Was Obama's 'other' race speech ignored? Part 1
Daily Caller unearths portions of address to African-American ministers from 2007
This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," October 2, 2012. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: On the eve of the first presidential debate, a bombshell is about to be dropped on the 2012 race for the White House. Because tonight, you will hear from Barack Obama like you have never heard from him before. A video has been uncovered from a campaign event in 2007 of then-candidate Obama, speaking before an audience of African-American ministers, including the Reverend Jeremiah Wright.
Now, the tape was obtained exclusively by The Daily Caller web site. But you are about to see it right here on "Hannity" for first time. It contains some of the most divisive class warfare and racially-charged rhetoric ever used by Barack Obama.
Now, portions of the nearly 40-minute speech can be found online in an edited video, shot by the Daily Press newspaper that is based in Hampton, Virginia. However, that version runs only about nine minutes and omits the most inflammatory comments. It also does not include any references to Reverend Wright. In addition, this event was covered by other media outlets, including the Associated Press and local television stations. But again, the most outrageous comments were completely ignored.
This is further proof that the mainstream media has been in the pocket of Barack Obama since the day that he arrived on the national stage.
Now, let's take a look at what the left-wing press has been hiding since 2007. Now, we begin with the clip of Senator Obama repeatedly praising the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, who again, was in the crowd at Hampton, University. Now, keep in mind, by the time the speech was delivered in June of 2007, Reverend Wright was a known quantity in the world of politics, he had already been dis-invited to Barack Obama's campaign announcement in Springfield, Illinois, and he had already appeared on "Hannity and Colmes" months earlier, as he attempted to defend his controversial views. By the way, his last appearance on TV during that campaign. And yet, here's what then Senator Obama said about him then.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, JUNE 5, 2007)
THEN-SENATOR BARACK OBAMA: And then I have to give a special shout out to my pastor. The guy who puts up with me, counsels me, listens to my wife complain about me.
(LAUGHTER)
He's a friend and a great leader, not just in Chicago but across the country. So, please, everybody, give an extraordinary welcome to my pastor, Dr. Jeremiah Wright, Jr.
(APPLAUSE)
Where's he at? There he is. That's him. That's him right there. You are wearing a suit today, right?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Now, it gets even worse, as then-candidate Obama that injects heavy dose of racially-charged rhetoric into his remarks. Speaking about Hurricane Katrina, he goes off script and he claims that the victims of that storm were ignored by the government. On the other hand, 9/11 survivors and those impacted by Hurricane Andrew, they received endless government assistance. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: I want to give you one example because this really steams me up. This isn't in the prepared remarks. Down in New Orleans, where they still have not rebuilt 20 months later. There is a law, federal law when you get reconstruction money from the federal government, called the Stafford Act. And basically, it says, when you get federal money, you have to give a 10 percent match, the local government's got to come up with 10 percent. Every $10 the federal government comes up with, the local government's got to give a dollar.
Now, here's the thing. When 9/11 happened in New York City, they waived the Stafford Act, said, this is too serious a problem. We can't expect New York City to rebuild on its own. Forget that dollar you have to put in. Well, here's $10. And that was the right thing to do.
When Hurricane Andrew struck in Florida, people said, look at this devastation! We don't expect to you come up with your own money here! Here's the money to rebuild. We are not going to wait for to you scratch it together because you are part of the American family.
What's happening down in New Orleans? Where's your dollar? Where's your Stafford Act money? Makes no sense. Tells me the bullet hasn't been taken out.
(APPLAUSE)
Tells me that somehow the people down in New Orleans, they don't care about as much.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Now, this notion that the government is turning its back on African-American communities while doing all it can for predominantly white areas, is repeated throughout the speech. Look at this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: And that's why we need additional federal public transportation dollars loaned to the highest need communities. We don't need to build more highways out in the suburbs if we have people in the cities right now who want to work but have no way to get into those jobs. We have to help connect them to the jobs that exist. We should be investing in minority-owned businesses, in our neighborhoods, so people don't have to travel from miles away.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Now, this is what the so-called unbiased journalists have been trying to hide for years, it is a glimpse into the mind of the real Barack Obama, and it's one that all Americans need to pay close attention to.
Joining me now to talk about these videos, the man who broke the story, Tucker Carlson from the Daily Caller. Tucker, welcome to -- welcome on board. It's pretty explosive stuff. And we've got more that we are going to get to here. Let's backtrack here. This video was released or at least nine minutes of it was, and a prepared text was released. But not the adlibbed remarks by the president, which are the most controversial. It never got reported on, correct?
TUCKER CARLSON, THE DAILY CALLER: That's exactly right. This was covered at the time. There were reporters in the room. I had a show at the time on another channel, and I covered the remarks that were released. But it turned out that most of the print reporters, maybe all of them writing on the story, were writing from the prepared remarks given to them by the Obama campaign.
And so, you saw people like Andrew Sullivan, the blogger, claim in his story that he was releasing a transcript of Obama's speech. But it wasn't a transcript, this were again prepared remarks, approved and released by the Obama campaign. And again in this speech, you can sit and read the remarks against the actual speech, and you will see that Obama goes off script repeatedly and adlibs and says things that we can't find him saying to any other audience during the course of this campaign. Remarkable things.
HANNITY: Do you know, it says a couple of things. As you watch the speech, one thing just stands out at you, that and this is a common phenomenon. Al Gore, Republicans have the wrong agenda for African-Americans, they don't even want to count you in the Census, he said before a predominantly African-American audience.
CARLSON: Right.
HANNITY: Hillary Clinton did the same thing. You notice a change in the way he delivers the speech before predominantly African-American audience?
CARLSON: Well, the accent -- let me just be totally clear, anyone who just watch it, and who seen Obama speak in public over the last 10 years, will note, this accent is absurd. This is not the way Obama talks. At least, it is not the way he has talked in the dozens, the scores of speeches I have watched him give, or public appearances as I've seen him make. This is a put-on. This is phony. That's one. Second issue is, he is telling a predominantly black audience something very clear-- the federal government doesn't like you because you are black --
(TALKING OVER EACH OTHER)
HANNITY: That's what he is saying.
CARLSON: They don't like you because they are black. That is the theme of the speech from front to back, from beginning to end, they don't like you because of your skin color. And that is a shockingly -- that's a nasty thing to say, that's a divisive thing to say, it's the demagogic thing to say. And in the case of Katrina, it's untrue thing to say. At the moment he utters those words, you are getting short-changed in the Katrina reconstruction funds, the administration, the government had pledged $110 billion to the Gulf. Two weeks before this speech, the Bush administration gave the Katrina-affected areas $7 billion with no strings attached. He was a sitting senator. He knew that and he said this anyway to that audience. And I think that's a shocking thing to do.
HANNITY: So, he is saying there that they don't care as much about you, Katrina, that they cared about people --
CARLSON: That's right.
HANNITY: -- after 9/11, they took care of people after Hurricane Andrew, then he says --
CARLSON: Predominantly white victims.
(TALKING OVER EACH OTHER)
HANNITY: We don't need to build more highways out in the suburbs. We should be investing in minority-owned businesses in "our" neighborhoods. I thought this wasn't red America, blue America, but the United States of America.
CARLSON: That's right.
HANNITY: So, is he using the word suburbs to suggest white communities?
CARLSON: OK. This is not a dog whistle. This is a dog siren. These are appeals to racial solidarity. In a few minutes before that, he said "our people," our young people should have gotten the construction jobs to rebuild after Katrina, but instead they went to Halliburton, right? So look, he is making a very clear case, again, on the basis of his racial solidarity with this audience, that they are getting shafted by a racist federal government.
HANNITY: All right.
CARLSON: And by the way, you know, unless you can -- evidence if that's true. Unless, you can nail down factually if that's true, you should not say things like that. Because it's dangerous to say things like that.
HANNITY: Well, it's incendiary. And then it raises in my mind, all right, who is the real Barack Obama? He said that I had no idea -- none whatsoever that Jeremiah Wright -- I sat in the pews 20 years, he is like family to me. And even he is praise in this speech.
Now, the timing of this is interesting because I had interviewed on "Hannity and Colmes," I interviewed Reverend Wright, we got into a big battle about black liberation theology, that was in March of 2007. Wright had been dis-invited to give the invocation at his announcement he was running for president just a couple of months earlier.
CARLSON: Right.
HANNITY: So, Wright is there. This is June now of 2007. So, Wright is already a controversial figure here. Now it's interesting, as this whole thing goes on, then he has to give this big speech in Philly on race. So, I decided we put the two speeches together. And we will take a look at one. We'll take a look at the other. In other words, this is what the media didn't report on. This is what the media didn't say. Very controversial things by Barack Obama that was never reported on, versus the big speech which I believe was done out of political expediency, we will let our audience decide. Let's show them side by side.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
OBAMA, JUNE 5, 2007: I have to give a special shout out to my pastor. The guy who puts up with me, counsels me, listens to my wife complain about me.
(LAUGHTER)
He's a friend and a great leader to everybody. Everybody give an extraordinary welcome to my pastor, Dr. Jeremiah Wright.
OBAMA, MARCH 18, 2008: I have already condemned in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy and in some cases, pain. For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course.
OBAMA, JUNE 5, 2007: When Hurricane Andrew struck in Florida, people said, look at this devastation. We don't expect you to come up with your money here. What's happening down in New Orleans? Where's your dollar? Where's your Stafford Act money? Makes no sense. Tells me the bullet hasn't been taken out.
(APPLAUSE)
Tells me that somehow the people down in New Orleans, they don't care about as much.
OBAMA, MARCH 18, 2008: Reverend Wright's comments were not only wrong, but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity, racially-charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems, problems that are neither black nor white or Latino or Asian, but rather, problems that confront us all.
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
HANNITY: Who is the real Barack Obama, Tucker? Two very different people.
CARLSON: It's unbelievable.
HANNITY: Very different people.
CARLSON: Speaking different languages, different cadences, different accents, different gestures. I mean, the falseness here is overwhelming. And I would say that whether he was putting on a southern accent or an Asian accent, it doesn't matter. He is playing a role in one of these cases. It's not clear which one. I assume in the Hampton speech, he is putting on a persona he doesn't normally occupy to pander to the crowd. But who knows. Either way, you are seeing a remarkable exhibit of falseness on display. There is no other explanation -- by the way, I would say this about any politician.
HANNITY: Well, look, I go back to Al Gore, I've been saying about him, he went before a predominantly African-American audience, he went into Al Gore preacher mode and, "Republicans have the wrong agenda for African-Americans -- they don't even want to count you in the Census." I mean, it takes your breath away. Hillary did the same thing herself.
But we've got -- we've got the accent. We've got anger. We've got -- "they don't care as much about you." Also --
(TALKING OVER EACH OTHER)
CARLSON: That's right. "They're giving money to the suburbs but not to our neighborhoods."
HANNITY: So, what do you conclude?
CARLSON: Look, I conclude that this -- well, I am not exactly sure is the truth. I am not God. I can't read Obama's mind or look into his soul. But it seems to me, this is a case of extreme pandering. He is talking to an audience in a way he thinks resonates with them but he is also using fear to motivate them. Again, the core of this speech, a very simple message. The federal government doesn't like you because you are black. Imagine telling people that, imagine trying to make them more fearful, more paranoid, more hurt. That's a truly divisive and sick thing to do and it's on display in this video. This is not one right winger's opinion. We are posting the entire video on the Daily Caller and you can watch and verify for yourself --
HANNITY: Is this the whole 40-minute -- posted the whole 40 minutes? Every second.
CARLSON: Of course! Because we will be relentlessly attacked on two grounds. One, people will say this has already been reported. Well, actually, it hasn't been reported. And I know because I reported on it the first time. And second, we will be accused of clipping this to our ends. And so, we'll just going to put the whole thing out there and people can judge.
But the first thing that will jump off the screen at you is, this is not the Barack Obama you have watched for the past eight years, if you have been paying attention. And this guy is whipping up race hatred and fear. Period.
HANNITY: How would you classify the comments? Racial? Is that --
CARLSON: Of course, I would! Of course! I absolutely would. If a white politician got up in front of the white audience and said, here's what you should know about black people, they don't like you. They're in charge, and they are shafting you. And they're getting -- they are profiting from your suffering. What would you say that is? That is racial rhetoric designed to make people fearful.
HANNITY: All right. Let's go to what he says about black churches in this speech. And again, the whole video is up on The Daily Caller, if you want to look at the 40-minute speech. Remember, the media only at the time put up what, nine or -- was it nine or 10 minutes that they reported on?
CARLSON: It's a little less than 10.
HANNITY: A little less than 10 minutes. All right? Here's more of that speech that we have never seen before.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: And when it comes to faith, we have been told that all that matters is what divides us, Evangelicals, don't be talking to mainland Protestants. Black church, that is different from the white church. Had stories about Trinity United Church of Christ because we talked about black people in church. Oh, that might be a separatist church. Catholics can't be getting together with Protestants or Muslims or Jews.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Now, let me play that through this prism. And that's when I interviewed -- remember, Reverend Wright, he was in the audience. This is June. He was dis-invited from the -- from the invocation when Obama announced he's running for president. Came on my show, two months later. This was the last interview that Reverend Wright did. Hear what he said about black liberation theology and, you know, when he goes on to say in that particular clip there because we talk about black people in church. Here was my exchange with Reverend Wright.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "HANNITY AND COLMES," MARCH 1, 2007)
HANNITY: This is on the web site today. Let me just inform our audience. And I want you to respond, if you can. It says, "Commitment to God." By the way, I am with you. I hope you pray for me, Reverend. "Commitment to the black community. Commitment to the black family. Adherence to the black work ethic."
Now, Reverend, if every time we said black, if it was a church and those words were white, wouldn't we call that church racist?
REV. JEREMIAH WRIGHT, GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH: No, we would call it Christianity. We have been saying for that since there was a white Christianity, we have been saying that ever since white Christians took part in the slave trade, we've been saying that ever since they had churches in slave castles. We don't have to say the word white. We just have to live in white America, the United States of white America.
HANNITY: I am going to ask you this question.
WRIGHT: How many books of Dwight Hopkins have you read?
HANNITY: You are very angry and defensive. I am just trying to ask a question here -- Barack Obama goes to your church --
(TALKING OVER EACH OTHER)
WRIGHT: I'm asking you a question. You haven't answered my question.
HANNITY: It seems to be, when you say the black community, black families --
(TALKING OVER EACH OTHER)
WRIGHT: Keyword is "seems" --
HANNITY: It seems --
WRIGHT: It seems -- It seems to an arrogant, ignorant person. I'm asking you, have you answered me? How many books of Dwight Hopkins have you read?
(TALKING OVER EACH OTHER)
HANNITY: Sir, I'm going to say this, whether you like it or not, I am going to get my words in. And I'm going to tell you right now. I'm going to tell you --
(TALKING OVER EACH OTHER)
WRIGHT: It's not about liking. Have you read --
HANNITY: I think as a Christian sir, I think as a Christian, you should not separate by race in this day and age. And that's why a lot of people are going to look at that and say, we are all supposed to be united under Christ, are we?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: That goes into black liberation theology which we examined. And there might have been one interview that he did after that. But I don't remember which one. But black liberation theology, you know, the black community, the black this, the black that, and I am asking him about -- and he is praising him here but then he gives this is other speech. Did he just say those words in Philadelphia to make the controversy go away? What does he believe?
CARLSON: Well, let me just say, I believe that Jeremiah Wright married Michelle and Barack Obama.
HANNITY: That's true.
CARLSON: Twenty years ago tomorrow. I believe that was their anniversary tomorrow. Amazing.
Look, my personal feeling is that he speaks to each audience what he thinks that audience wants to hear. But let me see how totally disingenuous it is for Obama to claim that Jeremiah Wright was attacked for talking about black people in church. That's utterly false. I reported on this too at the time. People had very specific concerns about the nature of black liberation theology. It wasn't talking about black people in church.
That -- to say something like that before this audience is again, to reinforce the point that the rest of the world doesn't like you because of your skin color. This makes people more fearful, more paranoid, and by the way, more cut off from the rest of America. This is the opposite of what a uniter does, this is what a demagogue does. And it's wrong.
HANNITY: We'll be interested to see if anybody in the media follows up and has the courage to ask about these things. Remember, during the 2008 --
CARLSON: Don't hold your breath.
HANNITY: -- election, 2008 election cycle, he was asked one time about Bill Ayers and he just got -- a guy he started his political career in his house, gave speeches with and sat on boards with. "He's just a guy in the neighborhood." Acted like he barely knew him and he still got away with it.
We'll follow up. Tucker, thank you. The full 40 minutes on The Daily Caller.
CARLSON: Thanks, Sean.
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