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| On The O'Reilly Factor...
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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: Bob Beckel
"The headline is the IRS scandal could be worse than Benghazi. And at this point, the Obama administration has no valid answer for either... All of this chaos is putting an enormous amount of pressure on the executive branch, as the President is going to get nothing done until he himself addresses the scandals...
"So here now are some questions that I would ask President Obama. The first one is crucial - who decided that ambassador Susan Rice should go on five Sunday talk shows? ... Here's the follow up - we know that CIA deputy director Mike Morell signed off on Ambassador Rice's talking points even though they were proven wrong. Why hasn't Mr. Morell been ordered by you, Mr. President, to explain himself when his boss, David Petraeus, is on the record as being uncomfortable with blaming the attack on a video?...
"Second question - the U.S. had armed teams in Libya on the night Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed by terrorists. Why didn't those teams help the Ambassador?... Again, simple question."
Beckel agreed that the administration should give a simple answer as to why Susan Rice appeared on five Sunday talk shows. Both he and the Factor hoped that the President is able to provide an answer to this question at tomorrow's press conference.
However, Beckel argued that the most inconceivable scandal facing the Obama White House is the allegation that the IRS abused its power with right-wing organizations, for which the IRS chief lost his job today.
Generally speaking, according to the Factor, President Obama is in trouble now, losing credibility with both the folks and Congress. Beckel submitted the press will turn against the President, but asserted that they'll come back to him because he's a good politician. |
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Guests: Kirsten Powers and Kate Obenshain
Sen. Harry Reid said he's appalled that the Justice Department seized the phone records of the Associated Press. The Washington Post accused the President of not being entirely truthful about Benghazi, a sentiment with which Kirsten Powers concurs.
Powers criticized the word games the President is using regarding Benghazi, saying they are getting old. The Factor wondered why Mr. Obama's going out there attempting to rewrite history - what's the intent? Obenshain offered an explanation - because he always gets away with it. The Factor theorized that the initial lie was so that Obama wouldn't seem soft on terror during the election against Romney, and everything since then has been a cover-up.
To wrap up the conversation, the Factor chastised Jay Carney for insulting the press corps and the American people. He believes the press should stop showing up to Mr. Carney's briefings until he's ready to answer questions. |
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Guests: Jenny Beth Martin
The IRS has admitted targeting conservatives, so John Boehner wants to know who's going to jail over this scandal. Ms. Martin, the national coordinator for the Tea Party Patriots organization, related how the IRS has targeted her.
She claimed the IRS asked her group intrusive questions, including a list of her donors and with which Congresspeople the group's members spoke, in order to grant the group tax-exempt status.
She called the IRS' behavior an abuse of power, contending that it is dragging on the Tea Party Patriots' application for tax-exempt status. The Factor pointed out that donations to the group are far lower than they would be if people could get a tax write-off. When he asked if Ms. Martin believes this is about a few individual zealots within the IRS or if it comes down from high, Ms. Martin said she could only speculate that it's a politically motivated attack. |
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Guests: E.D. Hill
Actress Angelina Jolie got more press coverage than Benghazi when she told the world she underwent a double mastectomy to avoid breast cancer after testing positive for a genetic variant that puts her at high risk for both breast and ovarian cancers. In 2010, former Fox & Friends co-host E.D. Hill underwent the same procedure for similar reasons.
Ms. Hill told viewers that doctors told her it was not a matter of if she would get breast cancer; it was a matter of when. To give the audience some insight into the decision-making process, she said the mental aspects of the surgery were much more traumatic than the physical. Yet knowing what she knows now, Ms. Hill conveyed that she wishes she'd had the surgery much sooner because she never wakes up worrying about dying of breast cancer. |
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Guests: Dennis Miller
Miller joked that the only thing that would make this week better is if Sandra Fluke somehow managed to get pregnant. He had some sharp words for both Jay Carney and Eric Holder. But Miller reserved his most scathing criticism for President Obama, by saying with this administration not only does the buck not stop with the President, it apparently speeds up there.
Miller and Bill debated whether this entire Benghazi debacle was all about protecting Hillary Clinton for 2016. When asked which of this week's scandals upset him the most, Miller chose Benghazi. |
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Guests: James Rosen and Cameron Carl
Rep. Charles Rangel is insisting that the Obama administration tell Americans what the national security reason was behind probing the records of the AP.
According to Carl Cameron, Democrats who are running for re-election next year don't want to be in a position to have to defend these scandals in their home states. He declared that the fastest way for the President to earn back the trust he's lost is to fess up and/or fire people. The Factor asserted the President is right in the middle of the Benghazi scandal, so he can't lay this off on lower staffers.
According to James Rosen, the President is surprised by the staying power of Benghazi as a scandal, and the administration thinks it's the scandal du jour that they have the best chance of convincing Americans is just a story being ginned up by Republicans. He predicted that Barack Obama would still remain popular enough to be very well regarded in his retirement.
The Factor cautioned that these scandals are far from over and the President may not recover once all the cards are on the table. |
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Don Brown, Littleton, Colorado: "President Obama is the CEO of the country. All federal departments report to him. Therefore, he is responsible for what happens."
Ray Spitzer, Glendale, Arizona: "No president would order the IRS to go after conservative groups, but if it turns out Mr. Obama knew what was going on, that is an impeachable offense."
Glen Stoller, Bakersfield, California: "The Texas couple that donated 21 track chairs for our wounded amputees gives us hope in America!" |
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| Your humble correspondent stopped eating wheat about six months ago, resulting in a drop in his cholesterol. He's encouraging all viewers to check out the new book "The South Beach Diet Gluten Solution." |
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