Flashback: Mark Halperin Criticized Trump for Defending Bill O’Reilly

RUSH TRANSCRIPT:

BRZEZINSKI: "President Trump is defending Fox News host Bill O'Reilly against accusations of sexual harassment. Even as more major companies pull ads from his top rated program -- this is the list of companies that has done so so far. According to CNC the list includes BMW, Mercedes-Benz, glaxosmithkline. O'Reilly has been under fire since "The New York Times" reported Saturday that either the host or fox paid about $13 million to five women since 2002 settling cases of alleged inappropriate behavior by O'Reilly. In an oval office interview with the times yesterday, the president was asked if O'Reilly was being treated fairly. He responded, he is a person I know well. He's a good person, I think he shouldn't have settled. I don't think bill did anything wrong. Bill O'Reilly denies the allegations against him and said he settled to, quote, put it to rest any controversies to spare my children. A couple things. Mark Halperin, what do you make of the notion of the president addressing this in the oval office and taking it a step further?"
HALPERIN: "I said in the first block the president was acting more like a normal president and I think he was in giving McMaster the ability to run the national Security Council in the rose garden statement yesterday. Some people at home like Ron Fornier were suggesting I was going all in in saying the president was normal. Right before his statement on Syria, this is not normal for a president. It creates a huge distraction, gets tons of coverage and yesterday should have been about project strength as he did on Syria. But it is pure Trump and classic Trump for him to also be willing to address Bill O'Reilly. There's no reason to address it, none."