Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly took aim at President Obama during his “Talking Points Memo” on Monday’s O’Reilly Factor and ruled that the United States has “a leader who doesn’t want to lead” in addition to “lack[ing] the will to defeat” ISIS.
The Fox News Channel host first set the scene by playing a clip of Obama telling reporters on Monday at the G-7 Summit that the U.S. still does not “have a complete strategy” for defeating ISIS and how that was strikingly similar to his assessment of the U.S. fight against ISIS in August 2014.
With that in mind, O’Reilly laid out two possible reasons for the absence of a strategy to stop the brutal terrorist group:
Now, there are only two possible scenarios here. Two. First, that the U.S. military is grossly incompetent and can't come up with a plan to defeat a terror group comprised of about 30,000 individuals or two, that the President of the United States lacks the will to defeat an enemy that threatens every American.
Not surprisingly, O’Reilly revealed that he’s more inclined to agree with option two and argued that “Mr. Obama simply does not see the urgency and does not have the fire to take on terrorists who are slaughtering thousands of innocent people.” While O’Reilly declared that it’s “the truth,” he added how millions of Americans are still backing Obama:
[S]adly, millions Americans are willing to accept that fact and still support the President. If every American demanded the USA become proactive once again in defeating the jihad, then it would happen, but many of us are apathetic as long as the mass murder is overseas, we don't care.
After soundbite of Obama responding to reports that the Chinese government was behind a massive computer hacking of multiple federal agencies, O’Reilly briefly opined on that before turning back to the President.
With the assumption that “I think everybody’s getting the picture here,” O’Reilly closed out his commentary by continuing to pummel the President:
We have a leader who doesn't want to lead. Barack Obama is interested in the theoretical dilemma of climate change. He is interested in social justice and redistributing American wealth. Not much interested in blatant attacks on America's security and mass murder around the world. It appears to me that Barack Obama is not going to change. So, this country is now in a race to see if we can avoid catastrophe in the next 18 months. A very dangerous game.
On Monday night, all three of the major broadcast networks covered Obama’s remarks on ISIS and while ABC’s World News Tonight and the CBS Evening News offered segments that were critical of the commander-in-chief, NBC Nightly News provided favorable coverage for the President and offered no criticism.
The relevant portions of the transcript from FNC’s The O’Reilly Factor on June 8 can be found below.
FNC’s The O’Reilly Factor
June 8, 2015
8:01 p.m. Eastern
BILL O’REILLY: More danger for Americans. That is the subject of this evening's talking points memo. Over the weekend, President Obama attended the G 7 Summit in Germany. Topics of conversation ranged from economics to terrorism. By the way, it used to be the G-8 but Russia got booted out because of Putin the invader. Anyway, earlier today, President Obama said something that is not only frightening but incredibly disturbing. He was asked about ISIS and why the USA does not have a strategy to stop the brutal jihadists.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: When a finalized plan is presented to me by the Pentagon, then I will share it with the American people. It's not -- we don't yet have a complete strategy because it requires commitments on the part of the Iraqis as well. The details of that are not yet worked out.
O’REILLY: So after nearly two years, the USA still does not have a plan to confront ISIS. Here is what the President said last August.
OBAMA [on 08/28/14]: We don't have a strategy yet. I think what I have seen in some of the news reports suggests that folks are getting a little further ahead of where we’re at than we currently are.
O’REILLY: That was right after the beheading of an American citizen by ISIS. Now, there are only two possible scenarios here. Two. First, that the U.S. military is grossly incompetent and can't come up with a plan to defeat a terror group comprised of about 30,000 individuals or two, that the President of the United States lacks the will to defeat an enemy that threatens every American. Talking points is throwing in with option number two. Mr. Obama simply does not see the urgency and does not have the fire to take on terrorists who are slaughtering thousands of innocent people. That's the truth and, sadly, millions Americans are willing to accept that fact and still support the President. If every American demanded the USA become proactive once again in defeating the jihad, then it would happen, but many of us are apathetic as long as the mass murder is overseas, we don't care. Of course, it won't be long until the murder comes here because that's the stated goal of ISIS.
(....)
O’REILLY: I think everybody’s getting the picture here. We have a leader who doesn't want to lead. Barack Obama is interested in the theoretical dilemma of climate change. He is interested in social justice and redistributing American wealth. Not much interested in blatant attacks on America's security and mass murder around the world. It appears to me that Barack Obama is not going to change. So, this country is now in a race to see if we can avoid catastrophe in the next 18 months. A very dangerous game. And that's the memo.
