This is a rush transcript from “Hannity,” January 19, 2010. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: Now joining us, also at Scott Brown’s campaign headquarters tonight, we have former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney standing by.
Governor, good to see you. Thanks for being with us.
MITT ROMNEY, FORMER MASSACHUSETTS GOVERNOR: Thanks, Sean. This is a big night. We’re pretty excited in this room, I’ll tell you that.
HANNITY: All right, well, you know Massachusetts politics. May certainly a little bit too early to tell but we’re getting pretty close. I mean if we have 60 percent of the vote in and it’s 53-46, it’s certainly looking good for Scott Brown. And it’s certainly confirming the polls we’ve seen in the last number of days. Your thoughts?
ROMNEY: Well, I think Scott is going to win tonight. And I think you’re right, the polls have been indicating that he has overcome a 30-point deficit and I think he’s done that by, of course, sticking to the issues. He’s not run a negative campaign. He’s a solid campaigner with a terrific campaign.
But this is really also a referendum, if you will, on the Barack Obama agenda. And I think a way of working in Washington which is kind of an arrogant approach to politics in this country shutting out one party entirely, that’s not what Barack Obama promised.
He has delivered something very different than what people expected. And I think the people here in Massachusetts in the bluest of blue states are saying they don’t like that kind of arrogance. They want to see more balance. They want to see somebody who’s actually, well, a believer in the people of America, not just the government of America.
HANNITY: Well, I — I agree with you. I think this arrogance and I think of misinterpretation of the last elections’ results. I mean, you know, if you got to bribe senators to support your health care plan and you’ve got to buy off unions to support your health care plan and you’re not going to keep your promise to be transparent and put it on C-SPAN, it seems to me that this is a reaction to that arrogance.
Do you agree with that analysis?
ROMNEY: You know, I do agree with that. I think a lot of people will look at the campaign issue by issue to try and understand why it is that Scott Brown has been so successful.
But I think you put your finger on it. It’s really the attitude of arrogance on the part of those — I call them the neo-monarchists in Washington who believe that big government is better than the people, smarter than the people, wiser than the people, and what’s happening in Massachusetts is that the citizens here are saying no, that’s not the way it is.
We want a government that responds to the people of America and does not respond to the ideologues and the left-wing of the Democratic Party.
HANNITY: All right. What does it say about the president? As you pointed out, you do believe this is a referendum on Barack Obama’s agenda. But now, if this comes out, we have 63 percent, this just coming in, 63 percent. It’s still 53-46. So we don’t have a lot of votes left out there tonight. So we may even be able to call this thing earlier than we may have thought.
But the president in one sense is 0-4 if you include Copenhagen, and you include New Jersey, and you include Virginia, and if Scott Brown wins tonight in Massachusetts, and that means four times that the president of the United States has put his credibility on the line in his first year in office and has come up unsuccessful.
Will that further impact the rest of his agenda?
ROMNEY: Well, I’m sure it will. I think there will be some in the Democratic Party who are so committed to their current course that rather than accept the data from the people that they’re going to go ahead with what they think is the right thing and that’s the kind of arrogance which I think is going to cause them to suffer in the ballot box in 2010.
But I also believe the Democrats who are thinking about how they should vote on key issues particularly the Blue Dog Democrats who are going to say to themselves, I’m not sure I want to vote along the party line on cap-and-trade and on Obama-care and on higher taxes and cutting Medicare.
They’re going to say no to those things. And I actually also when the politicking time comes they’re going to say, I don’t think I want to invite Barack Obama to come into my district. He does not make things happen.
HANNITY: Yes. It’s amazing turnaround one year ago. Just think of where we were in the country.
All right, my next question is, there’ve been a lot of talk about how this impacts health care. Nancy Pelosi said earlier today that health care will go forward. There’ve been other congressmen that said, in fact, it does not go forward. But then there’s been a lot of talk about shenanigans that they won’t, in fact, seat Brown right away if he has the decisive victory tonight with 63 percent of the vote in.
If they play any shenanigans, what then does that do to the mood of the electorate, which is clearly pretty angry and pretty anti-the Democrats’ agenda?
ROMNEY: Well, I’d be surprised if the Democrats have already been talking what they would do if Scott Brown became elected, how they would get their health care through despite the will of the people. If they play the kind of shenanigans you described I think it’s going to show the kind of arrogance which has lead to Scott Brown’s victory tonight, in part.
And that’s going to only make their prospects in 2010 more difficult. I have to think, and I say this with some disappointment, either the Democratic leadership is going to continue to fight to do whatever it takes to win a battle, regardless of the will of the people. And I think that’s something which will hurt the country and also really hurt their party.
HANNITY: How big is it that you were elected as governor as a Republican in the bluest of blue states? How significant? We now have 65 — I’m looking at the latest monitor, we have 65 percent of the vote in. It’s still 53-46. How significant is it that this is a Republican in the bluest of blue states?
ROMNEY: Look, you can’t underscore how significant this victory is. This is a lot different than my victory. Republican governors have won before. I won as a Republican governor, Jane Swift, Paul Celluci, Bill Weld won as Republican governors.
But to have a Republican senator, that’s unheard of. We haven’t had a Republican senator elected in Massachusetts since the 1970s and that was Ed Brook. This is monumental. This is epic. This is Scott Brown is a great candidate. It is also that Barack Obama has disappointed the American people and they are saying from Massachusetts, they’ve had enough of it.
HANNITY: All right, Governor — and by the way, I can see behind you the band is waiting for you to get up on stage and sing, so we won’t waste any more of your time.
ROMNEY: Thanks, Sean. Can’t hear the last thing you said but we’re having a great time tonight. Thanks so much.
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