July 12, 2004

SEAN HANNITY, HOST: Tonight on Hannity & Colmes, the "race card."

VIDEO CLIP, JULIAN BOND: "Their idea of equal rights is the American flag and the Confederate swastika flying side by side."

HANNITY: Is the NAACP chairman calling Republicans racist?

VIDEO CLIP, BOND: "Now they want to write bigotry back into the Constitution."

HANNITY: Alan Keyes will respond.

[Introduction of other news items]

HANNITY: We get right to our top story. The NAACP began its 95th annual convention yesterday, with chairman Julian Bond delivering a scathing attacking on Republicans, saying, quote, "They preach racial neutrality and practice racial division. Apparently, they really do think we all look alike--to hear them, Martin Luther King and Clarence Thomas are the same man."

So, isn't it the NAACP that's playing the race card? Joining us now to talk about this and other presidential race matters, former ambassador and former presidential candidate, our good friend, Alan Keyes. Ambassador, good to see you. Thank you for being with us again, sir.

ALAN KEYES: Glad to be with you.

HANNITY: Well, first of all, your reaction. It seems the NAACP, on one hand, they're trying to get the president to go speak with them, they keep inviting him, saying to go, but yet they ran that James Bird ad, they refer to Republicans as the Taliban, neo-fascist, "the white people's party," "swarm of right-wing locusts," you get the gist. What's going on here, and how should the president respond?

KEYES: Oh, come on, Sean. What is going on here is what has gone on with the black liberal leadership for some decades now--and I think it would be a terrible shame to abandon the fate of America or the black community to the likes of people who are speaking as Julian Bond has spoken, but more importantly, the likes of people who have supported policies that have destroyed the black family, that support abortion, which is committing genocide against black people in this country with devastating demographic results that we have already seen in the course of the last census, that have adopted economic approaches that have impoverished black people, and that have resulted in the loss of tremendous opportunities for which people had sacrificed life, and treasure, and blood in the course of the Civil Rights movement.

We're looking at a generation of toadies--people who essentially are self-serving. They're doing what's necessary to keep their position in a liberal and socialist left-wing establishment that has been devastating for the black community. I do think it's a shame, though, and I have to say this quite frankly. I think that, better than letting these bad-mouthed liberal leaders keep him away from this platform, he ought to go. The president ought to go, stand on that platform. He ought to go, issue by issue, through things like gay marriage and abortion, where this black leadership stands in opposition to the God-believing heart of many, many people in the black community, and he ought to confront them with the fact that they are out of step with the faith and decent values of many people in the black community.

HANNITY: Let's move on to some other issues. You've been one of the leaders in the conservative movement in the country for many, many years now, and John Kerry now claims he has--he represents "conservative values." He actually used that phrase. The number one liberal in the Senate, he chose the number four liberal in the Senate to be his running mate. Is that why there's no Edwards bounce in the polls, while George Bush is leading, 49-45 in the latest AP poll, in spite of Edwards being chosen?

KEYES: Well, I think that Kerry obviously feels vulnerable where he should feel vulnerable, with those people who believe that he's far too extreme on the Left to be acceptable as president of the United States, that his stands against our national security and defense have been far too consistent for him to be trusted with the White House during a time when we are in the midst of the most insidious war in our history.

I think Edwards was a cosmetic attempt to overcome some of those difficulties, as well as to add a kind of gloss of personality to the cold-fish Kerry presentation. I don't think that it's going to go over well, because it lacks any real substance.

HANNITY: Now, you over the years have also been critical of George W. Bush. I mean, when you've disagreed, you've been outspoken. No one's ever going to accuse you, Ambassador, of being shy. Under any scenario do you see Kerry-Edwards beating Bush-Cheney?

KEYES: Well, unhappily, I've got to hope not. First of all, I can't see it, because I don't think the American people are ready to betray the security of this country by putting Kerry into office. Second, I think issues that are coming to the fore now--including, by the way, the issue of homosexual marriage and the push for it around the country--are in fact wedge issues that will wake up a lot of the Democratic base to the fact that they are part of a party that does not believe in their moral values, and that is seeking to destroy fundamental moral institutions to which they are committed, including a lot of people in the black community, in the Hispanic community, who, in fact, I think, have not been paying attention over the years to how far the Democrats have gone in abandoning the moral traditions of this country. But it's going to be inescapable this time.

ALAN COLMES, HOST: Alan, it's Alan Colmes. Thank you for coming back on the program. Let me ask you this. Why is it, if, as you claim, policies of Democrats and liberals are so bad for African Americans, they overwhelmingly vote for Democrats and liberals and not for conservatives like yourself, not for Republicans. Why is that? Why such a disparity between what you say is best for them, and the way they vote?

KEYES: Well, frankly, I see a problem in the way that the Republicans have presented themselves over the years. The real wedge issues are precisely the issues of moral concern, where the believing heart of church-going black people stands in opposition to the positions that the Democratic Party has taken. Unfortunately, a lot of Republicans, when they get to the general elections, will fight the election out over economic issues, this way and that--things that, in point of fact, don't bring out the deep division between the believing heart of many people, say, in the black community, and the kinds of stands that are taken by the Democrats and by the extreme, Left, liberal leadership that is represented by people like Julian Bond.

This time, that wedge is going to be driven by events, it's going to be clear, because this time, the Democrats are going to have to go on record standing against the marriage-based family, standing for the continued annihilation of new generations of young black babies through the promotion of abortion in the black community. This is devastating, the truth is going to be told.

COLMES: You say "this time" as though, all of a sudden, in this upcoming election, African Americans will overwhelmingly vote for George W. Bush. Surely, you don't see that. There's a Gallop poll out tonight that has a little bit of a bounce, has Kerry-Edwards over Bush 50-45%. Are you suggesting that, all of a sudden, African Americans are going to vote for George W. Bush in 2004?

KEYES: I think that the opportunity is there. What I have said is that the issues are coming to the fore, the wedge can be driven. I do think that there are some ominous signs, and I'll say this to Sean. Sean, I worry a little bit that Republicans may not appreciate the opportunity they have. They seem to be planning a convention where there will be no clear voices to address this issue. You know, if G. W. Bush doesn't want to go to the NAACP convention himself, why didn't he ask me to go? If he doesn't want to there and confront this black leadership with the devastation that its policies have wrought against folks, particularly in the black community, why doesn't he showcase it at the convention in a way that would allow the clear, strong, reasoned voice of conservatism to speak from the platform in a way that it can be heard? Right now, they don't seem to be planning to do that at all, and I have to confess, I think that's a great mistake. The wedge issues are there, but they're not going to be telling in the fall unless the wedge is driven.

COLMES: Can you tell me what George W. Bush has done that's good for the African American community?

KEYES: I think the most important thing that G. W. Bush has done is what he's done that's good for America: he has stood against this country's enemies. I don't remember on September the 12th that we counted the bodies in terms of who was black and who was white. Thank God that day we remembered that we were all of us Americans--and G. W. Bush has been a president standing against that evil for the sake of all Americans, and that's what I think people will appreciate.

HANNITY: Hey, Alan. You're running in a marathon, I hear. Congratulations. Good luck.

KEYES: Well, thank you. People can get information at RenewAmerica.us. It's to support a rally we're going to be joining in, in the fall, precisely in favor of religious liberty, the traditional family, and the preservation of marriage. So, we'll be doing our best to raise resources to support that.

HANNITY: We'll be watching. Congratulations. Good to see you. Thanks for being with us, Ambassador.