The Congressional Black Caucus is not taking Bill O’Reilly’s stated desire to “slap” Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) lying down.
As we previously posted, Bill O’Reilly mocked Clyburn on Fox & Friends this morning for saying the Orlando shooting is about gun control. O’Reilly followed that up with, “I just want to slap him, with all due respect.” Not one of the three cohosts objected to that rhetoric.
But the CBC has. From Politico:
“The Congressional Black Caucus is absolutely outraged,” Chairman G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.) told POLITICO, adding that the caucus is calling “upon [O’Reilly] to disavow the statement and apologize” to Clyburn.
Politico also reported that Clyburn has been invited as a guest on Monday's The O’Reilly Factor.
Clyburn, the top-ranking African American in Congress, is one in a long line of members who have been racially attacked by O’Reilly. Media Matters explains:
O’Reilly has previously drawn criticism for his racial attacks on minority members of Congress, including Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA), Rep. Colleen Hanabusa (D-HI), Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY), and Rep. Yvette Clarke (C-NY). Lee has previously condemned O’Reilly’s description of her as a “race hustler,” describing his attacks as “disgusting and divisive,” a “thinly veiled racial attack,” concluding comments similar to O’Reilly “should never be accepted in our national discourse.” Rep. Hanabusa has called for O’Reilly’s public apology after “insulting” comments on Asian-Americans, after O’Reilly claimed “Asian people are not liberal, you know, by nature. They’re usually more industrious and hard-working.” O’Reilly has additionally accused CBC members Rep. Charles Rangel and Rep. Yvette Clarke of wanting to “divide the country along racial lines, because that’s good for business.”
I’m sorry (pun intended), but O’Reilly’s invitation to Clyburn to come on The Factor and face more abuse is no decent substitute for an apology. The CBC should stand its ground and keep up the pressure.
There is simply no excuse for any news host to suggest violence against anyone and it should not be tolerated. Sadly, if Andrea Tantaros and Sheriff David Clarke are any guide, Fox is just fine with it. So long as the intended victim is a Democrat, of course.
Watch O’Reilly talk about wanting to slap Clyburn “with all due respect,” below, from the June 16 Fox & Friends.
O’Reilly lies by building a straw man upon his spin of Clyburn’s statement that a bunch of people are saying terrorism isn’t a threat. No they’re not!
When you have crazies like the terrorist in Orlando and non-terrorist crazies like the crazy in Aurora walking into a movie theater who packed a Smith & Wesson M&P15 (AR-15) there’s the topic Clyburn is highlighting: Guns are an umbrella issue covering all sorts of mass shootings in America.
But when you’re going to lie with half-truths why not be completely lazy about it and just repeat debunked Republican talking points? Like the tired talking point Chicago has strict gun control but lots of violence so gun control never works. Did they mention that’s because lax gun control in surrounding areas allows a flood of illegal weapons to enter Chicago? Ditto France via Belgium? Whoops, Bill and his curvy couch friends forgot to mention that!
Noticeably absent is a complete analysis of Democratic gun control proposals coming out of their Senate filibuster. That’s the 800 pound guerilla of context the Foxies conveniently forget. Without boring everyone here with the details, an obvious point is a national gun control measure coming from Congress would alleviate the problem of the laxest gun control locality in America dictating gun violence for everywhere else.
FOX News: Bullsh—t for addicts.
