Trump: Cancelling Chicago rally a 'very good decision'
GOP frontrunner responds to protests on 'Hannity'
This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," March 11, 2016. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: And welcome to "Hannity." This is a Fox News alert. 2016 GOP front-runner Donald Trump canceled a campaign rally in Chicago earlier tonight amid security concerns. Now, this after violent agitators hijacked what was to be a peaceful campaign rally.
Joining us now on the phone with the very latest is Donald Trump himself. Mr. Trump, thank you for being with us. I know this is probably a tough night for you. Walk us through from your end what you heard and how you made this decision.
DONALD TRUMP, R-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (via telephone): Well, I came to Chicago a few hours ago, Sean. And we have a tremendous group of people and real supporters, amazing supporters, amazing people. We had 25,000. We had more than 25,000. And it was going to be an incredible event.
And we started to notice that all of a sudden, almost simultaneous -- almost like, you know, at a certain time, a lot of protesters showed up. And I guess it was a very staged thing with this Moveon organization, which is not a good group of people from what everybody tells me.
But so we had a lot of protesters come in, and they seemed to be very disruptive and they were going into the arena, which was starting to fill up with the people that were coming.
And we met with the security. We met with law enforcement, who did I think a terrific job. And they really told me it would be very -- it would be best not to go in and do the speech because if I made the speech, it probably had mixed into the, you know, the very large arena that seats, I guess about 10,000 or 12,000 people. We would have had about 15,000 people outside who may have clashed with the people that were standing outside (INAUDIBLE) the protesters.
But they said it would be good not to be doing the speech because you would have had clashes and people could have been hurt or worse. And I think -- and we've been given credit for this. Hopefully, we did the right thing. But I think that, frankly, canceling turned out to be a very good decision because we'll do it another time, probably another place, but we'll do it another time.
But we has this tremendous group of supporters come in, and it was so sad to tell them and they were -- you know, they were very sad that they weren't able to see what we were going to do. We were going to have a great rally.
And I will say they're stopping our 1st Amendment rights. You know, I have the right to speak and they have the right to hear and listen. And you know, we were unable to do that for security reasons. I've said -- and it was my decision. I said, Look, I don't want anybody to be hurt. We want this to be a nonviolent situation.
And I will tell you the people that I had, you know, supporters were very angry. You know, they're angry to start off with at what's happening to their country with the jobs going to other countries, with the horrible situation that we have at the border.
I mean, everything we have, nothing works anymore. Nothing. Nothing in our country works anymore. And they're angry people. And you know what? They're not really angry about just about anything else. They're very secure in themselves, but they're very angry about what's happening with our country.
And so on top of everything else, they don't even have the right to go into a pavilion and have a one-hour rally. They're stopped by what took place today, which is really a very organized group of people that there's (ph) pretty consistently to different groups of people.
HANNITY: You know, Mr. Trump, we have statements that actually prove this fact. And we've been watching our own coverage here on FOX. And some people with Bernie Sanders, Moveon.org put out a statement that Mr. Trump, Republican leaders who support him, his hate-filled rhetoric should be put on notice after tonight's events -- they actually said that -- that these protests are a direct result of violence that occurs at Trump rallies.
Well, I don't see any violence at Trump rallies. And I've been watching and flipping the dial tonight, and somehow, people have been trying to flip this on you, some of your competitors, and frankly, some pretty ignorant so-called journalists have been trying to do the same thin, as if you stating your political opinions is responsible for this.
And I want to give you a chance to respond to that. We have seen a lot of this before you even got in this race in Ferguson and Baltimore. The murder rate in the city of Chicago is a national disgrace. What is your reaction to that?
TRUMP: Well, you know, I've had many rallies and we have massive rallies, by far the biggest, much, much bigger than Bernie by, you know, a factor of many times. I mean, we have -- a couple of weeks ago, we had 35,000 in Alabama. We have 25,000 routinely.
And we don't have problems. We have some protesters. Every once in a while, somebody will stand up. Today, we had a little more than normal in St. Louis in the morning. We had a number of people standing up. And it was fine. Nobody got hurt. But you know, they had to get taken out. And they're disruptive, and we do the best we can to do a little creative -- have a little bit of fun with them.
They're out there protesting. I don't know if they're having fun doing it, frankly. But we're very conscious of it, and we're very conscious of the fact we don't want anybody to be hurt. So today, we had a little bit more than normal in St. Louis, but it was really a great rally, tremendous turnout, and I mean, thousands of people out on the street that couldn't get into a very, very large auditorium.
And then I came to Chicago, and you know, we were going to have so many people, at least 25,000. Many people would have to be outside. And we were able to cancel a lot of the people that were coming that hadn't been there yet, that hadn't come there yet, because I got here a little bit early. I'm in Chicago right now.
And I was able to, you know, figure it out. Again, we're getting a lot credit for canceling because had I gone there, it would have been in many respects easier to just go there, but I think, had I gone there, you would have had a lot of -- you would have had a lot problems because this was a very organized group, and I think not a good group that...
HANNITY: Yes.
TRUMP: ... really stifled the 1st Amendment rights. And you know, it's interesting. If we ever did that to them, it would be a national disgrace, a national story and the likes of which you've never seen. But when they do it to us, it's a very big deal. So we have, you know, these incredible people that, unfortunately, were shut out from hearing what they wanted to hear.
HANNITY: You know, this is not uncommon, Mr. Trump, that supposedly -- we're supposed to have free speech on college campuses. This happens only to conservative speakers on a fairly regular basis here.
You see the violence in the city of Chicago. It seems like there are no solutions to the violence. I mean, we've had weekends with 12, 13, 14 people are shot, and including young children. It is a city that seems really out of control, almost like New York before Rudy Giuliani took over.
TRUMP: Yes. Well, it's a problem. There's no question about it. And it's a great city. I love Chicago. I have big investments in Chicago, and I think it's a great city.
But it certainly has certain sections where it's got problems like probably almost no other place in this country. But Chicago is Chicago. And it's, you know, an amazing place, and I do like Chicago. It's a city that I think is highly underrated, actually, but -- and you know, they hear about-- they hear about some of the statistics, and that's a shame. That's a horrible shame. And it's too bad they aren't able to do something about it.
But this was, I think, very unrelated to that. This was an organized group. They knew that we were going to have thousands of people coming. And these are people that just wanted to listen. You know, the theme is "Make America great again," and they wanted to listen about making America great again, how we're going to do it. We're going to bring back our jobs. We're going to bring back so many different things to the country that we haven't had. And we're going to strengthen our borders. We're going to build a wall. We're going to do so many things, and you know, thing that are positive for the country, not negative for the country.
But it's all about making America great again, and maybe they just don't want to have that happen. I don't know. But I think -- I will say this, Sean. I think we did the right thing. If we would have gone further, I think you could have seen -- you know, they've had some pretty bad situations dating back all the way to 1968. The Democrat convention was, you know, a disaster. People killed and lots of things happening.
Tonight, virtually nobody is even hurt. And we made a very good decision. We've been given credit for making a very good decision, and we worked very closely with law enforcement, and they gave us some really good advice.
HANNITY: Let me talk about a double standard because I watched and listened tonight and people said, Well -- they quoted you from saying -- I assumed it was joking -- you know, well, in the old days, you know, we wouldn't take that sort of thing.
But they never seem to pay attention to some of the rhetoric of the president. The president has said Republicans want dirty air and dirty water. He talked about the police, the Cambridge police acted stupidly. He said there's a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately.
Every election year, the narrative of the Democratic Party against Republicans is that they are racist against black Americans, Hispanic Americans, against gay Americans, that they want dirty air and water, that they want to throw granny over the cliff.
Nobody that I heard tonight trying to blame you for the actions of others has ever been critical of the constant predictable rhetoric, almost a playbook of the Democratic Party. I've asked you in past interviews, how do you deal with this double standard? How do you deal with that predictable playbook of attacks that you would face if you're the nominee?
TRUMP: Well, there is a double standard, and you know that maybe better than almost anybody that there's an unbelievable double standard. And sometimes I -- you know, I'll speak to young people and the children of young people and they'll say, Could you speak to, you know -- I do it for friends. I'll speak to their children and I -- honestly, it's a lot easier for people in life to be a liberal Democrat, OK?
But if you don't believe in it, you can't do it. And it's -- you have a double standard like nobody can believe. If this rally -- if conservatives and Republicans ever did that to a liberal rally, it would be a national disgrace. It would be all over every paper for weeks. And you can imagine if that ever happened. But with this, it's almost routine. You see this happening all the time. It's, like, routine, and it's very -- it's very unfair. I agree with you.
HANNITY: Let me -- let me ask this. And it's a question that I have asked you a number of times on the campaign. Since the president has gotten into office, millions and millions more Americans are in poverty, millions more on food stamps, millions more out of the labor force. He will accumulate more debt than any every president combined by the time he leaves office.
The economic situation is as bad as you describe.
How much do you think this has created anger in the country, and maybe they're just lashing out in this particular instance because you're such a high-profile candidate?
TRUMP: Well, it's tremendous. I mean, first of all, there's tremendous division in the country. If you look at African-American youth, young African-Americans, 59 percent -- 59 percent -- inconceivable -- 59 percent unemployment rate. And you look at even African-Americans in their prime, 30, 40, 50, the unemployment rate is very high.
And you know, we have an African-American president, and you would have thought that he would have done a much better job for African-American citizens of this country. And he hasn't. And I will because I'm going to bring back jobs from China. I'm going to bring back jobs from Mexico and so many other places that are just ripping this country apart.
You know, our country's being ripped apart. And let me tell you, this is largely an economic issue, too. You know that workers, hard-working people, middle class people, haven't had a salary increase effectively in 12 years, all right? So for 12 years, they're making less now in many cases than they made 12 years ago.
And it's ridiculous. And there's a lot of anger. There's a lot of anxiety, but there really is a lot of anger from people that are not angry people. And you know, you get everybody together, and you get them in a city like Chicago, which, again, is a good city, a good city -- it's potentially a great city. And a friend of mine who's a very successful guy always found Chicago to be his favorite city.
So you get them in a place like Chicago, and a thing like this shouldn't happen, especially to -- you know, 25,000 people we had coming to this, Sean. And you know, we were able to stop many of them from coming, fortunately. It's the wonderful thing about the Internet. So we were able to stop many, many from coming, or it would have been really a mess. And then you don't know what would have happened. But we were able to do it early enough.
And the early cancellation and the cancellation was just a -- turned out to be a very good move because now things have just about cleared up, and you know, there's been no damage.
HANNITY: What do you say to all those people that in many ways feel that frustration? You know, when I give out statistics, Mr. Trump, and I say, Oh, 95 million Americans out of the labor force, 50 million in poverty, 46 million on food stamps, we've doubled our debt, median income down -- I know it sounds like a statistic, but these are real people, real lives, real suffering, unnecessarily. It seems to get worse every year, not better.
What do you say to those people that maybe are left behind, may be struggling, feeling the anger, feeling the angst, feeling hopeless maybe in many ways, that might be, I don't know, drawn into these groups that seem to have agendas? In this case, it was obviously a political agenda.
TRUMP: Sean, you know what I say? I say vote for Trump. Vote for Trump. We're going to do a lot of thing that are going to make this country much better. We're going to do tremendous things.
And one of the things we're going to do is bring back our jobs and bring back our industry because it's been ripped from this country. It is just ripped right out of the country, 50,000 manufacturing plants and businesses out of -- just taken, like -- like nothing with all the job losses.
You take a look at right now. Pfizer is leaving the United States. Carrier is moving to Mexico. Ford is moving its big plants to Mexico. Nabisco is moving the big, big plant from Chicago into Mexico. And all the jobs lost.
And people are disgusted. They're disgusted with their politicians. They're disgusted with our trade deals. They're disgusted with the fact that the military can't even beat ISIS. Can you imagine telling General George Patton we can't beat ISIS? He'd beat ISIS in two days! I mean, can you imagine these people, General McArthur, General Patton? They'd be spinning in their grave right now. They wouldn't believe it.
HANNITY: Yes.
TRUMP: But you know, we can't beat ISIS. We can't do anything. We can't take care of our vets. We can't have good health care. "Obama care" is a disaster. It's got to be repealed. It's got to be repealed and replaced.
We can't get education locally. We have this horrible Common Core, which is a disgrace, where people are making a lot of money from Washington, and they don't care about the people of Ohio. They don't care about the people of any place you want to mention. I mean, they don't care. I mean, you have some probably do, but for the most part, they care about how much money they're making.
HANNITY: Yes.
TRUMP: And education (INAUDIBLE) so we can't -- Sean, we can't -- we don't win at anything anymore. This country doesn't win at anything. And that's why you have so many people coming to my rallies and that's why you have a great anger. There's no question about it.
HANNITY: You know, I have never understood the mindset -- and I was watching -- Marco Rubio was on before you came on, and he quoted you saying, quote, Well, in the good old days, we would handle protesters this way. And I'm thinking, I've never blamed words for inspiring people to hate. It seems like maybe some of your opponents are jumping on this to try to capitalize on it politically. What is your answer to them?
TRUMP: Well, I don't know. I was just asked, Will this be -- will you get more votes or less votes? I have no idea. Certainly, this would not have been done -- I did this for security reasons. I don't want to see people get hurt. But is this a good -- and some people I was watching one of the networks tonight, and they said, this is -- this must have been planned by Trump. And believe me, it wasn't. Believe me, it wasn't. But...
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: The commentary is so over the top...
TRUMP: I know.
HANNITY: ... and so outrageous and so dead wrong. I mean, when did we start blaming victims of violence instead of the perpetrators of violence? There's no words that inspire people to hate!
TRUMP: Yes. But when little Marco goes, and you know, starts saying what he said about this, it's a terrible thing. It's a terrible thing to say because, look -- and I do say, you know, years ago, it wouldn't have been put up with. We have some protesters -- we've had very little, relatively speaking, protesters. You know, when we have 25,000, 30,000 people in an arena and we have 2 or 3 people stand up or 5 people -- actually, today was probably one of the bigger. In St. Louis, we had a number of people. But we got through it. It was fine. It was just one of those things...
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: About 30 people, right? Yes.
TRUMP: Yes, they were very, very...
HANNITY: (INAUDIBLE) people taken out.
TRUMP: It was very mild. They were taken out. The police did a fantastic job. Police in our country have to be given much more credit than they're getting because they are not being properly recognized, in my opinion. I mean, between the police and the vets, you have two group that are not being properly recognized.
But you know, we have very, very little. I will tell you, though, 10 years ago, 15 years ago, 20 years ago -- when we take people out today, the police don't even tough them! They don't want to touch them because they'll end up losing their pension, losing their job, destroying their life. It's brutal today.
So it's a very hard thing. And I do say, in the old days, they wouldn't have put up with it like they do right now. They wouldn't have put up with...
HANNITY: Yes.
TRUMP: ... a protester standing up in the middle of a speech in front of thousands and thousands of people and screaming at the top of his or her lungs, and then also in some cases, being very violent, throwing punches. And then when the people surrounding this person -- people that are getting hit start throwing punches the other way, the story of the next day is how violent the room was, as opposed to this particular protester or protesters that actually were causing the problem.
And I see it because I'm making a speech. I'm on high. You know, I'm on the platform. And I'm able to see it. And I see some people that are really, you know, bad. They're bad dudes. And they're throwing punches, and when the punches are thrown back, it is always their fault. It's always the person, the supporter. It's always their fault. It's so unfair. It's so unfair. And I see it all the time.
But we've had very, very little problem. And we've actually, relatively speaking, for the amount of people, for the tens of thousands of people that go to every event, we've had -- we've had very, very little problem.
HANNITY: Now, Moveon.org -- they're -- seem to be threatening that this is going to go on at future events, Mr. Trump.
And I want to remind our audience here that Moveon.org endorsed Bernie Sanders by a vote in January of 2016, and they had a record-setting 78.6 percent of 340,000 votes supporting Bernie Sanders, and yet they're responsible for creating this havoc and shutting this event down, and I would even argue putting innocent people's lives in jeopardy. There were women and children at your event. I saw them there. They had to see all this tonight.
You know, where's the media asking Bernie Sanders, Why are your supporters doing this? Some people even went on FOX cameras tonight and said they're there -- they support Bernie Sanders. They wanted only Bernie Sanders's voice heard on tape. People -- everyone in the media will ask you. Who's going to ask Bernie Sanders, considering this is the group that has openly endorsed and supported him? Will he condemn it? Will Hillary condemn it?
Is that a fair question?
TRUMP: Well, I remember when Bernie Sanders -- his microphone was taken away from him by the two young ladies that were in attendance, and they went up and started screaming in his face and they took away his microphone, and he walked back like a little baby from the microphone. I remember that very vividly. I thought it was disgraceful, actually, that it was allowed to happen.
But look, whoever this group is, it was an organized group. And at some point, you know, people are going to get fed up with it. Let me just tell you, Sean, at some point -- we had people waiting in line for five and six and seven hours to get in. And then they get in and they get shut out and they get -- you know, what -- you're talking about right of free speech and all of the other things that -- you know, that we all know.
It's so unfair. But you had people that got here at 11:00 o'clock and 10:00 o'clock in the morning, waited all day, and then they get protesters. And the protesters all showed up pretty much at the same time. So it was totally organized. They didn't just drift in. They just -- boom, all of a sudden, showed up.
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: ... at some point, they won't get away with this stuff because it's going to be -- it's going to be -- end up being a much different situation. I will say this. I have such great love and respect for these people that have been so supportive, their courage. They were so nice tonight. You know, to wait hours and hours to get in and then to be told we're going to postpone it and to leave. And there was no violence, essentially no violence. I have such great respect for them.
HANNITY: The Moveon.org people supported this. You know, in the course of this campaign, it's obvious you have taken on the issue of securing America's borders and building a wall on the border because of drugs and the crime that's associated with it, the cost to our educational, health care system, our criminal justice system, obviously controversial, I guess, in the minds of some. To me, it just makes common sense. I know to a lot of conservatives, it's common sense.
And also, like I was watching you last night during the debate. You know, here we have a country like Saudi Arabia that doesn't let women drive. Women can't go to work and school without their husband's permission. They can't leave the house without a male relative. And yet we act like they're a close friend and ally. And you were talking about a major cultural divide with Islam.
Now, I think this is a conversation America needs to have. Do you think that a lot of the backlash from these radical leftist groups are maybe associated with these positions that you seem to be willing to take that others maybe don't have the courage to take?
TRUMP: Yes, I do. I think they're associated with the strong border. I mean, I want to have a strong border. We have to have it. Otherwise, we don't have a country. We have drugs pouring in. We have crime pouring in. We have, you know, a lack of economic development because of it. And we hurt our jobs picture, which are desperately needed.
You know, you know, I -- there are a lot of reasons for it. There's also just a total disrespect for the law. You look at what happens, I mean, it's a total disrespect for the law.
And they have to be careful because things like this and incidents like this, you know, a country's built up great anxiety and they build up something that can be very combustible, and that would be a terrible thing. And that's what I didn't want to see tonight.
I mean, when I flew in, I was two hours early and I flew in and I said -- I met with law enforcement, and they discussed -- and they were totally prepared to go through it. And they said it'll actually be hard getting in and could be even harder getting out. And I said, What do you recommend? They said, This could be a real mess if the people clash. I didn't want the see people get hurt. At the same time, I think it's really unfair to those great people that spent all day waiting in line...
HANNITY: Yes.
TRUMP: ... to get in, and now they end up going home empty-handed. I don't like it.
HANNITY: Now, did law enforcement recommend this to you, as well? You have Secret Service protection.
TRUMP: Yes, they did. They recommended it. They did strongly recommend it.
HANNITY: Yes.
TRUMP: And I understood it. I understood exactly what they said. They're very professional. The law enforcement I think did great job because, you know, you could see it. Had this gone forward, that was a staged deal by Moveon or whoever might be doing it, but that was a staged deal. Had this gone forward, there would have been tremendous clashes and a lot of people would have been hurt. So -- and now I see the streets are empty. I know I'm watching your show, but -- and it looks like you have a picture from much earlier.
HANNITY: We do. We have a picture from earlier.
TRUMP: Right. The streets are now empty.
HANNITY: If they continue this, Mr. Trump, at future events, what is your-- have you thought about how do you -- you know, all these people are willing to come out to your event. I think you're right. They a right to hear your voice. But if this is going to be an organized, ongoing...
TRUMP: Well, I actually think we'll get more people because these people don't want to just take this kind of stuff, Sean. They don't want to take it. They're tired of it. This is one of the reasons that there's such a huge number of people leaving the Democrat party and coming and voting for Trump. I mean, they come to vote for Donald Trump because we're not going to take it.
I mean, it's just the country is going to hell. We're very divided. We're very, very divided. We have a president who's a very divisive guy, and frankly, this is what it is.
HANNITY: Yes.
TRUMP: And this is -- believe it, this is an Obama situation, too. He has caused tremendous division in this country. He's a -- I call him the great divider. And we're going to unify the country. It's going to be tough but we're going to unify the country. But right now, we have a very, very divided country.
HANNITY: How do you -- I think you raise a good question. How do we unify the country? How do we get -- because it is divided. People are suffering. These are real problems. These aren't made-up problems. As I said, millions and millions of people really suffering. Government has hurt them. They're not helping them.
You know, the violence in Chicago, the murder rate in Chicago, the fact that it hasn't been dealt with is a national disgrace in many ways to me.
But how do you bring these disparate views and parties together? How does that happen? Is that something...
TRUMP: Well, look, you need lots of things. You need education. You need programs. But you also need jobs. We got to create jobs. Our jobs are being stripped out of our country. They're being taken out of our country. And when people go out and they just literally -- they -- they look for a job for four, five months. They can't find one. They give up. Now they're considered employed.
You know, the numbers are phony. These are all phony numbers. These are numbers given to politicians so they look good. But these are phony numbers. So it's a very complicated situation, but it's a situation that if I become president, I will solve it.
But it really does also begin and end with jobs. We have to bring jobs back. When you hear 59 percent, 58 percent, 59 percent African-American youth unemployed, I mean -- I mean, much more than half don't have jobs, they can't get jobs? And you know, it's educational. It's programs.
But it's really -- we've got to get jobs. You know, people -- they become educated and they work hard and then after they graduate, they can't -- they come out and they can't get a job (INAUDIBLE)
HANNITY: You're saying something that I have often said, and I think this is a really important point. You know, I was 8 years old, I had a paper route. I was 12 years old, I was a dishwasher. I was 13, I was a cook. I was 14, I was a busboy. I was 15, I was a waiter. I was 17, I was a bartender.
And if I didn't have those summer jobs -- I got in enough trouble having jobs. You know, for all these kids that have zero opportunity in the summer -- I know what it would have meant for me growing up. It would have meant be being out with my friends and me getting in even more trouble. And you're right. These kids don't have a chance. They don't have an opportunity.
That gets back to the issue of immigration. You have more competition for limited jobs, especially low-skilled labor. Add to that lower wages if you do get a job.
TRUMP: True.
HANNITY: That ends in economic hardship for people. I mean, I think the economic component cannot be ignored in the anger that exists in this country! I think that's a good point.
TRUMP: Well, it is a good point, and it's a point that we have to understand. And we have to bring things back to our country. We have to go back and just, you know, bring it back to better than it ever was. We can make it better than it ever was. We're going to make the country better.
You know, I say "Make America great again," and I'm adding now because I've seen the people of this country -- they're incredible. We're going to say better than ever before. We can make this country better than ever before.
But we have horrible leadership. We make a deal with Iran where we give them $150 billion and they're a terror state, and now they're buying missiles and testing missiles and they're not supposed to even do that.
So it's -- the whole thing is ridiculous, Sean. But it's...
HANNITY: Yes.
TRUMP: I'm very happy in the decision we made tonight. And there's been very, very little damage done, and most importantly, there's essentially been nobody even hurt. And I think if we would have made the wrong decision tonight, could have been something that would have been very bad.
And everybody's very happy...
HANNITY: You know...
TRUMP: ... with what we did and how it's come out.
HANNITY: It's very interesting. I'm hearing a very different side of you. I've known you for over 15 years now. And I sense a real pain in there about how bad things are. Do you think maybe you communicate that enough to people, that you -- that this is a -- that your campaign is about people?
TRUMP: Well, my campaign is about people. It is about making people better, getting people higher wages, getting them better jobs, getting them better education, getting them better health care, strengthening our military so we can keep all those things, because if we don't have the right military they're not going to keep all the things I just mentioned.
And, I mean, we are in a very perilous position. Our military is in very, very bad shape. Physically, the equipment we have is old. The enemy has better equipment because they take it off the people we give it to. We have allies in the Middle East and we give them military equipment. The enemy takes it away. The enemy has better equipment than we do. A friend of mine has a son who is over in Iraq. He's over Iraq. And he says it's so disconcerting to see that the enemy has our equipment, brand new, and they're using the old stuff. The enemy has better equipment than we do.
He always tells me that, young guy, fantastic guy, when I see him. He always says the enemy has better equipment than they do. They have the Humvees that were sent over, hundreds of them, hundreds, that are totally armored plated. And our guys don't have it because they took it from the enemy. They took it from people we gave it to and they were supposed to be our allies. But the bullet was fired in the air, Sean, and our allies ran. And the -- you know, these characters, these horrible characters that cut off people's heads and drown them in cages, they took the equipment. So they have better equipment than we do, Sean. People are tired of it. They're tired of seeing the stupidity. And with me they're not going to get the stupidity. They're going to get something much different.
HANNITY: By the way, for the record, you were going to be on camera with us tonight, but at the advice of caucuses and others they asked you not to. Is that correct?
TRUMP: Well, I think they probably felt that it would be better not to. But, you know, look, I think we can communicate just as well this way. Otherwise I would have done it.
HANNITY: All right, Mr. Trump. Thank you for your time tonight.
TRUMP: OK, thank you very much, Sean.
HANNITY: Thank you.
TRUMP: Thank you.
HANNITY: Coming up, we have a lot more reaction tonight of the news out of Chicago. Earlier tonight, protesters forced the Trump campaign to cancel their rally. We have more right after the break as we continue.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: And this FOX News alert. Violent agitators disrupt a Donald Trump campaign rally earlier tonight in Chicago. Joining us now on the ground is our own John Roberts. He is with Trump supporters who are trying to get inside the event tonight. John, when's going on?
JOHN ROBERTS, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Sean, good evening to you. You know, we have got a number of different people here from a wide variety of backgrounds. We have got a bunch of medical students here. We have got a screenwriter and we've got a musician. Let's start with you. First of all, your name?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: James King.
ROBERTS: Now, you are not particularly a Trump supporter, but you were here to see him. Who are you actually supporting?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm supporting Ted Cruz.
ROBERTS: Why did you want to come here to see Donald Trump tonight?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was on the radio and heard he was speaking here tonight, and so I just wanted to come by an just, you know, see what he was doing. I saw a massive protest. It was kind of interesting to see.
ROBERTS: What did you think of the fact that protesters shut down the event tonight and really kind of impinged on his freedom of speech?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm a freedom of speech guy like I told you earlier, but I also believe people also have a right to protest. That's the thing going on right now, shutting down speech. But people do have the right to protest, too. But, you know, I disagree on with him a lot of things, agree on a couple of things. But, you know, we should have a healthy debate.
ROBERTS: Speaking of protestors, here's a man who is protesting outside the event, not inside the event. Your name?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pierre.
ROBERTS: Why were you protesting outside the event here tonight?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think we have come to a point that maybe we should have came to that point much earlier, that enough is enough. The bigotry and the hatred with Muslims and Islam and Americans and Mexicans, enough is enough. And it's time we stood up, you know. So --
ROBERTS: Where do your politics typically lie?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm center left. I'm more of a Clinton blue dog Democrat. But regardless, I don't care if you're the most conservative person, the most liberal person. We can't tolerate hatred. That's not who we are.
HANNITY: Hey, John?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's time we stood up. And hopefully this sets a precedent.
ROBERTS: Sean Hannity is in my ear. Go ahead, Sean.
HANNITY: I want to ask this guy a question. What has Donald Trump said that he finds so objectionable that they want to stop a rally that thousands and thousands of supporters want to see? Why is he so bent out of shape? What has Donald Trump specifically said?
ROBERTS: All right. All right, first of all, you weren't trying to stop the rally though, right?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was on the outside going with the flow, really supporting the guys. So, maybe I was.
ROBERTS: You were a little bit. So what is it that Donald Trump has said that you find so offensive that you wanted to stop the rally?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: First of all, he says Islam, we need to ban all Muslims. No. I have friends who are Muslims, a lot of good personal friends. And to say that, you know, we are at a war with Muslim people and that. It's ridiculous.
ROBERTS: Let's go through the list real quick here. You guys were here to see Trump, as well. Why did you want to go see him today?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. I agree with some of his points. I disagree with his blunt language. He talks about Mexicans and Muslims. So I really wanted to listen to some of his points and see if I really agree with him, because apparently it feels like that he is not against Muslims. He's just
-- he's just can't filter his words.
HANNITY: Hey, John?
ROBERTS: I've got to toss it back to Sean. Thanks very much, guys, for being with us tonight. Really appreciate it. Anymore questions for you, Sean?
HANNITY: Well, I could argue with all of them here because we do have a FBI director, an assistant FBI director, a director of national intelligence and our special envoy to defeat ISIS that said ISIS will infiltrate the refugee population, so what Donald Trump called for was a temporary ban until we can vet them.
ROBERTS: Yes. Exactly. Exactly. But let me just see if I bring in a couple of the other folks here because they've got a different perspective. Let's go to you, Dmitri, was it? Dmitri, why were you here tonight to see Donald Trump? And what did you think of the fact that it was shut down?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I do think that we're in very polar times right now. We can't sort of respect each other's opinions. And I've never seen this level of hostility before. They were a lot of people here who are very aggressive, very angry, shutting down people's opinions and their rights to have a belief that they want to. And I just think it was a bit sad. I'm personally Jewish. My friends are African-American and my friend, he is a Muslim. We registered beforehand and we actually just wanted to hear what he had to say. So we wanted to go to the rally and maybe -- that's what America is about. You want to hear somebody's opinion and you want to agree or disagree with him based on what he says.
But this current situation where you want to shut down somebody's rights, listen to somebody that they want to support or you want to shut down somebody's right to free speech, I think it's not a very positive route that America is headed toward.
ROBERTS: What you what did you think about the fact that it was shut down tonight?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I thought it was sad. Like Dmitri said, free speech is a thing we all value in America. And to see it shut down, I'm disappointed myself. I'm an undecided voter, but I'm a big fan of the American political process. I think we have the most unique political process in the world. And we as students wanted to come and hear what that was about and see what the fuss about Donald Trump was. He's been the most polarizing political figure of this political season, so why not come out and hear it? Whether you want to vote for him or not it's worth hearing because of our political system.
ROBERTS: Guys, thank very much for joining us. I know you have clinic first thing in the morning, so thank you for hanging in, really appreciate it. Sean?
HANNITY: John Roberts on the ground in Chicago, thank you. And we have more reaction to the violent protestors forcing Donald Trump to cancel that campaign rally in Chicago. Ben Carson will be with us, Kimberly Guilfoyle, Juan Williams, and much, much more straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: That is a Fox News alert. Violent protesters force Donald Trump to cancel a campaign rally in Chicago earlier tonight. Joining us on the phone, former 2016 Republican presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson. And of course he just endorsed Donald Trump.
Mr. Carson, I know you. You're a peace-loving guy. This happens quite often on college campuses where you have conservatives that want to speak. And then, of course, then the blame goes out, well, it's obviously what they're saying that caused people to protest and get violent. This seems like a planned, orchestrated assault on not only Donald Trump's right to speak but on the right of people that wanted to hear him to hear him. Your thoughts?
BEN CARSON, R-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, unfortunately, particularly on a lot of college campuses intolerance reigns supreme. Tolerance is only taught in one direction. And it's a very dangerous precedent because our young people are being caught that if somebody doesn't agree with you, you have the right to do whatever you want to them, including violence. And it's very sad. It's going to require some extreme leadership, and it's going to have to come from both sides.
HANNITY: Yes.
CARSON: And I believe this is an area actually where the media can play a significant role.
HANNITY: Did you hear some of the reckless -- did you hear some of the ridiculous, reckless commentary? I'm listening tonight.
CARSON: Of course.
HANNITY: It's like blaming words for people getting violent. Now, isn't that blaming the victim? Is that any different than blaming the victim?
CARSON: It is craziness. What they really need to be doing is teaching, particularly the younger generation, what the meaning of the First Amendment is, why the Bill of Rights is important. I don't think these things are taught to them anymore, quite frankly, particularly in our institutions of higher education, and it's leading to a very difficult situation.
And then also we need to recognize that what's happening particularly in a lot of inner cities, since President Obama came along with the hope and change model, it's been a lot of hope but not much change. So what does that do? That leaves people very, very frustrated and makes them easy to manipulate.
HANNITY: I have got to run, but I've got to tell you, Dr. Carson, that is such a valid point. Things have gotten so worse, so bad, for so many millions of Americans, and you know what? They're feeling hopeless. And nobody points that out. But we'll have you back on soon to talk about it. We just unfortunately went long in the last segment. We appreciate you being with us. Thank you, sir.
CARSON: No problem. OK, take care.
HANNITY: Coming up, more reaction to the violent protesters shutting down a Trump rally earlier tonight. We'll check in with Kimberly Guilfoyle, Juan Williams, they're next as we continue, straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: And here with reaction are co-hosts of "The Five," Juan Williams, Kimberly Guilfoyle. Kimberly, let me start with you. I can't believe as I'm flipping the dials tonight that people on television are actually somehow blaming Trump for the fact that people are violent and disrupting a rally. Words don't -- words do not justify violence, ever. Thoughts?
KIMBERLY GUILFOYLE, FOX NEWS CO-HOST, "THE FIVE": No, they don't. And because the First Amendment is freedom of speech is sacrosanct in this country, people fought and died to preserve those rights, our constitutional rights in this country. People should be able to go and listen to someone speak and decide if they would like to make an informed choice to vote for them or not.
And I respect the right of protestors to be able to go and express their opinion, of course, but also for the people that wanted to hear Mr. Trump speak tonight. And by the way, it's political naiveté at its best to think that that this wasn't part of a concerted, organized effort to try and chill free speech tonight by people like MoveOn.org. And it just goes to show how very worried they are about the candidacy of Donald Trump that they would go to these lengths in Chicago. How about protesting the failed policies of Mayor Rahm Emmanuel with the large number of minorities and African-Americans dying and bleeding out in the streets of Chicago where there is incredible violence there and gang violence going unchecked. They should be protesting that.
HANNITY: Juan, we'll give you the final word tonight. I'm sorry, we went along with Mr. Trump.
JUAN WILLIAMS, FOX NEWS CO-HOST, "THE FIVE": No, no, no. I just think you have to listen to what other Republicans have been saying on FOX today. You think about Marco Rubio saying words have consequences, and you hear Ted Cruz saying intelligence Trump has to take some responsibility for the violence that he's been treating --
(CROSSTALK)
WILLIAMS: Let me finish. Let me finish for a second, will you. I'm just saying, if you act like it's WWE, in the old days we would have punched him in the face. And we saw what happened down in North Carolina the other day where a guy sucker punched a protestor, and we see what happened with Michelle Fields being grabbed allegedly. Now she's filed a complaint. Now, it's like a rising quicksand of violence around Trump, and I think you need to acknowledge that.
HANNITY: On Monday, I wish I had time to respond. But that's all the time we have left. Thanks for being with us, and we hope you have a good night.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
END
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