The road to 2016: Meet the candidates
A look at the presidential contenders on the campaign trail on 'Hannity'
This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," July 31, 2015. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: Welcome to this special edition of "Hannity," "The Road to 2016." We are just 15 months away from the 2016 election and just six days away from the first GOP presidential primary debate, which will air right here on the Fox News Channel Thursday, August the 6th, 9:00 PM Eastern.
Now, it's been an exciting race, and this show has been the go-to place for the 2016 presidential race, and here are some of the highlights from the campaign trail so far.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. MARCO RUBIO, R-FLA., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I believe with all my heart we are on the verge of another American century. I believe with all my heart that America's greatest days are around the corner. And more than anything else, that's the reason that propelled me to run.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
JEB BUSH, R-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm a committed conservative, a reformer, and I have a record and get to go share that record each and every day, and I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it with joy in my heart. I'm going to do it with love for this country.
CARLY FIORINA, R-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Leadership is not about power. It is not about position, it is not about title, its not about living at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. The highest calling of leadership is to unlock potential in others, and now we need a leader who will unlock the potential of this great nation!
SEN. RAND PAUL, R-KY., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Some in our party say, Well, let's dilute the message. Let's become Democrat lite, and then we'll get more votes. I couldn't disagree more. I think what we need to do is be boldly for what we are for!
GOV. BOBBY JINDAL, R-LA., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm not asking you to simply join my campaign. I'm asking you to join a cause. If you're looking for a candidate who will politely manage America's descent into mediocrity, I'm not your man. But if you are chasing a dream, looking for a land where the people are free and the opportunities are real, I am asking you to believe!
GOV. SCOTT WALKER, R-WIS., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We took the power away from the big government special interests, and we put it firmly in the hands of the hard-working taxpayers. That's what we need more of in this great country!
GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE, R-N.J., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There's only four thing I can really promise you, promise you, because it'll be completely under my control if I become president of the United States, and here's what they are. You're never going to have to wonder what I'm thinking. You're never going to wonder what I'm feeling. You're never going to have to wonder what I'm willing to fight for. And you're never going to have to wonder how hard I'm willing to fight for it!
(APPLAUSE)
RICK PERRY, R-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There is nothing wrong in America that cannot be fixed with the right leadership. We need leadership that repairs the breach in America.
(APPLAUSE)
MIKE HUCKABEE, R-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm running for president because I believe that we need the kind of leadership that can help us get there. If I didn't think I could provide it, I'd simply step aside and point you to somebody else. But I believe I've had a unique preparation to come and ask you to let me be your president.
(APPLAUSE)
SEN. TED CRUZ, R-TEXAS, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Show me the candidates that stand up and list chapter and verse, this program, that program, this program, that program, every one of whom have lobbyists, and I guarantee you, their lobbyists ain't cutting checks to me!
DONALD TRUMP, R-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If I get elected president, I will bring it back bigger and better and stronger than ever before, and we will make America great again!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Now, on this show, we have talked to just about every GOP presidential candidate. And tonight, for the next hour, we're going to show you highlights from those interviews.
We'll start with some of the GOP candidates explaining to you, the American people, why they want to be the next president of the United States.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CRUZ: We need a leader who will stand up and tell the truth and who will lead on the great issues of the day, whether it's "Obama care," or our debt or stopping executive amnesty or defending religious liberty or defending the 2nd Amendment or standing up for life or for marriage or for Israel or standing up against Iran acquiring nuclear weapons!
We need leaders who stand and lead, and that's what I've endeavored to do in my time in the Senate. And my commitment is in this race in 2016, that's what I'm going to do going forward.
PAUL: I think, so often, we get people who are elected and they spend decade after decade up there. They lose touch with the people, and then nothing changes. We elect Republicans and say, We want Republicans to balance the budget. And then Republicans do the same thing the Democrats do.
I ran for office originally as part of this Tea Party movement because we were upset with Republicans who doubled the debt. We were upset with Republicans that bailed out the banks. And I still think that now Republicans are in charge of Congress, we need to stand for something.
RUBIO: America's an exceptional country, but it isn't that way on its own. We have to continue to keep that flame alive. And right now, we're not. We're headed in the wrong direction as a country because we have leaders that are trapped in the past.
We need to do three things to fully capitalize on the opportunity of the 21st century. We have to have a globally competitive economy. We have to help our children and our young people acquire the skills they need to succeed. And we need a strong America on the global stage, one that is strong with its allies and strong against its enemies. We do those three things, we're going to have another American century. That's what I want to help lead us to as your president.
PERRY: Our best days are in front of us. We're just a few good decisions and a leadership change at the top from the absolute best days of America. And I know how to do that because we've put that process into place in the 12th largest economy in the world. And to build economically this country back up, and to build American spirit back up that, you know, this is the United States -- we can do this. We've done it before, and our best days are ahead of us.
BUSH: This would be the most extraordinary time to be alive. We should be the world's superpower economically, and we should be the leader in the world as it relates to foreign policy. And we're not right now. If we change directions, our children and grandchildren are going to have opportunities of abundance.
TRUMP: The reason that I want to be president is I want to make America great again. It's very simple. That's my whole theme. That's my whole concept. We have tremendous potential. The world is ripping us off. China is taking advantage. They're taking our jobs. They're taking our money. They're taking our manufacturing. They're then loaning the money back to us, and we pay them interest.
That wouldn't happen with me. Mexico is a disaster at the border, people flowing through, and they're taking us economically. Japan, everybody -- we're a laughingstock. That wouldn't happen under President Trump.
FIORINA: When I was a little girl, my mother said to me, What you are is God's gift to you. What you make of yourself is your gift to God. And I have learned in my life that everyone has God-given gifts. Everyone has potential. We now need a leader in the Oval Office that understands their highest calling is to unlock the potential of every American and of this great nation. I can win this job, and I can do this job.
CHRISTIE: America is at a time of great anxiety because no one's willing to tell you the truth. No one's willing to look you in they eye and say that our retirement system is bankrupting us, that our tax system is killing our economy, that our foreign policy is leading to a more dangerous world and that our education system is going to lead us to be a second-rate power.
You need to hear those truths, and you need to have solutions to those truths. I've worked in the toughest place a Republican can work in America, in California. When I go to the White House, we'll change this country and make the world a better and safer place.
JINDAL: If you want someone that's going to manage the descent of America into mediocrity, I'm not your candidate. If you want somebody who's running for office to do something and not just be somebody, if you want somebody who's going to go to D.C. and make bold changes, repeal "Obama care," secure our border, grow our private sector economy, rebuild our defenses, get back to a place where our friends trust us, our enemies fear us -- if you want somebody who understands America that is about growth, not envy, not redistribution, if you understand we've got to stop this march towards government dependence and socialism -- if you want to rescue the American dream from becoming the European nightmare, I invite you to join my cause.
RICK SANTORUM, R-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We're going to go out and work for men and women and give them the ability to rise and provide for themselves and their family. We're also going to have a president who has the experience to be a commander-in-chief on day one.
I was told by a senior Israeli official that the next president is probably going to be a president who's going to be serving during wartime. We want someone with experience who can handle these problems from day one and keep America safe, and I will be that president.
WALKER: I think people want to see someone who can transfer power from Washington to the hands of the hard-working taxpayers across the country, someone who can stand up and help grow the economy in a way that makes sure that everyone can live their piece of the American dream, and ultimately, someone who's going to protect our children, our grandchildren from radical Islamic terrorism and all the other threats in the world.
And I think if you want someone who can fight and win for the hard-working people of this country, I'm your guy.
GOV. JOHN KASICH, R-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's record. It's experience. And it's the testing. And you know, serving on the Defense Committee for 18 years, being Budget Committee chairman, being one of the chief architects of balancing the budget and restoring prosperity in the country, private sector experience and then being governor of a state that was in deep trouble that we've been able to rescue, and the knowledge to be able to lift people.
And Sean, I think that's what it is. It's to have a stronger economy, create more jobs and make sure that no one gets left behind, no one.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: And coming up on this special edition of "Hannity," "The Road to 2016," we'll show you how the GOP presidential candidates plan to turn around this terrible economy. That's straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(NEWS BREAK)
HANNITY: And welcome back to this special edition of "Hannity," "The Road to 2016."
Now, the next president faces a lot of challenges, including fixing this economy. Now, here's how some of the GOP presidential candidates plan to turn that around.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAUL: The bottom line is there are two sectors of the economy, the public sector, which is the non-productive sector, and the private sector, which is the engine that creates jobs. You need to leave more money in the private sector. What does that mean? You have to reduce taxes.
The last president we had was Ronald Reagan that said we're going to dramatically cut tax rates. And guess what? More revenue came in, but tens of millions of jobs were created. The last couple of Republicans we've put forward, I couldn't tell you what we were for. I think we were for revenue-neutral tax reform. And in Washington, that's what passes for bold.
They say, OK, half of you are going to pay more taxes, and half of you are going to pay less. But the net result to the economy is zero. So you help poverty and job creation by leaving more money with the people.
PERRY: I've been through this before. In 2003, Texas had a $10 billion budget shortfall. In 2011, we had over $25 billion budget shortfall. I understand the pain of cutting. But if we're going to get this country back on track, we're going to have to have someone that's honest with Americans that we're going to have to cut spending, we're going to have to make changes in the entitlement programs.
But we can do this. But you send that message, and Americans will have faith again that they can risk their capital and expand and grow the economy.
WALKER: To me, when it comes to reform, the fundamental essence of that is I want to take power out of Washington and send it back to our states, and in many cases, back to our local communities.
And take education. I think we'd be far better off -- if you looked at a dollar, I held a dollar up earlier and said, Where would you rather spend this, in Washington our at your child's school? I think most people would rather spend to school. And it's why we've got problems with Common Core and nationwide school board type initiatives. We need those powers back at the state and the local level.
And when I think of growth, it's about repealing "Obama care," reining in federal regulations that are like a wet blanket on the nation's economy, using the abundance of all the energy supplies that we have here to literally fuel our nation's economic recovery, helping people get the education and skills they need to succeed, and then lowering and reforming the tax code. Those are all things that will help us grow.
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM, R-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Eighty million Baby Boomers are going to retire in the next 20 years, $70 trillion of unfunded liability. That's going to make us Greece.
When 80 million of us retire en mass in the next 20 to 25 years, we're going to wipe out Medicare and Social Security. All the revenue to be collected in taxes by 2042 will go to pay the Medicare, Social Security bills. The discretionary budget is 32 percent of all federal spending.
HANNITY: All right, cut two pennies out of every dollar. Stop spending so much money.
GRAHAM: You can't even do it with that. Young people got to work longer, and people in our income level are going to have to take a little less or we're going to destroy this country. (INAUDIBLE) Reagan and (INAUDIBLE) did all over again.
DR. BEN CARSON, R-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The Great Society programs, the War on Poverty has not been helpful with the trillions and trillions of dollars that are being spent. And I don't want to spend a lot of time demonizing anybody who did it. They may have had good intentions, but it's clear to anybody that it hasn't worked.
So we should be talking about what do we do to get people to move up and out of dependency? And I think what we have to do is recognize that it's relationships, rather than throwing money, that works.
There are many examples around the country of programs that generally are started by the private sector, and business, industry, academia, Wall Street, churches, community groups who get involved with their fellow human beings. And those are the things that actually get people out of poverty.
CRUZ: Historically in this country, we've averaged 3.3 percent growth a year since World War II. There have only been two four-year periods where growth has averaged less than 1 percent a year, 1978 to 1982 -- now, that was coming out of Jimmy Carter, same failed policies -- and then 2008 to 2012, where GDP growth averaged 0.9 percent a year.
If we can get back to historic levels of growth, 3, 4, 5 percent, suddenly, the federal budget picture transforms. Suddenly, we have the revenue to take care and support our troops and build our military to defend this nation. Suddenly, it becomes possible to step in and preserve and reform Social Security and Medicare.
RUBIO: Well, it begins by having a vibrant 21st century economy that allows us to be globally competitive. That means reforming the tax code. That means lowering regulations. That means repealing and replacing "Obama care."
These are the key -- and by fully utilizing our energy resources. If we did these things, we would have massive, rapid economic growth in our country.
The second is you have to equip people with the skills they need for those better-paying jobs that that economy will create. And again, we stopped (ph) graduating people from high school ready to go to work. We stopped (ph) graduating people ready to go to work as welders and electricians and airplane mechanics. And the other thing is, we're graduating people from college with a bunch of loans and unable to find a job in the economy.
BUSH: Governments should grow no faster than people's ability to pay for it. In fact, personal income growth, family income should be the highest priority for the next president. It's why I'm advocating creating a strategy to achieve 4 percent growth. If we grow at 2 percent, this so- called new normal that makes me queasy to even think about it, the demands on government will overwhelm us and we'll create perpetual poverty for those that are stuck in poverty. And the middle will continue to be squeezed.
The great challenge for our country is to become young and dynamic and aspirational again, and that should be -- the lessons of Florida could be applied to Washington, D.C.
TRUMP: It's a question of incentives. We have to create incentives. We have to restructure our tax system so that people create incentives. You can do zones. You can do lots of different things to get people to work.
We have to change -- I mean, we have a very massive change coming on because this country cannot sustain itself. it just can't go -- you know that. You've been preaching that for a long time.
HANNITY: (INAUDIBLE) taxes for business.
TRUMP: We are right now the highest-taxed nation in the world. And you could actually say, by far. We spend more money because of Common Core and Washington. We spend more money on education than any country in the world, and yet we're 26th. That means 25 countries that spend far less -- some of them spend 10 percent of what we spend and less. These are better in terms of education than us and we spend -- there are so many things that you can cut. There are so many things.
FIORINA: The most important thing that we need to do to grow this economy is to get the real engine of economic growth in this nation going and growing again. And guess what that is? Small and family-owned and new businesses. Small family-owned new businesses have always created two thirds of the jobs in this country. They employ half the people.
I started out as a secretary in a nine-person real estate firm. My husband, Frank, started out as a tow truck driver. You have family- owned...
HANNITY: I was a dishwasher.
FIORINA: You were a dishwasher. The point is, it's how most Americans get their start. And what we're doing now is we're destroying more of those businesses than we're creating. This big, bloated, complicated government that has been created over decades by a political class -- guess what? Only the big, the powerful, the wealthy and the well-connected can deal with that big government. It's called crony capitalism.
CHRISTIE: The way you solve this is create opportunity in the country, Sean. We don't have an income inequality problem, we have an opportunity inequality problem in the country, and that's what we need to solve.
So the first thing is we've got to simplify this tax system, and we've laid out specifics. We got to get rid of all these special interest deductions and everything else, except for the mortgage interest deduction and the charitable contribution, bring rates down to 28 percent top rate, where Reagan was in 1986, bring the lowest rate down to single digits. You'll get people revitalized.
Secondly, you got to bring the business tax rate down, bring it down to 25 percent, and let's repatriate that $2 trillion.
JINDAL: In terms of changing the culture and getting people back in the workforce, this is why it's so critical. We need big change in D.C. Sean, I agree with you. My concern is we not make this the new normal. Four more years of this president's policies, where it's all about redistribution and class envy and government dependence, then you have a whole generation of Americans who thinks we can't grow the economy.
This last quarter was negative. They call 2 percent growth a recovery. Nonsense. After this recession, that's not a recovery. We need a stronger economic recovery where we tell folks that, Look, we'll give you -- the American dream is not that we're going to take care of you. The American dream is we'll give you equal opportunity. You have the chance to go work hard, get an education and do great things for yourself, for your kids.
HANNITY: What about a penny plan? I like the penny plan.
SANTORUM: I think that's a great target. How you get to that -- you can't just say, We'll cut everything by 1 percent because some things you want to increase, other things you want to get rid of.
And for example, defense, I believe we need a stronger defense budget, and so I think we need to increase the defense budget. But there are many things, many developments, like the Transportation Department, Education Department, State Department -- there's a lot of departments that are -- Agriculture Department -- that are just -- have exploded and we that can get rid of a lot of programs in those areas.
And you throw on top of that the -- really, the key, which is entitlement reform. And as you know, Sean, when I was in in the United States Senate, I fought for Social Security reform.
KASICH: First of all, there's this sense -- there's a lot of dead wood in Washington. We know that. So there are programs that can go. You know, I used to say the Commerce Department -- some of its functions are valuable, but it ought to be closed down, and I'll tell you why, because it's an addict (ph) for political junkies. Somebody works on a campaign, their kid goes to work in the Commerce Department.
But here's -- here's -- the beauty of all this is you don't have to slash, you have to innovate. You know, you have to make things work better at a lower price. And frankly, a lot of those programs need to be shipped out of that town.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: And when we come back on this special edition of "Hannity," "The road to 2016" -- now, the country faces a number of challenges overseas, including dealing with ISIS, Russia, China, Iran. Up next, we'll show you how the GOP candidates plan to tackle these issues if they're, in fact, elected the next commander-in-chief. That's straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: Welcome back to this special edition of "Hannity," "The Road to 2016."
So how would a Republican president handle the foreign policy challenges that America faces? Well, here's what some of the GOP presidential candidates had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CRUZ: Putin is fundamentally a KGB thug. He's not a complicated man. He's been very candid. He says he considers the greatest geopolitical disaster of modern times the dissolution of the Soviet Union. And he has stated -- he's trying, I believe, to reassemble as much of it as possible.
Putin only understands strength. Now, listen, nobody wants to see a shooting war between America and Russia. Two nuclear superpowers, you don't engage in a shooting war. But there are things we can be doing.
We should be standing with Ukraine and arming Ukraine right now so the Ukrainians can defend themselves. We should honor our treaty commitments. We should have -- when Putin invaded Crimea, we should have immediately gone forward and installed the anti-ballistic missile batteries on Poland and the Czech republic that had been scheduled to go into effect and that the president had canceled in 2009 in an effort to appease Putin. The appeasement didn't work.
And third, we should immediately clear for export liquid natural gas. Putin uses energy as a tool of economic blackmail. It would produce jobs here at home and it would weaken Russia and empower our friends.
PAUL: The naivete of the neocons is they don't want to negotiate with anybody.
HANNITY: Right.
PAUL: They just want war. The difference is, is I want negotiations from a position of strength. I'm a Reagan Republican. He believed in peace through strength, but he did talk to the Russians. It would have been a mistake -- and you know what Reagan did? Many of these neocons that are still around today criticize Reagan for talking to the Russians.
So realize these loud sort of, I think, juvenile voices putting pictures of bombs on (INAUDIBLE) -- these are the people who are so reckless, that it would be gravely danger to our country to ever have these people in charge of our country.
HANNITY: What about a Rubio doctrine? What would a Rubio doctrine be?
RUBIO: The Rubio doctrine would be that the United States is the indispensable power on the planet. In the absence of American leadership, the result is a vacuum. That vacuum is filled by chaos.
So for example, we need to be involved in the Asia Pacific region. We need to reinvigorate our alliances with South Korea and Japan and the Philippines and others to blunt some of the aggression you now see from Russia and China on their territorial claims. In Western Europe, we need to reinvigorate NATO to once again stop the sort of Putin's efforts to relitigate the end of the cold war.
HUCKABEE: It took an incredible apparatus to build the structure, to murder people one at a time or several hundred at a time, 10,000 a day in Auschwitz. With one nuclear device, several million people...
HANNITY: In a day.
HUCKABEE: ... could be murdered and killed. And I think we underestimate the radical nature of these animals who run Iran...
HANNITY: What is wrong with Obama?
HUCKABEE: ... a terrorist state...
HANNITY: I get them, I don't get Obama.
HUCKABEE: We saw Chamberlain before, and it took a Churchill to help get us out. When that speech was made, after it, Churchill said that there was a choice between war and dishonor, and they chose dishonor. I think there's another choice other than war. I don't believe that that's the only choice we have. But anything is better than allowing these terrorists to have nuclear capacity.
BUSH: It's kind of bizarre, to be honest with you, to create moral equivalence between our faith, which is a freedom-loving, peaceful faith and the hijacking of Islam through the -- in the form of these radical terrorists.
And call it for what it is. And if you call it for what it is, create a strategy then to take it out. We don't have strategy as it relates to ISIS. We are reacting to events on the ground, and little by little, doing things, some of which are good. There have been some successes in using drones to take out terrorists. I'm all for that. But we need a strategy to tighten the noose around them. And we need to do it not just unilaterally, we need to do it with the nations of the neighborhood.
CHRISTIE: First of all, we stand up next to Benjamin Netanyahu and we tell everyone we have no better friend in the Middle East or in the world than Netanyahu and Israel. And we have to say that publicly and repeatedly to repair the damage that this president has done to the relationship.
Think about this, Sean. This president won't stand up to Assad, but he stands up to Netanyahu. It's an embarrassment! And we need an America that does two things, makes our friends know that we'll stand by them, no matter what the polls say, and makes our adversaries know there are limits to your conduct, and America will enforce those limits.
WALKER: As president, on my very first day going forward, I would pull back, I would terminate that bad deal with Iran completely on day one. I would then put in place crippling economic sanctions against Iran, and I'd convince our allies to do the same. This is not a country we should be doing business with.
HANNITY: Have you been able to decode the president and his inability to say "radical Islamic terrorism"? Why can't he say that?
WALKER: It is mindboggling. You can't fight the enemy unless you can identify it. This is indeed radical Islamic terrorism. It comes in many forms via ISIS or Al Qaeda or other elements out there, but we need to recognize that. And, you know, in Iraq it's a good example. It's not just ISIS. It's not just the Islamic State. The Iran backed Shiite militias that are in there are I think in many ways a very similar problem we face there. We see their impact not only in Iraq. We see it obviously in Syria. We've seen it in the last few months. The president still even to last year his administration was calling Yemen a success story. The Houthis are directly connected to Iran out there. Iran is now a threat, and Yemen with the Houthis there that is not a place we should be doing business with. And we need to identify the enemy. The enemy is radical Islamic terrorism.
SANTORUM: ISIS is a caliphate. And the only way to defeat a caliphate and to get people not to be attracted to come both to Iraq and Syria and to energize here in the United States to attack the United States is to take the territory away from them. There's no other way. If you look at the history of Islam, Islam continued to expand, continues to attract people as -- and once the west began to push it back and collapse it, it collapsed. It collapsed completely.
HANNITY: Can you do that without sending American troops on the ground?
SANTORUM: No. I've been very, very clear that we need to have more troops on the ground.
HANNITY: They need to be the ones fighting?
SANTORUM: You know, I would leave that -- I'm not in a position sitting outside of the government to really have a good understanding of that. I would -- what I would say is if that is necessary in order to take back this land and Iraq first and then Syria, the answer is that we would put the sufficient troops there to make sure that that happens.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HANNITY: And coming up on the special edition of "Hannity, The Road to 2016," Hillary Clinton appears to be the favorite to win the Democratic nomination for president. Up next, the GOP presidential candidates will reveal how they plan to beat the former secretary of state, that as we continue.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: Welcome back to the special edition of "Hannity, The Road to 2016." Now, while the Republican presidential field has plenty of options to choose from, it looks like Hillary Clinton will be the next Democratic nominee for president. Now, a lot can still change, but here's how some of the Republican candidates plan to defeat Hillary Clinton.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KASICH: Look, I've known Hillary a long time. When I got engaged to be married she came to the party, OK. I mean, I don't hate people because I don't agree with them.
HANNITY: Can you call her and ask her to come on my show?
(LAUGHTER)
KASICH: I'm not sure she's going to take my call these days. But here's the thing, I believe she does things in very small ways, very segmented ways. Appeal to this group, that group, this group. I think it's a big message. I think it's an overwhelming message that overwhelmed the little kind of cutouts that she has. Now, if people want to get into it on little issues I think she'll beat them.
FIORINA: I would point out that not only has she taken money from governments with atrocious human rights records, but she as secretary of state took human rights and women's rights off the table in here discussions with China specifically even though she made a big show of showing up in China to talk about women's rights and human rights. And yet when she was in a position to pursue that conversation with China as secretary of state, she took it off the table.
PAULThe Clintons believe that they're above the law, that for the rest of us, the common people, we have to obey the law. But the Clintons, they get to do whatever they want.
HANNITY: You once called Bill Clinton a sexual predator.
PAUL: You know, I still think that the left really hasn't come to grips with the fact that workplace violence and your boss taking care of -- advantage of a 22-year-old girl, that should be the moral -- disapproval of that, the shunning for someone like that. For him to still be accepted, I think, is -- shows a bad side of our culture that we would accept that as being OK.
SANTORUM: I beat the Clinton machine. I beat the Clinton machine in 1994. I beat the senator who carried Hillarycare in the United States Senate. I had Bill and Hillary in my state. James Carville and Paul Begala managed the campaign against me back in 1994 in a state with over a million more Democrats than Republican, and I beat them.
PERRY: I haven't bought into that that's the anointed one for the Democrats. I think they're going to go through a process. And hopefully they will and have a good conversation about whose vision in the best for this country.
But, again, you're going to go back and look at record. And it gets a little tawdry from time to time when you look at the secretary and particularly this issue with Benghazi. The lack of transparency I think is what's going to bother a lot of Americans, whether it's Democrats or Republicans and certainly independents as well. The lack of transparency when it comes to the whole server issue, the lack of transparency when it comes to the Clinton Foundation.
BUSH: You listen to her talk. She has embraced the progressive agenda. She believes that -- she's already starting the rhetoric of dividing the country rather than lifting our spirits. She doesn't talk about the kind of economic growth that would create meaningful income rises for the middle. She talks about more government programs.
Her -- look, she's a formidable candidate and she is going to be tough. No question about it. But the simple fact is that we need a dramatic change if we're going to grow economically where people can have disposable incomes to decide what they want to do.
TRUMP: It's going to be a third Obama term. It's going to be -- and I sort of laugh when I hear her talking about income inequality and she's taking in all of this money. And I know where they live. They live phenomenally and the money pours in.
She's gone very far to the left because she doesn't want Elizabeth Warrant to come. She doesn't want other people to come in. She has got enough problems with Sanders. But she's really going left. But I don't think that will be the end case and I think she's going to start going a little bit more once she looks like she's going to get the nomination. Hard to believe in one sense because I really think, hey, if that were any Republican with the e-mails, where you delete after getting a subpoena -- you get a subpoena from the United States Congress and then you delete everything, I think it's called, like, jail time.
RUBIO: They're out there raising money for their foundation. When you reenter public service you're going to have to answer questions about the people who gave you money, and, more importantly, whether those donations were intended to influence public policymaking, whether it's at her time as secretary of state or later on how as a candidate you try to be president.
But the point you make is a good one, and that is if you look at what the goals of the foundation was and what are the goals of our foreign policy should be in terms of always defending human rights, and then you look to where some of this money is coming from, these are places where women aren't even allowed to drive.
HANNITY: And Saudi Arabia would be one of them. Nor can they be seen in public with a man they're not related to. Nor could you build a Christian church in Saudi Arabia. And she took tens and tens of millions of dollars.
Let's look at her time as secretary of state. Russian reset then we have Crimea and the Ukraine. After the killing of bin Laden she said his ideology of hatred is being rejected in the Mideast. That's being wrong on two very significant issues.
RUBIO: Our relations with Russia have definitely been reset, but not in the way that they claimed they would be.
WALKER: It's less certain than it was in the past, but I still think in the end she'll be the nominee, which, like I said, I think it's a great contrast. I think voters overwhelmingly historically if they get a chance to choose between someone new from the future versus someone from the past, they're going to choose someone new and fresh. And for us you add to that she embodies Washington. The problems of Washington, the way she's handled the Clinton cash issue and the emails embodies what people expect out of the politicians from Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HANNITY: And coming up next on this special edition of "Hannity, The Road to 2016," so what do the candidates really think of each other? I asked those tough questions. You don't want to miss their revealing answers. That's straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: And welcome back to the special edition of "Hannity, The Road to 2016." During my interviews with the GOP candidates, I asked them a series of questions about their thoughts on their competitors. We call it the lightning round. And here are some of their highlights.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: All right, I'm going to mention names. Quick answers. Rand Paul.
FIORINA: I think he is outside the main stream of the party. And I think we are a nation that must always face outward and to the world. When we are not leading, which doesn't mean rushing off to war, the world is a far more dangerous and tragic place.
HANNITY: Rubio, Marco Rubio.
FIORINA: I think he is a politician with a great future. I think he would make a great veep.
HANNITY: Jeb Bush.
FIORINA: Jeb Bush is a very good man. I think that it's difficult for people to think about a Bush three.
HANNITY: Scott Walker.
FIORINA: A guy with a lot of grit and a lot of heart. He has a very different experience set than I do, which is a lifetime in Wisconsin politics.
HANNITY: Ted Cruz.
FIORINA: Smart man, a very smart man. And I think that being president requires unifying the country.
HANNITY: Rick Perry.
FIORINA: Rick Perry is a good friend of mine. Rick Perry got my to outsource a lot of manufacturing from California to Texas as a matter of fact.
HANNITY: He's very convincing.
Rand Paul.
BUSH: Libertarian.
HANNITY: OK. Marco Rubio.
BUSH: Good friend.
HANNITY: Donald Trump. BUSH: Rich guy.
(LAUGHTER)
HANNITY: OK. Ted Cruz.
BUSH: Very smart, fiery.
HANNITY: Carly Fiorina.
BUSH: Really talented.
HANNITY: Scott Walker.
BUSH: A fighter.
HANNITY: Rick Perry.
BUSH: A really Texan.
(LAUGHTER)
HANNITY: John Kasich.
BUSH: Smart guy, too. Look, all these guys, they're my friends. It's hard to say anybody bad about them.
HANNITY: First thought that comes to your mind. Rand Paul.
TRUMP: A really nice guy. I mean, I've gotten to know him. I do like him a lot. He called me, wanted to make. And I do like him. I disagree with some of his policies, but that's OK.
HANNITY: Marco Rubio.
TRUMP: I think he's an overrated guy. I think that I have much better hair than he does.
(LAUGHTER)
TRUMP: I think that I never really met him. I saw him once quickly going on a stage. But I really do think he was very disloyal to Bush. I think he was unbelievably, because Bush by all accounts was his mentor. Florida is my second home, and Bush by all accounts was his mentor. And I think he was extremely disloyal to Bush. And if you can, I will ask you to ask me about Bush now because I watched your show last night and I thought it was horrible when he said "A dear friend," "A dear friend." You said "Marco Rubio" to Bush, and Bush said "A dear friend." That's politics. See, that's what I mean. Believe me, he's got to hate him. This was not Marco Rubio's. He's a young guy.
HANNITY: What do you think of Jeb Bush putting aside the Marco issue?
TRUMP: I think he's probably a nice guy. He looks very unhappy to me. He doesn't look like a person that wants to be doing this.
HANNITY: Chris Christie, you said, he's the king of bacon.
PAUL: Well, you know, he kind of a big spending Republican, and that's what it was about.
HANNITY: You said Jeb Bush is a hypocrite?
PAUL: That was kind of about marijuana use. He was a kid he used marijuana, which I don't hold that against him. Kids make mistakes. But the fact that he was still putting people in jail for medical marijuana?
HANNITY: That's a big issue for you.
You said Ted Cruz, you have almost identical voting records but he does not have as much appeal as you. Why? Why do you believe that?
PAUL: We're friends. We vote very similarly and --
HANNITY: You helped filibuster.
PAUL: We worked together on the filibuster. But what I've tried to do I think is a little bit different. I spent a lot of time over the last two years trying to show that the Bill of Rights is not just the Second Amendment.
HANNITY: Rand Paul, you've had fights with. What's the first thing that comes to your mind?
CHRISTIE: Dangerous for our national security.
HANNITY: Wow. Jeb Bush.
CHRISTIE: Good man.
HANNITY: Ted Cruz.
CHRISTIE: Very bright.
HANNITY: Marco Rubio?
CHRISTIE: Charming.
(LAUGHTER)
HANNITY: Sean Hannity. No, I'm kidding. Donald Trump.
CHRISTIE: Donald Trump, a friend.
HANNITY: Carly Fiorina.
CHRISTIE: Smart.
HANNITY: Dr. Carlson.
CHRISTIE: Tough.
HANNITY: John Kasich?
CHRISTIE: A really good friend and a great guy to have a beer with.
HANNITY: Scott Walker.
CHRISTIE: Tough. Stands up for what he believes in.
HANNITY: Rand Paul.
WALKER: I appreciate his focus on trying to reduce the size and scope of the federal government. I share that. I don't always share some of his beliefs when it comes to protecting, the defense of this country, yes.
HANNITY: Rick Perry.
WALKER: I love rick Perry. Rick and I ride Harleys. We're both Eagle Scouts.
HANNITY: You're the only two that ride Harleys.
WALKER: That's right. We're the only two that ride Harleys.
HANNITY: My wife won't let me. Maybe you can help me negotiate that deal. What about Marco Rubio? Another friend.
WALKER: I like Marco a lot. I have a preference towards governors, but I like Marco a lot. I think he's a good reformer.
HANNITY: John Kasich.
WALKER: John and I are good friends. We like to have a little challenge between Ohio State and Wisconsin. And he beat me in football. We fared a little bit better in basketball.
HANNITY: Donald Trump.
KASICH: I'll take a pass.
(LAUGHTER)
HANNITY: I didn't say pass.
KASICH: OK, I'll tell you what, couple nice golf course.
(LAUGHTER)
HANNITY: OK. Ted Cruz.
KASICH: Don't know him.
HANNITY: Rand Paul.
KASICH: Did a good job of talking about our civil liberties.
HANNITY: Marco Rubio.
KASICH: Young and exciting.
HANNITY: Scott Walker.
KASICH: Good guy, been a good governor.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HANNITY: And more of this special edition of "Hannity, The Road to 2016" coming up right after this short break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: That is all the time we have left this evening. Don't forget we hope you'll set your DVR each night 10:00 eastern right here on the Fox News Channel. The road to 2016 stops right in this studio. As always, thank you for being with us. And we hope you have a great night.
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