By ,
Published January 27, 2017
This is a RUSH transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," October 10, 2011. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
Watch "The O'Reilly Factor" weeknights at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET!
LAURA INGRAHAM, GUEST HOST: In the "Factor Follow-up" segment tonight: Texas Governor Rick Perry, after stumbling in a few debates, has gone from the front-runner to third place in a few polls. But nevertheless, he is still a huge force. He raised a ton of money, about $17 million bucks in the last quarter. And now he's slamming Mitt Romney in a new political ad.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRAPHIC: America's Most Damaging Prescription: Obamacare
America's Most Damaging Prescription: Romneycare
MITT ROMNEY, GOP PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Now, I'm a conservative businessman.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Time and again the White House has pointed to the Massachusetts law as the model for Obamacare.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I agree with Mitt Romney. He's right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jimmy Carter is throwing his weight behind Mitt Romney.
ROMNEY: Those who follow the path that we pursued will find it's the best path.
I like mandates.
In my book, I said no such thing. I stand by what I wrote.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Noting that the line about doing the same thing for everyone in the country has been deleted.
TIM RUSSERT, FORMER HOST, "MEET THE PRESS": Why if it's good for Massachusetts and it's working in Massachusetts, would you apply it to the rest of the country?
ROMNEY: I would.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Romney has flip-flopped on so many issues.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The arrogance is out of control.
ROMNEY: I didn't change my mind. I'm running for a different office.
We'll end up with a nation that's taking a mandate approach.
There are a lot of reasons not to elect me.
OBAMA: He's right.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Could this ad turn conservatives, at least some of them, against Mr. Romney? Joining us now from New York is Ann Coulter, the author of the huge best-seller, "Demonic: How the Liberal Mob Is Endangering America." Ann, we've seen just a few political ads so far this season. What do you make of that one?
ANN COULTER, AUTHOR: It's a good ad. It's probably Romney's biggest problem, and that was a very strong ad, though I must say there are differences between doing it just in a state and doing it nationally. You can leave a state. You can't leave the country, or at least not quite as easy.
And the other thing is, I mean, the country has spoken. They do not want national health care. Romney himself has said, whatever he says about -- about what he did in Massachusetts, he says his first day in office, he will issue 50 state waivers to Obamacare, every state. We don't have to worry about him making that mistake again.
What it reminds Republicans -- but I think we all knew this -- is that he's not a pure free-marketeer. The Heritage Foundation, by the way, signed off on Romneycare and also in a small defense of Romneycare, though it is not a free market solution. A governor is limited in the solutions he can come up with because of federal laws requiring that hospitals treat anyone who comes to their door, including strings of illegal immigrants with sniffles or who think they're getting a cold. That was the problem Romney was dealing with as a governor.
The problem generally with Obamacare and Romneycare is that they are responding to problems that were created by government intervention in the first place.
INGRAHAM: Right.
COULTER: Yet, at least in the case of Romneycare, he was responding to government problems created by the federal government and not the state government. So it is more defensible.
INGRAHAM: But Ann -- Ann, doesn't -- doesn't, though, that issue, when it comes up, it brings up this question of philosophy, right?
COULTER: Yes.
INGRAHAM: Who's the real conservative in this race? And, look, obviously Mitt Romney knows business and he knows how to handle a crisis, which I think he's marketing really well. But that is the Perry opening here. And he has to remind people, this is what happened -- this is what's happened since in Massachusetts, which again, if you're Mitt Romney and you see the cost of health care going up, still I think it's only 96 percent of the people insured. Before there was 93 percent. Something like that. I mean, it was more people insured now. But still…
COULTER: Very small amount.
INGRAHAM: …the numbers aren't all that positive.
COULTER: No, it actually shows the failure of even statewide universal care. But yet, still I think we have to run a governor.
INGRAHAM: Right.
COULTER: So we're basically down to Romney or Perry. And Perry has a much, much bigger problem, as Romneycare indicates, especially that sort of thing just done statewide. And even Obamacare. You can repeal a bad policy.
INGRAHAM: Right.
COULTER: You give 30 million illegal aliens amnesty, you can't repeal that. Perry's position on illegal immigration is a much bigger problem than Romney's problem with Romneycare.
INGRAHAM: Let's move on to this Chris Wallace dustup with Rick Santorum. I assume you saw it. And your reaction to how that went down on "Fox News Sunday"? I got a lot of e-mails about it. Obviously, Santorum is very socially conservative, but what was up with that?
COULTER: I thought it was an outrageous question. I was just surprised. I don't know if your viewers have seen it, but he gives this quote. "The military is very important. We can't engage in social experimentation with the military. Do you agree with that, Rick Santorum?"
And I was sitting back thinking, that's going to be a quote from Hitler. It's always unfair to do that. No, it was some general who said it about blacks in the military. Well, first of all, I thought Juan Williams should have punched Chris Wallace for saying that when he came on in the second half of the program. I'm sick of people comparing gays to blacks. It's very different. What Santorum said is true: It's sexualization of the military; it's not someone being black. Tell me how being black is like being gay. You can see someone is black. You can't see that someone is gay.
INGRAHAM: Right.
COULTER: And the precise policy we're arguing about is whether or not they can go around announcing they're gay. It's not just being gay. Obviously, a guy can be listening to Lady Gaga while downloading files he's about to give to Wikipedia in the greatest betrayal of his country anyone has ever -- has ever committed in the military, and he was gay. Pretending to listen to Lady Gaga, that's not enough. That's under the old policy.
INGRAHAM: Ann -- Ann, before we let you go, the Mormonism question. We only have about 45 seconds here, but give us your take on how that went down over the weekend. The media exploiting it clearly. How does it play out?
COULTER: I'm sick of hearing non-Christians talk about it. Look, the issue for Christians is not just evangelicals. It's any Christian. It isn't about the Trinity or, you know, this or that. It's that they see Mormonism as a false religion. As soon as Romney becomes the nominee, the mainstream media, I promise you, will be doing lots of specials, neutral, you know, non-objective, non-partisan specials on what the Mormons believe. And, you know, the things like getting your own planet, believing the Indians were turned brown because they didn't accept Jesus, that Satan was the brother of Jesus, these are going to be problems.
Now, I think Christians who are worried that people will be attracted to a false religion probably don't need to worry about it because there's going to be so much mainstream media airing of these things...
INGRAHAM: They're going to bash it. Yes.
COULTER: …that if anything it will drive people away from Mormonism but toward Romney because Mormons are always lovely people.
INGRAHAM: Very interesting. We'll see how it all plays out. Ann, it's great to see you as always.
COULTER: Good to see you.
Content and Programming Copyright 2011 Fox News Network, Inc. Copyright 2011 Roll Call, Inc. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of Roll Call. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.
https://www.foxnews.com/transcript/ann-coulter-analyzes-perrys-romneycare-attack-ad