Democratic Pollsters Renounce Attacks on Tea Party Movement

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," April 5, 2010. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, HOST: Democrats in Congress can't seem to stop talking about the Tea Party nation. Now last week one representative compared member of the Tea Party movement to segregationists and then there's this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. STEVE COHEN, D-TENN.: Tea Party people are kind of like without robes and hoods. They have really shown a very hardcore, angry side of America that is against any type of diversity. And we saw opposition to African-Americans, hostility towards gays. Hostility to anybody who wasn't just — you know a clone of George Wallace's fan club.

And I'm afraid they've taken over the Republican Party.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: And joining me now with reaction to all of this, Fox News contributors and expert Democratic pollsters, Pat Caddell and Doug Schoen.

Here's the latest polls out. Forty percent of members of the Tea Party Movement are Democrats and independents. So is he calling them Klansmen, too?

DOUG SCHOEN, DEMOCRATIC POLLSTER: He's just wrong. Because the Tea Party movement represents fiscal conservatives who want to return to core principles. That's America. More —

HANNITY: That's America. Thank you.

SCHOEN: Yes. And —

HANNITY: Pat?

PAT CADDELL, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Let me just say as a white Southerner who grew up in the Civil Rights movement this use of race saying that everyone who opposes us as a racist is dangerous, and awful and is repugnant.

HANNITY: It's — first of all —

CADDELL: It's dumb.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: Mobsters, un-American, Tim McVeigh wannabe. I came under fire. This is dumb — it can't be this stupid. Because I was at the Reagan Library and I said here's a bunch of — another group of mobsters and Tim McVeigh wannabes out there. And they said, oh Hannity's praising Tim McVeigh.

No, I'm mocking liberals that are attacking and smearing and slandering Americans.

SCHOEN: Our politics has gone astray. And what the Tea Party movement is saying is a plague on both your Houses, Democrats and Republicans, balance budget, fiscal conservatism, rein in spending. And what we did with Bill Clinton was we balanced the budget and we won the '96 election.

CADDELL: Well, you know, the — this whole problem on the budget, these people are saying the country is disappearing, stop this. These attacks for the party of the people — I keep saying for the party of the people — to be attacking the people the way we do and telling me no better and you're stupid and you're a bunch of yahoos, is insane.

HANNITY: All right. I'm just reading the Drudge Report in the break. All right, Drudge Report has a — New York Times story is coming out tomorrow, it's on Drudgereport.com. And the headline is "Obama limits when U.S. would use nuclear weapons."

And he's going to substantially narrow the conditions, under which the U.S. would use nuclear weapons even in self-defense. Now the story goes on to say that for the first time the U.S. is explicitly committing not to use nukes against non-nuclear states that are in compliance with the nuclear nonproliferation treaty even if they attack the U.S. with biological, chemical weapons or launch a crippling cyber attack.

SCHOEN: Sean, we have a bipartisan consensus in this country in support of a containment policy where we do not limit our use of nuclear weapons.

HANNITY: We had.

SCHOEN: Especially when we're attacked. This is wrong. Especially when the Russians are modernizing their new nuclear armaments. We've signed the STAR treaty. And we have a president who wants to move in a non-nuclear direction to get rid of weapons when those weapons are our best security.

CADDELL: Look, I'm a great — we would like to — Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter — I mean, Bill Clinton, everyone wants to get rid of nuclear weapons. That's the goal. The fact is, we've had containment that worked.

In 1991 we threatened the — Saddam Hussein that if they attacked our troops with the chemical weapons, we'd use nuclear weapons and they didn't attack them with it. Then they had the weapons and didn't use them.

HANNITY: Why would the president say that if the United States of America is attacked with biological or chemical weapons — pick any city in America — or if there is a substantial or crippling —

CADDELL: You are inviting an attack.

(CROSSTALK)

CADDELL: You are inviting an attack doing this.

HANNITY: You're saying President Obama is inviting an attack?

CADDELL: You are inviting extremists to say —

(CROSSTALK)

SCHOEN: He is operating with a —

CADDELL: — impunity.

SCHOEN: — dangerous illusion that somehow if we talk peaceful rhetoric, if we negotiate with the Iranians, somehow we won't have a bad result.

HANNITY: But you —

SCHOEN: It's wrong.

HANNITY: You see, I think he's created a vulnerability and susceptibility that is on a frightening level to me. This has now escalated it by tenfold in my mind.

But Pat, you're going to be slammed tomorrow in the blogs as a Democrat. You're saying that the president by definitely making this statement is inviting an attack on this country.

CADDELL: I'm saying that this is naive. I'm saying the Democratic Party —

HANNITY: And irresponsible.

CADDELL: — has a problem with this any way about being naive on foreign policy.

SCHOEN: And I'm saying that the Democrats are ceding the fall election, Sean, by walking away from the Tea Party movement, walking away from our core principles on foreign policy.

HANNITY: Economics.

SCHOEN: And economics and deficit reduction, and pro-growth economic policy. We need jobs. We're not getting them.

HANNITY: I'm going to make a sad prediction. I think he's created such a vulnerability and susceptibility on national security. With all the talk we've had on the economy, all the talk we've had about health care, that Barack Obama, if this keeps up, is going to best be known for the weakening of America's defenses.

CADDELL: Listen, I — this is really — not good — dangerous, dangerous comments.

HANNITY: All right, we got to run. Guys, good to see you.

SCHOEN: Thank you.

HANNITY: Thank you.

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