TRANSCRIPT: Interview with Rudy Giuliani Last Night on Hannity & Colmes

Real Clear Politics ^ | 4/4/07

[areafiftyone]

HANNITY: Just a short while ago, I had an exclusive sit-down interview with the former New York City mayor and presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani. From his wife Judy to the state of America today, we covered some pretty serious issues, and here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HANNITY: Mr. Mayor, good to see you again.

RUDY GIULIANI, FORMER MAYOR OF NEW YORK CITY: Hi, Sean.

HANNITY: First trip to Iowa?

GIULIANI: Yes.

HANNITY: Why did you wait so long?

GIULIANI: We got started a little late. I mean, we're probably -- we're ahead of the old cycles. We're kind of a couple months ahead, but we're probably two or three months behind the present one. I think we've caught up now.

I think we've caught up in fundraising. We had a really great March. We raised over $10 million, got $11 million in the bank. And we've now got ourselves organized here in Iowa. We've got Jim Nussle running our campaign, getting a lot of people. So I think we'll do well in Iowa. And all the polls say we're competitive in Iowa, so we might as well go for it here.

HANNITY: What do you make of the fundraising? I mean, look at the money that Hillary raised. Look at the money Barack Obama raised. Mitt Romney raised a lot. You raised a lot. Is it too much?

GIULIANI: Probably not with all these primaries. I mean, sure, is it too much in the big scheme of things? Sure. But is it necessary when you've got not just Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina, but Florida, and California, and New York, and Illinois? These are big states.

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[Doug Fiedor]

Sean Hannity totally messed up this week by discounting callers who support Ron Paul while, at the same time, outwardly supporting Rudy’s campaign. As I was betting would happen, Rudy shot off his mouth too many times and, last night, stuck his foot in it about the abortion issue.

Last week Rudy said he would pull a Clinton on us and allow his unelected and un-experienced wife to interfere in government. This week, Rudy all but came out in full support of abortion. Sure, he tried to mitigate his position publicly with weasel words. Didn’t help, though.

Fact is, Rudy just upset over a third of the conservative base! Stick a fork in Rudy. He talked himself right out of his candidacy.

And what of Sean Hannity bad-mouthing a real Liberty Minded candidate in favor of a liberal? Hannity is supposed to be a conservative, of sorts. I’m not too sure anymore. Besides, this is much too early in the game for major talk show hosts to latch onto a candidate and denigrate others. Bad move, Sean!

As for me, I’m holding out to see if either Newt or Fred will run. Meanwhile, I’ll be doing whatever I can to help Ron Paul — with hopes that he catches on sometime soon.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[Gracey]

Ron Paul is a fine man. Fred Thompson is a wonderful man. However, Ron Paul is a 1-2 percenter. His appeal is very minimal. So far Fred Thompson hasn’t announced.

When a politicial makes a comment you can see whatever you wish in it. You did not mention other things that Giuliani stated. Did you know he is one of the few politicians that actually LOWERED the abortion rate in NYC? Did you know he required people to work 20 hours a week if they were on welfare? I bet you know nothing about his conservative issues. He’s a does and get’s things done. I can go on and on about Giuliani’s accomplishments, including prosecuting a lot of criminals. He’s a tough guy. On abortion, he mentioned IF IT”S THE LAW. The Leftist media is working overtime to ask him questions that certain R’s find as issues. The left does this on purpose. Watch an interview. They don’t ask him any relevant questions, only “gotcha” questions so as to disuade R from voting for him. They are all Leftist/Democrats who do this to our party.

And I see you fell for it.