Gingrich: President is 'completely misleading' Americans
Former presidential candidate on debate, handling of Libya
This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," October 17, 2012. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: There are major developments tonight on the campaign trail as Governor Mitt Romney has extended his lead over President Barack Obama. Look at this. According to the latest Gallup poll, Romney now holds a majority 51 percent of the vote over Obama's 45 percent. Now, that is a six-point advantage, not even close to being within the margin of error.
And this bombshell poll comes one day after more than millions of Americans witnessed the president of the United States mislead you, the voters, about everything from his own record to his opponent's views.
Now thanks to President Obama, the truth went untold for more than 90 long minutes during the second presidential debate, and it is for that very reason that tonight, we, here on "Hannity," we're going to fact check the president's claims. And we're going to set the record straight.
And we begin tonight with the most heated exchange of the evening, and that of course being the White House's response or lack thereof to the Benghazi terrorist attack. Here's how it all went down inside the debate hall last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MITT ROMNEY, GOP PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: On the day following the assassination of a United States ambassador, the first time that's happened since 1979, when we have four Americans killed there, when apparently we didn't know what happened, that the president the day after that happened, flies to Las Vegas for political fundraiser.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: The day after the attack, Governor, I stood in the Rose Garden and I told the American people and the world that we are going to find out exactly what happened, that this was an act of terror.
ROMNEY: I think it's interesting the president just said something, which is that on the day after the attack, he went in the Rose Garden and said that this was an act of terror.
OBAMA: That's what I said.
ROMNEY: You said in the Rose Garden, the day after the attack, it was an act of terror. It was not a spontaneous demonstration. Is that what you're saying?
OBAMA: Please proceed, Governor.
ROMNEY: I want to make sure we get that for the record, because it took the president 14 days before he called the attack in Benghazi an act of terror.
OBAMA: Get the transcript.
CANDY CROWLEY, MODERATOR: He did in fact, sir. So, let me call it an act of terror.
OBAMA: Can you say that a little louder, Candy?
(APPLAUSE)
CROWLEY: He did call it an act of terror.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: She's wrong. Not only was the president wrong, but so was the moderator Candy Crowley. As we reported last night, she's already admitted it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, CNN)
CROWLEY: Right after that, I did turn around and say, but you're totally correct, but they spent two weeks telling us this was about a tape, and that there was, you know, this riot outside the Benghazi consulate which there wasn't. So, he was right in the main, I just think he picked the wrong word.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: All right. Let's get to the truth here. Now, obviously Crowley failed to adequately fact check the President last night, so tonight, we correct the record. Now, yes, it is true that the president did utter the words in the Rose Garden "acts of terror" the day after the Benghazi assaults, however he did so only after he referenced 9/11/2001.
And if he really intended to call Benghazi an act of terror, then why in that very same speech, and for the very first time in public, did he blame the event on a YouTube movie trailer video? That's the same YouTube video that he wanted us believe sparked an impromptu riot, which by definition is not a premeditated terrorist attack.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, SEPT. 12)
OBAMA: Since our founding, the United States has been a nation that respects all faiths. We reject all efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others. But there's absolutely no justification to this type of senseless violence. None.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Now, blaming the video and apologizing for hurting the feelings of radical extremists continued, not just for days, but for weeks after this attack. And through it all, the president was asked, and asked repeatedly, if this was an act of terror, and he flat-out refused to say yes. In other words, he lied at that debate last night, and the cover-up continues.
And so does the president's deliberate indifference to matters of National Security. Now, we've hammered the president for attending a fundraiser in Vegas the day after that Libya attack. Well, today after the news broke that the Feds foiled a plot to blow up the Federal Reserve building near blocks from the World Trade Center by a Muslim extremist, well, how does the president respond? Well, with a full day of campaigning, including events tonight.
Joining me with reaction to all of this, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. Mr. Speaker, welcome back, sir.
NEWT GINGRICH, FORMER SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: Good to be with you.
HANNITY: Let me play for you, including -- Joy Behar. This is 14 full days after the terrorist attack. Just a little montage of the president blaming the internet video, and refusing to say, five days after he had his ambassador to the U.N. saying it, Jay Carney saying it wasn't a terrorist attack, nine days and 14 days after the president refused to acknowledge it's a terrorist attack. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA, UNIVISION, SEPT. 20: What we're still doing an investigation, and there are going to be different circumstances in different countries.
OBAMA: I don't know yet. And so, we're going to continue to investigate this.
JOY BEHAR, CO-HOST, "THE VIEW"/ABC, SEPT. 25: I heard Hillary Clinton say that it was an act of terrorism. Is it? What do you say?
OBAMA: Well, we're still doing an investigation.
OBAMA AT THE UN, SEPT. 25: It was a crude and disgusting video, sparked outrage throughout the Muslim world.
OBAMA: I have made it clear that the United States government had nothing to do with this video.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Fourteen days after the attack, he was still -- couldn't say it was an act of terror, but we now know they knew within 24 hours. What does this mean for you?
GINGRICH: Well, I think two different things. One is in a very serious way, what is there about Barack Obama's psychology that makes it so difficult for him to deal with the reality of Islamic extremism? Why is it always the West's fault? Why is it always somebody in America's fault? Why is he always apologizing for Islamic extremists? And I think this is a very serious question about the whole nature of his approach to that part of the world.
Second, this has been consistent from the United Nations ambassador, as you pointed out, going on five different shows telling the American people a falsehood on the Sunday after the attack, to Vice President Biden on a national debate, who repeatedly misleading the American people, to the president last night completely misleading the American people. And I think that the larger question here that you have a president of the United States who is commander in chief, will not be honest with himself about the problem of radical Islam, will not be honest with the world about it.
His United Nations speech was a disgrace. For an American president to go to the U.N. and apologize six times for a YouTube video by some nut cake? First of all, we should be defending the right of free speech. We should be saying to the Muslim world, yes, if you want to be in the modern world? Guess what? You're not going to have Islamic supremacy, you're not able to dictate to the rest of us, you're not going to have an American president censor on your behalf. Yet the Obama State Department has gone in the opposite direction, they left with Muslim groups and they promised in effect to try to censor Americans.
HANNITY: Let me play a video, this was of President Obama and Hillary Clinton, paid for by the State Department, apologizing to countries in the Middle East for this video. It's almost breathtaking. But watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, STATE DEPARTMENT)
OBAMA: Since our founding, the United States has been a nation that respects all faiths, we reject, all efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others. But there is absolutely no justification to this type of senseless violence. None.
HILLARY CLINTON, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: Let me state very clearly -- and I hope it is obvious -- that the United States government had absolutely nothing to do with this video. We absolutely reject its content and message. America's commitment to religious tolerance goes back to the very beginning of our nation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: And Fort Hood was workplace violence, and terror attacks a man-caused disaster. There's something wrong --
GINGRICH: Look --
HANNITY: Go ahead.
GINGRICH: Well, look, there are three or four things wrong with this. First of all, I was told that the U.S. government paid $70,000 of our tax- paid money to put this on Pakistani -- to make it and put it on Pakistani television. So, if you're the average taxpayer, and you wonder about the deficit, what a waste of your money, what an outrage to have this kind of thing put on with your money.
Second, they don't believe in religious liberty when they're attacking the Catholic Church. Ask Cardinal Dolan about the war on religion being waged by the Obama administration. They only believe in religious liberty when they're apologizing to Islamist for things that might offend them.
Third, it's not senseless violence. This is the heart of what's wrong with the entire Obama approach. If you are Al Qaeda, and you have an opportunity to kill an American ambassador, that is from their standpoint, a very intelligent rational thing to do. It's precisely the inability of President Obama and his team to come to grips with the fact that we are at war with an extremist movement on a worldwide basis that wants to kill us. So from their perspective this isn't random, senseless violence. This is a deliberate -- when 100 people get organized to attack your consulate, that's not senseless. That's terrorism.
HANNITY: Yes. We're running out of time. Quickly, what do you make of those numbers, 51-45?
GINGRICH: I think they're going to get better. I think we've -- this is the beginning of the collapse of Obama. I think facts are going to weigh him down and he's going to lose this election by a surprising margin.
HANNITY: All right. Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, always a pleasure to have you. Thank you sir for being with us.
GINGRICH: Thank you.
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