Eat The Press

"It's A Cheap Political Point — And You Know It!" O'Reilly and Geraldo Square Off On Illegal Immigration

Rachel Sklar |  Posted Friday April 6, 2007 at 01:35 AM

It's official: Bill O'Reilly has lost it. Tonight he got in a full-on shouting match with Geraldo Rivera over the tragic death of two teenaged girls by a drunk driver — who happened to be an illegal alien. Apparently the driver had had a previous DUI, and O'Reilly had blamed the Mayor and the police chief for the fact that he had been permitted to walk, and then remain in the country to drink and drive again. Geraldo thought O'Reilly was missing the point — his nationality wasn't the issue, the issue was that he was drunk, and sadly, drunk driving is not an issue of specific citizenship. Here's where O'Reilly went apoplectic, incredulous that Geraldo would dare side with the illegal immigrant: Smacking the table, he cried: "He doesn't have a right to be in this country!" "But that has nothing to do with the fact that he was drunk!" cried Geraldo, impassioned and mustachioed. "Yes it does!" shouted O'Reilly. "He should have been deported!" It was at this point that Geraldo told O'Reilly to "cool your jets" — and that's when the real fighting began:

Geraldo: Cool your jets, it has nothing to do with illegal aliens! It has to do with drunk driving!
O'Reilly: It doesn't!
Geraldo: Don't obscure a tragedy to make a cheap political point!
O'Reilly: If I'm the father...
Geraldo: It's a cheap political point — and you know it!
O'Reilly: No it isnt! This is justice!
Geraldo: This has nothing to do with that mayor!
O'Reilly: You want anarchy!
Geraldo: No!
O'Reilly: You want open-border anarchy!

Maybe not the best fight to pick with a guy named "Rivera."

Geraldo then went on to make slightly less defensible arguments that the U.S. had been "luring" illegal immigrants to the country for years, but his main point was valid: This was about the tragedy of these girls, and not about U.S. immigration policy. O'Reilly's agitations actually made it back to Virginia Beach and the father of one of the girls, who said: "We need to heal, and to bring immigration, that's disrespectful to a family who's just mourning." So: Cable television theatrics or a genuine issue? They certainly both seemed very impassioned — we were waiting for Geraldo to whip off his glasses — and, judging by the decibels reached by O'Reilly's voice, the (more than slightly xenophobic) sentiments were genuine. Look for the re-enactment by Paul Rudd and Michael Showalter very soon (equally appropriate Paul Rudd here).

Bill O'Reilly Loses His Damn Mind [Oliver Willis]