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| All content taken from The O'Reilly Factor on Fox News Channel. Each weeknight by 6 PM EST a preview of that evening's show will be posted and then updated with additional information the following weekday by noon EST.
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Guests:Ed Henry
BLOWBACK OVER THE PRISONER SWAP
"President Obama is under withering fire for the deal he made to trade Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl for five Taliban war criminals. It has raised questions about the president's judgment and leadership, but he remains defiant. A brand new Fox News poll delivers some bad news for the president. 84% of Americans are 'very concerned' or 'somewhat concerned' that terrorist groups will take more U.S. soldiers hostage. Also, 55% believe the Obama administration has made America weaker. Those are bad numbers, so the spin begins. The president's acolytes in the media are saying this is a simple prisoner-of-war swap, but that is fallacious. The five men released from Gitmo are criminals, brutal men who target civilians. The Taliban is not a legitimate nation or a legitimate army, they are terrorists who torture and kill civilians. You don't free five war criminals, even if the life of an American soldier is on the line. The evidence suggests that Sgt. Bergdahl and his father appear to be Taliban sympathizers. However, Talking Points believes they should be given the benefit of every doubt. As for President Obama, public opinion has turned against him ... big time!"
FNC White House correspondent Ed Henry, traveling with the president in Paris, entered the No Spin Zone with the latest on the Bergdahl story. "The president keeps getting pulled back into this because of the firestorm back home," he reported, "and he's been very dismissive of it. Today he said he's not surprised that this sort of controversy is being 'whipped up,' and his aides are saying this is just 'Obama haters' whipping this up. That's not true. When you compare this to Benghazi or IRS, which did go along partisan lines, there has been bipartisan outrage here. Democratic Senator Diane Feinstein has flat-out said that the law might have been broken." The Factor urged the Obama administration to be far more transparent: "There's a classified report about Bergdahl and what he did, and that should now be declassified. Also, the doctors examining Bergdahl will have to tell the world if he was really that ill." |
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Guests: Col. David Hunt
Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel has denied reports that some U.S. soldiers were killed in Afghanistan as they were searching for Bowe Bergdahl. Fox News military analyst Col. David Hunt criticized Hagel for advancing that argument. "I'm very disappointed," Hunt declared, "because Hagel was an enlisted soldier and a combat veteran who knows better. The other soldiers in Bergdahl's platoon are saying that 6 to 14 guys died while looking for Bergdahl. They knew he was a deserter the day it happened, and it's disingenuous for the secretary of defense to make that remark. He either is lying or he has not asked the chain of command." |
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Guests:James Carville & Kate Obenshain
The Factor was joined by Democrat James Carville, who defended the five-for-one swap. "The Israelis gave up a thousand prisoners for one soldier," he pointed out, "and we gave up five. We always give up more in these things than we have a different value on human life. I agree these are bad guys, but they have been in captivity for 13 years and the war in Afghanistan is going to be over in 2016." But Republican Kate Obenshain asserted that Bergdahl is almost surely a deserter and the deal should not have been made. "His comrades said he left a note saying he was leaving to start a new life. We gave up five commanders of the Taliban, there is a real problem with releasing these inhumane individuals back into society to prey on Americans and other citizens." |
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Guests:Senator Jeff Sessions and Senator Rob Portman
For more on the Taliban deal, The Factor welcomed Republican Senators Jeff Sessions and Rob Portman, both of whom attended a classified administration briefing on the Bergdahl affair. "I can't tell you what was said in the briefing," Portman stated, "but I can tell you what was not said. They did not provide a justification for ignoring the law, which is very clear in saying that the president had to notify Congress. We can't have this again, we have to know that terrorists are not going to go back to the battlefield and have more American blood on their hands." Sessions' post-briefing perspective was much the same. "We hoped to get a rationale for what seemed to be an implausible circumstance, but we did not get it. I didn't feel it was a credible briefing and I know virtually nothing that I didn't know from the media." The Factor revealed why this segment included guests from just one party, saying, "Democratic senators would not make themselves available this evening, which is interesting." |
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Guests:Megyn Kelly
Megyn Kelly entered the No Spin Zone to report on her exclusive interview with six members of Bowe Bergdahl's platoon. "This was a stunning interview," she said. "I asked them about whether he was a deserter, which they all believe he was. I also asked why they have no empathy for him, what they would say to him now, and whether the trade was worth it. I also had them respond to the attacks that this administration and its defenders have unleashed on them. I have yet to see someone who served with Bergdahl come forward to defend him." The Factor reiterated that all evidence suggests that Bowe Bergdahl deserted his unit: "There's a classified report and if that had exonerated him the president would have brought it out." |
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Guests:Laura Ingraham
Some media analysts have criticized Bill for drawing attention to the fact that Bowe Bergdahl's father, who praised Allah at the White House, looks and sounds like a Muslim. Laura Ingraham, another target of left-wing criticism, reacted to the dustup. "If they don't go after you or me," she argued, "they're going to have to actually speak about what this means to the country. They want to turn this away from the hideous way the Obama administration has handled this. You were well within your right, it was odd that Mr. Bergdahl spoke in Arabic and praised Allah. That was an Islamic statement and it was bizarre for someone at the White House to speak in Arabic at a moment like this. Most Americans who saw that thought it was odd." Ingraham also analyzed President Obama's recent missteps: "When you see what he's done since he was reelected, it doesn't appear to me that he cares. He's flouting immigration law and we know what he's doing with all these executive orders. I think he's a man on a mission to re-make America, and I think he realizes that the press is always going to rally to the left's cause." |
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| If you're anywhere near the Badlands this summer, you can catch Miller and O'Reilly in the Dakotas in July, and then the duo will be touring up and down the East Coast in the Fall. |
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David Thomas, Warwick, MD: "Bill, you showed your true anti-Islamic bigotry. Would you have made such a comment if a man had showed up looking like a Jew?"
Helen Rodenberg, Cedar Rapids, IA: "O'Reilly, you're losing it. Do the Duck Dynasty people look like Muslims?"
Don Hayward, Monument Beach, MA: "Once again you nailed it, Bill. It is becoming clear the father and son have a mutual dislike of American policy in Afghanistan." |
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