Tuesday on Fox News Channel’s “The O’Reilly Factor,” during a segment with network contributor Karl Rove, host Bill O’Reilly discussed remarks made author Brad Thor on Glenn Beck’s radio program last week, which O’Reilly described as Thor talking about a “possible assassination” and Beck’s suspension from SiriusXM announced earlier today.
Both O’Reilly and Rove criticized the remarks, with O’Reilly adding “you can’t do that” because it “incites violence.”
Partial transcript as follows:
O’REILLY: OK, I have got to get to this. Glenn Beck has been suspended by Sirius radio. They are not going to run his radio program for a while because he had a conversation with the thriller writer novelist Brad Thor. In that conversation Thor talked about a possible assassination. Roll the tape.
(BEGIN AUDIO)
THOR: With the feckless, spineless Congress we have, who will stand in the way of Donald Trump overstepping his constitutional authority as president? If Congress won’t remove him from office, what patriot will step up and do that if, if he oversteps his mandate as president, his constitutional granted authority, I should say as president?
(END AUDIO)
O’REILLY: So, anyway, this is pretty startling. Beck is a pretty big guy. And Beck didn’t say it, but he engaged in this hypothetical and now he is off the air at Sirius. What do you say?
ROVE: Well, Thor shouldn’t have said it. He is a good man, but he shouldn’t have said that. That’s way over the bounds. That is really reprehensible and Glenn should have, in my opinion, have told him so at the time. It’s a sign of how heated the emotions are in this campaign and I’m sorry to see it happen.
O’REILLY: You know, both sides, too. We just showed you the crazy animal activists trying to shout down Sanders. You know, I agree Thor is a good guy and he writes really good books. You can’t do that. You just can’t because that incites violence in the minds of some crazy people. Believe me, I know about it, killing Reagan with Hinckley. I know how these people get incited. And you have got to be very careful. Alright, Mr. Rove, thank you very much.
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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