'Hannity' Primary Part 2: Michele Bachmann

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'Hannity' Primary Part 2: Michele Bachmann's Plan

GOP presidential candidate lays out plan for America

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," July 1, 2011. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, HOST: And tonight on a special edition of "Hannity," we continue the "Hannity" Primary.

Now, we are giving the candidates each a half hour to layout their views and explain why they think they should be the next president of the United States.

Now, later on tonight, you are going to hear from Herman Cain, he is the businessman who is shaking up the race and making headlines. Now, even though he has no political experience, he's going to tell us his background.

But first, one of the latest candidates to officially declare is Minnesota's Michele Bachmann.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MICHELE BACHMANN, R-MINN.: I stand here in the midst of many friends and many family members to announce formally, my candidacy for president of the United States. I want my candidacy for the presidency of the United States to stand for a moment when we the people, stand once again for the independence from a government that has gotten too big and spends too much and has taken away too much of our liberties.

HANNITY: Why don't we start in the beginning? Why did you get into politics? When you involved in the political process and when did you get involved?

BACHMANN: Well, I got involved actually in 1998. My husband and I had five biological children but we also have been raising 23 foster children.

HANNITY: Twenty three?

BACHMANN: Twenty three foster children.

HANNITY: What was the most you had in the house at one time?

BACHMANN: We had nine kids in the house. That's not unusual. You grew up in a neighborhood where there were kids, there were nine kids.

HANNITY: My wife, we have two kids. I don't believe in --

(LAUGHTER)

Twenty three foster kids.

BACHMANN: Yes. No. It was a great thing. And we enjoyed doing it. I have a wonderful husband, we've been married 33 years. And we were doing foster care. And I had been a United States federal tax litigation attorney. And we're business owners. We started our own business as well. But I was at home full-time taking care of all these kids. And I was surprised what I was seeing coming home in the backpack. We had home schooled, our biological kids, we put our kids in private Christian school, but state law would not allow our foster children to attend private school. They were only in public school.

HANNITY: Why not?

BACHMANN: Well, it is just what the law was.

HANNITY: And you saw a big difference.

BACHMANN: I saw a big difference. And I thought if anyone need a leg up, it was our foster children. So, I started getting involved in education reform, and that was back in 1998. And as a result of all the reform work that I had done, people urged me to run for the Minnesota state Senate. I did, I was there for six years.

HANNITY: What year is that?

BACHMANN: This was -- I was in the Minnesota state Senate from 2000 until 2006. In 2006, I was urged to run for Congress, I did. And I've

been here ever since.

HANNITY: All right. Why would you want to be president?

BACHMANN: Well, because I want to see us take our country back. And I know that we can be so much better than we are today. And I feel very strongly about that. And I want to be able to take my background, expertise and make the decisions that have to be done. We need to have a president who understands the times that we live in. Who can correctly diagnose the problems. Who can apply the right solution. And again, someone who has the courage to carry it out. We need a fighter, right now to fight against the political establishment. That is really what the problem is. And that's what my whole life and history has been about. Fighting against the establishment.

HANNITY: What would separate you from all of these other candidates?

BACHMANN: I think what separates me from the candidate is the fact that I have a proven track record of being a fighter. A fighting for what people believe in, whether it is popular or not. Despite the opposition, I stand true. Because people know that I will do what I say. And that I say what I do. And that I don't just test waters in the sense of putting my finger up in the air to see if something is politically correct or not. I do it based upon principle. And I'm a reformer. And I'm also, anyone who knows me, I'm a very practical person. I'm solution-focused. And I think that that's what I want to bring to bear. We need that now.

HANNITY: Why do you think you have become such a lightning rod? I mean, Governor Palin obviously has become a lightning rod. There's certain people, Donald Trump as you mention him has become, you know, the focus of attacks. You know, over the last couple of years in particular, you know, I used to refer to you as the second most hated Republican woman in the country...

BACHMANN: Or love.

HANNITY: .or the second most loved. So, I stood corrected. But what do you think it is? Why does venom -- I'll give you one example, recently you were giving a speech, you made a mistake about history. And the media just pounced on you.

BACHMANN: Well, I think part of that is because they are nervous and they're worried that maybe she will catch on. Maybe she will be the nominee. And of course, I think that we all know, no secret, a lot of people in the press have been really rooting for Barack Obama all these years. And they want to take anyone that they might see would be a formidable competitor and take them down, and take them out of the

equation. And I just don't square very easy.

HANNITY: Well, I mean, do you think this is what it is about? You raised more money than any member of Congress in the history of Congress.

BACHMANN: In the history of Congress. That's right. And thanks to a lot of beautiful, generous people who by the way, gave an average donation of $45 or less. And people believed in me, because I wasn't spinning them. I was telling people the truth. And people wanted a fighter. Somebody who would really stand up for them.

HANNITY: Do you think Congress today is not living up to the promise of a fight that they gave in the 2010 election? Do you think they are doing enough in terms of battling back the Obama agenda?

BACHMANN: My opinion has been no. My opinion is, we can do more than what we have done so far. Because I believe that people are with us. I know that they are with us. If you look at the Rasmussen polling, from the time Obama-care passed on March 23rd, 2010, until today, there hasn't been one week that less than a majority of Americans have wanted to see us get rid of that awful government takeover of health care. Why? Seniors citizens know why. Because President Obama took $500 billion out of Medicare in order to put it in Obamacare, that's not going to do any good for senior citizens. So, we need to fight for them and fight for liberty in health care and people know we won't get that with the Obamacare.

HANNITY: You pretty much stood alone with maybe two people that I can think of in Congress saying, you know, wait a minute we found that they prefunded Obamacare.

BACHMANN: That's right, $105 billion.

HANNITY: Right. A $105 billion, and you wanted the leadership to fight, they didn't agree with you?

BACHMANN: I believe that this was a battle that we could win. And I because it is because we've already pre-sold this to the American people. They want us to fight this fight. I really believe that we can win it. And I think our best chance was on the 2011 budget. It was a tactical decision and I believe that we could have made. And I think the people still want to see us put that fight.

HANNITY: The Ryan's budget, he funds Obamacare, is that the problem that it has to be passed, A and B, it's a year later. So, you are saying that a lot of that money would be spent?

BACHMANN: Well, it already has been. We're looking at $23 billion so far has been spent. And remember again, $23 billion is not a small amount of money. There will be a lot more than that, that will be spent. And it's to set-up and established these private exchanges in the various states. Now, Florida and Alaska have said, thanks but no thanks. We don't want to set-up these private exchanges. And Iowa now is rejecting it, as well. I'm encouraging every state legislature to say no, don't cooperate with the federal government and set up the private exchanges, because the private exchanges will be taken over by the federal government. They will be running the show. And whatever the state laws are will effectively be

overruled by the federal government in health care.

HANNITY: All right. So, you have been finding yourself at odds with the Republican leadership. On the 2011 budget, there were numbers of Republicans, I think 58 was the number?

BACHMANN: Fifty-eight or 59.

HANNITY: Fifty-eight or 59, that did not go along with the deal at the last minute with John Boehner and the president. So, we originally were told it was $38.5 billion. A lot of people said that is not enough. And then we found that it was actually far less than $38.5 billion. Was that a bad deal?

BACHMANN: Well in my opinion, I thought we could have gotten a lot better. Because I believe again that we should go public and go to the wall to be able to get defunding of Obamacare.

HANNITY: This is not making you popular with some members of Congress.

BACHMANN: Maybe not necessarily. All I know is what I talk to people about across the country. That's what they said that they sent us there to do. And I think that's what we need to do. I realize politics is the art of the possible. I get that. You can't get everything you want. But we need to fight. That's what we have to do.

HANNITY: Is that missing? Because Mike Pence said the same thing. I was saying the same thing on radio and TV. I wanted to see them fight and fight harder. And I think there was a moment here that maybe the fear of being blamed for government shutdown got in the way and kind of took all a little bit of that spark that they may have needed in that debate.

BACHMANN: All I know Sean, is that the United States history will change forever if the government takes over and runs health care. Because I've said it to you before. Socialized medicine is the crown jewel of socialism.

HANNITY: They got it. I mean.

BACHMANN: And they got it, that's right. As you and I are having this conversation, they are in the process of implementing it in nearly every state in the country. And so, do we want to change the arch of history or do we want to just go along? And I want to change the arch of history. I want the country to turn around. I want to see us get it back. We won't get it back if we are nibbling around the edges. We will get it back because we change the arch of history by defunding Obamacare, by turning down cap-and-trade and by changing the FDA, so we can actually approve medicines again in this country. If we can do some of those things, we can start making things in America again, that's the problem. We're not making anything in this country any more. I mean, that's maybe too broad of a statement, we are. But we have to get manufacturing back.

We have to get job creation back. We aren't doing it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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