Palin: 'Obama administration dropped the ball' in the Middle East

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Palin: 'The Obama administration dropped the ball'

Former Alaska governor speaks out on Middle East crisis

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," September 13, 2012. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, HOST: We are putting this administration and their reaction in the Mideast under scrutiny. Now, this is the same administration that coined the term overseas contingency operation, and they were referring to man-caused disasters, if you remember those words, when talking about acts of terror. They now appear to be buying into a narrative that the trailer for a low-budget anti-Muslim film is actually responsible for the chaos in the streets in the Middle East, hence their apology yesterday. Yet again today, before taking the time to condemn the ongoing violence or the death of the U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, chose instead to rant about a phantom movie that may or may not exist. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, SECRETARY OF STATE: The United States government had absolutely nothing to do with this video. We absolutely reject its content and message.

This video is disgusting and reprehensible. It appears to have a deeply cynical purpose, to denigrate a great religion and to provoke rage.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Now, keep in mind, her movie critique came before she bothered to denounce the widespread vandalism, the arson, the gunfire, the Molotov cocktails that are being directed at U.S. interests abroad.

Now sadly, both what she and the president failed to recognize is the fact that the radical Islamists who are seeing protesting right there on that screen, they are not reacting to some movie. They haven't even seen this movie. These are anti-American extremists who are hell-bent on the destruction of this country. They are burning our flag, they are chanting "Death to America" and they even spray-painted the name Usama bin Laden on the entrance to our embassy in Cairo.

And not to even mention the fact that all of this began on the anniversary of September the 11th. Uh, do you not have a clue that this somehow might be connected? Now, I usually ask the question, can you afford four more years when speaking about the economy. But the events of this week, they raise even more red flags about the ability of this president to lead this nation during very difficult times.

Here with more on all of this, Fox News contributor, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. Governor, welcome back to the program.

I really have to contain my anger, Governor, because here, our embassy is attacked. Our flag is ripped down. They're chanting for Usama bin Laden, they're chanting, no God but Allah, on our property. We give this country $2 billion a year. And then for the first 10 to 16 hours, we go out and apologize? Can you explain that to me?

SARAH PALIN, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, Sean. We have to ask ourselves, and I sure wish that reporters would ask our president, how much longer can we afford to spill our blood and treasure, trying to quote/unquote, "promote democracy" in places that do not have any values for a civilized society, values like respecting minorities and women's rights and independent judiciary and rule of law? How much longer do we now support and fund Sharia democracy?

Now, as for this film, as you mentioned in your intro there, that is a red herring and the media is going along with some in the Obama administration, pretending like this is a protest against some phantom video on YouTube? No. It's because the Obama administration dropped the ball. And they have not taken head-on this war on terror, and they have adopted a foreign policy of appeasement where our enemies no longer fear us and our friends can no longer trust us.

HANNITY: This is -- yes.

PALIN: And the media's going along with this idea, this false narrative of this video being the cause of this chaos.

HANNITY: We're going to get into the media later tonight Governor, because their handling of this, they are blaming Romney. Thank God Romney spoke out in defense of his country after our embassy was attacked, our flags were ripped down and in Egypt -- I'm sorry, in Libya, in Benghazi, we had an ambassador, three other people killed, his body dragged through the streets after it's reported in "The Washington Times," he was sodomized before he was killed.

Here's what I want to show you. This wasn't supposed to happen under President Obama. He went to Cairo, he was going to bring the world together and world peace was going to break out as he went on this apology tour, and this was part of the speech in Cairo back in 2009.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, JUNE 4, 2009)

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: I am grateful for your hospitality and the hospitality of the people of Egypt. And I am also proud to carry with me the good will of the American people in a greeting of peace from Muslim communities in my country. Assalaamu alaykum.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

I have come here to Cairo to seek a new beginning, between the United States and Muslims around the world.

That is what I will try to do today, to speak the truth as best I can. Humbled by the task before us and firm in my belief that the interests we share as human beings are far more powerful than the forces that drive us apart.

America respects the right of all peaceful and law-abiding voices to be heard around the world, even if we disagree with them. And we will welcome all elected, peaceful governments, provided they govern with respect for all their people.

The people of the world can live together in peace. We know that is God's vision. Now that must be our work here on earth.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: And then he went on to say that we have gone against even our own values, that's when the apology for America came in, Governor. Has he succeeded in what his quote, "vision" was, of uniting the Muslim world and getting along better with them?

PALIN: He has been so absolutely naive in his foreign policy measures that he has undertaken and that has put America in a much weaker position than we were four years ago again with our enemies not fearing us, our friends not being able to trust us, our president not having time to meet with allies like Netanyahu, and yet, having more time than ever to meet with and try to appease some of those whom we should be showing our strength to, instead of this kind of capitulation -- big group hug from America --

HANNITY: Yes. It didn't work.

PALIN: Those who would seek America's harm.

HANNITY: Governor, last question, I see as I am coming down tonight, a new headline that has just broken on the Drudge Report, a study out of a newspaper, The Independent in Great Britain -- by the way, a liberal paper. And the headline is revealed inside story of the U.S. envoy's assassination. Among the things that they point out here is the State Department in fact had credible information 48 hours before the mob's charge, the consulate in Benghazi.

How big of an investigation do we need to see if they had knowledge and did not act?

PALIN: Exactly. That's what I mean by the Obama administration dropping the ball. If they had these 48 hours to be prepared, they knew that the anniversary of 9/11 is a quite volatile time. Where were the marines? Is it true that the marines were not allowed to have live ammo in some of these places? What is wrong with this administration that would ever put America's interests on the back burner in order to appease some of these people in some of these places that do not value civilized society?

HANNITY: All right. Governor, great to see you. I appreciate your commentary.

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