Bill O’Reilly recently called rapper Lupe Fiasco “a pinhead” for saying “the biggest terrorist is Obama in the United States of America,” so Fiasco showed up to The O’Reilly Factor Monday evening to have it out with the host. At first, it seemed like the two were going to communicate. “I don’t think you need a political Ph.D. to understand politics,” Fiasco said, when the host said the rapper’s “constituents” don’t know a lot about politics. “I don’t think politics are as complicated as people make them out to be. If you’re going to fight terrorism, fight the root causes of terrorism.” O’Reilly was sort of listening. “The root causes of terrorism are many,” he said. “It varies region to region.” O’Reilly reminded the rapper that it’s the president’s job to protect Americans, and Fiasco said the killing of Osama bin Laden was all right by him.
But then, perhaps realizing that agreeing with one another wouldn’t make great TV, they began talking over one another in loud voices, as O’Reilly and his guests are wont to do. It was like we were in college again, stuck with a conservative professor and that guy who shows up in Wayfarers everyday to make repeated denunciations of American foreign policy, while we zone out. Which is great. By the end, even O’Reilly seemed sort of charmed.
