Fox News "Hannity" - Transcript

Interview

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TUCKER CARLSON, GUEST HOST: After contesting election results for the past two weeks, my next guest is now conceding the race for Florida's 18th District to his Democratic challenger, Patrick Murphy.

Here to explain his decision and his post politics plans, the man himself, Florida Congressman Colonel Allen West. Colonel, thanks for coming on.

REP. ALLEN WEST, R-FLA.: Thanks so much.

CARLSON: It must have been a tough decision for you to make. Why did you make it and what do you plan to do from here on out?

WEST: Well the thing was that we took it up to the certain indication deadline. It ended up certifying results from about a week ago, which had it as a 8.5 percent and you need 0.5 to have a mandatory recount and even still there are about 306 ballots that were not included in the final certification report, which they admitted had irregularities.

So I think what we were very successful in doing showing that there are some issues as far as the voting contention there in St. Lucia County. You don't want to prolong or protracted case. You want to make sure the people have representation up there is city 18. So that is why we accepted the results that they posted albeit there are probably some issues with it and we will prepare to move on.

CARLSON: So what does that mean? I mean, you're one of the best known, certainly one of the most conservative members of the House of Representatives. You have your own constituency, which will come with you wherever you go, what are you going to do?

WEST: Well, we've got a great amount of support down here in South Florida, across the state of Florida and across the country. Right now the most important thing is to enjoy Thanksgiving with the family and my youngest daughter will have 16th birthday on Saturday.

So we have to sit down. We'll pray and discuss with a family where we go. And we'll make that decision, but understand this. You can continue to fight for conservative principles and values for the restoration of this constitutional republic. You don't have to have a title to be able to do it. That's the greatness of this republic and that the citizens really do have the power to make an effect upon their government. And that's what we'll continue to do to fight for the liberties and freedoms and democracies that we enjoy.

CARLSON: So I was at Fort Myers Airport and four people, literally four different people, conservatives, dispirited came up to me and said what happened, they asked? I'm not sure I know the answer. They felt like the lost a couple of weeks ago on election night. What are the lessons you're taking from this election?

WEST: Well, I think that we have to do an even better job. I think that previous segment where you talked about the DNC chair talking about racism. We have to go back and study Saul Alinksy Rules for Radicals.
We have to understand the tactics being used by the liberal progressives. We have to break down this collectivism that they are using and pit different groups against each other. We have to talk about policy like David Webb said. And really breaking it down as far as what economic security, energy security and national security means to every single American in this country. So I think we need to do a better job of clearly stating that. Last thing, I think we need to do a better job of protecting our minority conservative candidates. It's very interesting to hear the Democrats talk about racism. They said nothing when they were running ads with me with a gold tooth punching white women. Or they take a distinguished military veteran and they ran ads calling him a war criminal. I guarantee you if Republicans were doing that to a black Democrat candidate you would have heard Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton and many others would have come down here. We need to expose that.

CARLSON: Yes, the president won 96 percent of the black vote in this economy in which any way you read it is yet black voters disproportionately hard, really hard. Why is that?

WEST: Yes it does. Well, I think once again, we have not done a good job of countering their very hateful rhetoric that pretty much so demonizes the Republicans. We have lost our Republican history as far as why the Republican Party was established in the first place, which is the abolition of slavery.
Our civil rights legislation history that we need to bring to the forefront once again and talk about how we want to make sure that everyone is part of the opportunity society and not a dependency society. When you talk about the 4 percent decrease in the median family income across the United States of America that's 11 percent median family income decrease for black families. And so those are the type of very critical points we need to bring out to the black community to let them know that there can be a better path especially small business growth and development.

CARLSON: So let me ask about the fiscal cliff. You're still a member of Congress and you will be until January. This is something that you'll be voting on
We are getting all kinds of indications from the Republican caucus you in the House that they are ready to accept tax increases. Are there any Republicans in the Congress you're aware who are willing to go over the fiscal cliff rather than cave to the president's demands for higher taxes?

WEST: Well, I think the only people that you've heard willing to go fiscal cliff, Senator Patty Murray from Washington said that because they have one intended purpose is to raise tax rates. Look, Tucker, if you raise the top two tax brackets from 33 to 37 percent, 35 to 39.6 percent, you're only getting $85 billion in additional revenue annually.

That only takes care of the net interest of our debt for ten days. That only will service the federal government for about 21 days, since we are borrowing 4 billion a month. So this is gimmick. And we need to be able to articulate that. What we have to do is listen to the National Federation of Independent Businesses and those small business owners and make sure that we protect them so we can have production and manufacturing once again and economic growth.

CARLSON: Colonel Allan West, I sure appreciate it. Thanks for joining us.

WEST: Thank you.

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