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Published January 23, 2017
This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," April 14, 2016. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: All right, welcome to "Hannity." We're having a bit of audio trouble there.
And tonight, all three 2016 Republican candidates are attending the New York state Republican gala. It's in Manhattan, in New York City at the Grand Hyatt Hotel.
Now, coming up tonight, we have an exclusive interview with Donald Trump's campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski. Remember, Florida prosecutors earlier today dropped charges against him.
Plus, a lot of left-wing demonstrators were outside of that gala. I saw them personally. We've got some video that we'll be playing you throughout the night.
But first, joining us with reaction to the speeches and more, co-hosts of "The Five" Kimberly Guilfoyle, Eric Bolling. Guys, good to see you all.
KIMBERLY GUILFOYLE, "THE FIVE" CO-HOST: Yes.
ERIC BOLLING, "THE FIVE" CO-HOST: Good to be here, Sean.
GUILFOYLE: (INAUDIBLE)
HANNITY: All right, let's start with the speeches tonight. Then we'll get to the Lewandowski issue. What are your thoughts? Does this matter? New York, Donald Trump laid out the Wolman (ph) rink. He has history with New York, New York values.
GUILFOYLE: Yes, but this is his, like, sweet spot, right? So this is his time to shine and really connect and resonate. He needs a decisive victory here. And for all intents and purposes, it seems like he's really gunning and going after it.
Of course, you know, Ted Cruz, unfortunately, is working at a disadvantage because of the comment about New York values, and it stings and people remember. So he has to kind of come out of that hole to be able to try to capitalize and not look like he's losing momentum in the face of what looks like a clear Trump victory in New York.
HANNITY: It looks like the couple of weeks leading up to Wisconsin, which I would argue, Eric, were the toughest weeks in the campaign for Donald Trump, are now behind him. There seems to be more campaign discipline. He seems more -- he seems back on message. He's even staying off -- like, for example, he's off this past weekend on the Sunday shows, something he hadn't done in a long time.
BOLLING: Yes, because he hired -- he made a great hire. Paul Manafort was a wonderful hire, and (INAUDIBLE) let Paul go out there. By the way, Paul -- wow, he's a rock star. I mean, the guy just handled it, locked it down on the Sunday shows. And so what that allowed Donald Trump to do is figure out where he wants to be, kind of take a deep breath, step back.
This is big, though. So after Wisconsin, everyone was, like, Oh, wow, that was a -- that was a bad night for Donald Trump. But you're right, the tide changed. New York likely could be a full 95 delegates to Donald Trump. And think about that. When you do that and then you have Pennsylvania, you have Connecticut, some big wins there, the momentum, the tide changes.
HANNITY: Well, but what's...
BOLLING: People start to get behind someone who's gaining a lot of the support.
HANNITY: So he -- in all likelihood, based on the polls, up 30-plus points in New York, will get the majority of the 95 available delegates there. That's a big prize.
GUILFOYLE: Huge.
HANNITY: Then we move to Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Maryland, Delaware. OK, he's up by 20 in Delaware, up almost the same amount...
BOLLING: Across the board.
HANNITY: ... in Maryland and Pennsylvania. Now also in Connecticut, he has a big lead there. It's over 50 percent. Pennsylvania, though, is a weird system. You get 17 delegates. The other 50 are unbound. People are voting on the ballot not for Donald Trump or Ted Cruz, they're voting for the delegates.
BOLLING: Oh, yes. So that's kind of like the superdelegate situation on the Democrat side. So OK, so there's 175 or so on that day. There's 95 in New York.
You're still going to get to the point where California on June 7th is going to be the day that if Donald Trump gets over the 1,237 threshold, he will. But I think what happens up leading to that, the other states that come into play before that, will go because there's so much momentum. Politics is time, momentum, and money. Money's not going to be an issue. Time is pretty spread out now from here to June 7th.
HANNITY: So it seems like...
BOLLING: It's all about momentum.
HANNITY: ... the delegate fight in Pennsylvania will be big. But also, now it's moved to Indiana, a number of delegates before people even vote there. They will be, again, distributed before that even takes place. And California is going to be a big fight. It's a big prize, 172 delegates.
How -- how differently will they approach the ground game as they move forward into these states, Kimberly?
GUILFOYLE: You know, I think what they've learned also, a lesson from the past, Sean, is you've got to, like, lock it down step by step, a little bit of, like, hopscotch before you jump ahead.
California definitely is going to be crucial and important. You even heard through the rhetoric coming out of the Ted Cruz camp saying this could determine who the nominee is, and eventually the president of the United States. California is a little bit trickier for Donald Trump, but nevertheless, I do believe, like Eric said, that if you have the momentum building in from these states in the East Coast that precede it, then I do believe that Donald Trump will be in an even better position in California. And what's the narrative the Cruz camp or Kasich...
HANNITY: Who gets the nomination? Does he get it? Does he have to fight for it? Is it going to be contested? Eric?
BOLLING: I've been doing the numbers straight through, and I think he still gets -- I think he gets to 1,237. Now, you had an RNC Rules Committee member the other day saying...
HANNITY: That was Randy Evans.
BOLLING: Randy Evans. If Donald Trump gets over 1,100, he's going to be the nominee.
HANNITY: Because of the unbound delegates availability.
BOLLING: I don't think that's the case. I think he's wrong there. A couple -- maybe a month-and-a-half ago, Curly Holdwin (ph), said the opposite. He said, You don't understand. The voters aren't picking the nominee.
HANNITY: We delegates are.
BOLLING: Yes, we, the delegates, are going to pick the nominee. I've had conversation after conversation with high-level leadership in the RNC who tell me that if Donald Trump is close to it, he's going to be the nominee. I just don't...
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: Let me say one thing about this.
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: And we talked to Corey Lewandowski earlier. From my perspective, any time the people aren't voting or participating fully, and that they're not getting full representation, that's a problem. Because it's a national party -- and I know states want to make their own decisions on how to do things, OK, but their decision should be, Do we want to caucus, do we want a primary, do we want proportional distribution or do we want winner-take- all?
BOLLING: Can I hit (ph) that?
HANNITY: But I don't like the idea of unbound delegates in any case.
BOLLING: You can't like what happened in Colorado. Colorado went ahead, and there's probably a million voters, GOP side, that could have voted but never got the opportunity to -- to...
HANNITY: As many as a million.
BOLLING: ... as many as a million -- because the RNC at the local level, the state level decided, We're going to give this to the delegates that we pick.
HANNITY: And by the way, then they tweeted out...
BOLLING: You know who got those? Those are people who work for the system, part of the establishment!
HANNITY: Well, again, look at the tweet out there. And if I'm a Donald Trump supporter and I read the GOP Colorado Twitter account says, "We did it, never Trump," I'm thinking that it was rigged.
GUILFOYLE: That it's (INAUDIBLE) Right. So that's what he was speaking to. And of course, it only actually serves to motivate his followers and his supporters to make sure they make it count for their states going forward. So I think...
HANNITY: But on the other hand, you got to give Cruz credit, too. Cruz knew -- everyone knew the rules.
GUILFOYLE: Right.
HANNITY: They went in and fought harder.
BOLLING: I hate this because Ted Cruz feasibly could get hurt the worst at the convention if they change the rules.
HANNITY: Yes. All right, guys...
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: And good to see you. By the way, quick programming note. These two friends of mine, Kimberly, Eric, and the rest of the team of "The Five," they'll be back right after this show, 11:00 Eastern, for a special live edition. So that's coming up. We'll be watching.
And coming up, my exclusive interview with Donald Trump's campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski. Florida prosecutors earlier today -- they dropped charges.
And then later tonight, a lot of crazy, insane left-wing protesters outside of the gala tonight. David Webb actually tried to interview some of them and find out what they're so angry about. We've got that exclusive tape and more as we continue.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: Welcome back to "Hannity." So earlier today, Florida prosecutors announced that they will not pursue a misdemeanor battery charge against Donald Trump's campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, for allegedly grabbing reporter Michelle Fields's arm.
Tonight, newly released security video just before the incident in question shows a Secret Service agent telling Fields to leave the area, which she does. But after about 90 seconds, Fields then returns to the same spot to try and ask Mr. Trump a few questions.
Some are calling this video, quote, "a smoking gun." Fox did reach out to Michelle Fields for a comment. She declined to give a statement.
And earlier tonight, I stopped by the New York state Republican gala and interviewed Donald Trump's campaign manager, his first interview, Corey Lewandowski. Here's the interview.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HANNITY: Joining us now right here on the stage is campaign manager for Donald Trump, Corey Lewandowski, is with us. Corey, good to see you. How are you?
COREY LEWANDOWSKI, TRUMP CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Hey, thanks for having me, Sean. It's great to be here.
HANNITY: Big relief for you today. Prosecutors in Jupiter decided they're not moving forward with any charges as it's related to the Michelle Fields incident. I wanted to give you a chance to respond and give your take.
LEWANDOWSKI: Well, first, let me say how much I am thankful for Mr. Trump and his loyalty in this very, very difficult time. You know, many other candidates, all of the other candidates in the race asked me to be fired and said I should have my chance and day in court. And what we saw today was that they looked at the evidence and decided there's no way that they can prosecute this case and move forward.
So first and foremost, I want to thank Mr. Trump. Secondly, I want to thank my family and my colleagues who stood by me in this very difficult time.
This is a huge distraction for the campaign and it should never have been. If Michelle Fields wanted to have a conversation, we could have had a conversation privately and not made this the story that it is today. And I'm sorry that this has become the story that it is today. So I'm glad it's behind us. I'm glad there's no charges moving forward. And I'm ready to double my effort on this campaign to make sure Mr. Trump is elected.
HANNITY: Are you a little annoyed, angry, upset that they even brought it up in the first place because they had the video at the time that they so- called charged you or were going forward with this?
LEWANDOWSKI: Well, the thing is, the video came from Mr. Trump, and if he didn't have the survey equipment, you know, in the ceiling that night, this could be completely different. So I'm thankful that he invested the money necessary to get that video and turned it over to the police at his own request because he knew that that video would exonerate me. And I'm very thankful that he made the investment to do that.
HANNITY: You know, things are so heated in politics sometimes, but I try to look at this as objectively as possible. I had known Michelle Fields. She'd been on this show, you know that, for many, many years. And I go back to her original statement -- someone grabbed me tightly by the arm, yanked me down, I almost fell to the ground, jolted backwards.
That's just not on the tape. I looked again and again and again, and I -- I couldn't understand that it got the amount of media attention it actually got. When you looked at the tape, did you have a sense of relief?
LEWANDOWSKI: Well, I did. And that's why Mr. Trump released that tape because we saw that what she was saying was not factually accurate to what the tape was showing. So it's important that that was there. And I think what we saw was, you know, you have an individual who remembers an incident very differently than I way I remember it. I don't remember it at all, candidly.
And my entire interaction with her was on that videotape. I've never met her before. I've never spoken to her afterwards. So my sum total of that relationship with her was about three seconds long. And I know that sounds like a long time, but in a three-second incident that I don't recall because it wasn't very memorable -- this has really taken over a big piece of my life, and I'm glad it's behind us.
HANNITY: I noticed the press at the time -- and I've been in those situations a lot, either as the person that is speaking or being around people and a little gaggle like that, a scrum -- but what's interesting to me is you're saying you never met her before. You never talked to her before. And they tried to make a big deal over the fact that, well, maybe you didn't yank her to the ground, but he said he didn't touch her and the tape shows that he might have touched her.
And I looked at that point, I said, is that what we've gotten to in this campaign?
LEWANDOWSKI: Well, it's not just the campaigns, it's this notion of politically correctness. Everything is politically correct nowadays. You know, and I think what people have to remember when they take a look back is, What are we doing now? Everything is so politically correct.
You know, when I walked by Michelle Fields that night, I said, Excuse me, thank you, because I was trying to walk between her and Mr. Trump. And that's what polite people say, Excuse me and thank you. And I didn't remember anything more than that.
And I didn't even know anything about it until I looked at her Twitter feed hours later when I was being accused of being a thug. And so look, I would have resolved this privately if that's what needed to be done, but I never had that contact. To this day, I've never spoken to Michelle Fields.
HANNITY: But there was never any contact. Your -- the only time you knew about this was reading Twitter and her Twitter feed, and that was the only contact, experience that you knew that something had happened and you didn't even remember the incident.
LEWANDOWSKI: And it wasn't even her Twitter feed. It was her boyfriend's Twitter feed, who called me a thug, said, you know, Hey, this is what Donald Trump surrounds himself with, thugs. I didn't know what they were talking about.
You know, after that, you know, occurred, I was at the club there for hours, and there was many media there. And at no time did anyone come up to me and say, Hey, this incident just occurred. It wasn't until days later where something happened. So I'm glad that it's done.
HANNITY: Some have speculated there might be some type of defamation lawsuit after. Your thoughts on that.
LEWANDOWSKI: Look, I don't know. People can do whatever they want to do. I think that I'm happy that the criminal case is over. I'm glad that the prosecutors in Palm Beach County looked at this and said there wasn't enough evidence to move forward and get a prosecution. So I'm very pleased with that. And I'm glad to put the whole thing behind it for not just the campaign, but also my family.
HANNITY: All right, let's talk a little bit about the campaign. There's been a lot of talk about delegates, and especially in the last couple of weeks. They had the convention in Colorado. Ted Cruz got all 34 delegates there.
And the rules that have -- that are different in every state, for example, some are proportional, some are winner take all. You have some caucus, some primary, now some convention where people don't get to go to the polls. To me, it's very confusing. I think to a lot of voters, it's very confusing.
But the big question for your campaign is do you think you can get to 1,237 by June 7th?
LEWANDOWSKI: We're going to get to 1,237 by the last day that this election's going to take place. But let me tell you what the problem is. In Colorado -- the people in Colorado weren't given the opportunity to vote. And I understand those are the rules of the party, but that's not what our country is about.
People should have been given the opportunity. And Donald Trump, what he's pointed out is very, very clear about this, is let people go to the ballot and make their own decision.
And what we see in states where the process is open and people have the opportunity to come out, Donald Trump is drawing massive crowds out, big people who've never turned out before are coming out and saying, We want to support Donald Trump. And those are the people that have been disengaged with the political process. The people in Colorado, I understand what the rules are, they've been shut out of the system. They should have been given the opportunity to go and vote. And...
HANNITY: You would have treated it as a campaign, definitely, in other words, gone out there, campaigned more, if you thought you had more of an opportunity. Did you think the deck was stacked before you even went in?
LEWANDOWSKI: Well, the deck is clearly stacked in situations like that. And what we would favor, which I think the American people want, is the opportunity to walk into the ballot box and decide to cast a vote for who they want, whether that's Donald Trump or John Kasich or somebody else. They should have their privilege to go in there and cast their ballot and let that ballot count.
HANNITY: Because this is a national party, I think you do raise good points that I think need to be considered post-2016. While it's a national party, you want states to have choices and opportunities. They can have a choice, do they want a caucus or do they want a primary? Do they want proportional distribution or do they want winner take all?
I don't think any state, though, should have unbound delegates. At that point, it becomes confusing, and they're not representing at that point the people, right?
LEWANDOWSKI: Well, it's not just that. In some of these states, the rules are so complex that in order to become a delegate, you had to start running 18 months ago, before the candidates for president even started running. That's not right.
That's why people are fed up with the GOP establishment and the Washington elites that are telling people, We're going to decide what's best for you. We're going to pick who that nominee is going to be.
That's not what has happened. Donald Trump has gotten millions more votes than his next closest competitor, leads the delegate race by hundreds over his next closest competitor. And the establishment wants to come in and say, No, no, we're going to dictate who's going to be the next nominee. That's not right, and that is exactly what is wrong with the current system.
HANNITY: Let's talk about if you fall short after June 7th of 1,237. There's still a lot of unbound delegates. Randy Evans, pretty smart guy, he said that he thinks the magic number is really 1,100 because any campaign from that point forward would be able to get the extra 137 delegates.
Do you agree with that analysis, or do you think you have to get to 1,237 or do think that the establishment will try to take it away from Mr. Trump?
LEWANDOWSKI: Look, I think our goal is to get 1,237 or more going into that convention. Our goal, obviously, is to do that through the existing rules of the process right now. So when California votes and New Jersey votes on that last day, we want to walk out of there with more than 1,237 delegates.
If there is a discrepancy, which I don't think there will be because think Donald Trump is going to get those delegates, he's going to be the Republican nominee. He's going to be the president of the United States.
Donald Trump is the greatest deal maker in the history of our country. And if he's five votes short or ten votes short, he will know how to go out and get those and bring people in because it's about unifying the party at that point. And that's what's the most important thing.
If the goal is truly to put a Republican back in the White House, which I think is the goal of everyone in the Republican Party, then we should unify behind Donald Trump and make that the priority right now.
HANNITY: Last question, back to Michelle Fields. Would you have a sitdown with her? Would you talk to her? Would you try and break bread and put this aside?
LEWANDOWSKI: Look, I'm open to anything. But I can tell you how difficult this has been on my family. I've got four young kids. I've got a wife who lives in New Hampshire who's been, you know, living this whole thing every day, not understanding what's going on, reading the media stories, which have been wholly inaccurate because they wanted to make this a story that really doesn't exist. So it's tough personally.
But look, I'm also -- I'm also a Catholic and a religious person, and I think people deserve forgiveness who ask for it. And I'm not saying that in a bad way. What I'm saying is, Look, life is a long thing, and I don't need enemies. I need friends just like Donald Trump. We're going to bring everyone together, we're going to make our party bigger and better and stronger, and people that haven't been involved before are going to be involved now, and that's how we're going to be successful moving forward.
HANNITY: Corey Lewandowski, thanks for being with us. Appreciate it.
LEWANDOWSKI: Thank you so much.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HANNITY: And coming up, Monica Crowley, Peter Johnson, Jr. -- they have reaction to my exclusive interview with Corey Lewandowski.
And then later, protests break out outside the Republican gala. Tonight, David Webb talked to those demonstrators. We'll show you how smart -- more really not -- they are and more as "Hannity" continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: Welcome back to "Hannity." Joining us now with reaction to my interview with Donald Trump's campaign manager our Fox News legal analyst Peter Johnson Jr., Fox News contributor Monica Crowley. I watched this video. In fairness, because I had known Michelle Fields many, many times. You've been on the show with her.
MONICA CROWLEY, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Yes.
HANNITY: I wanted to make sure I was fair. I didn't comment about the story until I saw the video. And I saw the video and I watched it 100, 200 times. I didn't see anything. Why do you think -- and I assume she saw it differently, but why do you think she dug in so deep on this?
CROWLEY: I can't speak to her motivation. I know her. I've known her to be a good girl, so I can't speak to what motivated her in this. She did tweet that photograph of her forearm that showed bruises and then she decided to pursue it. But listening to Corey tonight, I mean, he sounds relieved and he should be relieved. Now that the criminal component of this is over, she says she might pursue a civil case for defamation against her -- against him, rather. But I don't see how that could possibly go forward, and I think it would be ill-advised for her to move forward.
HANNITY: Her original statement, Peter Johnson Jr., "Someone had grabbed me tightly by the arm, yanked me down. I almost fell to the ground but I was able to maintain my balance." Is there a defamation case?
PETER JOHNSON JR., FOX NEWS LEGAL ANALYST: There might be something called a case for malicious prosecution that Corey Lewandowski could make against Michelle Fields. So I thought it was a serious charge. I thought that he was facing a difficult trial in some ways because there was a touching that wasn't asked for by Miss Fields.
But there had been statements by Miss Fields and by others and also by some of the folks on Corey's side that exacerbated the thing. But now it's time to end it. It's a donnybrook now. It doesn't help anybody. So if I was advising either one of them, as the attorney I'd say, OK, the D.A. has decided. The law has spoken. We have justice. There was probable cause, but they said that they weren't going to bring it.
HANNITY: Why didn't the prosecutors bring him in when they had the evidence to begin with?
JOHNSON: Especially someone says that they've been touched without permission, someone shows that there's an injury, allegedly.
HANNITY: Like Monica touched me inadvertently in the greenroom earlier and I'm going to make charges.
CROWLEY: That sounds naughty, Sean.
(LAUGHTER)
HANNITY: Touched my arm.
JOHNSON: The point you make is there are body men and body women who are around candidates.
HANNITY: We've all been in that scrum.
JOHNSON: And they interact with the press.
CROWLEY: That's right. The reality is when you're covering a campaign and most of us have been in these situations, it's chaos.
JOHNSON: And Monica grabbed my arm before and I've been injured.
HANNITY: See, she grabbed me, too. You could represent both of us. See, she just touched you. That's a felony.
(LAUGHTER)
CROWLEY: This country has such huge problems that I cannot believe we are still talking about it.
HANNITY: Let's talk about quickly the speeches tonight. It seems I see a pivot in the Trump campaign. Am I wrong?
CROWLEY: No. I think Donald Trump has realigned the internal dynamics of his campaign. He's brought on some real seasoned operatives like Paul Manafort, Rick Wiley, people who really know --
HANNITY: The operated on a skeleton staff for a long time.
CROWLEY: Listen, to this point Donald Trump's campaign has been a one-man band, and it's been very effective to this point. I mean, what he has accomplished for somebody who has never done this before, never run for president, never run for anything, to run the entire campaign basically alone is astonishing. But now he realizes the campaign has entered a new phase.
HANNITY: It was really three people, him, Corey, and Hope.
JOHNSON: I think it's a return of roots coming to New York. Driving down the street -- I built that building. I had a number one show for that network. I built the hotel that I spoke in tonight. I was involved with the skating rink. I know how to build. I have a career of exciting success in this city, and I'm not going to be embarrassed by it. I'm not going to be embarrassed by New York values and 9/11 values, and I'm moving ahead. And we've made mistakes and we're doing it better.
HANNITY: I saw some focus group people on earlier, I'm watching them, they're saying, oh, he shouldn't have brought that up about 9/11. No, he's talking about American greatness.
JOHNSON: And he's up four points in the latest Fox News poll at 45 percent. He had two weeks that were bad allegedly. He picks up four points.
HANNITY: Last question. If he gets the nomination, does he make 1,237?
JOHNSON: Yes.
HANNITY: Monica?
CROWLEY: That's an open question, Sean. His mission is to get to 1,237. But this is such an unpredictable year. Anything could happen.
HANNITY: You don't want to go out on a limb here. I don't blame you.
CROWLEY: Ted Cruz is still making this a race, and don't underestimate him either.
HANNITY: Agreed. All right, coming up, left wing disrupters, they were protesting outside that New York GOP gala earlier tonight. So David Webb, what did we do? We sent him right in the middle of the crowd. We're going to show you the video and get reaction coming up tonight on "Hannity."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: Welcome back to "Hannity." A large group of protesters were gathered outside the Republican gala earlier tonight. David Webb spoke with these agitators earlier to find out what are they so angry about, what are they so upset about? Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID WEBB, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: What's your main issue with Donald Trump?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's a racist, xenophobic, and a woman hater.
WEBB: What about Hillary? What do you think about her?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's a liar.
WEBB: Are you a Bernie supporter?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I am.
WEBB: What do you think about Hillary Clinton?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't agree with her overall. She would still be better than Trump as president.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am the supporter of Sanders because -- I do have my issues with Sanders, but of every other candidate, he beats them out by far.
WEBB: What if Hillary is the nominee for the Democrats and Trump's the nominee for the Republicans?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'll stay out.
WEBB: What if he loses and it's Hillary versus Trump?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Anyone but Trump.
WEBB: What's your issue with Donald Trump?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't have a single issue with him. I think that if you speak hate speech, that's fine, and I defend your right to do that.
WEBB: What's your issue with Donald Trump?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, you know, I just don't like the guy. He's racist and --
WEBB: What do you think of Hillary Clinton?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't like her, either. It's kind of a -- campaign.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: All right, here with reaction, Fox News contributor David Webb, former economic adviser to President Obama who gave us this horrible economy, Austan Goolsbee is with us. By the way, just got word the New York Post just endorsed Donald Trump for New York and for president. Let me -- I assume it was in the primary. Let me ask you this question. All right, 65 percent of Americans think Hillary is a liar, dishonest, and untrustworthy, and even liberals said it in that. How does she win when the American people think she's a liar?
AUSTAN GOOLSBEE, FORMER OBAMA ECONOMIC ADVISER: Well, in those same polls she's blowing Trump out of the water and Ted Cruz. I think she wins because compared --
HANNITY: She's not blowing anybody out of the water, but putting that --
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: They're hypothetical matchups. They've never been accurate. OK, go back to Ronald Reagan. Reagan was down, what, 30 points at this time when he beat Jimmy Carter. But you didn't answer my question. Does somebody that 65 percent of the American people think are a liar, can she win? To you think she's a liar?
GOOLSBEE: The numbers say she can win. And I don't think she's a liar. She's not a liar, and when they see her statement --
HANNITY: You think she's honest? Is she an honest statement?
GOOLSBEE: She is much more honest than Donald Trump is.
HANNITY: Much more honest than Donald Trump.
WEBB: Oh, come on. Not even close on that one.
GOOLSBEE: Donald Trump, the guy would -- he confuses the truth if it bumped him in the face. He'll, as Ted Cruz said, my old debate rival, you can quote Donald Trump and show video of himself and he'll say you're lying about me.
WEBB: Look, Hillary Clinton is not trusted because of who she is and what she's done over the years whether people can prove it or not. That's how people react as voters. They don't react necessarily even to a conviction which who knows what will happen with the issue with e-mails and the Clinton Foundation. But in fact, when I talk to these liberals, here's what they say.
HANNITY: Yes.
WEBB: I asked them, what is the issue? Would you vote for Hillary? They say, no. These are liberals.
GOOLSBEE: Those were people who said they weren't even going to vote.
HANNITY: Let me ask you a question. So Hillary likes to play the race card, the gender card. That's the game she's been playing all throughout her career. Here's my question. If Donald Trump or Ted Cruz or both of them did a skit together, like Comrade Mayor de Blasio of New York and her highness Hillary Clinton where they talk about "CP time," "colored people time," excuse me, do you think that liberals like yourself would be saying that's racist and Hillary would say that's racist?
GOOLSBEE: I didn't think that Mayor de Blasio should have done that and I --
HANNITY: What about Hillary?
GOOLSBEE: I think if Hillary had to do it over she would not be in that scandal.
HANNITY: But if it was Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, what would have happened?
WEBB: Oh, no. See, there's two things. There would be the reaction in the media and the left would go after them, call them racist. They would try to put them down. Here's my issue with it. It wasn't funny.
GOOLSBEE: I agree.
WEBB: Bill de Blasio didn't --
HANNITY: It's a stereotype. It's a horrible stereotype, a false narrative. Not even as a joke --
(CROSSTALK)
WEBB: It was a bad joke. It wasn't well done.
HANNITY: All right.
WEBB: And I'm not going to stump anybody's free speech, but let's face it, if a Republican did it, it would be a headline story.
HANNITY: We have to go. By the way, if you're suffering economically, blame Austan in part. He's the one that advised Obama who gave us -- remember Obama said $9 trillion in debt is irresponsible and unpatriotic? It's now $20 trillion.
When we come back, we have reaction to tonight's breaking news as "Hannity" continues talking about the GOP gala straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: Welcome back to "Hannity." Joining us now, Fox News contributors Mercedes Schlapp, Eboni Williams. All right, Eboni, by all indications, most people that I talk to, it doesn't matter if they support Cruz, or Trump or even Kasich, they feel that this system -- they're learning the system designed to pick presidents is not what they thought it was.
EBONI WILLIAMS, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: That's right, Sean. America is getting an education, and I would say on both sides.
HANNITY: Both sides. The Democrat side is horrible.
WILLIAMS: The super delegate thing, you've got Democrats for the first time realizing it really matter what you do at these caucuses. It doesn't matter what you do at these primaries. These super delegates are running the field. And same thing on the right.
HANNITY: And to go into the Republican side of this, Mercedes, and I know your husband is active and involved in a lot of different ways in this, there is not a feeling of confidence that this is going to be handled right if, for example, Ted Cruz or Donald Trump who is in the lead don't get to 1,237. There is a feeling that voters are going to be disenfranchised. Do you understand where they're coming from?
MERCEDES SCHLAPP, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Absolutely. And I think part of it, Sean is the fact we're in unchartered territory, when was the last time New York has been in play. That is why the gala tonight has been so exciting in New York to have these three presidential contenders come to New York and really have New York and states like California and states Pennsylvania count in this process. So yes there is this rude awakening amongst voters. When you see what happened in Colorado where it was a unanimous decision by the state GOP basically saying we're not doing even a caucus or a primary or a presidential poll. We're going to do a convoluted process. And guess what, that's going to happen in Wyoming as well and in other states like South Dakota. So this is happening in certain states and, yes, it's a big mistake because it shuts down the ability for thank you voters to have a voice in this process
HANNITY: I agree.
WILLIAMS: I agree with her. I want to just say I think it undermines the spirit, Sean, of the integrity of a true democracy. And I think a lot of people regardless of your party are very disturbed by that because they didn't know it before this election.
HANNITY: How do you both like this? I think because it's a national party, I've said this earlier, that states can decision to caucus or primary. They can decide proportional or winner take all, but they can't decide bound or unbound. They've got to be bound because that's the representation of the people that voted. Mercedes?
SCHLAPP: I think that would be the better approach. I think with the unbound delegates, I think it gets very tricky, especially if we end up in a contested convention.
HANNITY: And the last thing you have to let the people have their say.
SCHLAPP: That is right.
HANNITY: All right, guys, good to see you all, thank you.
WILLIAMS: Thank you.
HANNITY: When we come back we have more "Hannity" right after this quick break. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: Welcome back to "Hannity." Quick programming note. Be sure to tune in tomorrow night, 10:00 eastern, we'll be back on the road, this time in Binghamton, New York, interviewing Senator Ted Cruz with a live audience from the entire hour. That's 10:00 eastern tomorrow night.
Unfortunately that is all the time we have left this evening, but let not your heart be troubled. Why? My friends on "The Five" are up for a special live edition that starts right here on the Fox News Channel. Thanks for being with us. We'll see you from Binghamton, New York, tomorrow night.
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