It was “completely inappropriate” for Fox News anchor Bill O’Reilly to ask President Obama about the people who “hate” him, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Monday.

Pelosi said O’Reilly’s question, during an interview before Sunday’s Super Bowl, made her wince upon hearing it again on Monday.

{mosads}”Just seeing it again … I thought was a completely inappropriate question, of course beautifully handled by the president,” Pelosi told host Gayle King on the Oprah Radio network.

“To hear this used in the presence of the president of the United States — I think we all have to recognize that while we disagree with people, and may think that they are wrong,” the word “hate” should never be used, Pelosi said. 

O’Reilly’s question has been one of the most replayed on Monday.

“Does it disturb you that so many people hate you?” O’Reilly asked Obama.

“The
people who dislike you don’t know you,” Obama responded. “The folks who
hate you don’t know you; what they hate is whatever funhouse mirror
image of you is out there.”

The interview was a coup for the Fox host and his network, which has sparred sometimes with the Obama administration and earned public enmity from the president at times during the last two years.

Obama’s interview, broadcast on Fox, was his third straight year of doing a pre-Super Bowl interview. He sat for an interview with CBS last year, and NBC the year before that.

Pelosi said it was her preference that the word “hate” never be used in a political context.