This is a rush transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," July 21, 2008. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
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BILL O'REILLY, HOST: In the "Unresolved Problem" segment tonight: giving evil credibility. As we mentioned, The Huffington Post did not run hateful e-mails about Tony Snow, but the Daily Kos did, allowing bloggers to revel in the man's death and insult his family in a very trying time. The Kos is an evil enterprise. There is no question about it.
Guess who showed up at a convention for those haters? Hey, there, Al Gore. He brought this message.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AL GORE, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Proposing to get a slight increase in oil drilling for fuel to be sold to China 10 to 15 years from now as a solution to our rising gasoline prices makes about as much sense as responding to an attack from Afghanistan by invading some other country that had absolutely nothing to do with attacking us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'REILLY: I have stuck up for Gore in the past, saying that whether you agree with him or not, his warming crusade brings attention to pollution, which is a good thing. But now I have lost respect for the former vice president, who lends his name to the haters.
Joining us now from Washington, FOX News analysts Mary Katharine Ham and Juan Williams, who I sat next to at Tony Snow's funeral last Thursday.
Now I don't know whether you saw the postings on the Kos about Tony. I'm not going to read them to the audience, but I will say that they were as hateful as any Nazi thing I've ever seen, any Klan thing I've ever seen. And to have Al Gore show up at their gathering and legitimize it made me sick to my stomach, and I have no respect, nor will I ever have, for Al Gore. What say you?
MARY KATHARINE HAM, FOX NEWS ANALYST: Well, I mean, I think...
O'REILLY: I'm going to Juan. I'm going to Juan here.
JUAN WILLIAMS, FOX NEWS ANALYST: Well, I mean, I don't see why he did it. But on the other hand, I understand the politics of it that they are the base for the Democratic Party, and they drive a lot of the opinion.
But I've got to say what they did with regard to Tony, I mean, you can imagine how I feel. Tony is my friend. So I just don't understand it. And I don't understand why people don't raise their voice when they see something objectionable, they see something hateful.
And Al Gore has the standing to say to them that's wrong. He didn't take that opportunity. If he had gone there and spoken to the issue, that would be one thing. He went there like nothing was going on.
O'REILLY: He's a coward. He's a coward, Juan. Look, I'm going to try to be diplomatic here. Gore is a coward. He never goes into forums where he's challenged, ever.
If you were to say to Al Gore, Mary Katharine, do you know what the Kos put on about Tony Snow, he would say, "No, I do not," and he would be telling the truth. He doesn't read that crap. He doesn't go in there.
But the fact is that he doesn't care. And all he wants to do is pound home his propaganda in front of audiences that lap it up.
HAM: Yes. He likes to visit The New York Times, the U.N., and Netroots Nation is basically what he does.
But this is not just a problem with Tony Snow, as you know. Every time someone gets sick who happens to be right of center or dies who happens to be right of center, they're all over this on the left blogs. The Huffington Post has gotten a little bit better on this, partly because you keep mentioning it. The Daily Kos has not. And people don't speak out about these things. Democrats behind the scenes get frustrated that these are the people who make up their base and that this is a political machine they have to deal with.
O'REILLY: I don't think they make up the base of the Democratic Party. I think they're the extreme wing that's capable of raising money and bringing a lot of havoc into somebody's life.
HAM: But it's a machine — it's a machine they have to deal with, and they're frustrated with that to an extent. But if Obama hadn't been overseas this week he would have been wrestling with whether he was going to have to go to placate him.
O'REILLY: If Barack Obama legitimizes that group...
HAM: It's actually convenient he left right before it happened.
O'REILLY: I don't think — if he — I know he spoke last year and Hillary Clinton and all the Democrats did. But now it's so bad, they're so bad that anybody going in there now is going to be branded forever. Am I wrong here to do this, Juan?
I mean, I'm making a judgment that's irrevocable to me. Gore could come in here and explain himself, and I would listen. But as I said, I stuck up with this guy on the warming thing. I don't agree with everything he says, but I think — thought it's worthy that we're talking about it. But now, to me...
WILLIAMS: Sure, I agree with you. I think that he...
O'REILLY: To me he's an evil enabler.
WILLIAMS: Well, that's the question. You used that earlier, Bill. You said, you know, he probably could say that he hasn't read all this stuff. He doesn't go there and look at this trash. But the fact is that it's become well-publicized and well-known. But it's extremist and it's beyond extremist. It's not just...
O'REILLY: Way beyond extremist.
WILLIAMS: In terms of a political spectrum, it's hateful. It's hateful stuff. Call it what it is.
O'REILLY: Right. There's no doubt.
WILLIAMS: And in the days — if you said — you know, if you go back and you look at this historically, you'd say this is what drives people to extreme behavior that, you know, leads to demonizing the "other" in a society...
O'REILLY: And worse.
WILLIAMS: ...and leads to horrible outcomes.
O'REILLY: And worse. And violence. Mary Katharine, I'll give you the last word. Am I being too tough on Gore?
HAM: I don't think you're being too tough on Gore. I don't think you're being too tough on them, because this movement is going to burn itself out acting like this. Because there are decent people who have decent — I don't agree with their ideas at all, but they have, they just want to go about the political process. And if they don't speak out about this nasty stuff, they're going to burn their entire movement out. And that's just the way that's going to go.
O'REILLY: Well, I don't know with that. Newsweek magazine hired this guy who runs it to actually work for them.
HAM: Yes, but if they want to pull the center to — if they want to pull the country to the left, these are not the people that the country wants to be moving towards.
O'REILLY: They won't. These are haters.
WILLIAMS: They lose credibility.
O'REILLY: These are haters, and Al Gore ought to be ashamed of himself.
Mary Katharine, Juan, thanks very much.
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