O’Reilly Says Khizr Khan Was ‘Hired by the Clinton Campaign’ to Attack Trump

On Tuesday night’s O’Reilly Factor, host Bill O’Reilly had one of his cozy jaw-sessions with Donald Trump. The subjects were varied. Trump was eloquent on the recent rejection of various states’ restrictive voting laws: “Voter I.D.! People are gonna walk in and vote 10 times!” But the main subject was Khizr Khan, who O’Reilly said “was obviously hired by the Clinton campaign” to attack Trump. Trump vigorously agreed, repeating what he’s said elsewhere — that Khan had “viciously attacked” him — and then he went on to use the phrase “viciously attacked” at least four more times. By the end of the segment, I half expected Trump to yank down his tie, unbutton his shirt, and show the Factor audience the claw marks Khan had left upon his crucified body.

O’Reilly tried to get Trump to admit he’d made a public relations error in his subsequent comments about Ghazala Khan when he said, “She had nothing to say … She probably — maybe she wasn’t allowed to have anything to say.” Trump was having none of it; he never backs down. Trump said that what he said about Ghazala Khan “was something I’ve heard” other people talking about as well.

In the next segment, O’Reilly brought on Fox News contributor Kirsten Powers — the designated liberal counterpoint in Fair and Balanced Land — to “react” to the Trump segment. But the way O’Reilly framed the Khan controversy, it wasn’t so much that the Khan family had been insulted by the Republican candidate for president, it was that Trump had erred in his strategy and, said O’Reilly, “it’s given the far left another reason to bash his head in.”

Powers observed that Trump’s comments about Ghazala were particularly rude, but O’Reilly then gave his interpretation of what Trump had just said: “He injected an opinion about Muslim culture that doesn’t treat women the same.” When Powers said this was, to put it mildly, being rather overgenerous regarding Trump’s quote, O’Reilly cut in: “I’m trying to put, as I always do, stuff in context.” And context, as we all know, is everything.

The O’Reilly Factor airs weeknights at 8 p.m. on Fox News.