Hot Topic: Bill O’Reilly And Jon Stewart Face Off Over White Privelege [Video]

Fox News Host Bill O’Reilly was a guest on Jon Stewart’s Daily Show Wednesday night. But what was supposed to be an interview with Bill O’Reilly promoting his new book, Killing Patton: The Strange Death of World War II’s Most Audacious General, became an ambush of sorts. Jon Stewart immediately jumped on the topic of white privilege, and demanded answers from O’Reilly, per Business Insider.

Back in August, O’Reilly had a debate with another Fox News anchor, Megyn Kelly, who argued with O’Reilly that white privilege is a serious issue. O’Reilly not only disagreed, he dismissed the idea as a non-issue in today’s society. O’Reilly said while he doesn’t believe in white privilege, he admitted “there is no question that African Americans have a much harder time succeeding in our society than whites do,” as reported by the Washington Post.

Evidently, that didn’t sit well with Jon Stewart. And as O’Reilly was a guest on Stewart’s Daily Show, Stewart took advantage of a perfect situation to set the record straight with O’Reilly regarding the topic of white privilege, as reported by The Blaze.

It isn’t often when a guest makes an appearance on a show to promote their new book, or a new movie, the host completely disregards that element in order to resort to a completely different topic of conversation. The extent of the promotion of O’Reilly’s new book was a mere few seconds of a blurb, after which Stewart admits that he hadn’t even read O’Reilly’s book, as told by the Washington Post

“The book is called Bill O’Reilly, ‘Killing Patton,’ it’s like what — the eighth. We’re just going to call this series ‘Killing Trees.’ They sell like crazy.”

Stewart then slammed O’Reilly’s book on the counter, and without wasting another moment, dove right into the hot topic, in which he clearly intended to corner O’Reilly. It was a long 12 minutes of banter.

“Listen to me. Here’s all I want from you today — this is it, this is all we got to do in this conversation. I have one simple goal. I want you to admit that there is such a thing as white privilege. That’s all I want. I want you to admit that there is such a thing as white privilege. That’s all I want you to do… I just want you to say, ‘I’m terribly, terribly wrong on this.'”

Much to Stewart’s dismay, he didn’t get what he wanted from O’Reilly. But what he did get was a heated debate that turned into a shouting match, with the two talking over each other and quipping out snide remarks.

O’Reilly was quick to retort to Stewart’s demands.

“In your case, there is white privilege. The fact that you’re here, sitting there. He doesn’t even shave. He doesn’t even — look at you… You think I’m sitting here because I’m white? What are you, a moron? I’m sitting here because I’m obnoxious, not because I’m white!”

Stewart questions O’Reilly about his childhood in Levittown, New York. Stewart asked O’Reilly if black people could live in Levittown, as revealed by the Washington Post.

“Not at that time.”

Just what Jon wanted to hear, snapping back with his proud reply.

“So that, my friend, is what we call in the business ‘white privilege.’

But Jon must have felt a little deflated when O’Reilly reminded Jon that they were talking about the 1950s. O’Reilly went on to make some interesting points, as reported by The Blaze.

“Maybe you haven’t figured out that there is no more slavery, no more Jim Crow, and the most powerful man in the world is a black American, and the most powerful woman in the world, Oprah Winfrey, is black.”

Jon Stewart says there are still residuals from past events in history that have created a white privilege in America, and O’Reilly did admit that race has been a factor in certain outcomes. But, O’Reilly is quick to repeat his beliefs about America today.

“Let me repeat this, and I’ll do it slowly so even you can understand it: If you work hard, if you get educated, if you’re an honest person, you can make it in America!”

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