Fox News host Bill O’Reilly has called Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell “an old-time pol” while appearing to call for “fresh, vibrant leadership” of the Republican Party.
O’Reilly made his controversial comments during The O’Reilly Factor on Tuesday night while talking with conservative commentator Charles Krauthammer about the future of the GOP if it gains control of the Senate in the midterms next week.
“If you are incompetent and you lose the confidence of the people you are in trouble,” Krauthammer said of President Barack Obama and the Democratic Party,
Mediaite reported.
“And you have every scandal there is. You have the VA, Obamacare, and the Secret Service. And now with Ebola running around with no idea what to do, and they change the protocols every other day.
“So, given the climate, if the GOP can’t win back the Senate in a climate like this, maybe the party ought to look for another country.”
The Washington Post columnist continued, “Let’s assume Republicans are going to win the Senate. They are not going to win in 2016 by hiring a new PR, coming up with a slogan.
“The most important thing they need to do is show the country in the next two years, if they control two houses of Congress, that you have a governing agenda. Right now they are the government of no.”
Krauthammer said that the only reason to retake the Senates to enact an agenda that will come out of the House and into the Senate, “and then confront Obama with the veto threat.”
He added, “Sharpen the differences, show the country you are not the party of no.”
Then O’Reilly interjected with an apparent criticism of McConnell, who is in a tight race against Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes.
“It takes leadership to do that,” said O’Reilly. “And if Mitch McConnell wins in Kentucky, he’s going to be the Senate leader. He’s an old-time pol … just no fresh, vibrant leadership.”
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