Wife-abuser Bill O’Reilly doesn’t seem to mind a bit that people have been assaulted at Donald Trump rallies. He’s concerned that Trump might get blamed for it. So he repeatedly urged Trump to exercise “restraint.” But Trump’s responses only presaged more violence.
O’Reilly began his eight-and-a-half minute interview/mentoring session by noting that Trump is well on his way to the nomination. “Do you have to become more statesmanlike?” O’Reilly suggested to Trump.
It's doubtful Trump think so. He said, “I don’t know, Bill. We’re doing pretty well the way it is.”
O’Reilly went on to try to prep his milkshake BFF for dealing with protesters.
O’REILLY: You know, you get in trouble when you react. Alright? So, the proactive forces are coming at you. And then you react and you’ve said some very questionable things like, maybe, ‘We punch them in the face’ or something like that. What I’m trying to get at is -
TRUMP: Yeah, I didn’t, I didn’t say that Bill -
O’REILLY: Well something along those lines -
Actually, Trump did say that. He said, “I’d like to punch him in the face.”
Then Trump all but admitted he had.
TRUMP: We had a very rough dude. Yeah, we had a very rough dude… And this guy was very physical with a lot of people. I was seeing it. And all I did was make the statement I wouldn’t mind doing it. But that - you have to understand where it all comes from.
O’REILLY: Okay. And I do.
In other words, O’Reilly has no problem with inciting violence, he just doesn’t think it’s good politics.
O’REILLY: But is restraint now required on your part? Because, again, you’re going to be provoked. Is restraint required?
TRUMP: I think so and I think I have been restrained, Bill. You know, we have had very little problem. I have had the biggest, as you know better than anybody, I have had the most people by far, not even close, and, you know, we have 20,000, 25,000 people routinely. And, you know, we have one person stand up. And it’s usually somebody that’s sent in by, I don’t know who sends them in. But we have very little problem.
O’Reilly went on to warn Trump about dealing with protesters with a suggestion that he would be the likely victim of any violence that may break out.
O’REILLY: You’re gonna see Black Lives Matter, MoveOn, all of these people trying to brand you as some Nazi and the press will go along with it, enabling them to do their deal. But they’re baiting you and I’m speaking from experience. I don’t know whether you remember Al Franken but he baited me. I guess it was 10 years ago. I fell for it, like an idiot. And he won in the sense he got all this publicity and he was able to lie at will and do what he did. He’s a despicable human being but he won because I reacted to him when I should have floated above it and I’m wondering whether you could float above MoveOn and Black Lives Matter. Is it possible?
TRUMP: I think I can. …You know when people go in there and they interrupt and they stand up and in many cases they start things like, you know, raising their fists and maybe hitting people, we’re not going to—
O’REILLY: No, security is going to handle that—
TRUMP: And the people in that room won’t say it, I know. But the people in the room, in all fairness to them, I don’t know, I mean, I don’t know if they are going to stand for it, Bill. But that’s what happens. They provoke to such an extent. But the answer is yes. I would absolutely be able to stand above it.
Did you catch that? Trump basically just admitted he’s fine with more violence at his rallies. But O’Reilly went on to give him a pass – because politics.
O’REILLY: Okay. Because, Donald Trump now is not speaking as The Art Of the Deal guy or The Apprentice guy. You’re not speaking anymore on that level. Now you are speaking for the United States. You may be president. I mean, so your rhetoric means so much more than it used to mean. You know, you’re in a different place. A place you have never been in. I’m just wondering how much you have thought about all that.
TRUMP: Well, I’ve thought about it and at the same time we want to be effective. We have to be effective people at what we do and what we’re doing. But I certainly have thought about it. I think it’s a very terrible thing going on though, Bill.
…No, I’m not going to be provoked. But at the same time, you have to take tough action when this happens. You can’t let them get away with it so you do have to take action. I think you agree with that.
O’REILLY: It’s a tightrope you have to walk, but let your security do it and be the peacemaker. That’s what I would do.
Peacemaker? The O’Reilly who has a long record of threatening people? Whose daughter said she witnessed him dragging her mother down a staircase by the neck?
Let’s hope O’Reilly really has turned over a new leaf.
Meanwhile, watch him act as campaign advisor more than interviewer, below, from the March 16 The O’Reilly Factor.
(Much of the transcript above via Media Matters, with my edits)
Easy folks. I’m just having some fun. Mostly. ;^)
I mean, Cruz is out of the question. The Donald needs a mean guy, a tough guy for VP. Also one that can pucker up and kiss Donald’s ass.
Vice President O’Reilly: “You know Mr President, if you bend over some more I can kiss that better!”.
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Y’gotta luv people like Bill for their total lack of self-consciousness. I mean, really, whenever a person asks that question, he or she is declaring that the person to whom that question is addressed is NOT statesmanlike.
Same goes for the use of “presidential” instead of “statesmanlike”: such questions are clear admissions of the lack of said quality in the person concerned.
Apart from being a source of total embarrassment, Trump is at odds with the historical role of America as an example of the validity of “democracy”. I don’t think even GWB or that band of crooks behind him had this sort of America in mind.