A few months after former Mexico president Vicente Fox said, “I’m not going to pay for that f-----g wall,” Bill O’Reilly hosted Fox in order to lecture him about how great Donald Trump's proposed wall on the border would be for everybody.
You may recall that last month O’Reilly boasted that “how you sell” the wall is by touting it as a life saver for the “poor migrants” at the mercy of coyotes and for Americans at the mercy of drug dealers.
So who better to test the theory on than former President Fox? Especially since Fox has been a bit more agreeable toward Trump of late. In fact, during his visit to The Factor, Fox invited Trump to visit Mexico.
But before Fox had a chance to utter a word, O’Reilly started his sales pitch:
BILL O’REILLY (HOST): So, here’s my take on this and you tell me where I’m wrong. Patrolled vigilantly on both sides, on both sides, I think a border wall is actually humane. Because it would cut down on people and drug smuggling, two things that injure human beings as you know. So where am I going wrong?
VICENTE FOX: Well, really facts and numbers, Bill, are totally different to what is being said. And I think it’s very important what I have invited you to come to Mexico. But more so I think it’s very important to invite Donald Trump to come to Mexico and to learn about the real Mexico, that is, I would think, totally different. For instance, I was listening that he says Mexico deserves punishment because of the deficit United States has on the trade balance with Mexico which, yes, he is right. It’s $50 billion. But does he know that the deficit with China is $400 billion?
O’REILLY: Yeah, He knows it, Mr. President. He’s threatened them too. Believe me, he knows it. But look, let’s get back to the wall, let’s get back to the wall. My hypothesis is that the wall would save lives, alright? Would be good for Mexico and the United States. Because it would take a lot of the power away from the smugglers, many of whom are cartel members and it would save - you know how people are abused. Poor people trying to get el norte. They’re abused by these coyotes. You know that. This wall would not stop it entirely but cut the drug smuggling and people smuggling down. So why don’t both countries support this?
(Transcript via Media Matters, with light edits)
Fox noted that the flow of migration has reversed in the last few years (which O’Reilly agreed with) because of improved economic conditions in Mexico.
But O’Reilly, cowering in his studio thousands of miles away from the border, still needs a wall to protect him, just in case. “That’s all well and good,” he said, “But that could reverse itself if there’s another recession.”
Fox said he wants to see the problem dealt with “in an intelligent and wise way.” Meaning, he wanted to see immigration reform legislation passed.
But O’Reilly said a wall has to go up first.
If O'Reilly was really looking out for "you," as he claims, he'd shut up about the wall. A solid majority, 59%, of Americans oppose it. So who's O'Reilly really looking out for here? Don't try to tell me it's the immigrants.
Watch it below, from the May 4 The O’Reilly Factor.
There’s no way to miss Republican (and, thus, FOX News) border wall discussions always revolve around the topic of greatly reducing our Hispanic population. To be kind, a lot of this is shallow team sports politics because Hispanics tend to vote the ‘wrong’ way and they fear them becoming citizens in large numbers. But, frankly, looking at Trump’s success it’s obvious the Republican party is rife with bigots. Note Bill fretting we can’t absorb them all. Too much change in traditional America?
Rational laws allowing millions of immigrants from all sources to enter America with a legal work status always hit massive Republican nativist resistance.
The sales pitch Bill is using here regarding laws to address undocumented worker statuses is the standard Republican bulls—t of let’s build a wall first and kick them all out then we’ll talk. But this is a rerun of a bad movie. They made similar promises to kill Clintoncare during the Clinton administration. They danced on its grave then did nothing. They’re playing the same game with Obamacare where they can’t come up with a replacement but assure us it’s only because they have so many [secret] great ideas they can’t make up their minds.
An estimate I read from a business article (not a political blog) is Trump’s immigration policies will shave 2% off our already mediocre GDP figures. Worse, a while back I read of a Southern state (forget which one) tried to crack down on undocumented workers only to face massive blowback from rural farmers unable to get crops to market when the migrant workers dried up.
FOX News’ bigotry will ironically mostly hurt suburban whites (who use cheap Hispanic labor for home projects) and rural farm communities. Not to mention small businesses like the contract cleaning crews who have been Hispanics at my office for at least a decade.
Though it may do Bill some good if he has to clean his own toilet. 👍
“Facts and numbers” — two things that are never paid any attention to Fox . . .
.
O’Reilly has the concrete protecting his left ear from his right ear.
Anyone else catch that -?
There, said it.
Anyone who offers any commentary other than that simply needs to see themselves type.
(Go ahead — argue my point…)
