Fox News "Hannity" - Transcript

Interview

SEAN HANNITY, HOST: Republican Congressman Allen West is outraged over a new political ad that depicts him punching grandma and two white women and children, and he say, it's downright racist. Let's take a look at this ad.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: Allen West fancies himself a fighter. Well, maybe so. West has socked it to seniors, voting to end Medicare as we know it. He has whacked women with his votes for huge cuts in women's health care funding. And he has mauled middle class families by supporting a budget plan that would have cut taxes on the rich while eliminating our tax breaks for college tuition and mortgages. Allen West is a fighter all right, but it's time for us to fight back and knock him out of Congress, once and for all.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: All right. Considering Colonel West is a Republican -- by the way, a war hero -- it's not surprising that the NAACP says, the video contains no stereotypes, therefore it's not racist at all.

Joining me now, the man at the center of this ridiculous attack ad, Florida Congressman and Colonel Allen West. Colonel, welcome back to the program. Congratulations on your big primary win, sir.

REP. ALLEN WEST, R-FLA.: Thanks so much, Sean. It's a pleasure to be with you.

HANNITY: All right. Let's start with this ad, you are punching grandma, you are punching a young woman, you are punching children. You said, you think this is racist. Explain that.

WEST: Well, first of all, it has me with a gold tooth. And I think you can see from my smile, I don't have a gold tooth. I think that that is quite stereotypical. And then of course having me as an African-American male, punching a white senior woman and then another white woman, that is definitely not in concert with the values that I stand for.

I have been married for 23 years to a wife that has an MBA and a PhD, I have two daughters, 19 and 15. I don't believe in violence against women. But this is what happens, Sean, when you're in the age Obama and the age where the liberal progressives cannot talk about the issues, they cannot run on any type of record, cannot talk about the economy, the debt and deficit. So these are the type of attacks against your character, the lies that they put out there.

HANNITY: And imagine if Paul Ryan ran an ad like this. Imagine if Paul Ryan said what Joe Biden said. Let's roll this tape.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: He's going to let the big banks once again write their own rules. Unchain Wall Street! They're going to put you all back in chains.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Unchain Wall Street! Put you all back in chains. You know, like Al Gore before him, like Hillary Clinton before him, the cadence, everything changes, predominantly African-American audience.

WEST: Yes.

HANNITY: If Paul Ryan said that?

WEST: Well, Sean, if Paul Ryan said that, they would just go absolutely apoplectic. But not too long ago, I made a speech to kick off up in Port Saint Lucie that talked about this growing economic dependency class that we have. A forty five percent increase on food stamps, 9.3 million more Americans in poverty. And I said that that was a new form of enslavement.

HANNITY: Yes.

WEST: And of course, everyone on the left went absolutely idiotic and tried to condemn me about bringing up the specter of slavery, you know, it's a duplicitous hypocrisy.

HANNITY: You know, the first African-American governor in the country -- Douglas Wilder -- I have to give him a lot of credit. He's one of the few Democrats had the moral integrity to call this out for what it was. Let's roll this tape.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "YOUR WORLD")

DOUGLAS WILDER, D-FORMER VIRGINIA GOVERNOR: When you make a statement that says, they are going to put y'all back in chains -- which means," I'm OK, not going to happen to me" -- and then --

NEIL CAVUTO, HOST: Oh, that's interesting.

WILDER: "We will work through it. But y'all would be in chains." Now slavery is nothing to joke about! And the history of this nation's involvement with slavery is nothing to pass off in a joke.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Why is there this double standard? Why do you think there is?

WEST: Well, it's very simple, that you don't hold yourself to any standards whatsoever, especially of honor, integrity and character. And I think that when you look at how they come after black conservatives, myself, Tim Scott, Condoleezza Rice, Thomas Sowell, Walter Williams, we intimidate them. And they're afraid of us because more of us that they are able to stand up on our own and talk about the failures of liberal progressive policies, especially toward the black community.

When you look and see that my wife and I only represent 28 percent of a black family that, you know, with the children and a home. When you look at 14 percent unemployment in the black community, 40 percent unemployment for black teenagers, they don't want to talk about that and they definitely don't want to have individuals that can stand up on their own -- you know, look at myself coming out from the inner city of Atlanta, Georgia, 22-year career in the United States military, and now I am a member of Congress. And I represent the highest per capita zip code in this country.

HANNITY: I keep saying, this is one of the sleaziest, slimiest smear campaigns that I have seen in my lifetime. Let's go back and let's look at how Hillary and Bill Clinton were reacting to the tactics of Barack Obama. Let's roll this tape.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

HILLARY CLINTON, FEB. 23, 2008: So, shame on you, Barack Obama! It is time you ran a campaign consistent with your messages in public. That's what I expect from you. Meet me in Ohio. Let's have a debate about your tactics and your behavior in this campaign.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

BILL CLINTON, WHYY RADIO, PHILADELPHIA, PA, JUNE 21, 2008: I think that they played the race card on me. And we now know from memos in the campaign and everything that they planned to do it all along.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Are they playing the race card? Have they played it? Has Joe Biden played it?

WEST: Of course they have. That's one of the things they have to do. They want to make sure that they can get that large voting electorate out there from the different communities. They look at us as collectives, not as individuals. And you have to understand that this is going to continue to happen. And the president emanating from Chicago, it's all about Chicago-style politics, it's about fear and intimidation, it's about lies and deceit.

HANNITY: Colonel, Congressman, thanks for being with us. Glad you had an opportunity to respond to this.

Source