Fox News "Hannity" - Transcript

Interview

Fox News Channel "Hannity" Interview - Transcript

FOX NEWS CHANNEL "HANNITY" INTERVIEW WITH REP. STEVE KING (R-IA) INTERVIEWER: SEAN HANNITY
SUBJECT: TIM GEITHNER'S NOMINATION FOR TREASURY SECRETARY

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MR. HANNITY: Now, new questions were also raised this week by former New York Times reporter Jeff Gerth who investigated Geithner's oversight of Citigroup while he was chairman of the New York Federal Reserve Board. Writing on the website propublica.org, Gerth reports that Geithner eased regulations on Citibank even as they engaged in riskier and riskier activities, ultimately leading to the largest federal bank bailout in American history.

And joining us tonight with more on this story is Iowa Republican Congressman Steve King.

Congressman, good to see you. Welcome to "Hannity." Glad you could be with us.

REP. KING: Good to be back with you again, Sean. Thank you.

MR. HANNITY: All right. So the average American is watching this. They pay their taxes. And I think if they got a call from the IRS saying, by the way, we've caught two years you didn't pay, you would not only pay those two years but probably the other two years, wouldn't you?

REP. KING: Well, I think it had to be obvious to Tim Geithner that when the IRS audited him and said, you owe us to pay for the tax liability that you clearly had and acknowledged for 2003 and 2004, he had to know that he had also received the reimbursement payment from the IMF for the funds that he did not pay for 2001 and 2002. Some would also call that double dipping as well as tax avoidance, Sean.

MR. HANNITY: Well, it's pretty fascinating. Now, he ultimately did pay just before he was given the nod by Barack Obama and the nomination for Treasury secretary. So what should we glean from that?

REP. KING: Well, I think we can glean from it that the pattern that's there is that he willfully avoided taxes. I think there's enough evidence there that that would be the case. And even if that were not the case -- and by the way, I don't accept "common mistake," and I don't accept, either, "bad legal advice" or "ignorance" as an excuse because those would be the reasons that any tax avoider would use when the IRS came to audit them. So I think we have to draw the same conclusions that we would if he were anybody else that were paying taxes.

MR. HANNITY: I'll tell you, Democrats, you gotta give them credit. They're great when they come up with a mantra, whenever they're in trouble. If it's Al Gore, "no controlling legal authority." Sandy Berger stuffing, you know, National Archive documents in his pants and everyone, oh, he was just sloppy.

And it seems that the bumper sticker now is this was an honest mistake. I don't know many Americans that are making those honest mistakes and given a pass by politicians, do you?

REP. KING: And Sean, there's a situation where Americans have to play by the rules. We have to establish the rule of law. It has to apply to everyone. And when you see that the apologists for Tim Geithner, who think he's so brilliant that we have to have him leading the Treasury Department, are simply now changing the evaluations of the rules, that means, I guess, that you write the rules to produce a particular effect. But if it doesn't produce the effect you're after, then you change the rules after the fact. That will make a whole generation cynical, and it's going to be hard to collect any taxes if he's heading up the U.S. Treasury.

MR. HANNITY: Congressman, I talk to a lot of people on my radio program, people that e-mail us on our new blog here on the Fox News Channel. I gotta tell you what they're telling me. They're angry with many of the Republicans in the Senate. They're angry that they're not a little tougher on Hillary. They're angry that Eric Holder hasn't had tougher questions. They're angry that Carol Browner was associated with a radical group. And they're specifically angry about this case because everybody's paying their taxes. Do they have a case to be made that the Republicans in the Senate are not being tough enough on these nominees?

REP. KING: Oh, I think they do, Sean. And there's only so much political capital that can be burned on these confirmations. And there's a tremendous amount of good will out there towards the incoming Obama administration. That's being felt by the senators on the Hill. But I can tell you that Democrats would put up a much more tenacious fight on these confirmations than will Republicans. We're too nice, and we're not aggressive enough.

And I won't either let Geithner off the hook on the hiring of the domestic who was illegally employed under him. The history of Zoe Baird and Kimba Wood and Linda Chavez, all disqualified from the Cabinet for the same kind of offenses.

MR. HANNITY: For the exact same, and they all withdrew. But I'm running out of time. Last question -- you thought that it was bizarre, you were quoted in the Politico as saying, that Barack Obama has in fact decided to use his middle name when being sworn in. Why did you use the term "bizarre?"

REP. KING: Well, I think it's bizarre that he could take that double standard and use his people and some of his own comments and ask John McCain, let me say, censure me for simply talking about his middle name. That was an eight-day global news cycle, Sean. And now to turn around and say, now I'm going to use my middle name because it sends a political message to the Muslims in the world. That's a bizarre double standard. It's an immediate flip. And we're seeing many flips along the way.

So I just think that we ought to be able to speak the truth and talk about it objectively. And there should not be some kind of politically correct web that puts over the top of those of us who are trying to speak about objective truth.

MR. HANNITY: Congressman, when some of my talk radio friends used it, they were excoriated. We appreciate you being with us, Congressman King. Thank you for being onboard. And we appreciate it.

REP. KING: All right. Thank you, Sean, I appreciate it.

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