Following the well-worn conservative playbook, Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) has been accusing the media of unfairly ignoring his presidential bid, even while refusing to appear on the most-watched cable news show in America — Fox’s The O’Reilly Factor. “They [the media] believe this guy is dangerous to the status quo,” Paul told Politico of himself after his second place finish in the Ames Straw Poll. “I had one interview scheduled for this morning, a national program, but they canceled.”
O’Reilly has feuded in the past with Paul, who holds some views O’Reilly considers “too radical” and “insane,” but the Fox host invited Paul on his show in August because, he said, “We don’t want anybody to be ignored!” Paul never accepted the invitation, so O’Reilly this week sent his notorious ambush producer Jesse Waters — whose hostile tactics are usually reserved for liberals and other perceived enemies of the Factor — to confront Paul.
When Waters caught up with Paul, the candidate claimed he “never remembered getting a precise invitation” from O’Reilly, but took the opportunity to shoot back at the Factor host. “He isn’t exactly a journalist, if he had been more journalistic I might have considered it,” Paul said of the invitation. Asked about his love of gold, Paul said, “Bill has a little problem with economic understanding.” “He doesn’t quite pronounce the words quite correctly, and he admits it, that he doesn’t know much about it,” he added. Watch it:
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Back in the studio, Watters and O’Reilly mocked Paul and agreed that the congressman is “misreading” the Constitution with his gold-buggery.