Jesse Ventura to Sean Hannity: “You like me because I tell you the truth”

May 18, 2009

Sean Hannity: He shocked the nation back in 1998 when he stormed onto the political scene and won Minnesota’s race. Now former Minnesota governor, pro wrestler and Navy SEAL, Jesse “The Body” Ventura is considering perhaps another political comeback? His book, “Don’t start the revolution without me” describes his outrage at the state of affairs in the U.S. It is now out in paperback.

Good to see you.

Jesse Ventura: Good to see you, Sean, always.

Sean Hannity: I’ll tell you, he has been yelling at me ever since he walked into the green room today.

Jesse Ventura: I don’t yell at anyone. I speak to people. It’s your reputation that precedes you.

Sean Hannity: You were just right on me. Well, you said you didn’t think you would like me until you met me. Didn’t you say that to me?

Jesse Ventura: Yeah.

Sean Hannity: What didn’t you like about me?

Jesse Ventura: I don’t always care for how you operate and the bullying of guests and things like that.

Sean Hannity: I don’t bully, oh stop. I couldn’t bully you for a million. I couldn’t bully you. You’d slap me down so hard.

Jesse Ventura: You can bully other people. You do it to other people and I get irritated when I see that at home.

Sean Hannity: You say you have been out surfing the past 6 months. Have you really been in Mexico surfing for six months?

Jesse Ventura: No. Unfortunately only for three months because my brother in law was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s Disease on October 2nd and he passed on January 14th. So I didn’t get to Mexico till the end of January because he was my wife’s younger brother and she stayed home and took care of him until his passing. It’s a horrible disease, it’s an awful disease.

Sean Hannity: I’m sorry. I know somebody right now that has it. It’s terrible. It’s horrible.

Jesse Ventura: Scott LeDoux the boxer has it.

Sean Hannity: Is it true?

Jesse Ventura: Yeah.

Sean Hannity: Look, we can go down the old road of our battle. You do not like the Bush administration, you don’t like Dick Cheney. I got that, I understand that. But I want to ask you some new questions if you are game.

Jesse Ventura: Sure.

Sean Hannity: What do you think of Barack Obama?

Jesse Ventura: I think he is exceptionally intelligent when you hear him speak.

Sean Hannity: He reads a teleprompter, oh common.

Jesse Ventura: Well at least we got a President now who can read a teleprompter. You know we didn’t have for many years.

Sean Hannity: That’s not a sign of intelligence.

Jesse Ventura: Yes it is.

Sean Hannity: No, it’s not.

Jesse Ventura: If you’re not capable of reading a teleprompter… No, I’ll say this; I think he is very intelligent. I think it’s far too early to be judgmental. Because let’s face it, he inherited a mess. Wait. He inherited two wars, he inherited an economy in the tank, I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy.

Sean Hannity: Well, George Bush inherited a recession. George Bush inherited the negative impact of 9-11… let me finish.

Jesse Ventura: No he didn’t.

Sean Hannity: Oh yes he did. Oh yes he did.

Jesse Ventura: Alright, alright, alright. You’re telling me that the United States was better off after George Bush or before him?

Sean Hannity: After.

Jesse Ventura: Oh my God. How can you make that statement?

Sean Hannity: I just did, and you want me to tell you why?

Jesse Ventura: I don’t feel the need for me to talk to you about it then. This is ridiculous. This country was far better off before George Bush than it is after.

Sean Hannity: No. You want me to quote to you the 9-11 commission report?

Jesse Ventura: Hahahaha.

Sean Hannity: I’m glad I can make you laugh.

Jesse Ventura: When you bring up the 9-11 commission that makes me laugh because they didn’t investigate nothing.

Sean Hannity: Well, I agree and to one extent you’re partially right. But they did get one thing right, that there were a group of radicals that were at war with the United States and we were in a war with them. We saw the first Trade Center bombing, the embassy bombings, the USS Cole and we have radicals that think God is going to reward them in heaven with virgins, Jesse. How do you stop them? What do you do?

Jesse Ventura: You pay attention to memos on August 6th that tell you exactly what Bin Laden’s going to do. Instead we hear Condaleeza Rice saying, “I didn’t know what they were going to do” and the memo says, “Bin Laden said to hijack planes and ram them into buildings”.

Sean Hannity: I have a better idea.

Jesse Ventura: And your buddy George Bush, he was on vacation in Crawford at that time. Did you know he took over 900 days of vacationing?

Sean Hannity: So what? Presidents are never off. Do you know that… let me give you an example.

Jesse Ventura: This one was. He wasn’t on his watch because the biggest attack in history happened on his watch.

Sean Hannity: I wrote about this in my first book, I’ll give you a copy of it before you leave here. Bill Clinton was offered Osama Bin Laden on a silver platter by the Sudan and we passed on him five times. So I don’t want to hear lectures about George Bush and Bin Laden. He did keep us safe, he did put us on a war foot.

Jesse Ventura: Wait, let’s see. George Bush was bailed out of one of his bad business deals by Salem Bin Laden, Osama’s brother. You don’t think there is a connection there? Common!

Sean Hannity: Let me ask you this: Do you not think the quadrupling of our national debt in one year. Would you do that if you were President?

Jesse Ventura: No. I don’t know. Because I was talking about the deficit before the election and you notice that term never came up.

Sean Hannity: I agree.

Jesse Ventura: Through the entire John McCain Osama Bin Laden election nobody would touch the deficit with a ten foot pole. You know who first brought up the deficit? Ross Perot. That’s right. And so don’t come at me that all that the Republicans do is they spend like Democrats, only they charge it. At least the Democrats go cash and carry. The Republicans do the same thing and charge it.

Sean Hannity: But in one year to quadruple the deficit, to have the CBO tell us that in ten years…

Jesse Ventura: Whose going to be left with this?

Sean Hannity: Our kids and grandkids.

Jesse Ventura: That was George Bush’s fault.

Sean Hannity: No, that’s not true. This deficit is Obama’s deficit. This is Obama’s spending. Obama did it in one year.

Jesse Ventura: He did it to fix George Bush’s mess.

Sean Hannity: You just hate Bush so much that you can’t see straight. You can’t see straight.

Jesse Ventura: No, you can’t see straight because you’re so conservative all you do is back the conservatives no matter what they do.

Sean Hannity: Wrong. You haven’t listened to me for 5, 6 years criticizing Republicans for spending too much money. Say that’s right Mister [...].

Jesse Ventura: Mister? You’re not my officer.

Sean Hannity: I’m not. Jesse “The Body” good to see you. You had a good time?

Jesse Ventura: I’m done already? This is it?

Sean Hannity: That’s it.

Jesse Ventura: Geez, you didn’t even get to any good topics.

Sean Hannity: Because you insist on going over the old topic and I knew you would do this.

Jesse Ventura: Because I need to pound it home to people to have them realize that Barack Obama inherited this mess. Republicans had the Congress for six years and they had the Presidency.

Sean Hannity: Well, now it’s Obama’s mess and Obama quadrupled the deficit in one year and we’ll see what happens to our kids and grandkids.

Jesse Ventura: Okay well, George Bush got a bailout too, didn’t he? And you know what’s interesting, Republicans voted for it when it was George Bush’s bailout, but they wouldn’t vote for it when it was Obama’s. That’s politics at its worst. That’s putting your party before the country.

Sean Hannity: I am a Reagan conservative.

Jesse Ventura: Well, I am a Goldwater conservative.

Sean Hannity: I am Reagan conservative. We just disagree on the social issues on many things. Reagan gave us the longest period of peace-time economic growth. He ended the Cold War and he took on evil in his time and I love him for it.

Jesse Ventura: Okay.

Sean Hannity: And Bush kept us safe. Goodbye, thank you.

Jesse Ventura: Kept us safe! The biggest attack in history on his watch. Don’t tell me he kept us safe.

Sean Hannity: Thank you.

Jesse Ventura: No, I’ll thank George Bush who doesn’t read memos and goes on vacations and sleeps.

Sean Hannity: You should thank Bill Clinton for not taking Bin Laden when he was offered.

Jesse Ventura: Well, I’ll put it to you this way. I’d rather have a thousand Monicas than all these 9-11s and the terrorists.

Sean Hannity: I don’t know why I like you, but I do.

Jesse Ventura: Because I tell you the truth, that’s why.