O'Reilly: "[B]ecause people of color are being slaughtered and harmed in Darfur, the left is on the bandwagon"

On the September 25 edition of his nationally syndicated radio show, while discussing President Bush's speech to the United Nations General Assembly earlier that day, Bill O'Reilly said that it was “interesting” that Bush “urged the United Nations to send troops to secure the peace in Sudan's war-ravaged region of Darfur.” O'Reilly then claimed that “Darfur is the left cause. They see the evil there and want to confront it, yet they don't want the evil confronted in the Islamic world. That's a very interesting situation.” He added: “Now, Darfur is a disgrace, and that is Islamic driven. It's the same soup, but because people of color are being slaughtered and harmed in Darfur, the left is on the bandwagon. Interesting, isn't it?”

During the show, O'Reilly also stated: “Darfur should have been taken care of a long time ago if the United Nations was any kind of an effective body, which it is not. I mean, all you gotta do is say, 'OK, we're gonna go in, and we're gonna knock out these Janjaweed, whoever they are, and we're gonna destroy them. And then the poor people of Darfur will be left alone.' ” He added: “But of course, China doesn't want to do that. You know, the usual game. I don't even pay attention to it anymore. That's how disgusting it is.”

As Media Matters for America has documented, nationally syndicated conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh has also suggested there are racial motives for progressives' interest in Darfur. On the August 21 broadcast of his radio show, Limbaugh claimed that Democrats “want to get us out of Iraq, but they can't wait to get us into Darfur,” adding, “There are two reasons. What color is the skin of the people in Darfur? It's black. And who do the Democrats really need to keep voting for them? If they lose a significant percentage of this voting bloc, they're in trouble.” A caller responded, “The black population,” to which Limbaugh said, “Right.”

From the beginning of the September 25 edition of Westwood One's The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly:

O'REILLY: Ah, the reaction to [Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad is fascinating. The left really didn't know what to do with this guy, because he's so bad, so evil. Do we have that Air America -- is that on tape, that Air America-Lionel thing? Is that -- OK. Air America is bankrupt, so I don't -- we don't even know where it is, but I'll read you a transcript from the far left that's pretty interesting.

And that's the subject of the first hour of The Radio Factor today, because you basically have evil coming to the USA, and most Americans understand it, and they see the guy, and they know he's evil, and, you know, they're disturbed by it, and a lot of people don't want to confront it. But the far left is in a really tough position, because the only way that you defeat evil is to confront it. There's no other way to do it, because evil, by its very nature -- excuse me -- is aggressive. It wouldn't be evil if it wasn't aggressive, and it comes out and does bad things and bad things and bad things, and then somebody has to stop it. But the far left doesn't believe in evil, number one, everything is a gray area -- and we'll discuss that, as well. And number two, there's just a lot of people that say, "Well, why do we have to confront it?" You know, who -- let -- “France will do it.” No, they won't.

So, it's a very interesting thing what happened after Ahmadinejad spoke at Columbia University. Columbia University has been damaged beyond repair, by the way, so some of you might think that's good news, but they'll never recover in my lifetime from this. I mean, that's just -- they're just pretty much now in a label that you don't want to be in.

All right, the no-spin news: President Bush spoke to the United Nations today and basically said that there are evil nations in the world. He singled out Belarus, North Korea, Syria, Iran as denying people the fundamental rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a six-year-old document created in the United Nations. You know, Bush -- his usual confrontational self. He also singled out Cuba and Zimbabwe as human rights violators and on and on. OK.

And he urged the United Nations to send troops to secure the peace in Sudan's war-ravaged region of Darfur. Interesting. How the left gonna do that? See, Darfur is the left cause. They see the evil there and want to confront it, yet they don't want the evil confronted in the Islamic world. That's a very interesting situation. Now, Darfur is a disgrace, and that is Islamic driven. It's the same soup, but because people of color are being slaughtered and harmed in Darfur, the left is on the bandwagon. Interesting, isn't it?

But Darfur should have been taken care of a long time ago if the United Nations was any kind of an effective body, which it is not. I mean, all you gotta do is say, “OK, we're gonna go in, and we're gonna knock out these Janjaweed, whoever they are, and we're gonna destroy them. And then the poor people of Darfur will be left alone.” But, of course, China doesn't want to do that. You know, the usual game. I don't even pay attention to it anymore. That's how disgusting it is.

Actor Kevin Spacey -- appropriate last name -- met with [President] Hugo Chavez in Venezuela for three hours -- man, that would have put me to sleep. Apparently Spacey wants to produce some films in Venezuela, so he allowed himself to be a propaganda tool. I don't know much about this guy Spacey. I was on the Tonight Show one time, and he was on.

LIS WIEHL (co-host): Hmm-mm.

O'REILLY: He never came out of his dressing room. It was really funny. Everybody on the Tonight Show and backstage, Leno goes around --

WIEHL: Yeah.

O'REILLY: -- and talks to you --

WIEHL: Yeah.

O'REILLY: -- and you joke around with the crew. Spacey never came out. I don't know what he was doing in there.