It didn't take long for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America to make sure O'Reilly learned of a lot of them. O'Reilly was mocking John Edwards, who said there were 200,000 homeless vets on any given night. Of course, Edwards was right and O'Reilly was wrong. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs estimates that there are almost 200,000 homeless veterans at any given time.
O'Reilly caught some flack over the comment from a lot of sources (including me). So he addressed his self-inflicted controversy yesterday by digging himself in deeper:
Now I've said on this program that we will pay for homeless veterans to be taken to the Edwards mansion in North Carolina for shelter. Of course, that's an immature remark, I know that, but there's a reason I'm saying it.
Certainly there are homeless veterans, but it's not because of the economy. It's mostly because of addiction and mental illness, something politicians can do little about...
A point of order, here. Bill never said he'd pay to have vets taken to the "Edwards mansion" -- he said, if you find a vet sleeping under a bridge, "you call me immediately, and we will make sure that man does not do it." Turns out, with nearly 200,000 out on the street every night, keeping that promise turned out to be a little more expensive than Bill had counted on. So he tries to turn the criticism back to John Edwards...
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