All right, welcome back to the Sean Hannity Show. I am Jeffrey Lord of the American Spectator or Newsmax and all over the place the Word of the Lord Podcast. We can't forget that, and I am sitting in for Sean as we wind down the year. You can call in at eight hundred and nine four one, seven, three two six or eight hundred and nine four to one Shawn. And we now are going to move on to our next guest, one, Selena Zito. Hello, Selena, Hey.
Joff, how are you nice to hear your voice?
I am, I am fine. Let me just tell our audience. Selena is a I'm biased is a terrific journalist who joined The Washington Examiner in twenty sixteen as a Pittsburgh based columnist and reporter covering national politics and culture from a perspective outside the Beltway. She is the author of Butler, The Untold Story of the near Assassin of Donald Trump and the Fight for America's Heartland and the Great Revolt.
She began her career at the Pittsburgh Tribune Review as a reporter and columnist covering national politics, and she has been a contributor at The New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, and is currently contributor at the Washington Post. So, Selena, it is great to talk to you.
Well, right back at Jeff, thank you so much. I hope you had a very very Christmas.
I did, indeed, I did, indeed, And now it's on to twenty six, which is exactly where I wanted to start with you. Let's start out with your thoughts on twenty six, both in terms of what's going to be happening in Pennsylvania politically and then anywhere else in the country that you have found of interest.
Well, as most people know, a mid term election for the party in power traditionally but not always tends to benefit the opposing party. But we're in very different times,
so I wouldn't place a bet on that there. You know, there's been a lot of sort of speculation because of what happened in Virginia, New Jersey, but what happened in Virginia in New Jersey is exactly what always happens, and so I wouldn't use that as a as a stepping stone to say, well, this means this, or that we're in very sort of turbulent times, not just in our politics, but also in how this country is changing in terms
of our economy. We are going through a version of the Industrial Revolution, only this time it centers on tech. And so with that turbulence becomes unpredictability in American politics. Now, Pennsylvania, as always will be the center of a ten. We have a governor's race between Democrats Josh Shapiro and Republican Stacy Garrity. This, uh, well just will be a very different matchup than the one between Shapiro and Mastriano. And and so I would look to this to be competitive.
But Shapiro has done a very good job of earning Trump voters in the last election cycle, So I wouldn't I would be cautious to think that this is something that would be easily won by a Republican. Shapiro does a very good job of having a moderating voice. And so we also have I would say three competitive races in the House and the and and for Congress, and also for this for the State House and the State Senate.
Both parties are being be pushing to get the majority in those in those in those legislative bodies.
How much do you think the governor Shapiro's eye on twenty twenty eight will affect what happens with him in twenty twenty six.
I think what Shapiro wants to do is, obviously, when the seat right, he wants to win reelection, but I think he also wants to show his muscle and try to get a larger majority of the State House. They only have it by one seat. That's not a lot of power. And I think he wants to also win the state the majority in the state Senate, which they do not have. I think Republicans have the majority by
about five or six seats. So that's what he is going to be putting his effort into, not just his race, but also also show his political chops by saying, hey, look what I did. I not only won the governor's race, I brought majorities in Now that's what he wants to do. That doesn't mean that that's what's going to happen. Pennsylvanians notoriously split their tickets, and I suspect this will over year will be no different.
How do you think you know? One of the things when I first when I was a teenager getting involved, I was a page not to date myself. I was
a page at the nineteen sixty eight Republican Convention. I was, I think seventeen years old, and I started, you know, having conversations with my political elders of the day, and one of the things that was explained to me was about what Pennsylvanians know as the t and for those not from Pennsylvania, basically that means that Democrats would do well in the east in Philadelphia, and in the world west in Pittsburgh and surrounding counties, and then this huge
swath of Pennsylvania that goes right up the middle from between those two spots and goes right up the middle to from the Maryland border to the New York border, and then goes left and right all the way over to Erie and the right over to Scranton and Wilkesbury. How much of a role do you think that that sort of formulation is going to play in the governor's race.
As they go on, Well, not much has changed about the Key other than the middle of the Key has gotten wider. Uh, you know, there's more there has been more power exercised in counties like Luverne and Erie and but also Cambria, Beaver Washington, Westmoreland. Back in those days, those were still Democrat reliable Democrat counties. That has changed over the past two ten years to the point where
most locally elected offices are now held by Republicans. So that has given Republicans more power and more ability to win statewide elections. You saw that with President Trump in twenty sixteen. You saw it more so with President Trump in twenty four where he expanded those wins. And you also saw it with Dave McCormick. So the power has shrunk away from Billy and Pittsburgh and went one point where there's those cities and the counties that surrounded them
determined elections. That's not the case anymore.
Yeah, Yeah, what was I going to say to you here about how much do you think President Trump is going to affect things in Pennsylvania in in our election, whether it's for the governorship or or just in general for other candidates lower down on.
The on the ballot.
I think that the president is going to be really really focused on the congressional races and also on the state legislative races. I suspect in our state that's where he is where he's going to use his political muscle, and and that's where I expect him to to to come out and be supportive and do the things that those candidates need for them to win.
And I have to ask, what are your thoughts on the state of the Pennsylvania Republican Party and how it How it's.
Doing well, I mean, it has its challenges. I think that the state Party should have not focused on the Supreme Court races this past November to the extent that they did. They were never going to win them. Those
are races that are hard to win. And also, I think, most importantly, because you know, I'm old and I have history of historical recollection, in twenty fifteen, Republicans lost those state Supreme Court races and everybody thought everything was over for the Republican Party and then look what happened in twenty sixteen. So I'm really reluctant to believe what happened this past November with those state Supreme Court races matters.
They should have focused more on local elections because that's what meaning you know, row offices and counties like Bucks and Eerie and Westmoreland. I think that's where that's where the state Party is most muscular, and they should take advantage of what they're best at doing.
Yeah, do you think I'm curious what you think about the state of industry in Pennsylvania. I mean, once upon a time it was all steel and coal, and now I think there are other things coming to the fore in Pennsylvania, twenty first century technology and all that kind of thing. What are your thoughts on that as to how we're doing, how the state is doing with that kind of thing and changes that may lie ahead or are already in progress.
Well, thanks to President Trump, the steel industry is going to be booming. It already is. They've been hiring at a robust clip because of the deal between Nippon and US Steel. So as the steel manufacturing is only going to get bigger and better in our state. And coal is also on the rebound in the state in particular because of the most important emerging industry in our state,
which is the AI data power centers. Now, while they don't typically employ a lot of people, the data are power centers themselves to build them and maintain them does and we have rich abundant energy in coal and natural gas to build the facilities and energy components needed to supply the energy to those data power centers. So we're going through a boom right now in our state, and we are for the at least the next ten years.
We've got hundreds of billions of dollars of investment, not only in western Pennsylvania, but also in Luzerne and other counties. There's going to be one upcoming in Green County where you are going to see and also Indiana County where you were going to see a sturge of hiring. It's already started and you're going to see these little boom towns start to form around these jobs.
Well, that's that's great news because I think that you know, I was a little more than a little concerned about our state of Pennsylvania, and uh when when I was starting out and eventually watching my old boss, Senator John
Hines working very closely as staff members. We had to work on the energy industry, and we also and I don't know, maybe you can update us on the status of what's going on with shipyard construction and I don't know, the Philadelphia Navy Yard is that's still uh still in business as it were.
Yeah, Senator McCormick and President Trump announced just a few a few weeks ago. Yeah, a couple billion dollar investment in the shipyards. So in terms of manufacturing, uh and blue collar work, you know people that work in the trade, right, the biggest challenge is to finding people to fill the jobs. Not that the jobs aren't there. There are lots of jobs.
Well that's that's good to know because when I worked for Senator Hines, that was that was one of my assignments that he made they would get This was directly
tied to the Reagan defense build up. And the deal was that there were aircraft carriers and battleships that needed to be They called it the SLEPT program s l e P, which stood for Service Life Extension program and uh, it was it was a battle for Senator Hines to get others around around the country, Uh, to you know, come pete against them and win so that we would get those ships into the Philadelphia Navy Yard. And a lot of times it happened, but sometimes it didn't happen,
and UH, that's a that's a problem. Well, my friend, it was great to talk to you. We will doubtless be seeing you talking to you again. Have a great twenty twenty six, And I would just remind our audience our numbers eight hundred nine four one seven, three two six, eight hundred and nine four to one Sean, and we'll
be back very shortly. All right, this is Jeffrey Lord sitting in for our friend Sean Hannity, and let me give out our number here, Sean's number eight hundred and nine four one seven, three two six and eight hundred and nine forour to one Sean, and you are welcome to call in and check in and see what's going on.
We're going to have a good guest coming up with our friend Jeff Bardos, who was very involved in Pennsylvania and UH is now also moved to the international stage at the UN, and we're going to want to talk to him a little bit about that. The UN is always as long as I've been around in life, it's always been a source of of of conversations with various ambassadors from the United States making a case eloquently for the United States and sometimes UH scolding others and all
of that. It's always very interesting and very interesting atmosphere. So it'll be interesting to talk to UH to Jeff about that. And after that, I think, UH, we'll just uh, we'll see what's going on here. We do have news coming out with Prime Minister net and Yahoo and President Trump, and uh, we'll we'll see what that has going on for it. So we will be back very shortly.
Breaking news straight from the source. This is the Sean Hannity Show.
All right, this is Jeffrey Lord sitting in for our friend Sean Hannity. Welcome to Shawn's radio show, and you can reach us at eight hundred and nine four one seven three two six or eight hundred and nine four one sewn. So we're going to play a little We're gonna dip into this press conference that was just held President Trump and President Prime Minister net and Yahoo and actually I think some of it may even still be going on, but there's a lot of stuff happening here.
And uh, you know what President Trump has managed to accomplish in the Middle East with the various countries and getting peace agreements and all of this kind of thing, uh, I think has been astonishing, and getting Israel and some of Arab countries to work together. Jared Kushner has been out there working very hard on all this. So we're going to just play a little bit here for you to sort of get the flavor of what's going on.
Can you clarify to us, did you talk about what are you talking about.
With the president?
There's really President Hartok. Did you talk with him directly?
Yeah, oh, we like you got to say that. No, I think he's going to be in great shape. He's a wartime prime minister at the highest level. He's achieved tremendous success. And I'll say it. You know, if you had eight out of ten prime ministers in his position right now or before right now, maybe you wouldn't have Israel any longer.
Israel would not exist.
I'd say two of them would in eight of them would that. Those are not good odds. You needed a very special man to really carry through and really help Israel through this horrible jam. You know, these are major factions, and it started with our negotiation with Iran.
I think it probably started with Solomony.
That was really where you mentioned that today, which started with Solomoni bad guy doing bad things, hurting a lot of people, killing American soldiers and other soldiers. But it started right there would probably be the starting point, and then from that point forward, but you would you have a wartime prime minister at the highest level. There could be other wartime prime ministers, but that'd lose. He won,
and I think the people of Israel appreciated. I think a lot of the people in the world appreciated, actually, and because of that victory, we were able to get peace in the Middle East. If you had a different kind of a personality, if you had a weak person or a stupid person, and there are plenty of both of them, you would not have had success, and you might not have Israel. And you report for Israel, I know you're very proud of it, and you do a
great job. You might not have a job because they might not be an Israel right now if you had a different prime minister. That's a big statement. But to me, it's a very simple statement to make. I'm looking at Pete Hegseth and he's sort of nodding. If they don't have a strong prime minister, Pete, you might not have Israel today.
I think you'll go down in the record books.
And you know I was a big help. I'll be honest, with big, big help. Somebody may sit in the room. If you don't have Trump, you needed a proper combination of everything. And if you didn't have that combination, which they had, you would not have an existing Israel right now.
And the people of Israel know it.
That's why they like me, and that's why they really they actually like him. He's got a little bit of a love hate more than I do over there. But you know what, even the haters have a lot of respect for him. There's a lot of jealousy about him, a lot of jealousy. Jealousy is a bad word. But I believe you would not have Israel right now. So it's a big deal.
Yeah. Please.
A recent Paul showed that as many of as half of Gosens would be willing to leave the gods of strip of afforded the opportunity to do so.
Back in February, you said that all Godsens.
I heard the numbers to the half of Gaza would leave. I've always said it.
I said, if you were given the opportunity to live in a better climate.
They would move.
They're there because they sort of have to be. I think it would be I think it would be a great opportunity. But let's see if that opportunity presents itself. But we're helping the people of Gaza a lot, so is Israel, by the way, So we'll see what happens. But I saw that it was a poll. It was actually more than half the people would leave if they were given the opportunity. And I've been saying that for a long time. It was to me it was common sense. So it's interesting.
I wouldn't countries accept them.
Look, let's not talk about it because we don't want the controversy.
Right now, we're helping guys.
But if they were given the opportunity, I think even higher than that. The person the group that did the poll is usually I call them negative pulses. You have a lot of them, and yet this poll was I think very accurate. Other than it would be more than half the people if given the opportunity. But they haven't been given that opportunity. So we'll see what happens.
Have you reach a point of understanding regarding Syria?
We do have.
An understanding regarding Syria. Now with Syria, you know you're new president. I respect him. He's a very strong guy, and that's what you need in Syria. You can't put a choir boy, can't put you know, somebody that's a perfect person. Everything's nice, no problems in life. You have the opposite there. He's a strong guy. We get along with him great. I can't ask for anymore. He's been with us all the way. We had that misap with Isis, and he was with us all the way. He was
fighting us, you know, he was fighting them. So I hope Israel. I'm sure that Israel and him will get along. I will try and make it so that they do get along.
I think they will. Maybe Do you have anything to say about that.
Yeah, well, our interest is to have a peaceful border with Sarah. Our interest is to have and we openly said, we want to make sure that the border area right next to our border is safe. We don't have terrorists, we don't have attacks, and we also want to secure our Jews friends. And by the way, I think not only the Jews, but other mind artists, especially the Christians, should be protected as well in Syria and throughout the
Middle East and in Nigeria. When your efforts we back completely because Christian communities are beleaguered around the world and especially in the Middle East, but in parts of Africa too, and we stand for the same thing.
And don't forget it was President Erdawan that helped very much get rid of a very bad ruler of Syria.
That was President Dawe.
And he never wanted the credit for it, but he really gets a lot of credit.
Bbe agrees with that. I agree with.
I mean, I know it, and President one should get a lot of good credit for what he did. He get rid of some very bad people, and you know they've been wanting to do that for a thousand years with different names, but for a thousand years in Syria, President Erdwan did it, and we give him a lot of credit.
I give him a lot of credit.
But I think it's going to work out well between Syria and Israel.
About about Lebanon, the Lebanese government, so what we saw is not meeting the terms of the ceasefire agreement, has failed to disarmed.
Chrisbala, Actually, in your view, should.
Israel strike the tourist organization again.
Well, we're gonna see about that. We'll see about it. Uh.
The Lebanese government is a little bit of a disadvantage if you think of it, with Hesbela, but Hesbela has been behaving badly, so we'll see what happens.
Also, we do another operation of Israel in Iran. You said before the meeting with Nataniel that you are in support of Israel if the ballistic missile project will take on, and also the nuclear weapon. But after the meeting, after what you know from the intelligence? How close a week to another with the one?
Well, I don't want to say that, but a run maybe behaving badly. It hasn't been confirmed, but if it's confirmed, Look, they know the consequences. You know, consequences will be very powerful, maybe more powerful than the last time. Yeah, and a Rand should have made a deal. The last time I gave them the option. I said, you can make a deal, do it. I told them do it, and they didn't believe me. Now they believe me.
You evid is behaving badly? And what do you mean? This is just what we hear. But usually where there's smoke, there's fire.
Have you heard the expression what do you mean related to the nuclear caple? No, I'm hearing that they're not nuclear yet, but maybe nuclear too. The sites were obliterated, but they're looking at other sites, That's what I've heard.
They're looking. So it'll take a long time.
They're not going to go back to where they were, but they have other places they can go. And if they're doing that, they're making a big mistake. Yeah, there's no reason for them to do it.
Mister President, Is the United States currently UH open to engaging in bilateral discussions with Turan? We're hearing reports from numerous countries that there may be some discussions. Is that something you would support or something that I would support that?
I would Yes, I have been by the way before the war.
I would support that.
I said to him, maybe I said, let's negotiate and they didn't believe what was going to happen would happen.
Yes, ma'am.
China's been doing naval exercises basically to test encircling Taiwan.
Can you explain to us what your knowledge is of that? What do you think about that?
Have you had any discussions with Well.
I have a great relationship with Presidency and he hasn't told me anything about it. I certainly have seen it, but he hasn't told me anything about it. And I don't believe he's going to be doing it. No, nothing worries me.
Nothing.
There's fire, right, So if you're in circle, if you're doing naval exercises and air exercises.
Doing naval exercises for twenty years in that area. Now people take it a little bit differently, but in fact larger than they're doing right now.
So we'll see. But they've been doing that for twenty twenty five years.
Yeah, as president, if you don't see Amos disarm in that short amount of time they're giving them, can you tell us what the next steps would be?
Horrible for them, horrible, gonna be really really bad for them, And I don't want that to happen. But they made an agreement that they were going to disarm, and you couldn't blame Israel. By the way, we have other countries that will come in and do it. They said, let us do it for you if they don't. Countries that were with them wanted the deal to be made, agreed that they would disarm. And now if they say they're
going to disarm, that's fine. If they say they're not going to disarm, those same countries will go and wipe them out.
They don't even need Israel.
You know, we have many countries, fifty nine countries that already agree this is a real peace in the Middle East, and Hamas is a small part of it, but it's still a part of it. But we have fifty nine countries that signed on big countries, countries that are outside of the Middle East, as you know, the Middle East. They want to go in and wipe out Hamas. They
don't want Israel, they don't need Israel. They want to do it because it's the right thing to do, because they were for the deal based on the fact that Hamas pledged, they swore that they were going to disarm. Now if they're not going to disarm, those same countries will wipe out Hamas.
Yeah.
Do you think that the PA should be involved in the day after? In data strip even in the near future, and the same person enter Prime Minister Nathaniel, do you see a real opportunity that the PA will be in Ghaza?
Go ahead?
I think President Trump put clearly the conditions that of reform that he wants to see in the PA for them to be involved. And I think he put it very clearly what he wants to see, the kind of
real reforms, not just perfunctory reforms, but real reforms. Stop paid the sleigh, change the curriculum in your textbooks, open up, you know, a different society and a different future if they do it, well, you know, let them, you know, I think it was clear you put you put guidelines that were, by the way, the Trump Plan of two thousand and twenty, and they were put then in the twenty points. And it's up to them.
Remember this.
If we didn't do what we did to Iran just to make these subjects just slightly different, you wouldn't have peace to the Middleast. You wouldn't have a deal signed in the Middle East. You wouldn't have a deal because other Arab nations, which are great, great, great people.
I know them very well. I know them. They're great people.
They wouldn't be able to have agreed to peace of the Middleast because you would have had a dark cloud hanging over everything.
It wouldn't it wouldn't have been possible.
So Iran has been greatly reduced in power prestige. I don't want to use the word humiliation, because you know they're trying to build up again. But we can't let them build up because if they build up, they can't be peace in the Middle East.
It was a mistake, you know, when they wiped out Iraq.
Iraq and Iran were about the same power, and they fought each other with different names for a thousand years, and then our country came out and blew up one of those two countries, namely Iraq, and all of a sudden Iran had the.
But that's not true anymore. That's not true anymore.
Tell us something about your plan to expand abram cords.
All right, this is Jeffrey Lord sitting in for our friend Sean Hannity, and we can be found at eight hundred nine four one seven three two six or eight hundred nine four one sewn, and we will be back very shortly. Here we will have a great guest with a talk with Jeff Barthos from Pennsylvania, whom was now got some ties to the UN. This will be very.
Interesting, Hannity watch keep it an eye on breaking news and bringing it to you first.
Sean Hannity,