CLIPS: O'Reilly to viewer: "Your so-called compassion helped kill those children" in Bronx fire

This is taken from Media Matters. All emphasis is in the original.

Bonus points, I stole the headline too.

From the March 9 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor:

O'REILLY: And then there is that terrible fire here in New York City, where eight children were killed, children of parents born in Mali, West Africa. Because New York is a sanctuary city that protects illegal aliens, The Factor cannot confirm whether or not all these children were in the USA legally.

What we can confirm is that 17 children were living in a rowhouse, along with five adults, that one of the men in the house had two wives -- one upstairs, one downstairs -- and that living conditions were chaotic and dangerous.

After our report last night, I received this letter from [viewer] in Houston. "O'Reilly, it was despicable to hear you question the status of those children. I was a big fan of yours but I'll never watch you again and urge others who feel compassion for immigrants not to watch you as well."

OK, [viewer], but here's the no-spin truth, so listen up. Your so-called compassion helped kill those children. They should have never been in that circumstance. If the authorities had investigated as they should have, those kids might be alive right now, legal or not.

It is against the law to overcrowd a dwelling. It is against the law to have two wives. If any one of those people were here illegally, that is another infraction. But New York City looks the other way. It doesn't want to know.

It is people like you, [viewer], who promote that kind of chaos in the name of compassion, who look the other way while poor workers and children are exploited by greedy landlords and businesses because you don't like the immigration laws.

Yeah, it's great to be compassionate sitting at home watching the tube. But for decades, our government has allowed people from all over the world to walk in here without supervision. That's why these children are dead -- because their chaotic situation was ignored by New York City authorities.

[...]

O'REILLY: I'm basically saying that we must get this situation of illegal immigration under control. The chaos is killing children. Go.

RIVERA: I think to draw -- to make the connection between illegal immigration and
that horrific fire in the Bronx two days ago is an injustice to the victims of that fire. Why did they die?

There's no code violations that they found. There were no required, you know -- everything in the building so far --

O'REILLY: Twenty-two people in the house.

RIVERA: There were two batteries missing in the fire alarm.

O'REILLY: Twenty-two people in a house.

RIVERA: But, Bill, the status of the immigration is not relevant.

My legal nanny has children in school with three of those victims. It is the human cause. And if you --

O'REILLY: This is what you missed. I'm going to give you the last word. But this is what you missed. This is a sanctuary city. That means the authorities do not ask any questions about anybody's status or anybody's condition.

RIVERA: Bill, they're dead children, for God's sake, they're dead children.

O'REILLY: If they had been American children --

RIVERA: They'd still be dead children. It would still be heartbreaking.

O'REILLY: No, the authorities would have gone in and checked them out.

RIVERA: No, please. That's not so.

O'REILLY: Yes, it is.

RIVERA: You don't know that to be a fact.

O'REILLY: Yes, I do.

RIVERA: You don't --

O'REILLY: You know it is.

RIVERA: -- there are little babies dead. There are people -- mothers throwing babies out the window. They're dying. Falling onto the -- you've got to be compassionate, brother. You've got to be compassionate.

O'REILLY: Twenty-two people in a rowhouse. They don't let people do that.

RIVERA: You gotta take a step back and say, "Wait a second, this isn't about illegal immigration. This is about the human cost of a terrible tragedy."

O'REILLY: This is about a system --

RIVERA: Those firemen were crying. They were crying because the babies died.

O'REILLY: Four of the firemen were almost killed.

RIVERA: That's right.

O'REILLY: And that situation never should have existed. Never.

RIVERA: Please, I've covered poverty in this country for 35 years. I've seen legal poor people living under conditions far more squalid than that. That was a working family at a good school. You've gotta divorce their status from their victimization.

O'REILLY: They have to be supervised. And they weren't.

Think what you will about Geraldo Rivera. He is a show boater, he loves the attention and limelight. All true. But his passion is genuine especially compared to O'Reilly's.

In this case he's absolutely right. Human life is human life regardless of nationality or citizenship. O'Reilly is human excrement a piece of shit (I had second thoughts).

Oh yeah, notice O'Reilly said Geraldo would be allowed the last word? Who really got it? O'Reilly could never give anyone the last word, anytime, anywhere, anyway. He's a total ass.

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