Jon Stewart On The Bill O’Reilly Factor

My favorite moment is when Stewart prods at the real reason Bill O’Reilly and Glenn Beck support the Tea Party:

I know that you and Glenn see green — I mean see the people. So, where do you set up your merchandising table at those gigs? Do you sell his book and your book?

Followed by Bill O’Reilly describing his profits from the Tea Party movement as ‘charity’:

You’re making ‘charity’ hand-over fist, aren’t you?

Video taken from Fox News: Unedited Jon Stewart Interview. Full transcript below:

O’Reilly: All right, Stewart is back. It’s inexplicable, but he’s here.

JON Stewart, HOST, “THE DAILY SHOW”: Stewart is back. What about, “Hi, Jon, great to see you.” Nice to see you as well, Bill.

O’Reilly: What, do you want me to be a phony?

Stewart: It hurts my feelings.

O’Reilly: OK. Obama remorse. Some people who voted for him…

Stewart: Yes.

O’Reilly: …as you saw Velma Hart the other day, who voted for the hope and the dream and it ain’t happening. Do you, Jon Stewart, have Obama remorse?

Stewart: I think people feel a disappointment in that there was a sense that, “Oh, Jesus will walk on water” and now you are looking at like, “Oh, look at that. He is just treading water.”

O’Reilly: But did you buy — did you buy the messiah thing when he was campaigning?

Stewart: Look, I don’t buy the messiah thing with the messiah thing…

O’Reilly: But you are a supporter…

Stewart: …let alone with a politician.

O’Reilly: You were a supporter of Obama. Now, do you regret…

Stewart: I thought he would do a better job. I was a supporter of McCain as well for a long time.

O’Reilly: But you threw McCain under the bus.

Stewart: No. McCain threw himself under the bus.

O’Reilly: No, no, you threw him. I saw you. You pushed him.

Stewart: I would not push a man of that stature under the bus. I still love him. Talk about remorse…

O’Reilly: But you loved Obama more. You pulled the lever for Obama.

Stewart: Are you saying, I’m — I’m — what are you trying to say? I’m a left…

O’Reilly: You regret the vote? You regret — if you had to go back in a time capsule, would you vote for McCain?

Stewart: No.

O’Reilly: No.

Stewart: No. I still wouldn’t have voted for McCain.

O’Reilly: So, you’re standing by your man, you and Tammy Wynette.

Stewart: I would not suggest that it’s a country love song in the way you were. But here’s what I thought. I thought we were in such a place, much like the Tea Party feels now, that the country was in such a place that we needed a more drastic reconstruction of policy — perhaps, a deconstruction of the powers that be. I thought this may be a chance to do that. I have been saddened to see that someone who ran on the idea that you can’t expect to get different results with the same people in the same system has kept in place so much of the same system and the same people.

O’Reilly: But he still has been drastic in the sense that he…

Stewart: How has he been drastic, sir?

O’Reilly: Because he separates himself from the regular folks, and let me give you two examples, all right? The mosque thing.

Stewart: Uh-huh.

O’Reilly: All he had to say was, “Yeah, they have a right to it, but it’s really not good idea for sensitivities.” He wouldn’t do it.

Stewart: I think that is what he said.

O’Reilly: No, he didn’t say that. He said…

Stewart: He said they had the right to do it.

O’Reilly: And you mocked him for it.

Stewart: Well, I mock people.

O’Reilly: But he wouldn’t comment on the wisdom. And the people are going, “Come on. You are the leader of the country. You have to comment.”

Stewart: What people?

O’Reilly: The folks. The regular people. People who never would watch your show. People who watch me, not you.

Stewart: You are making things up.

O’Reilly: I’m not making things up.

Stewart: When is the last time you even visited Levittown, Bill?

O’Reilly: Sunday. Sunday, I was there, Stewart.

Stewart: “I was there. I was building a barbecue for my friend Joey, brick by brick. I threw on some sausage and pepper. And they came in, you know, we all watched the game, had some — it was unbelievable.”

O’Reilly: You are deflecting.

Stewart: What do you want me not to deflect?

O’Reilly: I’m telling you that the president has separated himself from the folks, and that’s why he’s having so much trouble in the polls.

Stewart: I don’t even know — I think that sounds like a meaningless thing to say. You are saying folks. What are folks?

O’Reilly: Working Americans don’t understand his thought process.

Stewart: That may be very well true, but he didn’t separate himself from working Americans. He hasn’t done enough to — he ran on the idea that the middle class…

O’Reilly: Yes.

Stewart: …was going to be his focus.

O’Reilly: And it isn’t.

Stewart: Well, he is trying right now to preserve the tax cuts for them and remove the ones for the people making $250,000 and above.

O’Reilly: Did you get your health care premiums?

Stewart: My health care premiums have been crazy for years.

O’Reilly: OK.

Stewart: I pay health care for everybody at our show.

O’Reilly: All right. Velma Hart said it the other day.

Stewart: Velma Hart still supports him and has great hopes for him. Velma Hart feels that the policies that he promised to deliver on have not come — have not materialized fast enough. I completely agree with the sentiment that he ran as a visionary and he has led as a functionary.

O’Reilly: Now, let’s get on to your Halloween rally in Washington, D.C.

Stewart: Are you even listening to me?

O’Reilly: Do we have to dress up if we go to D.C. in costumes? Why are we going in the beginning? Why are we there?

Stewart: The folks that I see in my gigs that I go out to are real Americans, plumbers and such. They tell me that they don’t feel represented by the extremities they see on things like Fox News and other things like that. They say the real voice of the people has been muted by the extremists, that the loudest voices are the ones that seem to carry the day. So what I’m hearing is they want to feel a catharsis that they are not alone, that they’re also represented. So that’s why we are doing it. We are trying to find that thin sliver of America between pinhead and patriot.

O’Reilly: All right, so you and Stephen Colbert…

Stewart: If we could just find that sweet spot — pintriots if you will.

O’Reilly: You’re going to get out there in D.C. Do you have a little permit yet?

Stewart: I doubt it. No.

O’Reilly: So you’re just going to be there and get arrested? So the day before Halloween…

Stewart: October 30, 12:00 to 3:00. Not at night. This is for people who have jobs and families, you know, the rallying cries, we’re here but we are only here until 3:00. We have a sitter.

(LAUGHTER)

O’Reilly: OK, good. Christine O’Donnell, would you vote for the witch or the Marxist?

Stewart: Who the hell knows?

O’Reilly: Do you want the Marxist? I know you do. I can see it in your eyes.

Stewart: Yes. And, by the way, that is in no way a pejorative way to describe him. I’m sure he is absolutely a Marxist. By the way, can you be bald and a Marxist? Is that even allowed?

O’Reilly: I think you can. I think Lenin was bald. Was he not?

Stewart: All right. I don’t imagine that a state like Delaware, which is a pretty, you know, mild state — whoever is better for DuPont, that’s who I’m for.

O’Reilly: OK.

Stewart: Because as DuPont goes, so goes Delaware. So, whoever is for coming up with a new synthetic that you can spray on your couch to keep ketchup off it, I’m voting for that person.

O’Reilly: We, here at Fox…

Stewart: But here’s the thing. Let me say this about Christine O’Donnell.

O’Reilly: Yes?

Stewart: The witch thing is ridiculous. The masturbation comments, ridiculous. Let the woman — she is one of the least interesting Tea Party candidates I’ve seen yet.

O’Reilly: You know, she won’t come on “The Factor.” I don’t think she’s going to go on your program either.

Stewart: She doesn’t — she doesn’t respect the folks?

O’Reilly: I don’t know.

Stewart: Why won’t she respect the folks?

O’Reilly: I think the venue might be too tough here. OK, let’s take a break, and we will come back and talk about your big book.

Stewart: Let’s do that.

O’Reilly: Which is competing with my big book.

Stewart: You have a book out?

O’Reilly: Yes.

Stewart: Good luck with that.

[tags]bill o’reilly, fox news, jon stewart, daily show, comedy central, the o’reilly factor, no spin zone, tea party, glenn beck, media bias, barack obama, politics, news, mainstream media, republicans, democrats, 2008 election[/tags]