This is a RUSH transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," February 4, 2015. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
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O'REILLY: "Personal Story Segment" tonight: an amazing point of view from the former governor of Minnesota, Jesse Ventura. Speaking with Alan Colmes on the radio yesterday he said this about the American sniper Chris Kyle.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
VENTURA: A hero should have honor. A hero is not how many people you have killed. You know, he was obviously a great sniper. He is obviously a great shot. He obviously did his job correctly.
Alan, let me fire this one at you, do you think the Nazis have heroes?
ALAN COLMES, FOX NEWS ANALYST: But are you comparing what the Nazi mission was versus what our mission is in war as a country?
VENTURA: Well, I am stating that we invaded Iraq. We were not asked in. We invaded a country. We overthrew its government and then we killed people that lived there.
COLMES: Are we analogous to the Nazis?
VENTURA: Well, and the communists, yes.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
O'REILLY: Here now Alan Colmes. When you heard that what did you think?
COLMES: You know, once you bring up the Nazis, it's like Godwin's law. The longer an argument goes on the shorter someone's going to eventually bring up the Nazis. I mean you lose the argument. It's insane to compare our fighting troops to the Nazis.
O'REILLY: That's what he did, did he not?
COLMES: Yes. Yes. I don't agree with that.
O'REILLY: We don't use him on the show here on THE FACTOR because he is a 9/11 truther. He is out there on a lot of different levels. But he was a former governor of Minnesota.
COLMES: That's right.
O'REILLY: What does that say about Minnesota?
COLMES: Well, it's a unique state, isn't it?
O'REILLY: You have Al Franken as a senator there.
COLMES: But Al Franken is probably more in the mainstream in terms of political thinking.
O'REILLY: Compared to this guy Al Franken is a great -- he is Plato.
COLMES: You would vote for Al Franken over Jesse Ventura.
O'REILLY: Look, I know that the governor is bitter. And he won the libel suit against Chris Kyle. But to besmirch and to distort history is like we went into Iraq for what? To give those people democracy which they had for about 10 minutes until they gave it back.
All right, you saw the Code Pink interview I did yesterday.
COLMES: Yes, I did. Yes, I did.
O'REILLY: Would you say that you, Alan Colmes, are as liberal as Code Pink?
COLMES: I would say probably so. That doesn't mean I agree with their tactics.
O'REILLY: Ok. You say that Alan Colmes and Code Pink are in the same zone of liberalism?
COLMES: If you want to have a chart -- a pie chart.
O'REILLY: You are an honest man, Colmes.
Now, you saw Medea Benjamin.
COLMES: Right.
O'REILLY: And I asked her a very simple question. I said, you know I'm a simple man. How would you confront ISIS because this was on the day the Jordanian fighter pilot got burned to death? Her answer was, we -- we would have a meeting, a big meeting with people in the Middle East and we would cut off their funding and their recruiting.
COLMES: All right. She is antiwar.
O'REILLY: No, no, no -- just stay on that. Do you firmly believe that a meeting is going to stop the ISIS terror group.
COLMES: I don't believe she was as simple as saying it's a meeting. You work with your allies to try to cut off the funding. We know the Saudis have funded. We know that certain countries have funded.
O'REILLY: Yes. But these are individual checks being written not governmental checks. So to me, I'm seeing a person who has no clue about how to stop these ISIS terrorists.
COLMES: You go to the money trail. You actually try to stop where the money is coming from.
O'REILLY: Ok. Maybe you could do that on individual basis. But that's certainly not going to stop ISIS because they are selling oil. They are kidnapping people for ransom.
COLMES: You don't think the Saudi government had anything to do whatsoever?
O'REILLY: I don't care. I don't care what they had to do with it. I want to stop these animals from setting anybody else on fire or beheading people. What would you do to stop ISIS?
COLMES: I'm not sure we can. For one thing we shouldn't have been in Iraq in the first place.
O'REILLY: Ok. So let's stay with what you would do.
COLMES: Fine.
O'REILLY: Would you surrender to them?
COLMES: No.
O'REILLY: Would you say we can't stop you.
COLMES: I'm not sure -- I have said and I said it on this the show before I don't think it's our problem right now. They are not a threat to the United States.
O'REILLY: So you don't think it's our problem?
COLMES: We are in another part of the world where we should not be. We are metastasizing by our actions, terrorism.
O'REILLY: Colmes, stop the philosophy. So it's not our problem. So you wouldn't engage it at all. You would just let the chips fall in Syria and Iraq the way they fall.
COLMES: Being engaged in that part of the world is not helpful.
O'REILLY: Ok. So Alan Colmes, if you were president would say, you know what --
COLMES: It's not going to happen, don't worry about that.
O'REILLY: Well, we know that. I'm trying to get inside your mind and the mind of the left. Not our problem, we messed it up when we got in there. Withdraw, let ISIS do whatever they can. They can set as many people as they want on fire and I'm going to do nothing about it. Is that right?
COLMES: No matter how long we stay there, the minute we leave, we can't stay there forever. There's going to be consequences.
O'REILLY: That's what you would do -- pretty much nothing.
COLMES: Unless and until we have actionable intelligence that we are a threat, that our country, our homeland is a threat.
O'REILLY: So what is the difference between you and Neville Chamberlain and Lindbergh and the elder Kennedy 1930s when the Nazis were committing atrocities and said just the way you said it -- you know, it's not our problem. They're over there, we shouldn't get --
COLMES: Once again you are comparing them to the Nazis.
O'REILLY: ISIS to the Nazis.
COLMES: I'm not sure that it's an apt comparison.
O'REILLY: What's the difference?
COLMES: They're not a nation state. They are not the same as the Nazis.
O'REILLY: Yes. But they are committing atrocities.
COLMES: Unless and until they are an actual threat to the United States.
O'REILLY: Right. So you would have been with Lindbergh and the elder Kennedy and with the isolationists when Hitler rose.
COLMES: I'm not an isolationist. Once you have actionable intelligence, you act.
O'REILLY: All right. All right -- Colmes. You are an honest guy. That's all I can say. You're an honest guy. I appreciate.
COLMES: Thank you very much.
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