Senator Lindsey Graham and Sean Hannity argue Trump’s policies crippled Iran’s economy, leaving it weeks from bomb-making material while Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei signals succession plans and threats against U.S. warships. They dismiss AOC as unfit for command over Taiwan defense, mocking her "incoherent" stance, and defend voter ID laws like the SAVE Act against Democratic accusations of suppression. Hannity contrasts Newsom’s governance with his own "righteous indignation," previewing DeSantis’ rise amid cartel chaos—El Mencho’s death sparked tourist lockdowns in Mexico—and Graham’s push for military action if Americans are harmed, framing it as a pivotal Middle East shift akin to WWII’s end. [Automatically generated summary]
News Roundup and Information Overload Hour 800-941 Sean.
If you want to be a part of the program, we're going to take a kind of a little quick trip around the globe.
There's a lot happening.
We are officially on Iran watch as the president clearly is putting America in a position to help not only is on the way, it clearly has arrived in Iran, and we'll get to that in a second.
I don't want to neglect what has happened in terms of this American intelligence helping in the killing of this Mexican drug cartel leader.
And what the aftermath has been in Guadalajara, his name is El Mencho, is what they call him, the leader of this new generation cartel was shot and killed with Mexican forces inside his home as they attempted to carry out an operation to capture him.
I think there's been a lot of pressure by the Trump administration, but tourists now are trapped in Puerto Vallarta.
And we know that there are other areas like Guadalajara, which is Mexico's second largest city, almost completely shut down as fearful residents are staying home.
There is a lot of firepower out on the streets.
Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said the elimination of this guy is a major blow to Mexican drug cartels and human traffickers.
And he joins us now.
I think this is important.
You said to Mexico, your decision to work with President Trump to bring this evil man down was the right decision, and it's confidence-inspiring.
These cartels, they have had free reign in Mexico for too long, Senator.
Yeah, and they're a major threat to the United States.
There have been more Americans killed from drugs coming across the Mexican border, more harm, more heartache.
They make billions of dollars off illegal immigrants.
Trump shut that business down.
Fentanyl is hard to get across the border, so Trump's really put a hurting on the cartels.
Killing this guy is a big deal.
Mexico would not even thought of doing this with any other president.
They are working with Trump.
Quite frankly, Mexico is afraid of Trump.
That's a good thing.
They're working together.
And I would say, of all the threats to the United States, to our homeland, and to the well-being of the American people, Mexico, as our neighbor is, in many ways, virtually a failed state.
We're trying to resurrect what's left of the rule of law in Mexico and work together.
But here's what I would tell the drug cartels.
There's a new sheriff in Washington.
You're on his list.
We're coming after you.
Trump took down Venezuela, Maduro.
Cuba's going to fall, but we've got to deal with Mexico.
So I would urge the president to put military force on the table to protect American citizens.
If one hair of an American is harmed anywhere by these cartels, then I think we should come in and help our people.
And we should put these drug labs on the target list and basically go after their cartels in Mexico like we did in Venezuela.
Let's get an update on the situation evolving in Iran.
We seem to be getting mixed signals from the Ayatollah.
On the one hand, you have Iran supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, taking steps we read to ensure succession if, in fact, he was taken out in some type of military strike by Israel or whatever.
I don't think America, as a matter of law, allows for the targeting of leaders.
I'm not sure if it's applicable in this case, considering it's a terrorist state, but that's a separate legal issue for another day.
On the other hand, they have been sending threats and images of U.S. warships being at the bottom of the sea.
Other leaders within Iranians' top leadership have been suggesting that Donald Trump will be in his coffin in three months.
But then I'm told behind the scenes that they're trying to take a very different posture and being more accommodating.
Although Steve Witkoff, who is the Middle Eastern envoy, said that Iran is a week away from bomb-making material as the president is now weighing this action.
That sounds like a more dire scenario to me.
And if Steve Witkoff is saying that, that tells me that there's not going to be a deal to be had.
Well, you know, I appreciate trying to end this conflict with diplomacy, but you've got to understand who's on the other side of the table.
The Ayatollah is a religious Nazi.
He is a radical Shiite.
He wants to dominate Islam.
He would destroy Saudi Arabia, the home of Sunni Islam, if he could.
He would take over the Holy Mosque.
He wants to destroy the Jewish state because he's compelled by God to do so.
And he calls us America the Great Satan infidels.
He's not a normal guy.
He's a religious Nazi.
Hitler wanted a master race.
This guy wants a master religion.
They have theocracy organized around a cult of death.
There is no friggin deal you can do with this guy to change his stripes.
They're dedicated to their religious quest.
They're compelled by God to destroy everything they don't like.
So I don't mind talking with them, but at the end of the day, we need to take the Ayatollah out.
They're the weakest they've been since 1979 because of Donald J. Trump.
Their economy is in tatters.
Trump has isolated their economy.
He's put tariffs on anybody who buys Iranian oil.
Their military is in shambles because of what BB and Trump have done, bombing the crap out of these people.
And the people in Iran are out in the streets ready to take the Ayatollah down with some help.
This is the best combination of events since 1979 to end this terrorist regime.
So, President Trump, you have set the conditions to change the Mideast, unlike anybody in a thousand years.
If the Ayatollah goes and the people let the people take him down with our help, Hamas, Hezbollah, Houdis, all the terror proxies fall.
Saudi Arabia will get back to the table trying to normalize with Israel.
The entire Mideast will be a new place.
The world will be a lot better.
Follow through, Mr. President.
You've got this guy on the ropes.
He's a liar.
He's a snake.
They're dedicated to the destruction of mankind as we know it.
Don't blink.
Finish the job.
And to all those who counsel the president, of course, there's a risk moving forward.
We can have some troops hit by missiles, but we're in a good spot to protect our people.
If you back off now after all this bluster and try to get some deal about the NUCA program that they will not honor, it will be a missed opportunity for the ages.
It will haunt America for decades.
Key protesting help is on the way, has to have meeting.
Meaning, I have all the confidence in President Trump that he's going to follow through.
The people are out in the streets because they believe in President Trump.
If we can take this Ayatollah down by backing the people who want to take him down, it'll be the biggest accomplishment since the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Mr. President, you've got him on the ropes.
Take him out.
We have, we're witnessing the march of freedom around the globe.
Cuba, my understanding is it could be within days or weeks of falling.
Venezuela, obviously, now has a very different posture now that Maduro is gone.
Latin America seems to be shifting dramatically as well.
Now, Mexico, probably watching what happened in Venezuela, doesn't want it to happen there.
Now they're taking actions that without Donald Trump, I don't think they'd ever take.
The Middle East, we can build off the Abraham Accords.
You see the relationship developing with countries like the Saudis, the UAE, with Egypt, with Jordan, and other countries in the region.
They now want peace with Israel.
That was not the case, you know, starting from 1948 in the U.N. partition plan moving forward.
You're right.
I think the one thing that every country in the region has feared for the longest period of time, it wasn't only Israel that was breathing a sigh of relief after the nuclear facilities were removed, but it was also every other country in the region that feared Iranian hegemony and a nuclear-armed Iran.
So this would be maybe the biggest and best opportunity we've ever had to establish a real peace in that region, as you say, in more than a thousand years.
Yeah, well, the great Satan is the Iranian regime in the hands of the Ayatollah.
Hezbollah is the terrorist organization in Lebanon.
They've got American blood on their hands.
Hamas, the attack of October the 7th, couldn't occur without Iranian help.
The Houdis in Yemen, they're all backed by Iran.
If the mothership of terrorism goes down, and I think it will, there's a plan out there by Admiral Cooper.
President Trump needs to hear from Admiral Cooper to the commanders out there.
You need to let Admiral Cooper tell President Trump about his plan.
We can deliver a knockout punch, not one boot on the ground.
The boots on the ground are the Iranian people.
The conditions are right.
If the Ayatollah goes and his regime falls because his people are demanding that he go, then Lebanon, Syria, I was in Saudi Arabia, Israel, and the UAE last week.
I am confident if the Ayatollah's regime is taken out and he is so weak, the weakest he's been, then Saudi Arabia begins to engage with Israel again.
And if you can have Saudi Arabia and Israel normalized, become normal nations, exchanging ambassadors, doing business, the center of the Islamic world is in Saudi Arabia, recognizing the Jewish biggest change in a thousand years.
And there's one man responsible for all of this.
Venezuela, Cuba, now Mexico, Donald Trump, tariffs.
To all of my friends who hand-ringed about tariffs, if it weren't for tariffs, we would not have secured the border.
Threatening to tariff Mexico got them to play ball.
We're having people fight fentanyl because they're afraid of being tariffed.
Donald Trump has gotten great trade deals by putting tariffs on people who cheat.
So this idea that tariffs are a bad thing is BS.
In the hands of the right president, tariffs are stronger than an army.
Well, I mean, I think Justice Kavanaugh and his very powerful dissent, the same with Clarence Thomas, gave a million workarounds for the president to continue what he's doing.
And I don't think there's going to be any payback of any money to anybody anywhere.
And it's kind of a meaningless ruling when you break it all down.
If anything, it makes it stronger because the emergency authority that the president used would have expired when he left office.
These other provisions that were outlined specifically by Justice Kavanaugh, this is how you do it, I think makes the president's policies that much stronger.
I want to get your analysis of the foreign policy mindset of potential 2028 presidential candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez from New York.
Listen.
To all of you, and Congressman, I'll start with you.
Would and should the U.S. actually commit U.S. troops to defend Taiwan if China were to move?
You know, I think that this is such a, you know, I think that this is a very long-standing policy of the United States.
And I think what we are hoping for is that we want to make sure that we never get to that point.
And we want to make sure that we are moving in all of our economic research and our global positions to avoid any such confrontation and for that question to even arise.
You want to explain that, Senator?
Yeah, in Latin, that means I don't know what I'm talking about.
In every language, it means, I don't know what the hell I'm talking about.
There's not one language that does mean a thing.
Yeah, I'm a mile wide and an inch deep.
What she doesn't understand is strategic ambiguity is the policy regarding what would happen if they invaded China invaded Taiwan.
Can you imagine having a son or daughter in the military and she would be your commander-in-chief of your son and daughter?
No.
Remember that.
All I can tell you is that when you vote for president, you're probably voting for the economy.
I get all that.
I think Donald Trump's got a good economic plan.
He's secured our border.
Gas prices are going down.
Tax cuts are going to kick in here big time.
But you need somebody in the White House for the unexpected.
You need somebody there who people are afraid of and willing to work with.
Nobody's afraid of AOC.
Can you imagine what they're thinking about in China if she got to be president?
They're actually laughing.
You know, Obama could send an aircraft carrier towards somebody.
They would yawn.
If Trump sent a rowboat, they would say, what can we do to help you?
It's all about the image.
It's all about the person in the White House.
This president has gotten people afraid of America, and he's gotten people to want to be on America's team because he's strong.
So that answer says all you need to know about the left.
It's incoherent.
They have no idea about how to defend this country.
God, I pray to God that they never get in charge of our national security, as do President Trump.
He's on the verge of the biggest change in the Mideast in a thousand years.
He's cleaning up the drug cartels in our backyard.
Cuba will fall before the election.
This island in Cuba, been in communist hands since 1959.
It's been a thorn in America's side.
Donald Trump is about to break them.
Venezuela was the mothership for Cuba.
Venezuela is off the table.
Russia can't help.
What Donald Trump has done is amazing.
He is beyond Ronald Reagan.
If we can get Cuba, Venezuela, and Iran to fall in 2026, it will be the biggest titanic shift since World War II.
It'd be the most consequential year for the world since 1945.
Where do you see us with Ukraine and Russia and Europe?
We have about a minute.
Okay, I think what President Trump's going to do is going to pivot to more pressure.
He wants my Russian sanction bill to pass.
It will allow him to tariff countries that buy cheap Russian oil up to 500%.
We need to give him that authority.
He went after India and needs to go after China.
I would urge him to give Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine to stop the drone and missile factories deep in Russia to get Putin to the table.
We need more pressure on Putin to get to the table economically, and we need to enhance the Ukrainian military.
Donald Trump's the guy to end this war.
Voter ID Controversy00:03:33
All right, Senator Lindsey Graham, South Carolina.
Thank you, sir.
800-941-Sean is a number if you want to be a part of the program.
Remember, you know, we've been arguing over voter ID and proof of citizenship.
And Chucky Schumer is, even though he made the case himself back in 1996, utter hypocrisy, he's calling it Jim Crow 2.0.
Just to remind you.
The SAVE Act is an abomination.
It's Jim Crow 2.0 across the country.
We are going to do everything we can to stop it.
Now, Democrats have been telling lies.
Well, what if a woman gets married and she changes her name?
She's not going to be able to vote.
That is addressed in the 32 pages of legislation if these idiots would only read it.
Bernie Sanders, Grandpa Bernie, is saying, well, he doesn't have his birth certificate, doesn't know how to get it.
Maybe he'd want to go to the hospital where he was born or look it up in the records in whatever town he was born.
Maybe he doesn't remember where he was born.
I don't know, but here's what he said.
No, you're not talking about voter ID.
That's the way Trump defines it.
What you're talking about.
Now, I don't know about California's initiative, but I do know what's going on in Washington.
Is that some geniuses think that before you can, maybe I have it wrong here, register to vote, you need a passport or your birth certificate.
Do you have the passport of your birth certificate?
At the moment?
Do you?
I do.
But millions of people don't.
I don't have my birth certificate.
God knows how I get it.
Now, what's fascinating about this, and it just shows liberal hypocrisy.
They don't want voter integrity.
They don't want confidence in results.
They don't want proof of citizenship.
They don't want voter ID.
No.
And they're saying that it's racist.
It's Jim Crow 2.0.
However, if you look at the leader now of the radical Democratic Socialist Party, Zoron Marxist Kami Mumdani, with his big snowstorm, many of you have been living through.
I guess it's ending about now.
Telling people that want to become emergency snow shovelers, what are they paying them?
$19.50 an hour, Linda?
Not too bad.
But it can go up to $28.
So, you know, don't cut him short.
He's not cheap.
Well, how come some people get 19 and some people get 28?
That's discrimination.
You know, I don't know how their math math is.
I really don't.
I don't get it.
Okay, so he's telling people that want to become in New York City emergency snow shovelers to show up with five forms of identification with their paperwork.
This is what he said.
And we're utilizing 33 DSNY vans and two DSNY buses to transport shovelers where they're needed faster.
And for those who want to do more to help your neighbors and earn some extra cash, you too can become an emergency snow shoveler.
Just show up at your local sanitation garage between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m. tomorrow with your paperwork, which is accessible online at nyc.gov/slash snow, and you can get started right away.
I mean, you don't need it to vote, but you need five pieces of identification.
Good luck to anyone that wants to be an emergency snow shoveler.
It's too much work to get the job.
And then he tells people that they have to show up, and then he says, you know, explains why you need the ID, Jim Crow 2.0, according to Chuck Schumer, to get paid to be an emergency snow shoveler.
What is that?
There's a bit of this controversy over the snow laborers and the sort of what some see as onerous need to have documentation.
Onerous Documentation Controversy00:06:16
Can you just talk about if that's new and what you make of the controversy?
This is all long-standing.
This is a long-standing program and long-standing requirements.
And this is a way that New Yorkers get paid to shovel snow in assistance with the city's response to a winter storm event.
Federal law requires that employers get authorization and documentation to pay people for their work.
We are not allowed to just cut checks to individuals for their work.
And these are the policies that we've had in place, but I understand that for many, it's the first time that they've ever heard about it.
You can't make that up, Linda.
Can you?
You really can't make it up.
He is.
I tell you, I thought, you know, I thought that Gavin was going to win the day, but he might be tying up with Mom Dami.
I can't figure out which one's more dumb.
No, Gavin's winning the day today.
Gavin made a mistake.
I've been freaking, man.
They're freaking because he's cursing.
He's like losing his mind.
Oh, I got him to drop a drop.
I got if you haven't looked at my Twitter account, he dropped an F-bomb on me.
And I dropped one back on him.
I'm like, well, I was a little more delicate in mine.
But I mean, and you know what the irony of that is, too?
I mean, he now wants to put in place legislation to get kids off of their phones and social media.
Has he met Kier Starmer?
Is he hanging out with Starmer?
Is that what's happening?
Apparently, you know, but maybe he doesn't want his kids reading his own posting for crying out loud, the way he's viciously cursing me out on Twitter.
The comments are priceless.
They really are.
I mean, people just are just piled on him in mere moments today.
Yeah, there's the liberals and the, I mean, honestly, his former base is living in the pile of trash that he has made California.
And so they're really not into his BS.
Like, it's like, all right, dude, like, you suck.
You truly are the worst governor.
You've crushed our state.
And you have no idea what it is to be us because you live behind glass walls when you are here and you're always traveling because you think you're going to be president, which that will never happen.
Not if I have a say in it.
And by the way, I am holding back.
I am holding back a ton of op research I have on Gavin Newsom right now.
Why bother giving it all up now when it doesn't matter?
There's no reason.
I'm a patient man.
You don't have to punch down.
It is punching down.
They're not wrong, but I wasn't going to take his crap today.
Joe in Virginia.
Joe, you're on the Sean Hannity show.
Nice to see you guys today.
Listen all the time.
Sean, sir, you and I had a conversation back in 03, 04.
I suggested we elephant walk Iran, and you told me it would be unethical.
Now, in this day and time, here we are, what, 47 years later, since the original stuff?
And our technology.
Hey, what did you tell me?
And what did I say back when?
You told me it would probably be unethical to elephant walk the country because we killed too many civilians.
And I agree with that.
But at that point in time, you see, I still had anger issues because I was a 19 Delta Cascout in 79 who joined to quash that.
So I still had some issues with the whole process, you see.
So I was, yeah, elephant walk him, get it out of the way.
You know, it's the old soldier stuff.
Just get it out of the way.
Now, Mr. Trump, our lovely POTUS, my God bless his heart.
God bless America for this man.
And you, sir.
Oh, and by the way, if I may say, I'm ingratiated by following the honorable Lindsey Graham.
I'm just, I got chills.
So I love these guys.
Now, where we are at this point in time, I said elephant walk.
Yes, it would have been horrible and horrific.
We don't want dead people like Trump.
We don't want war.
We don't want dead people everywhere.
But where we are situated right now, I'm not in the, I'm not nowhere near any genius about this, but I do know a little bit.
I think our position is ready to strike, and I think he should go ahead and just take them, behead the whole thing and get it over with now.
No diplomatic.
I think we need to just shut it down.
Well, look, I say that I think the time has come, and I think that the entire region will be better off.
However, I add this caveat.
I don't want the president to go too early, and I trust the president's judgment completely on that.
The fact that he has built up the biggest military presence in the region since the Iraq war tells me that he is doing just that.
And our lovely Mr. Hegseth, my gosh, you know, his job has got to be keeping him up at night, but he's doing a wonderful job.
And they're highly prepared.
And I agree with you.
He needs to hold the trigger, but there's got to be a moment.
There has to be a moment.
It can't just be, okay, you said you would do it.
You know, they're going to lie to us.
They're going to continue to lie, no matter as long as those people are in charge.
That's, you know, and as Lindsay said, everyone knows that.
Yeah, look, I just, I think, is it a good thing?
And there were people that did not want the president to take out Iran's nuclear sites, and I knew they were wrong.
Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.
My understanding is the Iranians have been trying to negotiate the right to have a lower-grade enriched uranium, but the problem is it's too quickly turned into weapons-grade uranium.
And that is a long-term strategical tactical issue for not just the region, but for the U.S.
And unfortunately, they're just not people you can negotiate with or trust.
And we learned that from Obama, and we learned it from Biden.
Dropping cargo planes full of cash and other currency didn't work and will never work, and you can never trust them.
They are, as Lindsey Graham said, you know, is Islamic fascists, and that means radical Islamists that believe that God is telling them to kill or Allah is telling them to kill innocent men, women, and children, and they get rewarded in heaven for it.
And that is not a mentality that you can have a negotiation with, in my view.
And I think now it's just a matter of time.
We'll see.
Misinterpreting Words00:04:53
Joe, listen, I appreciate you, man.
Thanks for sticking with us all these years.
We're glad you're out there.
Bob, South Carolina, next Sean Hannity Show.
Hi.
Hi there, Sean.
Thank you and your staff for all the good work you do.
Thank you.
What's on your mind today?
Happy Monday.
Happy Monday.
I just want to applaud Linda for not giving up curse words for Lent.
Why are you encouraging this?
Why?
Because I think.
He should give up the one thing that's harder, the hardest thing for her to do.
She can do it.
She chooses not to do it.
And her justification, rationalization is: well, I've tried before and I can't.
Don't worry about it.
Wait, let's hear what the caller thinks.
Why do you support my decision?
It's not in those terms.
Today, we need those words to describe the ignorance we're forced to endure.
My man.
The ignorance from people that use those words a lot.
Like Gavin.
It's novel.
Yeah.
It's a necessity.
It is a necessity.
See, those words were built for those people.
They're terrible.
Gavin needs a strong hand.
Calling a strong F-bomb.
Calling a liberal stupid just doesn't cut it anymore.
Thank you, my friend.
Yes.
Caller of the day.
I'm not going to get in the way of this.
I don't have a problem with it.
See that?
And even you.
See, last night you had to use one.
You had to use one.
It was a good one.
No, I used it today.
I used it this morning.
Whatever.
It all rolled into each other, but you finally got there.
Good for you.
You're proud of me.
But I didn't, but if I wanted to give up cuss words, I can.
It's not that I'm in control at all times.
You're not.
Okay.
I have given up chocolate.
It's my all-time thing.
I love chocolate.
I eat a piece of it sometimes too a day.
And people who know me know that's a big splurge.
No, you're making an excuse.
You are rationalizing because you have failed spectacularly every Lent going back as long as I can remember.
You would say, I'm really going to give up cursing this year.
And then within an hour or two or three, you've never made a full 24-hour period where you need it through a day.
Yes.
Well, that tells me that you're not trying hard enough and you should give up the one thing that would be the hardest for you to give up.
Obviously, chocolate, dark chocolate, to be exact.
Exact.
Okay.
I gave up all of it, though, to be fair.
I didn't just, I mean, you know, I gave it all up.
It wasn't like I was like, all right, I'll give up dark, but I'll keep milk.
I gave it all.
You gave up all the chocolate, but you're going to keep cursing like a sailor.
Yes, Jesus needs me to do what I do best.
And that has put liberals in their place.
Yes.
Wait a minute.
Of course.
Now you're going to use Jesus as your justification for not giving up cursing for hell every time you try.
Who am I to fight our Lord and Savior?
He didn't use, well, maybe he did.
Oh, he was overturning the temple.
He sure did.
Well, no.
Listen, he stepped away for one second from the city.
People misinterpret that.
You know, come on.
No, slow down.
People misinterpret that.
The idea that Jesus, you know, threw over the tables of the money changers in the temple and don't and don't spoil my father's house when he made those comments and turned it into a den of thieves.
When he said that, it was righteous, it was righteous indignation.
It was not anger.
I don't believe Jesus was capable of sin.
I think anger can be a sin.
Like, I was not angry when I was writing those people.
It was justified.
I fully support you.
I'm just making my point.
I did not say what I said today on X about Gavin Newsome with anger.
There was no malice in my heart.
Righteous indignation.
Absolutely.
All right.
Tonight, Hannity, 9 Eastern.
We'll have the Mamdani controversy.
Why do you need five pieces of ID to be an emergency nose shoveler in New York, but you don't need it to vote?
It's insane.
Tim Scott weighs in on Gavin Newsom's idiotic remarks.
We'll get to that.
Mark Wade Mullen.
We'll have the latest on Ron.
We'll have a bunch of reporters and Mike Lawler and much more.
Is that your DBR?
We got a great show.
Nine Eastern, Hannity, Fox News.
Oh, by the way, Gavin said that he can't read.
Somebody posted on X: Gavin Newsom claims that he can't read, but a few months back, he claimed he'd read a book over 300 pages in less than two hours.