Goldberg: Will Candy Crowley be a fair debate moderator?

Bernie on whether CNN host will be biased while moderating second presidential debate

This is a RUSH transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," October 15, 2012. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

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BILL O'REILLY: Thanks for staying with us. I'm Bill O'Reilly. In the "Weekdays With Bernie" segment tonight, two very hot topics including why reporters are not asking the key question in the Libya scandal.

But, first, CNN Correspondent, Candy Crowley, the moderator of the presidential debate tomorrow night. Bernie joins us now from North Carolina. So, Ms. Crowley, a good choice.

BERNIE GOLDBERG, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: It's Crowley, by the way.

O'REILLY: Is it Crowley.

GOLDBERG: I always check these things before I go on the air.

O'REILLY: Crowley, fine.

GOLDBERG: Honest, Bill, I don't care who they pick as a moderator. But, interestingly, both the Obama campaign and the Romney campaign, two campaigns that don't agree on anything have agreed that Candy Crowley may be a problem because they're trying to muzzle her.

The two campaigns made an agreement that said the moderator would have very, very limited role in this debate. Let me share with the audience a little behind-the-scenes stuff, the actual wording of the agreement, "In managing the two-minute comment periods, the moderator will not rephrase the question or open a new topic. The moderator will not ask follow-up questions or comment on either the questions asked by the audience or the answers of the candidates."

There's just one problem, Bill. Candy didn't get the memo. And, maybe literally, didn't get the memo because she didn't sign on to be a potted plant.

And she's already indicated in interviews that she plans to ask follow-up questions.

O'REILLY: Who wrote that -- the thing you just read, who wrote that.

GOLDBERG: The lawyers for the two campaigns agreed to that -- that agreement with the people putting on the debate, the presidential --

O'REILLY: So, Candy's role, if that holds, is basically to say, "OK, Tiffany, you're next. That's it. Thank you, Tiffany."

GOLDBERG: You would never accept that role. I mean, come on. She's a journalist, she's not a prop. If the question from the audience is, "Mr. President, what about Benghazi and the security."

And he decides he's not going to answer it and this and that, I want her to break every rule that --

O'REILLY: Yes, and say, "You didn't answer it, Mr. President," or "Government, you didn't answer the question."

GOLDBERG: All I ask is this. We all have biases. As long as she leaves her biases at the door, I want her to be an equal-opportunity pain. Ask them both questions.

O'REILLY: Yes, and I don't have any trouble with Ms. Crowley, I mean, you know, I think she's fine.

All right, now, as we discussed with Juan and Mary Katharine, the key question in the Libya deal is who told Susan Rice to go out there and mislead everybody.

It hasn't been asked. I haven't seen it asked. And you haven't either, right.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOLDBERG: No and this is fascinating to me. First of all, there are certain indisputable facts. If you're in the administration and you go on the Sunday talk shows, the White House cleared it. That's a fact.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Fact number two, she went on about five different shows and told a story that was blatantly false.

O'REILLY: And identical. She told the identical story so you know he she had rehearsed it over again, right.

GOLDBERG: Yes, over and over and over, you could do it five times, again. And it was a blatantly false -- I'm not saying she's lying, but the story was absolutely, totally false.

So, here's the simple question that you raised earlier in the program. Who told you to go out there and say that. Was it a political person.

Was it Valerie Jarrett or David Axelrod. Did they tell you to say -- whoever it was, for political reasons so that it doesn't look like we he had a terrorist attack on a U.S. Consulate on 9/11 no less, on the anniversary of 9/11.

We don't need an FBI investigation. We need a curious journalism.

O'REILLY: Yes, why do you think nobody asked that question to these people.

GOLDBERG: I think that's thank you for the easy question. If Ambassador Rice, Susan Rice were a republican working for President George W. Bush, the media would have satellite trucks outside her residence.

And they wouldn't let her walk two feet without answering that question. But because she isn't a republican working for George Bush but a democrat working for President Obama, they have, virtually, no curiosity about this question.

O'REILLY: It's amazing, it really is amazing that that question is a simple question. Absolutely.

GOLDBERG: It's a simple direct question, "Who told you to go out and say that."

O'REILLY: Right.

GOLDBERG: And, by the way, I have no proof of this. I'm just -- an educated guess. I'll bet you, it was a political person like Axelrod or Valerie Jarrett.

O'REILLY: All right. Bernie Goldberg, everybody. As always, thank you.

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