On Wednesday's The O'Reilly Factor, liberal FNC political analyst Kirsten Powers again accused President Barack Obama of speaking "lies" in claiming that he called Benghazi a terrorist attack early on. Host Bill O'Reilly introduced the segment by playing a clip of Powers from Monday's Special Report with Bret Baier. Powers, from Monday:
What I don't understand about what the President is doing is to a certain extent you could argue that he wasn't really involved in a lot of this stuff, but he is so centrally involving himself with these repeated lies. And I'm just going to call them lies because they're lies. They're on tape. Nobody thought that he called it a terrorist attack.
Back to Wednesday's The O'Reilly Factor, Powers cited the Washington Post for calling on the President, and stood by her characterization: "I think sometimes you do have to just call a spade a spade. And, look, the Washington Post called it a whopper and gave it four Pinocchio's. I called it a lie. It is. It's transparently a lie."
After O'Reilly tried to get her to speculate about what the President's motiviation is for lying, which she declined to do, Powers cited the New York Times as evidence of President Obama's deception:
I don't know if he doesn't remember what he said, but the problem, and he's just playing these word games. And it's getting old. When you have a situation where you have the New York Times reporting on September 20 that that's the first time the White House used the word "terrorism" in connection with an attack, this is not up for opinion. It's a fact. He was asked in an interview with Steve Croft right afterwards.
Below is a transcript of the relevant portion of the Wednesday, May 15, The O'Reilly Factor on FNC:
BILL O'REILLY: Joining us now from Washington, Republican strategist Kate Obenshain and Democrat Kirsten Powers, also a Fox News analyst who said this:
KIRSTEN POWERS, FNC POLITICAL ANALYST, FROM THE MAY 13 SPECIAL REPORT WITH BRET BAIER ON FNC: What I don't understand about what the President is doing is to a certain extent you could argue that he wasn't really involved in a lot of this stuff, but he is so centrally involving himself with these repeated lies. And I'm just going to call them lies because they're lies. They're on tape. Nobody thought that he called it a terrorist attack.
O'REILLY: All right. Now, did you get any blow back from that, Powers?
POWERS: Nothing more than the usual.
O'REILLY: Because, you know, you used the word "lies" in the context of the President, and, I mean, it's pretty strong.
POWERS: Yeah, I think sometimes you do have to just call a spade a spade. And, look, the Washington Post called it a whopper and gave it four Pinocchio's. I called it a lie. It is. It's transparently a lie.
O'REILLY: Why do you think, then, the President is putting his reputation on the line?
POWERS: I don't know.
O'REILLY: And people like you and the Washington Post who support the President, why do you think he is doing that? You must have some thought about it. There's got to be a reason the man is putting his whole reputation on the line here.
POWERS: I don't know if he doesn't remember what he said, but the problem, and he's just playing these word games. And it's getting old. When you have a situation where you have the New York Times reporting on September 20 that that's the first time the White House used the word "terrorism" in connection with an attack, this is not up for opinion. It's a fact. He was asked in an interview with Steve Croft right afterwards.
O'REILLY: You're dodging my question. It's not that he doesn't remember.
POWERS: Well, I can't get inside his head and know why he does it.
O'REILLY: Well, wait, wait, though, he's got White House counsel to remind him what he says. All right? He's got speech writers who put on paper what he said and what he hasn't said. He is going out there, Powers, and attempting to rewrite history. All right?
POWERS: Yeah.
O'REILLY: That's how I'm going to put it. You say he's lying, okay. But there's got to be a reason why he's doing it, and you don't know? You don't have any idea, any thought about it?
POWERS: I hate, you know, Bill, you do this with me a lot. You try to get me into the intent of why people are doing things.
O'REILLY: Yes.
POWERS: I don't know what his intent is. All I know is what he's doing, and what he's doing is he's continually saying something that's demonstrably false.
