Bill Maher: O’Reilly’s ‘Unpatriotic’ Obama Interview And Beck’s ‘Messiah Complex’
Last night comedian Bill Maher appeared on The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell and took on Bill O’Reilly, Glenn Beck and a new rival he was amused to learn he was feuding with: co-host of The View Elisabeth Hasselbeck. He seemed most disturbed with O’Reilly’s President Obama interview and labeled it “unpatriotic” to conduct an interview in such a way.
Amazed that Obama could sit there and take that much “guff” from O’Reilly, Maher continued:
“I just feel like the most difficult part of his job must be to quelch the rage that somewhere must be inside him to say ‘I’m the President of the United States, you don’t talk to me like this. I’m not some left – I’m not Al Sharpton you know, I won this job.’ And Bill O’Reilly who claims he’s such a patriot – how unpatriotic it is in my view to treat a President that way. How does that look to other countries when you’re interrupting and belittling?”
Given that O’Reilly only had fifteen minutes to interview Obama and was eager to get in as many questions as possible, it seems like a stretch to claim O’Reilly was “belittling” Obama when in fact the purpose of his interruptions seemed to be getting Obama past the talking points of each issue and onto something interesting. Yet more importantly, and this does not come from a body language expert, but Obama looked to be thoroughly enjoying the interview and even the give-and-take, much more than some of his recent “friendly” encounters, like for instance his uncomfortable interview with Jon Stewart on The Daily Show. In other words, since Obama received much praise for his performance with O’Reilly, maybe Maher could a lighten up a bit on this issue?
Maher returned to comedic top form though just moments later as he redirected his focus to Beck who received the worst insults, as Maher dismissed him as a “bad joke” with a “messiah complex” and as someone who doesn’t care how he stays on top, but will just find a way to make sure he does. Finally, earlier this week Hasselbeck took offense to Maher amusingly suggesting that America should trade her to Egypt for the release of detained CBS reporter Lara Logan. Hasselbeck claimed Maher missed the call for civility and instead was on the line with ignorance and hate to which Maher didn’t even know how to respond since he was clearly joking and had no ill-feelings towards her.
Watch the clip below from MSNBC:
