This is a RUSH transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," January 11, 2011. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
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BILL O'REILLY, HOST: In the "Personal Story" segment tonight, "The View" ladies weighed in on the Arizona mass murder today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ELISABETH HASSELBECK, "VIEW" CO-HOST: I also think it's unfortunate that we can give an alibi or an excuse to someone who is mad, goes in and takes the lives of people who are innocent, just trying to take part in the system and give the alibi of the devil made me do it. It's not OK to do that either.
(CROSSTALK)
WHOOPI GOLDBERG, "VIEW" CO-HOST: But there's -- there are…
HASSELBECK: There is no excuse. There is no one to blame except the person behind the gun.
GOLDBERG: Yes. But here is an interesting thing. When I was growing up, people talking and saying things, whipping folks up, caused a lot of people to get lynched. Now, had those people not done all that, would it have happened anyway? It may have. I don't know.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'REILLY: OK. Here now, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, author of the book "The G-free Diet: A Gluten-Free Survival Guide," now out in paperback. Do you think Whoopi Goldberg has a point?
HASSELBECK: I think she can. I think it depends on what words are being used and when. I think certainly in the context of what she was saying, absolutely people were influenced.
O'REILLY: If I had been on the program, this is what I would have said to her before she walked off. I would have said -- I would have said that point is irrelevant, because the lynching stuff was a very specific thing done by the Klan and other racists that said these people don't deserve to live, this guy raped a white woman, whatever it may be. Very specific to the individual.
HASSELBECK: Sure.
O'REILLY: All right, that's what she was talking about. And that absolutely happened. She was absolutely right.
HASSELBECK: Right.
O'REILLY: And you know, people would go into communities, they'd whip up the local populace by saying very specific charges against very specific people. This -- that's not what this is about. This was a blanket, a blanket thrown in by this crazy sheriff down there and then picked up by the far-left people that said people like Palin and people like Bachmann and Glenn Beck and O'Reilly and Limbaugh are all responsible. And I'm sitting there going, "This is so grossly unfair." And Barbara Walters was good on this. She picked up on it right away.
HASSELBECK: I thought she was incredibly fair on the matter and level-headed. And it's unfortunate because the irony, Bill, is that we're looking at a law enforcement individual in a position of power, in a profession where evidence is near mandatory -- right? -- to prosecute anybody. Yet, there's no evidence to back up anything he's saying.
O'REILLY: Nothing.
HASSELBECK: Nothing, nothing, nothing.
O'REILLY: And Megyn Kelly dissembled him on Tuesday, which I think is why he hasn't been back on the Fox News Channel. Now, Joy Behar was not in attendance.
HASSELBECK: No.
O'REILLY: She's out at the Miss America contest, right?
HASSELBECK: She's in Vegas.
O'REILLY: If she had been there, I think you -- they would have ganged up on you, because she certainly, you know, you can't be 100 percent sure, but her whole philosophy is take the far-left position and run with it. And the far-left position is these terrible conservatives caused or helped cause this awful mass murder. So, that's why the conversation was toned down.
HASSELBECK: I think it may and it may have gone there, but we'll never know.
O'REILLY: OK. But do you ever feel ganged up on, because Goldberg and Behar -- Behar much more extreme than Goldberg but basically of the similar mind -- and you're the only conservative on the panel. Sherri and Barbara are kind of in the middle.
HASSELBECK: I mean, I never feel ganged up on.
O'REILLY: Never.
HASSELBECK: I feel like it's an open forum with people who are willing to hear one another, and we're comfortable with one another. There's no polite chitchat, that's for sure. But we're friends enough where we can have the conversation that -- that needs to be had.
O'REILLY: But you don't feel ganged up on?
HASSELBECK: No, never.
O'REILLY: No? Because there are two of them coming at you.
HASSELBECK: Never. I have three kids under the age of 5 and a half.
O'REILLY: So that toughens you up.
HASSELBECK: I'm used to debating them before I get into work. But I do -- I do want to say one thing in terms of words that matter and the impact that the sheriff's statements do have. And I do say that some words can affect, and I actually think he's creating more dangerous country and situation for us by providing this justification that someone in the future could use: the right devil made me do it.
O'REILLY: Well, Jodi Foster made Hinckley shoot Reagan. Jodi Foster.
HASSELBECK: Right.
O'REILLY: The actress.
HASSELBECK: Of course.
O'REILLY: That's how insane this whole thing has been.
HASSELBECK: Well, it's a partial-fault insurance policy provided to someone who may in the future take their wrath and take someone's life with it. I just think that it's unfortunate, and the irony that it's coming from a law enforcement individual is sad and unfortunate.
O'REILLY: All right. What kind of mail do you get? I mean, because I'm assessing that "The View" audience, primarily liberal, urban. Does that reflect in your mail?
HASSELBECK: I mean, I think that there is obviously a potpourri of mail that comes in. I try to limit…
O'REILLY: You don't look at it?
HASSELBECK: I don't.
O'REILLY: OK. That's fine. It's fine.
HASSELBECK: It's a discipline, though, I have to say. It is a true discipline. I used to in the first year.
O'REILLY: Right, because you were out there with Rosie O'Donnell. You're out there with, you know, so I think "The View" is skewing left, and you're the conservative. Now, I'm very curious about this. Gluten. That's bread, right? Gluten, right?
HASSELBECK: It's barley -- it's a protein found in barley, oats, wheat and rye.
O'REILLY: So most -- but as far as -- I don't eat barley. I don't go to the restaurant and go, "I'd like some barley, please." No, but it's bread. Right?
HASSELBECK: Well, it's found in bread, certainly. Most normal bread is made of wheat.
O'REILLY: And so should I not eat it? Or...
HASSELBECK: If you have celiac disease, you most certainly should not.
O'REILLY: Food allergy?
HASSELBECK: Autoimmune disease. But many people who adopt a gluten-free diet actually find incredible results.
O'REILLY: OK. Like you?
HASSELBECK: I do. I have celiac disease, so it's not an option for me.
O'REILLY: So you weren't feeling well, and when you went out on that "Survivor" show -- right? -- in the desert. And you started eating lizards, and then you -- and then you felt better.
HASSELBECK: The lizards didn't make me sick.
O'REILLY: The lizards didn't matter.
HASSELBECK: They were fine.
O'REILLY: But the bread, you found out that the bread was killing you.
HASSELBECK: I did. I came back and started getting sick again and realized that I had been missing a diagnosis. But celiac disease is way under-diagnosed, and it can actually save our system a ton of money.
O'REILLY: So we want everybody out there, if you're not feeling well, do get diagnosed about food allergies and this and that. It is a serious subject, and that's what your book is all about.
Thanks for coming in here, Elisabeth. We appreciate it. Nice to see you again.
HASSELBECK: Nice to see you, too.
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