Gingrich: Obama will sell out our defense system

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," March 26, 2012. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, HOST: Now cameras are constantly rolling around America's top politicians. Earlier, President Obama was reminded of this fact when discussing our planned missile defense system in Europe. Obama had this to say to the president of Russia.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT OBAMA: This is my last election. After my election, I have more flexibility.

MEDVEDEV: I will transmit this information to Vladimir. I understand you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: I'll transmit this to Putin. I understand. It's good to know that not only is the president convinced he's going to win a second term. He also apparently is plotting what policies he's going to flip flop on.

Joining me now, former speaker of the House, presidential candidate, Newt Gingrich. That seems very revealing to me in a lot of areas. Your thoughts.

NEWT GINGRICH, R-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, it raises two questions. The first is what other countries has he had this conversation with? Who else has he said to the Iranians, to the North Koreans, a variety of places, you know, give me a little time, give me some space, let me get reelected and then I'll sell out.

The second is my interpretation of an American president telling a Russian president about our missile defense clearly indicates he's going to sell out our defense system as soon as he gets reelected, which would fit his whole policy of weakness and appeasement. But it's pretty sobering to realize how cynical and how calculated this process is.

HANNITY: You know, I can think of just three instances off the top of my head, bitter people in Pennsylvania clinging to their guns, their Bibles and religion. Sarkozy said our closest ally, Benjamin Netanyahu is a liar, and he's like I've got to deal with this guy every day, you know, forget about you.

And then this one is saying just tell Mr. Putin, I've got to get reelected and I'll take care of that. I don't like any either one of these. It reveals something about Obama we need to pay close attention to.

GINGRICH: Sure. Look, he's a hard line left-winger. Remember, he was also caught off the record talking to a small group in San Francisco about the fact that he was going to make impossible to build another coal burning electric plant because you would go bankrupt if you tried.

So he was totally anti-coal. He was also frankly for higher electricity costs. Remember, this is an administration, which wants very expensive energy, which turned to the Saudis to pump more oil, not to the Americans, not to Louisiana or North Dakota or Texas or any other place in America.

And I think none of this is a surprise. The question is, does the United States want to reelect a president with the worst economic record since the Great Depression, the highest deficits in American history, a rising cost of gasoline, a weak foreign policy, and a willingness to destroy the American defense system? I mean, that's essentially what Obamaism is.

HANNITY: Let me ask you this. Rick Santorum, we were playing this earlier, had a confrontation with this reporter, and I'm frankly I would get a little tired of the liberal media myself. You might be a little sympathetic towards it.

But things are slowing down now, and you have said that there's a possibility that Mitt Romney might not get the 1,144 committed delegates to get the nomination outright by June.

How likely is that scenario, and what does it mean for you? What does it mean for Senator Santorum, what does it mean for Governor Romney and those who want to see ban Barack Obama defeated?

GINGRICH: Look, I'm speaking to you from Delaware, which is going to get a lot more attention in the next three weeks than anybody expected because all of a sudden Delaware's delegates count. You're going to find we're in uncharted waters for Republicans.

This is going to be a very long nominating process. There's a very real chance Governor Romney is not going to get to 1,144. Now, if he does get to 1,144, he'll be the nominee, and I will support him because beating Barack Obama really matters.

But if we end up after June 26th when Utah votes, the last primary, and he is, say, at a thousand, over a hundred votes short, I think it's going to be almost impossible for him to close the gap.

That will open up the most interesting 60 days in recent political history because we'll basically having a national electronic convention. I could imagine a circumstance, for example, where they suspended the keynote address on the first night and actually had a presidential debate in front of the delegates of the candidates. You can imagine a whole process that's totally different than anything we've ever seen.

The question is, Governor Romney has said six years of campaigning, put in $40 million of his own money, outspent the rest of us by somewhere between three and seven to one.

And yet of the first 10 million votes cast this year, 6 million were for somebody other than Romney, only 4 million were for Romney. There's no great incentive for either Santorum or me to back off.

HANNITY: In this sense, in other words, is this in the end good? Is there a danger that there wouldn't be enough time for the nominee to have a full campaign, raise the money necessary to fight back against the billion dollar Democratic machine?

GINGRICH: I would say just the opposite. The later we get a nominee, the less time Obama has to smear the nominee. Now, they're going to raise the billion dollars, but what if they don't know who to attack?

What if they don't know exactly what they're doing? If you'll notice, I've had Obama on defense now for three weeks over energy and they're not gaining any ground defending high-priced oil. So I think we want to keep Obama on defense all through the summer, having us active as candidates is actually better for keeping him on defense.

And I would just point out that whoever we nominate on the night they give their acceptance speech would have the largest audience in American history. And they would have 60 days to make a pretty simple case. This is not a complicated case. You really want to continue the worst economic record since the great depression? Do you really want to go to seven, eight, nine, 10 dollar a gallon gasoline? Do you really want weakness in foreign policy?

Do you want your grandchildren to be crushed in debt? Do you want to really centralize all power in Washington? Do you really like radical values and a war against the Catholic Church and every right-to-life group in the country?

I mean, that's what Obama is. I always said I want to debate him because I think it's a very clear picture, what's at stake here.

HANNITY: Mr. Speaker, thanks as always for being here with us.

GINGRICH: Thank you.

HANNITY: And we're going to watch Delaware and New York and Wisconsin, we're watching them all. Thanks for begin with us.

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