Sean Hannity Show's "Virginia Map Meltdown" details how a state court struck down a $64 million Democratic gerrymandering plan, allegedly costing Hakeem Jeffries nearly $40 million and disenfranchising 3 million voters. Former AG Ken Cuccinelli and Senator Bryce Reeves confirm the ruling validates claims that legislators bypassed required referendums, potentially shifting 14 to 19 House seats to Republicans despite Democrats spending three to four times more. The episode further critiques AOC's fascism remarks, alleges Marco Rubio targeted Latinos, and highlights President Trump's revived fitness standards for schools, while Hannity shares his own rigorous daily workout routine involving 150 crunches and 40 push-ups. Ultimately, the segment frames these legal and cultural shifts as decisive victories for conservative momentum ahead of the midterms. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: CohereLabs/cohere-transcribe-03-2026, WAV2VEC2_ASR_BASE_960H, sat-12l-sm, script v26.04.01, and large-v3-turbo
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Virginia Court Victory00:15:26
This is an iHeart podcast.
Guaranteed human.
All right, news roundup and information overload hour, 800 941 Sean.
If you want to be a part of the program, in a massive, massive second big blow to Democrats.
By the way, they're the people that have mastered the art of gerrymandering to try to favor their political odds all over the country.
And now it's backfiring because Republicans now have challenged the dirty tricks that they've been involved in for decades, to be blunt.
But this is a massive blow.
First, it was the racial gerrymandering decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, and now, in a massive blow to Democrats.
And I told you this would not withstand judicial review.
I told you before his gerrymandering scheme even took place in the Commonwealth of Virginia that it's never going to hold judicial muster because, one, they didn't follow the constitutional process, and two, the wording of it was abusively corrupt and biased.
But that's, you know, that's.
You know, whatever, it just didn't work.
Here's the best part you know, Democrats burned $64 million, $64 million on this failed gerrymandering scheme of theirs.
Nearly $40 million of it came from the House, well, minority leader in name only, Hakeem Jeffries.
He actually is very angry that he spent all of this money, and they've got no judicial recourse at this point.
He put out on X the decision by the Virginia Supreme Court to overturn the will of more than 3 million voters will not stand.
Well, yes, it will stand because they have a process and a rule of law as it relates to constitutional amendments.
The Democrats never followed it.
And he goes on over 3 million Virginia citizens cast their votes in a free and fair election.
No, it wasn't.
They didn't follow their own constitution.
The state's Supreme Court has chosen to invalidate their voice, disenfranchise them.
And violate their due process rights.
No, the Supreme Court of Virginia said follow the law, follow the Constitution.
Anyway, he writes this decision to overturn an entire election is unprecedented, undemocratic, and it cannot stand.
MAGA Republicans have adopted voter suppression as a strategy.
This is the same Jim Crow 2.0 crap that they tried to claim in Georgia.
And then what happened?
The next election comes, more minorities voted than in any other election previously held in the state of Georgia.
We are exploring all options to overturn this shocking decision.
Our fight is not over.
We're just getting started.
Please donate here.
I mean, it's just not going to fly.
But the Democrats, now, this is the second massive blow and a huge boost to Republicans' efforts in the midterms.
I'm not saying, look, I don't even think the issues that will impact this midterm election year have actually happened yet.
We need to see how Iran unfolds.
And then, of course, The economic growth that we keep seeing, the strength and the fundamentals of the economy are, oh, shockingly, economic numbers are up again.
And this number's up again.
And unemployment's down again.
And GDP numbers are better than expected.
I mean, we keep hearing it all the time.
One big problem right now is gas prices.
But as soon as Iran is over, that will come to an end also.
It's not a small issue for most people.
I fully, completely understand that.
But anyway, you know, you have people predicting that as many as, you know, 14 to 19.
Republican House seats will be picked up because of the Supreme Court ruling.
Now we find out Virginia's Supreme Court overturned their ridiculous gerrymandering redistricting plan, which was designed, even though Donald Trump got 46% of the vote in the Commonwealth of Virginia, they wanted to have 10 Democratic seats that were safe and only one Republican seat, disenfranchising pretty much half the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Anyway, here's the headline in the New York Times In a huge blow to Democrats, a Virginia court strikes down the House map.
Virginia Supreme Court striking down a measure allowing state Democrats to redraw congressional districts, dealing this significant blow to the party's efforts to keep pace with Republicans in a nationwide redistricting battle.
If anyone's keeping pace with anyone else, that would be Republicans now basically playing by the same rules that Democrats have played by for decades.
4 3 decision, majority writing that Democratic legislators had put a constitutional amendment to allow for a new map before the voters in an unprecedented manner.
That violated the state's constitution.
Oh, Linda, who told this audience that this would happen?
This violation irreparably undermines the integrity of the resulting referendum vote and renders it null and void.
And, you know, Democrats were celebrating the results of the referendum.
Told you it was not going to withstand judicial review and scrutiny.
Anyway, here to weigh in on it, I think probably the most knowledgeable person in the country on it is Ken Cuccinelli, former attorney general for the state of Virginia Commonwealth.
And Virginia State Senator Bryce Reeves, who also played a big part in this as well.
Can everything that you said, every argument you outlined, the court validated here as they should have?
Yeah, they even did it the week when I said they would do it, and the person wrote the opinion to who I guessed would write the opinion.
So, nailed that one.
But the most important part is that it came down correctly and undid this really gangsta legislating effort by the Democrat General Assembly to trample the Virginia Constitution.
And really right that wrong.
And they're all screaming about, including the current Attorney General, J. John, oh, you know, 3 million people voted.
The same people asked the Supreme Court to wait, correctly, by the way, for the outcome of the referendum, because that's how over 100 years of law and precedent in Virginia stood.
And so the Supreme Court waited, which they recited in the majority opinion.
You asked us to wait.
We waited.
Now it's over, and we ruled that it was done unconstitutionally.
And it was really quite brazen, frankly.
And this was just the first case.
There was another case coming behind it, equally brazen, that included the crazy ballot language that you referenced, Sean.
That was included there, too.
But now we'll never hear that case because the referendum was thrown out.
You don't need to throw it out twice.
And we're going to keep our maps in Virginia that are currently 6 5 through 2026.
And given that they spent three or four times as much as our side to then Only eke by with three points, really running a Trump derangement syndrome campaign.
And if they did it in 28, you know, it would be the election for Trump's successor.
So I just don't think that strategy would work, particularly when so many of their own folks really liked the bipartisan redistricting map that we have in Virginia.
And now we get to keep it.
Senator Bryce Reeve, let me ask you this question.
I want to play for you Abigail Spamberger in 2025 saying, Oh, I have no plans to redistrict Virginia, just like every other.
Agenda item she has, she never informed voters before the election?
Short answer is no.
Certainly, Virginia, by constitutional amendment, has a new redistricting effort that was put in place and first utilized in the 2021 redistricting.
Certainly, I've been watching with interest what other states are doing, but I have no plans to redistrict Virginia.
She just flat out lied on pretty much everything.
She didn't inform voters of any of her agenda.
The result of this has been Virginians are pretty angry at the governor, and she has the lowest approval rating of any governor in decades.
Well, John, first, thank you for getting the word out, and you did call it right.
And I also have to say hello and good afternoon to my dear friend, Attorney General Cuccinelli, because if it wasn't for the Cooch, I wouldn't be here 15 years ago.
I beat a 28 year incumbent by 86 votes on election night in a Democrat district.
And if it wasn't for Attorney General Cuccinelli, They would have stolen that race from us.
So, Ken, good to have you on the team again.
As far as Abigail Spamberg goes, you're right.
She's a big liar.
I've called her that.
She had me kicked off Commerce and Labor because of the New York Times article where I said the only difference between her and Mamdani is Mamdani has the nads to go ahead and say he's a socialist.
And I've been calling her that ever since she's been my congresswoman.
In fact, General Cuccinelli lives in the same 7th District.
So I'm glad it's staying where it is.
I think we got a great shot now to take out Benman, Eugene Benman, who is.
You know, hates the president and has TDS as well.
So, you know, Virginia is really, we've been taking it in a short since session.
We don't have a budget.
They just, or will soon indict, I think, our chairman, President Pro Tem, and Chairman of Senate Finance.
So I don't know that we'll get a budget out of Virginia either.
But as Virginia melts down, I'm proud to say that some of the justices that we put on there, I know one of them worked for the general when he was the acting, I think they made the right decision.
They ruled on law.
And, you know, if they would actually read the law, they would understand the series of events that they violated.
And look, we're not the ones that voted to have 45 days of early voting in Virginia.
If they didn't have the 45 days early voting, this would be a mute thing.
But they wanted that.
Well, this is what they got for having it by running this plan around.
You can't break the law in order to change the Constitution.
And that's what the justices said.
And so that'll hold.
And it's a great day for Virginia.
All right, quick break.
Huge victory by the Virginia Supreme Court.
Court today in this power grab attempt by Abigail Spanberger and Democrats in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
More with Ken Cuccinelli, former Attorney General, Virginia State Senator Bryce Reeves on the other side than your calls this Friday coming up, 800 941 Sean, our number if you want to be a part of the program.
Now, with former Attorney General of Virginia Ken Cuccinelli and Virginia State Senator Bryce Reeves, this huge Virginia Supreme Court victory on this power grab attempt by the Democrats as it relates to redistricting.
Sorry, they lose, we win.
You know, a lot of people suggest, Ken Cuccinelli, that Virginia is a purple state.
I really see it as a blue state.
And one of the reasons is that all these D.C. bureaucrats have moved into Northern Virginia, and it makes it very, very difficult statewide for Republicans to win.
I mean, Glenn Youngkin, as great a governor as he was, he only won by two points.
Yep.
Yeah.
So you're right about the cause, Sean.
I grew up and lived in Northern Virginia my whole life until I. Move down toward Price in more central Virginia.
And that's a partisan problem.
I mean, the growth of Washington by both Republican and Democrat spending has polluted Northern Virginia politically.
All these big government people move in from California, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York to run this government.
They're big government people, and Maryland stinks, so they live in Virginia.
But they keep voting like they're from California, Illinois, Massachusetts, and Northern Virginia has politically gotten bigger and bigger and worse and worse.
And we're probably on the border of purple and blue.
Obviously, Glenn Youngkin, Jason Yaris, when some Sears proved.
You can win statewide.
But you're right.
I mean, when I was part of a sweep, we were sweeping by 16 points.
They were sweeping by two.
And so Virginia has gone a long way to the left in the last 15, 20, 25 years.
And it has overwhelmingly been caused by the growth in federal government spending that so pollutes Northern Virginia politics.
I would go back to the beginning of this thing.
Cooking it up last October, it really looked like the Democrats in Virginia kind of held the Washington Democrats hostage for money for their campaigns that last fall.
And then, of course, Washington money came in to fund the referendum, and we were outspent about three to one.
And now that all that money has now been lit on fire from Washington Democrats' perspective.
So they can't, there's going to be a lot of finger pointing here on the Democrat side of this.
We'll give you, Senator, the last word today.
Well, the last word is Republicans win, Democrats lose, go home crying in their beer because we're going to pick up our mantle of leadership, continue to lead.
And, you know, I would agree with Ken, Sean, that I don't ever want to admit we're a blue state.
We're purple and we're going to continue to fight.
We're only down one in the Senate and we're looking at ways to try to pick it up.
And we're just not going to yield to the left.
And I'm really proud of the attorneys in my caucus that took this up, our minority leader, Senator McDougall did a great job, Senator Sturdivant.
And, you know, look, General Cuccinelli came from the same body, so he knows these guys well.
And let me just say publicly, thank you, General Cuccinelli, for the work you've been doing to help all of us get where we are today.
It's on your shoulders to which we stand.
So we'll continue to fight.
And, Sean, thank you for getting the word out.
My pleasure.
And we would be negligent if we didn't mention the work of Glenn Youngkin and Jason Miaras.
They did a great job also.
Anyway, appreciate both of you and well done.
Congratulations.
Good news for Republicans around the country.
You know, Linda is requesting I play lunatics on the program.
Why are you requesting that I, you know, it's the last half hour on a Friday and you're trying to annoy me, is what you're trying to do.
Like I say, you do a much better show if I irritate you.
Now, if you imagine every backroom deal that got Kamala Harris the nomination and how Democrats pushed out.
You know, Joe Biden, who they said was Jen Psaki herself, Circleback said, you know, or Peppermint Patty, whichever you prefer, that I have a hard time keeping up with him.
I'm like, then you must be in really awful shape.
Now she's claiming no backroom deals are involved in the Democratic nomination process.
Democracy Under Threat00:06:04
Only MSDNC, you know, can contradict themselves this way.
Listen.
But what is exciting about it is that you, the people out there, get to choose.
There is no thank God.
Dark room in Washington where people sit around and they decide here's who the nominee is going to be.
Typically, that's not how it happens.
It's not how democracy works.
There's going to be a whole process.
Which name do you like?
Circleback or Peppermint Patty or both?
Circleback all day.
I love Charlie Patty.
You can't take that for granted.
All day.
Now, AOC just building on her, you know, fight the oligarchy.
A billionaire could never earn their own money.
They didn't earn that money.
Well, if you create goods and services, I mean, look at Bill Gates, for example.
Forget whether you like Bill Gates or don't like Bill Gates, it's irrelevant.
Microsoft.
Okay.
How many of you listening to this program have used and.
A product over the years.
Or think of Apple.
How many of you have used Apple products in your life?
Oh, nobody's forcing you.
Nobody can force you to buy these products.
And yeah, the guys that come up with the brilliant ideas to do it become billionaires.
I love my S-Plad.
I don't care that Elon Musk is a billionaire, I don't care at all.
He built a great car, best one I've ever driven.
Anyway, here's AOC.
We are allowed to have fun while destroying fascism, and then saying we weren't really a democracy until 1963 65.
We were apartheid.
Listen.
The one note that I want to leave us on is we are allowed to have fun while we are destroying fascism.
We are allowed to inhabit joy, and we are allowed.
To cherish one another, and we are allowed to celebrate our victories.
And in fact, oftentimes, and I think this is also maybe a cultural thing, the side that is having the most fun often wins.
That, like, there's a spectrum of true democracy, which, like you said, Black people and Black Americans in this country have been building since they were not, you know, captured and brought here.
We weren't really a democracy until 1963, 1965.
That's exactly right.
You know, voting rights and civil rights.
We weren't, we were apartheid.
Before then.
That's exactly right.
It's 70 years old or so, this system, 80 years old.
Now, you know what she's not saying?
By the way, I think she's referring to the 64 Civil Rights Act and the 65 Voting Rights Act.
Then, Linda's favorite on that nauseating, hard hitting news show on ABC Disney, The View, Ava Navarro.
Listen to what she said Rubio's complicit in serving an administration that is persecuting, torturing Latinos and immigrants.
I'm like, you do know that his family's from Cuba.
You do know that he speaks fluent Spanish.
Anyway, listen.
I have been hearing the same version of these words from Marco for 20 plus years.
I've known Marco since we were in our 20s.
And it kind of breaks my heart because I remember finding him so inspiring.
You know, he just has this aspirational quality to him.
He's incredibly eloquent.
His personal story is so poignant.
But it all rings so hollow now.
For him to say that we live in a country where the color of your skin doesn't matter, where you came from doesn't matter.
When he has been silently complicit, serving an administration that targets people, racially profiles people, is basically persecuting and torturing Latinos and Latino immigrants, is taking away voting rights from the African Americans, firing people for the color of their skin.
So it just, to me, it's heartbreaking and it's disappointing.
The worst part of that show is they're not very smart.
I still have a place in my heart.
Whoopi Goldberg was always nice to me.
I know you don't like when I say that.
You hate it, actually.
It's not that I hate it.
It's just that she has been so egregiously attacked in such an egregious manner and so unfairly.
And I think that's where I take issue with her.
She used to be funny.
She used to be cool.
She used to be open minded.
Now she's just.
There were some pretty cool movies back in the day, too.
Remember when she did Ghost, Demi Moore?
Her sister act.
I mean, she was hysterical, you know?
I mean, but now she's just angry.
And I don't know if it's like.
I'm not one of the shows that Ainsley makes me watch.
I'm like, good grief.
But I mean, I'm sure Ainsley would agree.
I'm sure Ainsley would agree.
I had to watch The Crown.
Did you watch The Crown?
I think I missed it.
I thought it would be.
What's that?
What is The Crown?
I forgot to say this during the redistricting argument that we just had over, well, the story about Virginia.
Even fake news CNN, maybe you have this tape.
I don't know if you do.
Harry Enton laid out the numbers after Indiana's primary rocked the world because they.
Like every other red state now, is going back and they're going to redraw their maps because they're going to get rid of racial gerrymandering as per the U.S. Supreme Court.
And what he found is Trump's approval rating among Republican voters is 84%, right in line with his 85% mark in 2018.
He said MAGA is especially fired up, saying that the 60% saying the 2026 midterms are more important than usual compared to just 36% of non MAGA Republicans.
And 75% of GOP voters say party leaders should follow President Trump's lead.
I'm telling you, the only thing I'm asking of people now, because I don't think the issues that will impact the outcome of this midterm have happened yet.
We have to finish with Iran.
Daily Push Up Routine00:06:26
That will finish.
The economy is showing every sign of strength beyond anyone's understanding or comprehension.
Talking, well beyond the predicted estimates.
That's what I read every day, it drives me up a wall.
That's pretty interesting.
Oh, I do have an issue for you.
Now, do you work out a lot?
Every day.
Okay.
Because I saw this thing and I read this today.
And you know, I work out four or five days a week.
And it's goals for all as this fitness test for kids now is going to return.
And they come up with targets.
For example, on average, and President Trump revived the decades old exam for public school.
School children this week calling it an important step in our mission to make America healthy again.
Meanwhile, by the way, I don't think President Trump's ever done a push up or a sit up in his life.
Let's just be blunt here.
I don't know about that.
He went to military school.
I don't know about that.
Well, that's true.
He did in military school.
Good point.
I stand corrected.
I'll take that.
However, they come up with the average move targets, for example, crunches.
You know, it says that if you're in your 20s, you should do.
40 consecutive, 40 to 50 consecutive crunches in your 30s, 30 to 40, in your 40s, 20 to 30, in your 50s, 15 to 25, and 60 plus, 10 to 20.
Now, how many crunches do you think I do on any given day?
Just take a guess.
100?
Okay, so I will do, you know, I'll do a traditional crunch.
Then a reverse crunch.
Then I do it modified because of the condition of my neck, unfortunately.
A V up.
You know what a V up is?
I do them too.
Okay.
And I do them in, I do them one after another after another.
I don't take a break in between and I do 150 a day.
You alternate legs or you do one leg and then the other leg?
Which, which, which, you mean when you do the V up?
No, I do two legs together.
I pull in my legs and I pull up my body and I stretch out my arms.
Got it.
It wouldn't be, it wouldn't not be viewed as perfect form.
No, it couldn't be because that's hard on your neck, man.
Well, that's the, I actually now just wear a collar when I'm working out just because to make it easier so I can keep lifting.
Because I don't want to stop lifting.
Now, anyway, so, and then they have these, I guess, standards for push ups.
What do you think they say the average push up should be for, I don't know, somebody my age?
30?
No, 6 to 12.
6 to 12.
6 to 12.
I mean, that's ridiculous.
A 20 year old.
What do you think for a 20 year old they say?
I mean, it should be like 100.
15 to 30.
Oh, that's pathetic.
If you're in your 30s, 12 to 25.
In your 40s, 10 to 20.
In your 50s, 8 to 15.
In your 60s, 6 to.
I have no earthly idea the dumbest thing I've ever heard.
Now, there are some days like Sensei will say, All right, do your age.
That means get down.
And he screams at me that I got to go down further every time I'm doing push ups, meaning I just do my age consecutively.
I lose 64 push ups consecutively.
I can do it.
It's a pain in the ass, but I do it.
Usually, we will do multiple sets, usually 40 push ups.
I'll do 40 regular, 40 incline, 40 decline, and then 40 more regular.
That's what I usually do every day.
And not a lot of rest time in between.
I might do one other exercise, then go back and do more push ups.
I mean, and I don't think I'm exceptional, to be very blunt with you.
I mean, I do have a decent amount of muscle mass.
And I do know how to defend myself.
I'm not a martial artist.
God forbid I mention it, but it becomes a meme all over the place.
I don't know why people don't like that I want to talk about what I like in my life.
Anyway, people are haters, man.
John, North Carolina.
Hi, how are you?
Happy Friday.
Hey, happy Friday.
Glad to speak with you.
How many sit ups and push ups can you do in a row?
Not many at all.
I'm out of shape.
Dude, you just start with if you can only do one or two a day.
Fine, start there.
But then build up an extra one every day and just keep going.
It's not an ego contest, but it would be really good for you.
Do you walk?
Yes.
Try and walk 10,000 steps a day, very healthy.
All right.
And do you eat well?
I'm working on it, getting better.
That means no.
So try and eat more protein, be keto friendly as possible.
That's my advice for whatever it's worth, but I'm not a doctor.
So what's on my mind was I was laughing at that AOC interview.
About the billionaires, and you didn't earn that.
When I heard her say that, I just started laughing and said, That's nothing but a cheap ripoff of when Obama told everyone that owned a business that you didn't build that, the government did.
Exactly the same thing.
That's a great point by you.
So you get extra points.
I'll give you one day off your push up routine for such a great observation.
Okay?
So starting Monday, you're going to start with however many push ups you can do.
It doesn't matter.
I don't care if it's one.
And the next day, just every day try to do one more than the day before.
Okay?
Okay.
I want you to live a good, long, healthy life.
If you need muscle mass, you got to have some.
Absolutely.
And on June 8th, I will call into the show and let you know my progress.
All right, cool.
I love that.
And it's not an ego contest here.
You know, when people work out with me, the first thing I'll tell them is what I do has nothing to do with what you do.
And if anything, I just encourage them, I don't care where they're starting at.