Sean Hannity addresses the crisis in Iran, warning that U.S. and Israeli bombing plus a total coastal blockade could destroy the economy and cost 12 million jobs while leaving 60% enriched uranium behind. He condemns Pope Leo XIV for claiming "God does not bless any conflict," citing over 400 biblical references to war and ignoring the regime's nuclear ambitions, executions of female protesters, and funding of terrorism. Hannity links Senate Democrats blocking arms sales to Israel with rising anti-Semitism, contrasts this with a Trump-announced 10-day ceasefire in Lebanon, and notes Victor Davis Hanson predicts Iran's collapse may signal the end of NATO as currently configured. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: CohereLabs/cohere-transcribe-03-2026, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo
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Iran Blockade Expands00:02:24
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It is 800 941 Sean.
If you want to join us, we're going to spend some time on the situation in Iran.
Iranian insiders now fear that the economic destruction, I'm calling it a preview of coming attractions, if the Iranians don't sign on to the deal, and as it's getting.
You know, this is their time of choosing.
And I think the president is showing great restraint because the president is giving them the preview of coming attractions.
They will have no economy if the president blows up their oil infrastructure.
And right now, with the blockade, which is tremendously effective, even China turning around a big tanker that they had filled up yesterday, everybody now abiding by the blockade.
And now the blockade has even expanded out.
They've expanded.
You know, beyond the Strait of Hormuz, and it's now encompassing the entire Iranian coast.
And Iranian insiders fear the economic destruction being caused by the U.S. Israeli bombing and the blockade could now topple the entire regime.
As many as 12 million jobs, nearly half of Iran's workforce, are now at risk of being furloughed or laid off.
What does that mean when people don't have a paycheck coming in?
And then the food supply starts to run short.
At that point, what are people going to have to lose?
Nothing.
And this is where the president's showing restraint.
He does not want to destroy life for the Iranian people.
The Persian culture, the Persian people, they have an amazing, inspiring history.
Really amazing.
And that can be recaptured.
And that is the hope that will happen here.
This can be over very, very quickly.
For those of you that are impatient, but the president, I think, very wisely is trying to give this fourth, fifth tier level of leadership, because everyone else has been wiped out, an opportunity to feel the pain of what's coming and what will then be permanent.
Church Conflict and Corruption00:12:23
And there's no way the U.S. is leaving the 60% enriched uranium.
It's not going to happen.
And we'll see how this unfolds.
But before we do that, I want to get to this issue.
I'm getting really annoyed, Linda, at the Catholic Church.
And I want to backtrack a second.
I went to Catholic schools.
I said this the last two days on this program.
I want to remind people if you're just listening and you didn't hear it.
I went for 12 years, I was raised Catholic, and I went to Mass every Sunday.
And my mom and dad were both pretty devout people in their life, and I admired their faith.
It gave me a great foundation for my life.
I'm grateful to the church because what happened is being immersed in it throughout my life, you know, even though I probably was not paying attention 90% of the time or really that interested in it at that point in my life, it got through and it definitely awakened my conscience.
I know right from wrong.
I know when I'm right.
I know when I'm wrong.
And it's been nothing but a positive in my life in so many respects.
However, you know, the reason that I say I'm a non denominational Christian is I really am pretty, I just can't reconcile with the fact that they never dealt with institutionalized corruption.
And the one position, because if you've ever been to a mass, the Holy Eucharist comes directly from Jesus Christ Himself.
And I think it's a beautiful service.
And unfortunately, the church made a terrible decision.
You know, 11 of the 12 apostles were married.
For the first 1,200 years of the church, priests were allowed to marry.
And they came up, and I think it was all for financial reasons and fear that divorce may cost the church a lot of money.
If priests got married, they got divorced, it would cost the church a lot of money.
I think so.
There were many, many financial considerations.
Not exactly the best reason, in my view.
But if Jesus wanted people not to be married, why did he pick 11 of the 12 apostles that were married?
I mean, it didn't make sense.
Then now somebody's going to call in some smarty aleck and say, Well, Hannity, he didn't pick any women to be part of his apostles.
No, but women played a very, very important role, starting with his own mother and Mary Magdalene and many other women that followed Jesus and served him.
But that's a different discussion for a different day.
So the Pope keeps upping the ante.
I think he's enjoying the attention.
And what's frustrating to me, and it's hard to say, because I'd rather not criticize the church, I'd rather.
I wish they would fix their institutional corruption.
You know, this child abuse scandal was real, and the parishes knew about it, and the bishops knew about it, the cardinals knew about it, and they systemically covered a lot of it up.
Rome knew about it, and nobody ever dealt with it head on, owned it, and compensated victims of corruption.
And horrible things were done to people that were victims.
It was terrible.
And to this day, I don't feel that they adequately have addressed what had happened during the scandal.
And then putting that aside, then you have all these different popes, and many of them have radical left political points of view.
I was very frustrated with Pope Francis, less frustrated with Pope Benedict.
The best pope in my lifetime was Pope John Paul II, as far as I'm concerned.
Now we've got Pope Leo XIV, who keeps amplifying his condemnation of the president.
And the U.S. Israeli war with Iran, saying, God does not bless any conflict.
That's what he's saying.
And he certainly doesn't side with those who drop bombs.
That's what he said.
The only problem is, and I would think that the Pope would be well versed in the Bible, both the Old and New Testament, because contrary to the Pope's statement condemning this conflict with Iran, the number one state sponsor of terror, That has been fomenting terror around the world and in the region, going on for 47 straight years and killing how many tens and tens of thousands of innocent people.
If you look at the Bible, it contains over 400 references to war.
Over 400, you know, depicting God, even in the Old Testament, as authorizing, commanding, intervening in battles for Israel.
And I mentioned David and Goliath.
That's maybe.
One example that everybody knows about, or King Saul, or, you know, the walls of Jericho, and all these other instances.
I can go on and on and on.
So it is frustrating to me.
And then I look at the Pope, you know, 45,000 protesters, it's estimated, were slaughtered in Iran by this evil regime.
And he's not condemned the mass killings of these Iranians.
Why not?
Iran's attempt to build the nuclear weapon.
As they believe in this ridiculousness of strapping bombs on innocent men, women, young men, and especially young men, and telling them to go kill innocent men, women, and children, and a promise of a reward in heaven of 72 virgins.
Why won't he address that controversial issue?
Is he afraid?
He doesn't want to comment.
Is he not aware of it?
You know, you just get a vague, longstanding position against all countries developing nukes.
That is not the issue at hand.
They are steadfast in their commitment to getting a nuclear weapon coupled with their radical ideology.
It is a death cult, and not a peep out of the Pope about the death cult and about the mullahs in Iran.
Not a peep out of the Pope after residential neighborhoods in this conflict have been hit, densely populated areas.
Tel Aviv has been targeted heavily in this conflict.
You just get vague statements against all war.
Why hasn't he spoken out against the Iranian regime?
Why isn't he fighting with them?
Or Iran's bombing of holy sites in Jerusalem?
Not a peep.
Or Iran's oppression and rape and murder of innocent women, especially if they don't dress a certain way.
Or Iran's execution of people that are gay and lesbian?
Not a peep out of the Pope.
Iran's involvement in killing American troops in Iraq and Beirut?
Not a peep.
The first American Pope.
Iran's funding of terrorism, the terror proxies that they fund and they arm.
Now, he did condemn the October 7th attack, you know, and condemn terrorism, but he never specifically mentioned Iran.
He only wants to go after Donald Trump.
Now, he also recently met with David Axelrod and far left Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker.
I'm sure he talked all about abortion, which the church takes a very strong stance on.
I doubt it.
And if you go to his old Twitter account, He retweeted a message asking if Donald Trump can see the suffering caused by wrongfully deporting migrants.
So he's a radical leftist.
He's a radical Democrat.
It's obvious.
You know, he retweeted a post referring to Trump's immigration policies as nothing remotely Christian.
Really?
You know, and retweeted a post criticizing Trump's bad hombres line as fueling racism and nativism.
And they wonder why the church has seen a decline of people.
And I can go through comment and verse.
I'm just sick and tired of it.
Iran just sentenced four protesters to death, including a woman.
Where's Pope Leo speaking out in defense of that woman and preventing this woman from getting murdered because she dared to oppose the crackdown?
Tom Holman fired back at the Pope, explaining what Vatican leaders don't know about immigration.
Pope Leo's warning that tyrants are ravaging the world.
Oh, I have a question for the Pope.
Will this world that you seem to care so much about commenting on be better off with or without a nuclear armed Iran?
And when will you speak out against radical Islamic terrorism?
And when will you speak out?
Was it a good thing?
Because you're the one that commented that God doesn't bless any conflict.
Was it a good or a bad thing?
That Donald Trump wiped out the ISIS caliphate.
Have you ever seen ISIS soldiers beheading people on a beach the way I have?
And do you have any comment about that?
The convert or die philosophy.
Haven't heard the Pope comment on that at all either.
Haven't heard a peep out of the Pope on that.
You know, a dispatch from inside the Vatican bubbled during a remarkable exchange between, you know, the Pope and the President.
Why won't.
Where is this Pope's moral clarity?
That's what I'm asking.
At what point was it okay for David to kill Goliath and for God Himself to mention war?
Did God do a horrible thing when He parted the Red Sea and then drowned Pharaoh's soldiers so the Israelis could make it to the other side, to the promised land?
Was that a bad thing?
Are you going to now judge God and question God in the 400 references?
I mean, they're very specific.
I mean, I went through, I could spend the next two hours of this program and give you chapter and verse on it.
I won't bore you with that, but I could.
400 references to war in the Bible God authorizing, commanding, intervening in battles for Israel, which, by the way, directly contradicts what the Pope said God does not bless any conflict.
I'm not trying to pick on the Catholic Church here, but this is a fight that he's picking.
And if he's going to have this selective moral outrage that he's feigning and seemingly enjoying this public fight with Donald Trump, I think it's time that he starts to get questioned.
Donald Trump takes questions all the time.
Nobody gets to ask the Pope a single thing.
And I think it's time, and I would like to offer myself as the person to go interview the Pope.
I think I'm uniquely qualified.
I studied Latin theology, went to the Catholic Church for 12 years.
I'd love to interview the Pope.
And I would ask him these tough questions.
And why is he only speaking out in this instance?
And maybe he can explain God's references to war in the Bible and why he says that God doesn't bless any conflict because that contradicts exactly what's said in the Bible.
Or talk about the history of the church and corruption and why the church has never dealt with its corruption.
Now, it may sound a little harsh, but I was raised Catholic.
I actually care about the church.
I got a lot out of the church, I get a lot out of the Mass.
Because that is the Mass, the Last Supper, with Jesus and his apostles, when he told them exactly what would be happening and then ordered them to love one another as I have loved you.
Church could be beautiful.
The Mass is beautiful.
It's just sad that, unfortunately, like a lot of big institutions, a lot of corruption takes over.
Senate Arms Sales Watchdog00:03:13
I got that out of the way.
I have a lot of people pissed off.
There's not one thing I said that's not true.
It is really frustrating to me.
You know, that the Pope wants to keep this battle with Donald Trump going.
And then you look at his former Twitter feed, he was a radical leftist.
He's met with JB Pritzker and that's Axelrod.
It's ridiculous.
The overwhelming majority of the Senate Democrats voted to block U.S. arms sales to Israel.
That is your new Democratic Party.
Next in the IRS scandal and the NSA atrocities, convince you.
You need a watchdog on Washington with insider sources.
You need Hannity every day.
So, what's going on in Washington today?
Oh, let me see.
Overwhelming majority of Senate Democrats just voted to block U.S. arms sales to Israel.
The rise of anti Semitism in the halls of Congress, especially the Democratic Party, College campuses.
Notice those same, you know, college kids that were out there protesting.
You know, Israel loses the equivalent of 40,000 Americans in a day on October 7th when you extrapolate their population compared to ours.
What do you expect?
What would you want America to do if we lost 40,000 Americans in a day and we knew who did it?
What would you want us to do?
Would you want us to fight back or no?
I would say obliterate, you know, the country, the people responsible.
For this happening and those that aid and abet them or elect them.
Anyway, they voted to block arms sales to Israel, a reflection of where the Democratic Party is today.
I mean, this is a party, they don't want to fund the Department of Homeland Security.
They don't want to fund the police.
They want to defund, dismantle, no bail, reimagine police departments.
They want open borders.
They created the most preventable national security disaster in history.
Now they have sanctuary cities and states.
They take taxpayer dollars to provide benefits that people that don't respect our laws, borders, and sovereignty.
Then they want to give them, you know, they want to reward illegal activity with citizenship and free benefits.
It's insane.
Remember, Kamala wanted taxpayer funded sex change operations for illegals, and Tim Walz wanted taxpayer funded college for illegal immigrants.
It's madness.
We can't afford it.
Democratic votes on a pair of resolutions from Bernie Sanders, not enough to overcome universal opposition from Republicans.
The votes represent a watershed moment in the party's relationship with Israel.
And some of the most notable names to vote in favor of blocking military transfers to Israel.
NATO's End and Ceasefire00:12:37
Let's see.
Cory Booker, both Arizona senators among the Democrats to vote for both resolutions.
Did you pick up Linda Anna Paula Luna yesterday?
She said that there's somebody from Arizona in the U.S. Senate.
Only two people from Arizona.
That are in the United States Senate.
One of them, he's predicting, is going to have a major problem surviving.
I don't know if it's quite Swalwell like, but it's going to have a major problem surviving.
That's what it sounded like to me.
Is that what you heard?
Yeah, I think Anna Polina Luna has definitely been standing firm on if you are consorting with people that work in your office, then you're going to have a problem.
In your office.
Where's your office?
You have a home office.
I have a home office.
I have a work office, you know.
My office is lovely, and I do not canoodle with the staff.
But you left New York.
You don't live in New York anymore, right?
Amen.
And when people ask you what you do for a living, you tell them you're working on radio.
I'm a gardener.
I like gardening.
You don't want to admit it.
Iranian insiders rightly fearing the economic destruction caused by the U.S. and Israel bombing.
This blockade is crushing them.
Now, that's why I am more optimistic than ever.
And there are people pushing for an extension, give them more time.
I'm not on that list of give them more time.
I'm sick of giving them time.
U.S. military expanding the President's Strait of Hormuz blockade.
The blockade now encompasses the entirety of the Iranian coast.
U.S. military forces now widening their shipping blockade.
On Iran to include cargoes deemed contraband.
Any vessel suspected of trying to reach Iranian territory will be subject to a belligerent right to visit and search.
U.S. Navy said these vessels, regardless of location, are subject to visit, board, search, and seizure.
That's moving along just perfectly.
Here's the interesting part, too, because the president put out these tweets yesterday.
We didn't fully understand the context of it all, but the president said yesterday that China agreed not to send weapons to Iran.
And then he predicted, by the way, you know I'm scheduled to go to China with the president on Air Force One.
And you are aware of that, Linda, correct?
Or no?
I was not aware of it.
Should I hit the breaking news sounder?
Nobody told me.
Well, I just told you because I just.
Breaking news.
Meeting 30 million other people.
I figure that this is like the only chance in my life that I'll ever get to go to China.
I don't think China likes me.
I don't think I want them to particularly like me.
Well, you know, Trump keeps telling us how much he likes him, so I'm sure he's going to like you.
Well, in Helsinki and Vietnam and Singapore and all these other trips that I've been on, even when I go to Israel and I've been to Iraq and all these other places, it always becomes challenging because you can't use your phone.
If you even turn your phone on for one second, these very sophisticated spy agencies will download the content of your phone.
Can you believe that?
I got a call from the FBI.
Your phone has been hacked by the Iranians.
Well, what does that mean?
There's nothing on there that I really give a rip about.
I'm not Eric Swalwal.
I'm not Mr. Fang Fang.
Just tell them Mother Jones already tried.
It didn't work.
We're fine.
Move along.
What did Mother Jones try?
They printed all 57 pages that came out when they did that whole thing where they were releasing people's text messages.
Remember?
That's when they were like, oh, my God, he believes everything he says.
Yeah, but that happened to me.
That was the first time.
Then there was the second and third time.
Then there was the January 6th committee.
I don't have privacy, it doesn't exist.
It's over.
But I got, well, really, they went to my lawyer and told that the Chinese, the Iranians, the Russians have all hacked into my phone at different times.
That's a little weird.
It is not a normal life.
Definitely not.
And then you ask them what you're supposed to do, and they give you a list of things to do.
I don't think any of it works.
To be honest, I think if anyone wants it.
But anyway, the interesting thing is China's very happy that I'm permanently opening the Strait of Hormuz.
Now, a sanctioned Chinese oil tanker crossed the Strait of Hormuz and they had to return back to Iran after the blockade stopped them from moving forward.
The aborted voyage of this Chinese owned tanker.
Blacklisted by the U.S. in 2023 shows how the U.S. Navy successfully blocked the flow of ships carrying Iranian oil.
It is now you got China on our side because they want this crap to stop.
And I don't blame them.
It's kind of sad.
Maybe the Pope can weigh in on this.
Iran's barbaric regime is now set to execute their first female protester over these recent protests, one of the estimated 1,600 that are now sentenced to death.
You know, killings.
Pete Hagstaff warning Iranian leaders choose wisely.
I would tell them that you should probably listen to the president.
That is my advice.
But didn't I tell the leaders of Iran?
Remember, there were reports they had their planes on the tarmac and they were ready to head to Russia and they were probably going to pillage the country and they were going to take off with tons of money.
That's the way all these people do when they seek asylum.
And I'm like, here's my advice.
And I said it on radio and I said it on TV.
If I was you, I would get on that plane as soon as possible.
Don't pass go.
Don't collect 200.
Take your money with you.
You can get out safely now.
If you wait, you're probably going to be dead.
And when Operation Epic Fury happened, what happened, Linda?
They missed their window of opportunity.
They think they were going to.
They don't think that.
I mean, here's the problem, right?
You think that he's kidding.
He's not kidding.
He's telling you, he's giving you the playbook.
You can either get in the game or you can get hurt.
Well, the president is showing great restraint.
And some people say that is how could you say that, Hannity?
He's not showing restraint.
Well, you know, he can ruin their whole economy right now permanently.
And he's not done it.
And the president's also straightforward.
He's going to take their uranium one way or the other.
And there is an operational way that they will be able to do it.
Iran is crumbling.
You know, Victor Davis Hansen.
I really like Victor Davis Hansen a lot.
Here's the headline Iran crumbles, critics scramble.
Trump's long game leaves the media exposed.
And he said, if you look at the Iranian war, I'd call it the longer view, not the short term 24 hour news cycle.
And he said, what's happening right now is the left wing of the United States political spectrum, the Democratic Party, and they are a nexus now.
And I'd add to that the weirdo conspiracy theorist.
Isolationist nutjobs out there.
So anything that looks unfortunate from the point of American success in Iran, they cling to.
Last Monday, it looked like President Trump, after his tweet on Easter that he was going to, you know, go after them and destroy civilization as they know it, they say, he's a warmonger.
And they put him in this box.
If he doesn't strike, he's taco Trump.
Trump has followed through on pretty much everything he promised he would do.
And if he did follow through, then he was a war criminal.
He couldn't win.
He announces negotiations the next day, then it's taco.
Okay.
Well, now we have the blockade that outmaneuvered them.
And Victor Davis Hansen is saying if you take the long view, the only way you can do this is look at history.
And history says it's very unusual one side has been this victorious in what is an asymmetrical war, especially against.
The strongest power, by all accounts, 93 million people, a massive territory, and people were terrified of it, not just the Gulf monarchies, but obviously Europe.
I think NATO's done at the end of this.
I really do.
I think we'll see bilateral deals with countries, especially Eastern Bloc, Western European countries, the former Eastern Bloc, you know, like Poland, et cetera.
I think we're going to have individual, you know, Security agreements with them.
I think NATO in its current configuration is done.
Anyway, so Victor Davis Hansen goes on We say the strait was open before the war.
Yeah, it was open, but it was open on the condition that Iran would close it at any minute.
I know for a fact, pay attention, I said, I know for a fact that they anticipated what would happen with the Strait of Hormuz.
And I know for a fact that they anticipated the Iranians would mine it, which is why they had minesweepers right there available at a moment's notice.
If you look realistically, they don't have a military.
They have lost probably hundreds of billions, if not a trillion dollars or half a trillion dollars, you know, in a half century investment in missiles and now in drones and sophisticated aircraft, and I'd add nuclear capability.
Their command and control is down to their, you know, fourth and fifth tier.
We don't know if the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, we don't know who exists, we don't know if it's a political class, we don't know if it's the theocracy.
We know that.
They have benefited from the money that the regime takes in, but that money now is going to dry up very quickly and may dry up permanently, which might then motivate them to switch sides.
And this is where the regime could totally collapse, which would be great for the people.
The Persian people would have another, a new lease on life, which I would love for them.
It's very fluid, but militarily, it's very clear this has been an overwhelming, devastating war for Iran.
And who are the winners and losers?
Russia has no presence in Venezuela.
It has no presence in Latin America, no presence in the Middle East.
It's, you know, the Assad regime is gone.
And Donald Trump is winning.
And there are people that don't like it.
Democrats, Hakeem Jeffries predicting that the president's going to fail.
Oh, he didn't fail.
I mean, this is going to go down in the history books as one of the greatest ever.
If the president gets this dust, reopens the streets, then it's just game changing.
And on the other side of that, you're going to see all of these Gulf state countries, they're all going to want to recognize Israel to move on.
By the way, the Israelis, the strike that they had on Hezbollah in Lebanon, Saw its command structure across Lemanob come under what Israeli officials described as the most devastating blows.
As a matter of fact, they described it as more devastating than the 2024 Pager attack.
Simultaneous explosions, 50 Israeli aircraft struck more than 100 Hezbollah targets in one shot.
Now, they're going to begin, I guess, negotiations.
There's going to be a ceasefire.
It's going to be a 10 day ceasefire, the president announced, and apparently it's going to be at the White House.
That should be very interesting.
Now, the president says Israel, Lebanon agree to a 10 day ceasefire, so we'll see what happens.
Anyway, a lot of good things happening.
But this could all end tomorrow.
This is the thing.
The president just has to make the decision that he wants it.
But I don't think, I do not think, and by the way, God bless Nigel Farage.
He took aim at Neville Chamberlain Starmer and said that this is a terrible disaster not to support America when it asks for support.
Is extraordinary, an extraordinary thing to have been done.
And he's now going to challenge Stormer.
And I think he has a very good shot of being the next prime minister.
And I think it'd be great.
When we come back, we got a lot to get to.
We'll check in with a Navy Admiral straight ahead.