This is a rush transcript from “Hannity,” May 19, 2010. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter had a head-on collision with karma last night when he was defeated by Joe Sestak in the Democratic primary. Now this comes just a year after this:
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SENATOR ARLEN SPECTER, D-PA., APRIL 28, 2009: I am not prepared to have my 29-year record in the United States Senate decided by the Pennsylvania Republican primary electorate; not prepared to have that record decided by that jury. Therefore, I have decided to be a candidate for re-election in 2010 in the Democratic primary.
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HANNITY: All right, so after ditching the Republican Party in a cynical attempt to further his own career, magic bullet karma dodged and weaved and finally found Benedict Arlen. Now his loss must have hit team Obama hard as the administration has been doing all it can to help Democrats in tough races.
After unsuccessful attempts to help elect Virginia State Senator Creigh Deeds, former New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine and Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, he was unable to help Senator Specter pull out this race as well.
And it increasingly looks like the president’s presence on the campaign trail is more of a curse than blessing.
Meanwhile in Arkansas, Lt. Gov. Bill Halter forced Senator Blanche Lincoln into a runoff after she failed to win 50 percent of the vote. And now she hangs on for dear life.
And joining me now with reaction to all of last night’s big races is Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann.
Congresswoman, welcome back to “Hannity.”
CONGRESSWOMAN MICHELE BACHMANN, R-MINN.: Sean, thanks so much. Always a pleasure to be back.
HANNITY: So what is your big take — big picture take from last night?
BACHMANN: Well, I think if this was a baseball game the president would be sent back down out to minor leagues because he’s 0-4 right now. He’s been out on the campaign trail; he’s been up to bat four times; and he struck out every time. And with Blanche Lincoln not making the 50 percent threshold you might say it’s 4 1/2 times at-bat.
HANNITY: No, I think one of the biggest losers out of yesterday is by far the president. When you think about it, he’s — you know, as you point out, 0-4, 0-5 depending on how you want to add the math.
What do you — what do you interpret for the mood of the country? For example, if we add Bob Bennett in Utah, if we add Charlie Crist, Alan Mollohan — if we add all of it together and then you go to New Jersey, you go to Massachusetts, you go to Creigh Deeds, what is the electorate telling us?
BACHMANN: Well, it is clearly anti-big government, clearly anti-Obama agenda and the anti-Obamacare agenda. And people who supported the big spending, the big deficits, the incumbents that decided that government has the answer to every solution, that agenda has been soundly rejected by the American people.
Even the National Journal poll on political confidence came out today. It’s a stunningly low -34 percent. So I think the alarm clock has gone off for the Obama, Pelosi, Reid agenda. And these radicals continue to press the snooze button and I think it’s to their peril in November.
HANNITY: We have Michelle Malkin coming on later in the program. I’ll get into more detail with her. But it seems to me in all the years that I’ve followed politics and from a very young age for whatever reason I was interested in politics. I’ve never witnessed what we’re now seeing, where, you know, it’s supposed to be government by, of and for the people.
Immigration, government is at odds with the American people. Right? On the issue of taxation, health care — we can’t even use the term radical terrorism, radical Islamic terrorists.
This administration is at odds with the American people. What is that telling us? That they think they are smarter than us?
BACHMANN: Well, I think it tells us again that the alarm clock has gone off and they keep hitting the snooze button. They don’t want to believe that the American people are actually going to have a voice in November and that their radical ways are going to come to an end.
But the American people are saying, let us at the polls. We want to be heard. We want to take our country back. And as a matter of fact, I think that’s what Rand Paul said last night after his stunning win in Kentucky.
We are going to take our country back. That’s the good news. The American people just need to hold on, keep working for the next six months and we’ll do exactly that. And we’ll put an end to this Obama agenda.
HANNITY: Isn’t there a big lesson here, though, for Democrats? Maybe this is the cynical side of me. You know if you look at the Pennsylvania 12th District, and Critz, you know, he ran as pro-life, he ran as pro-Second Amendment, he ran against Obamacare. This is a Democrat.
He ran against cap-and-tax. He ran against the entire Obama, Pelosi, Reid agenda, as a Democrat. Does that say that Democrats run as far away as you can from our national agenda?
BACHMANN: Clearly it does. And I think that we won’t see a lot of Democrats that want to have the president campaign for them in their backyard or much less Speaker Pelosi or probably Harry Reid.
I think the candidates will want to stay as far as they can from them because their faces are the faces of this radical agenda that are leading to 10 percent unemployment, radical deficits, and to the American taxpayer being forced to bail out socialist countries and Europe.
HANNITY: Yes.
BACHMANN: The American people are saying, what part of no don’t you understand?
HANNITY: Rand Paul — it was interesting to me because I agree with his father’s economic policies in particular as a libertarian. I think he’s dead on about the size, and scope and role of government in our day- to-day lives.
And I also think he was pro-life in this race which was interesting as he garnered or at least a retraction of Dr. James Dobson’s support here. But he had — but his opponent had the entire Republican support and Rand ran away with it. Why?
BACHMANN: I think Rand ran away with it because he was very clear and upfront from the beginning about his opposition to what was going on in Washington, D.C. and his views reflected those of the voters. He was very angry about all of the spending. And he caught on with all of the folks in the Tea Party.
HANNITY: Yes, but he’s right.
BACHMANN: And they supported him.
HANNITY: Yes. You think this shows that the Tea Party has a lot more influence than maybe some, especially Democrats, would want us to believe?
BACHMANN: Yes, absolutely. He has tapped into a real sense of where the American people are at. And he won and he won decisively. He ran against Washington. And I think again that connection with Washington is anathema right now with the American people.
HANNITY: See, I think we’re watching a civic uprising of enormous strength and enormous power by the American people. And I’m watching it and I’m inspired by it in a lot of ways because I really feel the country is headed in the wrong direction.
On the other hand, I’m concerned because I don’t want the Republicans to go back to their old big spending ways. I don’t want them to become complacent. I’m concerned that if they don’t go back to their conservative roots, meaning the Republican Party, and I think they’ve done so in the House this year as evidenced by opposing the president on cap-and-tax, et cetera. I think they may take this election for granted.
Is there — do you have any worry, concern or fear that that may happen?
BACHMANN: Well, the patience of the American people, Sean, is about this thick right now. And that goes for Republicans, too. And so Republicans had better take heed and take warning.
Republicans need to be true constitutional conservatives if they want to win this November. If they are, they’ll gain the favor of the American people. And they will take a majority in the House and in the Senate. I think it’s a real possibility in November.
HANNITY: You know, I think it’s simple — as simple as this, vote for fiscal responsibility. Vote for balanced budgets. Don’t take earmarks. Strong national defense. Close the borders.
BACHMANN: Yes. That’s right.
HANNITY: Be energy independent. If you — it seems to me if you passionately articulate that, I don’t see how you lose in this environment. Is it that simple?
BACHMANN: Be where the American people are, Sean. If you’re where the American people are, that’s the right thing to do and then we win.
HANNITY: Well, this government is not by, for and of the people because they seem to go against the people which we’ll get into a little bit later. So —
BACHMANN: You’re right.
HANNITY: Congresswoman, good to see you. Thanks for being with us.
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