This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," August 24, 2012. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: Welcome to this special edition of "Hannity." Now, you just saw part of the new movie titled "The Hope and the Change."
Now, the hour long film, it's a product of Citizens United and highlights a large group of registered Democrat and independent voters who supported President Barack Obama back in 2008. But now, four years later, they are not buying into the hype, the hope, the change.
And the movie is going to premiere on Tuesday in Tampa at the Republican National Convention. And then in September, just in time for our Election Day, the movie will be out in theaters.
But tonight, only on "Hannity," you will be able to see large portions of this film. And then later, you're going to hear directly from some of the voters that are featured in the movie, and all them voted for Obama in 2008 and will no longer be supporting him this election.
Joining me now are the writer, director of the film Steve Bannon, the film's producer David Bossie. And Fox News contributor Pat Caddell. Now, Pat consulted on the making of this film.
All right. I don't say this lightly but I mean every word of this. This is the most powerful documentary I have ever seen in my life. There is no way that anybody watches this film could vote for Barack Obama. It's impossible. You bring us back and walk us through the whole election cycle. It's almost like -- it's almost like, I feel like I have amnesia and I follow this every day. Tell us how you got started.
STEVE BANNON, "THE HOPE AND THE CHANGE": David and I last year this time sat down to talk about having a film for this cycle. And we didn't just want to make a film that talked to conservatives or talked to Tea Party people. We wanted to really think through, kind of look at it through David Axelrod's eyes in the summer and fall of 2012, and we said, if we look at those battleground states, seven states, 100 counties, seven or eight states, counties, five to six million voters, all Democrats, all independents that voted for President Obama.
And that's when we reached out to Pat Caddell. We needed people that help us find the pool of people that are out there that were so strongly supported President Obama, we want to go through the journey of their live and the journey of the country in the last four years, so.
HANNITY: It is almost like an awakening process. You remind us of the huge crowds, "Yes, we can," and I'm not going to have to put gas in my car or pay for my mortgage if we elect Barack Obama. I mean, it was almost like this hypnotic trans, you capture that. And now people wake up, four years later.
DAVID BOSSIE, "THE HOPE AND THE CHANGE": It's a very powerful film, Sean. I think that that is -- saying it in their own words, as Steve said, these are Democrats and independents. These are what I consider -- people bandy about the political professionals, bandy about the Reagan coalition. In my opinion, that's who these people are. And if politicians can learn to speak to middle America, these people, they're going to win a lot of elections.
HANNITY: You know, Pat. You are a Democrat, you have been outspoken against the Obama administration. Very different Barack Obama in 2012 than the one on this film.
PAT CADDELL, "THE HOPE AND THE CHANGE": Yes.
HANNITY: This was an uplifting figure what was going to unite the world and --
CADDELL: What's important is that all of the people who appear in this film who are again, Democrats, independents, no Republicans, no conservatives, no Tea Party people. These are people who were in the middle or, you know, conservative Democrats or moderate Democrats. But they believed. Which we're talking about is, they invested a great deal of hope. And their disappointment -- now, Sean, you are a conservative, your objection still --
HANNITY: Oh, I had Obama nailed from the beginning, Pat, so.
(CROSSTALK)
CADDELL: But these voters have invested other kinds of hopes. And their disappointment in what they did not get, what he promised and what he has delivered. And what is shocking is hearing their own words. And my job in this -- I mean, what I helped them do is, you want to do this straight. You have to go out and talk to people in their language, not your language, not the people you talk to. And let them express it because it will shock you, because they're not heard in America.
HANNITY: I think that's the best word. Look, and we are going to show, folks -- you have to see this. We are going to show you a lot of the film throughout this next hour.
I think that's the words that I would use. It shocked me to go back and to see the crowds and to see people and this moment where people thought that this country was going to get better and change and that this unifying figure -- and seeing it through the prism of today and then the negativity in this cycle.
BOSSIE: Can I just say, you know, everybody likes to -- on a daily basis attack Citizens United for our Supreme Court case. You know, we went to the Supreme Court and fought the Federal Election Commission for our right to do this. We didn't go to create Super PACs, we didn't go to create American crossroads or allow unions to be able to spend a lot more money. We went to the Supreme Court for our First Amendment rights to be able to make films and advertise them, which was a criminal act -- a criminal act under McCain/Feingold. And so, I'm proud to say, this is our first film since the Supreme Court.
HANNITY: That's a great point. It really is. When you are going through that old footage, though, and you see the crowds and the select moments that we all remember --
BANNON: It was unbelievable. I mean, we, you know, looked at the crowds on how they look. You look at the catharsis --
HANNITY: Crying --
(CROSSTALK)
BANNON: By the way --
HANNITY: All these celebrities.
BANNON: One of the reasons I got the idea is when we heard the focus groups and then we start interviewing people. I asked them to go back to the summer of 2008 when you first became conscious of Barack Obama, asked them go back to Election Day. Asked them to go back on grand party night. And the emotion, the investment people had in President Obama. It was unbelievable.
And so, when you put it together with the footage and hear them talk about it, you could see this country, I mean, President Obama for a moment in time had something that I think was very unique in American history. And you see kind of how its evolved over time --
HANNITY: Maybe this is the wrong question. Was it all an illusion? In other words, was he almost like -- a product of slick marketing?
BOSSIE: Can I just say, I don't think the people that are in this film and a lot more people -- that we spoke to in the focus groups, they really didn't understand Barack Obama's background. They didn't understand, you know, our first film in 2008 about Jeremiah Wright and about the terrorist, the connections and all of his background, they didn't understand it nor care.
BANNON: But remember, as Democrats and independents, you're talking, that's what Pat and Kendra Stuart (ph) were so important -- they have a different nomenclature. Those types of things that people are talking about in 2008, they even came up with that Reverend Wright, that is not even on the horizon.
HANNITY: It really isn't.
BANNON: It's not on the horizon, Sean. It was very much focused on bringing the country together.
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