Watch: Wilmore Inserts Himself into Debate with O'Reilly

Kali Holloway
and
 AlterNet
June 25, 2015

Larry Wilmore kicked off a segment about blowhard Bill O’Reilly’s absurd recent debate on race with this gem: “As with all things, progress is incremental. It’s one step forward, two Bill O’Reillys back.”

From there, Wilmore reviewed clips from O’Reilly’s show in which the Fox pundit alleged “anti-American propaganda continues with a number of far-left zealots trying to divide Americans along color lines.” It was the sort of classic, maddening nonsense that inspired Wilmore to say what most of us feel when watching O’Reilly discuss pretty much anything: “I love knowing when I’m going to start screaming at the TV.”

As his case in point that racism doesn’t exist, O’Reilly pointed out that while 1,163,146 violent crimes were committed in 2013, just 3,563 of those were race-based hate crimes. Wilmore gave the figures the benefit of the doubt, stating, “Let’s assume that these numbers are true, even though Bill isn’t a big numbers guy. Like when he said he was covering the Falklands war but was really 1,200 miles away.”

He then noted that the numbers still work out to 9.59 race-based hate crimes a day — 9.58 too many, according to the Nightly Show host. “I am willing to concede there’s .01 that probably deserved it. Just sayin’.”

Then, using the power of split screens and other TV tech, Wilmore inserted himself into a heated debate between O’Reilly and Fox News contributor Kirsten Powers, perhaps the lone voice of reason on the network. "Slavery was part of this country's history," Powers said in the midst of the back-and-forth, to which O’Reilly replied, "So what?"

“Slavery gets a so what?” Wilmore asked, incredulously. “What’s your take on the Holocaust? Whatevs?”

When Powers asked Bill how many black friends he has, O’Reilly, as usual, blew up and offered a few non-answers. Twice.

"She asked you if you had any black friends and you got all mad!" Wilmore said, mockingly. "I don't have anything smart to say here. It's just hilarious."

Watch the entire sketch, below. 

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