O'Reilly mischaracterized Pelosi interview to portray her as out of touch

Written by Tom Allison

Published

Bill O'Reilly cropped an interview with Nancy Pelosi to falsely claim that she said she “hasn't heard the Democrats blaming Bush” for the Gulf oil spill, comments O'Reilly suggested showed Pelosi as out of touch or dishonest. In fact, Pelosi said that she hadn't heard the “critique” that that “Democrats keep blaming the Bush administration.”

O'Reilly crops video to falsely claim Pelosi said she “hasn't heard the Democrats blaming Bush”

O'Reilly: “The speaker hasn't heard the Democrats blaming Bush? Are you kidding me? Is she on 24-7 lockdown?” During the opening segment of his Fox News show, referring to the politics of the Gulf oil spill disaster, O'Reilly asserted: “So there's plenty of blame to go around, and for the Democrats to continue to lay it all on Bush is flat-out dishonest. Even the liberal media is catching on to the ruse.” O'Reilly then aired a portion of an interview between Pelosi and MSNBC's Chuck Todd:

TODD: When you hear this critique: “Why do Democrats keep blaming the Bush administration?”

PELOSI: I haven't even heard that. I haven't heard that.

TODD: So you think it's a -- but when does that run out? When do you feel like that runs out with the public?

PELOSI: Well, it runs out when the problems go away.

O'Reilly concluded: “The speaker hasn't heard the Democrats blaming Bush? Are you kidding me? Is she in 24-7 lockdown?”

Pelosi actually said she had not heard the “critique” that Democrats are putting too much blame on Bush

Pelosi said she hadn't heard “critique” that Dems blame Bush too often. Pelosi was actually responding to Todd's question during the June 11 edition of MSNBC's The Daily Rundown (accessed via the Nexis database) asking: “At what point do you think the public says, you know what, yes, we were unhappy with the Bush administration. That's why you're speaker of the House, that's why Barack Obama is president of the United States. So stop blaming the Bush administration.” Todd then asked, “When you hear this critique: 'Why do Democrats keep blaming the Bush administration?' ” Pelosi responded: “I haven't heard that.”

Pelosi went on to highlight problems Obama “inherited.” Seconds later in the interview, Pelosi commented (via Nexis): “And here's what the president inherited. He inherited a deficit when this president inherited from the Clinton administration four budgets that were either in surplus or in balance, and he turned it into a massive deficit. He brought us to the brink of a financial crisis. He brought us to the brink of deep recession, ignoring issues that relate to climate change.” She continued:

PELOSI: On our energy bill, we wanted to rein in the oil companies. The Republicans said no. On the health insurance bill, we wanted to rein in the health insurance industry. The Republicans said no.

On Wall Street reform legislation, we want to rein in those who were reckless on Wall Street. The Republicans said no. We didn't get one single vote. We didn't get one single vote from the Republicans in the House on the Wall Street reform legislation to protect the taxpayers and the American worker from that recklessness.

So it's a continuation of those Bush policies in the Congress, but they have their roots and the problems were caused during the Bush administration.

Todd introduced the previously taped interview by commenting that Pelsoi “gave no ground on the idea that there's a statute of limitations on the blame-Bush argument.”