On Wednesday, Today co-host Matt Lauer began an interview with Bill O'Reilly by citing liberal New York Times columnist Frank Bruni actually criticizing the Obama administration's handling of the Ebola crisis: "One dimension of the disease's toll is clear. It's ravaging Americans' already tenuous faith in the competence of our government and its bureaucracies."
O'Reilly agreed with Bruni's "very perceptive" analysis and declared that Americans "should be angry at their government, because they blew it! Blew it, blew it, blew it!"
Lauer wondered: "Would you curtail flights from West Africa if you were president?" O'Reilly replied: "Of course I would. Of course I would." Lauer pressed: "Shut it down? Nobody from West Africa comes into the United States?" O'Reilly explained: "No. You have to basically have deny visas to all people who don't have to be here until we get organized. Until we get organized. Because we're not organized now."
Turning back to Bruni, Lauer noted: "You say the government blew it, blew it, blew it....Bruni goes further, and connects the Ebola dots to the President. And says, 'Ebola is his presidency in a petri dish. Right now in this country there's a crisis of confidence and competence...'"
O'Reilly observed: "Listen, I don't blame President Obama for the Ebola chaos. I do blame [CDC Director Tom] Frieden, he should have been removed a long time ago....the President should have picked up the phone and said put him on vacation, get somebody else in there. But the President doesn't do that. And that is the leadership factor."
Here is a transcript of the October 22 exchange:
7:41 AM ET
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MATT LAUER: Can I ask you about Ebola? Frank Bruni wrote something interesting in The New York Times over the weekend. He said, "We have no clue at this point how far Ebola could spread in the United States – and no reason for panic. But one dimension of the disease's toll is clear. It's ravaging Americans' already tenuous faith in the competence of our government and its bureaucracies." You agree with that?
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: O'Reilly Factors In; Bill's Take On Ebola, The NFL & "Killing Patton"]
BILL O'REILLY: Yes. It's a very perceptive thing he wrote. Ebola's not going to break out to be the Andromeda Strain. It's not going to be a big epidemic in America. There's just not the access that Americans have to this disease. One or two cases will pop up. But the fear is very, very disturbing to me. People should be more rational. That being said, they should be angry at their government, because they blew it! Blew it, blew it, blew it!
LAUER: Would you curtail flights from West Africa if you were president?
O'REILLY: Of course I would. Of course I would.
LAUER: Shut it down? Nobody from West Africa comes into the United States?
O'REILLY: No. You have to basically have deny visas to all people who don't have to be here until we get organized. Until we get organized. Because we're not organized now.
LAUER: You say the government blew it, blew it, blew it.
O'REILLY: Yes.
LAUER: Bruni goes further, and connects the Ebola dots to the President. And says, "Ebola is his presidency in a petri dish. Right now in this country there's a crisis of confidence and competence, and that is the fertile ground in which the Ebola terror flowers. That's the backdrop for whatever steps Obama and [CDC Director Tom] Frieden take from here. With the right ones, they can go a long way toward calming people who are anxious not just about Ebola, but about America. I don't even want to think about the wrong ones."
O'REILLY: Listen, I don't blame President Obama for the Ebola chaos. I do blame Frieden, he should have been removed a long time ago. He's not up to the task. When you can't explain how you get Ebola on a bus – which Frieden can't. He says, "You know what? If you go on the bus with Ebola, you can't give it to anybody. However, if you're sitting next to somebody with Ebola and they sneeze on you, you can get it." Does that make sense? That's what the man said. As soon as he said that, the President should have picked up the phone and said put him on vacation, get somebody else in there. But the President doesn't do that. And that is the leadership factor.
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