This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," June 1, 2011. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. ANTHONY WEINER, D-N.Y.: You know, I can tell you, maybe you think it should be a big federal case. Maybe there should be millions of dollars of federal resources put to trying figure out who posted on Congressman Weiner's page a picture of what it was. Maybe that will turn out to be the case. But the way I'm pursuing it, is I'm going to let people who do this for a living, internet security types and white collar criminal guys to take a look at this to see if there is a civil action or criminal action. But I have to tell you something, I don't think this is a federal case.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: All right. That was a clip from Congressman Anthony Weiner's interview with our own Bret Baier. That was earlier today. What may surprise you, most about the scandal, is that it may have all originated right here on "Hannity."
Now, the Washington Post reports that the Seattle college student who received the fraudulent tweet from Congressman Weiner's account, well, actually began again following his Twitter feed after watching his debate with Congresswoman Michele Bachmann right here on "Hannity."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM MARCH 16)
REP. MICHELE BACHMANN, R-MINN.: You know, Sean, I had no idea that Representative Weiner was such a reader of fiction. He's a huge fiction reader because that's all of his numbers. I wanted to mention.
WEINER: Bachmann, I don't think you want to go there!
BACHMANN: I wanted to mention.
WEINER: I don't think you want to go there, Bachmann.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Joining me with analysis, the author of the New York Times number one bestseller, "Culture of Corruption," Michelle Malkin is with back that. Michelle, how are you?
MICHELLE MALKIN, AUTHOR, "CULTURE OF CORRUPTION": Good, how are you Sean?
HANNITY: Look, I don't know what to make of this. You know, I didn't post it, I don't know if it is me or not. What is your take on this? I don't know whether to laugh or cry. But what is your take?
MALKIN: Well, I'll say this, just from a completely human compassionate perspective. If I was his wife, I would be shedding a few tears right now. He said earlier today that her reaction was that she was quote, unquote, "bemused." And I doubt that's the word in her vocabulary that she is using. Especially, because it has come to light that this 21-year-old girl in Seattle was far from the least of the young women that he was following. And in fact, as you mentioned in her case, he picked up a lot of these young female followers, as a result of them fawning over his TV appearances. And it is also rich and ironic that now he's playing this sort of laid back hand, hey, I'm going to let everybody else take care of it. When he's prided himself on the campaign trail and in the beltway over the last couple of years, as the lion, The fighter in Capitol Hill and the fighter among the Democrat Party. We certainly don't see that instinct now, when it comes to fighting what is clearly a federal crime at hand, if you take him at his word.
HANNITY: What do you make of his anger, his refusal to answer a simple question yesterday, did you send it? What do you make of how he's handling this?
MALKIN: Yes, well, he is not being well served by his own ego. He's certainly not being served well by his own stuff. But this is no surprise to the people who have followed his entire political career. His hubris. I think the mythical analogy here is of Icarus, you know, the very arrogant young man flying so high that he doesn't realize that the wax that is holding his wings to his back is melting off and he's crashing and burning and doesn't realize it. I think that hubris is especially apparent in the fact that he won't shut up about it, even as he's saying this isn't a federal case. And really, if he is really interested in protecting his wife, as he said earlier, the latest of his human shield strategies, he would either fess up or shut up.
HANNITY: You know, what do you think about this politically, though. The guy in New York 26 is first of all, you know, the arrogance of power, Republican, taking a picture of himself, sending it out, he's gone in six minutes. Mark Foley, "Culture of Corruption." Nancy Pelosi is going to drain the swamp. Apparently, she's not draining in the swamp about her own party. I don't hear any Democrats asking some tough questions about whether or not, you know...
Look, there's a lot of questions here. Did he send it to these young girls? And if he did, you know, I don't understand his answers. Because, look, e-mail accounts, Twitter accounts, Facebook, I assume they all can be hacked. I know people this has happened to. If it was really hacked and he didn't send it, wouldn't he definitively say, I didn't send it, I have nothing to do with this, no, that is not me. It seems basic.
MALKIN: Right. He's left a pile of deflections in the wake. And even many of our liberal media colleagues aren't buying it. Everything from the timeline that has been screen captured by so many of the blogs. The Breitbart Empire, Patterico, Ace of Spades, Verum Serum, there are so many on the ground who were actually doing work over this holiday weekend that we have to thank for this. And of course, now, so many in the mainstream media cannot ignore it any more. And there were questions today that were not followed up on that certainly need to be answered at some point.
Particularly, the reference that he made in one particular tweet to Seattle. You know, he was telling his followers that he was going to be on another TV show. And he wanted to let people know what time it was in Seattle. And of course, he's brushing that off as some sort of pure coincidence, when it doesn't make any sense.
And, you know, there's a theory, it is a phrase that has been batted around a lot over the last couple of days called Occam's razor. And that is, that the simplest explanation is usually the right one. And it is very convoluted to believe that some sort of weird hacking took place. A hacking that he doesn't really seem to be all that concerned about. When, the most simplest explanation would be for those who use Twitter that he accidentally sent this out publicly, when he meant to send it out privately. And if not him, then somebody who he knew had access to his account.
HANNITY: Well, Democrats seem to be getting angrier because, you know, this is taking away from their fear-mongering scaring granny and grandpa, and Medi-scare. So, maybe there will be a little pressure from his fellow scare grandma Democrats.
But Michelle, good to see you. Thanks for being with us.
MALKIN: You bet.
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