This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," September 5, 2012. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: Tonight, we are awaiting former President Bill Clinton's keynote address to the delegates, and that's just coming up in just a moment. Georgetown law student and Obama supporter Sandra Fluke will take to the stage. But all of that is being overshadowed by a bombshell reversal of the DNC platform as the party has re-inserted references to God and Jerusalem.
Now, you may recall that earlier this week, delegates approved a platform that p President personally intervene today in order to halt the proceedings and have that language reinstated.
However, that task was far from easy, because when the convention chair held a voice vote to authorize the amendment, he couldn't seem to win over the two-thirds majority that he needed. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR ANTONIO VILLARAIGOSA, D-LOS ANGELES: All those delegates in favor, say aye.
(DELEGATES YELLING AYE)
All those delegates opposed, say no.
(DELEGATES YELLING NO)
In the opinion of the -- let me do that again.
All of those delegates in favor say aye.
(DELEGATES YELLING AYE)
All those delegates opposed say no.
(DELEGATES YELLING NO)
(GRUMBLING FROM CROWD)
I am, I guess...
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: You got to let them do what they are going to do.
VILLARAIGOSA: I'll do that one more time. All those delegates in favor, say aye.
(DELEGATES YELLING AYE)
All those delegates opposed say no.
(DELEGATES YELLING NO)
In the opinion of the chair, two-thirds have voted in the affirmative, the motion is adopted and the platform has been amended as shown on the screen.
(GRUMBLING FROM CROWD)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Now, despite the fact that a clear majority did not vote to approve the change, the Los Angeles Mayor went ahead with it anyway. And here's why. Because in his teleprompter, the script was already loaded, ordering him to declare that, quote, "In the opinion of the chair, two- thirds having voted in the affirmative."
We are going to continue all of this and continue the coverage right here on "Hannity" tonight. But first, let me welcome the Reverend Jesse Jackson of Rainbow PUSH. Reverend, how are you? Good to see you.
REV. JESSE JACKSON, RAINBOW PUSH: Good to see you, sir.
HANNITY: Will this be the convention that we will now remember as the time that God was nay'd and boo'd by the Democratic National Convention?
JACKSON: I think, what I really think is that Jesus at one point says, lord (ph) is not the issue. It is not the name of God, it's the will that's at stake here. And that means that we must focus not just on whether we name god, Ali, Allah, Yaweh, Aluwen (ph) but we feed the hungry.
HANNITY: All right. But we are not talking about feeding the hungry. What we are talking about is the Democratic Party today boo'd and boo'd loudly and that they had three separate times they boo'd, obviously a majority wanting it to stay the same with God taken out and with Jerusalem being the capital of Israel taken out. I mean, that is a reaction that the country has taken note of, Reverend.
JACKSON: Well, you know, I am not sure why some people would want to focus on the word God versus Ali, Allah or Yaweh, Aluwen (ph). Because it is not the name God that makes one religious, it is the will of God that makes one religious. And I think that must be what make --
HANNITY: We are endowed by our creator, our founding document. We are endowed by our creator. It was in the 2008 platform, it was seven times in the 2004 platform. They purposely took it out. The delegates wanted to keep it out you. How should America interpret that?
JACKSON: Maybe it should have been the real creator in the first place. I've gone to schools where you have 50 different languages and several different religions, and so the issue of a religion and a name can be quite divisive a multi-cultural society.
HANNITY: All right. Yes. What about the fact that in spite of the overwhelming majority of delegates, you know, going against this, that the chair, after three votes -- and you could hear the loud nos, why did they go ahead and move forward anyway? Did they not -- basically ramming this down their throat, whether they wanted it or not?
JACKSON: Well, he had to make a choice and he finally made a choice --
HANNITY: Against the people.
JACKSON: Well, I am not sure if against the people, it was a very close vote, I'm not sure if it was two-thirds --
HANNITY: It was not close to two-thirds.
JACKSON: Well, giving all that is happening in this convention, I think that will now be determine in fact, I think what might determine, the outcome, is we came in four years ago with eight million jobs down, now four million jobs up -- that jobs might determine how people find their --
HANNITY: Reverend, with all due respect, since the time Barack Obama has been president, we have hundreds of thousands fewer Americans working. If you look at the number of Americans working back when he took office in January of 2009 and today, we have fewer Americans working. He said he would cut the deficit in half, and he gave us $5.4 trillion in new Obama debt.
JACKSON: And more people are working. And more manufacturers at home. We lost eight million jobs in eight years.
HANNITY: No, we didn't.
JACKSON: Four to eight million. And the trajectory was down. We have a net gain of jobs for 36 months.
HANNITY: We have the longest period -- if you want to look at the statistics, Reverend. We have the longest period of long-time unemployment that we've had since World War II. I will give you another --
JACKSON: What drove us into that crisis? We're in on a surplus. And we made a decision to have two wars off budget and cut taxes.
HANNITY: That was in the Bush years.
JACKSON: But having said that, this is connected and those tax cuts was not linked to -- reinvestment. So, you got two wars that you are paying for own credit and no investment at home. It sunk our economy.
HANNITY: Didn't President Obama, then candidate Obama say, he said, he cut the deficit in half. He has given us the largest deficits by far than any president in history. He said he would create shovel-ready jobs, fewer Americans are working. So, how do you answer the question? On the economy, how are we better off than we were four years ago?
JACKSON: Well, we are better off -- if you ask all the workers who are going out of the backdoor, who are now working three shifts in Ohio, they would say it's
--
HANNITY: There are fewer working.
JACKSON: But they were completely out of business. If you are going to ask those who have health coverage who didn't have it before, are they better off, they would tend to say yes. If you ask those students who got (INAUDIBLE) who couldn't afford to stay in school, they will say that we're better off. One hundred thousand troops in Iraq who are home now, they are better off.
HANNITY: Let me ask you this. When Bill Clinton four years ago said that Barack Obama played the race card on him and the mayor of Los Angeles said about the Republican Party, that you can't trot out a brown face or a Spanish surname and Joe Biden says, "They are going to put you back in chains." And Bill Clinton is going to speak here tonight saying, Barack Obama not only played the race card against him but he planned to do it in the very beginning. You hear these racial statements. You have been outspoken on the issue of race in this country. Does that disturb you that the race card has been played and is being played?
JACKSON: Well, I think when you call the president a liar --
HANNITY: Like George Bush was called.
JACKSON: Well, and it's never right. When you call him un-American, you are not born here, you are not a Christian, you are not one of us --
HANNITY: Who said those things?
JACKSON: Well, you know what the language is. Whether it's used by the birther argument, by Trump or the welfare -- know the roll call.
HANNITY: Obama called in July of 2008, he said George Bush was unpatriotic.
JACKSON: I am not sure what he meant by that.
HANNITY: He said George Bush on the debt is irresponsible and unpatriotic for four trillion in eight years in debt, and he gave us $5.4 trillion in less than four years.
JACKSON: Well, I am not sure that is the definition of a patriot. And sometimes language gets real loose. But I do know is that our economy is coming back. I do know our troops are coming home. I do know that more Americans have health coverage now. And to me, those arrows are pointing in the right direction.
HANNITY: We are going to hear from Sandra Fluke in a minute. The contraceptive mandate. You are a minister. Should taxpayers pay for contraception and abortion for people that want them on demand?
JACKSON: Sure, they should.
HANNITY: Free abortion? The government should pay for abortion.
JACKSON: Well, first, it was a woman's right to set the termination -- it is a health issue. And to reduce it just to a moral issue and not take into account many social considerations, I think is very --
HANNITY: Even Catholic charities, Catholic hospitals, should give contraception even though they it is against their faith?
JACKSON: Well, we live under faith, we live under the law. When you're taking government money, you live under the Constitution --
HANNITY: It's not freedom of -- well, the Constitution is about freedom of religion.
JACKSON: We live in our faith. Maybe, we live under the Constitution. We don't live on the Bible. I am strongly committed to our Bible, I've been -- but we live, fortunately, on the constitution.
HANNITY: All right. Keep hope alive.
JACKSON: Same to you.
HANNITY: All right. Thank you, Rev. --
JACKSON: Thank you.
HANNITY: -- for stopping by. I appreciate it.
Content and Programming Copyright 2012 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2012 CQ-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 CQ-Roll Call. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox