Years after Fox News' Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly fantasized about the death of Michael Moore, the filmmaker is finally speaking out.
Moore joined MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Thursday to discuss the recent news that a woman protesting Republican Senate candidate in Kentucky Rand Paul had her head stomped prior to a debate this week.
One Paul supporter is seen in video taken by Fox News channel 41 pushing MoveOn.org activist Lauren Valle to the ground. Tim Profitt, another Paul supporter, then is seen stomping on Valle's head and shoulder. She received a concussion and a sprain as a result of the altercation.
The Paul campaign condemned the attack but the next day the candidate downplayed it as "jockeying" and a "crowd control problem."
That same day, a full-page newspaper ad placed by the Paul campaign prominently displayed Profitt's name as one of the candidate's supporters.
In a Wednesday interview, Profitt called for Valle to apologize to him because he hurt his back in the scuffle.
The Kentucky Democratic Party released an ad Thursday using the head stomping incident to portray Paul in a negative light. They said that because of the ad's violent content, it would only be aired after 10 p.m.
"Do you agree with the Kentucky Democrats turning this brutal incident outside a campaign event into a broader metaphor for what's going on in politics?" Maddow asked Moore Thursday.
"It's not one of those figurative metaphors," Moore replied. "It's a literal one."
"It's so good to see Democrats just coming out and saying just exactly what's going on here, which is if you want to get a little taste of what is ahead after Tuesday, if they win, here you go," he added.
"As people take the side of the guy who stomped on this woman, is that mainstreaming violence?" Maddow asked.
"Yes," Moore replied. "That is exactly what's going on. We've been mainstreaming violence for the last nine years," Moore said. "When I was growing up you, it was like grab the hippie. If you were down south, it was grab the black guy. This young girl, what that represents, I think they're afraid of this younger generation, because the young kids, they're not the bigots their parents and grandparents were."
Moore also noted that Beck had once fantasized about killing him and that "Bill O'Reilly one night said he didn't believe in the death penalty except for Michael Moore."
The specific quote from Beck came in May of 2005, when he said:
Hang on, let me just tell you what I'm thinking. I'm thinking about killing Michael Moore, and I'm wondering if I could kill him myself, or if I would need to hire somebody to do it. No, I think I could. I think he could be looking me in the eye, you know, and I could just be choking the life out -- is this wrong? I stopped wearing my What Would Jesus -- band -- Do, and I've lost all sense of right and wrong now. I used to be able to say, "Yeah, I'd kill Michael Moore," and then I'd see the little band: What Would Jesus Do? And then I'd realize, "Oh, you wouldn't kill Michael Moore. Or at least you wouldn't choke him to death." And you know, well, I'm not sure.
"You can become successful preaching violence and preaching hate," Moore summarized. "We're going to enter a very scary time.".
Naturally, the liberal filmmaker added a plea for viewers to get out and vote for Democrats.
"Boy, I'll tell you, if we don't get on the phones and call people, everybody should get out their address book and send a reminder to be sure and vote on Tuesday," he said. "'I'm going to vote and give the Democrats two more years.' That's what I would really ask your relatives who are on the fence, friends of yours. Say two years isn't enough time for the huge mess that was created. Let's give them two more years. Then we can deal with it if they haven't done the job they were sent there to do."
