This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," February 26, 2013. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: The big story we are following at this hour is the countdown to the sequester. Because in two short days at the stroke of midnight March the 1st, $85 billion in automatic spending cuts will be triggered. But even with the clock sticking closer and closer to that deadline, our alarmist in chief, president panic himself, he did not feel the need to be at the White House today, nor did he think it was important tonight to visit Capitol Hill and try and hammer out a bipartisan solution to the mess that he himself has put the country in.
No, instead of focusing on fixing the problem, he decided to take his sequestration scare tactics on the road today with the visit to the commonwealth of Virginia. And as usual his teleprompter was loaded to the brim with more of the same irresponsible end of the world rhetoric that we've all grown accustomed to. In fact, the choice of words was so ridiculously similar to what we've heard from him exactly a week ago, we could not resist on this program to put together a "Hannity" highlight reel of president panic in action.
Do not adjust your screen. This is not deja vu that you're seeing, you're not seeing double. Sadly, this is the quote, "leadership" in the age of Obama.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA, FEB. 26: In a few days, Congress might allow a series of immediate, painful, arbitrary budget cuts to take place, known in Washington as the sequester.
OBAMA, FEB. 19: Now, if Congress allows this meat cleaver approach to take place, it will jeopardize our military readiness, it will eviscerate job creating investments and education and energy and medical research.
OBAMA, FEB. 26: Early education like Head Start and Early Start would be eliminated for nearly a thousand children.
OBAMA, FEB. 19: Border patrol agents will see their hours reduced. FBI agents will be furloughed.
OBAMA, FEB. 19 & FEB. 26: Federal prosecutors will have to close cases and let criminals go. Air traffic controllers and airport security will see cutbacks and that means more delays at airports across the country. Tens of thousands of parents will have to scramble to find child care for their kids. Hundreds of thousands of Americans will lose access to primary care and preventive care, vaccinations and cancer screenings.
OBAMA, FEB. 26: These cuts are wrong. They are not smart.
OBAMA, FEB. 19: They are not fair, they will hurt our economy.
OBAMA, FEB. 26: They're a self-inflicted wound that doesn't have to happen.
OBAMA, FEB. 19: They don't have to happen.
OBAMA, FEB. 26: Now I've laid out a plan that details how we can pay down our deficit in a way that's balanced and responsible.
OBAMA, FEB. 19: A balanced plan. One that pairs more spending cuts with tax reform and close the special interest loopholes.
OBAMA, FEB. 26: And the second I get that bill on my desk, I will sign it into law, but I've got get Congress to pass it.
OBAMA, FEB. 19 & FEB. 26: Not one of us will get 100 percent of what we want.
OBAMA, FEB. 19: Nobody should want these cuts to go through.
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
HANNITY: All right. A classic. If and when the Obama sequester takes effect on Friday, it's because the president is more concern with fear mongering than finding a solution to the problem that he himself created.
Joining me now with -- Democratic Congressman Keith Ellison from Minnesota. Congressman, welcome back, sir.
REP. KEITH ELLISON, D-MINN.: You bet.
HANNITY: I guess that's what we can describe as staying on message, something the Democratic Party I would argue is very good at. Let me ask you --
ELLISON: You're pretty good at it, too.
HANNITY: Thank you.
ELLISON: I mean, you know, quite frankly you are the worse excuse for a journalist I've ever seen.
HANNITY: I can't hear you.
ELLISON: You heard me.
HANNITY: I did not. Say it again. I didn't hear you.
ELLISON: I heard you, I mean, what you just displayed was not journalism, it was yellow journalism, it wasn't anything close to trying to tell the American people what's really going on, and I mean, it's just shocking.
HANNITY: The yellow journalism, to play Obama in his own words is yellow journalism?
ELLISON: With the background music and what you lead-up before, you let the president talk. Let me tell you, I was here, everything the president said is absolutely true.
HANNITY: Yes.
ELLISON: And for you to try to make the American people make think that it isn't is deceptive on your part, and it's a breach of everything, every journalistic ethic I have ever heard of was just violated by you.
HANNITY: Really.
ELLISON: And the president was truthful. The president was honest, what the president said was dead on accurate and for you to say the president is to blame here is ridiculous. I was there August, 2011 when the Republicans, your party, which you shamelessly --
HANNITY: I'm not a Republican, let me correct the record.
ELLISON: You are nothing but a Republican.
HANNITY: No, no, sir.
ELLISON: Yes, you are. Yes, you are.
HANNITY: Sir, sir, I'm a registered --
ELLISON: Well --
HANNITY: Congressman, I am not a registered Republican, I'm a registered conservative.
ELLISON: You are a shill for the Republican Party.
HANNITY: I'm a registered conservative, sir.
ELLISON: You alibi them constantly. You alibi them 100 percent of the time.
HANNITY: Keep going, keep ranting.
ELLISON: OK. Well, good, let me just say this.
HANNITY: Keep ranting.
ELLISON: What the president said is absolutely true. The president, the people watching the show should ignore all of the commentary that you put in and all of this heightened music that you put on and should pay attention to what the president actually said. Because what the president said was true. You, by the way, are inaccurate when you say that the president is to blame here, he's not.
It was the Republicans in August of 2011 said that they were going to cause the American economy to default on debts we already acquired unless they got deep and substantial cuts. And we ended up with a downgrade because of what the Republicans did and after that, we set up this thing called the super committee and when all the Republican members on that super committee had already pledged to Grover Norquist they would not raise revenue, only do cuts, and then after it failed, as it always was going to, we ended up with sequester.
HANNITY: All right. Let me ask you a question.
ELLISON: No, wait a minute. Listen, I could rant and I am.
HANNITY: Hello, I'm giving you plenty of time to rant Congressman.
ELLISON: We'll let you get a word in, go ahead.
HANNITY: Oh, you're so nice to give me a word on my own program.
ELLISON: I changed my mind.
HANNITY: Let me ask you a question --
ELLISON: As a matter of fact --
HANNITY: Let me ask you. Let me ask you. You said the president -- Congressman, I will give you your chance, I gave you three minutes to rant, calm down. I gave you three minutes, relax, I've got a question for you. You were invited on the program to answer a question, I want to give you a couple of questions. You said --
ELLISON: No, I'm going to speak, this is a First Amendment issue.
HANNITY: You said, Congressman, let me ask you a question.
ELLISON: I'm going to say what I think is right.
HANNITY: Why are you so angry? You're so angry. Let me ask you a question.
ELLISON: Why are you so angry?
HANNITY: I'm not angry I'm laughing at you because I think this is actually comical.
(TALKING OVER EACH OTHER)
ELLISON: I'm laughing at you. I'm laughing at you. It's not the first time.
HANNITY: All right. Here's my question. Here's my question for you.Listen, I invited you, I gave you three minutes to rant, now let me ask you question, we'll have a discussion, we'll have a dialogue. In the spirit of bipartisanship, let's find a dialogue, I want to ask you this.
ELLISON: I thought you weren't a Republican.
HANNITY: I'm a registered conservative.
ELLISON. You lie. Yeah right.
HANNITY: Sir, you want to make a thousand dollar bet, I'm a registered conservative, you want to make a $10,000 bet.
ELLISON: I don't bet, I don't bet.
HANNITY: I'm just telling you I'm a registered conservative. I wrote a book called "Conservative Victory." I didn't write Republican victory.
ELLISON: Do you have a question for me, sir?
HANNITY: Yes, I do. Now, first of all, it was Max Baucus and it was Bob Woodward that said that the president requested the sequester, point one. Point number two, my question to you is very simple. Barack Obama -- because you said that what he said is true.
(TALKING OVER EACH OTHER)
Here's my question. Here's my question.
ELLISON: The Republican Party, sequester is a provision of the budget control act --
HANNITY: Congressman, relax.
ELLISON: The Republicans are responsible for the budget control act --
HANNITY: Rah, rah, rah, I've got it, I know you're a broken record. Now, let me get you my question.
ELLISON: You're a broken record.
HANNITY: OK. Thank you. Here is my question. So, Barack Obama said in 2008 when he was running for office that George Bush was irresponsible and unpatriotic for when he became president we had $10 trillion in debt.
ELLISON: You want to ask me about --
HANNITY: We now have 16 trillion. We have now $16 trillion in debt, Congressman.
ELLISON: I'm here to speak for myself.
HANNITY: Sixteen trillion dollars in debt.
ELLISON: You want to talk about -- OK.
HANNITY: I want to ask you, here is my question.
ELLISON: You want to do something about that? I've got an answer for you.
HANNITY: Go ahead.
ELLISON: You want to do something about the 16 trillion, let's do something, let's close loopholes on large corporations. Let's say that yachts and jets should not be something that you can write off. Let's say that Exxon Mobil and Chevron should not get a tax rebate and a subsidy. Let's start there. Let's say that the people who earn, who get to pay less.
HANNITY: All right. Congressman, you're ranting really well. Can I ask you a question?
ELLISON: When you don't like what I say you say I'm ranting.
(TALKING OVER EACH OTHER)
HANNITY: Here's a simple question.
ELLISON: If you don't like what I'm saying -- you're a bully, Sean, and I'm not backing down to you.
HANNITY: Here's my question. Is it immoral -- is it immoral --
ELLISON: You are immoral, to tell us --
HANNITY: I'm immoral?
ELLISON: Yes.
HANNITY: What did I do that's immoral? I didn't do anything that's immoral.
ELLISON: You say things that aren't true.
HANNITY: Give me one example, sir.
ELLISON: Well, to try to say that it is, that it is the president's fault and he is to blame is wrong and it's a lie, it's not true.
HANNITY: It's not his fault that we have 16 trillion in debt?
ELLISON: It's not.
HANNITY: He didn't add $6 trillion to the debt since he's been president?
ELLISON: No, no.
HANNITY: He did add 6 trillion to debt since he's been president.
ELLISON: What about the other 10? Let's talk about the other 10.
HANNITY: All right. Congressman, you are a total waste of time. I'm moving on because our audience deserves better. Thank you for being with us. I tried to give you a fair shot.
ELLISON: No, you didn't.
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