, they're all losing massive amounts of congressional seats.
It's going to reconfigure the map because of mass migration out of these places.
And the policies have pushed people away.
It's very interesting.
When I did run into Chuck Schumer, I was in New York like two days last year.
That was it, you know, to visit my sister and my family.
And otherwise, I don't go there.
I mean, this idea that you spend half a year and a day in Florida and you're considered a resident is a joke.
It's not even close.
I know people that have been audited.
Where is your heart?
You still own property there, if you're a member of clubs there.
I mean, they've got this whole checklist that is insane that, you know, that they use to go after you.
And I am just telling you, you have to make a clean break if you want to do it.
There are more New York tax agents in my free state of Florida than in New York because they don't like, they chase everyone away.
Now, I run into Chuck Schumer.
I said, who's your favorite cable news host?
He looks up and he goes, oh, no, not you.
It was funny.
And, you know, we're sitting there, we're talking.
And I said, I bet you should be happy.
I don't live here anymore.
He goes, actually, I'm not.
And I think he was sincere.
Then I interviewed Comrade de Blasio, and he's like, you need to come back to New York.
We want you back in New York.
I'm like, oh, they don't like it.
They want the money, but they don't, but the people don't like conservatives.
They just don't.
In Florida, honestly, the people are salt of the earth.
South Carolina, salt of the earth.
North Carolina, salt of the earth.
Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, you name it.
I don't have the same issues that I had in New York City.
Now, you're right.
It was better for me in Nassau County, but it's still, you know, pretty, you still have state taxes.
You still have a lot of regulation.
And I don't really like cold weather, to be honest.
But that's another point, too.
A lot of the people who run those states are from the big cities, like Chuck Schumer, even Andrew Cuomo, Mario Cuomo, who's alive.
I mean, they're all, I mean, out west, you had Kamala Harris.
She's from the Bay Area.
You had, you know, I'm saying, it's just, they're not even from the people in the rural areas have no representation.
And they have to, I mean, they're dominated by the people in the bigger cities.
Like in my case, now I live suburban about 10 miles outside of Philadelphia, which isn't too bad.
It could be worse.
I think Camden, New Jersey is a problem here.
It's a cesspool.
But if you go up north, you're near Newark, you're near a lot of those metro areas outside New York City.
Those are the real problems.
Are a lot of the people who run for governor or whatever are from those portions.
And I feel like we have no representation here.
And you go further to the south, it's a little better.
If you go to the northern part of the state, it's not too bad.
But I mean, it's just you can't seem to get that's what I'm saying.
If you, I'm not saying every state has to do this.
Now, Virginia split up years ago with West Virginia and so on, but that's just something I was thinking about.
And by the way, they ought to bring, and that's I don't want to bring up too long.
I never hear anyone talk about maybe a balanced budget amendment, a line item veto or anything like that.
Look, I'm only going to tell you this so you really understand it.
And I mentioned it earlier.
There's an article out today.
California has this referendum that's coming out, and it's going to retroactively, if it's passed from till January, it's going to put a wealth tax on billionaires.
They're all leaving.
And there was an article in the New York Post today, and it quotes Citadel founder Ken Griffin.
He's moved his entire operation down here.
He's a multi-multi-billionaire, Steve Ross, multi-multi-billionaire.
And they're encouraging businesses and CEOs to relocate to my state, Florida.
And quote, the only place a CEO and founder can scale from 10 employees to 10,000 will be in South Florida, said Steve Ross.
He's not wrong.
And it's already happening.
I see it happening.
And I'm just telling people there is a better way, a better life.
And I know for a lot of people, change is hard.
Moving To Florida 00:02:51
It's not for me.
I've done it my whole life, but I'm just telling you, it's just like it.
Look, there's a reason I've had property down here for 30 years.
It's not like Florida is new to me.
That's my vacation point.
But I'm going to roll along.
I appreciate you being with us.
800-941-Sean, if you want to be a part of the program.
All right, back to our busy phones.
Wayne in Pennsylvania.
Hey, Wayne, how are you?
Glad you called, sir.
Hey, Sean.
Thanks for taking my call.
Originally from New Jersey, I would tell Phil, move.
I'd like to talk about Don Lemon.
By the way, Pennsylvania, it's okay.
Linda lives in Pennsylvania, and it's just getting worse.
It depends on where you live in Pennsylvania.
I'm in Central PA, and it's great out here.
So, Sean, Don Lemon said he was a Christian.
Now, if he is a Christian, why does he barge into that church?
He was in that parking lot.
He was definitely in on it.
When he rolled up to the church, he was outside with his crew.
He could have waited until the congregation got out of their services, but no, he went in there.
What I'd like to ask you, Sean, is do we know if that was live or did they post that later?
And did they edit what we have seen?
I don't think I don't think they thought there'd be any consequences.
And the most incriminating evidence that will be, if assuming this doesn't get negotiated out or a plea agreement doesn't get made, and I would expect Abby Lowell probably will go in that direction.
And probably Don Lemon won't like the advice Abby gives him as my guest, but it would be in his best interest to listen to Abby, who I do have a lot of respect for, is that they just thought they could get away with it.
And they just thought that this wouldn't apply to them.
The Face Act, I read it in the last half hour.
It is crystal clear what it is, what it says.
And it's very obvious in these videos to me that he was a part of this group that was obstructing the worship service.
But, you know, let the jury decide.
It's not up for me to decide by videos.
I don't like to rush to judgment.
I don't even wish this on Don Lemon.
I have nothing against Don Lemon.
He's allowed to be a liberal talk show host like he was on CNN.
Stop calling yourself a journalist.
That's my biggest issue with him.
He's not a journalist.
Anyway, I appreciate the call, my friend.
Thank you, 800-941, Sean, if you want to be a part of the program.
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