Fox News host Bill O'Reilly lost his cool Tuesday night in a heated exchange over President Obama's plan to cut federal spending.
O'Reilly's temper flared when he asked his guest Alan Colmes to name the spending cuts that Obama proposed in order to cut the deficit. When Colmes replied that Medicare was one of the programs that the president talked about scaling back, O'Reilly slammed his hand on the table and accused him of "lying." The two went back-and-forth for a few minutes as O'Reilly became enraged asking Colmes to repeat his answer several times.
"Bull--! You are lying! You are lying!" said O'Reilly while screaming at the left-leaning political analyst. "Don't call me a liar," Colmes fired back. "Don't you sit there and call me a liar."
The next day, the conservative TV host apologized for calling Colmes a liar during their debate and justified losing his temper as a way to get people's attention.
"Lots of folks talking about my shootout with Alan Colmes last night where I asked him what specific - specific - budget cuts President Obama has proposed," he said at the start of the show. "Colmes hemmed and hawed saying the president's promising to cut Medicare, or something. But the truth is Mr. Obama has not put forth any specific federal spending cuts. It's all a bunch of general nonsense and so Colmes and I got into it. Even though I'm sorry I said Alan was lying - I should not have used that word - I'm glad the exposition occurred."
He continued to complain about the national debt and explained that he raised his voice in order "to get everyone's attention" about Obama's mishandling of the economy.
"The president of the United States is not looking out for the country right now," O'Reilly said. "He is hell-bent on destroying the Republican Party and he does not seem to care if the nation collapses as a result."
In the next segment of his show on Wednesday, faced off with Democratic guest Kirsten Powers over the same issue. Powers defended Colmes' argument using facts stated on the White House website as evidence of the federal cuts that Obama is pushing. She held up her printoutr which she said detailed the $400 billion in health care cuts that the White House wanted to make. "You need to admit you are wrong," she said. "You are wrong about this and now you're playing a game."
O'Reilly argued that Obama has not offered "specific" cuts. "This is where you and I will never agree," he said.
"Because I use facts?" Powers retorted.
"You and I will never reach détente because you don't understand the word specific," O'Reilly concluded.