There were no fireworks in Hillary Clinton's sit-down interview on The O'Reilly Factor on Fox News Wednesday night, but sparks began to fly from the outset of part two, broadcast Thursday Night.
Under aggressive questioning from host Bill O'Reilly, Sen. Clinton played down some of the danger Iran poses, unless it becomes a nuclear power.
"I think [Iran] is [dangerous] in combination with the other threats we face," she said. "Clearly if Iran were ever to obtain a nuclear weapon that would be unbelievably bad for us and the world and I'm going to do everything I can to prevent that from ever happening."
Noting that Iran wants the U.S. to pull its troops out of Iraq so Iran can dominate its neighbor, O’Reilly asked his guest how she planned to stop Iran, since she wants to withdraw our forces from Iraq.
Hillary responded with the standard Democratic Party claim that there can be no military victory in Iraq and that the Iraqis must now take charge of their own situation.
O'Reilly shot back that if Iran decides to dominate Iraq, oil and gas prices may double. Hillary simply answered, "We need to end the war in Iraq and win the war in Afghanistan."
The two then discussed the problems of Pakistan's failure to stop the Taliban attacks launched from Pakistan, with Hillary advocating a diplomatic solution to the problem.
Turning to the issue of waterboarding, Hillary said there were no circumstances that would allow us to use the practice and denied that it ever produces results, although O'Reilly cited evidence that it has indeed worked and is justified when American lives are in danger.
In the final moments of the interview, Mrs. Clinton steadfastly supported the practice of sanctuary cities for illegal immigrants. She said she would not crack down on such cities.
The interview was in contrast to Wednesday nights segment which was less confrontational.
The only mildly heated dispute Wednesday came when O'Reilly identified Hillary's stance on taxing the rich - those she said earn $250,000 or more - as a policy of taking from those with high incomes and giving to those who earn less.
Said O'Reilly: "You're going to raise taxes on the wealthy. That's income redistribution. You know what that is. And income redistribution is why some conservatives don't like you. It's because it takes from the wealthy and you give the less afluent - that's socialism - that has a socialist component ..."
"No it isn't" said Hillary who recoiled from the S word like a vampire confronted with a cross. "Was Teddy Roosevelt a socialist?" she asked. When O'Reilly said "somewhat," she added that, "Teddy Roosevelt was a great American. Our country works better when we're all in it together.”
On her $110 billion-a-year health care plan, O'Reilly, citing California's $8 billion health care deficit and New York's $5 billion health care deficit, asked "Are you going to tell me President Hillary Clinton is going to A) run this efficiently and B) not bankrupt the country when California and New York are already bankrupt?"
In reply, Mrs. Clinton simply side-stepped defending the ruinous fiscal cost of her plan by merely touting its alleged benefits, warning that "if we don't get to universal health care we will continue to bleed money." She also warned health care companies that she will regulate them.
When O'Reilly asked Hillary if she is a more polarizing personality than Obama Mrs. Clinton did not disagree, deftly avoiding the reasons for her reputation as being untrustworthy and blaming her bad image solely on issues.
Hillary said, "I've been around a long time. I bear a lot of the scars of the ideological and the political battles. I stand up for what I believe in. My point is that I've been doing that for 15 years so the people who disagree with me - it's fair, that's our system – they take shots at me."
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