This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," March 9, 2011. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: And this is a Fox News alert. Now earlier this evening, the Wisconsin State Senate stripped Wisconsin's public sector unions of many of their collective bargaining rights.
Now Republican lawmakers were able to separate the portion of Governor Scott Walker's budget bill that deals with collective bargaining and pass that on its own in the absence of the state's 14 missing Democratic senators.
Now, their presence is only necessary to move forward on fiscal matters. And tonight's events come after weeks of union protests aimed at killing this part of the measure. And despite the setback, Wisconsin's Democratic Senate minority leader is now vowing to fight on.
Ann Coulter will be here just a moment with reaction to that.
But first, tonight, two National Public Radio executives are out of a job. What a shame. Now, the company's CEO Vivian Schiller resigned earlier today at the request of the company's board. Now this comes in the wake of an explosive video released yesterday and it shows NPR Executive Ron Schiller, no relation to Vivian, making nasty remarks about his political opponents. Now, here's part of that tape.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RON SCHILLER, NPR EXECUTIVE: The current Republican Party is not really the Republican Party, it's been hijacked by this group -- that is --
AMIR MALIK, MUSLIM EDUCATION ACTION CENTER TRUST, MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD FRONT GROUP: The radical , racist, Islamaphobic, Tea Party people?
SCHILLER: And not just Islamaphobic but xenophobic, I mean, basically they are, they are, they believe in sort of, white, middle American gun-toting, I mean, it's scary. They're seriously racist, racist people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Now Schiller announced last week that he was leaving NPR for another job. But in light of this tape, NPR made the resignation effective immediately. Now, as for Vivian Schiller, this is her second major scandal in just a matter of months. You remember how gracefully she handled the first, NPR's decision to fire my colleagues Juan Williams.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM OCT. 21, 2010)
VIVIAN SCHILLER, FORMER NPR CEO: His feelings that he expressed on Fox News are really between him and his, you know, psychiatrist or his publicist or take your pick. But, it is not compatible with a news analyst with the role of a news analyst on NPR's air.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: All right. And good riddance to her. Now the question is whether the personnel changes at NPR will be enough to save its federal funding?
And joining me now with reaction, best-selling author, hugely tremendous following on Twitter and a columnist, the one and only, Ann Coulter. How are you?
ANN COULTER, AUTHOR AND COLUMNIST: Fine, thank you, good to be here.
HANNITY: I told everybody you were going to get a new hairdo, that didn't happen.
COULTER: Yes. I got my haircut.
HANNITY: It looks nice.
COULTER: Because someone on Twitter who said she wanted to be me except that she were me she would get her hair cut. And I said, that's why you can't be me, but I did get my hair cut.
HANNITY: All right. Now, why don't we start with Wisconsin, that's the breaking news now. Huge victory, and guess what? They didn't need the 14 Democratic hideout cowards after all.
COULTER: Huge. But I'm really glad this came up. Because this has been driving me crazy. Where has Scott Walker been on network with that admittedly has 20 viewers, they are covering what is happening in Wisconsin as if it is the 9/11 attack. I haven't seen Scott Walker on TV for two weeks now. If he were Chris Christie, he would be on TV every night. His lieutenant governor would be on TV, I don't even know the lieutenant governor's name.
HANNITY: No, no. The lieutenant governor has been here. The governor has been hereand on radio.
COULTER: Not last night, really, not last night because for four hours on MSNBC, this is all they talked about Wisconsin last night.
HANNITY: But who cares?
COULTER: The point is, this is a battle for the nation, people don't understand what is going on. When it takes me 10 minutes today -- for my column I wrote about Wisconsin today. Among the contracts I mentioned was one for the bus drivers that lead to a bus driver in Madison two years ago earning $159,000, more than $1,000 of that in overtime. There were six bus drivers who made more than $100,000, there are enough egregious --
HANNITY: How many hours was he driving that bus?
COULTER: And by the way, the response of the guy who oversees the bus drivers was well it is in the contract. Every American ought to know about every one of those outrage. Do you know, if you work for the state of Wisconsin, if you take a single phone call, a single phone call when you are not at work, you get to bill for half an hour of overtime.
These are insane contracts because there is no management with government. It's another politician trying to buy your vote. There's no, you know, capitalist overseer, trying to squeeze more work out of people for less money.
You can't have unions for government workers. Which FDR said, which George Meany said. And why aren't the Wisconsin Republicans pushing this. I think they're -- I love them, but this is tough love, you have fallen down on the job and they are losing the battle as we saw from the Rasmussen poll yesterday. I'm glad they came up with this today, and I do want to ask, why it took them three weeks to figure this out?
HANNITY: All right. That's a good question.
Next, let's move on the NPR.
COULTER: Yes.
HANNITY: OK. The Tea Party group, radical, racist, Islamaphobic. And he goes on and on. White Middle America, gun-toting. It's scary. Wait a minute. Doesn't this sound like Obama saying, you know, they cling to guns and religion?
COULTER: I was going to say, all this stuff about the Tea Partiers, the Americans, the evangelicals, that's like, you know, a typical day at the White House. What, no one really seems to be talking about but you started the show talking about was, these guys who came and in the fantastic James O'Keefe video and said, they were part of the Muslim Brotherhood here in America. So, wait a second, NPR was going to take $5 million from the Muslim Brotherhood, a terrorist organization. What if they were sitting down with Al Qaeda? I think we need the FBI to investigate NPR and their agreement to take $5 million from a terrorist organization, operating in America.
HANNITY: And that's why -- let me go to this one tape where this was Vivian, I believe, or no I'm sorry, an NPR executive. They actually used to describe themselves as national Palestinian radio.
COULTER: Right.
HANNITY: Let's roll this tape.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCHILLER: I don't actually find it at NPR.
IBRAHIM KASAAM, MUSLIM EDUCATION ACTION CENTER TRUST, MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD FRONT GROUP: What exactly?
SCHILLER: The Zionist or pro-Israel even among funders. No. I mean, it's there in those who own newspapers obviously but no one owns NPR. So, actually, I don't find it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: All right. That was the Ron Schiller one. I mean, obviously, I mean, the pro-Zionist view that they own the newspapers, obviously.
COULTER: Right. Right.
HANNITY: Playing into a false narrative caricature of frankly anti-Semitic view.
COULTER: And of course it is anti-Semitic. He's sitting with what he thinks are members of the Muslim Brotherhood in America.
HANNITY: Yes.
COULTER: No. I think this is -- is Peter King still doing his investigations?
HANNITY: Yes.
COULTER: Because they ought to throw this into it. NPR is sitting down about to accept $5 million from the Muslim Brotherhood.
HANNITY: All right.
COULTER: And by the way, James O'Keefe has done more to destroy liberalism in America than any of the Wisconsin Republicans.
HANNITY: Well, he, by the way, another tape apparently is coming out tomorrow, this is not the only one.
COULTER: Well, good for O'Keefe.
HANNITY: Good for O'Keefe.
COULTER: I bet you O'Keefe would not have accepted a phone call from a fake David Koch. Whomever did this cannot work for Republicans anymore. You know, I speak with the Harvard Republicans every couple of years, huge group. If you are a Midwestern governor --
HANNITY: You are being a little harsh here. He took a stand.
COULTER: If you're a Midwestern governor taking on, the biggest fight in our country's lifetime right now, spending us through the roof, Chris Christie wouldn't have appeared one on Chris Wallace's show and then --
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: Your obsession with Chris Christie is --
COULTER: Because he's the only one who is fighting the public unions properly!
HANNITY: No, no. He's not the only one. John Kasich in Ohio. Scott Walker gives him credit.
COULTER: As of yesterday, he was losing.
HANNITY: Well, you are looking at one poll.
COULTER: One poll? Two polls from Rasmussen!
HANNITY: Wait a minute. But here's the bottom line.
COULTER: Republicans need to fight this battle publicly.
HANNITY: Ann, hold on a second. He is doing what we want conservatives to do. Every conservative governor that has taken on spending the unions in the end wins the public opinion battle. This war is not over. It has only just begun and you want him on TV every night.
COULTER: Every night. I want him or one of his people on TV --
HANNITY: Chris Christie doesn't go on TV every night.
COULTER: -- talking about the outrages of the union contracts, where government workers distinguishing them from steelworkers who should have unions, unlike Governor Walker's --
HANNITY: Wait a minute. Chris Christie on the health care. Why didn't New Jersey join on health care? Where is Chris Christie on guns? Why did Chris Christie support Christine O'Donnell's opponent in Mike Castle?
COULTER: No. We are not having this discussion again. We are discussing.
HANNITY: But you don't want to have this discussion.
(CROSSTALK)
COULTER: No. I do. But right now, I want to have the discussion of Republicans not understanding that they are in a war with Democrats. This is a war for the country, and by the way, the guy who cut my hair today said, oh, they are all the same. They are all the same. They're not all the same. The Democrats are defending this nonsense at a contract that allows a bus driver to make $159,000 one year.
HANNITY: Is Chris Christie the only guy you think going to run and win as president?
COULTER: We are not discussing Chris Christie.
HANNITY: I know, I asked you the question. So, we're discussing it.
COULTER: Two weeks ago --
HANNITY: Did you not hear the question?
COULTER: -- I recommend Scott Walker as a potential vice presidential candidate for him, not anymore, you don't hire people who'll put you on the phone with the fake David Koch and then run for president.
HANNITY: You are making a mountains out of a mole hill here.
COULTER: Are the other way the Republicans are different from the Democrats to get back to NPR here is --
HANNITY: We have to run.
COULTER: We should not be discussing whether NPR is good and whether the programming is helpful. Where in the Constitution does it say the United States Congress can fund things to help culture and education? It is unconstitutional, cut spending on this nonsense.
HANNITY: We got to go.
Coulter, your haircut looks wonderful.
COULTER: Thank you.
HANNITY: Great to see you.
COULTER: Thank you.
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