'Hannity': Rand Paul on Tea Party's Strong Message to Washington

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," June 10, 2010. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, HOST: Incumbents are running scared ahead of the 2010 midterms and it's all thanks to the rise of political outsiders backed by the Tea Party.

Now, we saw it this week as former Nevada Assemblywoman Sharron Angle became the GOP's pick to dethrone "Prince" Harry Reid this November. We saw with it Nikki Haley who just months ago was virtually unknown and he's now the likely republican gubernatorial nominee in South Carolina. And before that, we witnessed the power of the Tea Party out in Kentucky when Rand Paul became the republican nominee to become the next United States senator from that state. And the man himself Rand Paul joins me now in studio.

Mr. Paul how are you? Welcome to the program.

RAND PAUL (R), KENTUCKY SENATE NOMINEE: Good.

HANNITY: You know, the night you won I called it a "Randslide," I don't know if anyone told you.

PAUL: Yes, pretty amazing, 24 point victory, we came from 11 points behind to a 24 point victory, no one would have predicted it. You know, but I've always said, you know what? I think it is a year of the outsider. I've never run for office. I'm not a politician.

HANNITY: You're an eye doctor.

PAUL: Yes. But I think government's broken. And I think if we don't do something about it, what I really sense and feel in the Tea Party is people are worried, people are concerned for the future of our country and they see what is going on in Europe and I think there's a debt bomb ticking in our country. And if we don't do something about it, I worry for the future of our country.

HANNITY: I got to be honest, I have the same worries and the same concern and I know a lot of people write me and call me on my radio show and they're saying the same thing.

You had you a great line, and I talked about it the other day with you: I have a message from the Tea Party, it is loud and clear we have come to take our government back.

PAUL: Yes. I think really government has gotten away, has gotten into the hands of the career politicians. And we need some reforms. We used to obey the Constitution. But now, I don't think we obey the Constitution. I think we need some rules again. One, the Constitution would be good for starters. But two, I think we should have term limits. I think, we should limit how long they stay in Washington and I think we should force them to balance the budget by law. They will never do it unless we make them do it.

HANNITY: Yes, it's true, especially when you look at the population aging, we're told Social Security will be in the red by next year. Medicare is going bankrupt. You know, trillion dollar deficits as far as the eye can see. Nineteen trillion dollars in debt by the year 2015. It's unsustainable, I mean, this is simple math, this is basic economics.

PAUL: Well, Federal Reserve chairman said exactly that, unsustainable.

HANNITY: Yes.

PAUL: And when you have someone who usually tries not to scare the market places by what he says, saying the debt is unsustainable, that's a potent word — I mean, that really —

HANNITY: It really is. It concerns me too.

All right, I got to tell you a funny story now, with your dad, who is a controversial figure by every stretch of — you know that. But I got to tell you something, on economic issues, on fidelity to the constitution, you know, I find your dad a pretty articulate, outspoken, somebody I agree with on a lot of issues, I probably disagree with him more on national defense issues. You don't identify yourself as a libertarian like your father.

PAUL: I call myself a constitutional conservative. When I talk about what government should do, I think the primary enumerated function, the primary enumerated power is national defense, bar none. It is what the federal government should do. And it's what no one else can do.

HANNITY: Do you find yourself disagreeing with your dad sometimes?

PAUL: Well, you know, it's interesting, I say that and he will probably agree completely with the statement. So, we don't usually always disagree, maybe on gradations of things. For example, I think in foreign policy, you can be everywhere all the time or you can be nowhere. To be nowhere, some people call that non-interventionism. Some people call it isolationism.

But let's say, maybe we are everywhere all the time and isolationism would be nowhere, what if we came back a little more towards the middle and were everywhere all the time. I think for economic reasons, we may have to consider it, because we are out of money.

HANNITY: Well, I don't think we are everywhere but we got to pick our spots. If the United States is not involved militarily, what would the world look like? You know, it is a balancing act. Because we don't want to be the world's police force. We certainly don't want nation building. We are not looking to expand our empire here. But we are — I don't see any problem with expanding the concepts, the principles of liberty and freedom.

PAUL: Right. But I think, we just have to be judicious about it. For example, I met with 100 G.I.s recently leaving from Fort Knox going over to Afghanistan, their lieutenant colonel was there. And I said, I want to learn something from you guys. You are patriotic, you're taking care of our country, you're doing the things that we all appreciate. What do you think? Do you think that we are turning it over fast enough to the Afghanis? It has been 10 years.

I mean, so, I think, you can still be a good conservative, believe in national defense but ask some tough questions. When are we going to start having the Afghanis step up? Ten years is a long time, let's have them step up, let's have them start patrolling some of the streets. It is like tough love that we want in our country. People — we want them to provide for themselves in our country, we want the Afghanis to step up and start providing for themselves.

HANNITY: What do you think is happening when we look at Nevada, when we look at your win, the outsiders of the Republican Party seem to be coming up with some very, very key victories. South Carolina, I think would be another example. Tea Party supporters, people endorsed by Governor Palin in your case in particular here, you know, going up against the establishment candidates and beating them and beating them soundly.

What does that tell you? How do you interpret that?

PAUL: Something big is going on — really.

I went to my first Tea Party a year ago on April 15th, that's when they all got started. I went down to my square, my youngest son was playing baseball and I was coach, I took time off, went down, I thought well, there will be 20 people there and I'll be right back to the game. I got there and there were 700 people. I live in a small town. Seven hundred people in the square. Something big is going on. People are marching in Washington. You've seen the marchers. Hundreds of thousands of people.

It is an enormous movement and it's spontaneous, it's not directed by Sean Hannity, it is out there.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: There's no one leader. And we were — that April 15th, we were in Atlanta, 25,000 people showed up. I mean, it was a massive crowd. And I think, it's for the very thing, I think, people are looking for the basics: Balance your budget, live within your means, strong national defense. I don't think people want national security. But this government, one party rule seems to be going against the will of the people, which is something historically, we've never seen before. It's usually government of, by and for the people. This is government of, by, for Obama, Reid and Pelosi.

PAUL: And I think, they wanted to read the bills. I mean, you're right.

(LAUGHTER)

PAUL: Read the bill. You know what I propose, I propose they wait one day for every 20 pages. So, that's a thousand page bill, let's wait 50 days and let's read it. They are still discussing what is in the health care bill. They are not quite positive what is in the health care bill, 2,500 pages.

But the bank bailout bill was permeated midnight, a thousand pages passed by noon the next day, no one can read it and no one knows what is in it.

HANNITY: Yes.

Let me ask you about the one controversy that came up after you won the primary.

PAUL: Right.

HANNITY: I looked at your statement. When I first saw the news coverage, I said what? He doesn't support the Civil Rights Act? That's how it was portrayed. And you clearly laid out just the opposite. And it was very clear.

PAUL: I've probably given 400 speeches, I'm not for repealing the Civil Rights Act, it is not part of my platform, it's not part of the Tea Party platform.

I see this as a way to try it not just destroy me but now that I've become a leader in the Tea Party, they want to destroy the Tea Party. It's always been part of their agenda, but let me be very clear I'm not for repealing the Civil Rights Act, would have voted for, and that message was there.

HANNITY: But they tried to purposely distort what you had said.

PAUL: Yes. In fact, I was on sort of a left leaning network that started this going. And they said, all day long I was for repealing it, based on the words of my Democratic opponent, not based on my words. And that's how it all got started.

But I've never been for it. It's never been my position. And I don't know what else to say.

HANNITY: Probably not much more to say.

You've got to go to YouTube and you got to see the video when your dad was in part of one of the debates and I was up in New Hampshire. His supporters are really, you know, loyal supporters of your dad, they were throwing snowballs at me. You got to see the YouTube, it is great.

PAUL: I will talk to them.

(LAUGHTER)

PAUL: I will talk to them.

HANNITY: Do they disagree with you sometimes?

PAUL: Yes, sometimes, I mean, for example, I think in Guantanamo Bay, we have to try them down there, my dad takes a different position. But I joke that at Thanksgiving, you know what? My dad still lets me eat on the main table. So, we have disagreements, you may not agree with your dad all the time, we have disagreements but we do agree in general, the government should be very much limited by the Constitution and much smaller.

HANNITY: I agree with you. And let me tell you, we get back to those first principles, the country is going to be a lot better off.

PAUL: Absolutely.

HANNITY: Rand, thank you for coming. I appreciate you being here.

PAUL: Thank you.

HANNITY: And by the way, you can also catch Rand Paul this weekend when you joins Judge Napolitano for the premiere of his new brand new show, "Freedom Watch" on the Fox Business Network, Saturday, 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. and Sunday 7 p.m., and 11 p.m.

— Watch "Hannity" weeknights at 9 p.m. ET!

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