Gingrich: Trump represents a very profound rebellion
On 'Hannity,' former House speaker on how the outcome impacts the rest of the presidential race
This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," April 26, 2016. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: And this is a Fox News alert. Welcome to this two hour live edition of "Hannity."
Now, it's been a very big night for Donald Trump. He just took the podium at his headquarters in New York City at Trump Tower. Let's listen in.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(DONALD TRUMP SPEECH)
HANNITY: All right, that was Donald Trump addressing supporters after winning all five GOP races tonight. And on the Democratic side, this was just in, Fox News can now project that Hillary Clinton will beat Bernie Sanders in Connecticut's Democratic presidential primary. Now Clinton has won four out of five contests tonight.
All right, lot of delegate issues. Let's head on over to Bill Hemmer. He's standing by at the big board to give us a big delegate count. What do we got?
BILL HEMMER, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Sean, good evening to you. On the board now our delegate tracker here has Donald Trump at 950 delegates. He needs to get to 1,237, magic number. He's just shy of 300 needed so far.
On the night, Sean, he's won 105 delegates that were up for grabs out of a total of 118, and some of this could change a little bit. But 105 is a blowout number based on all the estimates prior to tonight. He swept Connecticut, got all 28 delegates in Connecticut. He won winner-take-all Delaware, got all 16 delegates in Delaware. Maryland has 38 delegates on the map tonight. So far Trump has taken 35 in the state of Maryland. That may go a little higher. We'll see, three delegates outstanding. And he won all 17 at large in the state of Pennsylvania. So that's where we are at the moment at 950.
So as we go forward now, and we'll -- well, Tuesday, a week from now is Indiana, right? And you know the Fox polling came out last Friday afternoon. If it stays this way, Sean, you know, that's another pickup for Trump. And we can -- we're going to talk more about the Hoosier state in the next seven days than you've heard about in a very long time going back to Gene Hackman as head coach there.
Then we'll go to Nebraska the following Tuesday. It looks good for Cruz. Same day, West Virginia, looks good for Trump. Not all 34 but a good chunk of it in West Virginia that day.
Following week, Oregon seems a bit of a split right now between Donald Trump and John Kasich. We'll see how that continues. But Trump a slight delegate lead in Oregon. Cruz has a slight delegate lead in Washington state.
So now we're in the month of June and we'll just tick through this quickly. We believe as it stands today Trump wins winner-take -- excuse me, Cruz wins winner-take-all in Montana. Cruz wins winner-take-all in South Dakota. Also that day New Mexico, we did a little calculation the last couple of days. We think Trump picks up a few more delegates than the others as it stands right now.
And then you're in California -- 172 on the line delegate total. We think Trump will win 109 in the state of California. That same day now, over here on the east coast in winner-take-all New Jersey. So he's at 1,164. He would be 73 shy of the magic number of 1,237. And winner-take-all New Jersey at 51 would put him at 1,215 making him 22 delegates shy.
Now, already tonight, Nate Silver has been crunching the numbers among the 54 delegates in Pennsylvania that are free agents, basically. Sean, if you go to the list on his website, they have the winners from the delegate face-off tonight in Pennsylvania. Of those 54, a total of what appears to me as I count them up, 36 of the 54 have said they'll either vote for Trump on the first ballot or they will vote for the person who won their congressional district.
So let's drill down a little bit and see on the results page here just what happened in these five states tonight, OK? Trump is in purple. This is Rhode Island with the county map. Trump 64 percent, 99 percent reporting. This is Connecticut tonight. Trump's in purple, 58 percent, 82 percent reporting. This is Pennsylvania, few counties outstanding, four more to fill in at the moment -- 72 percent of the vote outstanding -- is in, rather. Trump's at 57 percent. This is the state of Maryland tonight, and this is Delaware. So far he has won every county in every state that had a primary tonight, five for five. And a clean sweep not just of the states, Sean, but of the entire counties in these five areas.
I mean, that is extraordinary. And I don't know anyone in this business or in politics or in the country who made that prediction prior to the vote today. That's just -- I mean, that's what you call a clean sweep with a capital "C" and capital "S" all the way.
Now, how does Trump make the argument for winning in a general election? If you look at some of the geographic regions in the country so far, he's won up here in the northeast. We've marked that. New Hampshire, and then down here in Massachusetts, he's at 35 percent in New Hampshire, just shy of 50 percent in Massachusetts a while back. Down here, so that's the northeast. Deep South is Mississippi. Next door, Alabama. Trump has won in both states down there as well, and a few others in between, granted, but I'm just making the point about geography here.
And out here in the southwest in Arizona, 47 percent of the vote in Arizona. Up here in Nevada, that's Clinton/Sanders -- Hillary Clinton beating Bernie Sanders by five points. On the Republican side in the state of -- let me try and get -- hang on one second here. We'll try and get this thing. It was cooking with gas there for -- OK. Here we go.
(LAUGHTER)
HEMMER: Trump, you know, 46 percent of the vote. You see the point. You see the argument he's building here for this general election. I know you've got Newt coming up here in a moment here.
Sean, one other thing here, and I'm very curious to get his take and yours as well. Trump is going to make the argument that he can win in states like Pennsylvania, and after tonight you're like, wow, maybe he can. He's talked a long time about that he could win in the state of New York. Maybe he can.
But if you look at the primary raw vote total from week ago in New York, the Democrats had 1.8 million votes cast. Republicans had 800,000. That's a 1 million vote spread. In Pennsylvania I was just looking at the numbers, about 60 percent of the total vote in between Republicans and Democrats, and there's still a couple hundred thousand more raw votes on the Democratic side than the Republican side. If you're going to make the case you need a better turnout in November. That's just the point on that.
So there's a lot more to get into. We'll go to the look ahead and we'll change some things up here and show you if Trump does not do what we said what the scenario could be, Sean.
HANNITY: Bill, we'll get back to you. But think about this. So we have New York, we have about, what, 92 out of 95. Tonight, 105 out of 118 bound delegates. Then we've got the 54 unbound delegates, and we'll be going back to Bill Hemmer all throughout the night in finding out what happened with those.
I put up, Bill, as we talked about last night on my web page, those delegate names on the ballot in Pennsylvania and whether they were supporting Trump, Cruz, or Kasich. So we should have more of those numbers coming in as well. All right, so we'll get back to Bill Hemmer at the big board.
Now, before we go, quick programming note. Tomorrow, my friend, my colleague, Greta Van Susteren, she is going to be hosting a town hall with Donald Trump in Indiana, the next big state one week from tonight. If you happen to live in and around Indianapolis, you want to go to tomorrow's event, just go to Gretawire.com and find out how.
Now coming up, we're going to have a lot more live reaction to tonight's results. We have Newt Gingrich, Laura Ingraham, also later, Governor Mike Huckabee, and much, much more. Stay right there. We'll continue.
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HANNITY: Welcome back to "Hannity." A big night for Donald Trump after he won all five GOP primary contests tonight. Here with reaction, former speaker of the House, Fox News contributor, Newt Gingrich. Mr. Speaker, I know we delayed your appearance here tonight. I appreciate you bearing with us.
Look at the numbers Bill Hemmer just gave us -- 105 of 118 available bound delegates tonight. Then you've got 54 unbound delegates of which many have said and pledged that they will support Trump or the winner of their district. It looks like most of Pennsylvania went that way. So you got Trump very clearly approaching 1,000 tonight in terms of delegates. You said in your newsletter that tonight would tell us a lot. How to you interpret tonight's results?
NEWT GINGRICH, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I think, look, it's an even bigger sweep than I expected. I think Bill Hemmer said that Trump will have carried every single county in all five states. That is an astonishing achievement. That means, of course, he's going to get all the congressionally allocated delegates.
Now, so this is a big night for him. And it raises a very interesting question about the mindset of the news media and the mindset of Washington, which is, what is it you think is going to change when you get to the next big fight? Why do you think California where Trump is ahead by at least 18 points, what is it that's going to suddenly go sour for Trump? What is it that's going to go sour for him in Indiana?
And you see the momentum building here. I think it would be very, very hard, virtually impossible, to stop him from winning the nomination at this point. And I think it's -- I understand why Cruz and Kasich don't agree, but for everybody else who has looked at the data, this is an enormous achievement building on New York, and it means that he's almost certainly going to have an absolute majority of the delegates before you get to the convention in Cleveland.
HANNITY: Yes. And the argument that has been made by his opponents is that it's going to be a contested convention. Now, after tonight's results, based on -- you're laughing. I always know that laugh. I've known you since 1990. OK, what?
GINGRICH: My question, I have friends who talk about a contested convention, if Trump comes out of California and New Jersey at somewhere -- I think Bill Hemmer had him about 1,250 at that point. Now, what's the contest? He won. And the challenge then for the Republican establishment is to get over it.
HANNITY: I want to pick it up there. This is the back of the show -- the back of the hour. We're going to have a nice, long segment with you. We'll reset at the top of the hour. We'll have a lot more reaction from Newt Gingrich to tonight's results, also talk about Hillary Clinton, a potential matchup. Laura Ingraham is with us, Kimberly Guilfoyle, Eric Bolling, Willie Robertson, Hemmer at the big board. Two hour special live edition of "Hannity" continues, and please stay with us.
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HANNITY: And welcome back to this special two-hour edition of "Hannity." We'll get back to Newt Gingrich in just a few minutes. We have Laura Ingraham coming up, but as you can see, we're back at the Bill Hemmer big board. I want to go particularly, 105 of 118 delegates so far. That might change tonight.
HEMMER: Could be a little higher but not by much.
HANNITY: Not by a lot.
HEMMER: Could be. I'm -- could he hit 110? He could. I think the Trump people thought, even today, if they were 80 or 90, that would be a blowout night.
HANNITY: But this is --
HANNITY: Not what they expect.
I want to go to Pennsylvania. I want you to explain one more time, because Trump won the state of Pennsylvania. So he got 17 delegates for winning the state.
HEMMER: Right.
HANNITY: Now, there are 54 unbound delegates. People of Pennsylvania actually voted for delegate names not associated with the candidates. Tell us what this --
HEMMER: And what the Trump team did in the final week is they put a list out of delegates who would vote for Trump on the first ballot in Cleveland. You can see that on the ballot, by the way. You can see that name if you were paying that close attention.
HANNITY: This is interesting because this might be the first example. They brought in a new team specifically for delegates.
HEMMER: Could be.
HANNITY: And Paul Manafort. Are we saying maybe that --
HEMMER: I think so. I was just watching this tick behind you. I think he'd make a good point about that, too. And I can't say for sure. Maybe that is in the works. But it appears you might be right. And Pittsburgh, 90 percent of the vote --
HANNITY: Go do Philly. What do we got in Philly?
HEMMER: Philly down here obviously in the southeast, this is Delaware County. This is Philadelphia. These are the counties around the city and he's at 57 percent. You come out here to Montgomery County, almost 50 percent. Pop down here to Chester County, plus 44.
HANNITY: Let's go the three counties. Do we have any numbers coming back in from those three outstanding, nothing at all?
HEMMER: Yes. The ones you can see in gray are information is not in. I'm not quite sure what is going on there. That was a huge rally in Pennsylvania yesterday. That was right around, let me get it right there, just southwest of Scranton.
HANNITY: We've got have to take a break. We're going to come back. We have Bill Hemmer at the big board all night. We'll be watching the delegate count very, very closely. We also have Newt Gingrich, he'll come back, full analysis, what this means for the state of the Republican Party. Is there a contested convention or not? Laura Ingraham joins us. We have our panel, Willie Robertson, Kimberly Guilfoyle, Eric Bolling, and so much more as we continue tonight on "Hannity."
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HANNITY: Welcome back to this two-hour live edition of "Hannity."
Donald Trump, he goes five for five in tonight's primaries. And back with us now for reaction, former speaker of the house, Newt Gingrich. I just got a lot of e-mails. I think you said, they're going to have to get over it, meaning the establishment. Do you think they're having a hard time dealing with this insurgency here?
GINGRICH: Look, I think somebody could have a profitable business just having Trump adjustment classes.
(LAUGHTER)
HANNITY: There are psychology classes for those suffering under Trump, I guess, victory syndrome in cases.
GINGRICH: You look at the data, and look, there are a lot of things I disagree with Trump about, both on policy and on style, but you look at the data, you look at the degree to which he has assembled millions of Americans, creating a really new movement that is much more aggressive, much more inclusive, and nobody thought he could do it. So when I hear all the people who were wrong for the last year tell me their newest idea, my first question is, why would I have believed them now when they have clearly not known what they were talking about for a full year? And that's why I think this is absolutely one of the most amazing experiences in American political history. And as a historian and as somebody who's been a pretty reasonably successful politician, I am absolutely fascinated by what we're living through.
HANNITY: He said in a speech tonight that Hillary would be easier to beat than any of the Republicans he went up against. Now, in hypothetical head to head match ups, the most recent one that's 46-43 within the margin of error, others have had Hillary in the lead -- do you think he would beat Hillary Clinton?
GINGRICH: Well, I think he would beat her, and second, my point would be, why would we think any of us understand what a Trump general election campaign will be until we see it? He's going to turn with the same energy, the same drive, the same risk-taking, he's going to follow his own gut. He's not going to follow Paul Manafort, he's not going to follow Lewandowski, he's not going to follow anybody -- Chris Christie, who he may admire a great deal, but Trump got to this point in his life with a very intense focus on his intuition, his gut instincts, his willingness to gamble, and my guess is that he would run a campaign against Hillary unlike anything we've ever seen a Republican do, at least since Theodore Roosevelt back in 1904. It would be so inclusive, so aggressive, and have so many appeals to people that you normally never hear from a Republican, that I think it would really be fascinating.
HANNITY: Let's talk about Donald Trump tomorrow. He's giving a foreign policy speech, from what I understand, this is going to be the real deal, a real speech, sort of like what he gave at AIPAC. We heard him tonight for 35 minutes. Evaluate his tone, his pitch, his cadence. The things that he was saying sounded optimistic. I'll bring jobs back, businesses aren't going far away, I will be competitive, I will make better trade deals, we will make America great again.
GINGRICH: Well look, I think if people would -- when I say people, I mean the Washington elites and the New York elites -- if they would drop their assumptions about who Donald Trump is and actually listen to him for a while, this was a pretty sophisticated conversation tonight. You may disagree with him about certain things. I supported NAFTA back when he passed it. So obviously I have some defensiveness there, but he's making a sophisticated argument about the nature of the world. His statement about nuclear weapons is exactly right -- you have you to be idiotically out of touch with reality to think that global warming is as dangerous as nuclear weapons, and Trump in that sense is a much more realistic person about national security than the current commander in chief. So I listen to him and I was actually impressed. And I think, correct me if I'm wrong, Sean, and you and I have been kidding about this now for two months -- I think he got through the evening without one lying Ted.
HANNITY: Well, we did get a couple of crooked Hillary's in there.
GINGRICH: But that is all right, that's the next fight. I just want to get him out of the last fight. He won the last fight.
HANNITY: Well, that's an important point you're making in this sense -- if you follow social media, the antipathy, the anger, the hostility, the rhetoric going back and forth, Cruz supporters hating Trump supporters, Trump supporters hating Cruz supporters, it's been as intense as any election I've ever followed in my life, and we've been through a couple together, and I was emceeing the night you became speaker of the house in 1994 -- does that go away? For example, I would expect if I'm a Cruz supporter, I'm saying, we're going to Indiana, we're going to California, we're going to New Mexico and we're fighting.
GINGRICH: They have every right to fight all the way to the end. Football teams don't stop in the third quarter. Basketball teams don't stop with three minutes still on the clock. They have an obligation, totally legitimate to the campaign. I'm saying as an outside analyst, I don't see how they get there, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't try. The burden, and this will be interesting to watch -- the burden is about to shift onto Donald Trump's shoulders. He is, as he said tonight himself, the presumptive nominee. Now that means the guy has got to unify the party. It ain't Ted Cruz, it ain't John Kasich, not Reince Priebus. The guy has got to unify the party as the presumptive nominee, namely, Donald Trump.
HANNITY: I asked you a question on radio today. I want to repeat the question, not to hear myself talk, but we had 17 really impressive people start this process. Governor Perry, Governor Bobby Jindal, John Kasich's record in Ohio, if he doesn't get it, Marco Rubio, Scott Walker, Carly Fiorina -- I can go through the whole list, then we could add people that didn't run like Nikki Haley and then maybe some others. Would it be wise, would it be smart to maybe put a coalition together, announce to the country, this is going to be my vice president, my secretary of state, my secretary of defense, Dr. Carson, Health and Human Services -- would that be a wise, maybe unconventional idea from an unconventional candidate that could work? And Ted Cruz to the Supreme Court?
GINGRICH: Look, it's certainly worth considering, and I agree with you. I thought that this was the greatest depth of capability that we have seen in a Republican nominating process in my lifetime. You look at the total 17, that was a remarkable level of talent that started down this road, and Trump can take some satisfaction in the notion that he's still standing. There were a lot of first rate personalities out there, any one of whom you would have thought had a fair shot at winning this thing, and he just gradually outgrew all of them, out-argued all of them, turned out to have skills none of us thought he did, and a lot of this -- it certainly, to me, is a big surprise. As you know, we've known Donald a good while. I had no idea he had this level of talent and this ability to put together a majority.
HANNITY: To be very fair, though, even though the last Fox poll had Trump up by eight in Indiana, in the previous poll, up by six, you have this alliance that took place between Kasich and Cruz, it didn't get a lot of good, favorable reaction from what I saw on social media, but on top of that, there are a lot of reports tonight that Ted Cruz may in fact even announce a vice presidential candidate as a means of bringing energy to his campaign -- you're shaking your head before I finish the question. Why is that? We're friends so you can do that, that's fine.
GINGRICH: There are two parts to this. The first is, you have two guys who are the weaker of the three candidates, bringing weakness to each other because in a year, when people are angry about politics and they're angry about deal making, to be openly, publicly trying to make a deal like this personifies everything people are already mad about. Second, and I think Trump is exactly right about this -- you don't start thinking about the vice presidential nominee until you have the delegates. The idea that the guy who's losing is now going to announce his vice presidential nominee doesn't make any sense at all to me because it makes it look like the person is out of touch with reality. Aren't they aware of the fact that they're not winning?
HANNITY: Let me go through this last question, and I promise I'll let you go home and go to sleep. I know you had a long trip back from Europe. So as of tonight, Trump has won 27 state or territory -- of those contests, he's won 27. Cruz has won 11. Rubio has won three. Kasich won one. If he falls short, 50 delegates, let's just say, will they be able to take it away from him at that convention? What would be the reaction if they did?
GINGRICH: Look, you would have a nationwide movement bringing pressure to bear on Cleveland. The other side can't offer this, but the other side, remember, right now, is characterized by stop-Trump. They're not characterized by positives. They're not characterized by, here's the better future. They're stop-Trump. But Trump represents a very profound rebellion against the current political establishment, and those millions of people, the people that are showing up at all of these big rallies, those millions of people are going to do whatever it takes -- you could have an amazing number of people coming to Cleveland if they thought this was going to get stolen.
HANNITY: All right, Mr. Speaker, thank you for staying with us so late, we appreciate it. Coming up, a lot more reaction to tonight's primary results. We have analysis. Laura Ingraham, Eric Bolling, Willie Robertson is here in studio with his beard and everything. Also, Kimberly Guilfoyle, they will all join us as "Hannity" continues. Stay right there.
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DONALD TRUMP, R-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We are really honored by this night and I'm really honored to have hit over 60 in virtually every race with 3 people in the race. I started off for 17. I'm down now, I'm winning, and it's over. As far as I'm concerned, it's over. These two guys cannot win, there's no path. So why would I change? If you have a football team and you're winning and then you get to the Super Bowl, you don't change your quarterback, right? So I'm not changing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: All right, Donald Trump, earlier tonight, addressing supporters after he swept all five Republican races. Here now with reaction, editor in chief of lifezette.com, Fox News contributor, Laura Ingraham. Is he the presumptive nominee in your opinion?
LAURA INGRAHAM, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: I'd say yes. I know everybody is spinning out these fantasies that Indiana is going to change momentum, and then we're going to go to California and Cruz and Kasich together are going to peel away dozens and dozens of districts. I mean I guess that could happen, anything could happen, but I think if it were anybody but Trump, the party would be rallying and people would be basically wrapping this up. I don't want to take away anything away from Ted Cruz. He's run a fantastic campaign, and I guess if there's a landslide movement in Indiana, a real scene change for some reason, and I don't know what it could be, it could change, but right now, in my home state of Connecticut, I can tell you, the people who are contacting me today and tonight from Connecticut are saying, finally, we have someone who speaks for us. And they're telling me they have not felt that way since 1984. These are my family, friends, high school friends, college friends, Rhode Island, Connecticut, you know, not too far away in Maryland -- this is a profound thing, and I know a lot of the never-Trump people are upset and I get that and they're maybe somewhat bitter tonight, but --
HANNITY: Do you think they hold to that, though? In other words, I have never liked never-Trump, never-Cruz. I've never liked the in-fighting. I don't like hostility on social media. Do you think they stand there when they're going to compare and contrast whoever the Republican candidate is?
All right, Trump now, really, if you look at, he's won 27 contests. Cruz won 11, impressive wins on his part, but after tonight, Trump will have about 3 million more votes than Ted Cruz, his next closest competitor. Indiana is certainly not over. Indiana, you've got to get to 1,237. Cruz is going all in there. You see the Kasich-Cruz alliance. Do you see any path for preventing Trump from getting that number?
INGRAHAM: Yes, there's a possible path, but when we're reading pieces tonight, Sean, that Kasich's allies on the ground in Indiana, his people, his grassroots, are now in rebellion, according to POLITICO, about this deal -- they're like, wait a second, we just spent the last ten months pounding the pavement for you and now you're telling us we have to be quiet and not speak publicly on your behalf? So I think it was maybe the only play they had to do this deal that's kind of not even a deal, I guess it's the only play they had, but so far, I just think it's gone over like a lead Balloon. My callers today on my radio show were just over the top, including a lot of Cruz supporters, and they called and they said look, my whole family is for Cruz, but this is the last straw. I mean, I can't tell you how many callers I -- just today, in Indiana, who called in to say that, and that struck me.
HANNITY: What's fascinating is the millions of more Republicans that have come out this year than in '08 and 2012. Republican Party always talks about wanting to expand their base. Clearly, their base is being expanded. Certainly issues that have not been discussed as passionately in previous elections involving issues of trade and immigration and building a wall and other issues -- seems to be resonating. Blue collar workers seem to be coming back. Reagan Democrats seem to be coming back to the party, but yet the establishment seems to want no part of that.
INGRAHAM: I just think that what we see now is that the conservatives, and those are mostly represented by Cruz, and the populous, are dominating the Republican Party. Bushism is over. That's gone. That's just been totally rejected. There is no audience for Bushism, period. No audience at all.
So this is a great moment. People should savor this moment. All of our friends that we really love, we love these people who write for national review and other folks, and I know they're mad, but I'm going to say to them, the life for conservatism will be much worse if Hillary becomes president of the United States, because the party splits in two at the convention, Sean, and it's for television cameras to see a disaster at the convention. If we go into that convention without unity, it's over. Hillary wins this race, we've lost the Supreme Court for our lifetime, and I think if Trump and Cruz can somehow come together at the end of all of this and we can bring this party together, I think the sky is the limit. New England just voted for a populist conservative tonight. New England. I grew up in Connecticut. I lived in -- my family is from Massachusetts and Rhode Island. I lived in New Hampshire. There is a populist wave sweeping this country and it's real, and to reject it and to dismiss it and to demean it is not going to get these conservatives any policy victories that they want. I think conservatism and populism have to work together for the betterment of the country. We have to put our egos in the back seat.
HANNITY: I have to let Laura go, otherwise she's going to get arrested. If it happens, I promise I'll -- she only knows what I'm talking about here. This is the real deal. We don't want Laura Ingraham arrested, but I will come, I'll bring a cake with a file in it, that's a promise, all right?
INGRAHAM: Thank you, Sean. As long as I get off easier than Hillary. Thanks.
HANNITY: Oh yes, OK. Well, you won't be wearing orange jumpsuit and shoes without laces.
INGRAHAM: Not my color.
HANNITY: Before we go, quick programming note, my friend and colleague, Greta Van Susteren, she is hosting a town hall with Donald Trump, it's in Indiana. Now if you live in and around Indianapolis and you want to attend tomorrow's event, just go to gretawire.com and find out how you can be a part of the audience.
Coming up, our good friends from "The Five", Eric Bolling, Kimberly Guilfoyle, and that guy with the beard, well, you know him. Willie Robertson is here in the house as we continue, straight ahead.
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TRUMP: How do you pick a man, on the second or third or fourth ballot, who has millions, five, six million votes less than Trump, and I'm the one that brought all these people into the party? That's why the Republican Party is up almost 70 percent from 4 years ago. And you know what's going to happen? Those people, at a minimum, they're going to be very upset, very angry, but at a minimum, they're just not going to vote.
Everybody is talking about the party, worldwide how hot the Republican Party is. Some people used to say (inaudible) -- well, the Democrats are 35 percent down from four years ago. The Republicans are almost 70 percent up from four years ago. That's an amazing tribute. And that's not because of Kasich or Cruz, that's because of me.
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HANNITY: All right, Donald Trump, earlier tonight, after sweeping all five primaries, that is Maryland, Delaware, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania. K.G., look, we all were factoring this in. And I'm getting notes from some Cruz people and they're saying, wait a minute, this isn't over yet, this isn't over yet, and people are saying, all right, so let's talk about the path that others might have. They can't -- neither Kasich nor Cruz can get to 1,237. They need to stop Trump from getting there. They started the alliance. How does that work out for them?
KIMBERLY GUILFOYLE, FOX NEWS HOST, "THE FIVE": I mean this just wasn't like a sweep, this was a leg sweep. I mean, he pretty much took everybody out with this, and I think this begins and ends in Indiana, because how can you even try and recover, other candidates, after this kind of momentum, five decisive wins coming on the heels of a huge victory in New York? So he's definitely got some momentum with them, and then also we saw definite improvement with the ground game tonight as well in PA and getting those unbound delegates, so I think that that is going to be very important going forward and I think the emphasis and addition of Paul Manafort in Indiana will help as well.
HANNITY: It's interesting, because they really were a skeletal staff. I've been out on the road with them and it was Trump, and Cory, and Hope, and that was it. So for the first time, he's actually built a team which all campaigns had earlier on. Was that a disadvantage, Eric?
ERIC BOLLING, FOX NEWS HOST, "THE FIVE": No. I think he did a great job. And Corey and Hope, they brought him there, then they brought in Manafort when they realized they were losing -- there was some delegate leakage when Cruz was going around getting Louisiana delegates, and Colorado and North Dakota delegates, and they realized, oh, we have to tie that up, they're bringing Manafort in, and he does that. Sean, I've been here for six months, seven months saying, I see the path to 1,237 for Trump. I'll do it again tonight. There's a path to 1,237 for Trump. A couple numbers, very quickly. Trump points out, I think his numbers were a little off, here are the real numbers. The Republicans are 64 percent higher turnout this year than 2012. The Democrats are down 20 percent. That tells you some Democrats are coming over to vote on the Republican side and he is getting a lot of them. The anti-Trump crowd, the never-Trump crowd has always said, oh, he's got a ceiling at 30 or he has a ceiling at 40 -- then it became a ceiling of 50. He just blew right the ceiling of 50 tonight, and an NBC poll had him at 50 percent on the presidential election on the GOP side. That one, forget those numbers, and here's another one. Going into tonight, Trump had 2.1 million more votes than Mitt Romney had at this exact same point in time, and at that time, everyone was behind Mitt Romney as the nominee.
HANNITY: And 2.3 million more than Ted Cruz, who by the way, has had a very impressive run so far, and probably 3 million more after tonight.
BOLLING: It's 2.95 million more after tonight.
HANNITY: So go through your path. How do you get there? We were going over the polls --
BOLLING: You've done this for how many years, 30, 40, 50 years, right? It's all about momentum.
HANNITY: Thirty, 40, 50, I'm 95 years old.
BOLLING: (laughter) The momentum, right? Politics, momentum, time, and money. Money's out of the question right now --
HANNITY: K.G. is much nicer. I love that five but I'm really taking sides now.
BOLLING: We're the same exact age. So OK, if we've been doing this, let's say 35 years. Momentum and time now. He's got all the time in the world, now. Cruz, time is running out for Cruz, and time is running out for Kasich, but he's -- Donald Trump has momentum. Indiana, brings him into California --
HANNITY: But the number of states are also profound. 27, we're talking about states, territories that candidates have won, he's won 27, Cruz 11, Rubio 3, and Kasich 1.
BOLLING: If you're an unbound delegate, and there are some 150 of them out there floating around right now, and they see this big mass momentum getting behind Donald Trump, what are you going to do? Throw your vote up to someone else?
HANNITY: Let me bring my friend Willie in here.
GUILFOYLE: Get your wagon.
HANNITY: So I had you and your dad on the show and you were both debating. He supports Ted Cruz, you support Donald Trump. If Trump wins, how would your dad react to that?
WILLIE ROBERTSON, CEO, DUCK COMMANDER: Oh, he'll be fine. He's already said that he would support Mr. Trump.
HANNITY: He's not going to vote for Hillary under any circumstances?
ROBERTSON: Yes, he doesn't like what's on the other side of this. He met with Cruz and they (ph) shot a spot, which I didn't know about, and then I got home and I said what'd you do, and --
HANNITY: By the way, that was a pretty cool spot.
ROBERTSON: Yes, it was. Until he said that, you know, we were all backing Cruz.
HANNITY: And then meanwhile you're the family rebel and you came out --
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: I know you did a prayer around the dinner table. Any chicken legs being thrown back and forth?
ROBERTSON: No, no. He's fine with --
HANNITY: Any duck wings being thrown over there?
ROBERTSON: Whoever it's going to be, he's fine with, and that's how our family works. We have arguments about it --
HANNITY: You go around the country -- in many ways you're like a preacher. And you speak in a lot of churches, you speak to a lot of different groups. What are people telling you as you go to the different parts of the country? One of the things that Bill Hemmer was saying at the big board is, OK, Trump is organizing in the northeast, in the Mid-Atlantic states, in the Southern states, out in the Pacific. We'll see in the Pacific Northwest soon enough.
ROBERTSON: They say I don't look like a preacher. So that's what they tell me. This is not a preachery look.
But what I'm hearing is that people really want change. I do see the anger, but I do see them want something to change really in all of it. So if you're antipolitician, it's a great year I think to be Trump. I think Cruz I think just made a big mistake with this alliance thing right here at the end. I think he was going to have to play it perfect to actually take him on. I mean, if you look -- if you look back at what Trump has done, he just got into politics. And here he is, just steamrolling everyone. And then right here at the end, I think they -- I think it looked weak and I think it's going to -- it didn't help them any.
HANNITY: You don't think it helped (INAUDIBLE).
ROBERTSON: To team up and then --
HANNITY: But you know, Kimberly, some of the exit polls confirm issues we have all talked about now for a long time. Pennsylvania, 60 percent of Republicans feel betrayed by Washington Republicans. That is a massive number. It's not immigration. 39 percent talk about the economy and jobs.
I keep mentioning every night, we have 95 million Americans out of the labor force, 50 million in poverty, 46 million on food stamps. 57 percent are very worried about the economy. 83 percent believe an outsider is the one that's going to be able to fix it. 71 percent believe the country is in desperate need of change. How do you interpret that data?
GUILFOYLE: I think that he's really encapsulated that movement and that feeling, that emotion, that energy, that passion, to see something new in the country. And those polls and other polls that we've seen after other primary elections really substantiate that. We see that this an electorate that is ready to move. They're ripe for it. And he was the guy that came in at the time and was able to connect with them. And yes, he ran an unconventional campaign, but guess what? He's right. He's saying why would I switch up my game? You know, you go to the Super Bowl with what you know, how it works, and what moves you (INAUDIBLE).
HANNITY: Do you worry about party unity? You --
GUILFOYLE: Yes, I do. I'll tell you why. As an attorney, as a prosecutor, I'm very concerned about the U.S. Supreme Court. And I'm telling you, if the Republicans like go into this, just like Laura Ingraham said, they go into that convention, they're not united, you might as well hand it over and not even show up at any other, you know, further convention stuff going forward, because it's going to be game over.
HANNITY: Eric, he's going to start a series of policy speeches. He starts tomorrow on foreign policy. He has one upcoming on judicial philosophy where he told me the other night in an interview that he will give the names of only the 10 or 12 people that he would ever consider for the Supreme Court. They will be either Antonin Scalia-like, or Justice Thomas-like.
Will that -- will that maybe help conservatives that support Ted Cruz, that may have doubts about Trump as he moves forward?
BOLLING: I would hope that they take what Donald Trump did with Paul Manafort and say, hey, he can surround himself with people that know things that he may not know, areas that he may not have experience in, and bring them into the fold and he'll make some good policy decisions. I mean, there's some concern about that but he did great with the delegate process.
That list of data that you just outlined right there, the exit poll stuff that Americans are really worried about, that should be his -- his basically campaign philosophy against Hillary Clinton when he becomes the nominee. Instead of fighting with Ted Cruz and John Kasich, turn it over to her and say you want eight more years of Obama policy? In Hillary Clinton, you get eight more years of that.
HANNITY: Willie, let me throw this last question at you. Ted Cruz and John Kasich made the case -- they -- they say they do better in head-to-head match-ups. Interesting, battleground poll yesterday, it was within margin of error, Trump versus Hillary. You buy that argument? And if they make that argument, why aren't they doing better in terms of primary voting?
ROBERTSON: I don't buy that argument at all, because if you go back to when Trump first started, and you looked at polls and you've seen how they've changed, especially once he started getting momentum and steamrolling people, and you saw things change. I think Hillary's a terrible candidate.
HANNITY: Awful.
ROBERTSON: I mean, I -- I think she got trounced by Obama. She's probably better than she is now, because now she has all this other baggage. People don't like her and I think she's very beatable. And once it gets down to tow, I think you'll see the polls changing. You'll see these people start moving. I just -- I just -- it's a bad argument.
HANNITY: All right, thank you guys for being with us. Good to see you all. Great to have you in town, by the way.
Now, programming note. Don't forget. Right after this show, in 26 minutes from right now, KG, Eric Bolling, and of course all of our friends at "The Five", they will be live for analysis and continuing coverage.
And coming up, we have more reaction to tonight's five primary races. We got Tucker Carlson, Geraldo Rivera, Monica Crowley will weigh in as we continue tonight on "Hannity."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON, D-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The other day, Mr. Trump accused me of playing the, quote, woman card. Boo. Well, if fighting for women's health care and paid family leave and equal pay is playing the woman card, then deal me in.
TRUMP: I work far more for women than Hillary Clinton will ever do. Including -- remember this. Including protecting our country, because she will not be good with the military, she will not be good with protecting our country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: all right, that was Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump trading jabs earlier tonight. So is this a preview of upcoming attractions? Here with reaction, we have Fox News contributor Tucker Carlson, Fox News senior correspondent Geraldo Rivera, and Fox News contributor, and she's with "The Washington Times", Monica Crowley.
All right, Geraldo, I find her speeches -- and don't take this the wrong way because I know you -- you're going -- he's going to take it the wrong way. I find it unlistenable. They just -- she like screams them. What is that?
GERALDO RIVERA, FOX NEWS SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: The fact that she is at times screechy. I think -- what I would do, if I were her -- let me finish. If I were her --
HANNITY: I'm laughing, because if I did --
RIVERA: If I were her, I would have an audio engineer give her an earpiece where she can hear what the microphone is hearing. And I think it would solve the problem. I don't understand how these professional politicians haven't taken care of what is essentially a technical problem. She sounds like this. And (INAUDIBLE). Because she's playing to the crowd instead of to the mike. It's a simple fix. But let me say --
HANNIT: You know what I love about you? You're so honest and you can get away with it because of your politics. If I said what you just said, right? I'm in trouble.
RIVERA: One more point on that. I think that Donald Trump can and should go after Bill Clinton, as he has very effectively, with Monica Lewinsky and using that as the --
HANNITY: Coming from you? I am shocked.
RIVERA: But he cannot savage Hillary Clinton in the same way.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sure, he can.
RIVERA: (INAUDIBLE) who is her opponent (INAUDIBLE) across the stage and hand it to her on a piece of paper. Hillary Clinton is going to pay the price.
MONICA CROWLEY, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: I disagree with that.
HANNITY: Tell him why. Because I agree with you.
CROWLEY: First of all, Donald Trump is not a politician so the standard rules of political play do not apply to him. He can get away with a lot more than the average politician or more traditional candidate can. Secondly, that sort of rash persona where he takes no prisoners and he doesn't care who you are. He doesn't care that Hillary Clinton is a Clinton. He doesn't care that she's a woman. He blasted Bill, he is blasting her, he's getting away with it. And it's gotten him to this point--
RIVERA: If you want him to lose women by 55, 70 percent.
CROWLEY: -- where he is at the precipice of getting the Republican nomination. He's not about to stop now because this is who he is.
HANNITY: Is this fait accompli, Tucker? Do you -- I would urge people on both sides, and I'm getting notes from Trump supporters, Cruz supporters, remiding this is not over. Big night, five states, six in a row, almost a full delegate sweep of six states. But Indiana is coming up. And then other states are coming up that I think, on paper, are favorable to Ted Cruz. What do you think?
TUCKER CARLSON, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, if it's not over it's hurtling toward over. The shock among Republicans in Washington is -- it's a sight to behold. They really believe that voters out there in the states are dangerously out of touch with Republican pundits and donors. I mean, they really believe that. And they've gotten to the point where they're blaming voters for something they can't control.
So the new idea is, well, voters are just stupid and they're just liberal. They're just not conservative. This coming from the exact same people who refused to secure our borders in the Republican Party, who sent Americans to die in order to nation-build in the Middle East. They're lecturing conservatives in the states, well, you're not really a conservative. As if they're the only ones who get to define what that is.
HANNITY: But here's an important question I want to ask you, though. Will they sabotage? Will they want the Republican insurgent presidential candidate to lose so they can say see? We told you how dumb you are?
CARLSON: Well, that's what they're doing. That's what they're doing right now. I mean, of course. I mean, no one's even -- look, no one's even making an affirmative case against Trump. They're just -- they're saying well, you're just -- he's just racist. I mean, they're employing the ugliest tactics of the left in order to discredit Trump without defending their own views. Look, if you're for open borders, if you're for more foreign wars, if you think that carried interest on the state of the tax code, say so. Make your own case. But they don't. They instead just attack him as just beyond the pale. It tells you everything.
HANNITY: Let's talk about a VP candidate. And then let's -- it doesn't have to be Donald Trump. Let's just -- he is probably in many people's minds tonight the presumptive nominee. The number of delegates that we have, at least 105 of 118.
RIVERA: He's the nominee.
HANNITY: You think he's the nominee?
RIVERA: I think he's the nominee.
HANNITY: You think he's the nominee?
CROWLEY: Well, I think it looks increasingly likely.
HANNITY: OK, who would be the best VP if that's the case?
CROWLEY: Well, I think he's got some obvious choices. Number one would be Ted Cruz because he --
HANNITY: Ted Cruz?
CROWLEY: Well, he's given Donald Trump a real run for his money.
HANNITY: Hold the nose!
CROWLEY: Second choice, I think Marco Rubio, who he said some nice things about. And Rubio has returned the favor over the last week. He's still got a number of delegates that could come into play.
HANNITY: What about Kasich? Of Ohio?
CROWLEY: John Kasich. John Kasich, his whole mission was to prove that he could, as running for vice president, not running for president, running for vice president, that he could deliver the key state of Ohio. He has done that. He has proven that point. Why he's still in this race I'm not quite sure. But he would also be an obvious choice.
HANNITY: All right, Geraldo's having a heart attack over there.
CROWLEY: But he's a little bit of a loose cannon.
HANNITY: What's the matter?
RIVERA: I think that Kasich is the obvious choice. I am so sad that his eating disorder has been exposed by Donald Trump because they think Donald Trump has diminished him by ranking him out --
HANNITY: Eating disorder?
RIVERA: Oh come on, this gobbling. I think now, when you see -- and I really like John Kasich, who was my colleague, our colleague, he was at Fox News for three years. I think in Ohio, my wife's from Cleveland, I think he's enormously popular. It makes all the sense in the world and I hope that he can be repaired. I have a job for Ted Cruz. He should police bathrooms to make sure none of those transgender people sneak in unless they are biologically --
HANNITY: Wait, wait. Just when you start making a little bit of sense, you go off the deep end. You do. You're almost there for a little bit. Tucker?
CARLSON: Well, yes, but I think we're missing it. Trump can't pick a man. Not because he needs to win female voters, he'll do fine, but because he can't share a stage with a man. He instinctively diminishes every man who stands next to him. He needs to be the top guy and it's just very uncomfortable to watch. He can only exist with a woman.
HANNITY: I disagree with that.
CARLSON: Really?
HANNITY: You don't think he can share a stage with any of the names that were just mentioned?
CARLSON: No. I don't think he would allow it. I think he really needs to diminish the guy because that's who he is. I'm not attacking him. Just watch --
HANNITY: (INAUDIBLE). But don't successful businesspeople -- if you own a business, like for example, we have this television show. I want the best, the smartest, the brightest people surrounding me, because that helps me be successful.
CARLSON: Yes, that's true. But you can't factor out people's instincts. And Trump's instinct is always to be dominant. And that's one of the reasons a lot of his key advisors are women, starting with his daughter, who I think is his most important advisor. I just -- it's really tough to see him sharing a ticket with a man.
HANNITY: (INAUDIBLE) real quick.
CROWLEY: Well, I don't necessarily agree with the premise, but I would say he does need a help with female voters, so he might have to choose a woman like --
HANNITY: Monica Crowley, maybe.
CROWLEY: Well, OK, we could have a Draft Monica moment here on "Hannity." Or Governor Susana Martinez of New Mexico.
HANNITY: Susana Martinez did not have a lot of nice things to say about him.
RIVERA: (INAUDIBLE) Little Marco. Every time you see Marco Rubio, you're going to think Little Marco. I think that Kasich can be rehabilitated.
HANNITY: I don't believe that.
CROWLEY: He can -- he can -- yes.
HANNITY: Eating, one little eating comment?
RIVERA: It wasn't --
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: OK, now I think Kasich is rehabilitated.
RIVERA: Rehabilitatable.
HANNITY: Rehabilitatable. All right, we'll put that in the new dictionary.
All right, thank -- that wasn't a beau (ph) word. All right, so we're pretty good there.
All right, guys, thank you all.
Coming up, Larry Elder, Peter Johnson, Jr, they weigh in on tonight's primary results tonight as "Hannity" continues. Straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I call her Crooked Hillary. She's crooked. She'll be a horrible president. She knows nothing about job creation. When it came to answering the phone at 3:00 in the morning, she was sleeping, OK? She was, with Benghazi and all of the other problems. You look at what she did with Syria. You look at what she's done in so many different ways. She will not be a good president. She doesn't have the strength. She doesn't have the stamina.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Donald Trump earlier tonight, five for five. Joining us with analysis, well, we have Salem Radio and CRN talk show host Larry Elder, Fox News legal analyst Peter Johnson, Jr., both attorneys.
Let's talk about that. He said, Peter, it would be easier to beat Hillary than any of the 17 that he challenged.
PETER JOHNSON, JR., FOX NEWS LEGAL ANALYST: I think he's showing great confidence. He's ready to go toe-to-toe, head-to-head with Hillary Clinton. And nobody, very few people, but for Sean Hannity and a couple of others, understood that he had the capacity and the desire and the ability to be in the position that he is in now. And he's saying to America I can do it. I will do it. I'm not afraid of Hillary Clinton. I'm not afraid of the Democrats. And, tomorrow, I'm going to be telling you what my foreign policy views are, and then on other issues going forward.
So this is a full-throated presidential campaign, based on someone who wants to win and is going to show the capacity not only to win but to lead in America.
HANNITY: Larry, let's talk about this new maybe campaign strategy, or maybe a new approach to things. He gave a speech at AIPAC. It went over pretty well. Tomorrow it's foreign policy. We expect judicial philosophy, coupled with specific names that he would limit his choice to the Supreme Court so people would know ahead of time if he becomes the nominee.
Will this go a long way to helping him? Will this help maybe those millions of conservatives that don't like him, that are supporting, say, Ted Cruz?
LARRY ELDER, SALEM RADIO/CRN TALK SHOW HOST: Well, it's the next obvious step to go. I mean, he's vanquished his opponents. Now he's got to show that he can actually be a president.
You know, Sean, I just saw the movie "Batman V Superman". And if I'm Ted Cruz, this is a spoiler alert for people who haven't seen it. If I'm Ted Cruz, I feel like Superman after the beatdown that Batman put on him. And probably almost as big as this five state sweep that Donald Trump has had tonight is that poll that you just now mentioned, the GW battleground poll, which shows him just three points behind Hillary.
The argument has always been against Donald Trump that, OK, he can galvanize some people. He can get some crossover votes. He's entertaining. He's spontaneous. He's politically incorrect. But he can't beat Hillary. He's already within three points of her, at least by this one poll. That is almost as big a deal as what happened tonight.
HANNITY: Do you think he is the presumptive nominee, Peter?
JOHNSON: Oh, I think he is the presumptive nominee. And what he's going to demonstrate going forward is a few issues. Reform, rejuvenation, renaissance, and redemption. He has shown that he has the capacity to change the Republican Party. He is not wedded to the lost and broken principles of some in the Republican Party. And so he will not be handcuffed by that, and by token of that, he will have the ability to reach out to Democrats and to independents and say I can be a true compassionate conservative and bring governance to all people in this country at a real price and with real values. That is going to be his strength, and he will have a -- they'll have a hard time stopping him on those issues because he's so different.
HANNITY: Does populism, nationalism, become a big part of modern day conservatism as a result of Trump's position? Larry?
ELDER: No, not really, Sean. I hate to make things overly simple. It is still the economy, stupid. Both the Bernie Sanders supporters and the Trump supporters are mad at the same thing. This has been the worst economic recovery in our lifetime. Obama will be the first president to preside over a recovery where not one year we've had 3 percent GDP growth. People are upset. Their incomes are stagnant. They don't feel their futures are positive. They want some real change, they want the economy to do well, they want their paychecks to rise. That's why they're so upset. And Donald Trump has tapped right into that.
HANNITY: Yes, you know what? Go back to those numbers. 60 percent feel betrayed by the Republican Party. 39 percent say it's economy and jobs. 57 percent very worried about the economy. And 83 percent believe we need an outsider.
Peter Johnson, Jr., Larry Elder, good to see you.
ELDER: Good to see you, Sean.
HANNITY: Thank you.
When we come back, we've got more "Hannity" right after this break. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: Welcome back to "Hannity." Now, if you're in Indianapolis, you want to see Greta and Donald Trump, it's gretawire.com.
Now, that's all the time we have left this evening. But let not your heart be troubled. My great friends at "The Five" have a special midnight edition. They take it over from here. We'll see you back at 10:00 Eastern tomorrow night.
Have a great night.
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