Newt on Hannity & Colmes: Obama Delivers Speech on Race, Religion
Fox News Network Hannity & Colmes March 18, 2008   (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)   SEAN HANNITY, CO-HOST (voice-over): Tonight on "Hannity & Colmes."   SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We've heard my former pastor use incendiary language to denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation.   HANNITY: Barack Obama delivers his landmark speech on race and politics, but the fallout from his fiery pastor continues.   OBAMA: Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely.   HANNITY: Newt Gingrich and Dick Morris analyze Reverend Wright's impact on this campaign.   Plus, our own Frank Luntz breaks down the words used in the speech. Did they work?   Newt Gingrich, Dick Morris, and Frank Luntz, hey, there's only one place to see it all. "Hannity & Colmes" starts right here, right now.   (END VIDEOTAPE)   HANNITY: And welcome to "Hannity & Colmes." We're glad you're with us. Once again, our good friend Kirsten Powers sitting in for the vacationing Alan Colmes.   Good to see you again, Kirsten.   KIRSTEN POWERS, CO-HOST: Good to be here.   HANNITY: We get right to our top story tonight. And it is the speech heard around the country today. Barack Obama addressed the controversy surrounding his former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, and more generally, the topic of race in America during a speech in Philadelphia this morning.   (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)   OBAMA: I have already condemned in unequivocal terms the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy and, in some cases, pain.   For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be controversial while I sat in the church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely, just as I'm sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagree.   (END VIDEO CLIP)   HANNITY: Now we have complete coverage tonight. But joining us first in the studio, former speaker of the House, FOX News contributor, author of the New York Times bestseller, "Real Change," Newt Gingrich.Good to see you.   NEWT GINGRICH, AUTHOR, "REAL CHANGE": Good to be here.   HANNITY: I love having you in New York.   All right. Let me see if I got this right. This is a special friend of Barack Obama's. He said, "I can no longer disown him." Didn't say he was leaving the church. Spiritual advisor, my friend, my mentor. All adjectives he's -- he's used.   The pastor is a friend of Farrakhan. He disinvited the pastor to his announcement speech.   And Barack Obama is going to now lecture America on the topic of race and still not -- and still have a relationship with his pastor. Does that seem right to you?   GINGRICH: You know, when I first read the speech, I thought it was tremendous. And I still think there's a lot to it, the rhythm, the cadence, that's very powerful.   As I began to reread the speech, it was really infuriating. The section you just used just there. He takes a man who has, for 20 years, viciously lied about America, said the ugliest and nastiest dishonest things, and says in passing, "I'll bet there are times that you've disagreed with your pastor or your priest."   HANNITY: Yes.   GINGRICH: Now I don't know of any pastor or priest who has for 20 years -- by the way, these are all video that came off of a DVD that the church was selling.   HANNITY: Providing. Right.   GINGRICH: And I think they actually were selling in the church store.   HANNITY: That's absolutely true.   GINGRICH: So just start with this idea. He promptly tries to reduce Reverend Wright's vicious anti-Americanism to everybody's priest.   HANNITY: Yes.   GINGRICH: Second, he compares the public, consistent, vicious, anti- Americanism and racism of Reverend Wright to his grandmother saying things in private. And I thought it was a very demeaning passage. And I kept going back to that passage.   HANNITY: I did, too. I did the same thing. And I'm thinking why would you say that about your -- why would you reveal that, in the sense...?   GINGRICH: And why would you compare it to the public rantings of a vicious anti-American?   HANNITY: Yes.   GINGRICH: I mean, you know, it just struck me as totally wrong. And the more I looked at it, the phonier it got and the more it felt really uncomfortable.   HANNITY: Yes, I thought so, too. And I don't think it's believable, which I think gets to the heart of this question.   I mean, "G-D America," "the U.S. KKK of A," "Chickens have come home to roost" after 9/11.   Now, we've got one other tape here as it relates to his -- the pastor's comments of Israel. This is new tape, and let's roll it.   (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)   REV. JEREMIAH WRIGHT, TRINITY UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST: Last year's conference in Africa on racism, which the United States would not participate in, because somebody dared to point out the racism which still supports both here and in Israel.   I say that dirty word again. Every time you say Israel, Negroes get awfully quiet on you, because they're scared. Don't be scared. Don't be scared.   You don't see the connection between 9/11/01 and the Israeli Palestinian? Something wrong and you want to borrow my glasses?   (END VIDEO CLIP)   HANNITY: Now Mr. Speaker, I want to turn to you. The issue here for me, and you raised a question -- we're talking earlier today about judgment and believability. Do we really believe that, with all these statements, that he didn't know?   GINGRICH: Let me first say the conference he just referred to is the Durbin conference that Secretary of State Colin Powell walked out of for being a viciously anti-Semitic assault. So -- so here you had Colin Powell saying this is a -- this is a deliberate vicious anti-Semitic conference.   HANNITY: Right.   GINGRICH: And that's what Pastor Wright is referencing. Here's the question...   HANNITY: Believability and responsibility.   GINGRICH: Look, here's the question you have to ask about Senator Obama after the speech today. If you believe that for 20 years he didn't notice this, then you have to ask yourself how could he possibly be ready to be president?   I mean, how -- if he can't recognize, in public speeches by his own pastor, how would he figure out who ought to be on the Supreme Court? How would he determine which foreign government is telling the truth? And the lack of judgment implied in this is breathtaking.   POWERS: Mr. Speaker, the problem with that analysis is that he has said repeatedly that he did not hear these statements. So, I don't know how you're supposed to have judgment about something that he didn't hear.   This is a man who's been preaching for almost 40 years. These are, as far as I can tell, five or six sermons that he says he didn't hear. So, how is he supposed to denounce something?   GINGRICH: Well, he quotes him talking about white racism in his book.   POWERS: Do we not believe there's white racism in this country?   GINGRICH: I'm just saying, first of all, he cites this particular pastor as the source of the title of his book. He says this is the most important influence in his adult life. He quotes from his sermons there.   You would have thought at some point -- and look, I think if you were to say to me prior to running for president he didn't notice this. But I think it's unbelievable -- and I cite back things that Sean was saying on his radio show four months ago.   Senator Obama was determined to avoid ever having to deal with the anti-Americanism, anti-Semitism and racism of Reverend Wright until he was forced to by national media attention. Now, that's not leadership.   Because I would just make this point. He could have, at some point, gone to see Reverend Wright and said, "You know, some of the things you're saying are factually false. And you really shouldn't say these things. Because they're not -- they're not accurate. They're not the right thing to be" -- not just they're wrong, not just they're...   POWERS: I understand I'm a broken record on this but, according to Barack Obama, he was not aware of these statements.   GINGRICH: OK, then you actually believe -- you actually believe that in a 20-year experience of Reverend Wright he didn't notice...?   POWERS: Yes, I do.   GINGRICH: You don't think he noticed he went to Libya with Gadhafi?   POWERS: No, I do think -- and I think Barack Obama, as he said in his speech, there were times that he disagreed with things that he said and did. I don't think that that's in dispute. I do take him at his word that he didn't hear these things that were said in the last five years.   HANNITY: Why did he -- why did he disinvite him for the invocation?   POWERS: Because I think he was probably told that he would be seen as controversial, separate even from these statements, because I think he is controversial.   GINGRICH: OK. So let me get this straight.   POWERS: But I think that -- look, I don't -- I don't think that some of the stuff that's being called anti-American, like the chickens coming home to roost, is frankly, different than the types of stuff that Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson and John Hagee say that are very -- and they're very closely -- frankly, they're more associated with the Republican Party than -- than Wright is with the Democratic Party. So why aren't they called anti-American?   GINGRICH: I think anybody who suggests that it was OK to kill 3,000 Americans, I have a problem.   POWERS: Well, I don't think he said it's OK. He said chickens come home to roost the same way that those other people blamed 9/11 on gays, feminists and...   GINGRICH: He draws -- draws comparison -- he draws direct comparison to our bombing Hiroshima and to the terrorists bombing New York and says, "What's the moral difference?" I mean, he is utterly indifferent to the fact that these are Americans who are dying.   POWERS: OK. We're going to have more with Newt Gingrich right after the break.   And still to come tonight, Dick Morris will explain how the Jeremiah Wright controversy could impact the polls and the delegate battle. Stay tuned.   (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)   POWERS: Welcome back to "Hannity & Colmes." I'm Kirsten Powers, sitting in tonight for Alan Colmes. We continue now with the author of the book "Real Change," former speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich.   So...   GINGRICH: Wait, I'm waiting for you to tell me a second you during a good job here, trying to build impossible defense.   POWERS: OK.   GINGRICH: I just want to know something. We're trying to find someone to be president of the United States.   You are suggesting that when he decided that he could not have Reverend Wright at his campaign kickoff and when Reverend Wright said that, "You are probably going to have to disown me at some point," that it didn't pique his curiosity: "Gosh, I wonder what Reverend Wright might have said?"   POWERS: I think he could have thought that there were controversial things but not that rose to the level of the stuff that's come up. But I think he was very clear in his speech that he does not identify with.   GINGRICH: But that this doesn't shake your faith in his judgment?   POWERS: No. And what I want to ask you about is he's written a lot. He wrote his first book where he was very open about drug use, about all these other things. And he has never expressed a single view that is similar to his views that have been expressed by Reverend Wright.   And frankly, we're not electing Reverend Wright. We're looking at Barack Obama. So is it fair to say we don't think Barack Obama believes any of this stuff?   GINGRICH: Well, look, I think it's -- believes any of what stuff?   POWERS: Any of the things we're concerned about, the anti- Americanism?   GINGRICH: No, I believe Senator Obama is, in fact, a very sincere and dedicated senator who probably is less inclined to say anti-American things than his colleague in the Senate, Dick Durbin, who compared the U.S. to Nazi Germany, Pol Pot's Cambodia and Stalin's Russia.   So I think Senator Obama has more discipline.   POWERS: He's better than that, yes.   GINGRICH: He's better than Durbin, OK? Let me say unequivocally -- but -- but -- I'm not in -- in any way challenging Senator Obama's sincerity.   I am suggesting that the country is going to increasingly raise questions about his judgment and is going to increasingly say, if he didn't have the nerve at some point to say to Reverend Wright, "Maybe you should calm down some," why do you think he should -- this policy he's proposing to go around and talk to every dictator on the planet? Why would you think he'd do a better job talking to Kim Jong-Il?   POWERS: He doesn't want to talk to every dictator on the planet. He said he would be willing to do it, meaning he would be willing to do it under certain circumstances.   GINGRICH: He went from "I would do it," to "maybe we'll do it," to now "I'll consider it"?   POWERS: You're making it sound like he's just going to walk in and just call him up and say, "Come on over." That's not the reality. And that's not what's going to happen. And I think that he is being tarred with the things that Reverend Wright said, and he never said them.   GINGRICH: You've got to be fair. I haven't charged him with a single thing Reverend Wright said. I don't think he's anti-Semitic. I think Reverend Wright is. I don't think he's a racist. I think Reverend Wright is. I don't think he's anti-American. I think Reverend Wright is.   What I do think is that Senator Obama, as a public leader and a potential president, shows extraordinarily bad judgment and did -- failed totally to do due diligence.   I mean, I got -- look, I got caught in the situation. Let me say I appointed somebody to be the House historian right after I became speaker. And it turned out that, long before she had done a truly stupid thing. And we dismissed her the night we learned it.   But it was painful. It's personal. And we dismissed her the night we learned it.   HANNITY: When he disinvited the pastor to his invocation, when he announced that he was running for president, the reason he gave is, "Well, you know, Pastor, your sermons can get kind of rough." So that is an indication that he knew where the pastor was coming from.   It's very interesting, if you listen to the speech today, remember when he started quoting from the book, "Dreams from my Father." And he quoted -- in the book, he quoted page 294.   I actually went back and read the book. And on page 293, he's quoting from the "Audacity of Hope" speech, which inspired his second book, "The Audacity of Hope." And in that, it says, "where white folks' greed runs a world in need." That's from "The Audacity of Hope" speech, the one that he said inspired him so much that, you know, he wrote a book about. "White folks' greed runs a world of need."   That sounds like that would be a tip-off that that's a problem. Don't you think?   GINGRICH: Well, unless maybe he agrees with it.   HANNITY: Well, then can one conclude that?   GINGRICH: No. I think -- I think one can ask him. And that would be a good -- since he says -- since he put it in the book.   POWERS: What, there's no greed?   HANNITY: White folks' greed. White folks.   POWERS: There are no white folks in the world that are greedy?   HANNITY: White folks' greed.   GINGRICH: There are also Chinese who are greedy, Indians who are greedy, Africans who are greedy.   POWERS: I just think -- can we at least acknowledge that there's racism against black people?   HANNITY: No, there's plenty of racism, and I think some of it came from the pulpit of Jeremiah Wright.   POWERS: I don't agree with anything Jeremiah Wright said.   HANNITY: Wait a second. Why did he sit there for -- you're saying -- but this is important. For 20 years you're saying he's able to go to this church and sit there and disinvite his pastor, ignore the fact that his pastor goes to Libya to meet Gadhafi, our sworn enemy.   Louis Farrakhan, one of the biggest anti-Semites and racists in America, and you're saying no culpability here.   POWERS: We live in America -- no. I'm saying this is a person he says led him to Jesus Christ. And this is the relationship that he had with him. And I think that he -- and I also think...   HANNITY: Would you go to a church that had -- that had a pastor -- this is an important question. Would you -- any of us go to a church that had a pastor that bestowed a lifetime achievement award on one of the well- known racist and anti-Semites in the country, Louis Farrakhan?   POWERS: I would not. But I'm also -- I'm also not African-American. And I've had a different experience in this country.   HANNITY: I don't think that -- that's not an excuse.   POWERS: Well, I think that there...   HANNITY: The white man is the skunk of the planet earth?   POWERS: I think there's a generational aspect, also.   HANNITY: We've got to bring the Speaker back in. Let me go to you.   GINGRICH: I think the audience is probably enjoying this. You two make for a lively debate.   HANNITY: What is the political...   GINGRICH: Why don't I be the moderator? Now I'd like to turn to Kirsten and ask how she feels.   HANNITY: What's the political outcome of this? I mean, in other words, I think this -- if he gets the nomination?   GINGRICH: I think there's a -- and Kirsten raised one of the two key questions. There are two key questions that come out of this speech.   The first is do you accept the view, as you just put it, that somehow this all gets wrapped up in race? I think it's very telling that Senator Obama went to race as the title of his speech, and now we're going to have this discussion about race. OK? Having now watched racist comments from his pastor.   The second is whether or not this is a question of judgment. If you accept Kirsten's view, which I suspect 40 percent of the Democrats accept, that he didn't know that he went through 20 years without hearing, that despite the fact that Pastor Wright is a pretty strong, powerful speaker, it never occurred to him. Nobody in church ever mentioned to him, nobody ever came up to him and said, "Boy you missed a great sermon last Sunday. Boy, he really gave it to those guys."   Now, if you can accept that view, my argument is, to believe he went through 20 years and didn't figure it out, doesn't make me very confident that he's ready to be president. Because it makes me wonder what he would go through the next year not figuring out.   HANNITY: Mr. Speaker, we love having you in the studio. You are a great moderator.   GINGRICH: I'm delighted. Why don't you invite me to come back and moderate a debate? You call on me.   HANNITY: All right. Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. And we appreciate you being with us.
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Comments By Sarah @ Friday, March 21, 2008 3:01 AM Newt, don't go away, America needs you. I do pray for victory for several leaders in this country. You are still a leader and you don't have to run for Vice, and you might be too good for it. You have been blessed to speak and write the truth defending America. If EVERY person would start praying in their everyday life, this country would change. I have prayed and Sean Hannity was the answer, I pray for blessings for Bill O'Reilly and John McCain, etc.. God is responsible for exposing Al Gore's and Satan's lie about global -whatever. Do you all see the Act of God with global cooling? Scientist are shocked and NOTHING like this has ever happend IN SUCH a short time frame. Get a clue people. God is watching and so should you, soon. Be Blessed, Sarah and yes you need a religious nut to tell you this. . . ! By Sarah @ Friday, March 21, 2008 2:50 AM Everything Newt ever responds too is meticulous and near perfect. He's slow to judge. Must be a church nearby? So anyone seen Dr. Crefloe Dollar preach? He is NOT like the black preachers who claim to be alike in their preaching. He uses the Bible, Scriptures and God in his sermons. He is a power house full of love. I love the guy. Someone should bring him into the lime"light". Praise the Lord. The ministry is called, "Changing your World". By GearMaven @ Thursday, March 20, 2008 2:27 PM I was off a little bit...Sen. Obama's childhood mentor was Frank Marshall Davis, a communist! So we have suspect mentors and cherished friends over his lifetime. How could one not be doubtful of his ability to make good decisions or protect America's constitutional foundations if these are the people who have guided him...whether in his political or spiritual journey. By GearMaven @ Thursday, March 20, 2008 2:16 PM A good speech writer does not a President make! Newt is right about Sen. Obama on this matter. His judgment is suspect when he cannot see the racism and anti-Americanism of his pastor and friend of 20 years. Obtuse! Of course, one can add to this his historical connections to various socialist groups. In fact, I believe the mentor he praised in his book was a very active far left socialist. With these kinds of mentors, we must surely be more circumspect in giving any support to Obama's candidacy. By ugene @ Wednesday, March 19, 2008 7:51 PM I fully under stand Barack Obama's speech on race, religion, and community. I am sixty years old. My older brother is a racist, but I still love him for other reasons. I am a Jew and one of my boyhood friends became a Black Muslim and was taught nothing but ugly lies about my people which he started to believe until we got into a fight and later he invited me to his wedding and we remained friends. I was thirteen months infantry in Vietnam. The most vicious, vile, dirtest grunt in my unit took a liking to me and protected me on numerous ocasions. These people and these experiences made me more conscience not less. The American experience is a complicated mix of tribes. Obama is a fine example of one made more conscience. By EyesWideShut @ Wednesday, March 19, 2008 6:24 PM Great job Newt! For anyone to believe that Sen. Obama wasn't present or heard any of Rev. Wright's racist's sermons or remarks, over the past 20 years, as a member of Rev. Wrights' church is completely irresponsible and ridiculous! The Illinois Senator has said that the 'rev' is his mentor. Most pastor's, teachers and people in roles of influence will tell you.... you ARE who you associate with! Click Here to post a comment