Mark Fuhrman on 'Gates-Gate' Fallout

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," July 28, 2009. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, HOST: President Obama's criticism of the Cambridge police in the wake of the Henry Louis Gates arrest isn't sitting well with many police officers. Now, here's what one Cambridge cop told a TV reporter this past Sunday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I supported him. I voted for him. I will not again. I agree that I think it's admirable that he would speak on behalf of his friend, but he should have recused himself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: And joining me now to discuss this and more is former LAPD detective, FOX News contributor Mark Fuhrman. Mark, good to see you. Thanks for being here. Appreciate it.

• Video: Watch Sean's interview

MARK FUHRMAN, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: You bet.

HANNITY: Your general thoughts on not only what happened, but the president's, you know, intervening in this?

FUHRMAN: Right. You know, I think I should maybe state first. You know, there's kind of — with me here there's kind of an elephant in the room. Now, I was called a racist. That was 14 years ago, 15 years ago. But regardless of the context of what I did or how I did it or who was supposed to hear it, I apologized to a race, a nation and every police officer.

So, with that being said, you look at this situation, and Sergeant Crowley has absolutely nothing to apologize for. Professor Gates has everything to apologize for. And the president should publicly apologize to Sergeant Crowley for his comment.

HANNITY: Let me go to your case for one — one reason and one reason only. Is that, when you were on the stand and you were asked about whether or not you had used that word, and you said no, and then it came out you had been working on a play, did you feel you've got a fair shot? That people would allow you to give context and texture? And in other words it wasn't you saying it; it was a play saying it? Do you think you were treated fairly?

FUHRMAN: Nobody ever even asked. Even when they prosecuted me for perjury, I was never talked to by an investigator or anybody else. Nobody — nobody in the state of California asked me one question about, let alone the D.A.'s office.

HANNITY: Had you forgotten about that tape?

FUHRMAN: I had completely forgotten. Who would care about something that was a fictional screenplay?

HANNITY: Yes.

FUHRMAN: That being said, it doesn't take away from words that are hurtful to people, and I recognized that. And I made my apologies.

But in this situation we need to really see Sergeant Crowley. The man is in a black and white in uniform, and he hears a call come out. He does what every cop is supposed to do unless people don't want them to arrive at their house when 911 is called. But he does.

And he needs to do certain things before he can leave, because he can't leave until he is satisfied a crime has not occurred or one is not in progress. Professor Gates hindered that possibility for him to discover that, even when Sergeant Crowley said, "I'm going to leave. The Harvard police are here." Still Professor Gates pursued this, and he challenged him. He assumed he was a racist solely because he was white. There was no interaction between Sergeant Crowley in that respect. He was simply doing what he is paid to do.

HANNITY: One of the things — I thought that comment that we just played was very interesting to me. Because there have been other minority officers that know this man, Sergeant Crowley, and have defended him. And now — he's actually been teaching some of the younger cops on the job about issues involving race and sensitivity, which I think is a great thing.

We know he was instrumental in trying to revive Reggie Lewis, the former Celtics star.

But the president then weighs in, and the president said he acted stupidly, even admitting he didn't have the facts. When you're the president of the United States, that has a huge impact. Should he apologize?

FUHRMAN: Absolutely. And he should do it as publicly as he called the Cambridge Police Department Sergeant Crowley stupid for doing it.

Now, there's something else. I find it a little embarrassing for our nation and a little embarrassing for me personally that we hear the president come on press conference after press conference after press conference, "I'm in two wars. I've got to do health care. The economy's in the tank."

And so he takes time out to be a camp counselor for something that he has no power, he has no influence. He cannot influence the Cambridge Police Department one bit in this issue.

HANNITY: All right. We've gotten a few tapes now. This Professor Gates was, and this doesn't surprise me, a bit of a radical. Bill Ayers teaches. Ward Churchill teaches on a college campus. But this is on C- Span's "Book Notes." This is Professor Gates. Listen to what he had to say, listen especially after he talks about Malcolm X talking about the white man being the devil and how he laughs. Listen to this tape.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HENRY LOUIS GATES, HARVARD PROFESSOR: My mother hated white people.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All her life?

GATES: Probably. I didn't know until 1959. We were watching Mike Wallace's documentary called "The Hate That Hate Produced." It's about the Nation of Islam. And I couldn't believe — I mean, Malcolm is talking about the white man is the devil and standing up in white people's faces and telling them off. It was great.

Her face was radiant. And this smile, beatific smile started to transform her face. And she said quite quietly, "Amen." And then she said, "All right now." She sat up and she said, "Yes." She never trusted white people. She didn't like white people. She didn't want to live with white people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Well, forget about his mother. He said, "Malcolm X was talking about talking about how the white man was the devil and telling them off. It was great." And he laughs.

FUHRMAN: He does.

HANNITY: What does it say about Professor Gates? Is he the one that racially profiled here?

FUHRMAN: First, there's no racial profiling. That's the most — that's the most ignorant thing I've ever heard anybody say.

HANNITY: Did he have a racial predisposition?

FUHRMAN: He couldn't have a racial predisposition unless somehow the radio gives him pictures of people before he gets there. He certainly didn't know anything.

And I want to say something about police procedure. When Sergeant Crowley went up there, this is where most cops die. They go up to a house that they have an unknown call or they don't know what the call is, but they have to respond. The suspect inside has cover and concealment. You can't see him, and bullets don't go through what he's hiding behind. He has the first opportunity.

When you make contact, as Sergeant Crowley did, he needs to not only identify that that person is who he says he is but there's nobody else in the house making him say that.

HANNITY: What about people that say — and I got a lot of calls to my radio show about this — people say, "Well, Professor Gates was wrong, the president was wrong, but the officer was wrong because he didn't need to arrest him."

FUHRMAN: No, I disagree.

HANNITY: Tell me why.

FUHRMAN: Well, when Sergeant Crowley had — the Harvard police, when they arrived and he turned away and says, "I'm leaving now," now Professor Gates thinks that he won this. And he started pursuing Sergeant Crowley, yelling things, stating things and creating a disturbance that was...

HANNITY: See, every cop agreed with you that was there. But some people say, "Well, you have the right to call a cop anything you want."

FUHRMAN: You don't have a right. If you create a disturbance, if you can create an environment that would incite people to jump in, and then this is how riots start.

HANNITY: See, I agree that once — once he was that uncooperative and that provocative and that disturbing, I think he was in the wrong and the police officer was in the right. I would like to see the president apologize publicly, and I'd like to see Professor Gates do it. I'm not holding my breath. But...

FUHRMAN: I can't believe that Sergeant Crowley would even go to the White House unless he is guaranteed that both those men apologize to him and do it publicly. Because there is absolutely no reason for him to go. He's 100 percent in the right. And if President Obama and Professor Gates don't get off of this they're probably going to be the ones being sued.

HANNITY: All right. Good to see you, Mark. Appreciate it. Thank you.

FUHRMAN: Thank you, Sean.

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