Fox News: Hannity's America

HANNITY: And for more analysis on the presidential race we are joined by former speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, and chief advocate of the platform of the American people at Newt's 527 American Solutions, Princella Smith.
 
Guys, good to see you. Welcome to HANNITY'S AMERICA.
 
NEWT GINGRICH, "REAL CHANGE" AUTHOR: It's great to be with you.
 
HANNITY: Thanks.
 
You know, I know that, you know, as we head here into North Carolina and Indiana, that Democrats are making the case, oh we haven't been debating the issues about character and William Ayers and about Jeremiah Wright, and aren't those issues, too?
 
Princella, we'll give you first dibs. Aren't those important issues as well?
 
PRINCELLA SMITH, AMERICAN SOLUTIONS: Look, absolutely. We're talking about people who want to lead the most powerful nation in the world. And right now what I think Americans are -- what I know Americans are calling for is for real change, real leadership from their leaders. They would like to see real long-term solutions as opposed to short-term fixes.
 
Absolutely, that's a prevalent point.
 
HANNITY: Mr. Speaker, you and I have been having a long-standing discussion and a challenge almost to the Republican Party, and that is that in this election cycle, they ought to -- be offering real solutions, energy solutions, defense solutions, finding common ground, English as the official language of the country. I still don't hear a lot -- I'm hearing more and more from Senator McCain, but I'm not hearing a lot from the Democratic Congress and Democratic senators. Are you?
 
GINGRICH: No, and I think it's a big mistake. One of the reasons we're delighted to be with you tonight is that Princella Smith is the chief advocate of the platform of the American people at American Solutions. And we put together over 90 issues in which there's an absolute majority of Democrats, Republicans and independents, that tri-partisan majority, that want changes.
 
You pointed out 87 percent of the country wants English as the official language of government. Now 87 percent means we ought to be able to get the Democratic Congress to work together with the Republicans to pass something that virtually every American wants.
 
HANNITY: You know, Mr. Speaker, maybe the congressmen and the senators, maybe they really are advocating these positions. I am somebody that follows the news regularly. I'm not hearing them. I'm not hearing them going out on the steps of the Capitol saying we're going to become energy independent, we're going to cut taxes, we're going to win the war in Iraq. You know -- I don't hear them leaning on free market solutions for health care. It's frustrating to me. I feel that they are not doing their part.
 
GINGRICH: I think it's frustrating for all of us. I think there's a huge opportunity, and I both tried to describe it in my book "Real Change," and then Princella and I have been working to describe it at American Solutions. We think there's a real opportunity for political leaders in both parties to reach out to the American people and offer solutions on energy, offer solutions on the environment, offer solutions on education, offer solutions on controlling the border and on immigration.
 
And I find it, you know, frustrating and frankly puzzling that it's so hard to get our political leaders to take this kind of leadership.
 
HANNITY: You know, Princella, I give my friend Speaker Gingrich -- a bit of a hard time because he's always ahead of the curve, and it's a little bit annoying, although we're catching up a little bit on this election cycle on issues like Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers.
 
But he wrote the book "Real Change" before Senator Barack Obama, you know, made it such a big part of this campaign, but when I listen to the Democrats talk about change, I don't see real change. I'm seeing the emergence, in the case of Barack Obama, of what appears to be the quintessential politician with the tried and true old liberal solutions.
 
What do you see?
 
SMITH: Look, I think you're absolutely right. Yes, obviously Speaker Gingrich is ahead of the game as he is -- is most times.
 
HANNITY: It's irritating isn't it? It really.
 
SMITH: And one thing that -- yes, it is irritating, but one of the things that I hear the speaker mention often is that we really will get change if one of those people are elected. The difference is do we get the right kind of change? Do we get real change? And that's what the American people are demanding from their leaders right now.
 
HANNITY: Yes -- no, I agree, and I think it's going to be obvious.
 
All right. Mr. Speaker, as we look forward, North Carolina and Indiana, what do you anticipate is going to happen? And you've gone through a number of scenarios that -- how does the Democratic Party only account 48 states? How do they ignore Michigan and Florida? And it seems like they're really headed for a battle at the end of the day in that department. What do you think should happen?
 
GINGRICH: Well, I think they've either got to accept the original vote in Michigan and Florida or they've got to have a new primary in June or July. I can't imagine that they think they're going to go to Denver and cut out two states. You know are they going to go back to 1957 and pull out the old 48-star flags? How do they reject the fourth largest state in the United States?
 
Florida is number four in population in the country. How are you going to say to Florida.
 
HANNITY: Yes.
 
GINGRICH: .you don't have any votes at the Democratic National Convention?
 
HANNITY: Well, I got to tell you, I think Hillary has a pretty strong case there, and it's rare that I agree with her, but you know what? Change, real solutions in these transformative and consequential times. I'm a big supporter of American Solutions, Princella, Mr. Speaker, thank you for being with us on HANNITY'S AMERICA.
 
SMITH: Thank you.

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