Interview with Bill O'Reilly of Fox News - Part 3 of 4

O'REILLY: I'm sitting here and I'm an American. I'm sitting there in Bismarck, North Dakota, I'm sitting there in Coral Springs, Florida, and I'm seeing Reverend Wright, I'm seeing Father Pfleger, who thinks Louie Farrakhan's a great guy, I'm seeing Bernadette Dohrn and Bill Ayers, Weather Underground radicals, who don't think they bombed enough, I'm seeing MoveOn.org, who says "General Betray Us," and I'm seeing you go to a Daily Kos convention. And this week Daily Kos came out and said that Sarah Palin's Down syndrome baby was birthed by her 15-year-old with no proof. They put that on there. And I'm going, gee, that Barack Obama, he's got some pretty bad friends.

OBAMA: All right. Well…

O'REILLY: Am I wrong?

OBAMA: You are wrong. Let's start from scratch. No. 1, I know thousands of people, right? And so, understandably, people will pick out folks who they think they can…

O'REILLY: I don't know anybody like that, and I know thousands of people. I don't know anybody like that.

OBAMA: But well, hold on a second. Let me make my point now. The Wright thing we've talked about. I joined a church to worship God, not a pastor. This whole notion that he was my spiritual mentor and all this stuff, this is something that I've consistently discussed. I had not heard him make the offensive comments that ended up being looped on this show constantly. And I was offended by them and ultimately…

O'REILLY: So you'd never heard those comments?

OBAMA: I hadn't heard those comments.

O'REILLY: He was selling them in the lobby of the church.

OBAMA: What can I tell you?

O'REILLY: How many times did you go to church a month?

OBAMA: You know, I probably go twice a month sometimes.

O'REILLY: And he never said inflammatory stuff?

OBAMA: He didn't say stuff like that, all right, so…

O'REILLY: Did he say white people were bad?

OBAMA: No.

O'REILLY: Never?

OBAMA: What he said was racism was bad, and…

O'REILLY: But not white people are bad?

OBAMA: There was no doubt that what he said was racism was bad. The relationship was ruptured. I'm not a member of the church.

O'REILLY: Right.

OBAMA: In both his case and Father Pfleger's case, they've done great work in the community, and I worked in some very poor communities. That's how I got to know these folks because I was working in these neighborhoods. Now, on this Ayers thing, would you — you know, you've been hyping, Bill, pretty good.

O'REILLY: Not that much. You know, you were on the Woods Foundation.

OBAMA: Well, but here's the bottom line.

O'REILLY: Yes.

OBAMA: This guy did something despicable 40 years ago.

O'REILLY: You know, he did something despicable last week. He said he didn't do enough bombings. That's last week.

OBAMA: I haven't seen the guy in a year-and-a-half. But…

O'REILLY: But you know who he was. He's on the Woods Foundation board. You know he…

OBAMA: Let me finish my point, all right? Here's a guy who does something despicable when I'm 8 years old.

O'REILLY: OK.

OBAMA: All right? I come to Chicago. He's working with Mayor Richard Daley, not known to be a radical. So, he and I know each other as a consequence of work he's doing on education. That is not an endorsement of his views. That's not…

O'REILLY: Yes, but you guys partnered up on a youth crime bill. Do you remember that?

OBAMA: And it was a good bill.

O'REILLY: No, it wasn't. That bill said that if a youth commits a second violent felony, he does time in an adult prison. That's two shots. You said no. You know the Southside of Chicago. You know how many people are hurt.

OBAMA: Listen, you're absolutely right. My community gets hit by crime more than…

O'REILLY: And I'm right on that bill. You were wrong on that bill.

OBAMA: Well, I disagree with you on that bill. We're getting too far afield here.

O'REILLY: That's important though. You and Ayers were allied on that bill.

OBAMA: No, no. Look, he didn't write that bill.

O'REILLY: No, he was supporting it, and so were you.

OBAMA: Well…

O'REILLY: But you guys were together on it.

OBAMA: Hold on a second. Now we're getting…

O'REILLY: All right. If that's unfair, I'm sorry.

OBAMA: That's pretty flimsy. Here's the point, right? This guy is not part of my campaign. He's not some adviser of mine. He is somebody who worked on education issues in Chicago that I know.

The problem that your viewers, your guys that — your folks, the folks you champion, the problem you're going through, the problems they're going through with trying to pay their bills, trying to keep their job, trying to move up in this world, their problem isn't Bill Ayers. It was Bill Ayers 40 years ago when he was blowing stuff up.

O'REILLY: They want a president who they can identify with.

OBAMA: They want a president…

O'REILLY: Who they can identify with.

OBAMA: And they should be able to identify with me because my story is your story. My story is your story.

O'REILLY: But your associations are not my associations.

OBAMA: But…

O'REILLY: MoveOn, "General Betray Us," the Daily Kos.

OBAMA: I was offended by that.

O'REILLY: Come on.

OBAMA: And I said I was offended by it.

O'REILLY: But you said good things about them. You showed up to the Kos convention.

OBAMA: But look…

O'REILLY: You don't get worse than these.

OBAMA: Hold on a second. I mean, there's a whole bunch of stuff said on FOX about me that is completely…

O'REILLY: Correct the record.

OBAMA: ...biased. Well, but I still don't mind coming on your show. Just because there are a whole bunch of things that may be said on this network that I completely disagree with, I don't sort of assume that you have to take responsibility for everything that is said on FOX News, any more than I would expect you to take responsibility for everything that's said on Daily Kos. Think about it.

O'REILLY: That's a hateful thing.

OBAMA: No.

O'REILLY: FOX News is not hateful.

OBAMA: They're…

O'REILLY: Oh, it isn't. Some of those — some of our commentators…

OBAMA: If you were watching Sean Hannity consistently…

O'REILLY: He's a commentator though.

OBAMA: Well, but that's all these bloggers are. I'm not making excuses for them. Listen, they…

O'REILLY: No, Hannity's never said he wants…

OBAMA: They've gone…

O'REILLY: ...Dick Cheney to die of cancer.

OBAMA: Hold on, hold on a second. Hold on a second. All I'm saying is these guys, they've given me a hard time. You know one of the times they gave me a hard time?

O'REILLY: They're raising a ton of money for you.

OBAMA: You know one of the times they gave me a hard time? Was when I went to campaign for Joe Lieberman. Now, Joe didn't mention that in his speech the other night.

O'REILLY: Then they gave you a hard time about voting for the…

OBAMA: The FISA.

O'REILLY: ...the FISA thing.

OBAMA: Exactly. So it's not — all I'm saying is I expect to be held responsible for the things I say and do. And one of the things that's happened in this campaign, and I think that you have the power to help correct the record on this, is not to put me in a position where every tangential relationship…

O'REILLY: It isn't. There's a pattern of behavior here.

OBAMA: No, there is not a pattern of behavior. It is guilt — it is classic guilt by association.

O'REILLY: The pattern of behavior is that you feel very comfortable, for some reason, in far-left precincts. That's the pattern of behavior that I see.

OBAMA: But Bill, I've got friends who are on the far right.

O'REILLY: Who?

OBAMA: They're — I've got colleagues in the Senate.

O'REILLY: Who? Give me a name.

OBAMA: Well, no, no, no.

O'REILLY: I always do that.

OBAMA: No, no, no.

O'REILLY: I'm sorry.

OBAMA: But here's what happens is if I give a name, then people — then the next thing I know is people will say they're comparing this friend of his to Bill Ayers.

O'REILLY: You know what I wanted to hear? I go golfing with Rush Limbaugh. That's what I wanted to hear there.

(end of part three)