Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) can handle the heat he’s receiving due to his comments on poverty, telling Bill O’Reilly on Tuesday that he’s a “big boy.”
Earlier this month, the Wisconsin Congressman said that many men in inner cities don’t learn “the value and the culture of work.” The Republican was almost immediately criticized for those comments, with one of the harshest attacks coming from Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), who accused the Congressman of racism.
“My colleague Congressman Ryan’s comments about ‘inner city’ poverty are a thinly veiled racial attack and cannot be tolerated,” Lee said in a statement. “Let’s be clear, when Mr. Ryan says ‘inner city,’ when he says, ‘culture,’ these are simply code words for what he really means: ‘black.’”
But while sitting down with O’Reilly on Tuesday, Ryan refused to malign the Congresswoman, asking instead for a “real conversation” instead of throwing around “baseless charges.” The host wouldn’t give up, however, pressing Ryan to say more about Lee’s accusations.
“Are you mad at her?” O’Reilly asked.
“No, I’m not mad at her,” Ryan responded.
“I would be,” the host said.
“I’m a big boy,” Ryan said. “I understand that if you challenge the status quo, that if you get into this issues, sometimes you’ll be misinterpreted. But also, I really believe that we got to have a real conversation about how to fix things without throwing these charges at people.”
When Ryan refused to take the bait, O’Reilly gave his own opinion, unloading on members of Congress he sees as “race hustlers.”
“They don’t want a conversation,” the host said. “They don’t want to solve the problem. These race hustlers make a big living and they get voted into office by portraying their constituents as victims, and it’s all your fault and it’s my fault, it’s the rich people’s fault, it’s Republicans’ fault.”
O’Reilly continued, saying kids weren’t given proper supervision, resulting in their inability to speak, read or compete in the marketplace. Ryan graciously continued with his point, stressing that solving the problem of poverty was a priority and that he was seeking to have a conversation about it.
