This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," October 1, 2009. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: For months the Obama administration has seen a revolving door of nominees, appointees and "czars" come and go. And through it all one thing has been clear — the vetting process at the White House is almost nonexistent.
That is our headline tonight, "Amateur Hour." Now the latest official to make it through Obama's all-star vetters only to find himself embroiled in controversy, is safe school "czar", Kevin Jennings.
Now in that role, Jennings is responsible for promoting safe and drug- free schools. Now he's a unique choice for the job considering his own history of drug and alcohol abuse, which he describes in his own autobiography.
And that's not all. Jennings now acknowledges that a high school sophomore once confided in him that he was sexually active with an older man, and instead of alerting the authorities, Jennings instead only advised the student to make sure that he wore a condom.
He released a statement yesterday saying, quote, "21 years later I can see how I should have handled the situation differently. I should have asked for more information and consulted legal or medical authorities. Teachers back then had little training and guidance for this kind of thing."
And there is another late-breaking development tonight. In 1999 Jennings wrote the foreword to a book called "Queering Elementary Education." And I promise you, America, I'm not making this up. Guess who wrote a blurb for the back of the book praising it as, quote, "An important contribution to nourishing the ethical heart of teaching."
You guessed it, our old friend, Bill Ayers.
So with all these new details about Jennings, will he be the next official from team Obama to now have to call it quits?
Well, it's a tradition that started long ago, even before the inauguration. Now first, there was New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson. He withdrew his name from consideration as commerce secretary.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOVERNOR BILL RICHARDSON, D-N.M.: I have asked the president elect not to move forward with my nomination at this time. Unfortunately, the ongoing CDR investigation would have forced an untenable delay in the confirmation process.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Now not long after that press conference a parade of tax cheats marched through the administration. Tom Daschle wasn't so lucky.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TOM DASCHLE, FORMER SOUTH DAKOTA SENATOR: I deeply apologize to President Obama, to my colleagues and to the American people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: And more recently it has been the unconfirmed "czars" in the national spotlight, thanks to former communist Van Jones. Now, you remember him. He had such nice things to say about Republicans.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VAN JONES, FORMER GREEN "CZAR": They're (EXPLETIVE DELETED). Now I will say this. I can be (EXPLETIVE DELETED).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: What a class act. So will Kevin Jennings follow in the footsteps of Van Jones and all of the others that have been forced out of the Obama administration?
I'm joined now by the author of the New York bestseller, "Guilty," Ann Coulter, and FOX News contributor, Kirsten Powers.
Guys, welcome aboard. Here's where this gets to be a big problem, Ann, because he even admitted in 2000 himself that this sophomore, who he said — he said — is 15 years old, came to him and said that he was having a relationship with an adult male.
His advice was — not to tell the authorities, because by definition that would be, as The Washington Times said, statutory rape. His advice was to ask if he was wearing a condom.
ANN COULTER, AUTHOR & COLUMNIST: Right. I mean, I think that story, to avoid the squid ink of the left claiming that this is an anti-homosexual thing tell the same story where it's a girl who's having sex with an adult man in a bathroom in a bus stop. I mean, that's the point here. And I liked your list at the beginning of all the problems Obama's had with the "czars" and appointees and Cabinet nominees.
But I have a slightly different list. You have ACORN encouraging and counseling these two, well, actors, as it turns out, how to avoid taxes, how to bring Salvadorian sex slaves into the country, underage girls. You have all of Hollywood and media elites defending Roman Polanski for anally raping a 13-year-old.
And now you have this guy who's written the introduction to "Queering Elementary Education." I mean that is the issue here, and you mentioned Bill Ayers.
Can't you just let kids be kids? No, they want to sexualize kids generally and forget the homosexual aspect of it, just sexualizing kids generally and teaching them about how to come out or how to deal with homosexuality in kindergarten. It's monstrous what they're doing.
HANNITY: And there's more to this, Kirsten. I think this guy should be — first of all, he shouldn't have been appointed. It's a terrible vetting process. Because all of this information is out there. Secondly, he founded the group Glisten. Glisten, they sponsored this controversial conference where the issue of describing the process of fisting was put out.
KIRSTEN POWERS, FOX NEWS POLITICAL ANALYST: OK. Yes, I mean.
HANNITY: But you don't want to hear it, but these are kids.
POWERS: Yes. Well, again, I hate to agree with Ann, but I actually totally agree with everything that she just said, and I think there is a real element on the left that unfortunately does allow for this kind of stuff and almost embraces it.
And that, you know — and in a lot of it you see it with feminist groups doing it — like Ann was saying, if this had been a girl, you will have feminist groups actually arguing that it's OK, because they don't — they want that girl to be a woman so she could have an abortion if she wants to have an abortion.
HANNITY: The question, Kirsten.
POWERS: So — what?
HANNITY: Should he be fired?
POWERS: Yes. I find this very, very troubling. I don't think his explanation — I'm a little skeptical about it. He got caught, and so, of course, this is what he said. I don't think that — you know, I think this is a really serious issue, actually, and that people do not take it seriously enough, and there's this attitude, especially because it's a gay boy that, you know, well, it's a boy and so it's not that big of a deal.
HANNITY: I don't think it has anything to do with orientation. I think this is about judgment. You know he said — I don't buy this. He's saying 21 years ago, I should have handled this differently. Twenty-one years ago did we not know that pedophilia, which is an adult having sex with a child.
POWERS: Yes, I guess what I'm trying to say, Sean, is just that I think sometimes people take an attitude that, like, oh well, you know, boys always want to have sex, and so it's not that big of a deal if a boy is having sex with somebody older or something like that.
You know there's this attitude that's just — it's just incorrect. These are children, and he was in a position of authority and this kid confided in him, and he had a responsibility to report it.
HANNITY: Well, and that's the point. And he didn't. Now here's another question. So why — how do all these people — we've got a guy, John Holdren. I'll throw this back to Ann who we lost on the satellite for a second, but Ann, it's a pleasure to have you back. But we got Cass Sunstein...
COULTER: Thank you. It's so good to be here.
HANNITY: We've got Cass Sunstein, here's a guy who wants to ban hunting and also is a guy that wants to give lawyers to animals. We've got John Holdren who has written about —
POWERS: I support that, Sean.
HANNITY: — poor sterilization.
(LAUGHTER)
You know, these —
COULTER: OK, let me get in before the satellite goes down, Sean.
HANNITY: OK. Go ahead.
COULTER: I want to get back to Kevin Jennings. Forget what he did 20 years ago. I mean a lot of people can do bad things and set themselves on the right path. I mean not forget it altogether, but he hasn't set himself on the right path. This is another William Ayers.
He is saying — has said recently in education conferences that he wants us to get to the day where people will hear, oh, they're promoting homosexuality, and people will say, oh, well, so what else is new? Who cares?
This is his agenda right now. But on the bright side, I do have a solution for Obama that can kill two birds with one stone. He can move Kevin Jennings out and put Roman Polanski in this position, which would satisfy the Hollywood left, and I think he could even move Kevin Jennings into that green job "czar" position. Isn't that open now?
HANNITY: All right. Let me — what are we to make of this connection? He writes the foreword for the book, this is the safe school "czar". He writes the foreword for the book, "Queering Elementary Education," and who else blurbs the book but Bill Ayers, the unrepentant terrorists? What do we make of this weird connection that exists out there, Kirsten?
POWERS: You know, I don't know. Isn't Bill Ayers an education expert? It doesn't really seem that strange to me. I have to say that I think that.
HANNITY: The guy that bombed the Pentagon.
POWERS: I know you — I know how you feel about Bill Ayers.
HANNITY: OK.
POWERS: And — but I think in terms of the quote about him wanting to — you know, we'll get to a day where people will say promoting homosexuality is OK, when I looked at it in its full context, what he was really saying was that people will just be tolerant and that's what he meant by promoting homosexuality.
He didn't mean like making kids be gay, he just meant to be tolerant of homosexuality, which is, I think, something we all embrace probably?
HANNITY: Let me —we're not talking — this isn't about sexual orientation. We're not even discussing this. This is about judgment and about, is this the best qualified person and where's the vetting?
Ann, let me throw this last question to you, because you have Cass Sunstein, he wants to get lawyers to animals and ban hunting. John Holdren has written about — for sterilization of women.
We haven't even gotten to them tonight. Van Jones on top of it. And I'm wondering, you know, who — what has happened to any vetting process in this country? You want to take a stab at that?
COULTER: All right. Well, yes. You can judge Obama by the people he surrounds himself with. And, I mean, this is what Democrats always do. They run — people vote for him because they didn't like Katrina, they were getting tired of Iraq, they were getting tired of Bush, and he looks like a pleasant young man.
But then, you know, he gets in and look at the people he surrounds himself with. They weren't signing up for Kevin Jennings and Van Jones.
HANNITY: All right, guys, thank you. Good to see you, appreciate it, and thanks for being with us.
POWERS: Thank you, Sean.
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