Rage Against Bush

This is a partial transcript from "Hannity & Colmes," May 2, 2007, that has been edited for clarity.

ALAN COLMES, CO-HOST: Our top story tonight, in what is being described as a Dixie Chicks moment, a member of a rock band Rage Against the Machine recently launched into an on-stage rant about the Bush administration:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZACH DE LA ROCHA, RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE: And this current administration is no exception. They should be hung, and tried, and shot.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLMES: And joining us now with reaction, from YoungVoterPAC.org, Jane Fleming, rock legend Ted Nugent, and the author of "Godless," Ann Coulter.

Ann, how are you?

ANN COULTER, AUTHOR: Fine, thank you, and you?

COLMES: Are you familiar with the use of hyperbole to make a point?

COULTER: Me?

COLMES: Are you the Ann Coulter guest here?

COULTER: Yes.

COLMES: Good.

COULTER: Do you have a follow-up question?

COLMES: No.

You know, Ted, these — you've said some things political on stage. I don't agree with what these guys said, but they're not liberals. They're anarchists, and that's what they've always done. What they said is horrible, but I'm afraid, before we get back to Ann Coulter, she'll paint them as liberals. But go ahead, Ted. What do you think?

TED NUGENT, MUSICIAN: Well, obviously, I'm a big fan of the Constitution. The First Amendment is one of my favorites, right along with the Second Amendment. And God bless everybody for their freedom of speech. But the beauty about freedom of speech is it entices people and it encourages people to say what they think. And, obviously, I've been surrounded and been watching dopey, hippy rock 'n' roll numb nuts...

COLMES: There he goes. See, that's censorship right there. I don't know how that happened.

COULTER: You have to talk to me now.

COLMES: I have to talk to Ann Coulter.

But, luckily, Jane Fleming, all right, what is your reaction to what they said?

COULTER: I'm not going to paint them as...

COLMES: Do you think all liberals believe that? This is what liberals think?

COULTER: I'm not painting them as liberals. I'll paint them as losers. You know, I missed the VH1 special "I Love the '90s." I missed this whole thing. Who cares about them? Has anybody checked in with Flock of Seagulls to see what their position is on Bush?

COLMES: I mean, do they really — that's pretty funny.

Jane, go ahead.

JANE FLEMING, YOUNG VOTER PAC: For the first time ever, I agree with Ann Coulter. Rage against the Machine is a band that used to be popular. They're not even together anymore. This is a one reunion together concert. And, look, they're anarchists. They're not Democrats. They're not liberals. They're not the voice of progressive America. So we shouldn't even be talking about it.

COULTER: They're not very attractive.

COLMES: You don't like any of those guys?

COULTER: I'm seeing them right now.

COLMES: Are you looking for a boyfriend?

COULTER: Not in that crew.

COLMES: I don't know if we have Ted Nugent back. Hopefully we'll get him back in just a moment.

You've said a few outrageous things over the years.

(CROSSTALK)

COLMES: I don't know if those things ever come up...

COULTER: Right, but unlike them, people care what I say. I don't even know why we're talking about this. There was a more prominent story on Drudge, by the way, about that polar bear, Knut, who is growing less cute as he matures. I think that is a more interesting story.

COLMES: You would rather talk about a nude but growing cuter polar bear than Rage Against the Machine

COULTER: And, by the way, they are also very unfamiliar with D.C. gun laws if they think they can shoot the president, because no guns allowed.

COLMES: All right, but do you really believe — just like you say a lot of crazy, outrageous things you don't really believe, you don't believe that they really mean that, do you?

COULTER: I don't know. I don't know anything about them, like most Americans. They broke up like 10 years ago. One guy tried — I e-mailed one of my friends at MTV to find out who they even are. She said they broke up. The solo guy tried a career for seven years, bombed completely, and now, you know, really all looking forward to Van Halen reunion.

COLMES: I see. Jane, I'm actually very happy to hear that Ann Coulter is not saying, "Look what you liberals say. Look what you Democrats"...

(CROSSTALK)

COLMES: She's actually behaving herself tonight.

FLEMING: There's a first time for everything. There's definitely a first for everything, so I'm happy, too.

COLMES: The question is, someone gets on stage and says something. It's irresponsible. It's a terrible thing to say. I don't know who it represents besides them. How far does freedom of speech go? Does it include that kind of phraseology?

FLEMING: Well, I know you won't hear any Democrats saying that what they said was a good thing. I don't think any American should be saying that we should assassinate our president. He is our president, and nobody should be using that type of language. Now, Rage against the Machine back in the day — yes, Sean?

SEAN HANNITY, CO-HOST: Jane, here's the bigger question. If you say ever that you want to shoot the president of the United States, I view that as a threat. And I think, for that reason alone, that the Secret Service should investigate. Is it right or wrong?

FLEMING: It will be interesting to see if the Secret Service actually does that. Somebody posed that question on a blog. And so we'll see what happens.

HANNITY: But wouldn't you want that? I mean, if it's Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton? No, no, that will never happen.

FLEMING: I don't think — I honestly don't think Rage Against the Machine was serious. I think that they're frustrated with the current state of affairs of our government, and they said things that they shouldn't have said.

HANNITY: All right, Ted Nugent, look, I'm with you, Ted, about free speech. And, by the way, welcome back, my friend.

NUGENT: Thank you. We have some lightning here.

HANNITY: But you can't say — you can't threaten the president of the United States. I would think you agree with that.

NUGENT: You think? Yes, you know, we disagreed with a lot of administrations in the past, but none of our rhetoric included, you know, threatening lives. These guys are over the top. But they're lunatic fringe that even your average Democrat liberal doesn't agree with. But, unfortunately, nobody is silencing these guys, or not necessarily silencing, but condemning this outrageous violence that they're recommending.

HANNITY: Look, that's the point. If you threaten the president of the United States, I think that's a pretty — that's over the line. And the bottom line is, this is the president. Ann Coulter, this is the president of our country. You threaten to shoot the president, you're going to get under investigation, and you are going to, perhaps, get arrested. That's a terroristic threat.

COULTER: Right, right. No, and for good reason...

(CROSSTALK)

COULTER: ... was, as I've mentioned before on this show, there was a guy who was writing a football column for, I don't know, the Stanford paper who said something about dragging Chelsea's body across the field. And he was visited by the Secret Service. So little threats are taken seriously.

This is obviously much more serious. They're losers. Their fans are losers and there's a lot of violence coming from the left wing. Look, there's violence towards me and other conservative speakers on college campuses.

HANNITY: You got attacked with a pie.

(CROSSTALK)

COULTER: ... talking to these sorts of liberal lunatics, I mean, it never comes from right-wingers. It's always from left-wingers.

FLEMING: Oh, come on, Ann.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: Here's what I want to know, though.

COLMES: And so, yes, I think it should be investigated, even though I've never heard of them.

HANNITY: Here's what I want to know. And you connect the dots, if you think you can. All the language towards this president is toxic.

COULTER: Right.

HANNITY: It seems, you know, Bush derangement syndrome, I hate George Bush fanaticism now rules the day.

COULTER: Right.

HANNITY: So the question I have is, you know, do you think that this is contributing to an atmosphere where it's sort of building? I would argue this is coming from the Harry Reids and the Democrats in Washington, that it's building an atmosphere where it's acceptable to push this language to the point where now we have bands on stage talking about shooting the president?

COULTER: I don't think they're the culmination of it, but it is a serious problem, when you have — I mean, Bill Kristol has been attacked on college campus.

HANNITY: Pat Buchanan.

COULTER: Pat Buchanan, me, David Horowitz.

HANNITY: They missed in your case.

COULTER: They missed with me because they throw like girls, but these people are animals and to be ginning them up all the time — and you never see it the other way. I promise you, Michael Moore can walk unmolested through Bob Jones University, through the entire state of Mississippi. It is always one side. And I don't think that's helping Democrats' P.R. campaign to look like they're civilized people.

HANNITY: Jane, do you want to respond to that?

FLEMING: Well, it is a huge leap to say that what Rage Against the Machine says on stage is a reflection of what the Democratic leadership thinks and believes. And I think that it's irresponsible for you to do that.

And don't think that Democrats don't also get death threats. Don't think that they don't get criticized. And did you guys forget the '90s, when all you did was criticize President Clinton?

COULTER: No, no, no, I'm sick of this, "Both sides, both sides." You name a conservative who's been attacked on a college campus. You name — or rather, a liberal. You name a liberal or a Democrat whose campaign headquarters have been destroyed, which happens regularly to Republicans, which happens during the campaigns. No, this is not both sides.

FLEMING: How about the campaigns that got the illegal robo-calls from the Republicans? How about that, Ann?

COLMES: By the way, should you have been investigated...

COULTER: Oh, that's so scary.

COLMES: Should you have been investigated when you said about Bill Clinton, "The only issue is whether to impeach or assassinate"? Should you have been investigated for that?

(CROSSTALK)

COULTER: No, that was a serious legal point…

COLMES: ... where he should be impeached or assassinated? You should not have been investigated for that?

COULTER: If this were a civilized country, that would be the question.

COLMES: If we're going to investigate people with those comments, you should have been looked into.

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