This is a RUSH transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," August 4, 2009. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
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BILL O'REILLY, HOST: In the "At Your Beck and Call" segment tonight: President Obama and some Democratic lawmakers are holding a series of town meetings across the country on health care, as you may know. So far, things are not going real well.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And you want us to believe that a government that can't even run a "cash for clunkers" program is going to run 1/7 of our U.S. economy? No, sir. No.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: Read the bill! Read the bill! Read the bill!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're the voice of the people. You're supposed to do what we want, not what you want.
SEN. ARLEN SPECTER, D-PENN.: We divide up the bill. We have to make judgments very fast.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why? Why? Why?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'REILLY: With us now to analyze, the scourge of sophistry, Glenn Beck, the author of the big best-seller "Common Sense." Now you're gloating about all of this, aren't you?
GLENN BECK, HOST, "GLENN BECK": No.
O'REILLY: I think it's — weren't you gloating on your program that these Americans come out to these town meetings were giving these guys the what-for?
Click here to watch Glenn Beck in the No Spin Zone!
BECK: Oh, yes. No. I'm happy about them giving them the what-for., but I really truly believe we are in the most dangerous time that I have personally witnessed in my country's history. Now, I don't remember the 1960s, you know, civil rights, because I was, you know, 4. But I think we are in a very dangerous period of our country.
O'REILLY: Does that mean you bought another bunker?
BECK: No, no. One. No, one.
O'REILLY: One big one is enough?
BECK: One big one is enough.
O'REILLY: Because I take my cues from you.
BECK: You should have one.
O'REILLY: I'm digging it now. All right, so you believe that we're in the most dangerous time in your lifetime in America?
BECK: Because — yes, and we may be in the most precarious situation in our republic's history. I mean, I think we are headed for real trouble. Because if you see these people, they're being labeled extremists, right-wing zealots, Astroturf. Do you hear what they're saying? They're saying, "Read the bill." They're not saying, "Hey, you know, absolutely no on everything you want." They're saying, "Read the bill. Slow down." Arlen Specter says, "We have to make — we have to make these decisions quickly." For what purpose?
O'REILLY: They don't have to.
BECK: No, of course not.
O'REILLY: Well look, and the polls show that Americans have turned against the national health care situation.
BECK: Yes, except today, I believe it was the White House that just issued a statement that said that most Americans — no, I'm sorry, it was Dick Durbin. Most Americans are for it. What are you talking about?
O'REILLY: Dick Durbin is Dick Durbin. The polls are the polls. And the polls show that most Americans have turned against it. That's just why it's not going to pass in its present form.
BECK: I disagree with you.
O'REILLY: You think it is going to pass?
BECK: I think it's going to pass.
O'REILLY: I do not, in its present form.
BECK: I hope you're right. In any form, these people — Bill, I know this is hard for people to understand, because you want to believe the best in our government.
O'REILLY: Right.
BECK: I always have. And I have great hope for America, because I believe in the American people. But our government, both parties, have disconnected themselves from the American people. And I don't believe — I really truly...
O'REILLY: There's not a Republican on Earth that's going to vote for anything near what Obama wants.
BECK: Doesn't matter at this point. The Republicans so dishonored themselves in everything they stood for.
O'REILLY: The Blue Dogs — they'd hold it up because the anger of the people is growing. So I disagree, but we'll see what happens.
BECK: I hope you're right.
O'REILLY: Now, Bill Clinton goes to North Korea.
BECK: Yes.
O'REILLY: We discussed with Laura Ingraham earlier. Has to have dinner with that toad over there, that miserable dictator. But he does get the two ladies released. And you say what?
BECK: I say congratulations for getting them released. It is — it's good.
O'REILLY: Even though it's obvious that this Kim Jong-Il, accent on the "ill," used this as a propaganda mechanism?
BECK: Yes. I'm, you know — I'm really torn on this because everybody knows what the deal is with Kim Jong-Il. I mean, if it takes a president going over there and saying, "Here's my photo with you." And you'll notice that — and I watched him closely. Never did he do anything he wasn't smiling. He didn't look like he was enjoying himself.
O'REILLY: It's hard to believe that you wouldn't enjoy yourself with Kim Jong-Il.
BECK: Yes. So I think it's good. It's curious to me...
O'REILLY: Do you have any respect for Bill Clinton?
BECK: Yes.
O'REILLY: Do you?
BECK: Yes, I do. I think that Bill Clinton was a triangulator. I think he was the ultimate politician. I don't agree with much of his policies.
O'REILLY: But he wasn't much like President Obama, in your eyes?
BECK: No.
O'REILLY: What's the difference?
BECK: I think President Obama is — I can't put my finger on it with President Obama yet. I don't believe — I don't believe he's telling us the truth.
O'REILLY: You think he has a hidden socialistic agenda?
BECK: Oh no, it's not hidden anymore.
O'REILLY: So you think he's a hardcore socialist?
BECK: You know, I celebrated his birthday on my show today. Which by the way, I brought you cake.
O'REILLY: Right.
BECK: And it's great. And we've eaten some of it.
O'REILLY: It's red. Is that...
BECK: And it has the yellow star on it. Well, no, it's only because it was paid for by China, like everything else in this country. But the thing with Barack Obama that puzzles me is he — I believe he is telling us the truth when he says "I'm going to transform America." I think when you look at who he's put in as his czars, communists, actual communists, people who say, "I want sterilants (ph) in the drinking water." People who say that we should be able to kill a child up until 2 because they don't — they haven't been socialized yet, just like Peter Singer.
O'REILLY: That's the Princeton guy, right?
BECK: Yes, Peter Singer. When you have these people who are — they are not in the mainstream by any stretch of the imagination. They are on the lunatic fringe. And they're putting them — he's putting them in these czar roles.
America has to ask themselves this question. Is it — and this is possible, that President Obama has a bunch of crazy people from his past that he's just putting in these roles because he's all out of ambassadorships to Zimbabwe, and he's like, "Make this guy go away. Make him a czar." Or he's putting ideologues that are so far out of the mainstream, spooky people that have power, that have power…
O'REILLY: Yes, but I don't know any of them, any of them. I've been watching them. None of them have power at this juncture. But let me go back to Clinton.
BECK: And this is fair. Then you would say that these are just crazy friends of his, drinking buddies. He just wants to get them out of his office.
O'REILLY: I don't know what they are, to tell you the truth. But I don't — I know they have no direct influence over anything at this point. Now, Clinton…
BECK: I'm going to bring you — some stuff to you.
O'REILLY: All right. You prove your case, that's why you're on. But at this point we don't see that. We don't have that, OK? Now, Clinton, moderate Democrat? Liberal Democrat?
BECK: Yes, I think he is, because he's a survivalist. The country is...
O'REILLY: OK. So in your opinion, he didn't pose a threat to America?
BECK: No. I think — I think he made some mistakes that were critical.
O'REILLY: Everybody makes mistakes.
BECK: But everybody makes mistakes.
O'REILLY: But he didn't pose a threat. But Obama does pose a threat in your opinion? You just said that this is the worst time in the republic, so it must...
BECK: You know what? I can't pin all of that on Barack Obama. I do pin some of that on George W. Bush and the Republicans. When I had a real — my first time ever, when somebody tells me they're going to protect our country and they care about security, and then they don't do anything about our southern border.
O'REILLY: It was a wakeup call.
BECK: What was that? You're in bed with corporate cronies. You're doing something.
O'REILLY: That was bad, no doubt.
BECK: So that caused problems. That was the beginning of it. Bush did the bailouts. He started out with the TARP funds.
O'REILLY: He had to.
BECK: He starts with the TARP. Now Obama is just taking us at light speed. So I don't see this as just Obama. I see this as a political culture that is toxic to the Republicans.
O'REILLY: All right. Well, the folks certainly are getting involved. They watch this program, your program in record numbers. Glenn Beck, everybody. All right. And if you'd like to spend a moment with him in the bunker, just go to BillOReilly.com.
BECK: Nobody's coming.
O'REILLY: We'll have a contest. And...
BECK: Anybody who sounds like Bill O'Reilly definitely come.
O'REILLY: All right. You've got to wear a little outfit though, lederhosen.
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