This is a rush transcript from “Hannity,” March 2, 2011. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: And tonight, a shocking new video surfaces from Wisconsin, where an angry mob of pro-union protesters chased down and heckled GOP State Senator Glenn Grothman yesterday. And this is what happened.
Now after several minutes of Grothman being blockaded by the mob at a locked entrance, Democratic State Representative Brett Hulsey stepped in and attempted to calm this crowd.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STATE REPRESENTATIVE BRETT HULSEY, D-WIS.: I’ve been with you here for two and a half weeks along with all of our Assembly Democrats. The most important thing about this whole event is that it has been peaceful and respectful.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Now with the help of Hulsey and some firefighters, Grothman was eventually able to get into the Capitol building safely. But my next guest says, this is just more evidence of the thuggish tactics of the left-wing unions.
Joining me now, the author of the number one New York Times bestseller, “Culture of Corruption,” Michelle Malkin is back with us. Michelle, that is to me is a frightening video. I mean, especially were getting in his face, they were right up there, angrier and angrier as time went on, I mean, this guy is, you know, trying to find his way to an open door. And, you know, I got to be honest I was concerned for his guy’s safety when I saw this.
MICHELLE MALKIN, AUTHOR, “CULTURE OF CORRUPTION”: I was too. And I’m glad to hear that State Senator Grothman didn’t feel like he was at risk of any kind of physical confrontation. But it certainly seemed that way. And it especially seemed that way Sean, when many of these protesters had to shout at the top of their lungs, ironically enough, “peaceful, peaceful” to try and get the mob to settle down.
And what we’ve seen is the rule of law supplanted by the rule of the mob. It is no surprise because these kinds of power tactics are par for the course for many big labor thugs. It’s no surprise that in the aftermath of a Democrat congressman, we talked about this last week, Michael Capuano telling these union thugs to get a little bloody on the streets that we have this kind of confrontation, near riot, I think was the term that Senator Grothman used when he initially described it. And I think that is exactly right.
My question for many of the unions whose signs were represented by this mob, including Ask Me, including the United Food and Commercial Workers and including of course the purple army, the purple shirted army of the Service Employees International Union. My question is this, is this the kind of behavior that you think is making America’s children proud? Because as I recall, President Obama in the aftermath of the Tucson massacre called on all of us to engage in behavior that would make America’s children proud.
HANNITY: Yes.
MALKIN: And I think America’s children will probably be pretty humiliated and embarrassed by the behavior of these so called adults.
HANNITY: You know, I want to make a comparison though to the Tea Party Movement, which was accused of being racist and called all sorts of names. Astroturf, which interestingly a lot of these union members are coming in from other states. But, you know, we saw signs “Mubarak plus Hitler equals Dictator Scott Walker.” “Hitler outlawed unions too.” Hitler with a caption “separated at birth.” It goes on and on, you know, Mussolini, Hitler, Nazi. Compared that to, if any Tea Party group used similar signs, this would be, you know, the talk of the country for weeks if not days.
MALKIN: Sure. And that was just the tip of iceberg. I think the profanity, the sexual vulgarities that have been hurled particularly at conservative politicians. You had Lt. Governor Rebecca Kleefisch on about a month ago Sean, talking about what a liberal supposed progressive talk show host said to her when she was trying to recruit private businesses to her state. And I think what it shows you is that this is not merely about collective bargaining. It is not merely about union issues and the budget. It is a much larger than that. They are using and exploiting this financial and economic crisis to organize, that’s what it is all about.
We’ve seen it from the White House. They tried to whitewash their fingerprints off of it. But you can see that Organizing for America’s hand prints and fingerprints are all over it. And even at this moment, they are using it to canvass, to register voters to get people fired up for 2012. And at the expense of what? At the expense of civility and public discourse.
HANNITY: And that’s the ironic part of this. When the president met with the governors, he talked about civilities for the unions, but not for Scott Walker. You know, there was an assemblywoman, “you are going to blanking die” that was said by another assembly man, that got very little attention.
Here’s what I don’t understand, because if we compare — now the president basically is the boss of all these federal workers. Federal employees do not have the right for collective bargaining on wages or benefits. In the case of Wisconsin, they’ll still have the right to have collective bargaining for their pay hikes. And by the way, federal employees and I’m sure the president knows this that the average of federal worker pays twice as much for health insurance as what they are asking for, for example in Wisconsin.
What I don’t understand, why aren’t these union members and these people protesting, why aren’t they at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue? Why don’t they go where there are much bigger issues and far fewer benefits?
MALKIN: Yes. Well, that is the bottom line, Sean. Why the double standard. And of course, as I’ve said, this is because it is about gaining some sort of political and electoral advantage against their enemies. You don’t see them crashing at the Capitol building here in New York state for example where Andrew Cuomo is tightening the belt and going after many of these same unions. They’re starting to spend money against him now and oppose some of his fiscal discipline. But you don’t see the Cuomo as Nazi posters. Well, not yet any way. They may soon do it as well if they are threatened, if they’re threatened.
But I think with particular regard to the teacher’s union, this is what I wrote about it in my column today, these people are inspired by Saul Alinsky, it is all about rules for radicals, agitations, collaboration, it’s not about the children, it’s not about fairness, it’s not about actual education for the kids. And these people are willing to actually sacrifice jobs and go ahead and invite the lay-offs that Governor Walker wanted to avoid in Wisconsin, because they have a larger goal. And that is, securing their own political power for eternity.
HANNITY: All right. Michelle Malkin, good to see you. Thank you.
MALKIN: You bet. Take care.
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