Instead of apologizing for saying, “I just want to slap” Rep. James Clyburn last week, Bill O’Reilly doubled down on attacking him – with some race baiting thrown in for extra hate-mongering measure.
In case you missed it, last week O’Reilly mocked Clyburn – the highest-ranking African American in Congress and a Democratic leader – for saying that the Orlando shooting is “about guns in America” and “not ISIS.” O’Reilly also said, “I just want to slap him, with all due respect,” for saying that. When the Congressional Black Caucus demanded O’Reilly apologize, Clyburn was invited on The O’Reilly Factor instead – where O’Reilly would almost certainly have tried to use him as a punching bag to justify the previous attack.
Clyburn, of course, turned down the invitation, so O’Reilly attacked him again anyway.
O’REILLY: Now, I used the slap line as a rhetorical device to show my displeasure. That was obvious unless you are a complete moron. But the crazy left websites who routinely mislead their readers, played it up as an actual physical threat. A few hours later, the Congressional Black Caucus demanded an apology. I very politely said to them, “Come on The Factor, we’ll talk about it.” I also invited Congressman Clyburn on as well. Guess what? They’re hiding under their desks. I guess they are afraid I would slap them.
In the first place, law enforcers take "rhetorical device" threats very seriously. Secondly, O’Reilly has a history of threatening people and, according to his daughter, has physically abused her mother. But, though I’m sure O’Reilly would have tossed NewsHounds into the pile of “crazy left websites who routinely mislead their readers,” (and in fact, he already has) I never thought, nor did I say, Clyburn was in any physical danger from O’Reilly.
My point was that O’Reilly deliberately tried to appear menacing. And that is not just wildly inappropriate for a news host, especially for one who claims to be “looking out for you,” but downright irresponsible. Let’s not forget that O’Reilly’s inflammatory rhetoric about “Dr. Tiller the baby killer” preceded Tiller’s actual assassination.
But to acquit himself for using violent rhetoric (again), O’Reilly tried to smear Clyburn as kinda sorta complicit in black-on-black crime, a subject that has has absolutely nothing to do with the Orlando shooter. Coincidentally, it does have to do with one of O'Reilly's favorite subjects: Blacks Behaving Badly.
O’REILLY: We researched the congressman and we can find no mention of gun control in connection with the Chicago violence. None. This weekend, 13 more people shot to death in the windy city. At least 43 others wounded, including a three-year-old boy. That brings the total to 1800 human beings shot so far this year in Chicago. Paging Congressman Clyburn. Come on. If he were truly concerned about guns in America, he’d have to say at least something about his fellow African-Americans being shot down in Chicago every single day and it’s been going on for years. He’d have to say something, would he not?
Once again, O'Reilly's "concern" for black victims in Chicago was little more than a cloak to lecture African Americans or, in this case, one African American.
And while he was at it, O’Reilly suggested the entire left is also kinda sorta complicit in terrorism:
O’REILLY: Now, the reason Clyburn brought up guns in connection with Orlando is because the left, in general, doesn’t want the American people to focus on the danger from ISIS overseas. "That’s a Muslim-hate group. They don’t want to bring Muslims in at all." It doesn’t play into the narrative of the far left who generally believe that America is a source of much of the trouble in the world. We’re the problem. So they constantly push a point of view that demonizes the U.S.A. as a bad place, an unfair place. Forget about ISIS. It’s all about America. Allowing guns to kill people.
Refocusing the overseas terror problem on the U.S.A., is a strategy by the far left. Summing up. Thousands of African-Americans being gunned down by other African-Americans in Chicago, which has very, very strict gun-control laws. Congressman Clyburn has no comment on that, yet he has plenty to say about guns, not ISIS, being the real problem in Orlando. You make the call.
For extra hate-mongering points, FoxNews.com called this Talking Points commentary, “Terrorism in the American left.” The actual title was “Terrorism and the American left.” But you can forgive whichever Fox workerbee couldn’t tell the difference. Because that confusion was deliberate on O’Reilly’s part.
Blaming the entire half of the country that's not conservative for endangering and actually killing Americans? Who really hates America, Bill?
You can make the call after watching O'Reilly above, from the June 20 The O'Reilly Factor.
Crossposted at News Hounds.
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