Is the Confederate flag controversy a Democratic problem?

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Is the Confederate flag controversy a Democratic problem?

Columnist Mark Steyn weighs in on the debate on 'Hannity'

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," June 24, 2015. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, HOST: And tonight, a "Hannity" history lesson on Democrats' Civil Rights record and their connection to the Confederate flag. Now, liberals and the mainstream media -- they want to blame the GOP for race problems in America, but they will never tell you the real history.

Let's start at the 1964 Civil Rights act. Guess what? Eighty percent of Republicans in Congress voted for the bill. Only 64 percent of Democrats did. Oh, and by the way, Al Gore's father, Al Gore, Sr., Bill Clinton's mentor, a segregationist by the name of J. William Fulbright, one-time Democratic Senate majority leader and former Klan member Robert "KKK" Byrd -- they all voted against the Civil Rights Act.

And as for the 1965 Voting Rights Act, 87 percent of congressional Republicans voted for it, 79 percent of Democrats voted for it. So the Republican Party -- they were the party that Lyndon Johnson credited with the Civil Rights Act passage.

Now let's move on to South Carolina and the Confederate flag issue.  In 1962, Democratic South Carolina governor Fritz Hollings -- well, he raised the Confederate flag atop the South Carolina statehouse. Not going to hear that history from Hillary Clinton because here's what she said yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, D-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It shouldn't fly there. It shouldn't fly anywhere.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: By the way, in 1996, a Republican governor in South Carolina tried to take the flag down. He was voted out.

Now, let's look at 1987. Then Governor Bill Clinton in Arkansas -- he signed a bill indicating the Confederate roots of the Arkansas state flag.  It said, in part, quote, "The blue star above the word Arkansas is to commemorate the Confederate states of America." Looks like Hillary has a little bit of a flag problem.

Here now with reaction, the author of "Climate Change: The Facts," Mark Steyn.

Mr. Steyn, here's what bothers me. Lyndon Johnson said without Republicans, there is no passage of the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, 64-65.

MARK STEYN, "CLIMATE CHANGE: THE FACTS" AUTHOR: Right.

HANNITY: Future Democratic leader in the Senate Robert Byrd filibustered the bill.

STEYN: Right.

HANNITY: Al Gore's father wasn't there, Bill Clinton's mentor, segregationist J. William Fulbright -- all of these men voted against it.

STEYN: Right.

HANNITY: But most people don't know this!

STEYN: No.

HANNITY: How did this become a Republican problem?

STEYN: Exactly. I mean, I know the GOP is called the stupid party, but the idea that Republicans can have the Confederate flag hung around their neck is ridiculous! It's a Democrat flag! The flags -- states that seceded during the Civil War were all Democrat states. That's their flag.  The slave states were Democrat states! The racist states until the 1960s were Democrat states!

The Democratic Party is the -- was the largest and most powerful institution supporting slavery in the English-speaking world. And it is the only one that has survived to the 21st century! Slave holding is very unusual among the English-speaking peoples. Canadians didn't do it.  Australians didn't do it. The Democratic Party and the states they controlled did it!

It's their flag! Hillary Clinton had it on campaign bumper stickers when she ran for president in 2008. You mentioned Robert C. Byrd, Sean.  Bill Clinton was doing Ku Klux Klan grand kleagel (ph) jokes at Byrd's funeral, saying, Oh, Robert C. Byrd, he used the -- he was the grand kleagel. He just did what he had to do. You know, I'm too sexy for my sheet! It's their flag! It's their...

(CROSSTALK)

STEYN: ... hung around their neck! It's nothing to do with the Republican Party!

HANNITY: You know, I found a 1992 New York Times article. You know what the story was about? Bill Clinton playing golf at a club that he played at all of his adult life as governor, that didn't allow black membership! I guarantee you most Americans don't know that about, quote, "America's first black president"!

STEYN: No. And again, Sean, it's the -- it's a party with an incredible century-and-a-half history of institutional racism. There's nothing like it anywhere on the planet! You know, people go on about apartheid South Africa. The National Party came to power in 1948, and they were gone 45 years later. That's how long they lasted. And they're nothing now.

The Democratic Party has never come to terms with the evil of its past. The idea -- it was a party committed to the proposition of one human being could own another human being. And they've never -- and they've never said a word about that!

HANNITY: All right, so this is the Democratic...

STEYN: They've never apologized for it! They've never atoned for it, in the way that they have the reconciliation commission in South Africa.  Tony Blair a couple years ago was going around apologizing for everything.  He apologized for the Irish potato famine. The Canadian government apologized for how it treated Indian school children.

When is the Democratic Party going to apologize for being the biggest slave-holding-supporting institution on the planet and sticking with racism for the century after the abolition of slavery?

HANNITY: Here's my question. So this is a Democratic problem. And it looks like Nikki Haley, the Republican governor, is going to clean up their mess. It's now become blown up into a huge issue.

But I believe in substance over symbolism. I don't believe this is going to stop the next kid like Roof that wants to go shoot nine innocent church goers after sitting in a bible study with them for nine hours. Nor do I believe anymore gun laws are going to solve the problem.

Don't we have to now start examining that all these people that are prone to or involved in these incidents -- they tend to telegraph what their thoughts are prior? And now we discover that this guy, Dylann Roof, had all these rantings and ravings of a racist lunatic, and nobody picked up on it.

Isn't that more substantive? Won't that do more if we examine these Web sites prior to these incidents to save lives than changing a flag?

STEYN: Well, I think what you're saying there, Sean, is that, actually, human judgment is what makes the difference here. That's true in everything.

If you remember the millennium bomber at the British Columbia/Washington state border, it was an alert border guard not liking the look in the eye. It's true of national security, and it's true for these kind of crimes. And they both tend to feature less lone wolves than known wolves. In other words, they're signaling their moves beforehand in quite some detail.

We had I think it was Columbine, where the kids were walking around doing Hitler salutes and everything beforehand, and nobody wants to make -- and same with Virginia Tech -- and nobody wants to make a judgment about people these days and about their behavior.

And that's really the only way you can stop individuals like there.  And it testifies -- I think it's actually insulting to the dead in Charleston that it's dwindled down into a stupid argument about the Confederate flag. I mean...

HANNITY: Well, let me ask you this...

STEYN: This guy Roof, the flags he wore on his outfit -- he had the flag of old apartheid South Africa, and he had the flag of Rhodesia. Even he -- you know, the Confederate flag didn't do it for him in terms of advertising...

HANNITY: He needed more racist symbols...

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: So but the idea that it's come down to an argument about this is completely absurd, even by the standards of...

HANNITY: All right...

STEYN: ... all the Jesse Jackson/Al Sharpton grievance mongering.  It's absurd.

HANNITY: You have Sears, Walmart, Amazon, eBay and all these other retailers who have decided to stop selling anything Confederate. Now, I'm going to play the president using the N word, and then ask the question.  If they're going to do that with Confederate flags and other items, should they maybe do it with some of the most vile rap music, not all of it, but that that uses the N word, the B word, the H word? And should the president be using this word?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Racism we are not cured of, clearly. And it's not just a matter of it not being polite to say (EXPLETIVE DELETED) in public. That's not the measure of whether racism still exists or not. It's not just a matter of overt discrimination. We have to -- societies don't overnight completely erase everything that happened 200 to 300 years prior.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Should the president use that? And if stores ban the Confederate flag, should they ban music that uses the N word?

STEYN: Well, I don't think you can have it both ways. We seem to live in a world where on this network, when the president uses that word, it's bleeped out. But at the same time, if some rap act wants to put it throughout its CD, that CD will be in the racks of Walmart with everything else.

And I don't think you can have it both ways. I'm big on free speech issues, and I don't think you can have a situation where words are bad words, but certain people are allowed to use those bad words.

HANNITY: But if...

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: But if you're going to make a decision one way, don't you have to make it the other way to be consistent?

STEYN: I think -- I think -- I think that's true. But I don't think the president should have used that word. I mean...

HANNITY: I don't, either.

STEYN: ... I think that's actually simply unbecoming for the president of the United States to talk like that. And it's not what the issue is about these days.

And as I said, those kind of issues are actually his party's issues.  And I go back to that point, Sean, because the Democratic Party is uniquely virulently racist and pro-slavery to a degree unseen anywhere in the English-speaking world!

And that's where -- an issue -- they should have that argument about themselves and leave the rest of us the hell out of because it's nothing to do with us! And I don't want their internal history hung around my neck!

HANNITY: Well said, and the history is also the first Republican president was Lincoln, and of course, he was the one that kept the union together and ended slavery.

Mark Steyn, good to see you. Thank you, sir.

And coming up next tonight right here on "Hannity"...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DON LEMON, CNN: Is it a symbol of Southern pride or a symbol of hate.  And then, what about this? Does this offend you, this word?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: If you thought that was bad, wait until you hear what happened on Don Lemon's show last night. Juan Williams, Larry Elder -- they're coming up next.

And also, later tonight...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA:  No family of an American hostage has ever been prosecuted for paying a ransom for the return of their loved ones. The last thing we should ever do is to add to a family's pain.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: A rare moment where I actually agree with Obama. Some think the president's decision to allow families to negotiate with hostage takers sets a dangerous precedent. We'll have former New York city mayor Rudy Giuliani. He's in studio to react to that and more straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: Welcome back to "Hannity." So earlier this week, after President Obama used the N word, CNN's Don Lemon played off on that controversial moment and did something on his show that is now garnering a lot of criticism. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DON LEMON, CNN: This is what America is talking about right now.  Does this offend you? It's a Confederate flag. Is it a symbol of Southern pride or a symbol of hate? And then what about this? Does this offend you, this word?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Unfortunately, Mr. Lemon's awkward conversation about race in America did not end with that segment. In fact, last night, Lemon had on his show a New York Times columnist who recently called on President Obama to apologize for slavery. Take a look at this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just think it could be so redemptive and so powerful and so moving, you wouldn't have any hassle from Congress.  There'd be pushback from people, of course. But for a man who's the leader of the -- what was once the largest slave-holding nation on earth to say, I apologize for what we did in America's original sin...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Here now with reaction, radio talk show host Larry Elder, FOX News political analyst Juan Williams. You're shaking your head.

JUAN WILLIAMS, FOX NEWS POLITICAL ANALYST: How ridiculous! You're going to have the first black president apologize for slavery?

HANNITY: Is he responsible for that?

WILLIAMS: Not only is he not -- why wouldn't you have someone who was white, a white president, you know, in terms of who was the slave owner -- this is just -- but again, the thing with Don Lemon and that sign is such a stunt, such a gimmick and so gratuitous and insulting, it reminds me of President Obama using the N word. He was trying to make this larger point.  Instead, he's got us all talking about the N word.

HANNITY: This is the point. And I'll go to you, Larry. I don't want -- don't like that word. That word is meant to be offensive. I think Juan's right, I think the word is gratuitous. But it wasn't just CNN, it was the president that's being gratuitous by using that word. Your thoughts.

LARRY ELDER, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Well, I don't understand why this is such a big deal. The president was not rapping, he was speaking to a talk show host...

HANNITY: Oh! Ouch!

ELDER: ... and he was explaining in his view that the definition of a racist is not just somebody who doesn't use the N word publicly. That's what he was saying.

Furthermore, if you read his first book, he used the N word all throughout that book. So -- in fact, my nephew used to have it as a ring tone because Obama recorded a book on tape, so you can hear him using the N word.

I'm far more disturbed, Juan and San, about the president's dreary (ph) assertion that America has racism in its DNA and we're not cured yet, as if that's the goal.

DNA implies immutable, never changing. For crying out loud, in 1960, 60 percent of Americans said they would never vote for a black person for president. In 1954, only 4 percent of people approved of black/white marriages. Now 87 percent do. and the number of people that wouldn't vote for a black president is negligible!

WILLIAMS: Well, Larry...

ELDER: This country has changed.

WILLIAMS: But Larry, the president...

ELDER: For crying out loud, accept the change!

HANNITY: Wait a minute.

(CROSSTALK)

WILLIAMS: The president did say that we've changed, that we have come a long way in this country.

HANNITY: He said it's in our DNA!

(CROSSTALK)

WILLIAMS: Go ahead.

ELDER: Juan, you know what he's done? He's shifted. In 2007, he gave a speech at Morehouse College. He called his generation the Joshua generation...

WILLIAMS: Right.

ELDER: ... and the MLK generation the Moses generation. He said the Moses generation has gotten us 90 percent of the way there -- 90 percent of the way there. And the -- and this was before he got elected! Don't you think that that's cut into the 10 percent a little bit there?

WILLIAMS: No, he...

ELDER: And now he's talking about...

(CROSSTALK)

ELDER: He's gone from that guy to a victocrat! (ph)

(CROSSTALK)

WILLIAMS: Larry, it's very clear that the president said we have made tremendous progress on race, in his lifetime, he said.

ELDER: Then act like it!

WILLIAMS: But let me just say...

ELDER: Act like it!

WILLIAMS: ... when he talks about DNA, I don't see why you're getting so upset. The fact is...

ELDER: I'm not upset. He's upset.

WILLIAMS: ... in the Constitution of the United States, it says we're three fifths human, Larry Elder, Juan Williams. We're not even fully human.

(CROSSTALK)

ELDER: It was amended, Juan! It was amended!

(CROSSTALK)

WILLIAMS: ... birth as an American people, we had racism baked in the pie!

ELDER: You know, Juan, these worshipers who were murdered had their loved ones forgive the guy who killed their loved ones. When is black America going to forgive white America for slavery? When?

WILLIAMS: Are you kidding? What are you talking about? Most black Americans don't walk around lamenting, Oh, my God, we want (INAUDIBLE) There are people who...

(CROSSTALK)

ELDER: ... had Don Lemon get some white guy -- you had Don Lemon tell -- have some white guy to tell Obama to apologize for slavery!

WILLIAMS: Yes, but...

ELDER: We're still doing this! When are we going to -- when are we going to move ahead?

WILLIAMS: But it ain't black people. Larry, you're wrong about that.  It could be you. If you said to me the left is using this and constantly using this, and constantly playing the race card, I'd say, Hey, Larry, you might be on to something. But I can't tell you that I see black people every day saying, Oh, I can't lead my life because there was once slavery in the country. I think people are trying to overcome.

ELDER: You know what, Juan? I'd like us to have a conversation about this. There is a word that's as offensive as the N word, only used by the left. And that term is Uncle Tom. Let's have a national discussion about putting that term to rest, and whether or not when you use that term, you're a bigot. Let's talk about that.

WILLIAMS: Well, you know what? I couldn't agree with you more because I've been targeted -- I probably think you've been targeted, Larry.  I know so many of my...

ELDER: You think?

WILLIAMS: ... black conservative friends, including my son, who has been victimized by this kind of thinking, that people want to...

HANNITY: Larry? Larry, his son got the smart genes in the family.

WILLIAMS: Oh, stop!

(CROSSTALK)

ELDER: Don't tell me your son has called you an Uncle Tom, Juan.

WILLIAMS: No, no. I didn't say that.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: But Larry's right. There -- you can say anything about a black conservative.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: And by the way, the term Uncle Tom is the least of it.

WILLIAMS: Well, when I get upset, I get...

(CROSSTALK)

ELDER: Sean, Obama mentioned after these shootings, he mentioned the bombing that took place in Birmingham in 1963. And he was right to do so.  But my goodness, in 1963, you're talking about Bull Connor, the top sheriff, who sicced dogs and turned water hoses on Civil Rights workers.  George Wallace was a governor who said, "Segregation forever." And J. Edgar Hoover was the head of the FBI. They knew who did it right away and sat on the information. The people that did it were not brought to justice...

HANNITY: Good point.

ELDER: ... for decades! Fast-forward, we're talking about South Carolina, a female governor of Indian descent. One of the two senators is a black guy. Night and day! For crying out loud...

HANNITY: All right...

ELDER: ... this is not your grandfather's America anymore!

HANNITY: Last word.

WILLIAMS: Well, absolutely, and I think the president said it's not your grandfather's America. But Larry, that does not suggest that we should...

(CROSSTALK)

WILLIAMS: ... not continue to fight racism where it exists. And when you see that young man exposed to the kind of hatred and Web sites and flags and Rhodesian flags...

HANNITY: This guy was a...

(CROSSTALK)

WILLIAMS: I think you have to understand that poison is still in the system.

HANNITY: All right, we got to leave it there...

ELDER: And he's a deviant, just like Manson was a deviant. Manson wanted to start a race war. Nobody said he was leading some sort of charge about white supremacy. We wrote him off as a nut, a deviant, evil nut. So is this guy!

HANNITY: We got to break. Good to see you. Great debate, both of you. Appreciate it.

Coming up -- President Obama changes the country's policy towards hostage negotiations. Should families be able to pay ransom to ISIS and other terrorist groups if their loved ones are being held overseas without fear of prosecution? I actually kind of agree with the president here, but former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani will weigh in. That's coming up next.

And The Daily Mail catches Hillary Clinton -- oh, good-bye scooby-doo van, hello private jet! Well, what happened? Our panel will weigh in on her hypocrisy coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: We are clarifying that our policy does not prevent communication with hostage takers by our government, the families of hostages or third parties who help these families.

No family of an American hostage has ever been prosecuted for paying a ransom for the return of their loved ones. The last thing that we should ever do is to add to families' pain with threats like that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: All right, that was the president earlier today announcing a brand-new executive order clearing the way for Americans to make private ransom payments to terrorist organizations like ISIS broad in order to free loved ones being held hostage without threat of prosecution. Is this the right decision?

Here to respond is former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani.

I'm only speaking for myself, and I don't often agree with Obama. If it was my son...

RUDY GIULIANI, R-FMR. NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: Absolutely right.

HANNITY: ... my daughter...

GIULIANI: (INAUDIBLE) right.

HANNITY: ... no government's going to stop me if I can pay money to free them.

GIULIANI: Right.

HANNITY: I understand -- I think families ought to have the right to make their own decision.

GIULIANI: OK, but here's the problem, Sean.

HANNITY: It creates more hostages.

GIULIANI: You got it. Right. So the problem is, it creates more hostage situations. You're setting up a business now. What President Obama essentially did was he set up a business.

I have done a lot of work, security work in Mexico and South America.  Mexico has many more kidnappings than the United States. The U.S. has very few kidnappings. A lot richer people in America to kidnap.

HANNITY: Sure.

GIULIANI: The reason is, in the United States, we don't pay ransom.  We turn it over to the FBI. They catch the person. And then, of course, we used to have the death penalty for it. Now it's life in prison. In Mexico, everybody pays. It's a business...

HANNITY: This is the problem with this stuff because I know you. I know you love your son and your daughter.

GIULIANI: So...

HANNITY: On a personal level...

GIULIANI: So here's what you do...

HANNITY: ... what would you do?

GIULIANI: Here's what you do with this.

HANNITY: Yes.

GIULIANI: You have a rule and a law against it and let them -- then in certain situations, you have plausible deniability. You just -- if -- if -- for example, if I were a prosecutor, right...

HANNITY: If you were the president, if you're a prosecutor and I did that, and I sat in your office and said I did it...

GIULIANI: I would decline prosecution.

HANNITY: I would, too.

GIULIANI: But I think there's a value in having the rule. Look, we've -- President Reagan did this, not just President Obama. But in those days, you could do it with plausible deniability. You didn't have to have it as a rule. The minute you announce it as a rule, these people start thinking, I got a business here and I can make a lot of money this way.  And you know where that money's going. That money is going into...

HANNITY: Into terror organizations.

GIULIANI: ... into terror organizations, some of which want to come back here and kill us.

HANNITY: Because all these other countries have allowed their citizens to negotiate with ISIS...

GIULIANI: Right.

HANNITY: ... and they have paid huge sums of money, but they got their loved ones back. And we watch our loved ones getting beheaded and...

GIULIANI: Right.

HANNITY: ... and all of these instances where they're killed. And from my perspective, who am I to say you can't do that because you're encouraging future hostage taking?

GIULIANI: Well, it's a very -- it's a very -- it's a very...

HANNITY: It's a tough question.

GIULIANI: It's a very hard thing, a very hard thing. But I think the better way to deal with it is, have a rule against it, and then if you're going to violate it, violate it, and let's all keep quiet about it. But if you get rid of that rule and you announce what the president just announced, ISIS -- not just ISIS, Hezbollah, Hamas...

HANNITY: All of them.

GIULIANI: ... the Houthis, all these groups now have a nice new way of making money, which is going to be more valuable than it was before.

HANNITY: Let me move on to presidential politics. I see Hillary as a weak candidate, somebody that can be defeated. And I see this whole issue with the Confederate flag -- because she's got a lot of questions to answer about her husband honoring that flag, about the Clinton/Gore button, about him playing golf at a golf club that did not allow black membership.

GIULIANI: Right.

HANNITY: So I think she's got a problem. What are you looking for in a Republican nominee? Who are you looking at so far that may be inspiring you?

GIULIANI: Well, I'm looking for -- first of all, my major focus is national security because that's really what the president runs.

HANNITY: Commander-in-chief.

GIULIANI: That's his main job. That's where Congress has a role, but the least role. So I'm looking for a president that'll be like a Ronald Reagan to a Jimmy Carter.

Ronald Reagan took over a dispirited country that thought it was moving in the wrong direction. He rebuilt our military. He made our military the greatest in the world. As Gorbachev says in his book, Ronald Reagan spent the Soviet Union into oblivion because they couldn't keep up with the huge military...

HANNITY: Buildup

GIULIANI: ... that we were -- that we were -- that we were doing.

For example, if we were building our navy, rather than reducing our navy to pre-World War I levels, China would not be thinking about increasing its navy to take over the South China Sea. This man in the White House...

HANNITY: Which they will do before he leaves office.

GIULIANI: This man in the White House doesn't understand what I just said. And I could say it -- I can scream it, and he doesn't understand it.  The best way to contain China and make it the peaceful rise of China is for us to have an enormously robust navy that is the greatest navy in the world, that can patrol two oceans, that can fight two or three wars, and China will not challenge us because the Chinese are practical.

Putin maybe isn't as practical, but the Chinese are practical. Same thing in Europe. The minute Putin went into Crimea, what Obama should have done is sent 50,000 troops to NATO. He didn't have to engage them, just send them. That puts the fear of God into people.

We've got the greatest military in the world. They want to do these things, and he's holding them back. I have people in the military telling me (INAUDIBLE) special forces and whatever telling me they should have let -- like, some of these hostage situations. They will tell me they -- they should use us for extractions. Our percentage rate of extracting people is extraordinarily high.

HANNITY: Yes.

GIULIANI: I mean, You talk about any of them, the SEALs, the Rangers, the whole...

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: Who's on Rudy Giuliani's radar in terms of...

GIULIANI: Jeb for sure.

HANNITY: Yes.

GIULIANI: Marco Rubio. You know, I like Senator Graham.

HANNITY: That's the only mistake.

(LAUGHTER)

GIULIANI: Well, I like him very much. I love George Pataki, and I wish he could get traction. I love George...

HANNITY: He's not going to win! I know he's not going to win.

GIULIANI: Scott Walker I'd like to know more about.

HANNITY: Yes.

GIULIANI: Rick Perry I have a great fondness for. And what Rick Perry has, like Jeb Bush has, it will be interesting to compare their two records as governor, very close, great economic development, low taxes, all the things we want domestically out of a president. And I think a much different candidate than he was four years ago.

HANNITY: I have got to break. Mr. Mayor, good to see you. I think you would be a great secretary of defense. That's my thought.

(LAUGHTER) HANNITY: I think that would work.

Coming up, Hillary Clinton ditched the Scooby van. "The Daily Mail" has caught her red-handed getting off on a private jet once again yesterday, one of those big gas-guzzling, you know, air polluting planes that she likes to fly in.

Also coming up, Frank Luntz, Gretchen Carlson, Dagen McDowell, they weigh in. Also more on the Confederate flag issue.

And later, he's made it official. Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal is here to explain why he is running for president, that and more straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JACKIE IBANEZ, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Good evening. This is a Fox News alert. I'm Jackie Ibanez.

In New York, there's been a major new development in the case of those two prison escapees from upstate New York. Just in the past hour, a prison guard from the Clinton Correctional Facility was arraigned on charges stemming from the escape of convicted killers Richard Matt and David Sweat.  Gene Palmer is suspected of delivering tools inside frozen meat to the two inmates in the days before they fled. He's now the second prison employee to be tied to the escape plot.  Earlier this month, Joyce Mitchell, a training supervisor at the prison, was charged with her alleged role in the June 6th breakout. Since then hundreds of police have been searching for Matt and Sweat. They're now combing through the woods some 20 miles west of the prison where investigators recently found items belonging to the fugitives in a hunting cabin there. We will continue to update this story as details unfold.

I'm Jack Ibanez. Now, back to "Hannity."

HANNITY: Welcome back to "Hannity." So remember when Hillary Clinton after announcing her candidacy makes a big deal driving her Scooby van all across the country? That didn't last long. Look at this exclusive photo from "The Daily Mail" showing the Democratic candidate literally ditching her humble van for a more lavish private jet. Isn't that night? It looks like a pretty big one, maybe seats 14, 16 people.

Here with reaction, pollster Frank Luntz, from the Fox Business Network Dagen McDowell, and the author and our colleague of a brand new book, "Getting Real," host of "The Real Story" Gretchen Carlson. By the way, your cover looks so much better than mine and mine had my picture on it.

GRETCHEN CARLSON, "GETTING REAL" AUTHOR: Well, thank you. It was the first that shot he took.

HANNITY: Yes, figures, right. They took 700 of me.

CARLSON: No, I was as stunned --

(LAUGHTER)

CARLSON: I was as stunned as anybody.

HANNITY: So this private jet issue comes up all the time. Lear jet, limousine hypocrites like Al Gore, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Hillary Clinton, I can't take the- - what?

FRANK LUNTZ, POLLSTER: Nobody cares.

HANNITY: Nobody cares, except me.

LUNTZ: And I'm here to play devil's advocate, but you need to understand this.

HANNITY: I used to like you. Go ahead.

(LAUGHTER)

LUNTZ: Her language has gotten so much better in the last couple of weeks. She's playing the class warfare card, I agree with that.

HANNITY: And the race card.

LUNTZ: But she's fighting for people, and she's doing it in a way that she'll actually announce for every hardworking American, for everyone who gets up early in the morning, and she'll do this personalized politics which she never did before. And in our dial testing she's doing well. But Sean, I wanted to do this with you before. Watch Bernie Sanders. He is absolutely moving in New Hampshire, he is moving in Iowa.

HANNITY: He's within seven points in New Hampshire.

LUNTZ: It's amazing.

HANNITY: Wisconsin, Iowa.

DAGEN MCDOWELL, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK: That's why she's going further left, though. That's why she is going after the very same people that Bernie Sanders. At least temporarily, she's going right for the base and trying --

HANNITY: She's not Obama, though. And she's not Bill Clinton either.

MCDOWELL: But she can be a better version of Hillary Clinton, because she couldn't get much worse.

CARLSON: I'm going to agree with both of them, because I think everything about politics is optics. And when people do see the Scooby van -- you can't start off as an average American and then go back to the private plane. So I'm going to disagree with you, Frank. I think that the more and more that this happens the more that people don't see her as authentic. Look at the polls recently. The trust factor has gone down significantly.

MCDOWELL: If this one issue hurts her she's going to get back in the van. She's smarter.

LUNTZ: But she's beating every Republican. Every type of scandal that's come out against her in the last 90 days -- financial scandals, political scandals, ethical scandals, family scandals, all of them, and she's beating every Republican.

CARLSON: She goes to Ferguson, Missouri.

HANNITY: They don't have a candidate, though. They don't have a candidate, number one. Number two, look at her -- the one poll I keep going back to that I think matters, how do you get elected president when 57 percent of Americans do not find you honest or trustworthy?

LUNTZ: I have an answer for that.

HANNITY: I'm waiting.

LUNTZ: Which is, God help this country if we're now prepared to vote for someone we don't trust. But every election cycle we do things we never dreamed of. Barack Obama never should have won in 2012 with the right direction at 25 percent. They never -- and Sean, it's just --

HANNITY: This is scary, you were right about this. Let's go to Gretchen. She starts out with 47 percent of the country. She's got to basically win in the right states and she can be president.

CARLSON: That's exactly right. But I do think we should focus a little bit on the African-American community. She went to Ferguson, Missouri in that private jet. Why is that important? Because in 2012 President Obama didn't go anywhere near African-American communities. Why?  Because unemployment was so high there, he didn't want to address it. I do think this could end up being a problem for her.

HANNITY: Did you hear the comment, I read it in the newspaper, said "Girl, you're 10 months too late. Where was she?" I thought that was a fair comment.

MCDOWELL: They're counting on women going into the voting booth and voting for her just simply because she's a woman. And I'll point out that she's gone hard against Wall Street. She has gone very far left in terms of bashings Wall Street. And I just wanted to point out, going back 99 to 2016, her top contributors, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, one and two, J.P. Morgan was fourth, Morgan Stanley was sixth. How did they react?

HANNITY: Does she have herself a Confederate flag problem considering Bill Clinton signed a law honoring the Confederate flag? And of course she didn't say anything then.

CARLSON: I don't know if she does or not. This whole issue I think is incredibly divisive. I have to say growing up in Minnesota and having my first job in the state of Virginia, I was shocked to see the Confederate flag flying so much there, from being in the north.

But I want to point out also that I think that we need to take a step back and see who fought in the war and what the original status of that flag was all about.

HANNITY: I have lived in pursuing my radio career, Frank, I lived in Alabama and Georgia, and the people in the south are wonderful.

CARLSON: They are.

HANNITY: It's God, faith, family, country.

CARLSON: Totally.

HANNITY: And there are legitimate reasons on the other side. You can be a good person without any racial intent and still want to keep the flag.  That's what I learned in my time in the south.

LUNTZ: But the problem is the media has its own definitions. The media sets the context. And whether it's Hillary Clinton and the hypocrisy of what she says versus what she does, I acknowledge that, it's --

HANNITY: You think she's going to win. I'm reading you. I've known you too long. You think she could win.

LUNTZ: But you know that it was on your show three weeks before the election and I said that Obama was looking up.

HANNITY: I hated every second of that.

(CROSSTALK)

MCDOWELL: Can I say something about the Confederate flag since I grew up in Virginia, since I had family members who fought in the war since Appomattox is 30 miles away from where I grew up -- that flag, we think it could be both, but definitely the Confederate side, I know that for a fact.

But I will say this. That flag has been hijacked by a feud filled with hate. And nobody my family has a problem with it not flying on government land and not flying -- HANNITY: And that's fine. I just also want to deal with the problem of people that are telegraphing their hate that are putting it on the Internet.

You wanted to say something about Hillary, and you got cut off.

LUNTZ: She is going to bring out voters as Barack Obama did. But what does it say about our country right now that we are prepared to say that we do not trust her, we do not have faith in her, and yet we're willing to vote for her.  CARLSON: But I don't think we already know the answer to the 2016 election. We don't even know who the Republican --

(CROSSTALK)

CARLSON: All of them are fickle, one email away from not being a candidate.

(CROSSTALK)

LUNTZ: Have we not learned? Are we going to make the same mistakes in 2008 and 2012?

HANNITY: Maybe. I hope not. I'm willing to pay the Chinese. I know they have her server. They've hacked everything else in the country.

(LAUGHTER)

HANNITY: I'll raise money to buy her a server --

LUNTZ: You know where Bill Clinton's server is at? Hooters.

MCDOWELL: Oh, gosh.

(LAUGHTER)

HANNITY: By the way, Gretchen's new book, "Getting Real," she's going to be at the Nixon and Reagan library next week.

CARLSON: This weekend.

HANNITY: This weekend.

Coming up, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, he made it official earlier today. He's running for president. He will be here to explain why he has decided to throw his hat in the ring. That's straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. BOBBY JINDAL, R-LA.: My name is Bobby Jindal. I am governor of the great state of Louisiana, and I am running for president of the greatest country in the world, the United States of America.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: That was Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal earlier today announcing he is in fact joining this long list of people running for president. Here now the man himself, the governor of the great state of Louisiana. Governor, how are you? Good to see you.

JINDAL: Sean, I'm doing great. We launched a cause, not just a campaign here in Louisiana.

HANNITY: You know, it's a growing field, but to me it's a strong field. You have a great record as governor, like many others. How do you -- how do you separate from such a big crowd, former governors, current senators, current governors. It's a big, tough field there. How do you break out?

JINDAL: Sean, one of the things I said today, you know, Jeb Bush is out there saying we have got to lose the primary in order to win the general. Let me translate that. What he is saying is Republicans need to abandon our conservative positions. That's nonsense. I'm running because we need to take our country back.

Hillary Clinton, President Obama, they're trying to turn the American dream into the European nightmare. We need to rescue the country from socialism. We don't measure our people's success in how they're doing in government. We measure how they are doing in the real world and the private sector economy. We're going to speak the truth. I know it will upset people in Washington. They don't think in Washington you can repeal ObamaCare. They don't think you can have term limits. They don't think you can cut the size of government. We're going to do all of those things.  We want to rescue the American dream.

HANNITY: You think you can do all that? If you become president you will cut the size of government, real cuts, not just a reduction in the rate of increase?

JINDAL: Absolutely. Sean, look, every Republican candidate talks about it. We need a doer, not a talker. I actually cut the size of my budget 26 percent. We have over 30,000 fewer state government bureaucrats than the day I took office. We're a top 10 state in private sector job creation.

You're right. A lot of Republican candidate will tell you they'll protect innocent human life and they'll hunt down ISIS and get rid of Common Core, but we're actually doing things in our state. We need a doer, not a talker. We've had a first term senator who needed on the job training in the White House these last six plus years. We don't need a repeat of that.

HANNITY: Governor, I was really angry at some quotes in "the Washington Post" about you that under any other circumstances I would argue would be racist. I want to get your thoughts. I will put it up on the screen. "There's not much Indian left in Bobby Jindal" said Pearson Cross, a political science professor at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette."  And "The Post" went on to claim that "As the years went by and Jindal's political star rose, many in the Indian-American community became disillusioned with their native son." Are you as angry about that as I am?

JINDAL: Absolutely. Sean, look, I'm so tired of the left trying to divide us by race. One of the things I said today in my speech, we're not Indian-Americans, African-Americans, Irish-Americans, rich Americans, poor Americans. We're all Americans. I'm tired of hyphenated Americans. My parents are proud of their Indian heritage, but they came halfway across the world so their children could be born here, raised here as Americans.  They came legally, but they came here in search of the American dream, in search of freedom and opportunity.

HANNITY:  You said as governor of Louisiana you cut the size, the budget by 26 percent in real dollars, meaning lower than when you took office, and you eliminated 30,000 jobs, and you're saying you can do that nationally. What about national security? We've got ISIS, radical Islamic terrorists that this president won't even mention. We've got Crimea, Ukraine and Putin. We've got China's territorial ambitions to deal with.  We've got Iran and the desire for nukes, the entire Middle East, a broken relationship with Israel. How do you handle all that?

JINDAL: We can stop leading from behind. Sean, we have got to invest in our military. We need to stand with Israel. We need to hunt down and kill these terrorists. As president I would actually name the enemy, radical Islamic terrorists. We've got a president who wants to apologize for America and wants to criticize medieval Christian and wants to wage war on junk food. He won't even say the words "radical Islamic terrorists."

We will stop Iran from becoming a nuclear power. We will stop that nuclear arms race that could happen in the Middle East. We will also make that Putin knows we have brigades in eastern Europe to make sure we deter his aggression. Peace through strength works. America's military is the best in the world, but this president is hollowing out our military. We need a commander in chief that believes in American exceptionalism again.

HANNITY: Governor, we look forward to having next week for the full hour. And congratulations on your announcement today, and best of luck to you in what's going to be a very tough campaign for everybody. Thank you.

JINDAL: Thank you, Sean.

HANNITY: And coming up, we need your help. Tonight's "Question of the Day" is an important one. That's straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: Welcome back to "Hannity." Time for tonight's "Question of the Day." We need your input. As we explained earlier in the show, should Democrats apologize to Americans for putting up the Confederate flag above the South Carolina statehouse in 1962? That was their decision. They put it up. Republican governor in '96 tried to take it down. Just go to Facebook.com/SeanHannity, @SeanHannity on Twitter. Let us know what you think.

Quick programming note. Be sure to tune in this Friday, 10:00 p.m., a special edition of "Fox News Reporting" hosted by our good friend Bret Baier, "Crossing Jordan, Escape from Terror," that's this Friday 10:00 eastern.

That's all the time we have left this evening. Thanks for being with us. We hope you'll set your DVR so you never miss an episode. Thanks for being here. We'll see you back here tomorrow night.

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