O’Reilly Says Diddy Should Reject Son’s Scholarship

Republican says rapper should return UCLA scholarship because he’s a rich Obama fan.

Bill O’Reilly is the latest public figure to speak out about the UCLA football scholarship Justin Combs, son of music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, recently received. Although taxpayer money wasn’t used to fund the 18-year-old’s football scholarship — the money comes from ticket sales and private donors instead — O’Reilly says his rapper father should reject the merit-based award.

Why?

Because Diddy supports President Barack Obama.

During a segment on “The O’Reilly Factor” on Tuesday, he said, “We are in this class warfare business, and Diddy is one of the big class warfare guys. He’s a big Obama guy. He’s down, as they say in the hood, with all of the income redistribution. Okay, so let’s redistribute it Diddy. You pay and let some other kid have his scholarship.”

But Fox News analyst Alan Colmes and conservative commentator Monica Crowley, who appeared as guests on “The O’Reilly Factor,” disagreed. Colmes, the liberal half of now defunct Fox show “Hannity & Colmes,” objected to the characterization of Diddy as a “class warfare guy” just because he supports the president. But O’Reilly insisted that anyone who supports Obama’s ideology would reject the scholarship, estimated to be worth $54,000, and give it to a needier student.

[ALSO READ: Five Pundits Liberals Hate]

Conservative watchdog website Media Matters found O’Reilly’s stance on Justin Combs to be hypocritical given that O’Reilly opposes tax increases for wealthy Americans.

“So in the end, according to O’Reilly, a wealthy Obama supporter should ‘set a great example’ so that ‘another kid [can] get a scholarship to UCLA because the Diddy kid doesn’t need it,’ but requiring wealthy Americans to pay more in taxes is to ‘demonize’ hard work. Now who’s playing class warfare?”

Media Matters also pointed out that Justin Combs is far from the only celebrity kid to win a merit-based scholarship. Trey Griffey, son of baseball star Ken Griffey Jr., has received a full scholarship to the University of Arizona, the site reports.

For the record, O’Reilly took pains not to criticize Diddy’s son. In fact, he praised Justin Combs.

“I mean, the kid is smart, the kid is a good athlete, the kid’s stayed out of trouble,” O’Reilly said. “Hhe could be a crazy guy like so many celebrity daughters and sons are. He's not. So we gotta give him all the credit in the world.”

[SUBSCRIBE TO LOOP 21 RSS LOOP FEED]