This is a rush transcript from “Hannity,” April 21, 2010. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: All right. The Obama administration is slamming Goldman Sachs with a lawsuit. So, why is the administration filled with so many of the banking giants former employees? Now, this administration may want to look with its own range for answers. Former Goldman partner Gary Gensler is the head of the President’s Commodity Futures Trading Commission. And even more outrageous, Geithner Deputy Mark Patterson who oversaw the tarp bailout is a former Goldman Sachs lobbyist.
Meanwhile, Rahm “Rahmbo” dead fish Emanuel received almost $80,000 from the bank during his congressional tenure. Nonetheless, the president will march to New York City tomorrow to announce his plans for Wall Street reform and acquisitions, no connection at all for the Wall Street corruption that he is now denouncing.
Joining me with reaction with all of this is the author of the New York Times bestseller “Culture of Corruption,” Michelle Malkin. He’s going to Wall Street tomorrow. He’s going to lecture them. And meanwhile, he’s got all these connections a million dollars in donations from Goldman to his own campaign. All these people that work for Goldman “Audacity of Hope” or Audacity of Corruption, what would you call it?
MICHELLE MALKIN, AUTHOR, “CULTURE OF CORRUPTION”: Just plain sheer audacity, Sean. The fact that this White House can no more disown itself from government Sachs than Obama can disown himself from Chicago politics, they’re intertwined.
And the fact that it is Goldman Sachs which has rightly earned that moniker, government Sachs has had his tentacles in the administrations, both Republican, both Democrat is a bipartisan problem that you’ve had these politicians enable failing institutions, corrupt institutions. And those politicians are every bit as responsible as the Wall Street money men that they are now demagoguing.
It would be a wise thing for the Republican Party to do one third a day as this thing gets underway. This big haranguing by Obama to have a parade of all of the faces, Gary Gensler, who during his congressional nomination hearing, was asked about his own specific role in failing to support oversight of credit defaults. You know what he said, Sean, he said oops, sorry. Well, it worked for tax cheat Tim Geithner and apparently it worked for Gary Gensler. Where is the accountability for all this bad behavior?
HANNITY: All right. So, the president though is asked about, you know, the donations that he got almost a million dollars in this particular case. And his answer was I got a lot of money from a lot of people. He says, vast majority I got work from small donors.
The question is, in this case, I thought this was going to a different Washington? I thought this was a new era, a new time. And then, he dismisses it while everybody else does it. And you know, this is the way I had to raise money. Why wouldn’t he give the money back just for, you know, perception sake?
MALKIN: Well, a bona fide agent of Hope and Change would have done exactly that. But we know all long as he was campaigning, that this was all a facade. And now, he has completely toppled from his high white horse or “reform.” And I think again what the Republicans should do, what conservatives and true believers in good government should do, is turn the tables on some of those opportunists, Democrat candidates who are demanding that their Republican opponents return money from Goldman Sachs but not their own commander-in-chief.
It is galling to me for example that Alexi Giannoulias who is running to replace Barack Obama is himself mumbling to part of a shady bank, Broadway bank is now haranguing his republican opponent Mark Kirk who gave in and returned his Goldman Sachs donation.
HANNITY: The interest is that the president said, he actually made the statement that we have the toughest ethics rules that any presidency has ever had.
He also said in the campaign that if you leave his administration, that you wouldn’t be able to lobby the administration for years. The lawyer now representing Goldman Sachs is Greg Craig who was working for him up until January. I guess I’m a little bit perplexed. It seems like he can say anything, break the promise and then never get called out on it. What has happened to media in the country that they ignore it?
MALKIN: Well, you know what? Well, we ignore the lame stream lap dog media and the fact is, that despite all of the water carrying that has gone on for the last year and during the campaign, the word is getting out there, he is being held accountable in his poll numbers. And the fact that people do see corruption as one of the top issues in 2010 and 2012. He can’t keep saying these things with a straight face when all of the evidence is to the contrary. He keeps patting himself on the back about how unprecedented his ethics and lobbying reform is when everything flies in the face of that
HANNITY: Well, and it’s obvious that based on the polls, the American people are beginning to see that he’s far more radical than he projected himself during the campaign. It’s interesting to me, he’s stopped talking about jobs. He’s not talking about health care. I think the American people have pretty much concluded that he’s failed in both of those areas.
So, now he moves on to the so-called next catastrophe, the next crisis, and this banking reform. And Dick Durbin in a pretty honest moment said, oh, the timing couldn’t be better in terms of passing their legislation and using Goldman Sachs as the example for the American people about why they need to pass this reform and pass it quickly. Do you see a pattern in terms of the fear-mongering that the president uses to pass just about every piece of legislation he has?
MALKIN: Of course. And that is an ideological tool, it’s a straight inspired from Alinsky’s playbook. A rule for radicals to create these constant crises to create this momentum for reform that is basically going to cause more harm, do more harm than good. And if you actually look at the fine print of this so-called reform, what it would do is institutionalize and make permanent financial bailouts. Which I think is just a perfect swan song for corruptocrat Chris Dodd as he retires from office.
HANNITY: So, how does the president make this case to the American people? I mentioned it, he took a million dollars in donations, Harry Reid took money, Rahm Emanuel took money. Then you’ve got Craig now is representing Goldman Sachs. Dick Gephardt, he lobbies for Goldman Sachs, Tom Daschle is a lobbyist — he represents some companies on Wall Street. You know, Eric Holder once represented and lobbied for global crossing. How do they make the case that there in the party that against this cronyism when almost every single member is involved in some capacity?
MALKIN: Yes. Well, what they do is what Rahm Emanuel did the other night. Which is to meet in secret and behind closed doors, well, all of those so-called fat cats who know that they are going to get beaten up in public but know that they will be taken care of behind the scenes. That’s how this administration has operated from day one. And the way to remedy that Sean, is to get rid of the corruption. You cannot reform corruptocrats. The only way to do it is to reduce the size of government.
HANNITY: Here’s a last quick question. Is this as some are suggesting, Barack Obama’s Enron or do they get away with it in the end? What do you think?
MALKIN: I think that we have to keep screaming at the top of our lungs as long as they keep screaming fat cat and demagoguing this thing. They won’t get away with it. I think pointing out the differential, but typically when you compare the Bush Enron scandal to the Obama Enron scandal, a million dollar in contributions from Goldman Sachs individual and families and employees and managers, et cetera versus about 150,000 in donations from Enron.
And yet, the liberal media, the press, the establishment to hang an albatross around Bush’s neck. And I don’t think that he pushed back far enough on it. And that’s what the republicans and conservatives have to do in this case, push back hard.
HANNITY: All right. Michelle Malkin, thanks for being with us, I appreciate it.
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