Anti-Wall Street Protest Spreading Across U.S.?
What are demonstrators hoping to accomplish at 'Occupy Wall Street'?
This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," October 4, 2011. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: Joining me with reaction now, from the Fox Business Network Charles Gasparino. Along with the host of the "Willis Report," Gerri Willis.
Well, "I'm not sure why I am here." Anyway, "for the first time in my life, I have faith in the human race." They don't even know why they are there!
GERRI WILLIS, HOST, "GERRI WILLIS": It's like they are looking for friends. You know, what I mean? They are getting together in a big group. I've covered these before because these actually have gone on for years. And what you find are tourists, you find some people who are homeless, you find a guy with a microphone and other people who just want to be on camera. It's not a real movement. I know boomers would like to think this is a movement and we are getting together, we are going to fight this. No.
HANNITY: The only one common thing I hear, greed. Greed on Wall Street. The class warfare rhetoric, to what extent do they get this message, from Obama Democrats, because they have been obviously hyping it.
CHARLES GASPARINO, FOX BUSINESS ANCHOR: Yes, I mean, you know, they are some of the most uninformed people if you listen to them. Really unbelievable. I like the one guy says, we are affecting things. I think the only thing is affecting is traffic. I mean, this is really unbelievable. I don't think that most people care about these guys. I will say this, if you listen to their barely coherent message, and it's barely coherent when you get through all the garbage, it is a left wing radical language. It's some of the stuff that the president espouses --
HANNITY: The enemy is here, one guy says.
GASPARINO: Greed, it's about people making money, it's class warfare. Barack Obama is responsible for some of this. Not all this, because if you listen to these guys. They are even farther left than Obama. They are true revolutionaries.
HANNITY: All right. Now, there are a lot of guys on Wall Street that make a lot of money.
GASPARINO: But there's a lot of bad guys on Wall Street, too, which I have written about it a thousand times.
HANNITY: First of all, but they don't even mention this. If they wanted to talk about the bailouts of banks and insurance companies and financial institutions and car companies, you know, what? I probably find myself in agreement with a lot of their arguments, but they are not even arguing that. They make too much money. But what about the jobs they create for the other people, the 90 percent that work on Wall Street?
GASPARINO: It's a column I wrote today in The New York Post where I pointed out, who do you think kept the welfare state of New York, New York City and New York State going all these years, it's Wall Street. Before we start of regulating the hell out of them, and right now they are not making money, you see their stocks are crashing, they were financing the New York welfare state. All the things that those protesters say they are for.
HANNITY: Gerri?
WILLIS: I'm got to tell you, I think there are some things to complain about. You look at Bank of America just this week introducing a $5 a month fee on using your debit card.
GASPARINO: What was the reason for that? It's the regulation. Dodd and Frank~
WILLIS: I don't care if it is the regulation. I don't care. Don't charge me. I'm the consumer.
GASPARINO: Come on, if you are going to sit there and squeeze these guys, like I've said --
WILLIS: It's not my problem.
GASPARINO: No, it is your problem.
WILLIS: You want to have a relationship with me for a long time and be my banker, don't load me up with big time fees.
(TALKING OVER EACH OTHER)
I don't want to play this game.
GASPARINO: Well, then vote out Dodd and Frank.
HANNITY: Can I say something? Corporations. This is a little myth. They don't pay taxes. They pass it on to the consumer.
GASPARINO: Right.
WILLIS: That's true.
HANNITY: So, wait a minute. So, if it's Dodd-Frank and the regulations have put on the banks, and hang on, corporations pay higher taxes, guess what, they are going to charge more.
GASPARINO: That's the whole problem with Dodd-Frank and...
(TALKING OVER EACH OTHER)
WILLIS: I didn't say I was in favor of Dodd-Frank, I just don't want to pick up the tab.
GASPARINO: But you are going to pick it up.
WILLIS: I don't want to pick up the tab.
GASPARINO: Then, get rid of the Dodd-Frank.
WILLIS: There are other problems too. That's not the only issue that I have. Look at the trading on Wall Street right now. It's done by a bunch of people who are trading with computerized trades, a million trades.
GASPARINO: So, what?
WILLIS: So, completely disconnected from everything happens.
GASPARINO: The average investors they should not be even competing with them. They should be long-term mutual funds
(TALKING OVER EACH OTHER)
WILLIS: And they're not, they left. We don't want them out in the market. That's the worst thing, we have to retire some day, Charlie.
GASPARINO: You really think that those --
WILLIS: And the stock market is the only way they get there. You are taking that off the table. Individuals need to be invested in stocks.
GASPARINO: That high frequency trading is the problem in the market?
WILLIS: That's one of the many.
GASPARINO: Not even close.
WILLIS: It's a long list my friend.
GASPARINO: Regulations, squeezing banks.
WILLIS: We disagree on a lot.
HANNITY: I'm shocked, I'm enjoying this.
(LAUGHTER)
GASPARINO: We do this all the time on FBN.
HANNITY: I know, all right. Good to see you both. And we're going to continue to follow the protests and see if we can get a coherent message. By the way, some of them have been there for -- now they're third week. No showers. Ainsley gets double pay.
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