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Beck Reflects on His 'Restoring Honor' Rally; Sharpton Offers His Take on Event
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This is a RUSH transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," August 30, 2010. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
Watch "The O'Reilly Factor" weeknights at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET!
BILL O'REILLY, HOST: Now for the top story tonight: Here he is, the Beckmeister. All right, congratulations to you.
GLENN BECK, FOX NEWS HOST: How are you? Thank you.
O'REILLY: You know, in hindsight, I want to know what you thought was the best moment in the rally and the worst moment, not just in the rally, but of the whole experience. Let's start with the best.
Click here to watch Beck in the No Spin Zone!
BECK: Best moment in the rally may have been private moments. A moment of praying with Alveda King. A moment with a father and son at the line at the front before the rally started and talking to them. And I have a picture of it. It's unbelievable, of this father and son. And the son is just beaming. And the father's head is up next to his and he's crying.
O'REILLY: How old is the son?
BECK: Son's probably about 8 or 10.
O'REILLY: And that's GlennBeck.com these pictures are at?
BECK: Yes.
O'REILLY: OK. So the personal response that you got from the folks there was the highlight. What was the lowlight?
BECK: The hate from the other side.
O'REILLY: OK, what do you think is generating that hate? Fear?
BECK: Ignorance and fear, probably. Ignorance on some, because they don't -- they just -- they read The New York Times.
O'REILLY: But those aren't the people generating the attacks.
BECK: Oh, the attacks are…
O'REILLY: The attacks are being generated by people who well know what you do and who you are.
BECK: Oh, no, no. The attacks -- and I warn you, America -- the attacks are going to get worse.
O'REILLY: Yes, they will.
BECK: And not just on me, but the black robe regiment was introduced on stage which is -- was 240 pastors, priests, rabbis and imams on stage all locked arms saying the principles of America need to be taught from the pulpit.
O'REILLY: All right, but let's get into that a little bit.
BECK: They're going to be -- the attacks are going to go up.
O'REILLY: OK, but we'll defend you, Beck. I have your back. And I'm not saying that…
BECK: I know.
O'REILLY: …facetiously. I mean, basically, you put yourself out there. And I agree with some stuff you say. I disagree with others. But I'm going to defend you. And the Howard Deans of the world are going to take it here when they do that kind of garbage. So you don't have to worry about that. You just do what you do.
Now let's talk about the theocratic theme of the event. So there's -- do you think America should be run with a Judeo-Christian model of behavior? Is that what you want in the halls of power?
BECK: That's what we've – well…
O'REILLY: We had it at one time. We did have it.
BECK: …for our behavior? Yes. Does that mean that I want -- for instance, I've gotten in a lot of trouble for saying if my church is teaching social justice the way that Jeremiah Wright teaches social justice, leave your church. Let me say the same thing. If my church started to preach who to vote for, oh, the Republicans are better than the Democrats or vice versa, I would also leave my church on that. Teach people correct principles that all rights come from God.
O'REILLY: Yes, but then you're getting into a theocratic state because…
BECK: No, no, no.
O'REILLY: …there are 17, 18 percent of the population that don't believe in God.
BECK: That's OK.
O'REILLY: American population.
BECK: That's OK. But you can live by the golden rule. You can live by the 10 Commandments.
O'REILLY: But some people don't want to. They don't want to live by the golden rule. They want to get stoned every day.
BECK: Read the second inaugural address. This is incompatible with anything else but Judeo-Christian values or a self-governed people.
O'REILLY: So you say that atheists and people who don't believe in the Judeo-Christian foundation…
BECK: No, look, I have a friend who's atheist, Sean -- I'm thinking of Sean Penn, boy. Penn Jillette. We don't hang out with each other, but we respect each other. He is an atheist. He understands self-regulation. Atheists can self-regulate.
O'REILLY: So you want the country and the politicians who represent the country to espouse the 10 Commandments?
BECK: Self-regulation.
O'REILLY: But what does that mean? What does that mean?
BECK: It means that you don't need -- you're not doing things because of penalty from a government. You're doing things because the set of values that you have, the Judeo-Christian values move you and motivate you to do better.
O'REILLY: OK. So does it come down to treating your brother as you would treat yourself?
BECK: Yes.
O'REILLY: Your brother and sister?
BECK: Yes.
O'REILLY: OK, so it comes down to that?
BECK: Yes.
O'REILLY: But there isn't a theological component to it?
BECK: No, look, that's why…
O'REILLY: There isn't a right God or wrong God?
BECK: No, that's why I had all the pastors, priests, rabbis, imams.
O'REILLY: No, you had everybody up there. You had Albert Pujols, the St. Louis Cardinal guy up there.
BECK: We had them together.
O'REILLY: I say, Albert hit him with the bat, will you, and shut him up.
(LAUGHTER)
All right. Now, let's get into the race thing real quick. You said something on "Fox News Sunday" with Chris Wallace about you calling Obama a racist. It was interesting. Roll the tape.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BECK: First of all, it shouldn't have been said. It was poorly said. It was -- I have a big, fat mouth sometimes and I say things. And that's just not the way people should behave. And it was not accurate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'REILLY: Well, I'm glad you said that because that's what they're calling you, a racist.
BECK: Right.
O'REILLY: You know, they're calling you this, that and the other thing.
BECK: I want you to understand that the rest of that sentence is it's a shallow understanding of President Obama. President Obama's actions, and that's what I was judging him on, his actions, his actions are really based in liberation theology.
O'REILLY: Yes, he's a social justice guy. I thought that was a mistake.
BECK: Liberation, yes.
O'REILLY: And I told you that.
BECK: Yes, I know.
O'REILLY: Well, the final thing I want to say is the reason that you got so many people out there was because of the "Bold Fresh" tour. Because half the tour was you telling people to get out there.
BECK: This is the thing. Bill O'Reilly said to me last time I was on, last week, he said you might have 20,000 people or -- I said -- 20,000 people? Are you kidding me? And he said you might have it. I said to him, we'll have more than -- we'll have more than 20,000 people there. This is for your wallet.
O'REILLY: No, that's for your wallet. Yeah, my wallet is that big.
BECK: And here's…
O'REILLY: Show that, look.
BECK: Here's what he said.
O'REILLY: You airbrushed that.
BECK: Here's what he said. If you get over 100,000 people…
O'REILLY: I'm hitting him with this.
BECK: …you should do "The O'Reilly Factor."
O'REILLY: You can do it any time you want. You know, I'll take your dopey time slot at 5:00.
BECK: All right, when we come back, Al Sharpton.
O'REILLY: That's right, Sharpton is going to reply to you, and that should be interesting. But once again, I want to congratulate you.
BECK: Thank you, sir.
O'REILLY: I don't think there's anybody in the country that could have mobilized that many people at this point in time. I don't think there's anybody else, you know, beside Pamela Anderson. She might have been able to do it, but…
BECK: I don't -- no.
O'REILLY: No, you don't think so?
BECK: No.
O'REILLY: OK, cross her off my list. Glenn Beck, everybody. Check him out at 5:00.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
Rev. Al Sharpton's Take on Beck's Rally
O'REILLY: Continuing now with our lead story, Glenn Beck's big rally in Washington on Saturday. On the same day, Reverend Al Sharpton held a commemoration of Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech 47 years ago at a school in the District of Columbia. And Reverend Sharpton did not like the competition from Beck.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REV. AL SHARPTON: They may have the mall, but we have the message. They may have the platform, but we have the dream. They want to disgrace this day, and we're not giving them this day. This is our day and we ain't giving it away.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'REILLY: But Dr. Martin Luther King's niece Alveda King actually spoke at Beck's rally.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALVEDA KING, NIECE OF MARTIN LUTHER KING: It's absolutely wonderful for Glenn to use his popularity and influence to bring us together to focus not on an election or a political cause, but to focus on honor and on the content of our character and not the color of our skin. God bless you, Glenn.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'REILLY: All right. With us now to reply is the Reverend Al Sharpton. So a few thousand attended your rally at Dunbar School, right?
Click here to watch Sharpton in the No Spin Zone!
REV. AL SHARPTON, PRESIDENT OF THE NATIONAL ACTION NETWORK: Yeah. We had -- I think as well as turn out we had in 10 years.
O'REILLY: All right, so a few thousand people. And then hundreds of thousands show up to Beck's rally. What does that say?
SHARPTON: Well, Beck's been working on his rally a year. We had decided at our convention in April, where you spoke along with others.
O'REILLY: Right.
SHARPTON: And we worked the last couple of months. We usually do 3,000 or 4,000. We did about 10 times that. But again, we were not -- if we were trying to do a big rally -- I spoke and was at involved in the Million Man March. We know how to do a big rally. We were doing a commemoration.
O'REILLY: All right, so you weren't trying for the big show?
SHARPTON: No.
O'REILLY: OK.
SHARPTON: We went in a school. The biggest part of our march was when we stretched from Pennsylvania Avenue back to the school with the march. And the reason we know the numbers we had is because we know the number of buses we brought in. And we did very well. But the point is if I was there by myself, I believe every year we should commemorate that march as a civil rights march.
O'REILLY: What did you think about Alveda King's speech? Because you said, look, they're trying to disgrace this day. And you know, there's Dr. King's…
SHARPTON: No. What I said was…
O'REILLY: …niece, you know, saying hey, this is a good thing.
SHARPTON: No, what I said was before we left. If you look at the whole…
O'REILLY: No, we just heard the tape, Reverend.
SHARPTON: You heard -- you went into the speech. What I said before we leave, if we go down there and anybody says anything, you smile at them.
O'REILLY: No, I know that.
SHARPTON: We do not want to disgrace our day.
O'REILLY: Look, I don't want to do a Barney Frank. The people just heard you say they're trying to hijack our day.
SHARPTON: That's right. No, no, no, I said they tried to disgrace our day. Do not respond. This is our day. They won't take it away.
O'REILLY: They're trying to disgrace our day? What was disgraceful about Beck's thing?
SHARPTON: The blacks, the whites, the Latinos, the Asians that were marching with us, I did not want them to get into any kind of…
O'REILLY: But you said they are trying to disgrace our day?
SHARPTON: They…
O'REILLY: What does that mean?
SHARPTON: They that I said that would try to provoke a confrontation. Look at the speech.
O'REILLY: But nobody did. You had 300,000, 400,000 people out there. Nobody provoked anything.
SHARPTON: I'm glad they didn't. And no one from our side provoked anything.
O'REILLY: But why would you say that?
SHARPTON: Because I was afraid that if I didn't say that with a lot of our students there and someone said something that was in any way against what we were marching for, that they would respond.
O'REILLY: So you wanted to preempt any hostility?
SHARPTON: Exactly.
O'REILLY: That's what you said?
SHARPTON: That's exactly…
O'REILLY: I'm supposed to buy that? You want me to buy that?
SHARPTON: I don't care whether you buy it or not. That's what I said. I know what I said.
O'REILLY: All right.
SHARPTON: And if you look at the whole speech, that's clearly what I said.
O'REILLY: It's a little hard for me to buy that, but look, I'm not going to say it like that.
SHARPTON: Mr. O'Reilly, it was live…
O'REILLY: I know.
SHARPTON: …on television. People watched it.
O'REILLY: All right.
SHARPTON: And people know that's exactly what I said.
O'REILLY: Yes. Was there anything wrong with what Beck did?
SHARPTON: Not what he did. What he said is not what he said he was going to do is not what he did.
O'REILLY: I know, but what he did…
SHARPTON: What he did…
O'REILLY: …the rally that he did, anything wrong with that?
SHARPTON: If he wants to have a rally -- first of all, no one questioned him having a rally. We did not challenge his permit.
O'REILLY: No. No. But did he do anything wrong on Saturday?
SHARPTON: I said what he did is not what he said. What he did, no. But you've got to remember, he was the one that said that he was going to reclaim the civil rights movement.
O'REILLY: He wants it for everybody.
SHARPTON: And that it was going to be done. No, he said I'm going to reclaim the civil rights movement.
O'REILLY: For everybody.
SHARPTON: And that -- now you're putting words in his mouth.
O'REILLY: No, I'm not. He says it every day on his radio show that Dr. Martin Luther King is not the soul property of African-Americans.
SHARPTON: He said I'm going to reclaim…
O'REILLY: That's the whole theme.
SHARPTON: No one ever said Martin Luther King was the sole property of African-Americans.
O'REILLY: But that's what Beck is saying.
SHARPTON: The opposite of it. But he said that he was going at that moment and seize the moment. That's when some of us got in. When he announced this march and traveled all over the country with you for a year…
O'REILLY: All right.
SHARPTON: …no one criticized him.
O'REILLY: Based on what happened…
SHARPTON: When he got that date, no one criticized him. When he said he was going to take the civil rights movement…
O'REILLY: All right.
SHARPTON: …that's who he had a right to address.
O'REILLY: Let's…
SHARPTON: Had he never said that…
O'REILLY: Let's review.
SHARPTON: …we would have never said a word.
O'REILLY: Let's review, OK. So you weren't saying that they were doing anything disgraceful. You were just trying to say to your folks don't go over there and cause any trouble.
SHARPTON: And if anybody does anything, don't disgrace us.
O'REILLY: OK. And you have no problem with what happened at the rally. Do you think it was a positive thing for the country?
SHARPTON: I haven't see the whole rally. But I think that if he talked about God and country, then my question would be, which he still hasn't answered, I watched his segment with you, then how do we apply that? All of us believe in God and country.
O'REILLY: But it wasn't an application deal. He wanted to stay away from politics.
SHARPTON: But that is not what he announced, Bill. He said that we are going to seize the civil rights movement. That's application. How do you implement rights?
O'REILLY: All right, how about next year you and him having a rally together?
SHARPTON: If he wants to stand up for civil rights and against inequality…
O'REILLY: I think that's what he's doing.
SHARPTON: And unfairness. No, it is not what he is doing. He's talking about a theocracy.
O'REILLY: Oh, no, no.
SHARPTON: He's not talking about fighting against equality. Read Dr. King's speech. I'll tell you what. Why don't ask you him next year if he does it that day or any day, read Dr. King's speech where he talks about police brutality…
O'REILLY: Next time I see him.
SHARPTON: …and he talks about the check being cashed equally in this country by blacks and see if he agrees with the speech.
O'REILLY: All right.
SHARPTON: He admires the man. Does he admire what the message of the man is? That's the question.
O'REILLY: Reverend, you're standup guy for coming in. As always, we appreciate it. Good to see you.
SHARPTON: Thank you, sir.
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