Romney puts focus on foreign policy with Israel trip

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," July 23, 2012. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, HOST: With 106 days to go until Election Day, the campaign is temporarily switching focus from the economy to foreign policy. Mitt Romney is planning to make his first appearance on the international stage with a trip to Israel, England and Poland.

Now it's no surprise that some of his stops will be with allies that the president has not exactly put on the forefront of his foreign policy agenda.

That's not keeping the president's campaign from hammering the governor for his overseas trip, saying that his visits are nothing more than a dog and pony show, and calling his foreign policy platform lacking in substance.

Joining me now with more on Mitt Romney's trip and the latest in 2012 are conservative columnist and policy impact director for the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, Tina Korbe, and Iraqi veteran and Florida congressional candidate, Ron Desantis. Good to see you guys.

Maybe Romney should just be offering the Muslim Brotherhood like Obama and his team $1.5 billion.

TINA KORBE, OKLAHOMA COUNCIL PUBLIC AFFAIRS: I think this is a really good move by Mitt Romney because he should not seed foreign policy to Barack Obama.

You just point out he is giving money to the Muslim Brotherhood and more importantly he's yet to visit Israel in his entire presidency. I think what Romney is doing with his trip is saying he is going to make our allies important in his foreign policy strategy rather than our enemies.

HANNITY: I think it's actually -- I cannot believe that the president hasn't been to Israel. And the snubs against Prime Minister Netanyahu are well chronicled, but I think this trip is important because first of all, it establishes his relationships. He's likely to be the next president, but we'll see. I think it's a smart move. Didn't candidate Obama do that, let's see, Berlin...

CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE RON DESANTIS, R-FLA.: Yes, I think we need a major course correction to foreign policy. If you want to look right now under Obama, who our enemies are, just look who he is nice to. If you want to look at who our friends are, look who he disrespects. Great Britain with Winston Churchill's bus, Israel time and again, Poland with the missile defense shield and now on a second term, Obama says he'll be even more flexible with Russia.

HANNITY: But one thing that hasn't come up is the president bowing before foreign leaders, about American exceptionalism that he made and you know, apologizing tour early in his administration. Do you think this thing comes off even though the country is pretty much focused on the economy?

KORBE: Well, we know this is going to be an economy election, it's not going to be about foreign policy, but I think the president views the Iranian threat and various threats differently than the rest of us do.

I think he really thinks they are open for negotiation. I think the Islamic dictatorship is bent on Israel's destruction and I just think Bibi understand that, why can't President Obama. Romney understands that. I think that's what he's demonstrating.

HANNITY: What's scary to me, and I mentioned this earlier, is that, you see Israel is now surrounded. North Africa, Libya, Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt Muslim Brotherhood, you know, instability in Syria possibly even flowing into Jordan at some point.

So you have literally have a line that is going to start, the pinnacle, the top is going to be Iran already fighting proxy wars and Israel's surrounded by people that are sworn to their destruction.

DESANTIS: And President Obama, he wants Israel to go to back to the 1967 borders in the midst of all of this, which is not acceptable for Israel. So absolutely I worry about what is happening in Egypt with the Muslim Brotherhood. I am confident that Mitt Romney would be a better friend for Israel throughout this turmoil than Barack Obama has been.

HANNITY: All right, the polls show that these Bain attacks have not worked. That the president now is spending more money than he is taking in, interestingly, spending two to one than what Romney is spending. He has nothing for it. Where would you rather spend your money in July and August or September and October leading up to the election?

KORBE: I think it's great that finally people are wising up about Obama and his responsibility for the economy. I think we saw a poll that now finally--

HANNITY: That's the poll that came out today.

KORBE: -- the majority of Americans blame Obama for it. I don't really think it matters when he spends his money, where, bottom line --

HANNITY: No, it does matter. If he is spending more than he is taking in sort of like the deficit--

KORBE: Right in terms of campaign financing, but I'm saying in terms of winning over the American people, he can try to run these destructive ads or whatever. In the end, take away excuses and all that's left are results and the results are terrible.

HANNITY: Two points of the poll she's referencing here. One is that more people are blaming Obama for the bad state of economy, which is now getting worse.

Secondly, the attacks on blaming Bush, 18 percent, it's not working anymore. His go to strategy is over. Look at this, who do you blame for the economic recovery, Obama, Congress, at the very bottom is George W. Bush. I guess, they can't blame George W. Bush anymore.

DESANTIS: You're never going to grow the economy with ObamaCare looming, Dodd-Frank and cap-and-trade, all these thing.

HANNITY: And taxageddon.

DESANTIS: If you wanted to grow the economy, elect a new president. It's that simple.

KORBE: You mentioned taxmaggedon. Seven hundred and ten thousand jobs if that in fact hit. So, yes, he is putting a huge destructive force in place right now.

HANNITY: I think there is this unknown percentage of people that have been so impacted by these bad economic decisions, they are going out in force. This is about their family, their future and their loss of wealth. We're going to see. Guys, good to see you. Thank you very much.

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