Is 'Occupy Wall Street' Really About Anti-Capitalism?

O'Reilly and Ingraham debate anti-capitalist protests

This is a RUSH transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," October 20, 2011. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

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BILL O'REILLY, HOST: In the "Impact" segment tonight: It's becoming very clear that the "Occupy Wall Street" crew is not a spontaneous citizen-driven movement. Here is more proof. Listen to protester Safia Albaiti from the International Socialist Organization.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAFIA ALBAITI, INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST ORGANIZATION: Since the Obama administration was elected on an anti-war platform, thousands of Afghans and Pakistanis and Yemenis have been killed. The wars are an inevitable part of this system and they have -- the system needs to be ended so that we no longer have wars and the inevitability of our lives, our children no longer have to keep living in a planet that's slowly getting annihilated and destroyed. We are many. You are few. Get the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) out of the entire world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'REILLY: But what does that have to do with Wall Street? Joining us now from Washington, Fox News analyst Laura Ingraham.

LAURA INGRAHAM, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: That was inspiring. Oh my my goodness. Move over, Sophocles. That was great.

O'REILLY: I said this in the very beginning and I think we talked about it with you. This isn't about Wall Street. It's not about economic justice. This is just an amalgamation of all of these anti-capitalistic people, anti-American people, whatever.

INGRAHAM: Yes, well, Bill, yes.

O'REILLY: And there they are. There they are. Now they're coming out.

INGRAHAM: Bill -- Bill, most of these people don't even, I would submit, don't even know the rudimentary teachings of capitalism. I think they've heard about capitalism and they think it's something. They don't really know what it is because they're all punching out their tweets on their iPhones and they're getting big trucking companies to bring in their free sleeping bags and they have huge restaurant groups bringing in free food. And these are all companies. These are all part of the free market and they're all kind of like supporting them. So the idea that it's anti-capitalist, I think you're right. There is a deep strain and it's a nutty strain and it's very helpful to the Republican strain of deeply anti-American folks down there.

O'REILLY: OK. Now.

INGRAHAM: I'm sure there are some good people, but there is deep anti- Americanism going on. It's great -- it's great for the Republicans.

O'REILLY: Right. There are some people who feel aggrieved and feel that the system has to be revamped and more protection given to the workers, and that's certainly legitimate. But the drivers behind it, the money behind it is all far left.

INGRAHAM: Big money. Yes.

O'REILLY: Now I'm going to ask you a speculative question that I don't usually do. But we have some very, very interesting video from Greece today where there are riots and burning downs.

INGRAHAM: Yes.

O'REILLY: All right, this is what happens right here in Greece.

INGRAHAM: Yes.

O'REILLY: This is what happens when the far-left gets out of control and takes over. And then you tell them no, we can't afford your entitlements anymore; we can't afford your economic justice, your social justice, and yet, they say, you know what? We're burning down the town. This is going on right now.

INGRAHAM: Bill, this is what -- this is what happens when there is no rule of law. This is what happens when protesters are able to intimidate, sometimes even police or authorities from acting because they're afraid if they do act, they're going to be branded as somehow anti-free speech or intolerant or what have you. And so the fringe and even in Greece, that is a fringe movement in Greece. The fringe becomes the dominant force and then all chaos breaks out.

O'REILLY: No, but it's accepted though in Greece. It's accepted by many of the people. It is accepted there. That's the difference. Now, could that happen here?

INGRAHAM: Well, I'm not sure it's as accepted as you say.

O'REILLY: Could -- say -- say we have another couple of years of bad economy. Could we be seeing scenes like that here?

INGRAHAM: No, I don't think so.

O'REILLY: No.

INGRAHAM: I really don't. I think -- I think there are elements, as you pointed out, in these protests. I was just out in L.A. and there are elements in the protests down there and "Occupy L.A." that clearly want to stoke something and something big.

O'REILLY: Thirty percent here in New York say they want -- that violence is OK with them.

INGRAHAM: Yes, because I mean most of these people have nothing better to do, and they've been itching for a fight ever since I think the Tea Party became more powerful and the midterm elections came in and Obama is just not working out very well for a lot of them. They're itching for a fight.

O'REILLY: No, no, they've got -- I think that's right. They want a confrontation because they're not getting what they thought they might get.

INGRAHAM: Big time. And they're going to get nothing from it. I think it's totally counterproductive.

O'REILLY: Let's shift -- let's shift gears a bit. Hillary Clinton, the secretary of State, over with Karzai in Afghanistan and Herman Cain's name comes up. Roll the tape.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, SECRETARY OF STATE: One of the Republican candidates, I think it was Herman Cain.

HAMID KARZAI, PRESIDENT OF AFGHANISTAN: Herman Cain, exactly.

CLINTON: The former pizza company executive.

KARZAI: Is he that?

CLINTON: Yes, yes he started something called Godfather's Pizza. The president was saying he saw this news clip about how Mr. Cain had said, "I don't need to know the names of all these presidents of all these countries, you know, like, whatever stans."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That wasn't right. But anyway, that's how politics are.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'REILLY: I think we should send pizzas to Karzai. You know, does anybody deliver out there?

INGRAHAM: Well, it was very dismissive.

O'REILLY: He needs to get some pizza and say, you know, this is good; maybe we should have more capitalism here so we have lots of pizza places.

INGRAHAM: Yes, I mean, first of all, it was very dismissive, right. There is no real reason that Hillary Clinton had to repeat loudly I guess what was mentioned earlier by Karzai. Very interesting though. Why would Hillary Clinton go after Herman Cain? He's obviously rising in the polls. You saw the Iowa Rasmussen poll that came out -- the results came out this morning. He's up over Romney.

And -- and Bill, look, I think Herman Cain, if he want -- if he -- if he's going to be the serious contender that I think a lot of people think he could be, then you can't kind of blow off those questions. You have to -- you have to give our allies their due respect and Uzbekistan has actually been an important ally of ours in the war on terror. So you got to give them their due.

But nevertheless, we've had a lot of smart folks in the room, a lot of establishment types for a long time telling us that we got to have subprime mortgages. We had to reset with Russia. China had to get in WTO and that we could spend all this money. And guess what all the really smart people who probably knew the names of the presidents of the "stans" did. Well, they've got America into position of -- of perhaps losing her dominant status in the world. So that's why people are looking at Herman Cain. They're kind of sick of the establishment because of what they did.

O'REILLY: All right, Laura.

INGRAHAM: And Hillary Clinton, I think, is giving voice to some of maybe the White House concerns about Cain's popularity.

O'REILLY: We'll see. Thanks.

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