Sean Hannity details "Operation Epic Fury," a military strategy to neutralize Iran's nuclear program and its ballistic missile threat to Europe. Citing Steve Witkoff's intelligence on 60% enriched uranium, he contrasts this with the successful rescue of two U.S. pilots by SEAL Team 6. Hannity accuses President Obama of enabling the regime while Trump threatens infrastructure destruction to force surrender, dismissing international courts as biased and framing the conflict as a moral necessity against an "Islamofascist" enemy. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: CohereLabs/cohere-transcribe-03-2026, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo
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Daring Military Rescue Mission00:12:07
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It's 800 941 Sean.
If you want to join us, there are certain moments in time when you look at the United States military and it just, you well up with a sense of gratitude and you are in just awe of how amazing these men and women are.
In an all volunteer armed forces are at any given moment.
And you think of the history of the U.S. in dealing with the Iranians, and it has not been a good one for the last 47 years, with the Ayatollah Khomeini coming into power in 1979 and Americans held hostage for 444 days,
and how stupid so many past presidents have been in trying to deal with this radicalized, Of the Islamo fascist regime that controls this place and what they have done to a once great people, the Persian people, and how they have so oppressed this country and driven them into poverty, and how much terror they have been fomenting around the world and their terror proxies that they have been funding.
And then you think of the utter stupidity of people like Barack Hussein Obama.
You know, let's just fly in cargo planes of cash and other currency and billions of dollars so that the Iranians can build out their.
Nuclear capability, ballistic missile capability, and so on and so forth.
And the result has been devastating for the region, and it has been becoming an existential threat to the entire world.
We'll get into the need for this entire operation in a second, although we've addressed it many times.
But there are so many people that could not be any more wrong about the urgency of the president's actions here.
And it's all I could tell you had the president not acted expeditiously.
That the odds of a nuclear armed Iran would have been that much greater.
We, once again, the world underestimated the Iranians' capability in terms of the range of their ballistic missiles.
We now know they have ballistic missiles capable of being launched, and that could hit countries like Great Britain and France and cities like Paris and London.
We did not know that before.
As per usual, international globalist organizations underestimated what they had.
And so we have been engaged in this military effort because we learned from our Mideast envoy, Steve Witkoff, who was negotiating with the uraniums, confirmation of that, which we kind of already knew, which they had enough 60% enriched uranium that could be enriched to weapons grade uranium in no more than 12 days, which would have given them enough uranium for 11 bombs.
You couple that with their ballistic missile capability, and now you're looking at.
A nuclear armed Iran, you know, with a convert or die mentality and the number one state sponsor of terror.
The fact that we have to convince some people that this was the right decision is a little bit difficult for me to comprehend because we do have a lot of stupid people.
Just like a lot of stupid people I was watching meltdown over the weekend because the president put out a controversial truth posting, and I'll get to that in a minute.
But the moment that all of you heard, many of you heard Sunday morning, Easter morning, many of you heard.
Saturday night, we got him.
My fellow Americans, over the past several hours, the United States military pulled off one of the most daring search and rescue missions in U.S. history for one of our incredible crew member officers, who also happens to be a highly respected colonel, who I am thrilled to let you know is now safe and sound.
This brave warrior was behind enemy lines in the treacherous mountains of Iran, being hunted down by our enemies, who were getting closer and closer by the hour.
But was never truly alone because his commander in chief, secretary of war, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and fellow war fighters were monitoring his location 24 hours a day, diligently planning for his rescue.
At my direction, the U.S. military sent dozens of aircraft armed with the most lethal weapons in the world to retrieve him.
He did sustain injuries, but he will be fine.
The miraculous search and rescue operation comes in addition to a successful rescue of another brave pilot yesterday, which we did not confirm.
Because we did not want to jeopardize our second rescue operation.
This is the first time in military memory that two U.S. pilots have been rescued separately deep within enemy territory.
We will never leave an American warfighter behind.
The fact that we were able to pull off both of these operations without a single American killed or even wounded just proves once again that we have achieved overwhelming air dominance and superiority over the Iranian skies.
This is a moment for all Americans, Republican, Democrat, everyone else, that they should be proud.
Of all of the United States and all our brave fighters.
We truly have the best, most professional, lethal military in the history of the world.
God bless America.
God bless our troops.
Happy Easter to all.
I don't know why people doubt our military might.
I'm not really sure.
We are at a very critical, crucial point in how this is going to go down.
A lot of people don't know when a U.S. aircraft goes down in a war zone, the response is anything but completely anticipated, choreographed tightly, and it is something that they practice from day one.
And what is the highest, you know, the most sensitive technology, you know, we want to keep that out of enemy hands, deny our adversaries intelligence propaganda wins.
The military has a clear playbook for when these situations arise.
It is factored into any military mission because we're dealing with mechanical equipment, things can go wrong.
Our people are important.
And anyway, so if a pilot, like in this case, two pilots ejecting, And they survive.
They are trained to evade capture using survival techniques that are drilled into them before they are ever deployed.
Concealment, communication with friendly forces, movement to avoid detection.
Military commanders prepare, they plan, they execute recovery operations long in advance of them ever engaging in any military activity and ensure that these individuals are trained to contend with any event, unforeseeable event.
And capable of recovering personnel and staff to react quickly to whatever situation just happens to arise.
You know, elite units like, you know, Air Force, you know, para rescue, Navy SEALs, Army Special Ops teams, they know they're going to be dispatched.
They're often escorted by helicopters, fighter jets, et cetera.
In some cases, drones, satellites, surveillance aircraft are used, and they monitor and track the pilot's position, and they were able to do this.
With perfection.
It is something that is practiced over and over and over again.
And the goal is to prevent a sensitive equipment, radar, weapons technology from falling into enemy hands.
But more importantly, it is to make sure that we don't leave Americans behind.
And when a crash site, the military may destroy the records from the air.
They ended up doing that in this effort for a number of different reasons that came on board at the time.
Now, When you look at the details of this, it is spectacular.
And the president went into great detail today, and we'll play some of it as the show unfolds throughout the day today.
And all of it is incredible.
All of it is, you know, we had over 100 men.
You know, the U.S. rescued this F 15 airman, it was deep inside enemy territory.
They had SEAL Team 6.
They had John Ratcliffe, the CIA director, describe a CIA ruse to.
To divert their attention, they constructed a forward airstrip in hostile territory.
They had patrols.
They created a perimeter.
They were using drones all over the region as a means.
They knew exactly the location of this fighter pilot.
I'll get to that in a second.
But the officer shot down on Good Friday.
This was southwestern Iran, hid in the mountains.
He managed to climb a 7,000 foot ridge.
My understanding is get inside a little crevice inside of a mountain, knowing that the Iranians.
Had every belief that he was alive because they found the ejection seat and they found no pilot there.
But he was able to climb this 7,000 foot ridge.
And in an effort to confuse the Iranians, they put a $60,000 bounty, which is more than 10 times the average household income in Iran.
So that was a great incentive for people on the officer's head.
The CIA pulled off a diversion Saturday, planting fake intel that he had already been rescued and was being driven out of Iran.
According to the Times, to push them off at their attention in another area.
The operation involves landing multiple transport aircraft inside of Iranian territory, deep inside that territory.
The U.S. Air Force landing strip was set up close to the city.
And they started out with, and this is another amazing part of it, because they have contingency plans.
And I talked to people familiar with the mission, it's been now widely reported.
I'm not reporting anything that's not now out in the public.
They had these two massive C 130s that ended up, you know, coming in.
They ended up actually sort of like having problems when it was on the ground.
But immediately they dispatched not one, not two, but three backup transport planes that were in place, ready to take off in case, as a contingency, in case they had a problem.
They didn't have to, you know, last minute, you know, scramble these planes as a backup in case something happened.
I mean, pretty amazing stuff.
And I mean, this is like, I don't know, Jason Bourne, Mission Impossible, you name it, all James Bond, all loaded up in one.
They had a total of four helicopters, night stalkers, according to a report in the war zone.
It's believed the Iranians were fired upon from the air.
In other words, as they created a perimeter.
And anyway, they were able to send in these backup aircraft to go in and get the rescue teams and get this pilot.
That had been injured during the ejection.
And the U.S. Air Force used multiple bombs, blowing up all the aircraft that they ended up abandoning, you know, just to get the hell out of there, which is standard operating procedure.
And the U.S. suffered no casualties.
And U.S. Special Ops commandos also engaged in skirmishes, apparently, as well.
And then the president was able to say, We got them.
Trump's Bold Peace Strategy00:12:05
It is a lesson, and it is a moment for this country to just take a moment and be proud.
Be proud of the fact that we have brave men and women that are willing to risk their lives to protect one another and to protect us.
There is still a grave misunderstanding out there, and I think it's purposeful on the part of people that have agendas.
The saddest part in all of this is you don't hear from the left, you don't hear from the crazy Democrats, you don't hear from the radical left.
You don't hear from the isolationist wing all over the place that, you know, if they had their way, Iran would have nuclear weapons and would hold the world and our children and grandchildren hostage.
That you can be convinced of.
And that is the whole reason that the president made this very quick decision for Operation Epic Fury to begin with.
It's the 60% enriched uranium.
Now, according to the president, they are in the middle of negotiations with a deadline of tomorrow, with the promise that the president's going to blow up their bridges and blow up their infrastructure and their power plants and blow them into the Stone Age if they do not go along with this deal.
And I'll get to the actual verbiage of it in a second.
And the reason that the president is pushing this point.
And this is a very simple choice for the Iranians.
Now, they had an opportunity for peace before Midnight Hammer.
They did not take that opportunity.
The same thing with Epic Fury.
They were given time, and the president would have preferred, he said it repeatedly, he would prefer to have peace.
But when you're dealing with Islamofascists that believe in convert or die, the number one state sponsor of terror, it's very hard to negotiate with radicalized people like this, indoctrinated people like this.
Now, the one benefit that we have, the president believes this next tier of leadership, the fourth or fifth tier, is being more reasonable.
But if they don't agree to open the Strait of Hormuz, if they don't agree how to turn over the uranium, not if they will turn over the enriched uranium, then the president will follow through on his promise.
And you would think that they might have learned something about Donald Trump and his promises at this point.
You'd think they might have learned that they've been decimated, their army, their navy, Pretty much their ballistic missile systems, their nuclear systems, 14 bunker buster bombs.
How many more lessons do you have to teach one regime before they come to some level of understanding of what they're dealing with?
Anyway, I hope that they choose the peaceful option.
Be better for the world, better for our country, better for everything.
But you know what?
They just can't be permitted to have a nuclear weapon.
We went over why this was needed at this time.
This conflict with Iran.
We're now neutralizing the number one state sponsor of terror.
We are preventing them from ever getting a nuclear weapon while we had an opportunity.
And I've explained in detail how this president learned the lessons of Reagan, peace through strength, the lessons of history, the last century, 100 million dead souls in the name of some ism that could have been taken out earlier that was not.
And he also learned the lessons of Iraq and Afghanistan.
And, you know, I mean, I'm listening to people out there that are now trying to claim that this war is illegal.
As Martin Gurry put in the New York Post, wars are not subject to laws or court hearings.
Institutions that pretend to be otherwise, like these globalist institutions like the UN and the International Court of Justice, which we don't recognize, have existed.
They have historically been anti Semitic and anti American.
A war is either just or unjust.
He makes a great point.
And this is determined by the circumstances of the conflict and the moral valiance of combatants.
The circumstances.
Of this present conflict are straightforward.
Death to America, number one state sponsor of terror.
And, you know, I just don't even know why this is even a question for some people, but it is what it is.
And I think that history will be very kind to the president's foresight, wisdom to neutralize what was a growing, clear, present danger to the world and to the United States before it.
Became more powerful than before it became a nuclear armed.
You couple, you marry nuclear capability with radical Islamism, and you've got yourself a formula for a potential modern day Holocaust.
It's that simple, not complicated.
You know, if you watch Donald Trump for 60 seconds, I don't know why this is hard, you know, for people to really understand.
Now, the Straits of Hormuz and the 60% enriched uranium remain the final pieces of this puzzle, and we're going to find out in fairly short order.
You know, we might know by the time we get on this program tomorrow.
We might know by the end of this program today.
I don't know.
And that is whether or not the president is able to successfully negotiate terms with this remaining tier of, quote, leadership.
By the way, while nobody was paying attention, you know, while Field Team Six and all these other heroes were rescuing this wounded airman, the U.S. warplanes were dropping a bunker buster bomb on.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guard headquarters taking out more of their top leadership.
We just don't stop.
We're pounding them.
And to the point where they are now not capable of fighting any war.
I mean, even Prime Minister Netanyahu said that this existential threat that was Iran is not currently an existential threat even to Israel, which is in the region.
By the way, the president did acknowledge today that they are trying to funnel weapons to the Iranian protesters.
I hope that is successful because you can't win revolutions without slingshots.
But the president was also clear regime change was not our main goal.
Our main goal was to make sure we don't have a nuclear armed Iran, and the president is proving successful in that effort.
The president says that they're getting close.
The president also said today that he vowed to prosecute the leaker who blabbed the news that a second airman was missing in Iran, rather.
Apparently, I'm not sure which news organization Linda's telling me she believes it was CBS and also the BBC, and they have a relationship.
But I want to see what happens because news organizations often pick up on a lot of stuff that they can't in good conscience.
They love their country and care about men and women in harm's way.
You just don't do it.
Let me get to this issue of President Trump and his tweet, the tweet.
Because people woke up on Easter Sunday morning and they were shocked.
Linda, they were just shocked.
Donald Trump has been saying controversial things ever since he announced he's running for president and he came down that escalator at Trump Tower.
I don't know why at this point in time people act shocked.
I think it's feigned, I think it's phony, I think it is.
They don't want to understand Donald Trump.
He said Tuesday, meaning tomorrow, will be power plant day and bridge day, all wrapped up in one.
There will be nothing like it.
Open the blanking streets, you crazy bastards, or you'll be living in hell.
Just watch.
Praise be to Allah.
That's what he said.
Now, he says this as Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner, and Marco Rubio reportedly are all negotiating with whatever Iranian regime exists.
In other words, went out with the Fourth or fifth tier of leadership.
Now, why did the president do this?
Why?
I know it's not conventional.
Is there anything about Donald Trump that's conventional?
Really?
Is there anything that really surprises you?
How many presidents are like Donald Trump?
We'll never see another one like him, I don't think, in our lifetime.
And the fact that people don't understand him at this late, after having all these years, if they had any sense of objectivity and any desire to understand him, you would understand him.
Now, what is he doing?
It's what I say he always does.
He's in a perpetual state of negotiation.
He wants an answer.
And the answer is is this new Iranian leadership.
Are they really more reasonable or not?
And he is putting them to the test.
Now, I can tell you what he wants as the outcome.
He would want the Iranians to end this war peacefully.
This is about pushing for peace, not for more war.
We've proven we can destroy them, we've proven that we can obliterate them.
And he wants the Iranians to choose peace.
But he also knows the mindset.
Of these Iranians, especially in some level of leadership, convert or die, number one state sponsor of terror, wipe Israel off the map, wipe America off the map.
He knows exactly what he's doing.
He's being purposely provocative.
He wants them to know number one, he will do it.
Number two, he's crazy.
If your enemy thinks that you're willing to do it, that these are not idle words that are being spoken by somebody like Obama and Biden, There's a lot of power behind that.
If there is any chance of any deal, this is the president drawing his line in the sand.
And he's speaking the only language that lunatics like this would understand.
People, you know, the reports that they're actually arming children in case America ever hits the ground in Iran.
They want young children to go fight their wars rather than the quote leadership.
You know, putting weapons on themselves and going to fight wars.
You ever notice the leadership never strapped bombs on themselves with the promise of 72 virgins to go kill innocent men, women, and children?
They would get indoctrinated, you know, average people to do that, but they themselves never do that.
And he's speaking the only language they understand.
I'm telling you right now, just like he didn't want to drop 14 bunker buster bombs before Midnight Hammer, he would have preferred a peace deal.
Just like he didn't want, he would have preferred peace before Operation Epic Fury gave them every opportunity for peace.
He is doing it now once again.
Except the first tier of leadership, the second tier of leadership, the third tier of leadership is now dead and gone.
And he's hoping that maybe this next tier of leadership might take him seriously.
The ball is going to be in their court.
It really, to use a very simple analogy, it's no different than a professional athlete, except the stakes are much higher, obviously.
You know, talking Adam Schiff to get a star player on the other team off their game, and he's playing chess, and the media and other countries are playing checkers, and everybody else lives in fear.
After 11 years of him being front and center on the world stage, you would think.
Europe's Climate Security Failures00:02:42
That they understand.
And what is this negotiation coming down to?
If the Iranians want a deal, and we should know sometime tomorrow if there's going to be a deal, all the president wants is they must open the Strait of Hormuz immediately.
The second thing that they're going to have to agree to, not if they will hand over the 60% enriched uranium, how they will hand over the 60% enriched uranium.
Now, if they agree to this ultimatum, Then hell will not rain down on Iran.
It will not be bridge day.
It will not be infrastructure day.
It will be, okay, now let's finish these negotiations and your country can survive day.
That's what it's going to be.
And I hope, and I mean this, maybe some people think I like war.
No, I want to get our brave men and women out of harm's way as quickly as possible while removing a potential threat down the road that we have a nuclear armed Iran.
Prime Minister Netanyahu, who actually declared Iran no longer poses that existential threat to Israel, but he's also factoring in that the 60% enriched uranium, it's either going to come out, we could do it the easy way, or we can do it the hard way.
And that's where we now are.
Now, I'm going to tell you something else.
There's two other things that have pissed me off in all of this.
Number one, I have had it with Europe.
Absolutely, they have chosen to disintegrate as individual countries and as a continent.
They have abandoned their commitment to national security and national defense.
They have embraced radical socialism and climate alarmism, which is why they are so dependent.
On outside sources.
They bought into solar panels and climate change and all of this.
It's cost them billions and billions and hundreds of billions of dollars.
They've not committed themselves to securing their continent or their individual countries.
And when America just asked for a little bit of help, and the president said it was a test to see if NATO would step up, they did not.
So I would imagine when this is all said and done and resolved, And it will be resolved in a way that there won't be a nuclear armed Iran or a nuclear threat of Iran.
And that actually helps out, oh, cities like Paris and London because they have the ballistic missile range that we didn't think they had, and they can get to Paris and London with nuclear material if they had it.
Backlash Over Soleimani Removal00:02:00
And they just, they were a bunch of cowards.
Neville Chamberlain Jr.
They learned nothing.
We rebuilt Europe after World War II, and they have allowed unfettered, illegal immigration and did not demand assimilation.
Which has resulted in nearly 100 Sharia courts in Great Britain and no go zones in other parts of Europe, including France.
And why they, you know, it is fascinating as the world is getting away from radical Islam.
Now, how interesting is it, Linda, that the daughter of the top Iranian official, Ali Larajani, remember we talked about him when they took this guy out?
Anyway, forced out of Emory University in Atlanta.
Set to be booted from the United States.
And anyway, her late father was a top official in Tehran, very evil guy.
He worked as an assistant professor at Emory.
Anyway, now it sparked backlash.
Now, did you see that the niece and grandniece of General Soleimani were arrested in Los Angeles after the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, terminated their permanent residence status?
ICE agents scooped them up, apparently, I guess, in Los Angeles, routinely boasting on Instagram about attacks against the U.S., bashing us as the great Satan.
Why would we be that stupid of a country to allow them into this country?
Did you see the pictures that the New York Post had of this young niece, this grandniece of Soleimani?
For all the talk about love of Allah and the Ayatollah, this, the Ayatollah.
Boy, a lot of these leaders, kids, grandkids, nieces, nephews, boy, they all made their way to the U.S. What does that say about the U.S.?