By ,
Published January 23, 2017
This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," May 10, 2016. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: And welcome to "Hannity." And this is a Fox News Alert. 2016 presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump -- he scores huge wins in both West Virginia and Nebraska in the GOP primaries. On the Democratic side, Fox News is projecting Bernie Sanders will defeat Hillary Clinton in West Virginia.
Also tonight, Donald Trump has reportedly now narrowed his list of potential running mates to five or six people. Now, Trump's campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, will be here and he'll explain what they're looking for in a vice presidential candidate.
But first, here with reaction to tonight's results, FOX News senior correspondent Geraldo Rivera, the co-hosts of "The Five" Eric Bolling and K.G., Kimberly Guilfoyle. Good to see you all.
Let's start with the polls. We've got three swing state polls. We've got Florida. We've got Pennsylvania. We've got Ohio. It is neck and neck. We'll put them up on the screen. Donald Trump/Hillary Clinton. Geraldo, how do you interpret that?
GERALDO RIVERA, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: I think -- well, I think right from the beginning, Donald Trump a much stronger candidate than anyone gave him credit for, and Hillary Clinton a much more flawed candidate, a weaker candidate. I think it will be a very close race.
I think the race will turn largely on minority turnout. I think that Hispanics may hate Donald Trump, but if they don't show up to vote...
HANNITY: They're up there now. There you got 43-42. It's a statistical dead heat. The only one that had a significant lead was Ohio, Trump over Hillary. I mean, why do you say minority turnout?
RIVERA: Because this will be more than -- traditionally, the Republican vote is a mostly white vote and the Democratic vote is a heavily minority and female vote. Now those differences will be accentuated because of the nature of this race, the nature of the campaign. Will, for example, Barack Obama vigorously campaign for Hillary Clinton? Will he remind people...
HANNITY: Wait a minute. Here's the question...
RIVERA: ... that Donald Trump was the -- the...
HANNITY: Here's the question...
RIVERA: ... architect of birtherism?
HANNITY: Are you, if you're a black American, better off today than you were eight years ago? If you're Hispanic-American, are you better off than you were eight years ago? Because Hillary Clinton represents four more years of Obama. If that question is asked, the answer is no.
Disproportionately, minorities, K.G., have been impacted negatively by the Obama economy.
KIMBERLY GUILFOYLE, "THE FIVE" CO-HOST: Yes, out of jobs, out of work and middle class getting crushed. People are not better off than they were eight years ago. So that's a real question. We'll have to determine...
HANNITY: Geraldo is the only exception to that. He's much better off, yes.
(CROSSTALK)
GUILFOYLE: I mean, but he just keeps on winning. What can I tell you. He's printing money over there.
HANNITY: Exactly.
RIVERA: But when you look at that, about the families and minority communities that have been struggling, you really have to ask an honest question, like, Am I better off or should I go with somebody that has experience creating jobs, go with the free market to try to stimulate the economy and put people back at work because it's been proven -- you know, the American people, they don't want handouts. And you saw that in West Virginia. They want jobs that they can feel good about to bring food home on the table for their families.
And so there's a real choice to be made there, and a lot of the exit polling showed that...
HANNITY: Definitely.
GUILFOYLE: ... economy and jobs are one of the number (ph) factors.
HANNITY: How do you interpret -- by way, if you look at those poll numbers, Eric, Hillary Clinton -- she doesn't have the warmth of her husband, Bill. She doesn't have the oratory skills of Barack Obama. She's cold. Most people see her as dishonest, a liar and untrustworthy.
It seems that it would be wide open for any candidate, and I've got to believe that Donald Trump is going to be a lot better at hitting her, politically speaking, than she will be at hitting him.
ERIC BOLLING, "THE FIVE" CO-HOST: Got a lot of polls for you, Sean. You ready (INAUDIBLE)
HANNITY: Let's hear them.
BOLLING: On the economy -- this from some Quinnipiac, that same Quinnipiac poll that you cited with the big three states, Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania.
HANNITY: All right, hold those polls for one second. We're just going to dip in real quick and watch the socialist, Bernie Sanders, just step up to the microphone. There he is. You know, to each according to his need, from each according to his ability. Spread the wealth. Tax people at 98 percent. That's pretty much the message of Bernie Sanders.
RIVERA: It's so annoying. This guy is so annoying!
HANNITY: Your mike is hot.
(CROSSTALK)
RIVERA: ... he's so annoying. And people who think that his supporters are going to go to Donald Trump are smoking dope.
(LAUGHTER)
GUILFOYLE: ... poll that shows that actually (INAUDIBLE)
BOLLING: One of the most important things that came out of this evening, Sean, is not who won West Virginia, not who won Nebraska.
HANNITY: Right.
BOLLING: The most important thing for me that came out of tonight...
HANNITY: Yes.
BOLLING: ... the exit polling shows that 43 percent of Bernie Sanders voters -- 43 percent of Bernie Sanders voters would vote for Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton.
HANNITY: You're also looking at West Virginia.
BOLLING: That's a massive number!
HANNITY: Look what she just said about -- all right, we'll dip in for 30 seconds and we'll come right back. Let's see what he has to say.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS, I-VT., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: ... sounds like Salem, Oregon, is ready for the political revolution!
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
SANDERS: This is a great turnout, and I want to thank all of you for being here. Let me begin by giving you all some pretty good news!
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
HANNITY: (INAUDIBLE) if you want to watch the entire speech. I got to say something really positive, though, about Bernie Sanders. He has given Hillary a run for her money and has exposed exactly how weak a candidate she is!
BADEN: Well, he's doing exactly what Donald Trump did on the Republican side. He exposed that people right now don't want the insider. They don't want the Washington, D.C., elite, the establishment...
HANNITY: That is true.
BOLLING: ... you know, the Bushes on the GOP side, the Clintons on the Democrat side.
But the numbers -- the Quinnipiac poll that came out today is huge. On the economy, number one, Donald Trump destroys Hillary Clinton in Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania 50s to the 40s. This just crushes her. And (INAUDIBLE) does the same thing. But there was another one today. PPP came out today and had Donald Trump within five 5 of Hillary Clinton nationally.
Now, when you talk to the people who are the establishment type, the elites who said, You know what, Donald Trump can't line up against Hillary Clinton, look at the numbers. She was beating him by 15 percent, 18 percent 2 or 3 weeks ago...
HANNITY: No, hypothetical matchup.
BOLLING: Right, but he's tightened it up to 5 points. You know what they're saying now? It's too soon. It's too far out for a national matchup. I'm telling you, he's closed the gap and that number tonight, West Virginia -- I know it's not commensurate with the rest of the country...
(CROSSTALK)
BOLLING: ... but Virginia -- there's an opportunity for Donald Trump to take Bernie Sanders voters.
GUILFOYLE: Yes, he's right.
RIVERA: Mitt Romney got 27 percent of the Hispanic vote and lost -- he got trounced. If Donald Trump doesn't do 40 percent of the Hispanic vote, he likely will lose big-time also.
BOLLING: Disagree. Disagree. Completely disagree.
RIVERA: And his hope, I think, is black men. If Donald Trump can go to black men and say, Trump is keeping out your competition for jobs with the immigration stuff, and also, Trump is rich...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hillary. Hillary.
RIVERA: You can be -- you can -- if he can get the hip-hop vote, if he can get that number from 10 percent to 15, 18 percent, in a state like Ohio, makes a difference.
HANNITY: She said she doesn't want coal mining -- she wants to (INAUDIBLE) coal mining...
(CROSSTALK)
GUILFOYLE: She's a job killer!
HANNITY: That's more than a dumb mistake, and coal miners out of work. She also doesn't want fracking. She's not looking out for blue collar workers.
Look, two statistics you got to look at that really blow your mind.
GUILFOYLE: Or the middle class.
HANNITY: You got 20 percent of American families don't have a single person in their family in the workforce. And it came out today that one in six men ages 18 to 34 are either out of work or in prison.
GUILFOYLE: Right.
HANNITY: So young people aren't doing well. The people that have been supporting Bernie Sanders, they've already rejected Hillary Clinton.
GUILFOYLE: They have. And that's the thing. I mean, people talk about, you know, Oh, listen, Trump's got to unite the party. I mean, really, Hillary Clinton is doing the job for him because people are going to be against Hillary Clinton. She's not a popular candidate.
What has she done for jobs or the economy? She's not a job creator. She doesn't have a business mind. She's had failed foreign policy tethered to Barack Obama. So it's going to be about the turnout, and he's going to be able to put all these number of states, swing states in play and, hopefully, be able to turn them red.
HANNITY: You think he's going to win?
GUILFOYLE: I think that he's going to win.
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: You think he's going to win.
GUILFOYLE: ... thought so from the beginning.
BOLLING: Hillary Clinton turns from the coal industry, which employed around 150,000 people before President Obama took office, now employs about 56,000 people -- when she turns that, as all liberals will, to the oil industry, where 9 million people are employed and those people are the next target of the liberal ire and angst and people are out of work...
HANNITY: You think he's going to win.
BOLLING: Donald Trump has an opportunity to steal this election!
RIVERA: I think Donald Trump could win. But this is what I said about the smoking dope of Bernie Sanders. And I didn't mean to disrespect his supporters, except a little bit.
GUILFOYLE: (INAUDIBLE)
(LAUGHTER)
RIVERA: Except a little bit. Who...
RIVERA: Geraldo, you're in that group. What are you talking about?
RIVERA: Who are these millennials? They are -- they are the generation that embraces diversity, that embraces LGBT rights and use -- you know, all that stuff that Bernie Sanders stands for. Those people are not going to migrate to the GOP. I'm sorry, as a registered Republican, it's not going to happen.
BOLLING: If 15 percent of them...
GUILFOYLE: (INAUDIBLE) not going to come out for her.
BOLLING: If 15 percent of them...
RIVERA: They may stay home. They may stay home.
BOLLING: (INAUDIBLE) 15 percent (INAUDIBLE)
HANNITY: All right, guys. I got to roll.
BOLLING: That's 10 million votes that go to the Republican side.
HANNITY: Now, there's good news. K.G., Eric Bolling -- they'll be back with the rest of the group of "The Five," the co-hosts of "The Five," with reaction to tonight's results out of Nebraska, West Virginia. That's coming up what time?
GUILFOYLE: Midnight.
HANNITY: Midnight tonight. Don't miss it.
And joining us now, though, in the meantime, with reaction,, former 2016 Republican presidential candidate, former governor Mike Huckabee.
Governor, you have been gracious. You have said the party ought to unite. You see and hear from people like Paul Ryan and the Bushes and Mitt Romney, Bill Kristol is aligning with Ben Sasse and other people, you know, to sabotage a candidate. You ever seen anything like this in your life?
MIKE HUCKABEE, FMR. GOV., FMR. PRES. CANDIDATE: No, I haven't, Sean. And I think a lot of these guys need to understand that when you have a party, it's not the Golden Corral. You don't get to go through and pick out exactly what you want. You get a nominee and you support him.
And look, we've done that with McCain and with Romney. By the way, I was listening to the conversation and talking about Hispanic voters -- if Mitt Romney had only had 4 percent more of the evangelical voters, we would be talking about President Romney today.
If Donald Trump can energize not only these people who are coming in from the Democratic Party union, just working men and women, and he's doing that -- he's got record numbers of Republican votes -- if he does something to energize that base of evangelicals in the Republican Party that have really sat home for the last two cycles -- look, Donald Trump is -- I'm convinced he's going to beat Hillary Clinton. Mark my words. He's on a track to beat her.
And all these guys who are telling him what he ought to do -- think about who they are. They're the people who have missed it and been wrong every single time...
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: Look, you've been outspoken. He won. We should listen to the people. What do you tell him? What would you tell him?
HUCKABEE: Well, I'm telling him it's a simple thing. For example, Paul Ryan, who I respect and I like, he's a good guy, but he needs to understand he's only the speaker of the House because his peers in the House elected him. The country didn't. He is one of 435 representatives. He didn't win a statewide race. He won a district race in 1 of the 50 states.
And Donald Trump is winning a national election, and he's going to be the leader of the party. People don't have to like it, but they have to accept that the voters have spoken. If we get to a place where we think that the voters are the stupid ones and we're the smart ones, we need to throw all these people out, every last one of them.
HANNITY: You know, it's interesting, I would argue that the very people that are now hedging and say, Oh, I'm not so sure, are the very people that created the insurgency to begin with, and they're not getting the message and they seem to be doubling down on stupid in a lot of ways. So we'll watch closely. Governor, thank you.
HUCKABEE: Thank you, Sean.
HANNITY: And coming up, Donald Trump narrows down his list of potential running mates to five or six people. Coming up next, we'll sit down with Trump's campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski. He has been tasked with overseeing the VP vetting process.
And then later tonight, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton in a potential head- to-head matchup. Well, they're running neck and neck, as we pointed out, in three key swing states according to brand-new polls released today. Bill Hemmer will break all those numbers down at the big board as we continue on this primary night, straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: And welcome back to "Hannity." So Donald Trump is moving closer to selecting his running mate. Earlier today the presumptive Republican nominee told the Associated Press that he has narrowed his VP list to five or six people.
Now, Trump's campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, will be in charge of that vetting process. He joins us now in studio. How are you, sir?
COREY LEWANDOWSKI, TRUMP CAMPAIGN MANAGER: It's great to be here, Sean.
HANNITY: Not a lot of responsibility there, right?
LEWANDOWSKI: Well, I had nothing else to do. No, honestly, I'm part of a team, and everything we do at that campaign is a team. And at the end of the day, we're going to present Mr. Trump some recommendations and he will make the decision of who he thinks should be his running mate and will be a partner in the government to make sure that he can accomplish his legislative agenda.
So I'm humbled to be part of that team, but my job is to make sure this team recommends somebody good to Mr. Trump.
HANNITY: The obvious criteria, you look geographically, you look Florida, look Ohio, you look -- a lot of people say you balance the ticket gender- wise, do you put a woman on the ticket? All those things in consideration? They must be.
LEWANDOWSKI: I think the most important thing is God forbid anything were to happen to Mr. Trump as the president, you want someone who can take over the government the very next day and make sure that their agenda and Mr. Trump's agenda continues to move forward.
Now, nobody would ever want that. But more importantly, you need someone who understands the legislative process intimately, can make sure that in the first 100 days, which are so critical, we get done the agenda which Mr. Trump is putting forward, which is cutting taxes, reducing our deficit, renegotiating our trade deals. And so in that sense, you need someone who understands and has experience in the legislative process to get that accomplished.
HANNITY: You're not giving us one itty bitty clue at all no matter how hard I try, am I -- are you?
LEWANDOWSKI: I think the most important thing is, look, it's not about gender, it's not about geographic representation, it's who best is a partner to bring our country back from where it is? Because we have to make sure that we don't allow another four, eight years of a Democrat in the White House who's taking our country in the exact opposite direction. So it's more important about making sure we have the right person on the ticket to make sure Mr. Trump gets his agenda (INAUDIBLE)
HANNITY: Is it really down to five or six?
LEWANDOWSKI: I think it's a small group of people. And you know, we've been looking at this for some time now. And at the end of the day, we're going to submit a list of people to Mr. Trump for his consideration, and he's going to have to make sure that person he can work with because this is truly a partnership moving forward. And that person will be on the ticket and help us be successful in November. And that's our goal.
HANNITY: All right, let's talk a little bit about everything else that's going on with the campaign. What was your reaction to Paul Ryan's comments? And what do you think is going to happen on Thursday? What do you expect?
LEWANDOWSKI: You know, I think Mr. Trump and Paul Ryan have a lot in common. And I think those things that they have in common are looking at reducing the budget deficit, you know, making sure we have a balanced budget for the first time since Speaker Gingrich was the speaker, making sure that we've providing middle class tax cuts.
You know, these are the important things everyone can agree on in the Republican Party -- smaller government, getting rid of the overzealous government agencies that are burdening our small businesses with their egregious regulations. I think those things are all in line with the Republican values and the Republican Party. I think those things everyone can agree on.
How we get there? I'm not sure. But we'll find out.
HANNITY: It seemed to me -- Paul Ryan doesn't do a lot of interviews, and he came out, did an interview, knew that question was going to be asked. And it seemed like he wanted to in a way -- I don't know if sabotage is too strong a word, fire a shot across the bow maybe to Donald Trump. I didn't think it was particularly helpful.
LEWANDOWSKI: Well, Donald Trump is the Republican nominee. He's going to be. He's the presumptive nominee. He's going to be the Republican nominee. And he will become the head of the party for the Republicans as the Republican presidential candidate going into November.
And it's important to understand that he will be helping to set the agenda not just during the November elections, but as you move forward and he becomes the president-elect and then ultimately the president, it's going to be his agenda that the country's going to following.
HANNITY: You got a lot on your plate. I mean, you've got to not only pick a cabinet potentially and then build a government potentially. How many thousands of jobs would be available for people? But you got a convention first. You certainly have a party platform that is, I guess, people are going to have their views on it. How do you feel that process goes?
LEWANDOWSKI: Look, we've got a great team. We've got Paul Manafort on board. We've got Rick Wiley. We've got Ken McKay (ph). We're continuing to build out. These guys are pros.
HANNITY: By the way, for a while, it was you and Hope.
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: ... wasn't a lot of people there for a while.
LEWANDOWSKI: It was small, but we were efficient, right? We spent less money and had the best results. Mr. Trump got 11 million votes so far, more than anybody else in the history of the Republican Party in the nomination process. He's got obviously -- has more delegates than anybody has. He's going to be the Republican nominee.
But you got to grow. You know, we're going to go up against a Clinton potential -- you know, the potential Clinton machine that has thousands of people already on board. And you know, they have built-in advantages.
I think the difference with Donald Trump as a candidate is that he's going to expand the map. You saw the polls come out today, the Quinnipiac polls. He's ahead in the state of Ohio. He's dead even in the state of Pennsylvania. He's dead even in the state of Florida. When you start putting states like that in play and then you've got Michigan and New York and potentially Massachusetts and Indiana and places where Republicans haven't done historically as well as they could have, the map expands.
We were in Oregon and Washington State this weekend. At one rally in Washington State, he had 22,000 people come out, clearly not the bastion of conservatism that many other states could be, but that's because his message is so important. And people turn out in record numbers. We've seen that with the massive turnouts on primary days across the country because they want to support Donald Trump. And we think we're going to see that same thing happen on Election Day.
HANNITY: We had Rick Perry on the program last night. He had had strong words during the campaign and when he got out for Mr. Trump. But he said it's a no-brainer. He's supporting him. You have people like Perry, John Kasich, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Scott Walker, just to name a few, Bobby Jindal, Rick Scott of Florida -- you have this team of governors that govern conservatively, took high deficits, turned them into surpluses, high unemployment rates, brought hundreds of thousands of jobs to their states.
Do you see maybe announcing a team of rivals as a possibility at some point? In other words, making announcements -- Here's my secretary of state, my secretary of defense, my health and human services secretary, Ben Carson.
LEWANDOWSKI: Yes, I don't want to get too far ahead of it, but what I do think you have is you have some great governors out there who understand what it's like to be the CEO of their state and making tough decisions, and sometimes with Republican legislatures and sometimes with Democrat legislatures.
But that's the model we need to follow. You know, you look at what Rick Scott's been able to do in Florida, right? He's done a very, very good job down there. Look what Governor Jindal has done in Louisiana. And you also look at some of these states that have balanced budget requirements. There's something to be said for that.
HANNITY: Yes.
LEWANDOWSKI: You have to make sure that we're not passing on debt to our children and our grandchildren moving forward because it's unfair to them, and it's our responsibility to make sure that not only are we balancing the budget, but we're reducing our deficit, and it's a priority for this campaign.
HANNITY: You know, one of the things -- I look at two areas when conservatism on a federal level was most successful, during the Reagan years and when Newt Gingrich put out a contract. If you look at all the exit polls, you have anywhere between 60 percent and 70 percent of Republicans in this primary season saying that they feel betrayed by Washington Republicans.
Is it time maybe to put pen to paper and also create an opportunity to run a national campaign where Senate candidates and House candidates can run on a set of principles -- Elect us, we'll do these 10 things to make America great, if you want to use Trump's slogan. Would that be a good idea?
LEWANDOWSKI: It's a good idea, but what you have to understand is Washington has been fundamentally broken for almost 30 years now.
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: ... lock them into a promise.
LEWANDOWSKI: Well, the American people are making less money today than 20 years ago in real dollars!
HANNITY: Yes.
LEWANDOWSKI: And the reason Donald Trump has had such success is because the blue collar people who are making less money, whose jobs have been shipped overseas -- they want a change. They're tired of politics as usual.
People have had the opportunity to go to Washington for year after year after year and nothing changes. People are fed up with it. Donald Trump has the ability to go in there and fundamentally change the system, to understand what it's like to truly govern with a mandate if he's given that privilege, to go in and say just because it's always been done this way, we're not going to do it anymore.
And what we've seen in this campaign is Donald Trump raised issues where in the primary, his opponents have said, You can't do that, you can't build a wall, you can't get Mexico to pay for it. Three weeks later, they're all on the same side as, We better build a wall, we better get Mexico to pay it. We can't renegotiate bad trade deals, that's never been done before.
HANNITY: But I thought -- when Mr. -- when Donald Trump said, and he goes, I'm going to announce 12 people, 14 people that will be my pool of candidates for the Supreme Court to show conservatives how serious he is about his judicial philosophy -- wouldn't it also give people a lot of comfort knowing in 100 days, we're going to build the wall, we're going to change trade deals, get rid of executive orders, repeal "Obama care," put forth a balanced budget, send school -- eliminate Common Core, let the states decide, move towards energy independence, really solid positions, and a promise.
LEWANDOWSKI: Look, he's laid out most of those on the campaign trail and he talks about them all the time. And he has done, you know, more campaign events than anyone. He's done more media opportunities than anyone, I think.
And he's laid out some people who he would consider to be appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court -- Diane Sykes (ph), Pryor (ph) from Alabama. You know, these are conservative jurists who are not looking to legislate from the bench. These are just a small sampling of the many. And we said we'd release more.
But the difference is, when this race comes down to it, you have a presidential candidate who could have the potential of appointing four or potentially five Supreme Court justices over a four or eight-year period to fundamentally change the way America functions, you know, to legislate from that bench.
And if you want to have Hillary Clinton, who's going to appoint a justice who is anti-2nd Amendment, that will change the fundamental way that we live every day, then that's something that we don't agree with. And the people that Donald Trump has recommended are strict constitutionalists and understand that is not the job of a judge to legislate from the bench. That's not what they're designed to do.
You know, you let Congress make the laws. You work with the Congress as the president to make sure that those laws are accurate and to the best of our ability, but you don't turn it over to the federal judges to make those laws. And so that's the big difference.
HANNITY: All right. Corey, good to see you. Congratulations.
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: I'm glad to see you got a bigger team now. All right, thank you.
And Coming up, new polls out of three key swing states show that Donald Trump is neck and neck with Hillary Clinton. Bill Hemmer standing by tonight at the big board -- he'll explain how this is going to impact the electoral map come November.
Plus, more reaction to tonight's primary results out of West Virginia and Nebraska as we continue tonight on "Hannity."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: And welcome back to "Hannity." So if Donald Trump faces Hillary Clinton in the general election, well, new polls released today out of three key swing states show it could be a very competitive race.
Standing by tonight at the "Hannity" big board to explain how these states could decide who's elected president in November, our own Bill Hemmer -- Bill.
BILL HEMMER, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: So, Sean, here's what we did based on some polling that came out earlier today, the electoral map. And you know in the Electoral College you have to get to 270 in order to win the White House. As a benchmark, this is where we start. This is the math in 2012 where Obama beat Romney 332-206. And, again, it's 270 in order to win the White House. Based on the polling that came out earlier today, say Florida is as close as they say right now, and this is just too close to call. Well, if Trump were able to take Florida and 29 electoral votes you see where the number changes.
Likewise for Ohio, that poll earlier today showed him up several points in Ohio, four points over Hillary Clinton. What if he wins the buckeye state? Now you're got Florida and Ohio, and you still under the scenario are not at the number of 270. So Pennsylvania, at the moment right now it's pretty close, 43-42. And Trump's talked a lot about Pennsylvania, 20 electoral votes. That would get him to the number.
That is a big challenge as of today to win all three states for either candidate, Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Four years ago at this time, Mitt Romney was tied with Barack Obama in Florida, tied with him in Ohio, and he was trailing in Pennsylvania by eight points. He lost the election in Pennsylvania by five in the end. So maybe Pennsylvania is not on the Republican category. You take that away and now you drop down and you go looking on the map to find other states that you could flip from four years ago.
Maybe it's Virginia, 13 electoral votes. But if it's not Virginia, or if you get Virginia, you're still four shy, so then you go looking for more. Maybe it's up here in the northeast in New Hampshire. And that would put him right at the number of 270.
But for the sake of this discussion, take away New Hampshire, take away Virginia. Remember what Trump has talked about repeatedly -- Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin. If he were to win Florida and Ohio, let's say he's able to take Michigan -- hasn't been done since the 1980s, they would be dead even at 269-269. And then you go back to the map. If it's not Virginia or New Hampshire, what do you get? Do you win Wisconsin? Maybe, maybe not. Do you win Iowa? Iowa would do that for you, 275.
So in this mix and in this scenario, we put a lot of things into play over the next six months to see how you get to 270 or perhaps how Hillary Clinton prevents him from doing that. But it always comes back to Ohio and Florida and all these scenarios where we begin the chase and the race for 270 in 2016. Sean?
HANNITY: All right, thanks, Bill.
And joining us now with more reaction, we have former Clinton pollster, FOX News contributor, Doug Schoen, Republican pollster John McLaughlin. All right, look at that map. Wow. That was a pretty interesting, you know --
JOHN MCLAUGHLIN, REPUBLICAN POLLSTER: It's more wide open. It's different than the Republicans -- Republicans the last two cycles have been running country club campaigning says we're going to run in narrow sliver states.
HANNITY: Yes, they don't expand the electoral map.
MCLAUGHLIN: Now Trump gets to open up the rust belt, maybe the northeast, and these three polls from Quinnipiac that are dead even, what was really interesting was in two of the three states, all three states, they're unpopular with high unfavorables, but Trump was more popular than Hillary Clinton. Pennsylvania, he had lower negatives. She's talking about laying off coal miners, which is why she's gotten destroyed in West Virginia.
HANNITY: I got a question. You've been there with --
DOUG SCHOEN, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: I have.
HANNITY: You know them. What's going on in this campaign right now?
SCHOEN: In a word, there's panic tonight. The Clintons don't have a strategy to deal with Bernie Sanders. If they lose California, the whole game will be up for grabs. And with these numbers, and I agree with John's analysis with one large caveat, that the Democrat electoral lock is such that what Bill said is, look, Donald has to run the table, the available states, to win.
HANNITY: But he's talking about running the table in a different way than, say, George Bush won the table.
SCHOEN: And that's why Hillary is so nervous, because she doesn't have an argument, a theory of the case. I've been in the room with her and Bill Clinton. The Clinton campaign in 96, we had a clear strategy for Dole that we had that carried us through. I'm sitting here telling you the Clinton campaign does not have a clear strategy or idea how to deal with Donald Trump, and the political rulebook is being rewritten.
HANNITY: We just talked to Corey Lewandowski. Who would best serve Donald Trump on a ticket?
MCLAUGHLIN: Well, I mean, right now Kasich, if you say Ohio, you want to seal Ohio --
HANNITY: Kasich doesn't want it, let's assume that.
MCLAUGHLIN: So if he doesn't want, then I think Marco Rubio would be good.
HANNITY: Marco Rubio doesn't want it either.
MCLAUGHLIN: Or Ted Cruz. But that's what they always say when they want to get it.
HANNITY: Conservatives don't like Corker.
SCHOEN: This is an election. As Trump himself said --
(CROSSTALK)
SCHOEN: Foreign policy gravitas. Yes, Newt Gingrich would be who Hillary would run against.
HANNITY: OK.
SCHOEN: Trust me, we did it in 96. It worked.
HANNITY: Mike Pence.
MCLAUGHLIN: Mike Pence would be really good. Let me give you a wildcard. In those three states Trump was beating Hillary on handling the economy five to four. When she was beating him on --
HANNITY: Foreign policy.
MCLAUGHLIN: And international crisis. If Trump wants to go ahead in those states and these other states, particularly the northeast --
HANNITY: Focus on her foreign policy.
MCLAUGHLIN: Security, the security issue.
HANNITY: Corker is awful. God, no.
MCLAUGHLIN: He couldn't stop the Iran deal. That was his --
HANNITY: In the committee.
SCHOEN: That's because of Barack Obama.
MCLAUGHLIN: Let me tell you --
HANNITY: Bad choice.
MCLAUGHLIN: But you need somebody who's going to say -- I always like Pete King.
HANNITY: That's not going to -- you need a conservative.
SCHOEN: Who is it, Sean?
HANNITY: I think it could be any of the people that he mentioned. Mike pence is an interesting thought, Indiana. I think -- look, I still like Newt Gingrich. You can run against Newt all you want.
SCHOEN: We did. We beat him. He's a friend of mine.
HANNITY: He changed --
SCHOEN: We did it. Bill Clinton did it.
HANNITY: No. It was --
SCHOEN: Yes. Yes.
HANNITY: That was actually Newt that did it. He went along with --
SCHOEN: I was in the room with Clinton. I got him to go along. We did the deal.
HANNITY: Newt's deal.
SCHOEN: We did it, and we took credit and we won the election. It will happen again.
MCLAUGHLIN: On Newt's record.
SCHOEN: It worked. It will work again.
HANNITY: It was all Newt that did it.
SCHOEN: No, it wasn't. I was there, Sean. Trust me.
HANNITY: Excuse me. It was Newt's idea to balance the budget in seven years using real numbers. It was Newt's idea for welfare reform. He got Clinton to become a conservative to do it.
SCHOEN: June of 1995 we did a speech on a balanced budget. That won Bill Clinton the election.
HANNITY: Up next tonight on "Hannity" --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON, D-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I got to tell you, I am, if I'm fortunate to be the nominee, I am looking forward to debating Donald Trump come the fall.
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Hillary's trying to coronate herself, but she just got beat by Bernie Sanders against again tonight in West Virginia. Tucker Carlson, Peter Johnson Jr., they'll have reaction when we come back as our analysis of these primary results continue straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: The highest obligation of a president is to protect America. I take that as a solemn obligation, and it's why I've been so concerned about the reckless talk coming from Donald Trump.
So I got to tell you, I am, if I'm fortunate to be the nominee, I am looking forward to debating Donald Trump come the fall.
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Be careful what you wish for. Hillary Clinton getting ahead of herself. She said she's looking forward to debating Donald Trump but she keeps losing to her Democratic 74-year-old curmudgeon Senator from Vermont, Bernie Sanders.
Here with reaction, FOX News contributor Tucker Carlson, Fox News legal analyst, Peter Johnson Jr. Be careful what you wish for, right, Peter?
PETER JOHNSON JR., FOX NEWS LEGAL ANALYST: I think so. I think it could be a tough debate, especially if she sounds the way she sounds tonight and looks the way that she looks. I wish everybody well, but she looks tired. And so when Donald Trump says she lacks the vigor and availability to go forward, when you see her in a setting like that, you say, God, you know, what's happening? And now Bernie Sanders is saying, well, I've gotten 45 percent of these pledged delegates, probably going to go on, perhaps, to win in California.
HANNITY: California. Yes.
JOHNSON: Big win tonight. And I agree with what Doug Schoen was saying. The path is murky there.
HANNITY: She is a weak candidate. Tucker, I'm not sure if you were listening to John McLaughlin who pointed out in three swing states that we were showing the poll numbers for, Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania, that Trump wins on the economy, she wins on foreign policy. But a few strategically placed ads in those swing states about Benghazi, about the e-mail server, and you hammer that home, you can drive those numbers down pretty quick, right?
TUCKER CARLSON, FOX NEWS HOST: Yes. And amazingly, Trump, who's been hit, you know, in some fairness, for flip-flopping, wins on honesty and trustworthiness in the swing states, including Pennsylvania according to the Quinnipiac poll.
Look, the Democratic Party is less united than the Republican Party. Trump has more support among Republicans, I mean, look at the results in the past three weeks, than Hillary has among Democrats. Bernie won his 19th contest tonight. They keep saying he can't win. That's probably true, but why is he getting 30,000 people coming to his rallies as he did yesterday? Because he's leading a movement. So what does that mean exactly? It means Hillary's going to have to give him something profound. Not just tinkering with the Democratic platform in Philadelphia, but what is he going to have to give her in order to get his blessing at that convention? I mean, I think it could totally destroy her campaign.
HANNITY: What do you think?
JOHNSON: You know, everyone is focusing on Donald Trump and Speaker Ryan and whether there's unity in the Republican Party. There is disunity and there's disunity going forward up until and including the time of the convention for the Democrats. And they will be punching the heck out of each other from now till then. And that's a serious, serious problem. And you saw so many of the exit polling tonight about the tremendous amount of voters that say they would walk away from Hillary Clinton as the nominee and vote for Donald Trump. We're going to be seeing defections in both parties -- the unpledged, the independent voter, the people who haven't decided yet. This race is coming together --
HANNITY: Who do you like for VP for Trump?
JOHNSON: We talked about that before. Marco Rubio said he's not interested.
HANNITY: Could change his mind.
JOHNSON: He could change his mind. Kasich, I think, would be a strong candidate. There's others. I think there's a bunch of people who would be very qualified. And the Senate side as well that could help Donald Trump.
HANNITY: And a lot of governors, too. Rick Perry came out very strongly on this program last night.
JOHNSON: The Texas governor.
HANNITY: What do you think, Tucker, who do you like?
CARLSON: I don't know. As I've said to you before, we talked about it, I think he probably would be better off picking a woman, not because it would win a lot of female voters but because I think he has a natural rapport with women. He's less competitive with them. I think he's better on stage with women.
But can I say one thing about the problems Hillary is having. Nobody ever says this. You often hear people say Trump has this terrible problem with women. And there is a problem in some polls. He has a problem with Hispanic voters. Yes, that's true. Hillary Clinton has a bigger problem with male voters than Trump has with female voters. She has a bigger problem with white voters than you've seen any Democrat have in a long time. Barack Obama won 39 percent of white voters in 2012. I'd be surprised if she got that number. So I know it's unfashionable to say so, but Hillary has a massive sex and ethnicity problem, too.
HANNITY: She has an honest and trustworthy problem, she has a likability problem. She's not liked by a lot of people, and she's a horrible -- if I'm charitable -- mediocre candidate at best, in my opinion. I think it's going to be an uphill battle for her, I hope.
All right, thank you both. Good to see you Peter, Tucker, thank you.
Coming up tonight next right here on "Hannity" --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, R-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He's a very good man, he wants what's good for the party, and I think we're going to have very positive results. And I'd love, frankly, for him to stay and be chairman.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Donald Trump gets ready for a sit-down with Speaker Paul Ryan on Thursday. So can the GOP finally be unified? Is it necessary to win in November? We'll check in with Charles Hurt, Dr. Gina Loudon, and much more straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Number one, I have a lot of respect for Paul, and I think we're going to have a very good meeting, I hope. I would like to see unity in the party. I believe we'll have great unity in the party. I look forward to the meeting and I think positive results. He's a very good man. He wants what is good for the party. And I think we're going to have positive results. And I'd love, frankly, for him to stay and be chairman.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: That was Donald Trump earlier tonight with some encouraging words ahead of his much anticipated meeting this week with Speaker of the House Paul Ryan even though Speaker Ryan still has not backed Trump's candidacy.
Here with reaction, from the "Washington Times" Charles Hurt, radio talk show host and TV host in her own right, Dr. Gina Loudon is with us. Here's what I didn't like about this. So you have got Paul Ryan, doesn't do a lot of interviews, decided I'm going to do a CNN interview, knowing the question is going to be asked. So he did it on purpose. That bothers me, because he's not thinking about anyone in that moment, he's not thinking about the party, unity. He's supposed to unify the party himself.
DR. GINA LOUDON, PSYCHOLOGY EXPERT AND RADIO HOST: Is this a surprise to us? He had an opportunity to do a lot of things he hasn't done. I would even argue that all of this Trumpness that he is hating so badly now, he brought on a lot of it himself by not acting in ways he could have with the budget earlier when he had the chance.
HANNITY: It's not only him. Look, Republicans have been weak.
LOUDON: Right. But he's the leader.
HANNITY: Now he's the leader, OK. But Republicans have been weak, Charles. They've been timid, feckless, visionless. I think that created the insurgency here, whether people voted for Trump or Ted Cruz, they didn't want one of the establishment guys, did they? And yet this is how he reacts when people speak out in record numbers the way they did?
CHARLES HURT, POLITICAL COLUMNIST, WASHINGTON TIMES: Yes, and, you know, just look at the leadership. The Republican leadership couldn't find a single candidate, a successful candidate that they can all get behind. So when the last man standing is Donald Trump, for him to not get, immediately get behind unifying the party is, I think, a dereliction of duty.
And another thing I think is kind of interesting here is the fact that none of these people backed Donald Trump in the Republican primary and that had no effect on Donald Trump whatsoever, what makes them think that not backing him now in the general election, what makes them think that that is going to do any good, either?
HANNITY: I actually think, Dr. Loudon, that one of the things the establishment would like to do at the end of the process, they want to sabotage, I mean, look at all the people. You have Bill Kristol and Ben Sasse and Mitt Romney talking third party. So they want to sabotage the GOP candidate, go against the will of the people, the voters of the party, and then, why? So they can come back in November if the sabotage successfully and wag their finger in voter's faces and say see, you should have listened to us? That is going to make them happy, Hillary Clinton as president?
LOUDON: Because they're cushy jobs and their cushy retirements and all the rest of the benefits of being part of the establishment, Sean, go nowhere no matter if Hillary is elected or if one of their own is elected. But if Donald Trump is elected it's a big problem.
This is so telling because what they should be focused on right now is the fact it's not the GOP that's fractured right now. From the moment Donald Trump declared he has been a frontrunner. The fracture is on the left.
HANNITY: Why are they not giddy that you have record numbers of people showing up in these primaries and new people are being brought into the Republican Party. If Trump is right, and he said that in many interviews with me, it would be a huge story at any other point. They say they want to expand the party. What, they don't like the people he's bringing in? I thought they wanted a bigger party, an inclusive party.
LOUDON: This exposes them in ways they've never wanted to be exposed. And this is a game. It's between the lobbyists and the consultants and the officeholders, and it even reaches as far as into the private sector when we talk about that crony capitalism. It's all a part of that. All of that is threatened because Donald Trump understands exactly how politics works and he wants to dismantle it.
HANNITY: Who do you like for VP?
LOUDON: I like Newt Gingrich.
HANNITY: Newt Gingrich.
LOUDON: I like Newt Gingrich. I like him because I think he coalesces that Christian conservative, some of the never-Trump people I think he can bring it. Plus he's a genius.
HANNITY: He's the smartest guy in the Republican Party. Charles, who do you like?
HURT: I think Newt would be a good choice, but I also could see Donald Trump doing something that no political consultant would ever advise, and that is pick somebody just like him from the business world. Carly Fiorina put herself out of the running for that, but it could be something that nobody expects.
HANNITY: I think you need somebody, though, that can reach out to Congress. Look, Newt has the credibility. Look, he is the last guy that gave us a balanced budget in this country. He is the last guy that had any significant impact on advancing conservatism and making the country a better place. I don't know if you can do better than that. There are great governors, as I've pointed out. There are some good people in the Senate, but I don't know. Final words?
HURT: As Gina said, the guy's got a giant brain and he understands, he has thought about all these issues that Donald Trump has had a hard time with. Newt Gingrich has thought about these issues at the deepest levels.
HANNITY: All right, thank you both for seeing us. Welcome in from California.
LOUDON: Thank you.
HANNITY: And coming up, more "Hannity" right after this break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: Welcome back to "Hannity." Unfortunately that's all the time we have left this evening.
Quick programming note before we go -- be sure to tune in tomorrow night. Newt Gingrich will join us along with Laura Ingraham at 10:00 p.m. eastern tomorrow night. But for now stay with the Fox News Channel, our continuing coverage of the results out of West Virginia and Nebraska. Stay tuned because Bret Baier is coming up live with a special edition of "Special Report." Then at midnight, you don't want to miss it. My friends at "The Five," they will be here.
Until then, let not your heart be troubled. We'll see you back here with Newt and Laura Ingraham tomorrow night. See you then.
Content and Programming Copyright 2016 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2016 CQ-Roll Call, Inc. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of CQ-Roll Call. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.
https://www.foxnews.com/transcript/corey-lewandowski-explains-key-to-trumps-vp-search-huckabee-reacts-to-primary-results