Posted on 08/05/2004 12:59:35 PM PDT by Darkwolf377
After news
All due respect to McCain; he does like to flirt. Of course this falls right in line with a certain bill about campaign finance that he has been involved with.
Brinkley isn't a real historian.
He's a pet historian.
Thanks, and permit me to return the compliment.
[local station late in rejoining show due to weather alerts and a traffic fatality on I-95]
Hannity: ... the left, doesn't want to hear the stories of these other guys. Why can't these men have the right to say what they want to say ... and let people decide for themselves. They, I ...
Roy Hoffman is with us, Rear Admiral, US Navy Retired; Van O'Dell, uh, who served, uh and he will be with us on TV tonight - we're gonna show you the ad - if you haven't seen the actual ad, we're gonna show it to you in full tonight; we didn't show the full ad last night, we're gonna show the full tonight. And Scott Swett is with us, works on the web site for these guys, Swift Boat Vets.
Alright, uh, here's what, I want to ask you, because there's so much to get to here. um, one of the first questions I want to ask you, has any reported from The New York Times, The Washington Post ... gentlemen, prior to now have they interviewed you about your experiences with John Kerry?
Adm Hoffman: Not until yesterday
Hannity: Who is that, Admiral Hoffman?
Adm. Hoffman: yes
Hannity: How closely, admiral, you, you worked with him from a distance, did you not?
Adm. Hoffman: No, I did not work from him, ah, a distance, I'd like to clarify that. I've heard that; I'm getting sick and tired of hearing it. I operated those boats in close proximity to him many times ...
Hannity: Well, because, you know its been printed otherwise, I have an article here in front of me that says the opposite, so it's important that we clarify that. So you saw John Kerry up close and personal.
Adm. Hoffman: Did I ride on his boat? No. Did I ride on boats that were close to him? Yes.
Hannity: What ... what do you want the American people to know about him?
Adm. Hoffman: I want them to know the truth. And the reason for that is simple. First of all, in 1971 ... but, then when he announces himself for candidacy for the chief officer or, the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces in January of this year ... it set all of us back quite severely; we couldn't believe that this man could possibly be the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. So I started organizing the group back then, and particularly when his biography by Douglas Brinkley, Tour of Duty ... when that came out, it was so full of, of exaggerations, distortions of fact, and outright lies ... that it's more .. instead of calling it a biography, they should have called it a novel. Because of, er, the one good thing was it gave us something concrete to bite into.
Hannity: Now, you mention that of the 23, what, Officers In Charge of the Swift Boat guys
Adm. Hoffman: That's in his division ...
Hannity: That's in his division ... of the 23 that are still alive, there's only one supporting his candidacy for President ...
Scott: That is correct, that is Skip Barker, who works for his campaign.
Hannity: And Van, I want to go back to, you know, I mean, look, I think you guys know, that, that the beginning of the trashing of you guys has begun. You guys are gonna have your reputations smeared, your characters impugned, your motives are going to be questioned. Alright, Van, you served closely with John Kerry for three of the four months he was there, 75% of his time. you are disputing his record of what happened in Vietnam as are many of your fellow Vietnam Vets. Why did you decide to get involved in this?
Van: I'll tell you what, I started to get involved in this when he announced that he was going to be a candidate for President of the United States and be Commander in Chief. Ah, before that it didn't matter. He was in Massachusetts and that was their choice to have him. Right now, ah, I'm a father and a grandfather, and my kids may be in the military ... my grandchildren. And it's important that we have a Commander in Chief that is fit to serve and I decided to get involved with this because I felt, at that time, that I was being called back to service by my Country, to tell the truth about what actually happened in Vietnam with John Kerry. And what happened when he came back and the lies that he told.
Hannity: So specifically a lot of this is rooted in the allegations that he made against his fellow soldiers when he said that his fellow soldiers had told him stories, that they had raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, that his fellow Vietnam Vets cut off limbs, blew up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, raised villages in a fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan - that's all, you're saying that is all [verbal emphasis] a lie.
Van: That is all a lie [verbal emphasis]. I can tell you I, I served with these guys and they're all honorable people and we even took fire sometimes and didn't fire back because civilians were in the way. We were not out there killing civilians; we were out there on missions. And ...
Hannity: yeah
Van: and to be lied about that, it just , it just really, really tears at your guts - it's the same type of trashing you were talking about they're gonna do now. He was trashing back then and there was no basis in fact for it because there were no reports ever filed by any officer in that area, of atrocities.
Scott: Sean ...
Hanity: Yes sir
Scott: ... I'd just like to note that Admiral Hoffman and Mr. O'Dell fought under fire in combat conditions - I don't think they're going to be intimidated by name calling from the other side. I'd like to touch real quickly on your earlier point, that the, uh, left appears to be bent on silencing these guys ... I, uh, imagine that you are aware that the Kerry, uh, campaign attorneys have contacted all TV stations and insisted that they not run the ads.
Hannity: Well, I heard that just prior to coming on air today Uh, have you been able to confirm that and get a copy of that letter?
Scott: Uh, I haven't seen the letter but I heard that from several sources. It's also my understanding that the packages that went out to TV stations with the ad contained, are backed 60 pages of sworn statements, contain book excerpts and military records.
Hannity: So what are they trying to intimidate your Vietnam Vets, uh, and by the way, I can tell you right now if anyone threatens them with a lawsuit, I know for a fact that Mark Levin of the Landmark Legal Foundation will race to their defense.
Scott: I'm sure he will; I don't think they're trying to intimidate the Vets so much as they're trying to intimidate the, uh, TV stations
Hannity: TV stations, but in essence they really are tying to go after the vets 'cause they're the ones they don't want their story to be told in this ad. Uh, hm, let me tell you right now ... Van, you're going to be on Hannity & Colmes tonight ... and, immediately following you, you know he has this so-called band of brothers ... Jim Rassmun [sp?] and I've interviewed him before - he's the Vietnam Vet who Kerry claims saved his life [sic - wasn't it the other way around?] and won the Bronze Star. He has a very different story for you. What do you way to him?
Van: Well, I'll tell you what, there are a couple of things that I can refute ... if you, you remember at the convention and other places, he said he was in the water alone, that all the fleet had left and zipped down the river. That couldn't have happened because the incident that caused him to fall in the water ... was Kerry's boat taking off at high speed because the 3 boat had been mined; the 3 boat was dead in the water.
Hannity: You mean you were there for this instance?
Van: I was there. I was there. I laid down the first cover fire and I quit firing because we weren't receiving any fire.
Hannity: So why is Rassmun saying that Kerry saved his life? But you're saying that it's absolutely false?
Van: I have no idea what his motives are
[Adm Hoffman???] [overtalk] Rassmun lied [emphatic]
Van: ... well he pulled him out of the water, yes he did pull him out of the water, but let me tell you something, Sean, there were three other people in the water that day. Our boat picked up two of them, Larry Furlow's [sp?] 51 boat picked up the other one.
Hannity: yeah
Van: There ... and nobody received medals for that because that was the job that we did. But we were not under intense fire - another lie. 5000 meters of fire along that river? That's longer than Seminary Ridge along Gettysburg. We couldn't have survived 5000 meters of small-arms fire; we would all be dead in those unarmored boats and we ... [cross talk] no return fire.
Hannity: Let me ask you both this question, The New York Times, and I think Joe Conason was one of them, uh, I got a report from somebody today , uh, I'm not surprised but I haven't seen the article yet, but they're suggesting, the New York Times in particular, that you guys are motivated by, by politics and they point to this Texas Republican ... who contributed to your web site and commercial ... are all of you involved in this web site, this commercial, are you guys all Republicans, is there any politics to play here?
Adm. Hoffman [over the others]: Absolutely not [emphatic] We have stated from the very beginning that ... we are not connected with the Republican party, the DemocRATic Party [editor's privilege], or independent Party in any way whatsoever.
Hannity: yeah
Adm. Hoffman: yes, we do get contributions from $25 to $100,000
Hannity: just so people?? Of course the pro-Kerry groups are funded by George Soros and no one seems to suggest that, uh, this taints the left's motives and if I were you, I would be offended that these people would suggest that your integrity and honesty can be bought. Uh, you know what's amazing to me is you look at the numbers, your numbers are staggering. And this is what I'd urge people to pay attention to, if only one of the 23 officers of the Swift Boats only one supports Kerry and the rest are against him. Well, that does that, I mean there's something there there.
Adm. Hoffman: Not only that but there's only one officer or enlisted man of the 3,600 men that I had under my command, that includes the aviation and Coast Guard, only one bugged out in 4 months: John Kerry [emphatically].
Hannity: What do you mean, tell me what you mean, oh, you mean that left after a short time in the service.
Adm. Hoffman: After he, that third purple heart which you've just been talking about, the Bronze Star, which was bogus all the way, that was his ticket out of there, that's what he had been planning all the way.
Hannity: Explain that for our audience - you're saying that his Purple Hearts were not earned.
Adm. Hoffman: That is correct
Hannity: Explain that to, to people that don't know what you're talking about.
Adm. Hoffman: Alright ... I think that Van O'Dell told you that there was one explosion - a controlled mine under PCF3. No other boats were damaged. There was only ONE explosion [verbal emphasis]. Kerry breaks out of the fire zone and goes downstream. He's the only one that left the scene, the rest of them are trying to save the boat number 3 and pick the men up out of the water and so forth. Kerry didn't come back until he was sure there wasn't any shore fire - and there wasn't, there never was any shore fire.
Adm. Hoffman: Now ... in his own report he said that he had a minor contusion on his right arm and he had shrapnel in his butt. Now ... when, an underwater mine does not have any shrapnel. So, where did the shrapnel come from? I'll tell you where it came from. Before that operation when he was up the river, he and Rassmun tossed a concussion grenade into a sampan with loaded rice [sic]. He didn't duck fast enough and he got some of the rice up his rear end. And that was the wound that he had. But he made his after-action report, he reported that as shrapnel and that is an outright ...
[weather alert!!! ... Tornado Warning ... pesky waterspouts in Port Canaveral (also funnel clouds over the Merritt Island Mall)!!! dollar to donuts Hoffman was going to say "lie" but it gives me a great time marker]
Hannity: ... it, hang on one second, guys, we'll come back for one final segment and I promise we'll let you go. Now, Van O'Dell served with Kerry and Roy Hoffman, both who served with Kerry in Vietnam ... very different stories to tell ... we're going to show you this ad on TV on Hannity & Colmes, Van O'Dell is going to be on ... and this other guy Jim Rassmun, he's the one guy that takes Kerry's side in this, he's going to be on, we'll have both sides [segues into break]
RED ALERT!!! Look at the transcript I have up from Hannity's Radio show today with the Swift Vets!!! O'Dell and Rassmun will be on H&C in 10 minutes. It should have a 15kt yield. Please ping the world to the three part transcript I've posted. Unbelievable!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(You didn't drink 566 Cokes today did you? LOL!)
Ping .. the thread now has the complete transcript - word for word - in three parts. See above. It is nuclear!
Transcript from Hannity RADIO Show by NonValueAdded
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1185726/posts?page=204#204
Bookmark for later reading and BUMP
The ad is on Hannity and Colmes now.
I heard the Hannity interview, which was amazing.
If the public is able to hear even a tenth of this story, Kerry is in some hot water.
Let's hope that he continues to unravel in the face of the truth.
Hannity & Dipstick covering the story right now on the Fox News Channel...
Susan Estrich, STFU. You weren't there.
Estrich is in full damage control mode, isn't she? With good reason!
Sorry for the typos. I was so angry at Estrich. For those who don't know, the Dem talking point is now if you weren't on the exact same boat as Kerry at the exact same time, you have no right to say anything about it.
Senator McCain,
What is it that you don't like about the Swiftboat Vet's advertisement?
Are you in a position to question ANYTHING those vets have to say about Kerry?
Are you upset that the ad is effective?
Did Kerry promise you a job if he's elected?
If you had been on any of those swiftboats working with Kerry, or in his command, wouldn't you feel qualified to assess his performance?
Do you approve of Kerry's behavior after returning from Vietnam?
Former USAF Sgt. 1971-1974
(46350)
Sincerely,
Laurence J.
The problem with your note is its slightly aggressive tone--folks in Senate offices turn off when they detect it.
If I may suggest a slight edit?
Senator McCain,
If you had been on any of those swiftboats working with Kerry, or in his command, wouldn't you feel qualified to assess his performance?
Do you approve of Kerry's behavior after returning from Vietnam?
Former USAF Sgt. 1971-1974
(46350)
Sincerely,
Laurence J.
You make the point bluntly without the stuff that would allow them to toss it in the "angry constituent" folder aka the trash.
Just a suggestion.
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