Bill O'Reilly Smacks Down George Stephanopoulos' Pro-Obama Spin
By Scott Whitlock | September 27, 2011 | 10:42
Fox News host Bill O'Reilly on Tuesday dismissed the pro-Obama talking points repeated by Good Morning America's George Stephanopoulos. After quoting the President regarding 2012, Stephanopoulos parroted, "And it's clear that the President and his team, there's a strategy here. They think that the Republican base is way outside of the mainstream right now."
An almost incredulous O'Reilly snorted, "So, wait a minute, George. You're telling me, this is shocking to me, that the President doesn't like Republicans, that he's going to criticize Republicans. Come on."
[See video below. MP3 audio here.]
O'Reilly also declared that Obama will be defeated next year: "I think that the economy is so bad that if the Republicans run a candidate with credibility, the President will lose, unless something happens."
Stephanopoulos uncritically repeated Obama's smears on Republicans:
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Meanwhile, President Obama really going after this. You saw him in these fund-raisers out on the west coast. He said, he told them, "Has anybody been watching the debates lately? You have got a governor whose state on fire denying climate change. You have got audiences cheering at the prospect of somebody dying because they don't have health care and booing a service member in Iraq because they're gay. That's not reflective of who we are."
ABC News journalist Jake Tapper on Monday offered more context than his colleague in regard to the GOP presidential debates. Tapper explained, "We should, of course point out, George, that it was than less than a handful of individuals doing that inappropriate cheering and booing."
A transcript of the September 27 segment, which aired at 7:08am EDT, follows:
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09/27/11
7:08
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: And for more on this, let's welcome back Bill O'Reilly, anchor of the O'Reilly Factor on Fox, author of a new book Killing Lincoln. I've got it right here. We're going to talk about it later in the show. But, let's get to the politics, Bill, right away. This Christie boomlet, what do you make of it? Do you think he's going to get in?
BILL O'REILLY: No. Very hard to raise money. Very hard to put a national organization together in the period of time that he would have to do so. And I think for the Governor himself, it would be wiser for him to really establish himself in New Jersey because he hasn't been there very long. So-
STEPHANOPOULOS: He told Diane Sawyer he's not ready.
O'REILLY: What?
STEPHANOPOULOS: He told Diane Sawyer he doesn't think he's ready to be president yet.
O'REILLY: Look, I don't know the governor. But just for tactical things, it would be wiser to sit back. He has got some time. But, look, it's chaotic in there. There's a lot of people. It's tempting. You know, you can be president! That's big.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But, how do you explain why so many Republicans won't give up this dream of somebody else getting in? We saw, even former First Lady Barbara Bush trying to convince Mary Pat Christie, according to the New York Post, get in.
O'REILLY: Well, because it's always greener over there on the other side. You know, "Oh, he's better." And he's better than this and that. And then w hen they get in, just like Rick Perry, "Oh, he's not so good." You know, pretty soon, you're going to be getting a call, George.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Not from the Republican side. I don't think so.
O'REILLY: That's right. You're not a Republican.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Your Fox colleagues have been so tough on Rick Perry. Bill Kristol says, the debate last week, close to a disqualifying two hours. Brit Hume: "He's one half a step away from total collapse."
O'REILLY: Hume also said he thought he barfed on himself. I was eating popcorn. Wow. Hume said that? Look, it's the build 'em up, tear 'em down game. Not to say that Kristol and Hume are wrong. He didn't have a good debate. But so what? I mean, that happens a lot.
STEPHANOPOULOS: You think he can come back?
O'REILLY: Sure. I mean, he is a guy that has a good record in Texas, that has a conservative base that likes him. Yeah. He didn't do that well. But there's a whole bunch of other debates and maybe he'll do better.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Meanwhile, President Obama really going after this. You saw him in these fund-raisers out on the west coast. He says, he told them, "Has anybody been watching the debates lately? You have got a governor whose state on fire denying climate change. You have got audiences cheering at the prospect of somebody dying because they don't have health care and booing a service member in Iraq because they're gay. That's not reflective of who we are." And it's clear that the President and his team, there's a strategy think the Republican base is way outside of the mainstream right now.
O'REILLY: So, wait a minute, George, you're telling me, this is shocking to me, that the President doesn't like Republicans, that he's going to criticize Republicans. Come on.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But, he thinks it can work for him.
O'REILLY: Do I think it can work for him? No. I think that the economy is so bad that if the Republicans run a candidate with credibility, the President will lose, unless something happens. Rhetoric walks right now. People are angry. Americans are angry, all right? And when they're angry, they take it out on who is in power. And if the Republicans can put forth someone, to convince Americans that they have a better handle on the economy, the Republicans will win.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Is that person in the field right now?
O'REILLY: Is what?
STEPHANOPOULOS: Is that person in the field right now?
O'REILLY: I don't know yet. You have got to give them me, these guys. It's not the easiest thing in the world, all right? You have to see how they handle themselves over a period of time. And Americans are watching closely. But most Americans aren't even engaged yet. I mean, we are here. This is our business.
STEPHANOPOULOS: And most Americans are incredibly fed up with everyone right now.
O'REILLY: And they should be. They should be. Look at the state of the country. We're in chaos. They should be fed up with all of them. I mean, if I- just wipe the whole place and bring in regular folks. Regular folks couldn't do worse. Could they do worse? Bring in regular folks to run the country.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Who's the regular folks?
O'REILLY: Just people who don't do politics for a living. I mean, all of these guys that put their finger up to the wind. You know, which way is it blowing? That's the way I'll go. Why don't you do something right for the country once in a while, instead of thinking about your career.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Do you think there's a danger- I shouldn't say danger. Do you think that's likely to happen next year? Everybody does gets wiped out? The President loses and the Republicans are wiped out?
O'REILLY: I think the Republican Party is poised, if they don't blow it, and believe me, they could, to really win big because the Democratic Party has run up more than $5 trillion in debt. Just in four years. And that's just outrageous.
STEPHANOPOULOS: We have a lot more to talk about. We're going to come back in the last hour and talk about Killing Lincoln, your new book.
O'REILLY: All right, George. Thanks. And you read it, I understand.
STEPHANOPOULOS: I did read it.
O'REILLY: Which is shocking.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Shocking? You don't think I read?
O'REILLY: I'm very flattered.
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Comments
George reminds me of a lyric.....
Submitted by almostacowboy on Tue, 09/27/2011 - 11:01am.
from "Muleskinner Blues" -
Well it's hey little water boy bring your water 'round
Lord it's hey little water boy bring your water 'round
And if you don't like your job just set that water bucket down
Obama water-carrying little puke!
No, George Stephanopoulos - what ya got is a lying President
Submitted by Gary Hall on Tue, 09/27/2011 - 11:12am.
Stephanopoulos quotes Obama:
No George, the audiences were not cheering or booing, in the respective issues he mentioned; rather it was a couple to a few loose voices in the audience.
Will lying work for this president? Well, without a responsible and ethical national media to keep him honest, and the voting public aware, it is indeed a risk which the Republic is confronted with.
Oh, by the way -- on Texas; Texas is not experiencing any measurable climate change over the past 115 years.
The Governor has nothing to apologize for here - rather, on the basis of the scientific evidence, the POTUS and quite a number of pundits, journalists and politicians do need to apologize to Perry for their bogus and mean-spirited denial of science and for their personal attacks on the Governor.
(;~/ gary
Gary,
Submitted by Agnostic on Tue, 09/27/2011 - 11:19am.
Is Texas being allowed to clear brush yet? Or, is George implying that the EPA causes Global Warming by the prevention of removing flammable material?
Tappers comments
Submitted by ferv888 on Tue, 09/27/2011 - 11:21am.
Tapper left out the most important part of the story. The ONE was talking about the debates and dissing the comments a couple of guys which Tapper acknowledged, but what he did not do, was compare THE ONE's call for the GOP candidates to disavow the few who shouted out. He gave equivalance to the only a few without THE ONE offering no comment to Hoffa's call to take them out, he mentioned SOB, but not the rest of the comments.
Ray
so full of it..
Submitted by kata on Tue, 09/27/2011 - 11:44am.
"They're so full of it that at least a sixteen buck muffin will clean em out!" - Dennis Miller
Any chance we could see Stephanopoulos' rebuttal to that statement? (I've noticed the videos are shorter than the transcripts these days???) O'Reilly doesn't have the segment posted yet.
Obama's entire statement was trollish. It was ham-handed, juvenille and unsubstantiated.
O'REILLY: ...Bring in regular
Submitted by balboa on Tue, 09/27/2011 - 11:39am.
O'REILLY: ...Bring in regular folks to run the country.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Who's the regular folks?
O'REILLY: Just people who don't do politics for a living.
Which would be only Cain, right?
Right, bal, because we know
Submitted by MikeB on Tue, 09/27/2011 - 12:08pm.
Right, bal, because we know what a bang-up job Maxine Waters, Barney Frank, Charles Schumer, Nancy Pelosy, Harry Reid, Barak Obama, Diane Feinstein, Barbara Boxer, and the rest have done to mitigate the problems of this country.
By "bring in regular folks to run the country", that would mean doctors, engineers, farmers, ranchers, economists, chemists, heavy equipment operators, housewives, etc. Regular people who work for a living, and are damned tired of having their earnings extorted from them to be given to people who won't (not "can't") work, to commercial entities that are so mismanaged that they need the feds to keep them from failing, to foreign governments and NGOs that are hostile to us as a country and as a people (ever hear of the Palestinian Authority?).
Pull your head out, bal.
I meant for president,
Submitted by balboa on Tue, 09/27/2011 - 5:37pm.
I meant for president, obviously. If BOR wants someone like that as president, Cain is the only one currently running, right? That's all I'm saying.
Pull your head out.
~If you'd italicized 'your',
Submitted by Wrathful Brunette on Tue, 09/27/2011 - 5:43pm.
the rebuttal would have been much more effective.
Pull your head out.
See? It's almost as effective as "I know you are, but what am I?"
:-D
O'Reilly: " Bring in regular
Submitted by MikeB on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 1:59am.
O'Reilly: " Bring in regular folks to run the country."
"Folks." More than one. Plural. So O'Reilly, by sentence context, was talking about more than just the Presidency.
Despite Ear Leader's stated desire to "rule" this country, the President does not run the country. Congress runs the country by passing legislation that the President has taken an oath to enforce. Of course, Jugears only enforces those laws he likes and ignores the rest.
Of those now vying for the Republican nomination for President, Herman Cain is apparently the only one who is not a professional politician. Whether that is good or bad, one thing is certain: Herman Cain has a whole lot more executive experience than Obamao had when he ran for President. In fact, Cain still has more executive experience than Sir Golfsalot does.
Steffy No Match
Submitted by AgentAmerican on Tue, 09/27/2011 - 11:48am.
Steffy is no match for O'Reilly. I wished more people smack George Goebbels Stephanopoulos more often.
Um...Bill didn't really slap
Submitted by derbal on Tue, 09/27/2011 - 12:22pm.
Um...Bill didn't really slap him down. Show the rest of the conversation, and it will be different. Bill hardly replied. You didn't even let him get going good. I'm sure Bill tore him to shreds, but I didn't see it in this very short clip.
A Professional Political Black Bag Guy Like George
Submitted by Avitar on Tue, 09/27/2011 - 1:20pm.
George Stephanopoulos did so much in the nineties to help Bill Clinton end the Reagan Revolution that it is hard to imagine any news organization having him on as anything but a partisan operator. So what is Bill O'Reilly doing having the equivalent of a hit man on.
The global warming jab was
Submitted by TerryWest on Tue, 09/27/2011 - 2:53pm.
The global warming jab was pandering to environmentalist, the President has a little something in his pocket for everyone he needs doesn't he?
The majority of Americans do not blame global warming for the fires in Texas anymore then they believe the down economy and job loss is due to ATM's, earthquakes in Japan or any other excuse spun out by the chronic campaigning spin master.
what is insulting is that the President's marionette media really believe Americans can't tell the difference between a President who is talking to the country re the entire country and one that is talking to a select base to benefit his re election.