Bill O’Reilly apparently thinks Donald Trump’s bigoted attack on the Hispanic judge sitting on the fraud case against Trump University was ill advised. But he doesn’t seem to have any personal problem with it.
Even Trump’s staunchest supporters have blasted him for whining that federal judge Gonzalo Curiel is biased simply because he is of Mexican heritage. But not milkshake BFF O’Reilly. O’Reilly followed Trump’s own directive to his campaign staff and helped impugn the credibility of the judge - while pretending he was not advancing Trump’s bigotry - in a case having nothing to do with ethnicity. From O'Reilly's Talking Points commentary last night:
O’REILLY: Summing up, the Trump U. case is certainly political to some extent, and it’s a very high-profile situation. Because of that, Talking Points believes the judge should recuse himself. Not because he did anything wrong, he didn’t, but to eliminate any doubt as to the motivation in court rulings.
After attempting to delegitimize the judge on behalf of his pal, O’Reilly hosted said BFF for almost eight minutes of further chat.
In the interview, O’Reilly advised Trump on how to handle the matter better, though the advice was phrased in the form of a question:
O'REILLY: So, wouldn’t it have been better, then, if you didn’t bring up the Mexican thing at all and just said what you said here tonight? Because, look, you’re being sued. I understand – we did analysis of your lawsuit’s history and you win most of your lawsuits. You’re a big guy, guys are gonna come after you. You know that. So wouldn’t it have been better if you just said, "Look, I don’t think I have been treated fairly. Here’s what we have," and let the Mexican thing alone?
Trump, of course, refused to admit he had done anything wrong.
But here’s the thing: O’Reilly didn’t seem to think Trump had done anything wrong, either. He framed Trump’s bigotry as a gaffe-y presentation of a legitimate gripe. He also neatly did Trump a solid by shrugging off the serious, disturbing allegations of fraud against Trump as a kind of nuisance any guy as successful as Trump would have to deal with.
Coming from the host of the most popular cable news program, one who claims to be “looking out for your” from his “no spin zone,” that may be even more pernicious than anything Trump has said.
Watch it below, from the June 6 The O’Reilly Factor.