Bill O’Reilly Calls the Most Un-American Thing Trump Said Last Night His ‘Smartest’

Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 09:19 pm

Bill O’Reilly appeared on Fox News’ America’s Newsroom today to talk about last night’s presidential debate. During the discussion, he claimed that Donald Trump’s threat to jail Hillary Clinton should he win the election – a comment CNN’s Dana Bash called “just stunning” and comparable to Stalin or Hitler – “the smartest thing he did all night.”

Watch courtesy of Media Matters for America:

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BILL HEMMER (CO-HOST): You talk about her weaknesses. Perhaps he prosecuted the case against her better in moments like these last night on the emails. Watch this.
 
[BEGIN VIDEO]
 
DONALD TRUMP: There has never been anything like this where emails, and you get a subpoena, you get a subpoena, and after getting the subpoena, you delete 33,000 emails. And then you acid-wash them or bleach them, as you would say. A very expensive process.
 
[END VIDEO]
 
HEMMER: That is something that Republicans wanted to hear ten days ago.
 
BILL O’REILLY: He had to play to his base because his base was fracturing after the tape. His base was fracturing. So he was playing directly to his base, and the big line was, “You’d be in jail.” That was the big line. OK, now, all of the left-wing press is appalled. “How can you say that?” Every single one of them down there. I’m going, that’s the smartest thing he did all night because that, just that, coalesced his base back together because they feel that what Hillary Clinton did in the emails — this is Trump’s base — is far worse than what Trump did on the bus. That’s the reality of it.

For Bill O’Reilly – and for Donald Trump – the ends justify the means. Trump says he will make America great again by being manifestly un-American. Bill O’Reilly thinks this is a great move. Apparently, playing to a virulently racist, misogynist and anti-Semitic base is more important than the values Trump pretends to champion.

Trump exposed himself last night as having the makings not of an American president, but as a dictator in the mode of Vladimir Putin, or, as Dana Bash put it, even Stalin, or Hitler.

We don’t do that here. Our election losers to home. They don’t go to jail. And Donald Trump, by suggesting otherwise, guarantees he won’t go to the White House, but back to Trump Tower where he can glower and seethe to his heart’s content.

Hrafnkell Haraldsson

Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen’s Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.