This is a rush transcript from “Hannity,” April 8, 2009. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: It is day number 79 of President Obama’s administration, one in which America is sorry for everything. And that is our headline this Wednesday. For America “It is a More Dangerous World,” and President Obama isn’t making it any better with his rhetoric and, of course, his bowing at the feet of the Saudi royal family.
Now while you look at this photo, it is very important to remember that many of the terrorists who have killed Americans in the last 20 years have ties to — now wait for it — Saudi Arabia.
But bowing in front of the Saudis is nothing compared to the Democrats in Congress cuddling with Castro. That’s right. The left-wing dictator who has one of the worst human rights records in the world. Democratic members of Congress visited him recently and had this to say about their visit with this brutal dictator.
• Video: Watch Sean’s interview with Newt Gingrich
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOBBY RUSH (D-IL): I told President Castro that in my household he is known as the ultimate survivor.
BARBARA LEE, (D-CA): He was very engaging.
RUSH: So it was almost like visiting an old friend.
LEE: It was quite — you know, a moment to behold.
LAURA RICHARDSON (D-CA): What really was amazing to me is he leaned in, he looked directly into our eyes, and said, and said to us, how can we help? How can we help President Obama?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: All right, so America is arrogant. We are subservient to the Saudis, and we like Castro. Now that’s an awful lot of change in one very short week.
And joining me tonight is former speaker of the House, FOX News contributor, host of the documentary, “Ronald Reagan: Rendezvous with Destiny,” Newt Gingrich.
All right. By the way, I’ve got to get all sides, we’re fair and balanced. They are officially saying at the White House, and we can put this back up on the screen, this was not a bow. That it was the height differential that caused this, Mr. Speaker.
Now we believe in letting our audience, you know, decide for themselves. But here it is. He comes in. He literally bows below his head and below his shoulder, but yet that’s not a bow? Now I think — in my book that’s kind of a lie, but go ahead, your thoughts.
NEWT GINGRICH, “RENDEZVOUS WITH DESTINY”: Well, I think we should challenge the White House to produce any other short guest that he met on this trip to whom he bowed appropriately.
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I mean I appreciate that a tall guy who plays basketball meeting a vertically challenged person might feel a requirement to have sort of height redistribution as part of his general policy.
HANNITY: But look how low.
GINGRICH: So.
HANNITY: I want to show for your audience. Go back, if we can re-rack that. Watch how low he — he’s below his shoulder. I mean this is — and now they’re trying to convince us that’s not a bow.
GINGRICH: You know.
HANNITY: Yes.
GINGRICH: In my speech at CPAC, one of the themes I had was how dumb do they think we are.
(LAUGHTER)
HANNITY: Yes.
GINGRICH: And I think a White House which feels compelled to lie about the most trivial thing is really pathetic. The fact is this president bowed before the Saudi king. I think, by the way, it’s the best argument I’ve seen for an American energy policy to use coal, ethanol, oil, natural gas, nuclear power, solar, wind.
HANNITY: Drill.
GINGRICH: Let’s have American energy and not bow to anybody versus bowing to a Saudi king. I can’t imagine a better symbol for why we need an American energy policy.
HANNITY: I cannot say it any better than that. All right. This has been in my view a very dangerous week for this country. I’m serious. When we have Democrats kissing up to a brutal murdering dictator by the name of Fidel Castro. We just played that tape for you just moments ago.
We’re going to meet with now Iran without preconditions. We have missiles fired over North Korea and the president says they broke the rules, we’re going to go back to the U.N., and he’s going to cut not only missile defense, but our defenses dramatically.
I’m thinking they don’t understand the nature of the last hundred years in human history and how many hundred plus million people died under dictatorial regimes. Am I wrong?
GINGRICH: No, I think this is eerily similar to Jimmy Carter going to Notre Dame for the commencement in 1977 and announcing that we’ve had an inordinate fear of communism, that the world is really safe, and if you look at Carter’s policies, which were all a fantasy, they set the stage for the 444-day Iranian hostage crisis. They set the stage for the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. They set the stage for the Nicaraguan communist and then the battle in El Salvador and Grenada.
We have a similar pattern beginning to build. Are their fantasy foreign policy that has no connection with reality? I thought you couldn’t have had a better moment than the North Koreans deliberately firing a missile just before the president gave a speech on nuclear disarmament as though to show their total contempt for his fantasy world view.
HANNITY: Well — so they fired this missile, and you’ve made some comments that you would have taken it off the launch pad, and I want to get into that. But — so then it talks about how we will begin universal disarmament, as you just pointed out, but then he’s coming off a tour where he’s constantly apologizing for America, referring to us as an arrogant country, dictating to the world our views, and that we’re not a Christian nation.
We are a nation that was founded on Judeo-Christian principles. Now I’m looking at his world view, and I’m thinking OK, this sounds a lot like he learned something sitting in Reverend Wright’s pews and hanging out with — palling around with Bill Ayers.
GINGRICH: And I think he learned an awful lot reading “Revelry for Radicals” and studying left-wing activists in south side Chicago. I think it’s very important to recognize that what you’re watching is the most radical left-wing administration in American history.
The foreign policy trip, I think, was pretty pathetic. He went and he promised the Europeans everything, they gave him nothing. He went and made a speech that nobody thought was realistic about nuclear weapons while the North Koreans showed their contempt for him.
He went to Turkey, and I think was fundamentally misleading about the nature of America. We are not a secular country. We’re a country which was founded with a Declaration of Independence which says we are endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights.
Now how can you say all of your rights as an American come from your creator and then pretend that you’re a secular society? We’re not.
HANNITY: How insulted should the average American be because I’m offended, because I don’t think we’re arrogant. We’re the nation that actually saved Europe from Europe and totalitarianism, and we paid a very heavy price.
My father fought in World War II. You know — and then for him to say, obviously, clearly not reading our framers and our founders because they all refer to the Judeo-Christian ethic as the foundation of this country.
How — what does say about this president and his world view that he’s that out of touch with the principles that have made this country great and why is president — isn’t he selling that and defining that for the world?
GINGRICH: You know, when Callista and I made the film about Ronald Reagan, we went to Pointe du Hoc where the rangers scaled the cliffs in Normandy, and I was given the honor of helping lower the flag at the American military cemetery there.
Maybe if President Obama were to visit a few American military cemeteries and realized that after we liberated Europe, all we asked for is enough ground to bury our young men who had died to free Europe. We didn’t seek to conquer, we didn’t seek to dominate, we don’t dominate today.
And I think it is not just insulting, but it’s historically dangerous to have an American president who’s so fundamentally misunderstands the world. It is not America which is dangerous, it’s North Korea. It’s not America which is arrogant, it’s Iran.
HANNITY: Why do you think the media has ignored this, and maybe I’m asking the obvious question? But wouldn’t that be a big deal if any other president in the past had said this?
GINGRICH: I don’t know because the media is so left-wing, they may agree with him.
HANNITY: All right, short answer, right on point. Mr. Speaker, love the DVD. I finally got a chance to see it. Thank you for being with us.
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