Krauthammer Battles Bill O'Reilly Over Whether Current Debate System Is a 'Waste of Time

(Fox News)

Fox News host Bill O'Reilly invited syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer on his show Tuesday night, where the two men clashed over whether the current presidential debate system is "outdated" and a "waste of time," which was O'Reilly's opinion.

O'Reilly argued that the debates need moderators to ask "sharply focused" questions, instead of the laid back system that allows candidates to get by without teaching the American people anything about their positions.

Krauthammer disagreed with the host, saying the "reason of a debate is to put the two men together to see how they interact and to get some idea of what you would otherwise never know – how are they going to act when they are in a room with Vladimir or the Mullahs or negotiating with anyone else."

O'Reilly countered by saying the debate system is "number one, out of date, number two, a waste of time" and all presidential candidates do is "spout talking points."

"So the moderator basically is setting them up for propaganda purposes," he added. "Yeah, you can a little body language, you can see maybe one guy getting a little annoyed form the other guy, but so what?"

Krauthammer pushed back, saying that the first debate moderated by Jim Lehrer was one of the most important U.S. presidential debates in six decades. He said Lehrer "got out of the way" and let the candidates interact.

O'Reilly then pivoted to Romney's debate performance on Monday, asking why he didn't go after President Obama and his administration's handling of the terrorist attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. The current administration repeatedly blamed an anti-Muslim video for the attacks, while intelligence reports suggested as soon as 24 hours after the attack that it was terrorism. More than one month later, there is still not a clear picture of exactly what happened at the U.S. compound in Libya, where four Americans were killed.

"It isn't Romney's job to play journalist…His job is to get elected president of the United States," Krauthammer rebutted.

"I just feel that the American public deserves more. They want a true leader, we need a true leader. We want to see people who basically want to right wrongs. The Libya thing is wrong, it's wrong," O'Reilly proclaimed. "I don't think the governor even cared about it."

"I don't understand you, Bill," Krauthammer replied. "The purpose of the debate isn't to right wrongs."

"But I want to vote for the person who is going right the wrongs," the Fox News host shot back.

Watch the clip via Fox News/Mediaite: