O'Reilly, Bush and "Almost" Kerry
Reported by Marie Therese - November 2, 2004 -
As promised, here is a list of the questions Bill O'Reilly asked of President George Bush contrasted with those he posed to two surrogates for John Kerry, Mary Anne Marsh (FOX News Political Analyst) and Dr. Jeffrey Berry (Professor of Political Science at Tufts University). O'Reilly also interviewed Washington Post managing editor, Bob Woodward, and dubbed it "Part Two of the Almost' Kerry Interview." Both men were clearly upset that the Senator had not granted them an interview, so their discussion turned out to be a sour grapes session. Therefore, it is not included below. The transcript of that interview is available at Transcript: Bush Talks to O'Reilly, Part 2. Answers to O'Reilly's questions are not included because they were, in general, predictable.
THE MIDDLE EAST
BUSH
"According to a poll taken by the Coalition Authority last spring, only 5% of the Iraqis see the United States as liberators. Are you surprised they don't appreciate the American sacrifice more?"
"Do you think the Iraqis are gonna fight for their freedom?"
"What happened to Saddam's chemical arsenal? Do you know?"
"But you, to this day, don't know what happened to his chemical weapons. He didn't tell us in interrogation?"
"Wall Street Journal says - and that's a conservative paper - that, uh, the Defense Department and the Pentagon wasn't aggressive enough in getting al "Sayder" and crushing Fallujah. The Journal wrong?"
"Fallujah. Should we have crushed it when we could have?"
"The Mission Accomplished' statement in May 2003. If you had it all to do over again, would you not have done it?"
"Iran said yesterday Hey, we're gonna develop this nuclear stuff. We don't care what ya' think.' You ready to use military force against Iran, if they continue to defy the world on nuclear?"
"Fallujah. Should we have crushed it when we could have?"
"Would you allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon?"
KERRY
"According to the European Journal of International Law 5,000 Kuwaiti women were raped after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 91. You, Senator Kerry, voted against removing Saddam's forces. Why did you do that? And would you change your vote now that you know 5,000 woman were raped? What say you?"
To give it more time would have meant more women raped, more Kuwaitis murdered. Estimates up to a thousand murdered. So, while you're waiting for sanctions, people are being raped and murdered, Senator. Would you have done it differently had you known that?"
"As a woman, Mary Anne, 5,000 raped. You're waitin' for sanctions to kick in. Would you have changed your vote?"
"So you both agree and correct me if I'm wrong that Senator Kerry would not have changed his 91 vote against removing Saddam by force?"
"John Kerry said on a number of occasions, on October 13, 2004 and again on October 19, 2004 that - I'm sorry, just on October 13, 2004 - that they let Osama bin Laden get away in Tora Bora, Afghanistan, because they used only Afghan soldiers to seal that area. Yet, on October 19th, General Tommy Franks wrote that Special Forces were embedded with those units. Did you make a mistake, Senator Kerry, and do you want to take back your comment?"
"What's the first thing Senator Kerry will do in Iraq, if elected, differently than being done now?"
"How many more troops, Mary Anne, are going to Iraq, and where will they come from because, when we had you on Monday, you said that was one of Kerry's plans. I have - I've looked, and I haven't seen that anywhere else. But since you know Kerry real well, I'm taking your word for it. How many more troops is he going to send there, and where are they going to come from?"
IMMIGRATION
BUSH
"Every year, three and a half million illegals come over. Why can't the federal government control that?"
[It's difficult to simply write the questions here, because of the way this portion of the interview went, so I'm including a few of the President's answers for clarity.]
O'Reilly: So you're not gonna militarize the border to stop ...
BUSH: No. We're gonna use the Border Patrol and beef it up and make it - give it better technologies and better equipment to do its job.
O'Reilly: OK. Ya' know, a lot of people are not gonna like that answer. You know that?
BUSH (shrugging it off): What's it to - truthful answer.
O'Reilly: OK. Umm.
BUSH: You mean as opposed to putting a military on the border?
O'Reilly: Yeah. A military to back up the Border Patrol to just stop the rampant ...
BUSH: No. I think the best way to do it is to give the Border Patrol the assets it needs to do its job.
KERRY
"Three million illegals cross the border, Professor, every year, and what is John Kerry's program to stop that?"
"Do you have anything else to add about beefing up [border security], which, of course, isn't going to stop anything because you just can't - you have to do something else?"
"OK, but Mexico wants these illegals to come in here because it's the second largest industry they have, them sending money back. So why would they cooperate? They're not going to.
"You're telling me, Mary Anne, that if John Kerry is elected President, he's going to stop the three million illegals? Is that what you're telling me?"
THE ECONOMY
BUSH
"How will the federal government ever pay off the federal deficit, in your opinion?"
"Do you think it can be paid off in our lifetime, though?"
"But I'm rich and I'm getting a tax cut from you. Tax cuts for the rich, what do you think when you hear that?"
"Do you think the federal government has a moral obligation to pay Americans' health bills?"
"But aren't we becoming an entitlement society here with the government helping, and I understand, I mean, you've got to be a compassionate person, whether you're a Democrat or a Republican. But it, the government gets bigger and bigger and bigger, now we're in prescription drugs, we're in " (Bush interrupted to answer)
KERRY
"The first question and I'm going to submit this one to you, Professor is: How is John Kerry going to pay for universal health care and all the other entitlements that he wants to give the American people? And they're estimated by the American Enterprise Institute to cost $1.5 trillion over a 10-year period. Taxing the rich won't even come close to raising that kind of money. How's he going to do it?"
"Yes, but this is on top of what we're going to spend. $1.5 trillion over 10 years is an enormous amount of money, and it the tax cuts restoring the tax cuts for the rich, as they say, which is going to hurt small business owners, is not going to come close. So, Mary Anne, how is he where is he going to get the money?"
GAY MARRIAGE
BUSH
No questions on this topic.
KERRY
"Professor, why is John Kerry against gay marriage since he voted against the Marriage Protection Act signed by Bill Clinton?"
"Do you think it's religious based?"
"I don't know. Mary Anne, do you know?"
"Why is he against gay marriage? Why?"
"Is it religious based? What it is?"
BIG DIG
BUSH
No questions on this topic.
KERRY
"Big Dig, Professor. Last question. Federal government kicked in $8 and a half billion to the Big Dig. John Kerry blocked $150 million going back to the feds by an insurance overcharge. The insurance company, AIG, kicked 50 grand to Kerry. That doesn't look good to me, Professor."
"But did Kerry sell us out on this one?"
The remaining questions were asked only of President Bush and not of the Kerry surrogates."
"Not Jacques Chirac?"
"What's Chirac's problem?"
"You think it was political, you think he's playing to his left-wing base in France?"
"All right. In light of the CBS document fiasco, do you think you get a fair shake from the network news and the elite media like the New York Times?"
"Philosophically, let's talk philosophically. Do you think you get a fair shake?"
"A guy over at "Newsweek," Evan Thomas, one of the editors over there, said eighty percent of the elite media favors Kerry. That doesn't surprise you, does it?"
"Do you have any theory on why college professors are pinhead press people?"
"All right, do you think you got any preferential treatment getting into the Air Guard during Vietnam?"
"So you don't think you got any preferential treatment because you were a Bush?"
"If you had to do anything again during those years, if you had to live, re-live them, would you have done anything differently?"
"They say you didn't register in Massachusetts, is that bogus?"
"Do you think the Swift Boat vets charges against Kerry are unfair?"
"You didn't know anything about the Swift Boat ads before they went on the air, did you?"
"Did Karl Rove know anything about it?"
"One of the big propaganda things against you is the classroom in Florida after 9/11 when Andrew Card came in and whispered in your ear. Let's clear this up once and for all. What were you thinking?"
"We've got about four minutes to go, and I've got two more questions. We talked about this last time, I don't know whether you remember, but the last time we talked, I asked you what you thought Jesus would think about capital punishment. This time I want to ask you, why do you think some people get upset when you mention your faith vis-ŕ-vis your job?"
"Is it important in your decision-making?"
"What don't Americans know about you? You've been written about, debated, you're in the news every day, what don't we know about you?"
"You love the job?"
