There are arguments on both sides of the aisle for the legalization of marijuana, but Fox News anchor Bill O’Reilly doesn’t want to hear them. So much so that he shut down a fellow conservative during a debate on his show Monday night, accusing her of “babbling,” even though she was explaining her point quite clearly.
O’Reilly welcomed HotAir Editor-at-Large Mary Katharine Ham and political analyst Juan Williams onto his show to discuss the implications of pot legalization on American society. The host stressed that it would hurt children and families — and he wasn’t going to hear any argument to the contrary.
“Mary Katharine, you’ve got a baby,” O’Reilly said. “Do you want this baby to be smoking pot? Is it a he or a she?”
Williams groaned as Ham responded that her baby is a girl. O’Reilly pressed that Ham must want her child to smoke pot when she’s a teen. Naturally, Ham, responded that she didn’t.
“But that doesn’t mean it needs to be illegal,” Ham argued.
O’Reilly then interrupted Ham and told her to answer his question — when that’s just what she was trying to do.
“No, I’m answering the question by saying it doesn’t have to be illegal because I can step in and handle things [as a parent]!” she responded. “And the fact is that freedom is far less likely to be damaging than paternalism and a nanny state!”
“Mary Katharine, you’re babbling,” the host accused. “You don’t want to engage in this conversation.”
“No, I’m saying clear words and making an argument to you,” she countered.
“No, you’re babbling,” O’Reilly said, shifted back to Williams and accusing Ham of punting the question.
During the interview, Ham also noted that even is pot is legalized, it would still be illegal for children to use. She said it might even be harder to acquire marijuana if it’s legalized by the state.
Even Williams, who generally sided with O’Reilly, received some ire from the host and was shut down during the discussion.
Williams said that some parents might favor the legalization of the drug in order to prevent their children from being arrested and prosecuted for “soft drug use.” O’Reilly countered that there were “no mass arrests” of drug users, but that they simply got a ticket. He said that minors have drug use expunged from their records.
“This is not a crime that is actively pursued by district attorneys,” O’Reilly said to Williams. “I’m just going to discount that argument, Juan.”
Watch the segment below:
(h/t Mediaite)
