President Obama’s decision making
Charles Krauthammer on what will happen in the immigration arena
This is a RUSH transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," November 26, 2013. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
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O'REILLY: In "Back of the Book" segment tonight, President Obama's decision-making. Yesterday, he was in San Francisco, talking about immigration when he was interrupted.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JU HONG, UNDOCUMENTED SOUTH KOREAN U.S. IMMIGRANT: Please use your executive order to halt deportations for all 11.5 million undocumented immigrants in this country right now. We agree that we need --
(SHOUTING)
-- reform at the same time. You have a power to stop limitation for all --
BARACK OBAMA, 44th U.S. PRESIDENT: And that's why we're here. OK.
(CROWD SHOUTING)
You guys don't need to go. Let me finish. No, no, no. Let -- he can stay there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'REILLY: All right. Joining us now from Washington, Fox News Political Analyst, Charles Krauthammer.
So, I mean, let's just put that aside. It was good theater and we want to show the people that the president was interrupted.
But what do you think is going to happen in the immigration arena. It's not going to happen this year but, next year, they're going to have to deal with it. What's going to go down.
CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: They're not going to pass it. There's no way they're going to pass it. The only way to pass it is with very heavy presidential pressure.
He's lost the touch. He's lost his influence of a second-term president. He's got low ratings. He's not able to do something of this importance.
And there are a lot of Republicans who are peeling away. Because when you look at the comprehensive bill that passed the Senate, the enforcement part is still weak. It's not worth the paper it's written on.
O'REILLY: All right. But they say that there is a lot of money to beef up the border. Juan Williams was saying that yesterday.
And if -- where there is money, you could have a program that could stop the flood of immigrants into this country, could you not.
KRAUTHAMMER: This is the typical liberal thing. You throw money at a problem like education, when SAT scores are crashing, and you think you're going to solve it.
We spent twice as much per capita on our students today as in 1970, SAT scores are lower. The idea that you measure inputs, that's a classic liberal idea. How much did you put into it.
We don't care about inputs. What you care about is outputs. What you've got to have is a committee of outsiders who have no interest in the -- one way or the other, no ideological stake, to be the ones who judge.
Has the river of illegal immigrants been reduced to a trickle. If the answer is yes, I would say legalize. If the answer is no, not a chance.
O'REILLY: All right. But you don't believe the immigration bill is going to pass next year.
KRAUTHAMMER: No.
O'REILLY: All right. Let's go to Iran. Yesterday, on Baier's show, you said that this is the new Munich. What the doctor meant was Neville Chamberlain, the British representative, made a deal with Hitler, pretty much allowed Hitler to continue his aggressive ways, which eventually led to World War II.
But Chamberlain thought he had a great deal, peace in our time. And Krauthammer says this is the same thing with Iran. Isn't that overstating a little bit.
KRAUTHAMMER: Look, it's not going to cause World War II. But it is going to give us a nuclear Iran. And in nuclear Iran, an apocalyptic regime that is sworn to destroy a neighboring state, --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
-- sworn to destroy a member's state in the U.N., sworn to destroy the largest Jewish community on Earth, is a danger.
And it isn't only Israel. The Saudis are up apoplectic. Their hair is on fire. The Saudis know they've been abandoned --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
-- by the United States. They understand what the deal is. This guarantees -- it guarantees, with Western blessing, that Iran will be a threshold nuclear state, which means, perpetually, two months away from achieving the critical mass of uranium.
O'REILLY: But the president said that, in six months, there's going to be a better deal, that it's going to be a harsher deal, that they will have to give up their uranium, enriched uranium, and things like that.
KRAUTHAMMER: Look, Bill, examine the logic of that statement. Here we are at a point of maximum economic pressure on the regime. The Riyal, the currency, has collapsed.
Rapid inflation, shortages, unrest in the streets. The only reason the mullahs have come to negotiate is because they fear for the survival of the regime.
So, if at the point of maximum pressure, you're not able to get them to abolish the program, to eliminate the centrifuges, to actually take away the nuclear infrastructure, you're telling me that in six months, after you've relaxed the sanctions, after you've taken the pressure off, --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
-- after you've removed the one incentive of the regime to negotiate, you're going to get the better deal? That makes no sense whatsoever.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'REILLY: So, if it doesn't, then that's another embarrassment for President Obama going into the midterm elections. So, not only the ObamaCare, but if the Iran thing proves him to be weak, that's just another deficit for the president.
And that leads us into our third topic, honesty and trustworthiness. Now, CNN has new poll out. It says 46 percent do not believe that the president -- I'm sorry.
Is the president honest and trustworthy, 46 percent say yes, 53 percent say no. In February, 2009, 74 percent said yes.
So, he has lost 30 percent, about 30 percent in the trustworthiness thing. And that's on the skids still, right.
KRAUTHAMMER: Of course, it's on the skids. Obama made --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
-- the fatal mistake of, what you might call, the first example in American history of death by punctuation. He said, "If you like your plan, you can keep your plan, period."
He shouldn't have said "Period." Once you say period, that means no excuses, no caveat, no exceptions, no explanations. And, of course, it wasn't true.
That is the clearest statement a president can make. And everybody understands it false. And here's why it's particularly fatal with a president like Obama.
Obama is not a man who rode into power inexperienced, on his achievements, on his accomplishments. He rode in on charisma, he rode in on rhetoric, he rode in on hope and change.
All that depends on the people believing in you --
O'REILLY: Yes.
KRAUTHAMMER: You take away that, it disappears into the ether.
O'REILLY: Because he doesn't have a lot of accomplishments. All right, want me to plug your -- want me to plug your book real quick? You want me to do that?
KRAUTHAMMER: Yes, I think that'd be --
O'REILLY: All right, Thanksgiving present, all right, --
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