Former President Donald Trump had apparently requested FOX News host Sean Hannity go easier on his successor.
The astonishing revelation came as Trump was concluding an exclusive two-part sit-down interview with Hannity at his Mar-a-Lago resort, in a segment that aired on Thursday.
The controversial FOX News host thanked the former president for his time, to which Trump asked whether he thought President Joe Biden would provide him with that much time for an interview.
‘Want my honest answer?’ Hannity replied. ‘I don’t think he knows that today’s Wednesday is my honest answer.’
‘I hope he does, for the sake of this country, I hope he does,’ Trump said.
At that point, Hannity said he was ‘very gracious,’ adding: ‘I should tell a story about how one time you requested I go easier on him.
‘You did say that to me, you thought I was being too flippant.’
Trump then recounted how he ‘thought it was too tough, I thought you were very tough,’ even as Hannity doubled down on his coverage of the president saying: ‘I was telling the truth.’
Former President Donald Trump revealed on Thursday night he once thought FOX News host Sean Hannity was ‘too tough’ on President Joe Biden
Hannity told how the former president asked him to go easier on his successor
But Trump continued to almost defend the president, saying he actually wants Biden to succeed for the benefit of the United States.
‘I will say this, forget politics and the Democrat and the Republican stuff, and the radical left and everything else,’ Trump said. ‘I want somebody that’s a great leader.
‘I want somebody that can stand toe to toe with President Xi of China, there is no actor like that,’ he said, adding: ‘Beyond Republican or Democrat, I want to see somebody that is great.’
Hannity then asked for clarification, inquiring: ‘You want Joe Biden to succeed.’
‘I would rather have him succeed incredibly,’ even if it meant ‘a much tougher’ election or ‘even if it means a loss,’ Trump said, suggesting once again he plans to run against Biden in 2024.
‘I want to see what’s good for this country.’
Hannity has been highly critical of the Biden administration over the past few years. Biden is seen here at a briefing on Hurricane Fiona’s impact on Puerto Rico Thursday
Hannity has been highly critical of the president in the past
In March, he derided Biden’s first State of the Union address as ‘an unmitigated, predictable disaster’ which did little to assuage American’s fears of crime in big cities and worsening inflation, and was ‘seemingly written by a kid in kindergarten’.
The Fox News host even suggested that Biden, 79, showed signs of ‘a steep mental decline’.
He criticized the president for failing to acknowledge the deaths of 13 U.S. troops in Afghanistan in August, and said he had no answer for the continued problems of COVID-19.
Biden’s speech, Hannity said, was ‘filled with smoke and mirrors’ and ‘detached from reality’.
‘You might’ve noticed something interesting,’ said Hannity. ‘Biden did not mention any accomplishments.
‘None whatsoever. Because there are none,’ he said, before listing off what he viewed as failures of the Biden administration — including high gas prices, skyrocketing inflation, worsening crime and ‘open borders.’
‘If the world was looking for any American leadership they didn’t get it from Joe Biden,’ Hannity said at the time, claiming: ‘The speech defined America last, not America first.’
And last year, Hannity slammed Biden for using unvaccinated Americans as a ‘scapegoat’ while implementing a nationwide COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
‘It’s your body, his choice,’ he said last September. ‘With an unconstitutional, illegal, unethical federal vaccine mandate, on that, by the way, he said he would never support.’
Hannity added that Biden’s approach is a ‘cold, calculated political ploy’ to divide Americans, saying: ‘Joe Biden’s heartfelt unity pledge lasted all of seven months.’
He slammed Biden for using unvaccinated Americans as a ‘political scapegoat’ while implementing a sweeping nationwide COVID-19 vaccine mandate last year
But Trump has also blasted Biden’s leadership in office, even telling Hannity in the sit-down interview on Thursday that the Taliban is not afraid of the current president.
‘Under my conversations with Abdul, who’s the leader of the Taliban, for 18 months, we didn’t lose one soldier,’ Trump said Thursday night, referring to Abdul Ghani Baradar, co-founder and senior member of the Taliban.
Trump then told Hannity he threatened to ‘obliterate’ Abdul if he did not follow his orders.
‘Didn’t you at one point tell him, ‘I know exactly where you are,’ and give him the exact coordinates where he was?’ Hannity asked.
‘No,’ Trump replied. ‘I sent him a picture of his house.’
‘He said, “But why but why do you send me a picture of my house?” I said, “You have to figure that one out.”’
Trump further recalled: ‘I said, ‘If you do anything, we’re going to hit you harder than any country has ever been hit.’ He said, ‘I understand, your Excellency.”
‘I’m the one who got it down to very few soldiers. I wanted to get out,’ Trump said, referring to the last 2,500 U.S. service members who remained in Afghanistan at the end of his presidency.
‘We would have had a very similar schedule, but I would have taken the military out last.’
Trump, though, also slammed the president in his exclusive interview with Hannity
He suggested that the Taliban does not fear Biden the way it did him because he threatened to ‘obliterate’ Abdul Ghani Baradar if he did not follow his orders
Trump had long called for an end to the Afghanistan war and planned to withdraw all U.S. troops by May 1, 2021. However, he claims he had a plan that would have ensured a less frenzied exit.
‘I would have taken the best equipment in the world military equipment, $85 billion worth of military equipment we left behind. And by the way, 13 soldiers were killed,’ he said, referring to the 13 Marines who died in an explosion trying to evacuate U.S. citizens and allies as the Taliban took over Kabul.
Biden was widely panned for the chaotic security situation that left the Kabul airport vulnerable to the devastating suicide attack that killed 170 Afghan civilians and 13 US service members in August 2021.
Critics and supporters alike have worried about the long-term ramifications – such as a broken promise not to leave Americans behind and the blow American credibility suffers with its allies.
In September 2021, Trump decried the largely defunct military equipment the U.S. left at the hands of the Taliban and said the U.S. should bomb Afghanistan, ‘We should either go in with unequivocal Military force and get it, or at least bomb the hell out of it,’ he said at the time.
Turning to the war in Ukraine, Trump told Hannity: ‘Putin is being handled incorrectly.’
And in another wild moment during the interview Trump claimed that Venezuela is ‘opening its prisons’ to send criminals into the U.S. and said that immigrants are ‘poisoning’ our country under President Biden.
Donald Trump reveals he threatened to ‘obliterate’ Taliban insurgent during tense talks while he was president – then followed up by sending him a live satellite photo of his HOUSE
By Morgan Phillips, politics reporter for DailyMail.com
Donald Trump has revealed he threatened to ‘obliterate’ one of the top members of the Taliban – and even sent him a picture of his house.
The former president told how he forced Abdul Ghani Baradar to back down from taking over Afghanistan and harming US soldiers while he was in the White House.
He said he told the jihadist, who is now the country’s deputy PM, if they did anything he would ‘hit you harder than any country has ever been hit’.
Trump’s comments came in the second part of his wide-ranging interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News on Thursday night.
The 76-year-old weighed in on the southern border crisis, claiming Venezuela was emptying jails and sending prisoners to the US which is ‘poisoning our country’.
He also continued his assault on Joe Biden – slamming him for undoing his policies – before revealing he once told the Fox News host to go easier on the president.
‘Didn’t you at one point tell him, ‘I know exactly where you are,’ and give him the exact coordinates where he was?’ Hannity asked. ‘No,’ Trump replied. ‘I sent him a picture of his house’
‘Under my conversations with Abdul, who’s the leader of the Taliban, for 18 months, we didn’t lose one soldier,’ Trump said, referring to Abdul Ghani Baradar, co-founder and senior member of the Taliban
‘Under my conversations with Abdul, who’s the leader of the Taliban, for 18 months, we didn’t lose one soldier,’ Trump said Thursday night, referring to Abdul Ghani Baradar, co-founder and senior member of the Taliban.
Trump then told Hannity he threatened to ‘obliterate’ Abdul if he did not follow his orders.
‘Didn’t you at one point tell him, ‘I know exactly where you are,’ and give him the exact coordinates where he was?’ Hannity asked.
‘No,’ Trump replied. ‘I sent him a picture of his house.’ ‘He said, ‘But why but why do you send me a picture of my house?’ I said, ‘You have to figure that one out.”
Trump further recalled: ‘I said, ‘If you do anything, we’re going to hit you harder than any country has ever been hit.’ He said, ‘I understand, your Excellency.”
‘I’m the one who got it down to very few soldiers. I wanted to get out,’ Trump said, referring to the last 2,500 U.S. service members who remained in Afghanistan at the end of his presidency.
‘We would have had a very similar schedule, but I would have taken the military out last.’
Trump had long called for an end to the Afghanistan war and planned to withdraw all U.S. troops by May 1, 2021. However, he claims he had a plan that would have ensured a less frenzied exit.
‘I would have taken the best equipment in the world military equipment, $85 billion worth of military equipment we left behind.
‘And by the way, 13 soldiers were killed,’ he said, referring to the 13 Marines who died in an explosion trying to evacuate U.S. citizens and allies as the Taliban took over Kabul.
Biden was widely panned for the chaotic security situation that left the Kabul airport vulnerable to the devastating suicide attack that killed 170 Afghan civilians and 13 US service members in August 2021.
Critics and supporters alike have worried about the long-term ramifications – such as a broken promise not to leave Americans behind and the blow American credibility suffers with its allies.
In September 2021, Trump decried the largely defunct military equipment the U.S. left at the hands of the Taliban and said the U.S. should bomb Afghanistan, ‘We should either go in with unequivocal Military force and get it, or at least bomb the hell out of it,’ he said at the time.
Turning to the war in Ukraine, Trump told Hannity: ‘Putin is being handled incorrectly.’
In another moment during the interview Trump claimed that Venezuela is ‘opening its prisons’ to send criminals into the U.S. and said that immigrants are ‘poisoning’ our country under President Biden.
Venezuelan migrants prepare to walk along the U.S. Border fence after crossing the Rio Grande from Mexico to turn themselves in to the U.S. Border Patrol on September 22
Asylum seeking migrants queue at a new Mobile En-Route Processing Unit (MERC), used by U.S. Border Patrol to rapidly process asylum seeking migrants on the border in downtown El Paso, Texas, U.S., September 21
Asked by Fox News’ Sean Hannity how fast he could get the nation back to what it was under his administration, Trump said he could get most things back ‘very quickly,’ aside from the migrants who have ‘poisoned’ the country.
Asked if he would deport the millions of unlawful migrants who have entered the country under President Biden, Trump said, ‘The bad ones, the bad ones.’
‘Millions and millions of people have poisoned our country,’ Trump said.
‘Yesterday I heard that Venezuela is emptying their prisons out into the United States,’ the former president told Hannity. ‘I’m almost surprised it took them so long.’
So far this fiscal year border agents have faced an all-time record 2,150,000 migrants encounters at the southern border.
Trump was referring to a Breitbart news report about a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) intelligence report warning prisoners freed by the Venezuelan regime were seen traveling with caravans to the U.S. in Mexico in July.
A source told the outlet that without diplomatic relations with Venezuela, identifying migrants with criminal records is nearly impossible.
On 2024, Trump told Hannity he could not ‘legally’ tell him whether or not he was going to run again. Biden, too, has cited election law as preventing him from formally anouncing candidacy. If either candidate were to formally say they were running, it would trigger new restrictions and procedural requirements.
Trump, who still refuses to concede his 2020 loss to Biden, then claimed he would rather see Biden succeed, even if it meant losing to the Democrat in 2024.
‘I would rather have him succeed incredibly, even if it meant a much tougher– and maybe even a loss. I want to see what’s good for the country,’ the former president said.