Just a few minutes after labeling Rush Limbaugh a "terrorist," Joy Behar scolded Bill O’Reilly for calling Obama a "communist." O’Reilly appeared on the October 22 edition of "The View" to promote his new book, but the segment began about the upcoming presidential election. When the Fox News host jokingly called Barack Obama a communist, Joy Behar preached "let’s stop name calling today" and "you know what a red flag that raises."
Throughout Bill O’Reilly’s two segments, Behar, "The View’s" most reliable leftist, sparred with O’Reilly. Behar said Keith Olbermann, whom O’Reilly never mentions by name, "hates" him. Bill simply brushed it off joking "they’re all jealous." Bill O’Reilly, accused Behar of drinking Obama’s "Kool-Aid." Behar retorted "you drank the Kool-Aid on George Bush for eight years." O’Reilly flatly denied it.
In the second segment, when discussing his book, the cable news host drew the wrath of Sherri Shepherd when he mocked "Dancing with the Stars."He then continued and dismissed "The View" as an entertainment program to which Joy Behar boasted, "we are in ‘The New York Times’ on a regular basis these days. Do not minimize the effect of ‘The View.’"
The relevant transcript follows.
ELISABETH HASSELBECK: I have to say your interview with Barack Obama, because he’s been on a few media dates, but yours certainly left him squirming in his seat. I thought, I thought-
BILL O’REILLY: Well, I do that to everybody.
HASSELBECK: Why do you think though he had such a hard time answering your question about-
O’REILLY: I thought he did well though. I thought he did-
HASSELBECK: He did okay, but-
O’REILLY: Yeah, he did.
HASSELBECK: When you asked him about redistribution of wealth, he couldn’t-
O’REILLY: Well, he’s a communist.
[laughter and boos]
BEHAR: Oh, come on!
O’REILLY: Oh, lighten up. This is "The View!" This isn’t "60 Minutes." What’s wrong with you?
BEHAR: Let’s stop name calling today.
O’REILLY: Oh Joy!
BEHAR: Come on. You know what a red flag this is, commie, in the country.
HASSELBECK: You called a name though.
O’REILLY: Did I offend- did I offend you?
BEHAR: No, it’s just ridiculous.
O’REILLY: Alright, let me take that back. He’s a socialist. He’s not a communist.
[...]
O’REILLY: You take this way too seriously. You’re name is Joy. You should be joyful! [laughter and applause] I saw you when McCain- here, here was Joy with McCain [grimacing face] \
[laughter]
BEHAR: That is not true. That is not true.
O’REILLY: Oh, come on! I saw the show!
BEHAR: That is not true. That is not true.
O’REILLY: You wouldn’t even look at him! You were talking to the floor. "Hi John, how are you?" [laughter] What’s wrong with you guys?
BARBARA WALTERS: Bill, you are never- you have made your success-
O’REILLY: But I watch them all. I watch them all.
WALTERS: Can I go on about you instead of you picking on us?
O’REILLY: Are you going to say nice things about me?
WALTERS: Not necessarily.
BEHAR: We’ll have him for two segments. We’ll never get another word in edgewise.
[...]
BEHAR: Let me ask you something. Do you ever watch the Keith Olbermann show? Keith Olbermann hates you! Why?
O’REILLY: Yeah, well, everyone hates me.
BEHAR: Why does he hate you?
O’REILLY: You do. He does.
BEHAR: I dislike you. I don’t hate you.
O’REILLY: They’re all jealous. They’re all jealous.
BEHAR: Oh they’re jealous?
O’REILLY: They’re all jealous. Now what was your question?
SHERRI SHEPHERD: Barack-this is so exciting for me this political season- Barack says "I am convinced that if there were no Fox News, I might be two or three points higher in the polls because the way I am portrayed 24/7 is as a freak. I am a latte sipping, ‘New York Times’ reading Volvo driving, no gun own, effete, politically correct, arrogant liberal. Who wants somebody like that?" Now, how do you feel about that quote?
O’REILLY: I think it’s accurate.
[laughter]
WALTERS: But you take no side.
O’REILLY: Look, look. I take no sides. If you watch my interviews with everybody, they all get through the mill because these people want power over us. They want to dictate over us. They influence you and your family. So my job is to shake them if I can, okay. Barack Obama comes in. He was treated fairly on my program. Was he not?
HASSELBECK: He was.
[...]
WALTERS: You got into it with Congressman Barney Frank about the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac fiasco. Okay, you felt that back in July that the congressman told people that they should buy stocks and he changed his mind.
O’REILLY: No, in Fannie and Freddie and two months later it folded.
WALTERS: Well, okay, I want- I want you to take a look at one of the calmer exchanges on his sweet program.
BEHAR: Yeah, he’s so nice.
[Begin video clip]
O’REILLY: Stop the crap! From August ‘07 to August ‘08, under your tutelage, this industry declined 90 percent, 90 percent. But, oh, none of this was your fault! Oh no. People lost millions of dollars. It wasn’t your fault! Come on you coward. Say the truth!
REPRESENTATIVE BARNEY FRANK (D-MA): What do you mean coward?
O’REILLY: You’re a coward!
[End video clip]
[applause]
BEHAR: And you say I was not nice to McCain? Look at yourself.
HASSELBECK: He has every right to be that upset.
O’REILLY: Do you have any idea what that guy did to you, to you, to you, to you, and to you? Do you have any idea what he did?
BEHAR: We’ll have him on and he can tell us.
O’REILLY: He can tell us and you’ll believe every word of it.
BEHAR: I don’t believe anything you say or he says.
O’REILLY: I know. You don’t believe anything.
BEHAR: No, I believe what I read sometimes.
O’REILLY: You got the Kool-Aid for her?
HASSELBECK: Yeah.
O’REILLY: Because you’re a Kool-Aid drinker and I say that really seriously.
BEHAR: So are you. You drank the Kool-Aid on George Bush for eight years.
[applause]
O’REILLY: Oh bull. We were just as tough on them.
BEHAR: Eight years. Please.
O’REILLY: We were just as tough on Bush like everybody else. But look, Barney Frank, you show that clip? Everybody should know what he did to you and your family. He oversaw Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac which collapsed, okay? He was in charge of making sure things that were in trouble. He didn’t. Everybody is suffering today. He has something to do with it along with all of the others, okay? And he didn’t take any responsibility. That’s why he got that.
[...]
WALTERS: You are against "American Idol" and "Dancing With the Stars."
SHEPHERD: WHAT?!
O’REILLY: I’m not against it.
SHEPHERD: Why don’t you like "Dancing With the Stars"?
HASSELBECK: He’s not into dancing.
O’REILLY: I’m not against it. I understand the diversion. But I don’t think that people should build there lives around that kind of stuff because there’s important things going on. The more you know, the more aware you are-
WALTERS: But you can’t have some entertainment?
O’REILLY: You can and that’s why we watch "The View." Okay?
[laughter]
BEHAR: We are in "The New York Times" on a regular basis these days. Do not minimize the effect of "The View."
[applause]
