Poor Bill O’Reilly. After crusading for his anti-immigration “Kate’s Law,” not only is Congress not passing it, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) won’t even take Papa Bear's call!
I guess it would be too unseemly, even for O’Reilly, to outright threaten McConnell. And I seriously doubt he’ll be siccing producer Jesse Watters to mock and ambush McConnell the way O’Reilly did to Senator Bernie Sanders when he was "dodging" O'Reilly by refusing to go on The O'Reilly Factor. So O’Reilly did the next best thing: he tried to get the viewers to let McConnell know that O’Reilly is He Who Must Not Be Ignored.
O’REILLY: As you may know, The Factor has taken the lead in trying to convince Congress and President Obama to pass Kate’s Law after 32-year-old Kate Steinle was shot dead by an illegal-alien felon who had been deported five times.
…Now, I’ve spoken to many senators asking why Kate’s Law cannot have a stand-alone vote. There are a variety of excuses, but bottom line, it’s more about party politics than protecting the folks. For the record, Senator McConnell would not take my call. Neither would Senator Dianne Feinstein, a leading Democrat. Those two Americans could make Kate’s Law a reality, if they have the will. McConnell and Feinstein are the folks we must persuade. We the people must persuade them, if you can believe it. So you may want to contact their offices and tell them that Kate’s Law deserves a stand-alone vote. We posted their information on [his website], please let them hear from you loud and clear.
…Any politician opposing (Kate’s Law) is unfit to hold office. Unfit to hold office!
…If Kate’s Law is not voted on, just Kate’s Law, then it’s a disgrace because if you stand it alone it’s going to pass. And if Kate’s Law doesn’t pass then the world will know which senators and congress people are truly villainous.
After that display of pique in his Talking Points commentary, O’Reilly brought on Dana Perino, who served in the Bush administration. She told O’Reilly that, even as a stand-alone bill, she doubted Kate’s Law would pass. Perino said that if McConnell thought it would pass, “He would do it tomorrow.”
But O’Reilly knows better! “McConnell wouldn’t take my call. He wouldn’t take my call! I could have told him (how to get the bill passed)!” O’Reilly argued.
“I don’t know if McConnell is a villain or not,” O’Reilly groused, “but I do know this. He knew I wanted to talk to him, Senator Grassley told him, McConnell, I wanted to talk to him, and he wouldn’t pick up the phone to call! So now I’m asking everybody in the United States to call McConnell.”
“Americans want Kate’s Law!” O’Reilly later shouted. “I’ll tell you what, they don’t vote for Kate’s Law straight up, they’ve got a problem with me and a major problem with me.”
It would be troubling to see any prime time news host openly lobbying for a bill (and don’t forget O’Reilly offered to send Steinle’s parents to Washington to promote his bill “at our expense”). But it's even more disturbing that O'Reilly is publicly trying to browbeat Congress into doing his will.
it’s also quite hypocritical. O’Reilly’s insistence that this law be passed came less than a week after he denigrated tighter gun control laws because they wouldn't solve the entire problem of mass shootings.
Watch O’Reilly's bullyboy antics below, from the October 8 The O’Reilly Factor, via Media Matters.
Of course, he’d have to take a major pay cut (not to mention losing his choice TV gig—and any books would have to be vetted before being released) so I doubt he’s going to “put his money where his big mouth is.”
