June 6, 2014
This week Bill O’Reilly has repeatedly asserted that Bowe Bergdahl‘s father looks Muslim, and has not backed down from that assertion. And on MSNBC last night, Chris Hayes joined in the mockery of O’Reilly’s “blatant Islamophobia.”
O’Reilly contended that it’s wildly inappropriate for Bergdahl’s father to look Muslim, with the beard he’s sporting, and speaking in Pashto while he was at the White House. Hayes played clips of O’Reilly’s musings (as well as Sean Hannity‘s) and said, “The blatant Islamophobia here is eclipsed only by the sheer ridiculousness of the argument.”
Hayes proceeded to mock O’Reilly by wondering if he considers the Duck Dynasty guys, ZZ Top, or The Dude to be similarly Muslim-looking. And he ended with a sharp dig at O’Reilly, the author of a number of historical books.
On his eponymous show, Fox News host Bill O’Reilly said that if he had been president, he “would not have made the deal” to exchange Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl for five Taliban prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay. “These are top Taliban leaders — enemies who bring death and destruction to thousands,” said O’Reilly.
The Fox News commentator, however, took a detour from the sweeping issues of national security to address the case of Robert Bergdahl, Bowe’s father. O’Reilly: “But it is Robert Bergdahl, the father, who is also engendering some controversy. He has learned to speak Pashto, the language of the Taliban, and looks like a Muslim. He is also somewhat sympathetic to Islam, actually thanking Allah right in front of the president.”
