When reports of former press secretary Scott McClellan’s new book surfaced last week, Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly insisted there was nothing new in McClellan’s tell-all. “Forgive me if I’m bored,” O’Reilly said.
Last night, however, O’Reilly was fired up for his interview with McClellan, joining other right-wing commentators in linking McClellan to “left-wing haters.” O’Reilly spent most of the interview angrily defending President Bush. He slammed McClellan for meeting with the “pure Bush-haters” at NBC and for sitting by while they “just raped the president verbally”:
– Now when you then come to the realization that what you write in your book as you see it is being used by people who absolutely want the worst for this country and for the administration, doesn’t that give you pause at all?
– The-hate-Bush press is using you, using you to humiliate the man and to imply to the world the man is dishonest.
– You sat there while these people at NBC and some at CNN just raped the president verbally. Just killed him. And you sat there and you did not defend him. You didn’t do it.
Watch a compilation:
Indeed, O’Reilly seemed most upset that McClellan had sat down with arch-rival NBC before coming on Fox News. (One source claimed O’Reilly first refused to host McClellan unless he was given McClellan’s first television interview, which instead went to NBC’s Today Show).
McClellan seems to have infuriated O’Reilly for running afoul of his cardinal rule: “You cannot be confrontational with the President of the United States.”
Transcript:
O’REILLY: OK. Now when you then come to the realization that what you write in your book as you see it is being used by people who absolutely want the worst for this country and for the administration, doesn’t that give you pause at all?
–
O’REILLY: The hate Bush press is using you, using you to humiliate the man and to imply to the world the man is dishonest.
–
O’REILLY: But you sat down in front of guys that you know are just pure Bush haters to sell your book.
–
O’REILLY: You sat there while these people at NBC and some at CNN just raped the president verbally. Just killed him. And you sat there and you did not defend him. You didn’t do it.
MCCLELLAN: I said he’s a good man. I still have personal affection for him.
O’REILLY: You said that, but you allowed them to do that in your presence. And I mean, to me, I mean he was your friend. He was a mentor. He employed you. You say in your book he’s not a bad man. He’s not a dishonest man. He’s not a venal man. We all know he made mistakes.
–
O’REILLY: I wouldn’t, because you know, Bush is not a bad man. You know him way better than I know him. He’s not a bad man. You know that.
–
O’REILLY: What has happened in your book, whether you made it — whether this was your intention or not, is that the people who hate President Bush, who want America — the world to see America as an oppressive, bad country, have seized upon your book, all right? And used that, talk about propaganda to say, see, even Scott McClellan, even his own guy says he’s an incompetent jerk, that he purposely mislead us, that he’s immoral.
–
O’REILLY: All right. I want everybody to make their own mind up.
Previous in TP Media
By clicking and submitting a comment I acknowledge the ThinkProgress Privacy Policy and agree to the ThinkProgress Terms of Use. I understand that my comments are also being governed by Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, or Hotmail’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policies as applicable, which can be found here.