This is a partial transcript from “Hannity & Colmes,” January 30, 2007, that has been edited for clarity.
SEAN HANNITY, CO-HOST: The top story tonight: We don’t expect impeachment will have any traction in Congress. But you never know.
Joining us from Washington, our pal, Democratic Congressman Charles Rangel.
Here’s what I object to. We need solutions to Iraq, Iran, Islamic terror, North Korea. We need solutions. This impeachment nutty stuff diverts attention from that. Don’t you agree?
REP. CHARLES RANGEL (D- NY): Don’t call it nutty.You’re talking about freedom of speech. I agree with you that impeachment is not going to be something that’s going to happen.
But when you have a president that’s elected for four years, unlike those of us in the House elected for two years, when we don’t do what our voters want us to do, they throw us out in two years. You don’t have that option with the president. So talking and screaming and releasing your frustrations is better than burning down the White House.
O’REILLY: Well, come on.
RANGEL: So I think from a healthy perspective, people should talk about it.
O’REILLY: Talk about what? Talk about impeaching a president based on nothing? Based on a difference of opinion over a war? There’s a difference of opinion on this.
RANGEL: Listen, impeachment is a legal process. It’s in the Constitution.
O’REILLY: Yes, it’s high crimes and misdemeanors. There’s no evidence of any high crime or misdemeanor here.
RANGEL: But that judgment are not made by protesters at rallies, Bill. It’s made in the House of Representatives.
O’REILLY: You can’t get a House of Representatives to investigate anything unless you have evidence of wrongdoing, which you do not have.
RANGEL: Listen…
O’REILLY: Thus, this is irresponsible talk — unless evidence is put forth.
RANGEL: I don’t think that you get the way this works. It does not have to reach the high state in the House of Representatives for people who are frustrated in the street to call for kicking bums out of the House, or kicking the Senate out, and to say impeach the president.
O’REILLY: It’s more than that. It’s more than that.
RANGEL: It is not more than that!
O’REILLY: It’s undermining a sitting president who’s in the middle of a war. And you know we’re in the middle of a war. And you know this is nonsense. Yet you think that somehow some good can come out of it. And I don’t.
RANGEL: If it – no, nothing good is going to come out of it. But you are not going to restrict people who believe that the president is not obeying the Constitution as they see it, not to be able to scream out for anything. That’s the American way.
O’REILLY: There’s not a shred of evidence to back up that opinion. Not a shred.
RANGEL: That’s why you have the House of Representatives. They’re not asking anyone except the House to do it. We’re the only ones that can impeach.
O’REILLY: And you’re not going to do it.
RANGEL: Of course we’re not going to do it!
O’REILLY: There’s nobody in the House going to do that, outside of Maxine Waters. There’s nobody going to do it.
RANGEL: No one who knows Dick Cheney is thinking about impeaching George Bush.
O’REILLY: Right. So you should be on my side and say these people are diverting attention from the serious problems that we need to solve here.
RANGEL: I hope I never reach that point, Bill.
O’REILLY: That you’re on my side?
RANGEL: No, no that people in the street cannot scream and get.
O’REILLY: You can scream all you want, but I’ll scream back that you’re nuts.
RANGEL: But I’m not screaming at you. I’m saying people have a right to say impeach the president without you getting frustrated.
O’REILLY: I’m not frustrated. I’m just calling it what it is. This is the No Spin Zone.
RANGEL: Oh, well, that’s different.
O’REILLY: It’s insane. It’s insane.
RANGEL: If you have your No Spin Zone…
O’REILLY: Yes…
RANGEL: …don’t have it at the expense of freedom of the speech who people love this country and are screaming for impeachment for whatever reason. People in the United States of America are entitled to do that.
O’REILLY: Well, they’re entitled to do it.
RANGEL: Exactly.
O’REILLY: But I’m entitled to point out how foolish and misguided they are.
RANGEL: Yes, but you know, when you talk about freedom of speech, I think you ought to be a little looser and not uptight about that.
O’REILLY: I’m not uptight.
RANGEL: It’s not going to happen.
O’REILLY: No.
RANGEL: And you can’t…
O’REILLY: But it hurts us….
RANGEL: …call these people ridiculous.
O’REILLY: It hurts every one of us because we’re diverting attention away from the real problem. The real problem isn’t the Bush administration, although absolutely they booted the war in Iraq. The real problem is Islamic terrorists who want to kill us! And you guys in the House and the president and the Senate should be working together to try to protect us and solve this problem not diverting attention into the fringe.
RANGEL: You know, the American people have spoken. That’s the only reason why the Democrats are in charge now.
O’REILLY: Yes. Now we want you to do something.
RANGEL: They’re frustrated with the president.
O’REILLY: Then we want you to do something. So do something.
RANGEL: There’s not one scintilla of evidence as to why we got involved in this war. The president has said he’s made mistakes. He has not given us a way to get out of the war. And what you are saying, I think, Bill, is that notwithstanding his mistakes, the 3,000 Americans that have been killed, the hundreds of thousands Iraqis, the 30,000 people wounded, you’re saying don’t criticize the president we’re in war. Well hell, he got us in this war. He’s not talking about getting us out.
O’REILLY: No, that’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying responsible criticism is fine, but we need to find solutions to Iraq, Iran, Islamic terror and North Korea.
RANGEL: That’s not.
O’REILLY: And this stuff isn’t helping.
RANGEL: It’s not inconsistent to be critical of the president and to say we have some real problems to deal with…
O’REILLY: They have no solutions other than impeachment which is loony.
RANGEL: When you say “they”, the American people have no need to tell the president how to get out of this war. He got us in, he’s the commander-in-chief. And he should be talking about ways to get us out.
O’REILLY: Look, if the Brattleboro newspaper which is, you know, off the chart left, cared about its country, which I don’t think it does, I think it cares about hating Bush, hating Republicans, hating hating, then the Brattleboro newspaper in this editorial page would say this is what we should do in Iraq, this is what we should do in Iran.
You know, Congressman, there was a big peace demonstration on Saturday. You weren’t there, but some of your colleagues were. We interviewed Fonda and Penn and Sarandon. They didn’t have one solution to one problem, Congressman. Not one.
And that’s what I am asking you and the members of the House to do in both parties. Come up with better solutions. I’ll give you the last word.
RANGEL: Well, any newspapers that you find are critical of President Bush, let’s you and I go and burn those papers up and eliminate freedom of speech forever. And if you want to find the truth, listen to Bill O’Reilly in the Zone where you don’t have to worry about whether you’re right or wrong.
O’REILLY: Where you have No Xpin.
RANGEL: No spin.
O’REILLY: Then you finally said something that made sense, congressman. Will you listen to me? I will guide everybody.
RANGEL: That’s right.
O’REILLY: .into the No Spin promised land.
RANGEL: And with that, we’ll sing together “God Bless America.” .
O’REILLY: All right, Congressman Rangel, always good to see you, man. Thank you.
RANGEL: Good to see you, Bill.
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