Wow…this was a stunning exchange. I had to rewind it twice to revel in the pwnage handed out by Bill O’Reilly. South Carolina Democrat Party Chair, Dick Harpootlian, was on to clear up for O’Reilly something he said recently about the GOP allegedly being racist by having their S.C. debate on the federal holiday celebrating MLK, Jr. O’Reilly wasn’t quite sure he believed what he’d heard or had been told that Harpootlian said, so that’s why he asked him to come on to clear things up.

As is said in many places, “hilarity ensues” (h/t Mediaite):

Frances Martel does a fabulous write-up about it, and I couldn’t have said it any better, so here it is direct from the Mediaite post:

“Are you offended?” O’Reilly asked Harpootlian, who replied that he was not, but that he found the fact that Republicans had “no outreach to African Americans” a problem “in a state where we have an African-American Republican Congressman.” “Adding insult to injury, this debate ignoring Martin Luther King’s birthday!” he added, which made O’Reilly ask who was ignoring the debate and why. The Republicans, Harpootlian replied, because “no one has raised any issue with Fox about it being appropriate or inappropriate.”

O’Reilly then asked whether there was a reason for this– namely, something that happened in 2008. Harpootlian did not remember what happened in 2008 (a Democratic primary debate on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day) and who sponsored it (the Congressional Black Caucus), which prompted several awkward seconds where Harpootlian was obviously caught flat-footed. With this development, O’Reilly then told him that, “by injecting race into this, you do a disservice.” Harpootlian finally replied, blaming Republicans for injecting race into the matter by calling this “the most important election since 1860.” “We in the South have a little different version of that election,” he noted, suggesting that talking to Southerners in such a way was a sort of dog whistle. O’Reilly disagreed and just asked Harpootlian to give it up, adding, “you’re getting killed here!”

Ouch! That’s GOTTA leave a mark! Great piece, Frances.