The Real Obama: Green czar

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," April 13, 2012. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, HOST OF "HANNITY": And as we continue to vet the President tonight. We focus on another one of his controversial and radical appointments. Now, tonight, we look at the President's former green job czar, a guy by the name of Van Jones. Now, Jones, a one-time self-proclaimed communist resigned his post in March of 2009 amidst controversy after controversy.

Now, let's look back at some of Jones past low lights and ask ourselves, what does this say, not only about Van Jones himself but about the president's judgment. Now, first there was this comment, made about Republicans using some, well, less than tasteful language.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: How are the Republicans are able to push things through when they have less than – 60 senators, but somehow we can't?

VAN JONES: Well, the answer to that is they’re (bleep).

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: And then there was this comment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VAN JONES: To try to bring the price of energy down is simply to increase the supply. To begin to drill more and to drill offshore, to drill here, to drill there. To liquefy coal, to go with oil shale and tar sands, do whatever you can to get more petroleum -- into the system. And we heard our president saying just that. That's what he wants to do. And I hate to say, that I hope I don't offend anybody. But the president of the United States sounded like a crack head when he said that.

(APPLAUSE)

A little bit more. A little bit more. A little bit more petroleum. I can get some. I can get some. It was shameful. Am I wrong?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: And finally, we can't forget that in 2004, Van Jones allowed his name to be put on a 9/11 truther letter. Now, he later apologized for this and said it was a mistake. Here to help us with today’s vetting process is the contributing editor of the American Spectator Jeffrey Lord. And the President of American Commitment that’s Phil Kerpen is with us and he's also author of "Democracy Denied." Jeff, you hear these comments, look at this background, avowed communist, 9/11 truther, it's all on the record. And I want to ask why would Obama ever appoint somebody like this to such a high position of power?

JEFFREY LORD, THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR: The thing to remember, Sean, and I've been on the White House staff. You are vetted within an inch of your life to get on the White House staff. So, when all of this came out, the first reaction was, oh, well gee, how could this happen? It happened because people in the White House hadn't vetted, they knew his record and they wanted them there, and they wanted them there because they agreed with him. This is what’s going on within the Obama administration whether Van Jones is there or not and has been going on for President Obama's entire career.

HANNITY: Yes, you know, Phil, let me put up on the screen here. This is three years before Obama is elected as president of the United States. This was an interview that Van Jones gave with the East Bay Express and he said, “I met all these young radical people of color, I mean, really radical, communists, anarchists. And it was like, well, this is what I need to be a part of. And I spent the next ten years of my life working with a lot of this people that I met in jail trying to be a revolutionary. I was a rowdy nationalist on April the 28th and then the verdicts came down; he’s talking about the Rodney King verdicts on April the 29. He said, by August, I was a communist.” But still he gets his position of power about Obama. I'll ask you the same question. What does it say about the president's judgment?

PHIL KERPEN, AMERICAN COMMITMENT: Well, I think it says a lot about the president's judgment. Of course, two of the chairmen for the transition team for Obama, John Podesta and Valerie Jarrett had close ties, had long been fans of Van Jones. I call him Anthony Jones. He made up the name Van when -- because everyone cool had a one syllable name, everyone cool than radical had a one syllable name. But, you know, Sean, later in that same article, one of the most amazing thing he said is, he said, “I gave up the cheap, he said, I gave up the cheap satisfaction of the radical pose-- the deep satisfaction of the radical ends.” And he basically said, look, I stopped calling myself a communist but I kept believing all of these same things. And he saw in green jobs, kind of the kernel of capitalism's destruction. And I think Obama agrees with that. And if you look at all the failure around Solyndra, the wind subsidies, ethanol and Obama’s out there on the stomp day after day saying, we need to double down. The guy sounds like a degenerate gambler who can't recognize when he's losing.

He just wants to keep putting more and more of our money into this stuff. It sounds to me like he agrees what most of what Van Jones stood for regardless of the fact that the guy resigned.

HANNITY: You know, I've said this because, you know, a lot of people predicted wrongly. I can name a million names. There were very few of us that were out there after really studying Obama, his friends and then later his appointments.

And then later his policies and now we see the results of his radical agenda, from Eric Holder to Co and to Jennings, these were his appointments then we had his friends that kind of pointed in the direction, Jeffrey that you know, we kind of I predicted that he would go.

Others got it wrong. When we look at disappointment in particular and somebody this radical, I come to this conclusion. That the president has hidden what he really believes from the American people.

We get glimpses of it, San Francisco, about people in Philly. In Pennsylvania, bitter people clinging to their guns and religion. Those comments to Nicolas Sarkozy, his comments to the president of Russia, do you agree with me that the president has hidden his true opinions?

LORD: Absolutely, Sean. You know, you were one of few people out there who were doing the vetting job that needed to be done. It's only being done now. This is what goes on with far left-wingers and the job wasn't done there.

Let me just say, right this minute, Van Jones is out there talking about, clamping down on free speech. He's going after the American Legislative Exchange Council. He went after Rush Limbaugh, said he lost 50 sponsors when he lost four. He's still doing this.

And I might add, you know, Rush had a telethon today, raised $3 million in three hours. What if Rush Limbaugh had been kicked off the air by these people? What about those kids with leukemia?

I mean, this is disgraceful. It's not only a free speech issue. It's not only left-wingers, it's, you know, simple compassion.

HANNITY: Let me ask you this and I'll ask you this if I can, Phil. In 1994, he co-founded and formed a socialist collective called Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement. It was called "Storm."

They held study groups on the theories of Marx and Lenin and dreamed of multi-racial, socialist utopia and he was arrested. It was available to the president and those vetting as well. What happened with that? Why did they ignore that?

KERPEN: Well, I mean, he was swept up. He was actually a legal observer during one of the Rodney King demonstrations. He didn't actually commit a crime, but it's interesting that he pinpointed that as sort of the turning point in his life.

Obviously, he’s got all these radical associations, all of these radical ideas. He said I didn't give up any of the radical ends, just the radical pose. I decided to be more subtle about it.

And I think if you look what happened when Van Jones left the administration that tells you all you need to know about how other folks on the Obama left agree with everything that he believes.

They just haven't been as open about it. He was embraced Center for American Progress hired him back. Princeton gave him a teaching fellowship. NAACP gave him an Image Award; Move On hired him for this Rebuild the Dream Program.

Now, he is an MSNBC contributor. So he is squarely in the mainstream as a communist and a 9/11 truther. He's squarely in the mainstream of Obama's Democratic Party.

HANNITY: You have to wonder if Brian Williams and Matt Lauer are proud of that. Guys, good to see you. Thank you for being with us.

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