Bill Burton Defends Obama Reaction To Honduran Presidential Coup On "O'Reilly Factor" (VIDEO)

Deputy White House Press Secretary Bill Burton faced an outraged Juan Williams, sitting in for Bill O'Reilly, on "The O'Reilly Factor" tonight. Williams demanded to know why President Obama was supporting exiled Honduran President Zalaya, who had been removed from the country in a military coup, when he had stayed "silent" on the turbulence in Iran. At the end of a long introduction to his question, Williams finally splutters, "What is President Obama doing?"

Burton replied that the President was following American principles, which don't involve "taking someone out of their home in their pajamas and putting them in another country in order to swear in another president. It means going through elections and the democratic process in order to have changes in leadership."

Watch the exchange below.

Comments

[lennix]

juan williams has been a fake all along

[Concerned American99]

Why would Obama back a ruthless Honduran dictator want-to-be that tried to change their constitution against the supreme court and set himself for a lifetime dictatorship. Does Obama have plans of his own? Obama has spent his whole life being mentored by Chavez "types".

Looks very suspicious, especially since Obama "attempted" to back the people of Iran....well that is, after Hillary did a GREAT JOB pressing him to do so.

[NedroidPrime]

In Honduras, the president is limited to one term. He was simply trying to extend the number of terms that could be served. He wasn't going for a permanent position (that I am aware of).

If this is the democratic thing to do, why has the remaining government limited protest, speech, and other rights? Why have they shut out much of the media?

Try again tr0\\, you are not quite at the p@thetic point yet...

[tjdumas]

lol perfect. although "concern" is p@thetic. for that mentoring by chavez type.

[sf girl]

"Looks very suspicious?" You sound very paranoid. Get a grip.

[dax49]

so you're the one who watches $ean- i wondered if you were real

[HWNA]

Why would you back the new Honduran coup regime that just stripped Hondurans of their constitutional rights?

"The same Congress that, after the military had kidnapped, beaten and dumped President Manuel Zelaya in Costa Rica, had declared one of its own, Roberto Micheletti as the coup "president" today passed an emergency law stripping Hondurans of the following rights from the country's constitution:

1. The right to protest.
2. Freedom in one's home from unwarranted search, seizure and arrest.
3. Freedom of association.
4. Guarantees of rights of due process while under arrest.
5. Freedom of transit in the country."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/al-giordano/honduras-coup-congress-er_b_224567.html

[Tasies]

And the conserva nuts go on and on with their ignorance. What parrots.

[Json]

"Two entirely different things happened...why aren't you reacting the same way to both??"

[PWM]

GOPers cannot have two different ideas on any subject.

[Json]

Reminds me of Bush on tax cuts...
"We have a surplus, so we should give tax cuts." - ~2001
"We have a deficit, so we should give tax cuts." - ~2002-2008

[truegreen]

four years ago ABC fired Juan Williams. He used to apart of a called ' Black In America' a good show the by the way. When he began freelancing on fox in 2005. His black in America colleagues complained about his ideological shift and ABC decided to dismiss him.

[RNAngel20]

And goodness knows that every black person in America has to have the same ideology.

[babybuda]

"Divide et impera"
Know matter how you slice it this is what is at work all over the world!

[MacQ]

Interviewing flubbers like this guy might turn Juan into a conservative.
Juan did a great job dissembling the guy--showing him and his talking points for the utter pap they are.
He also asked him pointed questions about energy and other things the guy just couldn't defend.
It was a very informative interview in toto.

[tailgateshirts]

Juan didnt say anything? what are you talking about

[lpbj]

Earth to MacQ!

[SimianNation]

If one cannot see the difference between a coup and a contested election, well then, what's the use trying to explain anything to them.

[uvymopka]

This situation in Honduras is very instructive. I think anybody who thinks that Obama intends to just constitutionally go away in 2016 is nuts. And I think that's what all this ACORN stuff is all about.

[cal5000]

What ACORN stuff? The registration fraud that was reported by ACORN in accordance to Federal Law?

Are you drunk or just have NO clue how government actually works?

[tailgateshirts]

lol the guys Bush gave money to?

[paganmist]

ACORN Stuff:

A community organization hires people to go out into the street and register folks to vote. Two things happen:

1 - the employees are lazy. They fill out the forms with names from the phone book or some other source, and then spend the rest of the day as they please, and collect a fat paycheck for it.

2 - the employees do their job. Some a-hole jock or thug types decide to be ignoramuses by filling out the forms with names like "Britney Spears", "Mickey Mouse", etc.

Legally, ACORN must forward ALL completed forms to the state for review, so they are unable to throw away the ones that are fraudulent. Instead, ACORN attaches a note to each apparently fraudulent form instructing the state to double-check this registration, because it seems fake.

The state receives the registrations, they check each one against their database of people currently alive and living in their state. They throw away the forms for Mickey Mouse, Britney Spears, and poor uncle Joey who is listed as "deceased" in their databases. Come voting day, the only people who vote are the state - not ACORN - has decided is both alive and not fictional.

This is the story of how fraudulent registrations do NOT equate to voter fraud, and why people referring to ACORN are completely and utterly stupid.

[TParrish]

Well, the brouhaha about Acorn was a political smokescreen perpetrated by people who definitely are not stupid. Only the stupid believed it and still walk around like Thorazine zombies muttering "acorn" under their breath.

[SantaFeConservative]

Don't forget that this "non-partisan" group was openly advocating for Obama. Their federal funding should be stopped.

[barksalot]

If coup happened in Iran you would have called it the people rising up against oppression or something else. I love you selectivity.

[paganmist]

Wrong. The coup already happened.

Ahmadi and Khamenei rigged the elections to ensure that the rightful person would not get elected. When the people fight back against that, it is called an uprising.

The situations are different, and it takes an intelligent person to realize that they must be handled differently.

[barksalot]

I saw no rising up as you call it in Hondurus. I would tend to think that this means the people were in agreement. They know what Chavez did and didn't want that to happen to them. Zelaga decided to get greedy and paid for it.

[PATina]

As for some people on here... I'm afraid you are correct. However, I would like to hope that President Obama would be consistent w/ his position here.

[babybuda]

As much as it pains me to agree with fox on anything they have this one more right unless our President had come out the other way then im sure fox would fail to mention the leftest angle and be in support of Zalaya if you do your home work you would know that the majority of hondurans support the military intervention not just some elite that is being portrayed and though some of accutations sound like there just anti leftist propaganda , there is considerable evidence that its actually true ,and what is true is Zalaya defied the constitution and the courts . Republics our based on rule of law .

[drlouise]

So when the citizens of the US started opposing the war in Iraq, we should have removed GW through a coup?

[MarcusT]

Yeah, but that never happened did it. "Our citizens" didn't have much trouble with invading Iraq if you can remember your very, very recent history. They REALLY hated the devaluation of their 401Ks however.

[cal5000]

Republics ARE based on the rule of law.

And grabbing someone and running them out of the country isnt part of being a Republic.

If the guy broke the law--let the courts deal with it--you dont pull a coup.

[Concerned American99]

The "guy" was forming miliary and police action against the supreme court and others. So you are suggesting that you wait until people are killed first before you do something.

[cbates]

The response from our President was proper and in order. Even though Zelaya was attempting to do what Chavez did in his country, it seems a little out of the democratic norm not to hear the people on his opportunity. If the people wanted what Zelaya was advocating then so-be-it. A Representative Democracy and or a Republic is a government wherein the people have the ultimate power. Again let the people speak!

[MarcusT]

Ah, doesn't it all look so good on paper?

[PATina]

You mean what Chavez "attempted" to do in his country. Remember... the Venezuelan people actually had the opportunity to vote in a referendum and defeated the proposal.

A constitutional referendum was held in Venezuela on December 2, 2007 to amend 69 articles of the 1999 Constitution.[1] Reform was needed, according to Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, to implement his socialist agenda; detractors said he was using the reforms to become a dictator.[2]

The referendum was narrowly defeated, giving Chávez the first election loss of his nine-year presidency. University student protests and opposition from former allies helped fuel the defeat, but the referendum results and the 44% abstention rate suggest that support also waned among Chávez's traditional base of Venezuela's poor.[3][4] Chávez conceded defeat by saying "for now, we couldn't" ("por ahora no pudimos"),[5][6] echoing the phrase he used after the failure of the February 1992 Venezuelan coup d'état attempt.[2][7]
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from wikipedia.org

I agree w/ you that the President was right in his response... but I wish people would quit trying to make Chavez out to be the boogie monster. He has good reason for not liking us as a country... after what our leadership attempted to do to him.

[Graham7720]

At least they have opposing views and debate. The KO program unfortunately is one sided all the time.

[HudsonGal]

HUH...!! Did you ever see Bill belittle or cut off someone who does not agree with him? Or Hannity spin everything to a sort of conspiracy because he is perfect, lol. FOX and MSNBC are competing with each other for their time slots. I try to gather all the facts from differing points of view before I make any claims to believe which is the correct course for the country and me. Media is not perfect by a long shot and Cable news especially is polarizing on either side of the issue.

[Graham7720]

Aggreed.
I'm 95% internet now and 5% cable for my news now which is kind of sad.

[RNAngel20]

I think the headline needs to be modified to "... tries unsuccessfully to defend..."- as usual, just a bunch of political doubletalk.

[loveobamas]

H.o.n.d.u.r.a, I.r.a.n, Florida 2000

[Gidster]

Iran 1953, Cuba 1961, Iraq 1979......The list goes on...

[jmyoung666]

Wait, one of those is not like the rest. 1979 was Iranians taking back their country from a despotic regime. Cuba was also rebels throwing out a despotic regime. The fact that the latter two ultimately ended up replacing one set of thigs with another is a secondary issue.

Iran 1953 was the CIA helping locals overthrow the democratic regime and installing the shah.

[Mr Hand]

Florida 2000 ? Why do you insist on being so obtuse ? Here an article from the liberal NY Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/12/politics/12VOTE.html

Time to get a new slant lib !

[loveobamas]

I still believe we should stay out of this A coup is reprehensible and I agree with Obama's condemnation. I just don't understand why they had to do this when Zelaya would have been legally gone in 6 months anyway. Even if they had given the baby his bottle there is no way they could have completed two referenda and had a constitutional convention in that time period. It is a complicated situation that uninformed outside parties should be loathe to intervene in. I would like to see our military base there closed. Like the Iranians, the Hondurans are going to have to win their liberty pretty much by themselves. Before I get blasted for being a n.e.o-c.o.n for all this let me stress that the coup was a dumb way to deal with all this and has caused more trouble than Zelaya ever did.

[MarcusT]

Before I get blasted for being a n.e.o-c.o.n for all this

Actually the Neocons would more than likely be very pro coup. As, I suspect, you would be if, say, the coup was to eject the present Iranian power structure?