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- [00:00]
A
Hey, if you're here listening, you know you don't want spin, right? You know that Bill knows that Bill does not mess with the spin. You want it straight. So here's a straight recommendation. I'm Mike Baker, former CIA officer and every day on the President's Daily Brief, I do for national security and geopolitics exactly what this show does for the news. No agenda, no hysteria, no opinion, just the facts. We tell you what's happening, you decide how to think about it. It's named for the brief that lands on the president's desk and it runs every single day, 20 minutes in the morning, 10 minutes in the afternoon. Smart, fast, honest. Follow the President's Daily Brief on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen.
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B
Welcome to the no Spin news Weekend Edition.
- [00:46]
C
Sad day yesterday, Senator Graham passing away from a heart ailment. I didn't know the center that well, but I did the last extensive interview with him and we will show you a bit of that coming up. You know, probably from the news cycle that he served his country very well. 33 years in the Air Force as a JAG and he was in the Senate, I think this four, four terms, six years each. And he was a confidant to presidents. So that is the talking points memo this evening. So Senator Graham died, is already conspiracy stuff in play. I'm ignoring it because I don't have time for that nonsense. Coming back from Ukraine where he traveled on Friday and the medical examiner obviously examined the corpse and says look, yet a aortic dissection and that'll take you right out. Okay, so heart obviously is key to everything. When he was in Kiev with Zelensky, Graham was doing what he always does. He's trying to promote the noble people. And you can make an argument about Ukraine or not, but in his vision, the United States had an obligation to correct wrongs around the world with using our power. I read about that in confronting evil. So Graham was what they call a hawk and he believed in hard power. So you use military to correct dangerous situations and punish villains. That was his core belief. Now the left don't really like him. You saw some vile comments already. I'm not going to get into that. Those people don't deserve any kind of exposure whatsoever. But on Graham's front, I was on a three way call with him and President Trump about a year ago, maybe a little bit more than that. And the call was about the Middle east. And Lindsey Graham was very pro Israel and believed that Israel had a right to protect itself and saw Hamas And Hezbollah in Iran as terrorists. Like the people who attacked us on 9 11. Al Qaeda. He didn't make any differential there. It was an interesting conversation. I didn't say much. All right. And President Trump liked Lindsey Graham. They were golfing buddies and all that. But Trump was not, you know, enamored with the senator's point of view. He considered it. He considered it, okay, but it wasn't like Lindsey Graham was telling Trump what to do. That never, ever happened. What Lindsey Graham did do was put forth his view of the world. And it was a lot like Winston Churchill. Two different guys obviously can't make a comparison between the men, but their mindset that noble nations have to slap down the terrorists of the world was almost exactly the same. That's hard power. Now, soft power is what President Obama did, that you can wear these people down without sending in the troops, that you can confront evil in a variety of ways. That is soft power. Okay, grandmother, any part of that. He was a hawk. Boom, Boom, boom. John McCain, his buddy, close friend, the late John McCain, he was involved with that and to some extent, Joseph Lieberman, the senator, the Democratic senator from Connecticut. Both McCain, McCann, Kane and Lieberman have passed, but they were very well respected. Okay, so the flag across the country on federal property is lowered until Saturday. Now have to appoint a senator, and that'll be made by the governor of South Carolina, McMaster, Henry McMaster. And we are taping this before McMaster's announcement, which will come later this evening. And President Trump would like Lindsey Graham's sister, whom the senator adopted. You know, senator was a noble man to take his seat at least until August 11, when there will be a pro primary in South Carolina. I suspect that Trey Gowdy used to be the congressman, now he works for fox. Might get involved with this, but I don't know. I don't have any inside sources. Seems to be teed up for Gowdy if he wants it. And there's a whole bunch of other names floating around. So we will know later Today, who Governor McMaster selects to sit in Lindsey Graham's seat. See if there's anything else I want to tell you about him. Graham was wrong in Iraq, but he's right about Iran and he's right about Ukraine. So he sees Putin as, you know, a low level Hitler. That Putin never going to stop. He's always going to try to get more territory and do heinous things. That's true. That's true. Iraq, very complicated. Went over it last week because the intel coming out of Baghdad was false and was false because Saddam himself planted erroneous intel, hoping the world would think he had a weapon of mass destruction. That's how insane this guy was. Iran. And I'll tell you about them in a moment. They're dangerous. Okay. And Graham also believed that if you give in to Putin or the mullahs that China is going to take Taiwan and any weakness shown would spur the Chinese to take over that island to what his belief system was. Okay, so on, we'll do it live. March 19. Senator Graham agreed to talk with me for about an hour because that's when the Iran thing was just unfolding. Roll tape.
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D
So here's what I'm asking President Trump to entertain. Let Putin know that if you do this again, you're going to be running into a bigger crowd, not just Ukraine, that the Europeans will have small ground troops as tripwires and we will have a guarantee to Ukraine. If there's another invasion, we'll be a backstop. We'll provide air support and command and control to defend you. If there's a third invasion, I think that's enough to deter that invasion. I don't mind if he does business with Putin because that's a security guarantee of its own. If you do business with somebody, you're less likely to go to war. The other thing I want to see Happen is a 10 year commitment to the Ukrainian military from us that we will sell them our high end weapons through Europe and they will be strong. And that's another form of deterrence.
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C
Trump's been resistant to that.
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D
He had been resistant to selling weapons. He's been resistant to a long term commitment.
- [09:04]
C
The big weapons, though, he doesn't want to sell.
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D
Yeah, we've given them the F16.
- [09:09]
C
We're doing a circuit thing. We're selling them to Poland and then Poland.
- [09:13]
D
Yeah, but, but they're, they're getting there. But I guess, how do you end the war? The Donbas is going to have to. There's going to be a trade there. There's just no way to evict all the Russians. What does Zelensky need to sell his people on giving up territory that I've got a deal we've never had as a country. We're going to be standing as an independent sovereign Ukraine. I want China to look at it and say, you know, maybe it wasn't worth it for Putin after all, because I worry about Taiwan. If you sell out Ukraine, there goes Taiwan.
- [09:41]
C
Sure.
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D
This is how the world's connected.
- [09:45]
C
All right, so if you want to see the whole interview. And it is fascinating. And again is the last extensive interview the Senator gave. He did a couple of smaller hits, but nothing like this. So you go to billoriley.com it's YouTube.com billorilly but if you go to billoriley.com we just punch it, we get there and you can see the whole thing because there is an Iranian portion to it. We didn't use it because it was really nothing new there. I mean, Graham has always been anti terrorist and Iran's a terrorist, there's no doubt about it. And that's the memo.
- [10:33]
B
You're listening to the no Spa News Weekend Edition.
- [10:37]
C
So in Iran, President Trump has said that the United States is going to now run a Strait of Hormuz. Good. And America is going to charge 20% tax or tariff, whatever you want to put it on the tankers going through, as a matter of fairness. Okay. I mean, I, I'm not going to get involved with that right now. I don't know what the tankers are paying to get through there with Iran. But under the United Nations Convention, the law of the sea, all ships in the world have a right of transit passage. It should not be impeded. So Trump is following the United nations law. Okay. You can agree or disagree on the tariff. In the meantime, Iran is getting angrier and angrier. And so they say, we're not going to let you take a look at any kind of nuclear activity we're doing. You know, that's pretty much it. If they hold to that, and I don't think they have a lot more time, then there's going to be massive destruction on that country and civilians will die. Now, the UK Got into it today by designating the Islamic Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization. Finally, finally, after all this time, you should know that the waters in the Strait of Hormuz, which leads from the Persian Gulf out to the Pacific Ocean. Indian Ocean. Indian Ocean, okay. Are owned by nobody, but supervised by Oman, the primitive country of Oman and Iran, one on one side, one on the other. So, anyway, this thing in Iran is not going well for world peace, that's for sure. Tomorrow I have more on it. I'm going to play you my initial prediction on it, which is now coming true today. This was put out there. New satellite imagery obtained by cnn. Quote, images obtained by CNN from commercial satellite firms show renewed construction activity at the Parchin military complex and the deeply buried Pickaxe Mountain facility, both of which were heavily targeted during the joint bombing campaign that began in late February. So the imagery shows that the Iranians are rebuilding this protection for their uranium. It's deep underground. Just keep in mind all the people that you heard, all the Americans that you heard, these are the pictures from the satellites that were taken that Iran didn't have a nuclear capacity, wasn't close to having a nuclear capacity. How many times did you hear that? I'm not going to name names because I'm not in business to make anybody look stupid. If they continue to do it, then I will. But everybody knew that Iran was very close to a nuke, and now they're rebuilding, so NIDA's asking for it. It's like the Japanese in World War II. How many times did we give them a chance to surrender before we were able to obliterate Hiroshima and Nagasaki? How many times? Okay, so things are in Iran not going well, that's for sure. Joining us now from Chandler, Arizona, is Dr. Larry Schweikart. He's got a new book out. He's a historian. Book is called American A History of the United States is told through the lives of 94Americans. We'll get to that in a moment. Book is just ads new. He's a retired professor of history from the University of Dayton. Doctor, you know, we are living in a divided country, as you well know, and this is going to play out in the midterm elections with the people that are interested in their gas gasoline bill, as opposed to the people who really say, no, we got to take Iran. Now, do you have any kind of a sense of which way the nation is leaning?
- [15:24]
E
Well, Bill, the great Rush Limbaugh used to always say that the issues that define an election don't appear until about September or October. And I think that's going to be the case here. Yes, gas prices are going to be an issue one way or another. If they're really low, a lot of people are not, not going to think things are going badly. But I don't think we've yet seen the real crucial issues that are going to define how people vote. Now. Many states are just now undergoing their primaries. I know here in Arizona, we just started our mail in voting, so it's a little too soon to tell on which way some of the economic things are going to affect the country.
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C
What about the mentality of the MAGA people making America great again, Trump supporters and the communist socialist movement that seems to be gaining strength in certain areas. That seems to be a breach that is going to take a while to heal.
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E
Yes, it very much resembles where we were in the 1850s leading up to the Civil War. And no, I don't think we're going to have a Civil War. Regionally, that's not possible, I don't think. But you see, what I think is a decline on a path toward extinction of the Democrat Party if they don't get it together. We've seen this in voter registration statistics that I follow closely for the past 18 months. And until this month, they have been uniformly moving to Republicans. We're talking about something along the lines of 1.4, 1.5 million net Republican voters over Democrats. But on top of that, you have another factor at work, which is deportations. And the more that are deported, kind of what happens is you start to deport a lot of Democrat voters more so than Republican voters. And then thirdly, we have had a process of voter roll purges that are ongoing. And some of these are huge, Bill. I mean, Oregon had a purge of 800,000 voters. Well, it's a very, very blue state. So who do you think that hurts the most? My estimates are there have been about 2 million voter roll purge shifts toward Republicans on top of the 1.4 million voter registration official changes, not counting the maybe 1 or so million illegal aliens who have voted in elections. I think the Democrats are in real trouble. And you see this from Politico and Axios, and they're all begging, don't fall in with the dsa, the Democrat Socialists of America. They're terrified that the party's going to shift really far to the left and you could end up with a big loss.
- [18:23]
C
The question, though, is about the Constitution. With all these people being taken off the voting rolls. It was never legal for foreign nationals to vote in a American election. So you tell me there's been massive fraud all these years and finally the government's catching up with the fraud and booting these people. Is that what's happening?
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F
Fraud?
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E
Who could imagine? Yes, the administration is really going after fraud. Huge. You may have noticed that in, in Fulton county, there's 200 FBI agents just in Fulton County. But they're also looking at Wayne county in Michigan, at Maricopa county here in Arizona. So, yes, they are going after the fraud. Fraud exists. It is real. And has it changed some elections? I think so. I mean, that's a debate for another time.
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C
Do you think his data to back that up, though? Because when you had the massive amount of shifting from one party to another and the Democratic Party losing registrations because their voters are not available, they're back in Guadalajara, wherever they came from. From. I mean, that would. That's startling in a sense. Okay, how long has this been going on where there's been millions of people who aren't American citizens voting in our elections? I mean, I think that's an important question.
- [19:50]
E
Yes, that's a very important question. And the administration's emphasis on stopping the mail in voting by election day, that's the important. They're not trying to end mail in voting. They're trying to stop any post election day discoveries of ballots like we've had in the past. And so it's been a very real issue. No one yet can explain where you got 81 million votes for Joe Biden when the traditional Democrat baseline up to that point had been something like 65 to 70 million votes. Where did you get 11 million other voters? And I think that the only reasonable answer there is fraud.
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C
All right. You know, I hope they're putting together some very hard data on it, because that would change a lot of things in this country. Now, your book is interesting. History of the United States is told through the lives of 94Americans. And you're taking people, some big names like William Bradford, he was the leader of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, links up to Benjamin Franklin. Davy Crockett shows up in the book. What's the overall theme of this?
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E
The overall theme is that you can write the history of America through the lives of its people. And it's sort of a six degrees of separation all the way through the book. For example, Davy Crockett, when he went to the Alamo, took one book with him, the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin.
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G
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C
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H
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G
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- [21:56]
E
Tennessee 2012 William Bradford had heard the the speeches of the. Of the. And the sermons of the earlier great awakening ministers and so on and so forth. John Wayne, who's. Who's one of my subjects is interesting because he was taught his iconic amble when he walked and his slow speech pattern. He didn't have that naturally. He was taught that by Wyatt Earp. And so the, the book ends with Charlie Kirk. And I kind of make it a, a Six degrees of separation all the way through American history from William, from John Smith to Charlie Kirk.
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C
Now, how things evolved in America has to do with the experiences of the people, some of them famous, some of them not, who made them evolve. That, that's what I'm taking. I, I haven't had time to read a book, professor, because I'm up to here with trying to keep track of what's going on. Contemporary. I just didn't have time. But I will read it. But it's the, it's the folks who drive really what's happened in this country historically.
- [23:03]
E
Yeah. And it's, it's just phenomenally interesting. You look at a woman named Helen Dorch. Have you heard of Helen Dorch? That name ring a bell? I haven't her, okay. Her, her last name after her marriage was Helen Dortch Longstreet. She was the wife, the second wife of the Civil War General James Longstreet married him when she was very young. He died. Of course. She was in, in her 80s when she went to be a welder for the B29 bombers in Atlanta, Georgia, in World War II. She was the first female welder there and the oldest of anybody. And here she was the former wife of a Civil War general. So it really shows you how closely our history is tied together from beginning to end.
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C
Well, thank you very much for writing the book, Professor. We really appreciate it. Good luck with it and I hope we can talk again soon. Thank you.
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B
This is the no Spin News Weekend edition.
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C
The big issue right now in the midterm elections, affordability. So I wrote a whole column on it on Sunday. I hope you read the column affordability. And it sounds ominous. Right? Well, today the annual inflation rate in America, according to the Bureau of Labor stats dropped unexpectedly the two point to 3.5%. That was for June. Okay. And it's down from 4.2% in May. Those are big drops. And those drops are caused by oil price rises and price falls, depending on what happens in Iran. But consumers are getting a break. That is if the major corporations pass along that savings, inflationary savings to us, which many of them do not do. I hope President Trump addresses that in his speech Thursday night. So what will happen next? I don't know. Nobody knows. We have a very active conflict going on in Iran and there doesn't seem to be any give on the part of the mullahs. But I don't know, because there is no reporting. So all of these television pundits and newspaper articles, it's a bunch of bull. They don't know what's happening. So it's been three days of bombing. Bombing what? We don't know. And the president's always going to spin it positive. It's what all presidents do in times of conflict. They have to do it. So we are left going, I wonder what that bombing did, or is that helping? And a few months ago, the President said he wiped out the Navy, but the Navy really wiped out in Iran. And who's firing these missiles and drones? I don't know. I can't give you any verification of anything because there isn't one reporter on the record in Iran that's given out information. Simple as that. It's like Japan in World War II. You couldn't get anything out of that country. Germany got a little bit out because there were other countries involved. Japan, nothing. All right, so the Trump administration does have a story to tell about affordability, and that is that many things are becoming cheaper. Eggs. Remember the egg hysteria when Trump got into office? So eggs back then, when the President took over the second time, were almost $5 a dozen. $5 a dozen. Guess what the price is now for a dozen eggs? $2.14. Government had nothing to do with that. Government does not have wage price controls, nor will it ever. It doesn't work. Okay, so the price of eggs came down on its own because there was more product on the market. Did you. Have you seen that? When you go out to breakfast, is your omelet down in price?
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I
No.
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C
And if you have seen it, tell me where you saw it and I'll use it on the air. But the restaurants are just short. They're charging the same amount for an omelet they charge when eggs are five bucks. That's the flaw. But again, the government has no power to stop this kind of gouging unless it brings a class action suit. Okay? Now, the Democrats around rank on affordability. Affordability, affordability. But then when you say how, they have no answer. No answer, nothing. Because they don't know how and they can't do what they want to do. All right, now, Mamdani, in New York City, the mayor, he's the most effective guy because he's just doing well, freezing rents. Now we're going to sell our own food. He's going around the system, which is what communists do. He's taking it over the means of production. That's what Mayor Mamdani is doing. Taking it all over. Well, if you want a communist country, you can control prices and wages. That's what they do. That's what the communists do. But not in a capitalistic country. Okay? The American public itself and I have harped on this, but it's worth repeating. If you have no money, it's your fault. Unless you have an infirmity, all right? Accept it. That is the truth. And the reason that this is happening is because Americans spend too much money on dopey stuff. So 47% of the entire US population has less than $5,000 in the bank. I mean, staggering. Okay? Median bank account balances in this country are 5,400 for those under 35 years old and 13,400 for the 65 and over the senior set. 14% of Americans have no savings at all. Nothing. They live day to day. Now, why do I say it's their fault? Because there's a lot of opportunity to make money in this country. Affordability goes flying right out the window when you say, look, if your job doesn't pay much, then you go to community college or you go to a specialist school and you learn a trade like how to fix the oil burner or a car, then you will earn more money. It's not hard. Community college is free. You go and you learn a trade. That's how you make more money. In the meantime, you drive an Uber or something like that. There are signs all over my town on Long Island. Help wanted. Help wanted. Help wanted. These are service industry jobs, but they pay tips, and there's no tax on tips now. So you can make money and build up some kind of defense in case the worst befalls you. So the people who do not do that are either lazy or stupid. And there's plenty of those people walking around. I'm sorry to be harsh, but unless you physically or mentally have something wrong with you, you can make money in this country and build up a base to protect yourself and your family. But if you're getting drunk every night and you don't care, then you're not going to have any money in the bank. That makes sense. And the government can't force you to do anything. In fact, many of these people who will not go out and try to help themselves financially want the government to give them stuff. You know that, I know that. That's why we have a $30 trillion debt. Part of the reason is we give away so much money to the underprivileged or whatever name they have for them. Now, I'm telling you the migrants that work for me and I obviously supervise that are the hardest working people. They work their butts off. They're up early. They have second jobs. They're not fooling around. And I can give you a list of names of people who are. No, don't feel sorry for you. Now, you remember in the Great Depression, 1930s, that we didn't have any backup here in America. We had no backup. All right? So if you didn't have any money in the bank and most people did not, including my family in Brooklyn, you didn't eat. And that's why they had established bread lines and then they had to establish, you go to places like Oklahoma and you live in Hudson, Hooverville, as they called them, people didn't have it. But now, now the safety nets are in place and you can build yourself up. But again, there are millions of Americans who will not do it. It's like they won't go to the dentist so their teeth fall out. Okay? That's affordability and that's what the Democrats are running. I'll solve your financial problem. No, they won't. They're not buying you a steak. They might send you some coupons in the mail, but that's not going to boost your bank account. And that's the number.
- [34:15]
B
You're listening to the no Spin news Weekend Edition.
- [34:19]
C
All right. Iran, which is really causing a lot of trouble. And you'll remember, and I have to remind you, because this is why you watch me. This is why you are members of billow reilly.com. this is why you seek me out on other venues. I told everyone this biggest gamble in Donald Trump's life was going after these mullets because of the enormous, unexpected consequences of dealing with a theocracy. And they have a police state, man, I haven't been to Iran, but I was in Kuwait and Iraq. And I could see it. They have that population of 90 million under control over there. You get out of line, you get a bullet right in the head. Man, woman, doesn't matter. And if you're gay, they'll throw you off a building. Okay? So they have complete control over the population. So therefore, there's no pressure on them to negotiate anything. And as I said at the beginning of the program, we don't know what US Military action is doing there. We don't know. Now, President Trump first said he's going to charge a 20% tariff to get through the Strait of Hormuz, and now he says he's not going to do that. Okay? The United States has to control that body of war. Right now you have a 12 mile limit off any coast where the country controls what happens within 12 miles. All right? In Hormuz, Oman and Iran are on either side. So Iran controls 12 miles, Oman controls 12 miles. US got to take it over. And Oman will cooperate. So no, no more of this. This has got to stop. And I'm sure the Pentagon knows that. Positive. They know it. Okay. The US Military says now going to resume the blockades of Iranian ports. Again, it's impossible to get information, so you don't know how effective that is, but people tell me it's very effective because if you can't get food into the country, then the Persians can't eat. And a blockade of the ports means nothing in. So that's underway as well. Joining us now from Washington D.C. is Sina Tusi. He is a senior fellow at the center for International Policy, specializes in U. S. Iran relations along with Middle east policies. Am I making any mistakes here in my assessment of the Iran situation now?
- [37:11]
F
No, I think you're fundamentally correct in that we're at an impasse right now, that we're getting back into this direct war that, you know, both sides are firing all these shots and the US Is trying to get Hormuz open. You know, the closure of Hormuz has had all these economic consequences for the American economy, for the global economy. But the issue is, is how viable this is. Is there a military solution? I mean, Trump, you know, bombed them for 40 days. They were still able to shoot back missiles and drones. And now that same playbook is being used. Apparently we're doubling down on it. So I'm not sure if there is a viable military solution here.
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C
So you, you guys, you don't know. You're like me. You don't know. Now, the President himself said that he had the military situation under control in that Iran was pretty helpless. All right, they, they couldn't do any offensive capabilities, but obviously they have missiles and drones they can fire. That surprise you?
- [38:16]
F
No. So, I mean, you know, Iran had been planning for this war for many, many years. So what they've done that has kind of, you know, created this new situation in global warfare is they invested heavily in a lot of underground facilities, underground missile bases and drones. These kind of treat, cheap drones that are kind of transforming modern warfare, including in Ukraine and Russia, that they are able to, you know, they're able to bring out a launcher, shoot out a couple of these things, move it back under a mountain that is pretty much impervious to Airstrikes. So, you know, this war was launched as an air campaign. The US launched 13,000 sorties in 38 days. Pretty unprecedented. But when everything is underground, it's really hard to have a military solution. And, you know, there's been this argument that Trump is in an escalation trap, that he can dig deeper, but it's only going to potentially deepen this problem. And I think that's a serious risk right now that getting back into this conflict could make it just a lot worse for all sides.
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C
How would it make it worse, though? I mean, US Population is not going to support ground troops in Iran, and that's primarily because of what happened in Iraq. So we're not going to send in infantry to find these sites and blow them up. That's not happening. But you would assume that before the launch of this conflict that the President knew that, because I know he knew it. He wasn't a big fan of the Iraq war, as you'll remember. Okay. And so he thought he could, I guess, under the advisement of the Pentagon and Hegseth, he thought he could annihilate Iran's ability to cause mayhem by the air. Was that a severe mistake?
- [39:58]
F
Yes. I mean, I think, you know, Trump seemingly was under the impression, and I think egged on by his advisors and especially Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, that the Iranian regime was on its last legs, that, you know, one push and they would collapse. Apparently, the British prime minister said that Trump told him that the regime is going to collapse in three days. Now, that did not happen. They've entrenched themselves, as you said, they are very repressive system, so they can control the population largely. And right now, I think there's two clocks that are winding down, similar to what was happening in the 40 days. One is the blockade, the US blockade and the economic impact on Iran. And then the other is the continued closure of the Strait of Hormuz and the reserves of energy that we have in America, the Strategic Petroleum reserves and. And the global inventories, and those are on historically low levels. So I think the US does have less cushion right now to absorb a continued energy crisis and control the inflationary impact. I think, you know, inflation, as you said, is improving, but that's because the war ended. There was more oil flowing for the past several weeks since this memorandum was signed, but now it's going to get worse. And so I fear, you know, what the consequences of that going to be for the global economy. Really?
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C
Well, not going to be good. Why can't the United States just take over Hormuz with warships. Why can't they just do it?
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F
Yeah, well, actually, you know, that would entail a much bigger military intervention.
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C
But Americans would be okay with that. The American public would be okay with using the Navy and Air Force to control the Straits of Horror Moose. They'd be okay with it.
- [41:32]
F
They want this to end the military viability, though. Like I recently saw an interview, the former head of NATO, the NATO supreme commander was interviewed by Max Buddha over at the Washington Post. And the commander said that this to take over Hormuz would require tens of thousands of troops taking over that surrounding territory, dozens of destroyers and aircraft carrier group, all within firing range of Iran. Actually, during this war, most of the US Naval ships were outside of the general firing range of Iranian missiles. And so there could potentially be much bigger consequences and Iran can do much more damage to the regional infrastructure, potentially to U.S. bases. I mean, and the military assets that would have to be moved in there. So it could become a much bigger military quagmire that it's going to create costs that many Americans, I think, are not willing to bear.
- [42:21]
C
Well, I don't know about that at this point. They want it over pictures, satellite pictures came down. It shows that the Iranians are now rebuilding their nuclear facilities at Pickax Mountain and other places. You know, it'll probably be an even split. Any predictions, Mr. Nusi, on Tusi, I should say I'm sorry about that. Any predictions on how this will turn out?
- [42:54]
F
Well, I'm wary of making predictions, but I think if we continue to engage in this military campaign the way we have been, it could exacerbate the Strategic Petroleum Reserve crisis that we have in America. The knock on economic effects. Likewise, Iran is going to take immense damage. But you know, at the same time there is this diplomatic option. There was this mou, potentially returning to that. But I think, you know, both sides are going to have to have pragmatic senses prevail if there is going to be some kind of lasting, more peaceful solution that could bring back transit out of Hormuz and prevent this from really just deteriorating further in a way that could really just light the whole region on fire as well as the global economy.
- [43:36]
C
I don't see the MOs cooperating with anything, but I hope I'm wrong. And we appreciate you coming in with your expertise and we'll talk again soon. Thank you.
- [43:45]
B
This is the no Spin News Weekend Edition.
- [43:49]
C
Very important speech by President Trump tomorrow night. I was on a Hannity radio program today. It's posted on billoriley.com and Hannity had good information because he talks to Trump a lot. And he was telling me that it's going to center on a lot of fraud about 2020 election. And the president, of course, is entirely convinced and nobody's going to unconvince him that that election was rigged. And I said, and this is absolutely true, that in order to engage the American public on this issue, six years later, president has got very specific in who did what. Can't be general. Same thing with Iran. Now, Hannity doesn't think he's going to discuss Iran. I do. We'll see who's right. He almost has to update the nation on Iran because everybody is being affected by it. So, so anyway, we have, we will not be broadcasting on Friday, as you know, but I'm going to do a message sometime early Friday and then a column on Sunday about the president's speech. But again, clarification, if President Trump wants to continue leading the nation in a powerful position, it has to happen or the Republicans will lose the midterms. And we're going to give you the numbers. We have new numbers tonight, and that is the subject of the Talking Points Memo. So let's put me in charge of writing this speech. And President Trump could do worse. So I sit down and my mind is linear. I go A to B to C to D. I don't wander, you know, you read my books. 20 bestsellers, number one best sellers, I should say. And I'm telling you a story. That's what I do. I'm a storyteller from the ancient Irish tradition. That was the gift I was born with. I tell stories. Now, the story here is probably broken up into three areas. Number one, President Trump's passion that the election was rigged of 2020, okay, whatever he's got, he got to put it all out there tomorrow. And this guy did this. This guy did that. Here's how it affected the vote. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Okay, that's number one. Number two, he's got to say, look, here's where we are with Iran and here's what could happen. I don't expect him to give us the battle plan. That would be foolish. Okay? But here's what we can expect, and I hope it doesn't turn out that way or whatever phrase he wants to use. As a speechwriter, you always consult with the president or whoever you're writing the speech for. And the third is the economy, because the Trump economy is pretty good. But you ask Americans, they don't know that. And they're never going to get it from the corporate media, ever. I wouldn't spend a lot of time tomorrow on the economy because he does want to get this election stuff out. And Iran is kind of up there above the economy right now because Iran drives the high prices. Okay, so a couple of interesting things surrounding the Thursday speech. Number one, the White House has not asked for time from the Networks yet said 9pm at the White House. Now, Fox will take it, News Nation will take it, Newsmax will take it. So you'll be able to see it if you want to, but abc, NBC and CBS haven't been asked yet. I suspect they will not take it. But I could be wrong on that. Depends on what they have and what's going on. But you'll be able to see it and hear it on the radio. Also, the left, the far left, progressive left, doesn't want anybody to hear the speech. This is an amazing thing. All right, here's Congresswoman Ocasio Cortez. Go.
- [48:30]
I
I don't think that we should be contributing to any platforming of lies about our election. And so I think that, you know, I mean, many of these many news outlets oftentimes may receive transcripts. And I think that we have an ethical obligation to not air things that undermine our election that are not rooted in evidence and fact.
- [49:05]
C
All right, so that's what the Communists do. You can't have an opposing point of view in Beijing or Moscow or Havana or Hanoi. You can't. The government puts on some. Putin doesn't like a person who puts it on. Bye. Okay, that's what she wants. Not. We'll put the speech on and then we'll analyze the speech for accuracy, which is what we do in a democracy. Okay. No, nobody should take it. It's very important that the American public understand the mindset of Ms. Ocasio Cortez and Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and Mayor Mandani. You've got to understand where they're coming from. And that is a hard left place. And if you don't understand that, it's to your peril. These are revolutionaries. These are Che Guevara people. All right, In summing up, you never know what President Trump's going to do. And I can't, as a American citizen, suggest you do anything. I can do it through this program. And I know he watches the no spin news. He told me. Watch. He watches this broadcast first at night. You know, he's got a list of people, television shows that he watches new shows and he says we watch you first because, you know, you're obviously giving us information, and I am. So I hope that specificity rules for the nation's sake, not for Donald Trump's sake. I mean, obviously, if I had to vote again, and it's Kamala Harris against Donald Trump, I'm voting for Trump. Okay. Or Biden. Okay. I'm voting for him straight up. Because I think it's a better kind of country you want. All right. And that's a memo.
- [51:29]
B
You're listening to the no Spa News Weekend Edition.
- [51:33]
C
All right, so News Nation, you know that I'm on there. And tonight I'll be on with Katie Pavlich a little bit later. We usually do Cuomo on Wednesday, but I don't know why we're not doing it. But they asked me to do Katie. I'd be happy to do it. And she's at 10 Eastern. There's a whole laundry list of what she wants to talk about, which is good. I like that. I like to pong around. So we'll see you there. They have a pretty good polling operation called Decision Desk hq. Ddhq, Independent nonpartisan provider of election data. Okay, I'll look at that. And here is the headline. As it stands on July 15, Congress 65% that Democrats will win at least one house, 40% Democrats will win both houses. Okay, 35%. Republicans will retain both Houses, full control. So Dems look like they have a fairly significant advantage here. That can change overnight. Okay, House of Representatives, 39% change chance the Republicans retain the House, 62% chance Democrats win the House. Okay? That's all about money in people's pockets. That's what this is about. Okay, finally, the Senate, 57% chance Republicans retain the Senate, 43% Democrats win it. So those are the latest numbers. Do I have any quibble with those numbers? I do not. But they can change in a heartbeat with victory. Americans like winners. Okay? Now, one guy who follows this stuff every day as I do, his name, Mike Slater, may know him because he is the radio guy we use. See our radio broadcast squad, 300 stations. And we have a format that at the top of the radio, O'Reilly, whatever it is, they can put on whatever they want. WABC is our flagship in New York City, and It's a Bill O'Reilly commentary. So Slater comes on and he gives you the headlines because Slater's up like three in the morning. I just can't do it. And he's got boom, boom, boom. Then I come on and I give you a message of the day commentary. And then I come on again as the third part of the commentary, where something you might not know, which is really caught on. This would give you a lot of good information. So anyway, Slater, who's been around forever, he's a good broadcaster. He used to live in San Diego. He's a local San Diego radio guy and lived out there in San Diego. Beautiful, beautiful place to live, or at least was. I haven't been here in a while. And he moved to Tennessee, Slater, and he does a podcast every day, five originals, two reruns called Politics by Faith. He joins us now from Nashville. So are you a holy roller now? What are you now? Are you? What do you.
- [55:05]
H
Yeah. Been so for about 12 years. We like to thump the Bible on politics by faith. Bill O'Reilly, we thump it over there unapologetically.
- [55:14]
C
Okay, give me an example of a theme that politics by faith would take on.
- [55:25]
H
Let me give you the genesis, if I may, of why we started this podcast. I felt that people were very full of anxiety, Bill. It's important to bring in the headlines, understand the news and what's happening. But I saw that people were being taken out with anxiety, and that's not good. We have a country to save, and if we have anxiety, then we're not going to be able to think clearly. And Hebrews 11 and 12 starts off with, faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. And then it goes into all the characters in the Bible. So by faith Abel, by faith Enoch, by faith Abraham. And they talk about these incredible saints. If I may, Mr. O'Reilly, give a shout out to one of your books, Killing England. Anyone listening now who's read the book Killing England? And then you go see the movie Young Washington. It's all there. Everything from your book is in the movie Young Washington. But Young Washington and the men and women in Virginia that he fought for, they never lost heart and they never lost sight of providence and God's hand over the affairs of man and the affairs of nations. And that's what we do. We understand that God is in control and that there's nothing new under the sun. I'll just give you one example. Lindsey Graham passing away the other day. What do we do with that? What lessons can we learn from that? We talked about Ecclesiastes 7. Bill, last time you were on my radio show, if you remember, I asked you, what do you want your legacy to be? Do you remember what you said?
- [56:47]
C
No, I can't remember what I did
- [56:49]
H
yesterday, Bill you said my legacy doesn't concern me. I do what's right in the moment, that is. I don't know if you knew it, but you quoted essentially Ecclesiastes 2:16, which says, for the wise, like the fool, will not be long remembered. And that sounds like a downer, but it's not. It's about focusing on eternal things. That's just an example. Anything in the news, we bring it to the Bible and we try to get rid of our anxiety.
- [57:14]
C
All right? And it's a good thing to have people be optimistic or hopeful that the situation, whatever it may be, is going to turn in a positive way. Now, you yourself, are you a religious guy? I mean, what, what faith are you? Were you raised in a. In a home that was very religious?
- [57:36]
H
No, I was a Christer growing up, Bill. We went on Christmas and Easter. That was it. It wasn't until I moved to Tennessee when I first started to learn about the Bible and understand. So it's been about 14 years since I was baptized.
- [57:49]
C
All right, so you were kind of a semi atheist, or you guys, your family didn't really engage in organized religion, and then you, as many people do, saw the light and decided to become interested in the deity and theology. When you do the podcast, it just seems to me that you are relying upon unreality. Let me explain that. So when I wrote Killing Jesus, the intent of the book, and it succeeded phenomenally, was to portray Jesus as a human being. We don't have any miracles in there because we couldn't verify the meeting. You couldn't do any of that. All right? And we didn't take Matthew, Mark, Luke and John or any of the New Testament or any of the Old Testament to set up anything. All we did was we went down the line and here's a 32 year old guy who's murdered by the Romans. Why was he murdered? All right? And under that banner, we were able to get into his philosophy. I mean, remember Jesus of Nazareth? I never call him Jesus Christ, by the way, because Christ is a symbol of God. And we called him the Nazarene or Jesus of Nazareth, but he's the most famous person on earth and always will be, which is pretty startling for a stone cutter from a small town that nobody ever heard of. Nazareth. That's pretty, pretty shocking. There's got to be something there. And that's how we went, how we roll. They say your podcast is more of a traditional this is what the theology says. Or am I wrong?
- [59:49]
H
I think that's right. It's the theology and just the history. I like to go back to Old Testament stories and relate things that have happened today to battles that have happened in the past and the great men that are in this historical book as well. I just love the idea that there's nothing new under the sun.
- [60:08]
C
Okay, so you're, you're, but you're not taking the Old Testament literally, are you?
- [60:13]
H
I am indeed.
- [60:14]
C
So you believe that everything in the Old Testament happened?
- [60:18]
H
I do.
- [60:19]
C
The frog, the plagues in Egypt. The frogs came down, they chased them around. The Red Sea parted, they went through the Red Sea. You, Mike Slater, you're believing that?
- [60:34]
H
Mr. O'Reilly, at the risk of losing my opening starting three minutes of your O'Reilly update, I believe every word of the Bible is true as it is written, okay.
- [60:44]
C
And believe me, your belief should be respected. Anybody running it down or anybody denying it is anti democratic and foolish, in my opinion. Now let's turn to a lifestyle situation. So you're out there in San Diego. I guess you're surfing every afternoon after your radio shift or whatever you're doing whatever they do in San Diego. Okay. I've been to San Diego a dozen times, always enjoyed myself. It's gone downhill, as all of California has. And then you decide for family reasons, because your wife is a Tennessean, to go to Tennessee. So you move the family to Tennessee primarily. What is the difference between San Diego and Nashville? What have you seen?
- [61:31]
H
Yeah, the thing that's speaking to me right now, and I'm really curious, your take on this, Bill, is how beautiful it is. Tennessee. Tennessee is stunningly beautiful. The land here, now I know you said California, San Diego in particular is beautiful. It's not the distinction I've realized over time is the weather is nice, but that's very different than it is beautiful. It actually is not that beautiful. It's desert. It doesn't speak that land doesn't speak to me. Tennessee with its rolling hills and beautiful trees and it's lush and it's green. It's so beautiful. I was we're at Monticello, Monticello. Recently we went there for the Fourth. We brought the kids out there. And you're standing on this Monticello, Italian for little mountain. And you look around at the Blue Ridge Mountains and it's like, yeah, of course, of course Thomas Jefferson fought for this land. Of course he said, the king's not going to tell me what to do. I think the land is really powerful. And Tennessee is full of people who really, really want to fight for this country and fight for this land.
- [62:29]
C
Yeah, it's, it's a, it's a red state. And conservative thinkers mostly. What about socially? Did you have to make any adjustments coming from California to Tennessee?
- [62:43]
H
Tennessee is my people. My first job out of college was also in Tennessee West Tennessee. Shout out to Jackson, Tennessee. And that's just where I really cut my teeth in conservatism and where I started to learn the Bible. So it's always been a second home to me. I call myself a born again Tennesseean and then home obviously for my wife. One thing I also love about Tennessee, and this speaks maybe I think to your social point or question is Tennessee is built around towns. So there's all these towns where you have the courthouse in the middle and then town square around it with local businesses and then the schools right. A block away and the community is around that and it's all very town focused. And San Diego in particular, it's not. It's like highway and corporate slop and, and, and strip malls and it's all blends together and blah. And you lose a lot of that sense of community that I think is really important for raising a family.
- [63:34]
F
Yeah.
- [63:35]
C
And I mean obviously Tennessee a lot older than San Diego as far as the development is concerned. And that goes all the way back to Andrew Jackson and Davy Crockett. A fascinating state. All right, Mike, the podcast is Politics by faith. Okay. YouTube politics by Faith. Just punch that up and there it is. Right.
- [64:04]
H
What an honor, Bill. Thank you. To hear you say those words. As if I'm not nervous enough to talk about to the great Bill O'Reilly. Then you remind me that the President United States watches the show every night. What am I supposed to do here, Bill?
- [64:15]
C
You just do what you do. That's all we can do. Yeah, I mean I wouldn't have hired you if you some kind of moron. So you just, you just do what you do, Mike. And we wish you the best with it. Thanks for coming on.
- [64:30]
B
This is the no Spin news weekend edition.
- [64:34]
C
Okay, final thought. Number one, kudos to Earth, Wind and Fire and Lionel Richie. I saw them last night at the UBS Arena. Great show. And Lionel Richie, he had some health problems. He would. Right on it. Right on it. Well worth your time and money. That is one of the best shows. Keri's Wind and Fire. They're always good and I know them and long time. I don't know Mr. Richie, but he was right there. Okay, that's number one. Number two, as I mentioned, I'll be on NEWS Nation tonight at 10 Eastern with Katie Pavlich. We hope you tune into that number three that we are going to cover the president's speech Thursday night, but in a different way. Go to billoriley.com because we'll have a whole bunch of stuff there. All right. For you to analyze. Very important speech, very important, the country. And I will write a Sunday column about it. And I think I have covered it all. All right. So it's about 100 degrees here in New York. It's just crazy, crazy winter, crazy summer. I'm going out east where it's a lot cooler. And you know, the only I have to fight the great whites out there, but I'm, I'm ready for them. But I'll be around. As the Spinners once sang, I'll be around. And a beach ways right round, round, get around, I'll get around. Anyway, I'm babbling now. I'm sorry about that. I'm Bill O'Reilly. Thank you for watching, and we'll see you soon.
- [66:35]
B
Thank you for listening to the no Spin News Weekend Edition. To watch the full episodes of the no spin news, visit billoriley.com and sign up to become a premium or concierge member. That's billoriley.com Sign up and start watching today.