Talk show host Bill O'Reilly said President Barack Obama's pokes at Fox News in his interview Sunday before the Super Bowl diverted questions and gave the "liberal" media a headline.
"It's easy to divert it out that way, and it also gives the liberal press a headline that they can use," O'Reilly said Monday on Fox News' "America's Newsroom."
During the interview, Obama said Fox News misinformed the public on the 2012 bombing of the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, and the targeting of conservative groups by the Internal Revenue Service.
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"It's a very good ploy when you don't want to answer a question, to kind of turn it on the inquisitor and make him the story rather than you," O'Reilly said.
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The second part of O'Reilly's interview with the president will air Monday evening during "The O'Reilly Factor."
He said the segment will "break news" on the Obamacare battle with the nuns of the Little Sisters of the Poor and on the controversial Keystone pipeline.
O'Reilly explained that he did what he "had to do" by asking the president pointed questions on Obamacare, the IRS scandal, and the Benghazi bombing in the short 10 minutes he had to conduct Sunday's interview.
He said he thought Obama believed in what he was doing, and that members of the press were an "annoyance" to him when they asked specifics about issues.
"He believes truly that what he is doing is what's best for the country. And you are not going to shake him out of that, no matter how many stats, or whatever you put on him. No matter how many circumstances you put on him, he believes it," O'Reilly said.
If he had to label the interview with a headline, O'Reilly said it would be, "The President Doesn't Answer Key Questions About Whatever Subject You Want to Talk About."
If he had to describe the president's answers in one word, O'Reilly said, it would be "evasive."
O'Reilly said he didn't think Obama was "trying to injure people" with his policies. He said he thought the president was simply "wrong on a lot of things."
"I don't think he wants to hurt anyone. But I just think his policies are hurting people," O'Reilly said.
O'Reilly last interviewed Obama in September 2008. He said the only thing that had changed about the president since then was that his hair was grayer.
"Physically he's the same. He's got less wear and tear on his face of any other president that has served as long as he has," he said. "And his attitude toward me was almost identical."
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