Anti-Semitism at Wall Street Protests
Bernie Goldberg sounds off on racial component within movement
This is a RUSH transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," October 17, 2011. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
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BILL O'REILLY, HOST: In the "Weekdays with Bernie" segment tonight, two hot topics, beginning with anti-Semitism in the "Occupy Wall Street" movement. Recently, a protester in Los Angeles said this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PATRICIA MCALLISTER, PROTESTER: Patricia McAllister. I'm here representing myself, but I do work for the Los Angeles Unified School district. I think that the Zionist Jews who are running these big banks and our Federal Reserve, which is not run by the federal government, they need to be run out of this country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'REILLY: With us now, the purveyor of BernardGoldberg.com, Mr. Goldberg. So as I said to Marc Lamont Hill, I mean, all organizations have these fringe players. Do you think this is a theme?
BERNARD GOLDBERG, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: I don't know how widespread this is. I'm not suggesting that it is. But I do know this: that there are others who echo her views. There were signs out at "Occupy Los Angeles" that were clearly anti-Semitic. So she -- while I don't know how widespread it is, she's certainly not the only one, as you can see from these signs. But this I do know for sure. You could have had 10 million people at a Tea Party. If there was one racist sign, it was going to get on the air.
O'REILLY: Absolutely.
GOLDBERG: It was going to get on the air.
O'REILLY: Right.
GOLDBERG: And here we have some anti-Semitism. But that woman who we just heard from puts liberals in general and liberal journalists in particular in a dilemma, in a bad situation. There's a black woman who speaks very well, who's dressed nicely, and she's a bigot. Oh, what are we going to do now?
O'REILLY: What they're going to do now is ignore it.
GOLDBERG: That's exactly what they're going to do.
O'REILLY: I guarantee you our audience it's the first time they've ever seen her.
GOLDBERG: Exactly.
O'REILLY: They're just not going to cover it. That's what they always do.
GOLDBERG: Precisely.
O'REILLY: If something doesn't fit into their world view, you know.
GOLDBERG: That's the point. Why did they put -- if there was one sign with a racist sign, why did they put that in? Because it did fit their world view that conservatives were bigots. As a matter of fact, they went -- the main street media went for weeks and weeks with a story about how Tea Partiers allegedly shouted, you know, the word.
O'REILLY: Racial stuff at the congresspeople.
GOLDBERG: At black congresspeople as they were going to vote on health care.
O'REILLY: Right.
GOLDBERG: To this day, Bill, there's not a shred of evidence to say that actually happened.
O'REILLY: My...
GOLDBERG: Here's evidence. We've just seen evidence of something that we know exists. I'd like to see it on -- on the air in some mainstream media outlets.
O'REILLY: You'll never see it.
All right. Brit Hume and I were discussing the Herman Cain situation. And people I mentioned like George Will say, look, Mr. Cain really not a serious player because he's not setting up the infrastructure that he needs to win. Others say you're crazy. He's a populist. He's going about it in a different way. But there is a split in the Republican Party…
GOLDBERG: Yes, there is.
O'REILLY: between the traditionalists...
GOLDBERG: Right.
O'REILLY: ...who are backing Romney right now…
GOLDBERG: Right. Exactly.
O'REILLY: …and then the conservative Tea Party people who tend to like Cain right now.
GOLDBERG: Yes. Absolutely. It's a split between the realists or pragmatists, on the one hand, who, as you rightly say, support Romney. And the purists, on the other hand, who I'm convinced won't be happy until Ronald Reagan rises from the dead and hits the campaign trail. Those people say that Mitt Romney is not a principled conservative, and they're right. He is not a principled conservative.
O'REILLY: He's not an ideologue.
GOLDBERG: He's not a principled conservative either. I mean, you can make a case that he's not a principled politician given all his flip-flops. But the realists, the -- the realists, pragmatists, they follow the Bill Buckley school, and that is they want the most conservative viable candidate...
O'REILLY: Who can win.
GOLDBERG: ...somebody who can win. If anybody cares, I'm in that camp. The others -- I have a question for my purist friends out there. One of the questions is: Who do you think, besides Romney, could beat Barack Obama in a debate? In a debate? I don't think any of them can.
The second question is more important: Name two conservative presidents in the last 80 years. Name two. You can't. There's only been one: Ronald Reagan.
O'REILLY: And he wasn't that conservative when he came in.
GOLDBERG: And he won partially because of the conservatism.
O'REILLY: Partly.
GOLDBERG: But because of his personality.
O'REILLY: Right. But I believe that my audience that favors Cain would say to you, Herman Cain will wipe the floor with Barack Obama.
GOLDBERG: Yes, they will. There's no question. I'll tell what you else they say because I heard it on talk radio. They'd say Sarah Palin would do the same thing, even though polls show that even Republicans didn't want Sarah Palin to run.
O'REILLY: Well, I think Sarah Palin is a different person because Sarah Palin has got a lot of baggage, and Cain doesn't. All right. That separates the two. In a rhetorical debate, I think Cain could hold his own with Obama.
GOLDBERG: Cain certainly could -- I don't know if he could -- maybe. But I'll say this. I'll say this: They want Ronald Reagan. There are no Ronald Reagans out there. Bachmann isn't. Perry isn't. Santorum isn't. Whoever the others are. But I'll tell you the one who comes close: Herman Cain.
O'REILLY: To Ronald Reagan?
GOLDBERG: Yes.
O'REILLY: Well, we don't know yet because we just don't know.
GOLDBERG: In the same way that he's optimistic. He came up from -- he didn't grow up wealthy.
O'REILLY: No. He's a bootstrap guy.
GOLDBERG: He has a great story. And...
O'REILLY: I don't see him as being Reagan because Reagan had the California experience behind him as the governor of a very complex state.
GOLDBERG: I'm talking about how you come across to ordinary -- and I use that word in the best sense -- ordinary Americans. Cain comes across -- the reason he's doing so well in the polls is because he comes across, "Yes, I sort of like that guy."
O'REILLY: Yes, and he's not a politician.
GOLDBERG: He's not a politician.
O'REILLY: But what about when what -- you call them purists -- they say, "Look what happened with McCain."
GOLDBERG: Right.
O'REILLY: "We compromised with McCain, and we got our butt kicked, so we don't want to do that again."
GOLDBERG: That's exactly what they say. And let me -- let me say this to all my purist friends out there. John McCain lost for four reasons. I hope I remember all four.
One, we don't traditionally elect the same party three times in a row. That's one. The financial meltdown is No. 2. George Bush was an albatross around his neck. And you know what No. 4 was? John McCain. You put up a split screen of John McCain on one side and Barack Obama on the other, one of them was yesterday, and the other one was tomorrow.
O'REILLY: And McCain didn't go after Obama. Remember how that -- he just gave him a pass after pass after pass after pass.
GOLDBERG: And I don't -- and I don't think -- and I don't think Romney, with all due respect to John McCain, I don't think Romney is John McCain. I think he's a lot better.
O'REILLY: Well, Romney will go after Obama. There's no doubt about it.
GOLDBERG: He's a lot better candidate. He's a lot smarter.
O'REILLY: And you think he's going to get the nomination?
GOLDBERG: Let me put -- yes, I do. And let me put it this way. If he doesn't, we will know who to blame. I will know how to blame for another four years of Barack Obama, and it will be the purists.
O'REILLY: All right. Bernie Goldberg, everyone.
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