On Monday night (3/26/12), Bill O’Reilly hosted Caroline Fredrickson, president of the American Constitution Society, supposedly to debate him on his position that the individual mandate in "ObamaCare" is unconstitutional. But after giving himself a nice stretch of time to offer up his views without any distractions from his guest, he refused to grant Fredrickson – the real constitutional expert - anything close to the same opportunity. In fact, she barely had a chance to speak at all without being interrupted. At one point, O’Reilly threatened to “abort the segment right now” if she didn’t answer his question the way he wanted her to answer it - as she tried to challenge one of his previous statements. It was O’Reilly boorishness at its worst.
As Karoli at Crooks and Liars points out, Fredrickson has very impressive credentials as a constitutional authority. O’Reilly? None. But, Karoli noted, “To listen to him, you’d think he was either calling a horse race or else lining himself up to be the next Supreme Court nominee.”
O’Reilly concluded the “interview” by announcing that Fredrickson will “lose,” that her “arguments are specious,” and that the Supreme Court will rule 4-3 against the mandate. He added, “If I’m wrong, I will come on and I will play your clip and I will apologize for being an idiot.”
OK, Bill. We’ve got that from you on the record and we intend to hold you to it if the mandate is upheld.
Video below via Media Matters.
Um, BillO — aren’t there nine justices on the high court?
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If O’Reilly has to come back to apologize I hope he brings Sean Hannity with him to fulfill his promise to be waterboarded for charity.