Interview Video:

Bill O’Reilly, who has recently been attacking the Daily Kos website, comparing it to Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan, announced on his show that “Senator Chris Dodd, running for president, defends a vile website and unbelievable hatred.”

“We’re going to show you a hateful picture posted on a far-left website,” began O’Reilly, “so you might want to change channels.” O’Reilly then displayed a photoshopped picture of Senator Joe Leiberman kneeling in front of President Bush and reaching for his fly as if to perform oral sex.

O’Reilly asked Senator Dodd, who is attending the Yearly Kos convention, “Why don’t you distance yourself from it?”

“What I’m stunned at,” responded Dodd, “is the fact you’ve spent as much time here going after an online community gathering, when there are 500,000 people who visit that site on a daily basis, to identity 5, 6, 7, 8 objectionable, offensive cartoons or comments. … You ought to be far more candid with your viewing audience here and tell them that your real objection here is the ideology. … You don’t like their politics. Why don’t you focus on that?”

“Are you okay with that cartoon, sir?” insisted O’Reilly. “That’s what they do on the site. They do that hate stuff all the time. … There’s thousands of vile postings on that website. Thousands!”

“There are thousands on your posting as well,” said Dodd, laughing.

“No, there’re not! There aren’t any on mine! We take them off right away!” insisted O’Reilly.

“Talking about al Qaeda attacking San Francisco, blowing up San Francisco, that’s not offensive?” asked Dodd.

“When did I say that?” asked O’Reilly. “I didn’t say it here. You don’t know what the hell I said! … You got it from MediaMatters! … You’re a propagandist. I used to respect you. I don’t have any respect for you. If I were Joseph Lieberman, I would never talk to you again, because this is vile and you’re legitimizing it!”

(According to Media Matters, on November 8, 2005, O’Reilly said, addressing San Franciscans, “If Al Qaeda comes in here and blows you up, we’re not going to do anything about it. … You want to blow up the Coit Tower? Go ahead” An audio file of O’Reilly’s statement can be downloaded here.)

“If you would sit there and just be honest …” continued Dodd. “You’re objecting to the fact that 1500 people are going to gather in Chicago, representing hundreds of thousands of people who utilize this community gathering.”

“Your description of that site is so opposite to what it is,” said O’Reilly. “And anybody who’s been on it knows the hate that they peddle every day.”

“Indiana University has suggested,” Dodd came back, “that you make derogatory comments about individuals and groups every 6.8 seconds. … Don’t suggest here that this is a real debate you’re having about Daily Kos. ”

After the Dodd interview, O’Reilly asked right-wing comedian Dennis Miller what he thought of it, saying, “He and others are basically defiant. They’re going to do what they want to do, never address the picture [of Bush and Lieberman] and the morality of the picture.”

“I’m a little disappointed that you would give a hack like that a toehold,” said Miller. “These people aren’t going to come on and debate on Fox, which is the pre-eminent cable news organization in this country. … For you to let him come in and sandbag you like that …”

“I want people to see him,” said O’Reilly. “I have to present these guys to the American public as best I can … You would not have even used him?”

“He’s a guy who’s looking up in the Iditarod of the Democratic primary process at Dennis Kucinich’s behind,” said Miller. “I don’t need him on here unless he wants to talk about something substantive, which he didn’t. He just wanted to whip off his glove and smack you in the face, because at this Daily Kos thing next week, that’s going to make him a big man.”

“Don’t you think most people see that?” asked O’Reilly. “When he comes on and does that, and got smacked right back … and I didn’t like to do that to a sitting senator … but I certainly have to do it. … I think it’s worthy to put them on and when they spout stuff that isn’t true to challenge them. … I didn’t know he was going to be dishonest.”

“That [Kos] convention is a loser-fest,” concluded Miller.

Senator Dodd’s website can be accessed at ChrisDodd.com.

– By David Edwards and Muriel Kane

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