Are 2012 Candidates True Conservatives?

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Are 2012 Candidates True Conservatives? Part 1

GOP hopeful Michele Bachmann on her competitors

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," November 11, 2011. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEAN HANNITY, HOST: And joining us now, Republican presidential candidate and Congresswoman Michele Bachmann is back with us. Congresswoman, how are you? Welcome back.

REP. MICHELE BACHMANN, R-MINN., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Always a pleasure to see you.

HANNITY: All right. I thought the debate that we had this week was probably the best debate so far. You're there. You are getting very passionate in these debates. And it seems that you want to now create a distinction. And that is that you are a conservative candidate. You -- well, you don't seem, you are saying that you don't think your fellow candidates are going to be conservative if they are elected. I want you to explain this to people, what you mean by that?

BACHMANN: Well, I have been the consistent conservative throughout my life. I am 55 years of age. I have been very consistent as a fiscal conservative, national security conservative, social conservative and as a Tea Partier. And there is a distinction between the candidates. We have candidates that have been for the individual mandate in health care with Obamacare -- Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich. We have five of the candidates that have been for the $700 billion TARP bailout. Five of eight that are up there. That's a big issue. That laid the foundation for the automobile bailout and all of the mortgage bailout and it laid the foundation for the stimulus. We have candidates that have been for the global warming, cap-and- trade program.

That's something that most of our primary voters aren't aware of. And I think that it's very important. This is, in my opinion, Sean, the last exit on the highway to get this country back on the straight and narrow. And if we don't get it right with this next election, it's really going to be tough for our country. So, we need a candidate that's going to represent our core values of constitutional conservativism. And I am the candidate that has been doing that.

HANNITY: Are you saying that this is a convenient conservativism? Or conservatism of convenience? Or that they're doing this just for political expediency?

BACHMANN: No, what I am saying is that there is a difference in the candidates. And there is nothing wrong with having the voters know with where we stand. I have shown up on the big issues of the day and on the fights of the day, I have been there. I have been there at the tip of the spear. I was the one who brought 40,000 people to the United States capital, to fight against Obamacare. I wasn't in praise of the individual mandate. I didn't get behind it. Do we honestly believe that candidates that have been for the individual mandats are going to have the oomph that they've got to have and the backbone that they have to have to get rid of Obamacare?

That's the signature issue of this election. Our candidate will be compromised if they stand on the stage with Barack Obama and he's for -- that's his signature issue, Obamacare. Our candidate can't be someone who has been for that issue, socialized medicine. The crowned jewel of socialism. That's what is wrong with the United States today. We have too much socialism in our country, we need more constitutional conservativism and free markets. And I am the candidate that has lived that life, as a tax lawyer, as a job creator, but also as a fighter. I've been the stand-up candidate on all of these issues and I fought. And that's what we have to know. We are electing the person who's going to save this country because we're in serious decline. I am the candidate who has that ability to be able to save this country.

HANNITY: What do you make of the president's emerging strategy for re-election? Clearly, he can't run on his record. At least, I don't see that he is even trying or attempting to. I mean, his latest line that the Republican plan is for dirtier air, dirtier water. Class warfare is a big part of his strategy. Joe Biden went out -- do you support the new stimulus bill or rape and murder's going to go up? So, in other if you are against it, you must be supporting that.

What do you make of that strategy? How far does that get Obama? You know, is there a certain percentage of the population that might buy into that propaganda?

BACHMANN: Well, it's pretty clear that his advisers David Plouffe and David Axelrod, they have a very clear agenda. And that's stay with their base. And their base is far to the left. And so everything that you hear out of President Obama is far left. That's how he's governed and that's how he's planning to campaign. He has no inclination that he's going to move to the center. That's why I have absolutely no doubt, Sean, he will be a one-term president. I see it every day. I'm on the road, every day in cities across America. And I have a lot of disaffected Democrats that are telling me, they are voting for me and disaffected independents. They're voting for me. They want somebody they can believe in and somebody they can count on, somebody who is real and authentic, not a chameleon. They want somebody who has actually been the real deal. And I have been that real deal. And so, that's why I am getting their support.

HANNITY: The thing that really stood out to me though during this debate in Michigan the other night was the reaction of the crowd when -- when the question was asked about Herman Cain, about the sexual harassment issues that he's been dealing with. And it was interesting to me because you have been through this -- it seems to be open season on conservative women -- yourself, Governor Palin and many, many others, the things that have been said in the past about you and Governor Palin, now Herman Cain. And it seems universal that the crowd there is fed up with this, that conservatives are being attacked. Did you feel that something has changed out there?

BACHMANN: Well, I think that conservatives are tired of seeing us attacked. They have seen it happen. They know that it's completely unfair. They know that the media's biased. That's why I think the media has completely lost the faith of the average American. And that's why I really know that in this 2012 election, we have more than a chance to win. We're going to win. And that's why we can't settle on anything less than a true core conservative. Because people are not going to listen to this biased media any more, are they? I mean, you heard that last night. They are not going to listen to the media. They're going to make up their own mind. People are very smart. And it's just like Ronald Reagan, Ronald Reagan spoke to the camera, but he went over the hearts, over the media and directly into the hearts of the American people. That's what we are going to do in this election too, Sean, and I know we are going to win.

HANNITY: But you know, it's interesting, I think it's a fascinating phenomenon what is now going on because there is obviously a threat for women that are in politics that are conservative, it's open season. That would not happen to women with a liberal point of view. They wouldn't be judging their hair.

BACHMANN: Never.

HANNITY: They wouldn't be attacking their children. And I think in the same case for Herman Cain, if Herman Cain had a different political position, as evidence by Barack Obama. There was no scrutiny about Bill Ayers. So, in that sense, I think something very -- there is a big threat that you represent, or that Herman Cain represents in as much as, I think the fundamental argument that liberals advance, the narrative they advance, is shattered when there are conservative women, here in the case of Herman Cain, a conservative African-American and I view it very much the same. It shatters their narrative about conservatism. Do you see that bigger picture?

BACHMANN: I do because I felt that in Minnesota. When I first began to come of age politically it was a very liberal state. And I destroyed that stereotype that they had because they just like the national liberals, believe that women belong to liberals. And they think that minority communitiesm whether it's Latina or whether it's African-American, belongs to the Democratic Party because they see people in groups, not as individuals. That's not true. I am a strong, capable, competent women who is intelligent, who's been very successful. And that defies their stereotype. They can only have one woman, it's Hillary Clinton. And they don't want any other woman on the stage right now because they want to own women.

The fact of the matter is, they can't. Because women are independent. We are competent. We have our own voice and more importantly, we have our own mind and we use it. And so, women can't be contained anymore by one party. That's why we are going to do very well with women, with minorities, with senior citizens. This is our year. We are going to win this thing. Now, we need to make sure we have no surprises. We need a candidate that we can count on and there will be no policy surprises for Michele Bachmann.

HANNITY: All right. Congresswoman, I always appreciate your time. And thank you for your insight, thanks for being with us. Look forward to the debate Saturday night by the way. Thanks for being here.

BACHMANN: I do too, thank you.

HANNITY: All right.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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