During a guest appearance on the April 17 broadcast of 630 KHOW-AM's The Caplis & Silverman Show, former Republican presidential and U.S. Senate candidate Alan Keyes said he could “only give you one insight into [U.S. Sen.] Barack Obama [D-IL]: He's an evil man and he needs to be stopped.” Continuing his rant against Obama, abortion, and abortion-rights supporters, Keyes said, "[I]f people in Germany had looked at the facts of what Hitler was standing for, they might have stopped him." Following the interview, co-host Dan Caplis pronounced Keyes an “impressive guy,” prompting co-host Craig Silverman to say that Keyes “represents the worst of America.”

In introducing Keyes, Caplis referred to him as a “heroic crusader for ... the greatest civil rights movement of our lifetime, the defense of the unborn and their fundamental right to life.” Caplis then asked Keyes for “some insight” into Obama, who defeated Keyes in the 2004 Senate race in Illinois. As the Associated Press reported on November 2, 2004:

CHICAGO -- Barack Obama, who shot from obscurity to political stardom with his message of national unity, trounced Republican Alan Keyes at the polls in Illinois Tuesday to be elected the fifth black U.S. senator in history.

[...]

Obama overwhelmed Keyes, a conservative commentator recruited by the Illinois Republican Party after the primary winner dropped out, in what became the nation's first U.S. Senate race between two black major-party candidates.

Keyes, in a combative speech Tuesday night that quoted heavily from the Bible but stopped short of conceding the race, vowed to fight what he called the corrupt politicians of Illinois.

From the April 17 broadcast of 630 KHOW-AM's The Caplis & Silverman Show:

CAPLIS: Obviously Dr. Keyes has really been a heroic crusader for I think the greatest, greatest civil rights movement of our lifetime, that the defense of the unborn and their fundamental right to life. Now, Dr. Keyes, you debated Barack Obama. Barack Obama expected now by many to be the Democratic nominee, maybe our next president. And I just finished, I say 15 pages left, his book. And, and he admits in his book that he had a very difficult time with you in the debates. And, and can you give us some insight into Barack, Barack Obama which you drew from those debates, and how you think --

KEYES: Well, no.

CAPLIS: -- he's going to do down the road?

KEYES: I, I, I can only give you one insight into Barack Obama: He's an evil man and he needs to be stopped. That's an insight. OK? This is a guy who when he was in the state legislature in Illinois blocked the Born Alive Infant Protection Act that was being worked on at the state level that had bipartisan support -- where even pro-abortion people were supporting a bill to stop the practice of letting infant babies be set aside to die. OK?

CAPLIS: Right. Right.

KEYES: Somebody who is willing to countenance infanticide -- the most barbaric practice that I think one can imagine, the most incredible disregard for absolutely innocent human life that one can imagine. To suggest that there's some moral compass in this individual, that there's anything there but the glamour of evil down to that deep level committed to something that will utterly destroy the human conscience is simply to ignore the facts. And, and so that's all I have to say about that. People who want that evil to triumph will support it. They'll be gulled. They'll be taken in. But people who don't will look at the facts. Just as if people in Germany had looked at the facts of what Hitler was standing for, they might have stopped him. People need to do that here. Don't get taken in by smiles. Don't get taken in by phony rhetoric. Just look at the truth.

SILVERMAN: So you are, you are --

KEYES: 'Cause there are some things that a human being will do that are inexcusable and inexplicable --

SILVERMAN: Dr. Keyes --

KEYES: -- on any moral basis, except they have no conscience.

SILVERMAN: Dr. Keyes, are you equating Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler?

KEYES: Oh, I don't care what you say. The simple fact of the matter is that when the man went to the Senate in Illinois and, and kept the bill that would have protected the lives of these innocent infants from coming out of his committee -- bill didn't finally get consideration till he left the Illinois Senate.

CAPLIS: Mmm-hmm.

KEYES: OK. And, and so I look at that and I just say, I don't have to be told twice. I don't have to have the proof put in front of me of somebody who is without conscience. And when he explained it, by the way, he said that the reason you had to do this was because if you didn't, then people would start to see, or start to have a problem with the logic that allowed women to make this choice. So once a woman had chosen that the baby should die, it didn't matter whether it was inside or outside the womb -- that baby had to die.

CAPLIS: Yeah, and even --

KEYES: Now that's a heartless ideologue.

SILVERMAN: Well, let me ask you this: Do you regard a late-term abortion, or a partial-birth abortion, as worse than an early-term abortion? A first-trimester abortion?

KEYES: Excuse me, all abortions are wrong in principle. So I don't get into all this line drawing.

SILVERMAN: Well, I --

KEYES: Our basic principle as a people says very simply, we are all created -- not born, not developed to a certain point, but created. Last time I looked, creation takes place without our involvement. And that is something that is ascribed by our declaration to the creator, not to us.

[...]

CAPLIS: Hey, thanks to Dr. Alan Keyes for joining us. Herb, welcome to the show.

SILVERMAN: I don't think I'd like Dr. Keyes having a gun permit.

CAPLIS: Oh, I -- impressive guy.

SILVERMAN: No.

CAPLIS: Impressive guy.

SILVERMAN: Far from it.

CAPLIS: Nonviolent. He's -- oh, far from impressive?

SILVERMAN: Yeah, far from impressive. The guy is -- he, he thinks he has all the great thoughts of the world, and he's too doctrinaire, in my opinion. His condemnation of homosexuality -- including throwing his daughter Maya out of the house because she said she was a lesbian, kicking her out of the family. That guy to me represents the worst of America.

CAPLIS: Well, and for you to make that statement, Craig, is so out of character for you because it's so extreme and so unjustifiable. I said impressive. I didn't say perfect. There's only been one perfect man on the face of this Earth ever. And, and, you know, so. Herb --

SILVERMAN: He condemned Barack Obama as evil and equated him with Adolf Hitler.

CAPLIS: Well, first of all, you addressed the Hitler thing with him; he responded to it. He did not say Barack Obama is Hitler. But listen, anybody who would oppose the Infants Born Alive Act is supporting something horrifically evil. Horrifically evil.