Geraldo Voices Strong Support For Bush While Slamming Sen. Kerry

Bill O’Reilly interviewed the outspoken Geraldo Rivera on “The O’Reilly Factor” Thursday evening concerning the current goings on in Iraq, and how the media are covering it. During their discussion, Geraldo stated his surprising support for President Bush, while offering a rather strong critique of Sen. John Kerry (D-Massachusetts) as well as for all those who want to establish a time certain for American troop withdrawal (video link to follow): 

“The only way we can find an honorable exit from Iraq is to do what the commander in chief is now suggesting and what good people like Hillary Clinton are also suggesting is to stay the course. We have to stay the course.”

He continued on this train of thought later in the interview:

“But I'm telling the American people right now that Bush is right. The commander in chief is right. Woe on to us if we think that we can forget about what's happened. That, I think, is lamentable.”

Geraldo also lashed out at the junior senator from Massachusetts: 

“I've known John Kerry for over 35 years. Unlike me, he is a combat veteran, so he gets some props. But in the last 35 years, I've seen a hell of a lot more combat than John Kerry. And for a smart man like that in a political ploy to set a date certain only aids and abets the enemy, and the Democrats are at their own self destructive behavior once again."

Next up on Geraldo’s hit list were opinions offered by newspapers: “What they have to say is essentially meaningless. I don't even know anyone who reads editorials anymore.”

As a result of the bias being shown by such editors, in Geraldo’s view: “They are losing circulation on a daily basis, as you gleefully point out.”

What follows is a full transcript of this segment, along with a video link courtesy of Crooks and Liars.

O'REILLY: Joining us now with his take, the host of the syndicated program, "Geraldo at Large", Geraldo Rivera.

Now, I just want to remind viewers, you spent a lot of time in Iraq.

GERALDO RIVERA, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Seven times. Right.

O'REILLY: You've been there, seen the country. You were in a combat situation and all that.

RIVERA: I went into Baghdad with the 2nd Brigade of the 101st Airborne Aerosol Combat Team.

O'REILLY: That's why I want to talk to you.

RIVERA: It's awful. (ph)

O'REILLY: Because now we're getting as we predicted and I hate to be an "I told you so" guy, but it is so political, the moral equivalency, all right, by these far left people saying it's not the terrorists responsible for the deaths of those two soldiers. It's the American government responsible. How do you react to that?

RIVERA: I don't think that I have to accept that premise to say what I'm about to say.

The only way we can find an honorable exit from Iraq is to do what the commander in chief is now suggesting and what good people like Hillary Clinton are also suggesting is to stay the course. We have to stay the course. To withdraw on a date certain.

I've known John Kerry for over 35 years. Unlike me, he is a combat veteran, so he gets some props. But in the last 35 years, I've seen a hell of a lot more combat than John Kerry. And for a smart man like that in a political ploy to set a date certain only aids and abets the enemy, and the Democrats are at their own self destructive behavior once again. Now, that's a separate issue from the editorial.

Let them attack you. You are bigger than them. You are tougher than them. What do you give a damn about what they have to say? What they have to say is essentially meaningless. I don't even know anyone who reads editorials anymore.

Because you read -- this is the thing you forget about. You want to read the op-ed page, you want to read a different diversity of opinion, you check it out there. But I'm telling the American people right now that Bush is right. The commander in chief is right. Woe on to us if we think that we can forget about what's happened. That, I think, is lamentable.

O'REILLY: I agree with you. Most people don't read the op-ed pages and they don't -- you know, this professor from Notre Dame, he's a left- wing nut. OK. All right. It's not that he attacks me that gets me angry. I use that to show the guy is untruthful; he's a liar.

But there is a reason President Bush's poll numbers have gone down, and most people have turned against the Iraq war. And that reason is the cabal in the press which every day emphasizes the negative and continues to make the moral equivalencies between the terrorists and the USA, saying we are no better than they are. That kind of a weight...

RIVERA: But an open society is, by its very nature, masochistic.

O'REILLY: But they're winning.

RIVERA: They're winning -- what are they winning?

O'REILLY: They're winning public opinion.

RIVERA: They are losing circulation on a daily basis, as you gleefully point out.