Fox News host Bill O’Reilly, in an interview last night on “The O’Reilly Factor,” offered former White House adviser Karl Rove a place to hide from House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers’s (D-Mich.) subpoena.
“Now Mr. Rove, if you need a place to hide out, we have it here at ‘The Factor.’ We have all kinds of tunnels and places we can put you,” O’Reilly said.
“I don’t need to hide,” Rove replied.
“Okay,” O’Reilly agreed.
Rove then repeated himself: “I don’t need to hide.”
Conyers this week reissued his subpoena for Rove to appear before the committee, seeking the former adviser’s testimony on the firing of several U.S. attorneys during President Bush’s administration. The firings led to allegations of a politicized Department of Justice and, ultimately, the end of former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’s tenure as head of the department.
Rove has denied the subpoena, citing executive privilege supported by President Bush. He also faces an ongoing lawsuit, brought by the committee, which seeks to compel him to appear.
Lawyers from the Bush White House again counseled Rove not to appear earlier this month.
Rove also said he does not consider himself a “witch,” after O’Reilly suggested Conyers’s investigation amounts to a “witch hunt.”
“I don’t know if I’d call it a witch hunt,” Rove said. “I don’t think of myself a witch.”
“He’s sort of like Captain Ahab, and I’m the whale,” Rove suggested instead.
See a video of the interview below. Skip ahead to the 3:25 mark to see the discussion of Conyers’s subpoena.