Olbermann: ‘I probably owe George W. Bush an apology’
Former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann on Friday said he “probably owes George W. Bush” an apology while making an appearance on ABC’s “The View.”
The conversation on the daytime talk show at first centered around a Thursday tweet by Olbermann before the former CNN, ESPN, Current and Fox Sports host made the remark.
Olbermann tweeted Thursday that President Trump and his family “have done more damage to America than [Osama] Bin Laden and ISIS combined.”
Why do you separate yourself from the terrorists, Dondi? You and your family have done more damage to America than Bin Laden + ISIS combined https://t.co/TaKeIP6RFt
— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) November 2, 2017
Olbermann, the host of GQ’s political web show “The Resistance,” was asked about his tweet by “The View” co-host Sunny Hostin.
{mosads}
“You said recently via tweet that Trump and his family have done more damage to America than bin Laden and ISIS combined. Do you believe that?” she asked.
“Yeah, we did really well after 9/11,” Olbermann replied. “I don’t think that the country has given itself enough credit. We did not restrict all the freedoms in this country. We did not single out people.”
“3,000 people died on 9/11,” co-host Meghan McCain interjected. “The comparison is absurd.”
“But more people died in the Iraq War than died in 9/11,” Olbermann argued. “We didn’t need to be there as a response.”
“You think Bin Laden did less to damage America than President Trump?” asked McCain.
“Yes,” Olbermann said.
“Can I tell you something? When I hear rhetoric like that, I think Whoopi [Goldberg] and I are in agreement that we want Americans to come together. Rhetoric like that is so damaging.” McCain said.
“The Iraq War was a waste of these people’s lives,” Olbermann said. “And it was unnecessary.”
“Do you want President Trump to fail?” McCain said. “Do you want America to fail? Because I’m genuinely curious.”
The program went to commercial before Olbermann offered Bush an apology, whom he called a war criminal, fascist and liar on multiple occasions on his former MSNBC program, “Countdown.”
“My favorite person in politics in the 21st century is your father,” Olbermann said to McCain, who is the daughter of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz).
“In retrospect, based on what we’ve seen over the last two years in this country, I owe him an apology,” Olbermann said, “I probably owe George W. Bush an apology, and I would happily take a third term of George W. Bush rather than this. That’s how serious I think this is.”
“Shut up,” an exasperated McCain replied.
McCain jumped from Fox News to become a co-host on “The View” last month.
Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.