Should a Former Terrorist Be Teaching College Kids?

This is a partial transcript from "Hannity & Colmes," February 17, 2005, that has been edited for clarity.

SEAN HANNITY, CO-HOST: As we continue on "Hannity & Colmes," this evening, we bring you our final installment in our series tonight on professors in the United States. David Horowitz joins us again to highlight a college professor that he says is one of the most dangerous academics in America. Bill Ayers is professor of early childhood education and a senior university scholar at the University of Illinois in Chicago. As a leader of the 1960s underground Weatherman Group, Ayers organized bombings of the U.S. Capitol Building, New York City Police Headquarters, the Pentagon, and National Guard offices in Washington, D.C., among many other targets.

Professor Ayers did not respond to our request for comment tonight.

David Horowitz joins us. I want to go through this very interestingly here. This was a guy who, September 11th, the day of our attack, quoted in The New York Times in a review of his book, quote, saying, "I don't regret setting bombs. I feel we didn't do enough."

DAVID HOROWITZ, AUTHOR: Didn't do enough, exactly. And let me just point out this is the fifth in a row where they haven't appeared. They don't want to be accountable. Professors think they're above the law.

HANNITY: I wouldn't want to debate you either, David, to be honest.

HOROWITZ: Yes, well, this is the first time in American history that whole departments and fields have been devoted to political — in our universities have been devoted to political propaganda and ideological pursuits. This man is an ideologue and an extremist. This is the first time our universities have had extremists.

HANNITY: Now, how does this guy become a professor? Let's look at the background of the Weatherman...

HOROWITZ: Good question.

HANNITY: Hang on a second. In 1969 they issued a formal declaration of war against America — "AmeriKKKa."

HOROWITZ: KKK.

HANNITY: "White radicals should shed their white skin privilege as their ideology (INAUDIBLE) kill all rich people, break up their cars"...

HOROWITZ: They wanted to provoke a race war in America on behalf of the third world.

HANNITY: "...Bring the revolution home, kill your parents".

HOROWITZ: And their hero was Charlie Manson. Billy's wife, Bernadine Dohrn, who is a law professor at Northwestern, was the actual leader of this group.

HANNITY: But wait a minute. The whole ideology is (INAUDIBLE)

HOROWITZ: America is the great Satan, the oppressor nation. Every person of color in the third world, they wanted a war against America. And their duty as white radicals...

HANNITY: Explain this line, though...

HOROWITZ: ... was to start a war.

HANNITY: "I don't regret setting bombs. I feel we didn't do enough." "Kill all rich people, break up their cars and apartments. Bring the revolution home. Kill your parents. Talking about America, What a country. It makes me want to puke."

HOROWITZ: Yes.

HANNITY: How does a person like that become a professor?

HOROWITZ: And how does he become a distinguished professor, a full professor? That means there's a kind of affirmative action hiring program for left-wing extremists.

ALAN COLMES, CO-HOST: Do you want affirmative action for conservatives?

HOROWITZ: I have never called for that, no.

COLMES: So you wouldn't want to say, "We want X number of conservatives"...

HOROWITZ: No, but see, this man — a hundred people applied for this job for early childhood education, and they pick a man from the FBI's most wanted list. This tells you more than you want to know about American universities.

COLMES: See the diversity of education people get to have in this country? Look...

HOROWITZ: It's not diverse. Wait a second. I couldn't get a job at the University of Illinois where he teaches. Are you kidding?

COLMES: You were at one time a radical yourself.

HOROWITZ: Yes, I was.

COLMES: I'm not defending, by the way, the Weathermen or what they did.

HOROWITZ: And I had utter contempt for Bill Ayers' intellect, let me tell you. When he got elected the head of SDS, he boasted, "I haven't read a book in a year." That was his revolutionary...

(CROSSTALK)

COLMES: But you were in sync with the Black Panthers. You were a radical. You went over now to the other side. Should you ever be allowed to teach in a university?

HOROWITZ: Look, first of all, I didn't bomb buildings. In fact, I wrote editorials against the bombers, OK?

America is a democracy. If you go into the streets and start a military action, you're an outlaw. This man was a criminal.

And he is unrepentant. He's got the same views as he does — I have very different views.

COLMES: I'm not defending him.

HOROWITZ: You may have noticed I learn from my mistakes.

(CROSSTALK)

COLMES: I'm defending academic freedom.

(CROSSTALK)

HOROWITZ: And my problem — well, this isn't about academic freedom. This is about academic standards.

The university system has been debased by political ideologues that came out of the '60s and are now hiring other ideologues and other political propagandists. This is no different from the communist professor who's teaching a subject called peace studies and is taking his students to Cuba, a terrorist state...

COLMES: But let me ask you this, David...

HOROWITZ: ... and teaching them, you know, to like terrorists.

COLMES: Are they turning out commies? Are they turning out radicals?

HOROWITZ: Oh, absolutely.

COLMES: Are they turning out a bunch of left-wing crazy people? Is that what's happening here?

HOROWITZ: Absolutely.

COLMES: Really?

HOROWITZ: If you haven't — where do you think all these demonstrators come from?

COLMES: Have we made a link from all these demonstrators to the classes of the very people you have in your book, as if they're personally responsible for...

(CROSSTALK)

HOROWITZ: You know, I'm an old political hand. When I see a political indoctrination and recruitment program which violates every standard of American education, I know it has results.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: David's new book, "The Professors: The 101" — well, actually 102 — "Worst Professors." It's in bookstores just out this week.

HOROWITZ: Everywhere.

HANNITY: It's called "The Professors." It's everywhere. And it's on my Web site, Hannity.com, Amazon.com, bookstores everywhere.

Thanks for being with us for this series.

HOROWITZ: It's been a great pleasure.

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