The O'Reilly Factor Inteview, 2/12/99
Bill O'Reilly, Back of the Book: Al Franken, The O'Reilly Factor (Fox News Network), 12 Feb 1999.
O'REILLY: In the Back of the Book Segment tonight, Al Franken who is selling lots of books with his new tome about him being president called "Why Not Me?" Why not, indeed?
Al Franken joins us now.
So were you cheering the vote today when it came in for acquittal?
AL FRANKEN, "WHY NOT ME?" AUTHOR: I was doing sound mixing on my -- on "Lateline," but I cheered the result, yes.
O'REILLY: You did?
FRANKEN: Yeah.
O'REILLY: Now why would you be happy about it?
FRANKEN: Well, because I...
O'REILLY: Very specifically.
FRANKEN: Very specifically because I don't want the president removed.
O'REILLY: And why? Why don't you...
FRANKEN: I think he's a very good president.
O'REILLY: In what way?
FRANKEN: I think he's achieved a lot. He came in the office with this horrible deficit. He's balanced the budget; in '93, passed the budget deficit package with all Republican votes against him. People -- conservatives were saying that...
O'REILLY: Clinton couldn't have passed it, Al, if all the Republicans voted against him.
FRANKEN: Yes, he could. Well, every Republican voted against it in '93. Every one of -- every single Republican.
O'REILLY: Is that -- you -- I might stand corrected there. We'll look it up.
FRANKEN: You might. You do. It is...
O'REILLY: I do stand corrected?
FRANKEN: Yeah.
O'REILLY: Are you sure?
FRANKEN: Absolutely. Every Republican...
O'REILLY: OK. All right. We've got it on tape. I will cede to your...
FRANKEN: Remember the Democrats who cast the tie-breaking votes lost, Muzinski (ph) and...
O'REILLY: Right. Right. So, economically, you admired what the president did.
FRANKEN: Well, not that. He's -- he had the courage to do that, and I think he's been a very good president, and I ...
O'REILLY: What other way besides economics?
FRANKEN: Well, I think he's been very good on things like race, on affirmative action.
O'REILLY: Well, all right. Things like race. What does that mean?
What has he done?
FRANKEN: Well, instead of getting rid of affirmative action, he stood up for it.
O'REILLY: Stood up for affirmative action.
FRANKEN: Yeah. I just like his policies, and I think that this whole -- I think the impeachment thing was very ill advised. I think that Henry Hyde said it best when the impeachment hearings began. He said you can't impeach a president in a partisan fashion. You just can't do that, and...
O'REILLY: No, it certainly wasn't -- now do you believe...
FRANKEN: But I...
O'REILLY: Go ahead.
FRANKEN: If -- he said that, and then he evidently forgot.
O'REILLY: No, he -- he believed the president was a criminal. I think that that's what it came down to for Henry Hyde.
FRANKEN: No, but at first...
O'REILLY: The guy just said, "Hey, the guy's a criminal. He committed crimes. He shouldn't be in there."
FRANKEN: Yeah, but he also -- said that, and then he said this at the beginning of the hearings, that we can't do this on a -- we have to do it on a bipartisan basis like Nixon who was not...
O'REILLY: But that's why the impeachment failed, because it wasn't bipartisan, and that's the way it is. But when you look at a guy like President Clinton and -- now he reflects your thinking politically. You're a liberal guy and -- affirmative action and this and that. Do you see a president who was set up? Do you think it was a right-wing conspiracy to get him, or did he do it and just...
FRANKEN: Well, he screwed up.
O'REILLY: He did. So you're going to give him that.
FRANKEN: Yeah, but -- yeah, but I think that -- you know, you're saying all show how complicated this all is. It isn't that complicated.
Most people believe that the president lied about sex. Most people believe that...
O'REILLY: But why did he do that? That's the problem. You see...
FRANKEN: Oh, I'll tell you why. You want to know?
O'REILLY: I'd love to know, Al. Sure. You go right ahead.
FRANKEN: OK. I'll tell you the sequence of events. He had consensual sex with a woman in the Oval Office.
O'REILLY: Right.
FRANKEN: Terrible thing to do.
O'REILLY: No, no. You don't believe that, Al.
FRANKEN: No, it is a terrible thing to do.
O'REILLY: Do you really believe it is?
FRANKEN: Yeah. You shouldn't have sex with an intern, and -- OK, but...
O'REILLY: OK. Go ahead. Because you're in show business, and you know how that happens.
FRANKEN: By the way, I don't represent all of show business like you indicated earlier. Anyway...
O'REILLY: You -- that's not what show business told me.
FRANKEN: So then the -- so now he's had sex with this woman, OK. Now it's a consensual thing. Neither of them wants it exposed that they've had sex. When you have sex -- and I have never done this -- with someone who's not your wife, you -- I think there is at least a tacit if not explicit agreement that "We don't tell anybody about this," OK. Then she gets called up as a witness in the Paula Jones deposition. Now you know that she doesn't want people to know that she's been doing what she's been doing with the president.
O'REILLY: Then why did she tell 15 people?
FRANKEN: Because she's a 22-year-old...
O'REILLY: Yeah, but that negates what your theory is.
FRANKEN: No, no. She told her friends, but she didn't want...
O'REILLY: Oh, her friends.
FRANKEN: She didn't want -- yeah, like Linda Tripp, but she didn't want the world to know that she had been giving the president what she was giving him.
O'REILLY: There you go.
FRANKEN: That makes a lot of sense. So, of course, they're not -- and now he doesn't know that she has told Linda Tripp and that she's tape recorded it.
O'REILLY: Right, but he does know that she's going to be under oath pretty soon.
FRANKEN: Yeah. So what does he do? So should he have said to her, "Monica, I'm telling you you have to tell the truth."
O'REILLY: Well, he's the president.
FRANKEN: Well, no, he says...
O'REILLY: But he's the pres.
FRANKEN: He doesn't say anything.
O'REILLY: No, he did. He said plenty. He said, "What are you going to do, honey?" and...
FRANKEN: He didn't...
O'REILLY: ... "Give me the gifts back, honey,"
FRANKEN: No, he didn't say -- he didn't say -- see, now he didn't say, "Give me the gifts back, honey." Now here's the thing that I keep hearing, is that -- you know, we keep hearing...
O'REILLY: How did the gifts get back?
FRANKEN: ... rule of law. They got back because she called Betty Currie, according to Betty Currie's testimony, which conflicts with Monica Lewinsky's testimony, but Betty Currie also gave the prosecutors the testimony about being...
O'REILLY: All right. I get -- I get the drift of...
FRANKEN: No, no, no, no, no.
O'REILLY: But we only have a minute now. We only have a minute.
FRANKEN: Bill...
O'REILLY: So...
FRANKEN: Yeah, but I want to say something.
O'REILLY: Spit it out.
FRANKEN: You know, you're talking about rule of law and then accusing the president of being legalistic, and there seems to be a contradiction there. When you say to me, "But, Al, how did he say, `Come on. Give me the gifts, honey' " -- he didn't! He was very careful...
O'REILLY: So Monica Lewinsky out of the -- out of the clear blue sky said, "You know, I think I want to give Betty Currie the gifts because I'd rather have them under her bed than in my house."
FRANKEN: Yeah, because "When the people from the Paula..."
O'REILLY: Yeah? Yeah?
FRANKEN: Yes, because...
O'REILLY: Yeah?
FRANKEN: ... "When the people from Paula Jones come from -- when the prosecutors come, I don't want those gifts there." O'REILLY: That's right!
FRANKEN: Why? Because "I don't want people to know that I was giving the president what I was giving him." O'REILLY: All right. Now -- Al, one thing.
FRANKEN: And Buyer actually asked that. He said...
O'REILLY: We only have 15 seconds left. One thing. This is a great plot for "Lateline," what you just laid out for me. That would be a great plot for you guys to do. Al Franken.
FRANKEN: Well, when we come back on, we'll do it.
O'REILLY: The book is "Why Not Me?" And why not, indeed? Thanks for coming in. Always good to talk with you.