A resurfaced video clip of a heated on-air exchange between former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly and NeverTrump Washington Post blogger Jennifer Rubin is making the rounds on social media Monday, as Rubin’s obsessive attacks on President Donald Trump during his weekend battle with COVID-19 have briefly brought her into the spotlight.
The exchange took place in 2016 on “The O’Reilly Factor,” following unsubstantiated criticism by Rubin that O’Reilly was a Trump sycophant.
“So thanks for coming on, but you know you’re entirely wrong on this, your own newspaper posted a headline that said the O’Reilly-Trump interviews are the best Trump interviews. Did you miss that? Did you miss it?” O’Reilly jibed at the beginning of the interview.
Rubin proceeded to call “The O’Reilly Factor” a “pseudo-news program” that was “parroting what Donald Trump is saying.” When pressed for examples, Rubin said O’Reilly had “made excuses for the ‘lock her up’ comment.”
“When did I make excuses for Lock Her Up, what did I exactly say,” O’Reilly queried, prompting Rubin to consult a sheet of paper and stammer, “Um, let’s see. Um, that would have been on, uhhhh, let’s see if if I have the date exactly. It would have been on, Lock Her Up would have been on, in April and also in August.”
Rubin was asked to quote the specific examples, and proved unable to do so, as her sheet of paper bore no direct quotes.
https://twitter.com/mbracemoore/status/1313214866241605634
“You are ill-prepared for this interview Ms. Rubin,” O’Reilly noted, adding, “I have given you a minute where you’ve hemmed and hawed. You said I justified a comment – ‘Lock Her Up,’ and then you pivot to something else.”
“Your column and blog are fraud,” the former Fox News host added.
Rubin then backpedaled to say that the quotes she failed to provide would be posted on her website, to which O’Reilly retorted, “Go ahead, and you know how many people are going to come to your website? Zero.”
The full exchange can be seen on YouTube below.
