This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," August 8, 2012. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: Tonight, there is breaking news from the campaign trail as there is new evidence linking the Obama campaign with the controversial pro-Obama super PAC known as Priorities USA. Now, this evidence appears to indicate that campaign officials closely coordinated with PAC organizers on the ad released yesterday that blames Mitt Romney for the cancer death of a steel worker's wife. Now, such coordination would be a blatant and very serious violation of federal election law.
Now, in a moment, attorney and author and columnist Ann Coulter will react.
But first, let's take a look at how we got to this point. We begin by taking a brief look at this super PAC ad that features a man who claims that Governor Romney and Bain Capital are responsible for his wife's death.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE SOPTIC, FORMER STEEL WORKER: And in one day she -- she became ill. And I took her up to the Jackson County Hospital. And -- and admitted her for pneumonia and that's when they found the cancer. And by then, it was stage four. There was nothing they could do for her. And she passed away in 22 days. I do not think Mitt Romney realizes what he has done to anyone. And I -- furthermore, I do not think Mitt Romney is concerned.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Now today the president, White House aides and campaign officials have all refused to condemn that ad. In fact, the press secretary Jay Carney, campaign adviser Robert Gibbs and deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter are among the many Obama confidants who have said they simply cannot comment on this because they are not familiar with this man's story. Now, they have also intended to distance the White House and the campaign from the super PAC, by reminding reporters that they are legally not permitted to coordinate with such organizations.
But there are few problems with this defense. Number one, the very same steel worker that starred in the official Obama campaign ad that was released in May -- see if you recognize this man.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SOPTIC: I was devastated. He makes me angry. Those guys are all rich. They all have more money than they will ever spend, yet they didn't have the money to take care of the very people that made the money for them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Now, even after being featured in that video, the campaign wants you to believe it doesn't know anything about this man? Now, here's what Stephanie Cutter said this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, CNN)
STEPHANIE CUTTER, OBAMA'S DEPUTY CAMPAIGN MANAGER: We don't have anything to do with Priorities USA. That by law, we're not allowed to coordinate with them. And by law, we don't have anything to do with their ads. I don't know the facts of when Joe Soptic's wife got sick or when she died. But as I said before, I do know the facts of what Mitt Romney did with GS Steel. I do know the facts of how Joe Soptic lost his job, lost his health care, the entire company went bankrupt.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Don't know the facts, Stephanie? Sorry to report, but we have uncovered some audio that punches, well, a few holes in your story. Namely the fact that you hosted a conference call during which Joe Soptic explained the details about his wife's death. Listen to this.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP, MAY 14)
SOPTIC: A little while later, she was diagnosed with lung cancer. I had to put her in a county hospital because she didn't have health care. And when the cancer took her away, all I got was an enormous bill.
When you look at what Mitt Romney did in places like GS Steel, you can tell he is only worried about one group of people, and that's the people like him, people at the top. You can't expect much more from someone who says he likes to fire people with no concern about what their family really means.
Now, I turn the call back over to Stephanie.
CUTTER: Great, thank you, Joe. We really appreciate you and David sharing your experiences.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: I guess Stephanie does know his story.
Now, beyond not having the moral courage to come out and condemn that ad that accuses Mitt Romney of murder, now the conference call audio you just heard and the ad that you just saw are two critical pieces of evidence that suggest that the Obama campaign is in fact in close coordination with a super PAC. And the federal election laws are being broken, we the people -- we deserve to know.
Now, here with the analysis to this developing story is the author of the best-selling book, "Demonic," which is by the way is now available in paperback, the one and only Ann Coulter. Welcome.
ANN COULTER, AUTHOR AND COLUMNIST: Thank you, good to be here.
HANNITY: All right. Let's go through this in detail. Stephanie Cutter is caught lying.
COULTER: Uh-huh.
HANNITY: As a lawyer, constitutional lawyer, do you think there are issues here in terms of the coordination with the campaign and the super PAC, in spite of what they are saying?
COULTER: There could well be. I think the bigger issue is how repulsive this ad is. This man -- his wife didn't even have health insurance through his job. She had health insurance through her job. She lost her job years after the plant was closed down, which Bain had kept going for another four years. They kept this plant alive -- it then closed down. It was long after Romney had left Bain Capital. And it was another five years before she got cancer and died.
This is -- is exactly what we talked about last week. Obama is a liar. This is a repulsive, despicable ad. It shows the true colors of the man that we oh, thought was hope and change. No, he was just too young to show his true colors.
HANNITY: President civility. But here's -- what they're trying to do. And look, there's got to be, at some point, this has got to backfire because he presented a very different image. But they would have you believe -- do you believe that Mitt Romney could cause to you get cancer?
COULTER: Right.
HANNITY: Do you believe his father would be embarrassed that he is running for the highest office in the land? Do you believe that he is a felon? Do you believe he didn't pay taxes for 10 years?
COULTER: Right.
HANNITY: Do you believe he hates women and hates dogs?
COULTER: No. And it reminds me how glad I am we are running Mitt Romney against this despicable campaigner. Because they can't go into his divorce records. They can't get anything on him. And he makes you and me look like Paris Hilton, this guy, the Mormon.
(LAUGHTER)
He's clean as could be. But I must say, I think when you say, is there a turning point? I think this ad would be the turning point, and most Americans would say, this is absolutely despicable, blaming this woman's death on Mitt Romney.
And then we have Romney campaign spokesman Andrea Saul and her response was not that it was despicable, not that Bain had that Romney had left Bain five years earlier or the woman died five years after the plant closed and didn't even get her insurance from her husband. Her response was, well, if she had lived in Massachusetts with Mitt Romney's health care plan, she would have had health insurance.
Anyone who donates to Mitt Romney and I mean, the big donors ought to call Mitt Romney and say, if Andrea Saul isn't firing off the campaign tomorrow, they are not giving another dime. Because it is not worth fighting for this man, if this is the kind of spokesman he has to respond to an ad like this, by citing health care in Massachusetts?!
HANNITY: OK, in Massachusetts. Listen, we are watching and witnessing here --
COULTER: No, I'm serious about this!
HANNITY: I know, I'm serious. I know, you are serious. I agree with you.
COULTER: There's no point in you doing your show --
HANNITY: I agree with you.
COULTER: There is no point in us going to a convention and pushing for this man if he is employing morons like this. This ad is the turning point. And she has nearly snatched victory from the jaws of defeat!
HANNITY: All right. Here's the point.
COULTER: She should be off the campaign!
HANNITY: The president now is the architect of the ugliest campaign in modern political history.
COULTER: Yes! Yes!
HANNITY: OK. Now, the question is, with all of these accusations, did they just reach too far?
COULTER: Yes.
HANNITY: Does it get to a point where people have to roll their eyes and say, oh, you know, next time it's going to be Paul Ryan stabbing a woman and a granny in her heart 19 times, slicing her throat.
COULTER: Right.
HANNITY: Three pops to the back of the head. And then they throw her overboard?
COULTER: No, it is truly shocking and of course, it also reminds us once again what Obama doesn't want to talk about. And that his record and how he is wrecking American health care, how he's put millions of people out of work, how he's quadrupled the federal deficit. He can't talk about his record. People are out of work.
You know, an interesting thing I saw in the New York Times yesterday. I have been sort of shocked at the polls showing the candidates, as close as they are. But one interesting poll was that -- I think it was an all of the swing states or many of the swing states, a majority of respondents of likely voters say they think that they will do worse under the economy under Obama.
HANNITY: Of course, I get it. Here's an important --
COULTER: That's all we need.
HANNITY: Here's an important question here.
COULTER: Because everyone knows that the --
HANNITY: I agree.
COULTER: That Romney is going to turn this economy around.
HANNITY: Here is an important question, though. What did Obama know about this ad? And when did he know it, because --
COULTER: Right.
HANNITY: -- in spite of Stephanie Cutter as we have now laid out here tonight, which the mainstream media doesn't do their job.
COULTER: Right.
HANNITY: We have laid out, in fact, she spoke with the man, she said -- she was on a conference call with him. The Obama campaign ran an ad with the same guy. I mean --
COULTER: Right.
HANNITY: Then the super PAC runs it. So, now we have a question, what does Obama know when everybody in his campaign --
COULTER: It's not what he knows.
HANNITY: Wait a minute, hang on a second. They won't condemn Harry Reid.
COULTER: Yes.
HANNITY: And they won't condemn this ad.
COULTER: No, this is all coming directly from Obama. I mean, he hasn't been in politics that long. That's why he's the perfect Democrat to run. He doesn't have enough of a record. Well, he has a record now. Why does it keep coming from his campaigns? He has different aides. And it is not always his aides doing it, it's not always his Democratic minority leader in the Senate doing it. Sometimes it's the media doing it for him. But somehow, always around Obama, vicious, slanderous, slashing attacks on his opponents --
HANNITY: Like his last time. And you wrote about this in a recent column. This is not the first time -- this is his m.o.?
COULTER: Unsealing divorce records. This is his m.o., personal attacks. And now that he can't mention anything he has done for the last four years, oh, this is going to be the ugliest campaign we've ever had.
HANNITY: It already is.
COULTER: And we cannot have Romney's spokesman coming up with completely idiotic responses.
HANNITY: What would the response be from Ann Coulter?
COULTER: Well, I think I just gave it. It's a lie. Obama is a liar. He is a liar. This is not hope and change. It is not true that Romney had anything to do with Bain Capital.
HANNITY: You and John Sununu and talk radio and Hannity and Rush and Levin are the only ones saying it.
COULTER: Well, we can do it. But we can do it better without the drag of Romney's campaign spokesman, who by the way came from the McCain campaign. Great idea.
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