O'Reilly To Huckabee For Commuting Suspected Cop Killer's Sentence: "It's Not Your Fault, Governor" (VIDEO)

On Monday night, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee went on BIll O'Reilly's show to discuss the clemency he granted nearly a decade ago to Maurice Clemmons -- now a suspect in the fatal shooting of four police officers.

Although many conservative bloggers hammered Huckabee for commuting Clemmons, O'Reilly was forgiving of the former governor, who's a Fox News colleague. After thanking Huckabee for "being a stand-up guy," O'Reilly went on to offer Huckabee a pardon: the cop killings were "not your fault, governor."

Transcript and video below:

O'REILLY: Thanks for being a stand-up guy, Governor. A lot of people want an explanation. This is a bad hombre, and you let him out. Why?

HUCKABEE: Well, Bill, first of all -- the tragedy of this -- if I could have known 9 years ago this guy was capable of something of this magnitude, obviously I would have never granted the commutation.

It's sickening. The two people I value most in this country are soldiers and police officers, because they're the only things standing between our freedom and total anarchy. And in the case of this particular individual -- he was sentenced to 108 years for two crimes when he was 16. The post-prison transfer board -- I'll be very brief about this, but to understand -- they recommended to me as governor for his commutation, which didn't release him. It simply cut his sentence to 47 years. That would give him parole eligibility.

That was the commutation. I'm responsible for that. And it's not something I'm happy about, at this particular moment.

O'REILLY: Now did you study it...

HUCKABEE: Yes...

O'REILLY: I mean, look. governors have a lot of this stuff. Did you study this guy? Did you spend a lot of time on it, or did you just take the advice of your advisers?

HUCKABEE: No, I looked at every case file, and I had about 1,200 of these a year. This is what people need to understand. 92% of the time, they were denied. But in this case, the judge in the case was also recommending, and the parole board -- on a 5-0 vote -- because at the age of 16, the sentence he got for the crimes he committed back in 1989 was excessive for anything else that....

O'REILLY: [interrupting] Okay he was a bad guy in prison, and the prosecutors told you. So they say "Hey, this is a hard-core guy. This isn't some kid who went wrong".

HUCKABEE: We didn't have any information from the prosecutors. We sent notices, which is the practice in Arkansas, to five different people: The Attorney General, the Secretary of State, the prosecutor, the judge, and law enforcement. The only official we have record of getting notification of from was the judge, who agreed with the recommendation of the parole board.

So that's what we acted upon. What I acted upon -- I'm responsible for that, and you know, my heart is broken for four families tonight...

O'REILLY: [interrupting] Well, it's not your fault, Governor. I mean, look, you've got 1,200 of these cases a year. You gotta look at them. I'm not saying it's your fault. I don't think anyone watching thinks it's your fault.

But the judges in Washington state, come on. I mean, this guy moves from your state -- Arkansas -- to Washington state and then he racks up 8 felony charges. Eight felonies!

Comments

[RIDGEBACK56]

11:42 AM on 12/12/2009

The real lesson here is that a sudden jailcell conversion to the popular mythology of the locale [99% of the time that would be jesus] should have zero bearing on anything. In fact, one should assume that the convict has now gone insane by professing a belief in imaginary playpals, and have his/her sentence doubled!!

[peacegurl48]

02:51 PM on 12/03/2009

Republican­/ Right Wing Hypocrisy once again. Dukakis or any other Democrat would not have been afforded such understand­ing from O'Reilly.

[tekjensen]

10:40 PM on 12/02/2009

Of course it isn't his fault he's a Republican­.

[azdirk]

08:19 PM on 12/02/2009

At last! Absolution­!

[grandpaMark]

07:38 PM on 12/02/2009

O'Reilley' attack dog style seems turned off when dealing with one of his own. Huckabee is an accomplice to the murder of four police officers and the fifth was to be the officer who gunned Huck's bible buddy down as he drew a gun. Funny how rightists look the other way when it is obvious that their idols have proven to be hypocrites­.Where is republican outrage at Huck abrogating a jury's sentence of 108 years?

[WeCanDoIt]

05:55 PM on 12/02/2009

Latest Updates:

Gregoire: No More Arkansas Parolees
http://sea­ttletimes.­nwsource.c­om/html/lo­calnews/20­10405302_w­ebgregoire­02m.html

Alleged Getaway Drive Could Face Murder Charges
http://sea­ttletimes.­nwsource.c­om/html/lo­calnews/20­10405277_w­ebdarcus02­m.html

[OpusIsUnderTheBed]

04:48 PM on 12/02/2009

Pardoned, by a television deity. Good enough for me. King's X!!

[balrog221]

04:34 PM on 12/02/2009

The no spin spin....
Okay since Obama and the FBI were clearly responsibl­e for the recent military assassinat­ions in CA. Muslim Fundamenta­list Terrorism! How can we pin this on Obama? Do we know if Clemmons went to any Rev Wright sermons? In person? on the Web? Did he train in Kenya? Was he one of Obama's Healthcare consultant­s( in charge of death panels)? Was he an out of work Acorn worker? Since the police were white, he was clearly a racist...a­nother link to Obama. Now I am not saying that this is the case, but you can't rule it out....let­'s be Fair and Balanced Right?

Maybe Glen Beck and JTP can explain it all this evening because I have such a hard time figuring this stuff out all by myself. It makes my head hurt.

[sc300nc]

03:59 PM on 12/02/2009

That's the problem with politics today. It's never anbody's fault. Obama, Huckabee, Clinton, Bush, Frank, Palin, Pelosi, etc etc etc.

Where are the people who will take responsibi­lity for their actions?

[balrog221]

03:26 PM on 12/02/2009

Here is the no spin zone angle. Obama and the FBI were clearly responsibl­e for the recent military assassinat­ions in CA. Muslim Fundamenta­list Terrorism! How can we pin this on Obama? Do we know if Clemmons went to any Rev Wright sermons? In person? on the Web? Did he train in Kenya? Was he one of Obama's Healthcare consultant­s( in charge of death panels)? Was he an out of work Acorn worker? Since the police were white, he was clearly a racist...a­­nother link to Obama. Now I am not saying that this is the case, but you can't rule it out....let­­'s be Fair and Balanced Right?

Maybe Glen Beck can explain it all this evening because I have such a hard time figuring this stuff out all by myself.

[Melizzy]

02:24 PM on 12/02/2009

Umm, Governor, yeah, it's pretty much your fault. You made him eligible for parole. Because he spouted religious nonsense. Heckuva job!

[EdCoughlin]

02:24 PM on 12/02/2009

I love the dig at the end "its not your fault but these activist judges in Washington­! I mean come on!".

[EdCoughlin]

02:21 PM on 12/02/2009

Imagine if this was a democrat..­.say maybe a presidenti­al candidate democrat.

Lets just pick a name out of the blue, Michael Dukakis, something like that. Lets say that democrat had not even released someone from prison full on but had just given them a weekend pass, I wonder what O'Riley would say then? It's not your fault mike? You couldn't have known Mike? I think not.

Huckabee was profoundly irresponsi­ble here, he let the guy out because the guy told him he had found Jesus and Huck believed him. This should kill his political career dead.

[balrog221]

01:55 PM on 12/02/2009

with Fox I do not need to think for myself. It is great I just listen to Bill Sean and Glen and learn everything I need to know. It's so easy....

[Professorofdesire]

11:01 AM on 12/02/2009

Let's report Bill-O's complete statement. "It's not your fault, although it would have been if you were Bill Clinton."