By , ,
Published May 18, 2015
Hi, I'm Bill O'Reilly. Thanks for watching us tonight.
Fifteen percent of Americans should be ashamed of themselves right now, and that's the subject of this evening's Talking Points memo.
The bin Laden tapes are out. They are very instructive, and we're glad they've been released. In a moment we'll play some of them for you. But the main point here is that there's now no question Usama bin Laden and his thugs simply wanted to kill innocent Americans. There was no other agenda. They didn't think they were going to conquer the USA, they didn't think we were all going to convert to Islam.
They simply wanted to inflict suffering, and they did.
For some reason, 15 percent of us, according to the polls, do not believe that America has the right to directly apprehend bin Laden and his associates. That point of view was put forth on The Factor by Phil Donahue.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
You said that you, Phil Donahue, running the United States, would not go it alone, all right?
PHIL DONAHUE, FORMER TALK SHOW HOST: Right. (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
O'REILLY: You're not going to punish those people. You, Phil Donahue, will not punish them because you want a coalition, and if the coalition doesn't materialize, you're not going it alone?
Going to face him anyway.
DONAHUE: Not if the world community is behind you. As long as you don't look like an oaf staggering out there, popping off, shooting everything that moves, that is unbecoming the rule of law. We should present ourselves and our particulars to the Security Council of the United Nations, put out an arrest warrant for these people, and have the entire world community help us find them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'REILLY: All right, now, I respect freedom of speech and thought. We make our living here using that protection. But there comes a time when an American has to stand up for his country or renounce it. Bin Laden has declared war on the United States. The Afghan government allowed him to do it. That's it. That's the situation.
There's nothing else in play here. So the responsibility of the American government according to the Constitution is to defeat bin Laden and the Taliban. Dissenting Americans now must concede that point after seeing this videotape or run the risk of being labeled unpatriotic and even anti-American.
Now, there's nothing you can do to people who have this point of view. They have a constitutional right to be anti-American if they want to. But we have the right to despise their point of view.
That's the main issue to come out of the bin Laden tapes, that there is no question any more. A fanatical psychopath gleefully killed American civilians. What kind of people would we be if we didn't condemn that action in the strongest terms, and we didn't totally support our government's war against terrorists? What kind of people would we be?
And that's the memo.
The Most Ridiculous Item of the Day
Time now for "The Most Ridiculous Item of the Day."
A couple of notes before the "Ridiculous Item."
The first O'Reilly Factor special, In Defense of America, will be shown this Saturday evening on the Fox Network at 9:00 p.m., not the Fox News Channel. The Fox Network.
And this coming Sunday, if you're in Manhattan, I'll be making my last public appearance for quite a while -- not forever, but for quite a while -- at the 92nd Street Y at 7:30 p.m.
Info on that and the special available on our Web site.
Time now for the "Most Ridiculous Item of the Day."
Most every newspaper in the country carried articles about my dust-up with George Clooney, but when the United Way announced yesterday its change in policy to help the grieving families, very few newspapers played it up. Shows you the priorities of the press these days. Could be ridiculous.
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https://www.foxnews.com/story/why-some-americans-should-be-ashamed