Bill O'Reilly Tries To Ambush Bernie Sanders And Fails

Senator Bernie Sanders hasn't wanted to visit The O'Reilly Factor often enough. So Bill O'Reilly decided to try and embarrass him with an ambush interview. But if you ask me, O'Reilly's the one who came out looking foolish.

Sanders visited The O'Reilly Factor in April but, apparently, has not wanted to come back since then. And O'Reilly - who never tires of railing against African Americans who, he says, feel entitled and are filled with grievance - decided he was so aggrieved and entitled to a Sanders interview that he sent ambush producer Jesse Watters to humiliate Sanders in revenge.

"Bernie Sanders used to appear on The Factor with us without a problem but he has been dodging us," O'Reilly said. "So we sent Watters to see him in Washington." O'Reilly smiled maliciously.

But when Watters ambushed Sanders, he merely said, "I don’t do ambush interviews. If you want to talk to us, there’s my press secretary."

"I do do ambush interviews and here’s my question," Watters began.

But before Watters could ask, Sanders barked, "Don’t push me. I didn’t get rough. You pushed me."

Watters, not to be deterred from his smarminess, said, "Bill is upset because you haven’t done the show and we feel like you used to be a friend of the show. You’re not so big time now that you’re gonna forget about your friends, right?"

For extra dickishness, Watters sneered, "O’Reilly’s a little concerned that if you do become president you might seize his house. Should he be worried?"

But unfortunately for The Factor, Sanders refused to take any of the bait. He remained silent after telling Watters to get in touch with the press secretary if he wanted an interview.

However, back in the studio, O'Reilly and Watters had a good chuckle over this.

"I wanted to ask him if he has a secret server in his house but I never got around to it," Watters "quipped."

O'Reilly complained that Sanders was “always on the show, very straightforward.” But now, O'Reilly whined, “He’s big time and he doesn’t have time for us any more."

"Do you think he’s going to come on the show now?" Watters asked. His dubious tone revealed he thought it most unlikely.

"I don’t care," O'Reilly said. So, in other words, he was just being an even bigger dick by ambushing Sanders in the first place. Or maybe it was sour grapes. O'Reilly opined that the reason he thinks Sanders would not come on The Factor is because "he knows that some of his base doesn’t like us. So now he’s being a politician. We liked Bernie when he wasn’t a politician but now he’s a politician. …He thinks he’s gonna win."

Watch the Sanders ambush fail below, from the September 14 The O'Reilly Factor. It starts a few minutes into the video. In the first few minutes Watters also tries to ambush Bowe Bergdahl's lawyer - and fails there, too.

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Showing 17 reactions

commented 2015-09-18 01:03:09 -0400 · Flag

“Bill wanted another interview? Yeah, but the last one was too much like his ace war reporting.” ;

Heh, that would be funny.

Loved Ron Paul smacking down O’Reilly.

commented 2015-09-17 08:27:25 -0400 · Flag

Oops… it helps if I actually include the Ron Paul clip.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_g6d6tHRck&list=PL38B938BE915ADDC5

Running later for work….

commented 2015-09-17 08:26:15 -0400 · Flag

Hey Ellen.

Surfing YouTube I can’t find it. It was some conference like Netroots and he was going after some guy and a camera team nearby picked it up so he rushed for the door.

However, I did find this Think Progress example of some guy chasing him into an elevator https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyziR617Vjc. The guy’s an amateur and clearly not prepared but Jesse still struggles to keep his arrogant smirk playing for time pretending to instruct the guy on the art of the ambush as he desperately searches for the nearest means of escape.

I did come up with this clip of Ron Paul getting ambushed by Watters. Forgetting the dull interview which unfolds, the intro of Ron Paul describing why he didn’t respond to O’Reilly’s ‘request’ for Paul to appear on “The Factor” is precious.

Obviously, Fox News is a rigged game. Uneven, unfair treatment of libs versus cons. Expect loaded gotcha questions, plenty of argument and interruptions by a ‘professional’ journalist, chopping block edits to make you look bad. So it’s nearly impossible to win a Jesse ambush.

All that said, running away is what he wants. It makes it look like you have something to hide. Sanders or any politician running for high office should be articulate and skilled in discussing current events. They should spare a few minutes even if they’re late for a meeting.

Yeah, the return insults (a.k.a. the Olbermann approach) would be hilarious. “Bill wanted another interview? Yeah, but the last one was too much like his ace war reporting.” ;^)

commented 2015-09-16 02:08:11 -0400 · Flag

Eyes on Fox, I agree with you in general about dealing with a Fox ambush (though I usually recommend asking about Andrea Mackris and Hal Turner over and over). But I think for someone of Sanders’ stature, refusing to play along is the best response, rather than trying to best Fox. Somebody else could definitely use your tactic to their advantage. I hope somebody does.

Not sure if this is the conference you were thinking of but here’s a flashback to when Watters was escorted out of the hotel where a NOW conference was being held and told he’d be arrested if he came back.

http://www.newshounds.us/fox_s_watters_ambushes_now_conference_attendees_with_sexist_questions_gets_criminal_citation_06302014

commented 2015-09-16 02:00:10 -0400 · Flag

Here’s our write up about Gawker:

http://www.newshounds.us/2009/06/22/wimpy_watters_wusses_out_on_gawker_stalkers.php

commented 2015-09-15 18:11:25 -0400 · Flag

I do remember seeing Watters being ambushed himself. A couple of guys, forgot what group, I believe it was Gawker, they belonged to, started following him around with a camera. I remember them standing outside his house in Huntington or Dix Hills, Long Island, and waited as Watters came out of his house, saw them, immediately got in his car and left without saying a word to them, as they peppered him questions. He returned a short time later, again got out of his car without acknowledging them, and went into his house. Ten minutes later the police arrived. They explained to the cops who they were, who Watters was (you damn well know the cops knew who he was), and explained they were just doing the same type of interviewing that he does on TV, but he would not answer their questions. Of course, the police told them to move along, although like Watters, they were on public property.

commented 2015-09-15 15:00:06 -0400 · Flag

I’m doing the work write-up of this now, and I’m just gonna say this… This “ambush” is the most pathetic thing I’ve seen in my life. It’s even more pathetic than the conservatives who are smearing his spending proposals because the Wall Street Journal came up with that it’ll cost $2.5 Trillion to fix our roads and bridges, instead of being outraged that our roads and bridges have gotten that bad.

If only because Infrastructure is a real issue, while Bill O’Reilly’s house is just Bill O’Reilly caring about no one but himself.

commented 2015-09-15 13:22:55 -0400 · Flag

Some “responsible gun owner” will “feel threatened” some day and “stand their ground”….hmmm then what?

commented 2015-09-15 13:10:10 -0400 · Flag

Someday,one of Watters’ victims will haul off and punch him right in that smug face of his. I look forward to it.

commented 2015-09-15 11:45:32 -0400 · Flag

Gee, you would think a big, manly man who drags his wife down the stairs would be man enough to confront Sanders in person.

Guess he ain’t so manly.

commented 2015-09-15 11:31:33 -0400 · Flag

Bile laughing on the outside, crying on the inside for another failed ambush by Butt boy Jesse the Jerk.

commented 2015-09-15 09:43:18 -0400 · Flag

Aren’t there some scantily clad teenagers on a beach somewhere that Waterboy could be harassing instead?

commented 2015-09-15 09:03:31 -0400 · Flag

Kind of a shame that most of The O’Really Fact?or audience didn’t get to see this segment. They had already switched over to CNN or MSNBC to watch the Campaign rally speech of Donald T. Rump.

commented 2015-09-15 08:49:22 -0400 · Flag

I would like to see that microphone used as a suppository on Jesse.

commented 2015-09-15 07:02:33 -0400 · Flag

You don’t beat Fox News hitman journalism by walking away. You beat it by turning the tables on the ambulance chaser and making sure someone in your entourage – and this is a critical point – films it on their iPhone. You film the entire encounter and a coward like Bill O’Reilly who thrives off of heavily edited taped content drops the segment or at least instructs his editor to keep it real for once.

I actually witnessed Watters get the tables turned on him at a conference where a liberal camera crew covering the event stuck a camera in his face during one of his ambushes and he got chased out of the arena bombarded by questions and statements. It was hilarious. If I recall, back on “The Factor” he played the victim. Ah, poor Jesse! ;^)

commented 2015-09-15 05:22:42 -0400 · Flag

Mr. Ding, and Mr. Dong Together they go Ding, Dong.What a pair, 3 of a kind could not beat them.

NewsHounds posted about Bill O'Reilly Tries To Ambush Bernie Sanders And Fails on NewsHounds' Facebook page 2015-09-15 01:36:52 -0400

Apparently, Bernie didn't get the memo that O'Reilly is entitled to any interview he wants.