Stephen Colbert Grows Exasperated With Bill O’Reilly Over Political Response to Orlando Massacre
After a somber opening on The Late Show Monday night, host Stephen Colbert pushed aside his normal comedic monologue to address the tragedy at Pulse night club this weekend that left 49 people dead and dozens more injured. His guest was Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly, who was booked on the show long before Sunday’s massacre, and the two hosts sparred over the political ideology debate that has divided the nation in the wake of the shooting.
“The solution is not some kind of federal gun control at a level of taking…” began O’Reilly, before he was drowned out by booing from the crowd at the Ed Sullivan Theater.
“Listen to what he has to say, please,” prompted the show’s host.
O’Reilly has called for an all-out declaration of war against radical Islamist groups abroad, a political maneuver that would give particular powers to the American government to deal with the growing threat more directly, such as domestic detainment of people like Omar Mateen, the gunman from Sunday’s attack. “Congress should pass a declaration of war against Islamic terrorist groups. Al Qaeda, ISIS, and there are four or five others,” he said.
O’Reilly continued to applause from the crowd, “Now it’s time for America to step up it’s power and take care of these SOBs.”
Colbert shifted the focus of the interview onto the 2016 presidential race, and the ways that the remaining candidates responded to the events in Orlando. When cornered about Donald Trump‘s self-congratulatory response, O’Reilly admitted, “He’s using this terrorism issue to bolster his popularity.”
But as the conversation turned to the validity of the second amendment, Colbert grew visibly frustrated with his guest, who opined that our ability to defeat the British in the 18th century was because, “everybody had a gun.”
“I just don’t think this is comparable to Lexington and Concord!” Colbert snapped back.
“But you have to understand the history and emotion of the second amendment! It’s essentially there to protect law-abiding people,” replied the Fox News host. The end of the interview was marked by a fair bit of hecticness, with Colbert and O’Reilly going through a rapid-fire list of issues trying to find common ground.
Watch the contentious interview above from CBS’ The Late Show.
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J.D. Durkin (@jiveDurkey) is an editorial producer and columnist at Mediaite.
[image via screengrab]
