Newt Gingrich on protests: Television maximizes the problem
Former House speaker speaks out on 'Hannity' about violence and demonstrations in Charlotte, North Carolina
This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," September 22, 2016. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: And this is a Fox News Alert. Protesters -- they're back on the street tonight in Charlotte, North Carolina for the third consecutive night. Now, the city is in a state of emergency. The National Guard has been deployed, and a midnight to 6:00 AM curfew has now been put in place by the mayor.
Our own Mike Tobin -- he's on the ground tonight in Charlotte. He has the very latest -- Mike.
MIKE TOBIN, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: And Sean, we've got a crowd of -- I'd ballpark, it about 500 people. They've stopped right now. They're giving some kind of instructions. They're doing some chanting.
I'm going to bring in one of the demonstrators in here. This his Carlos. Carlos, what's your last name?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Roseboro (ph).
TOBIN: Roseboro. What are you trying to get done here tonight, Carlos?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm trying to, you know, come out here and support, you know, Black Lives Matter and stuff. I just want to know why, when we're in our own communities doing this, you know, wasn't no National Guard or nothing. Now we're up here costing, you know, the government money, now they got the National Guard in here. You know, this is an oppressive government. (INAUDIBLE) this is an oppressive government...
TOBIN: Right, you're saying that the Guard's only out here because you're in the rich area.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just because we're in the rich area. That's why (INAUDIBLE)
TOBIN: Let me ask you this. Justin Carr was killed out here demonstrating last night. Does that dissuade you from coming out here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, it doesn't because I'm coming out here for people like him that died out here.
TOBIN: Now, the police say that they've got evidence that he was shot by a civilian out here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, he was shot by the police.
TOBIN: How do you know that?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was -- because they got eyewitness reports (INAUDIBLE) somebody seen it. I have a friend (INAUDIBLE) that said his friend saw him get shot by the police.
TOBIN: Now, Megyn said -- had a guest on her show named Ryan (ph) who said he heard the shot and immediately saw a young black man with dreadlocks, with a pistol, who ran off.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't believe that.
TOBIN: You don't believe it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't believe that.
TOBIN: OK. Are you worried about your own...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) shot.
TOBIN: You believe the police (INAUDIBLE) Do you believe it was a rubber bullet?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I believe it was a real bullet.
TOBIN: Got it.
And that's what we've heard, the two different versions. You've heard the version coming from the chief. He says there's no doubt in his mind that the evidence will show that Justin Carr was shot by a civilian out here. The version that the people believe out on the street, Sean, is the rubber bullet, close range from the police.
HANNITY: You know, Mike, I guess above -- if you can ask some of the other protesters there, you know, in this particular case, there's been a lot of talk about, OK, racial incidents involving the police. In this case, you got a black police chief. You got -- Keith Lamont Scott, he was black, and the officer was black.
Does that mean anything? Because he said Black Lives Matter. I believe all lives matter, including black lives, of course. But you know, is there any -- do they take into account at all that this was not a racial incident?
TOBIN: Well, let me ask somebody here. Hey, buddy, you want to answer a couple questions?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sure.
TOBIN: The question from New York is, do you take into account the fact that everybody from the police chief to the man who was shot to the police officer who fired the shot -- they were all black? Does that change your position at all?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I don't think it changes the position at all. I think it has to do with the training of police officers. And a lot of times, the community and myself included, we feel like the police- they don't have that long of a training. So it's a training issue. It's not so much of a black and white issue.
TOBIN: Go ahead, Sean.
HANNITY: Mike...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a lot bigger than that.
HANNITY: ... if it turns out that it was not...
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: ... two distinct stories that have emerged here. If it turns out that Keith Lamont...
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: If it turns out Keith Lamont Scott had a gun, does that make a difference to him?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)
TOBIN: Does it -- if it turns out that Keith Lamont Scott had a gun, are you going to change your position? Does that make a difference to you?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No because at the end of the day, from what I was told, is that he posed a threat. But I don't necessarily -- I don't...
TOBIN: Well, if he had a gun, clearly, he posed a threat.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean, I don't know -- I don't know if that gun was on his hip. I don't know if he pointed it at the cop. Even if he had a gun, I don't -- I mean, he was waiting on his kid. So at the end of the day, I don't understand why he lost his life. So if you guys can clarify what you guys mean by posing a...
TOBIN: Are you willing to wait for the investigation, wait for all the evidence?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When a black man kills a black man -- when a black man kills a black man -- he goes downtown for two years before he's found not guilty!
TOBIN: So you're saying you're not willing to wait for the investigation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Release the video now!
TOBIN: All right, You heard that. He says he's not willing to wait for the investigation. And his argument was...
HANNITY: Hey...
TOBIN: ... when a black man kills a black man, they'll take him downtown right away, Sean.
HANNITY: You know, Mike, I want to follow up with that guy because I think he's raising a pretty poignant point here, and that is that if you have a case where somebody has, in fact, a gun, does he -- is he not willing to wait for the full investigation to go forward? Why are people so quick to rush to judgment? Don't police deserve the presumption of innocence?
TOBIN: All right, the question from New York is, do police deserve the presumption of innocence?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, they don't deserve the presumption of innocence when they commit a crime. They're still citizens. They are sworn citizens!
(CROSSTALK)
TOBIN: The question is, why aren't you willing to wait for the evidence?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because they don't wait...
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you are accused of a crime, they don't wait to take you downtown. They take you downtown, give you no bail, and wait for two years for you're found not guilty! So if that's the case, until we find out the officer's not guilty, take him downtown for two years!
TOBIN: Now, what of (ph) guy who got killed? What if he committed a crime?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He wasn't committing a crime, even if he had a gun! You know what? Don't you own a gun?
HANNITY: What if it turns out he had a gun?
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have the right to bear arms.
(CROSSTALK)
TOBIN: ... and he was a threat?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If he had a threat -- if he was a threat, how could you -- if he never shot the gun, you can't say he was a threat! You don't know what he's thinking!
HANNITY: What if he pointed the gun?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You don't know what he's thinking!
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: What if he pointed the gun, Mike?
TOBIN: What if he pointed the gun?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He didn't point a gun. They never said that. They never said that.
(CROSSTALK)
TOBIN: ... the video right now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Show the tape!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Show the tape! Then we can make -- show the tape!
(CROSSTALK)
TOBIN: Now, you hear that often out here, Sean, Show the tape. And the police officer (ph) says he is reluctant to show the tape. And these guys are...
(CROSSTALK)
PROTESTERS: Show us the tape! Show us the tape! Show us the tape!
TOBIN: Now I want to be careful because they're (INAUDIBLE) we got them riled up here to start chanting, "Show us the tape," and I want to be careful that we're not stoking the embers here, Sean.
HANNITY: No, I understand. All right, Mike Tobin, we'll get back to you throughout the night. Thank you so much.
Joining us now with reaction, FOX News contributor former speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. Mr. Speaker, I'd like your reaction to what you just heard there and what I just heard there. And you know, I understand people want to see the tape, but it's an ongoing investigation.
We've had in the case, I would argue, in Trayvon Martin's case in Ferguson, in Cambridge and Baltimore, we've had a rush to judgment. And we've had people, especially leaders create an expectation of a result of a verdict in a case that was never coming based on evidence that is accumulated over time.
Why is there this unwillingness to give the benefit of doubt, the presumption of innocence, wait for due process?
NEWT GINGRICH, FMR. HOUSE SPEAKER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I mean, first of all, what I'm struck by in the last couple of nights' coverage is how much television maximizes the problem. The young lady last night who was on a show -- I happened to be on the same show -- she's very hysterical. She's very noisy. She showed up again tonight on videotape! She's getting a huge amount of coverage, and she is one person in a metropolitan area of 2,400,000 people.
We get told the people believe this. Well, I think the total population that's turned out is about 1,000. That means there are another, you know, 2,399,000 people who haven't shown up. And I think there's a tendency to then, you know, encourage people who are standing outside and you start talking to them. They get more and more excited. And they represent a very, very small group, but a large enough group to damage and to loot and to cause problems, which we saw last night, when property -- you know, stores were being looted, et cetera.
So I think to some extent, the very nature of modern live television coverage heightens the tension and heightens the rush to judgment.
HANNITY: You know, I guess where I get aggravated, Mr. Speaker, is that we've had these high-profile racial cases -- and we discussed this last night -- and the president himself, a constitutional attorney supposedly, has rushed to judgment without any facts, without any evidence presented, without any due process, with no presumption of innocence. And he's been wrong four out of four times in these high-profile cases!
But if we really care about all lives mattering, in the case of Black Lives Mattering, and you got 3,660-plus Chicago residents, his own town, murdered since he's been president -- and I don't think the president could name one of those people -- one has to then question, I guess, that whatever the president is discussing, if it doesn't fit the narrative that he's advancing, he doesn't seem to want to get involved.
Why is that? He's been silent on this case. Why?
GINGRICH: Look, the whole narrative of the left is that whatever happens is the police's fault. We had one person we were chatting with last night, and we asked them about, I mean, shouldn't the police, in fact, be prepared to use tear gas if they're looting trucks on I-85. And he said, Well, I don't know. I'm not sure that that's the case.
So on the left, there's this constant bias against the police and a constant bias against people who are trying to enforce the law. And as you said about the case here in Charlotte, you have an African-American policeman who shot an African-American. You have an African-American chief of police. The police seem to have video of the victim carrying a gun.
And you have to raise the question at what level, particularly in a period, by the way, when we've seen a lot of folks shooting at policemen -- I mean, if you're a policeman and you realize over the last six or either months, there are people out there gunning for policemen, you have a lot shorter fuse than you would have had a year ago because you kept getting told that your life is in danger from random people because they want to kill cops.
HANNITY: You know, I want to play a video. There is a mob beating a guy that happens to be white in a parking garage. The guy is literally begging for mercy in this particular case. I want to roll video of this.
And you know, as we have seen in Ferguson and in Baltimore, in particular, you know, I'm not sure how looting, robbing, beating, burning and all of the things we have now seen -- and you can see this. I mean, this is horrific to see this on video! You've got a gang of people beating the living crap out of this guy who's -- who's fighting for his life!
How does that bring justice to anybody? And yet it happens again and again. And even when we have video of looting, for example, in Baltimore or Ferguson, nobody uses the video after the fact to arrest the people that we know did this!
GINGRICH: Well, that's what hit me looking at that video. I don't understand why we don't have a standard that says, If we pick you up on video breaking the law, we're going to come after you and we're going to arrest you.
You cannot allow this kind of violence to be a risk-free game that people can play on a summer evening. There has to be real consequence. And of course, what you just showed is exactly the kind of mob violence which you would think African-Americans, with a long history with the Ku Klux Klan, with segregation, with the enforcement by Southern governments of segregation -- you'd think there'd be some sympathy with the idea of getting beaten up by a mob. But there isn't because once a mob becomes a mob, it loses any sense of justice or any sense of self-control.
HANNITY: Let me ask you one political question. We've got a debate on Monday. Hillary Clinton -- she got angry at one point today in -- when being questioned by a local reporter and then laughed at a reporter's question on her health and then lashing out at Donald Trump. Let me play a little bit of that and what this is telling you. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Some doctors have said because of your age, as well as your opponent's age, that you could be at higher risk for dementia or even Alzheimer's and have suggested that you take some neuro-cognitive tests.
(LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Would you be willing to do that?
HILLARY CLINTON, D-PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: You know, I am very sorry I got pneumonia. I'm very glad that antibiotics took care of it. And that's behind us now. I've met the standard that everybody running for president has met in terms of releasing information about my health.
Now, having said all this, why aren't I 50 points ahead, you might ask? Well, the choice for working families has never been clearer.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: She looked unhinged! What is that?
GINGRICH: (INAUDIBLE) Vince Haley (ph), who you know well, showed me that clip, which actually goes on for about 90 seconds. And he said something very similar.
One of the challenges for her is that when she gets really intense, it's a little scary. And I think it'll be fascinating Monday -- I am really looking forward to the debate Monday night because you have two such remarkably different personalities...
HANNITY: Yes.
GINGRICH: ... and remarkably different styles.
HANNITY: You know, I would only offer one bit of advice because I think Donald Trump knows the issues well enough. He's done enough interviews. He's done enough policy speeches, so I'm pretty sure he has that down pat.
I think Hillary has one strategy. She can't run on her foreign policy record. She can't run on her -- Obama's economic record. She's certainly not going to run on character and trustworthiness and honesty and truthfulness.
So the only thing I see that she's got left in her arsenal, the only bullet in that gun, so to speak, metaphorically speaking, is that she's going to try to annoy, aggravate, agitate Donald Trump! Do you agree with me? And how should he handle it, if you do?
GINGRICH: Well, I do agree with you in general. I think -- I think it's not going to work. I mean, Donald Trump went through 13 years of "The Apprentice." He's been in all sorts of rooms in all sorts of reality TV. And reality TV with Hillary Clinton is something I think he's fully prepared to deal with.
Now, again, we have no idea how this debate is going to go, and I'm not prejudging it. I'm looking forward to it. It think it'll be the highest- rated presidential debate in history. And I'm looking forward to being with you afterwards and talking about it.
But I got to tell you, if her only strategy is to try to go after Donald Trump, one of the things she should remember -- and he said this on "FOX & Friends" I think it was this morning -- he said, you know, he's going to be very respectful to her and he hopes that she'll be respectful.
But there's an underlying tone there, remember. His ground rule in the Republican debates was, I'm not going to pick a fight with you, but you pick a fight with me, I'm going to tear you apart. She needs to remember this is the best counter-puncher we have ever seen in presidential debates.
HANNITY: Well said. Well...
GINGRICH: And if she wants to push that button...
HANNITY: Well, you were pretty good yourself. I remember -- I remember you went after a couple of -- even the moderators. Well, you did. I remember, and...
GINGRICH: I did. Let me assure you Donald Trump is a better debater than I am.
HANNITY: OK.
GINGRICH: He's a more formidable debater.
HANNITY: Mr. Speaker, good to see you. Thank you for being with us.
We have a lot more news tonight on this edition of "Hannity" coming up straight ahead.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, R-PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: We need a national anti-crime agenda to make our cities safe again. We have to make our cities safe again.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: So in the wake of the unrest in Charlotte, Donald Trump calls for a national anti-crime agenda. Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani will join us live in studio next. He's got reaction as we continue.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: And this is Fox News Alert. Protesters take to the streets now for a third night in Charlotte. Earlier today, Donald Trump addressed the very tense situation in North Carolina. He also spoke with the governor he tweeted moments ago. But watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Many Americans are watching the unrest in Charlotte unfolding right before their eyes.
Our country looks bad to the world, especially when we are supposed to be the world's leader. How can we lead when we can't even control our own cities?
We need a national anti-crime agenda to make our cities safe again. We have to make our cities safe again.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Here now with us, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani. Mr. Mayor, last night, you were very clear this wouldn't have happened in New York City. And you just said to me coming on the air, you wouldn't allow what's happening tonight to happen.
GIULIANI: No, I -- you don't take the streets. So here was my rule. I enforced it with zero tolerance. You wanted to protest, you had every right to do that. You could call me all kinds of names, and as you know, they did. But if you do it...
HANNITY: They really did, by the way. That's not a joke. Yes.
GIULIANI: Because if you're going to change things, they're going to get angry at you. So you could have the sidewalks, but you couldn't have the streets unless you got a permit. And if you got a permit, there was a limit in terms of the amount of time.
I'm going to tell you why you can't take the streets, because in a place like Manhattan, for example, if you take the streets in Manhattan, people are going to die. I have ambulances going through the streets of Manhattan, and if they don't get to the hospital in four minutes, the man is dead of a heart attack or the woman is dead of a heart attack.
And yes, you have your right to make your 1st Amendment point, but you do not have the right to take away the rights of other people.
HANNITY: With the National Guard...
GIULIANI: And if you -- if you -- if you put them on the sidewalks, you exercise control over them, as opposed to their exercising control over you.
The police should be demonstrating that they are exercising control over the probably small percentage of people, as Newt pointed out...
HANNITY: Yes.
GIULIANI: ... of Charlotte, including African-Americans. I bet the vast majority of African-Americans don't want to be involved in that nonsense that's going on in the streets.
HANNITY: No, but there's enough there -- look, there's bottles, rocks being thrown at officers.
GIULIANI: Should be arrested immediately!
HANNITY: Immediately! Now, maybe you could say before tonight, they didn't have the manpower. They got the manpower tonight!
GIULIANI: Right to Rikers Island! The first bottle you throw, I find you in the crowd, and we go right to Rikers Island. Or my police commissioner comes to Gracie Mansion, we look at the videotape, and we go find the guy in his house...
HANNITY: You know one of the things...
GIULIANI: ... and we put him in jail.
HANNITY: I wonder...
GIULIANI: That's why I had no riots in eight years, and I took over a city that had two major riots...
HANNITY: Huge.
GIULIANI: ... in two years, four-day riots that the mayor didn't control, including one that was a pogrom against Jewish people!
HANNITY: That -- that was a very...
GIULIANI: That was a horrible...
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: That was horrible time. Mr. Mayor, I guess as we watch this -- and they have the streets -- all right, so now you take over. We put you in charge right now. How do you get them off the streets, as you look at that...
GIULIANI: Well, they should have never gotten there. The first one on the street should have been arrested, and then the second one should have been arrested and the third one and the fourth one and the fifth one and the sixth one and the seventh one...
HANNITY: You just do it.
GIULIANI: And after a while, you wear them down. I used to say, Come on, test me. I have 41,000 cops. What do you have?
And (INAUDIBLE) I believe in the First Amendment. I believe in the 1st Amendment right to protest. I don't believe in breaking up a man's store. Why should some African-American man who has a candy store have his candy store broken into because a police officer did what he did? And in this case, it sounds like the police officer...
HANNITY: You know...
GIULIANI: ... was justified. And also, if Black Lives Matter, why doesn't the black life of the black police officer matter?
HANNITY: It should. Look, he's fighting for the presumption of innocence for everybody else.
GIULIANI: If the facts are as the African-American police commissioner stated, and the guy came out with a gun, why doesn't the life of that police officer mean something...
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: What about releasing the tape, as the crowd is asking for tonight? It's an investigation.
GIULIANI: I don't want to disagree with the judgment of the DA and the mayor and the governor, but I always released information.
HANNITY: You would. OK, let me play for you -- and I think this goes to the heart of the question. The president rushed to judgment in four very high-profile cases. His silence has been deafening on 3,660 deaths in Chicago. He's invited Black Lives Matter to the White House. Hillary has supported Black Lives Matter -- pigs in a blanket, fry them like bacon, what do we want, dead cops, when do we want them, now.
Here's Hillary supporting Black Lives Matter.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: I think it is essential that we all stand up and say loudly and clearly, Yes, Black Lives Matter.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Well, of course they do, but also, all lives matter!
GIULIANI: But, Sean, does the life of the black police officer matter?
HANNITY: Yes.
GIULIANI: Well, shouldn't there be, in that case, since we have a black police officer who they claim was in jeopardy of losing his life and a black man who did lose his life -- shouldn't we kind of step back and figure out who is right and who is wrong?
This is not a racial situation now. We're talking about a black police officer that shot a black man, that says that he was pointing a gun, or had a gun in his hand. So now we have two lives at stake, both of which were black. So if Black Lives Matter, both of those lives matter, as well as all the white people (INAUDIBLE)
HANNITY: Well, and we can't wait for an investigation. We can't wait for due process. We can't wait for evidence to be presented. We can't wait for presumption of innocence.
Let me switch to a political question. Let me put up some poll numbers for you. We got Nevada, and Donald Trump is up by 3 points, a very important state, as you can see, 43-40. If we could put it up on the screen? And then we've also got North Carolina, that poll, the latest FOX News poll, and Trump is up there, very important state of North Carolina, 45-40. Then we've got Ohio. We all know how important Ohio is. This is the second poll that has Trump up by 5, 42-37.
Here's my question. Donald Trump on Monday at Hofstra University in Long Island, New York, will debate Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton, as I said to Newt, can't ruin on foreign policy, can't run on honesty and integrity...
(LAUGHTER)
HANNITY: ... can't run on the Obama economy. Her job is going to be to piss him off.
(LAUGHTER)
HANNITY: If he -- am I wrong? Tell me about -- if I'm wrong, I'll say I'm wrong.
GIULIANI: Sean, you're right on target. Her whole strategy has been, so far...
HANNITY: To piss him off!
GIULIANI: ... to demonize him.
HANNITY: Yes, I know.
GIULIANI: And I'll tell you what she's done, is she's created a fairly low bar, I think, for him. I mean, if you listen to her, you expect...
HANNITY: Satan to come out!
GIULIANI: ... a madman to walk out...
HANNITY: Yes!
GIULIANI: ... on the stage who's going to knock over the podium and throw things at her and yell and scream.
(LAUGHTER)
HANNITY: That's not going to happen.
GIULIANI: I believe that the Donald Trump that I know for 28 years is the Donald Trump you're going to see on Monday night, a sensible, reasonable, extraordinarily successful man...
HANNITY: Do you agree she's going to try and get under his skin?
GIULIANI: ... who is running for this office only because he loaves his country. That's why he's running for this office.
HANNITY: I bet the opportunity cost and the money he's spent probably is costing him a billion dollars.
GIULIANI: A fortune.
HANNITY: Here's my question. Do you agree with me that that's her strategy, to get under his skin...
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: ... he doesn't have the temperament?
GIULIANI: Well, it's been the strategy of her campaign up until now. And the fact is, he does have the temperament a lot better than her. You showed that tape. I also saw the rest of that tape...
HANNITY: Yes.
GIULIANI: ... like Newt did.
HANNITY: I think we've got a longer version of it.
GIULIANI: I think -- if we're going to talk about temperament, read the book by the Secret Service agent about...
HANNITY: Gary Byrne.
GIULIANI: Yes.
HANNITY: It's a great book.
GIULIANI: And you and I both know Secret Service agents.
HANNITY: Oh, I've heard stories!
GIULIANI: Yes.
HANNITY: I've heard a lot of stories!
GIULIANI: I worked with the Secret Service for 28 years, so -- and when they like you, they keep their mouths shut. When they don't like you, you hear a lot of stuff.
(LAUGHTER)
HANNITY: I've heard a lot of stuff!
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: ... don't tell me anything about you. So that's a good sign.
GIULIANI: They're all my friends.
(LAUGHTER)
HANNITY: All right, Mr. Mayor. Monday's going to be fun. Are you going to be at the debate?
GIULIANI: You're darn right.
HANNITY: I can't wait.
(LAUGHTER)
HANNITY: All right, we'll be there, too, and we'll be broadcasting. Hope you'll join us.
And coming up next, we continue to follow the situation on the ground in Charlotte.
And also tonight...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: Now having said all this, why aren't I 50 points ahead, you might ask? Well, the choice for working families has never been clearer.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Whoa! We have the longer version. You don't want to miss it. Hillary doesn't seem to understand why she isn't 50 points up in the polls. Laura Ingraham, Larry Elder react. That's coming up later tonight as "Hannity" continues on this busy news night straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CLINTON: I will defend every worker's right to organize and bargain collectively. And I will fight back against so-called right to work. Right to work is wrong for workers and wrong for America.
Now having said all this, why aren't I 50 points ahead, you might ask. Well, the choice for working families has never been clearer. I need your help to get Donald Trump's record out to everybody. Nobody should be fooled. He proudly declared himself 100 percent right to work. He even hired a union busting firm to break up an organizing campaign at his hotel in Las Vegas where you are right now. And he's built up his wealth by stiffing small businesses and contractors. That goes against everything we stand for as a country. My dad was a small businessman. I'm just happy he never did business with Trump. What would have happened to us?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Wow. Hillary Clinton saying she doesn't understand why she's not running away with the election. Here now, Salem Radio nationally syndicated host Larry Elder, editor in chief of Lifezette, also syndicated radio host, Fox News contributor Laura Ingraham.
(LAUGHTER)
HANNITY: Why are you laughing? She's unhinged.
LAURA INGRAHAM, EDITOR IN CHIEF, LIFEZETTE.COM: It's a shock she's not ahead 50 points with that delivery. What was that? When you guys started playing that, I thought that's really funny that she's participating in a spoof of herself. That's great.
HANNITY: I'm taking this differently than you. I think there's something wrong here.
INGRAHAM: That was just bizarre on many levels.
HANNITY: You remember this video, and I got criticized -- remember this video. Watch this, Larry, and watch this Laura. Watch all of a sudden her head twitching and twitching and twitching. Ready, set, she turns right, there you go, boom, boom, boom, boom.
(LAUGHTER)
HANNITY: And she does it again. There's something going on here. I'm not a doctor, but that, that to me looks like what was going on in the video.
INGRAHAM: It's a very curious thing. I think that's why all of the polls show that people didn't think she was being completely forthright about her condition. But I'm focusing on the terrible condition of her economic plans and her horrific record. She has a record of failure. We know that. She has no real record to run on. But that was an odd --
HANNITY: So odd.
INGRAHAM: Odd delivery. It was unlike anything I've ever seen before.
HANNITY: Larry, what did you think?
LARRY ELDER, SALEM RADIO NATIONAL SYNDICATED HOST: It is odd. But I'm not a doctor. I did have a doctor on to comment on that, and she made a speculation that perhaps Hillary might be suffering from Parkinson's. I don't know. What she is suffering from is she wants to be the third term of the Obama administration and the record is lousy. You know all the stats, worst economic recovery since the Second World War, first president ever to preside over a recovery where we haven't had at least three percent GPD, and the difference between the two percent that they've had and three percent is a million jobs times the length of the recovery. That's 7 million jobs if Obama had just stayed on the golf course and practiced his putting.
And people realize this. People are working harder and making less money. The wealth gap between the average black family and white family hasn't been this wide in 25 years. Black poverty up, black net worth down, black home ownership down, black equity down.
INGRAHAM: Larry, look at the split screen. Look at the split screen. This is the legacy. This did not come out of nowhere. The division in this country --
ELDER: You're right.
INGRAHAM: -- is division, despair, distraction, demonization. It is a depression. I don't mean a depression economically. I mean this is a depressing environment and atmosphere.
HANNITY: It keeps happening.
INGRAHAM: It's boiling over. And I understand their raw emotions, I get it. And I don't pretend to understand everything that's going on in Charlotte. But I can't imagine anyone thinks we want to continue with this. This is --
ELDER: Laura and Sean --
INGRAHAM: -- hardworking people.
ELDER: This is the perfect storm of the two generations of fatherless homes. And Obama had said this, I didn't say it, a kid that grows out without a dad is five times more likely to be poor, nine times more likely to drop out of school, 20 times more likely to end up in jail. You add to this this narrative that racism remains a major problem in America. They suffer from, fill in the blanks, systemic racism, structural racism, endemic racist. And then this Black Lives Matter nonsense that there's a proliferation of blacks being mowed down by the police, fanned by a president who's played the race card, whether it's Cambridge police, whether it's "if I had a son he'd look like Trayvon," whether it's invoking Ferguson at a United Nations meeting. All of these factors have come together to create what we're seeing in our streets of America today.
INGRAHAM: We're sowing fear and division, distrust, in a neighborhood and community that desperately needs real hope -- not the fake hope of a poster and a slogan, but real hope in terms of real economic opportunity, real jobs, policies that keep families together.
HANNITY: Hang on. Look at this. They're back on the highway again. Last night there was a moment towards the end of the second hour that we did on this program where literally they were stopping cars and getting on top of them. It reminded me very much of what happened in the Rodney King case. Remember, they dragged out that poor truck driver, Reginald Denny.
ELDER: Reginald Denny, yes.
HANNITY: The only difference I see tonight, although they're on the other side, it looks like, of the highway, is there seems to be a police presence. Last night there was no police presence there. And this gets really scary when you're talking about motorists. They're being stopped. They can't drive without running somebody over.
INGRAHAM: Everybody is pussy footing around what's going on. This is rampant criminality. Last night it was the mob riot. We had that horrific video that you alluded to earlier of the young Caucasian male begging for help, and they smashed and kicked him, dragged him across the parking lot.
HANNITY: Beat the crap out of him.
INGRAHAM: And I had somebody call my radio show today who said his son, he was in fear of his life if a police officer hadn't pulled him off of the street. He just was sleeping. He looked at it, what's going on. So this is really serious. No job is being created. No opportunity is being created by this type of behavior. And I'm telling you, you pull those cameras out there, a lot of those people will go home.
HANNITY: I brought up these points over and over.
ELDER: Sean, Sean.
HANNITY: Go ahead, Larry. Go ahead.
ELDER: I was going to say, Sean, this whole narrative is built on a lie. Michael Brown didn't have his hands up, didn't say don't shoot. You look at the last 45 years, according to the CDC the percentage of blacks being shot by cops has declined 75 percent. Twice as many whites are killed every year compared to blacks. And it's true that 25 percent of the people killed are black, but that's because of huge proliferation rates. A black kid, teenager, is nine-times more likely to commit a murder than a white teenager, and therefore many times more likely to be victimized by that. That's why the cops are there.
HANNITY: It is a confrontation.
ELDER: It's rare for a cop to kill anybody, let alone a black person who's unarmed, very, very rare.
HANNITY: When we come back we have Mike Tobin. He's on the ground right there in that situation. He'll join us next. Laura, good to see you. Thank you. And thank you very much, Larry Elder. We'll also get reaction, Bo Dietl, James Harris, that and more tonight as HANNITY continues. Stay right there with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: This is a FOX News alert. And protesters now in Charlotte are trying to shut down a major highway. Our own Mike Robin is down there with them. Mike, we saw a little bit of this last night, although there wasn't a police presence there. And these cars were being stopped on the highway. They were jumping on the cars. It was getting very precarious there. How is it tonight?
MIKE TOBIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I didn't see any of the jumping on the cars. What I did see is both sides of 277 were shut down right here in front of Bank of America stadium. What you're looking at now is the aftermath, because as soon as the protesters got the highway blocked off, then we saw the cops and the riot gear. And all at once they came advancing their line, thumping their shields with the intention of being intimidating.
They also had the paintball rounds out. And it's my observation right now there's some kind of a chemical irritant in those paintball rounds. We've seen that before. I also have a strong smell of vinegar, and that's because a lot of the demonstrators think if they put vinegar on a bandana that will minimize the effects of the teargas in the event that teargas comes out. This guy is telling me I'm lying, but I'm smelling vinegar.
So you see the police right now in the middle of the highway, their presence. You've got police on the other side of the highway. And that's the situation out here, Sean.
HANNITY: Unbelievable. Mike Tobin, stay safe out there. Here with reaction, former NYPD detective Bo Dietl and radio talk show host James T. Harris. Bo, do you agree with Rudy? You were there when he was mayor. This shouldn't even be taking place.
BO DIETL, FORMER NYPD DETECTIVE: You know what, you have school buses. You have those plastic handcuffs, they got to be utilized, Sean. You've got to get these people right away. These people are committing crimes. They're beating people up. They're robbing people. They're setting fires. They're doing whatever they got to do. They're assaulting people and committing crimes. If you don't stop this, this is going to continue.
And just watching your show last night when you're interviewing people, why are you there, they have no real idea of with why they're there. Also the fact they want to see the video. We have a due process of law. What, do they want to show it in a movie theater? You don't take the law into your own hands. This is America. We have a judicial system.
Look what happened in New York a couple years ago when de Blasio let them demonstrate, closed down the Brooklyn Bridge, closed down the roadways, and look what happened. They made an environment where two cops were assassinated in New York. What frightens me are these other people out there right now could happen what happened in Dallas. I'm afraid for these cops out there.
So they must go in there, get the troublemakers out of there, lock them up when they commit crimes, lock them up, and disperse this. You can't let this keep going, it will get its own legs, and before you know it you'll have a full riot situation where people are not going to be able to control it.
HANNITY: Let me go to James T. Your reaction?
JAMES T. HARRIS, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: I had a caller on my show today who said what you're seeing when you see these riots are not Americans of African descent that are looking for answers. You see people who are looking for revenge.
I also had another guest on today who was brilliant. He said in the absence of perspective and context, what you get is chaos. And we're seeing people being allowed to run wild in our streets and our cities. We're seeing lawlessness all in the, you know, like this is the First Amendment right to protest. They do have that. But they do not have a First Amendment right to destroy and disrupt society in this fashion.
HANNITY: Yes. All right, guys, we really appreciate it. Bo, are you running for mayor of New York? Are you going to try to clean this up?
DIETL: I filed for mayor of New York. And I love when de Blasio tells Trump he knows about the streets. How does de Blasio know anything when he gets up at 11:00 and starts working at 11:00. I'm running against him. I filed and I'm running as a Democrat against de Blasio in the Democratic primary.
HANNITY: Bo Dietl against comrade Bozo de Blasio. All right, we'll be watching closely. Thanks so much both of you.
DIETL: Thank you, Sean.
HANNITY: When we come back, last night we had it out with Geraldo Rivera. He and Niger Innis are here to react to the very latest out of Charlotte, North Carolina, straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: This is a Fox News alert. A third night of protests underway in the city of Charlotte, North Carolina. Joining us now with reaction, Tea Party Forward chairman Niger Innis, FOX News senior correspondent Geraldo Rivera. You and I got into it last night a little bit. And it's not personal, Geraldo. I don't understand how you can look at this the way I look at this and say there is something dramatically wrong when people are not willing to wait for facts and evidence and allow a presumption of innocence. In this case it's a black cop, it's a black mayor, it's a black victim that's shot here. Either he had a gun or he had a book. By all indications he had a gun.
GERALDO RIVERA, FOX NEWS SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: You are so smart, so sincere, so sharp, I want you to run for Senate for the United States.
HANNITY: Yes? Where?
RIVERA: But you see one side of this reality. Even though it is by far the biggest problem, the black on black crime, the urban decay, the violence that creates these scenes where the situations where these people appear as menaces to the cops. Si the cops react. They are conditioned to react, they're trained to react. They react. But tou have to --
HANNITY: Why do we pay attention to only this? Why do we ignore 3,660 in Chicago?
RIVERA: My point is that you must come to the place where you admit that a person should not be victimized by anybody just because of what they look like.
HANNITY: You're an attorney. We don't know what happened yet. Every indication up to now is that it was a gun.
RIVERA: And why not release the video?
HANNITY: I don't have a problem with it.
RIVERA: All right, so let's get together. And we call on the family want it released. People on the right and left want it released. Release the damn video. Let us see what happened.
HANNITY: Your take, Niger.
NIGER INNIS, CHAIRMAN, TEA PARTY FORWARD: Both you and Geraldo know of my father, longtime chairman in the Congress for racial equality, Roy Innis.
RIVERA: My brother from another mother.
HANNITY: Mine too, by the way. He's got a lot kids. He's got a lot kids, your dad, Niger.
INNIS: I have a lot of brothers and sisters. He didn't believe in radio.
(LAUGHTER)
INNIS: And he was a pioneer at establishing civilian complaint review boards at a time when cops, when the police brutality was a serious problem in the inner city, in the Harlems of our country. It is a different age. For the couple of hundred blacks that are killed by cops, there are thousands killed by other blacks. And there's something insidious, a subtle white supremacy that is being promoted by the Black Lives Matter crowd because they don't talk about the thousands of blacks killed by other blacks. It seems like black lives only matter when they're killed by white cops.
HANNITY: Geraldo, I said that to you last night.
RIVERA: I believe it. But listen, and Niger says it well, thousands of black people killing other black, hundreds of black people being killed by blue people. But that doesn't make them nothing.
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: It's a virtual silence about the other.
(CROSSTALK)
RIVERA: And let them be unfair, but not us?
HANNITY: I'm not being unfair. This is the only show in America that scrolled the names of the people in Chicago.
RIVERA: We say, just on the video. Rahm Emanuel almost lost his job because he didn't release the video of Laquan McDonald. Release the video in Charlotte.
HANNITY: All right, we've got to leave it there. We'll fight Geraldo tomorrow night.
As always, thanks for being with us. Stay with the Fox News Channel, continuing coverage.
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