No Spin News - Weekend Edition - May 9, 2026

Summary

---

Bill O’Reilly’s No Spin News and Analysis

Weekend Edition – May 9, 2026

Host: Bill O’Reilly
Guests: Dr. Judy Shelton; Dr. James Robbins; Miguel Sancho
Main Theme:
A deep dive into U.S. foreign policy challenges—especially the Iran conflict—and its domestic implications, with insights into the immigration debate, U.S.-Vatican diplomacy, the economic fallout from war, and a fascinating segment on the resurgence of UFO interest.

---

Overview

This weekend edition centers on the U.S. confrontation with Iran—military, diplomatic, and economic dimensions—its effect on American politics and pocketbooks, and the global lack of consensus or interest in resolving the crisis. Bill O’Reilly also explores U.S. diplomacy in Europe, particularly Secretary of State Rubio’s Vatican trip, and discusses a surge in public and media attention to UFOs with a special guest segment.

---

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Secretary of State Rubio’s Vatican Mission

[00:07 – 08:09]

• Rubio heads to Rome to meet with Pope Leo and Italian Prime Minister Maloney, aiming to patch declining U.S.-Italy relations and address broader European concerns.
• O’Reilly sees Rubio as an effective choice: "His status in my eyes has risen in the last year or so. He has done a very good job as Secretary of State." (00:19)
• Focus of meetings: immigration policy, U.S. military bases in Italy, and a general effort at conciliation with the Vatican after frictions over Iran and migration.
• O’Reilly critiques Pope Leo’s reluctance to clarify Vatican views on Iran ("is the Vatican okay with the mullahs having a nuclear weapon? That’s a yes or no question. And Pope Leo didn’t want to answer it…” (01:43)) and positions both Popes Francis and Leo as motivated by liberation theology shaped by their experiences with poverty and corruption in South America.
• Tension between religious duty (serving the poor) and U.S. priorities (border security, law and order).
• Quote: "The Pope’s job is to administer to the poor, not separate them out. Bad, Good." – O’Reilly (04:43)

2. The Impact of Unfettered Immigration

[00:58 – 08:13]

• O’Reilly links open borders to increased crime, referencing European studies and recent crime headlines. He laments some leaders’ refusal to acknowledge risks—naming Pope Leo and Geraldo Rivera.
• Frustration with lack of policy consensus: "You can’t be advocating a policy that brings danger to innocent people. And that’s what unfettered immigration does flat out does it." – O’Reilly (05:59)
• Suggests that Rubio’s main contribution might be to keep stakeholders from interfering with limited progress.

3. Iran Conflict: Military, Economic, and Political Stakes

[08:13 – 15:47]

• U.S. Navy sunk six small Iranian boats; gas prices spike in the U.S.
• Dr. Judy Shelton, former Trump economic adviser, says the war’s outcome is “somewhat undefined.” Tension between necessary strong action and voter patience.
• Shelter argues U.S. oil self-sufficiency will soften the economic blow—once conflict resolves (“…companies are doing well, consumer demand is good, people are getting refunds from their taxes…” (10:52)).
• O’Reilly observes: “Most Americans don’t care about Iran. … They care about what’s going on in their wallet, in their pocketbook, their home finances. That is absolutely true.” (15:51)

Notable Quotes:

• “He raised the expectations of victory in Iran, and now it’s coming back to haunt him.” – O’Reilly (11:38)
• “It wasn’t so easy in Iran. We’re dealing with a much more French power, I think more ideologically driven, maybe somewhat irrational…” – Dr. Judy Shelton (11:53)

Key segment:

• Oil markets and U.S. pricing explained—global competition, not just domestic supply, sets prices. O’Reilly suggests American oil companies may be capitalizing on the crisis.

4. Political Stakes for Trump and the GOP

[15:47 – 22:49]

• O’Reilly summarizes the bleak political outlook: Americans focused on gas prices and household economics; midterms looming, little public support for war.
• “The world itself clearly doesn’t care about Iran or what Iran does or has done or might do. Even the Pope doesn’t care. … American apathy and got the president walking out, looking around, going, where are my guys? They’re dwindling, according to all the polls.” (17:53 – 19:20)
• Iran’s strategy: wait out global pressure and unrest, banking on U.S./allied frustration and lack of unity.

5. Strategic Dilemmas and Paths Forward

[22:53 – 30:55]

• Dr. James Robbins analyses the military, economic, and intelligence aspects of the Iran war, aligning with O’Reilly’s view that Iran is betting on endurance rather than victory.
• Robbins suggests:
  • More aggressive targeting of Iranian oil and financial networks
  • Seizing regime leaders’ secret assets abroad to fund opposition/covert activity
  • Cautions about the risks of simply arming disorganized rebel groups: “We armed the Iraqi resistance and it turned on us.” (29:08)
• Both agree that time is running short for meaningful change before U.S. midterms.

Notable Quote:

• “Their economy is kind of on the verge of a big collapse, but I think they think they can wait it out. And even if it collapsed, so long as they’re in power, they don’t care.” – Dr. Robbins (25:20)

6. The Limits of Public Knowledge and Media Spin

[30:59 – 37:25]

• O’Reilly laments lack of transparent information and shifting facts, both in journalism and from officials.
• He introduces Project Freedom—U.S. Navy initiative to protect Persian Gulf shipping—temporarily suspended for diplomatic maneuvering.
• Mechanisms outside military power, like insurance markets for shipping, significantly influence the economics and feasibility of international action.
• Rubio insists U.S. posture is defensive, not offensive (“There’s no shooting unless we’re shot at first.” (37:22)).

Key exchange—Trump’s stance:

• “We’re not going to let Iran have a nuclear weapon. … We have it very much under control.” – President Trump (39:55)
• O’Reilly questions whether such statements match economic reality (“…driving me nuts. But I do this for a living.” (40:18)).

---

Special Segment: UFOs, Public Opinion, and Presidential Responses

[41:19 – 55:40]

UFOs and U.S. Presidents

• Public opinion is divided: nearly half of Americans told pollsters they believe aliens have visited Earth.
• Trump and Obama both deny being party to any government alien secrets; O’Reilly is skeptical about the evidence.

Select Quotes:

• Trump: “People are saying they’re seeing UFOs. Do I believe it? Not particularly.” (42:19)
• Obama: “Are aliens real? They’re real, but I haven’t seen them.” (42:41)

Interview with Miguel Sancho ("Evidence of the Extraordinary")

• Sancho tells a compelling story of a Mexican FedEx pilot and crew encountering a mysterious orb during a routine flight. The encounter was partially captured on video and not confirmed by on-board or ground-based detection systems—“The most fascinating part … is when he pans over to the console and you can see that the TCAS system, the collision avoidance system, is not detecting any other aircraft…” (45:44)
• Sancho argues anomalous events happen often enough to warrant genuine investigation and less ridicule.
• O’Reilly remains unconvinced, but open: “You have stuff that’s unexplained. You should try to explain it.” (55:07)

---

Timestamps: Important Segments

• Rubio’s diplomatic mission: [00:07 – 08:09]
• Iranian conflict & oil/gas prices: [08:13 – 15:47]
• Domestic/political consequences: [15:47 – 22:49]; [30:59 – 37:25]
• Strategic recommendations (Robbins): [22:53 – 30:55]
• Project Freedom & military/economic interplay: [30:59 – 37:25]
• UFOs, public belief, and pilot testimony: [41:19 – 55:40]

---

Most Memorable Quotes

• “Most Americans don’t care about Iran. … They care about what’s going on in their wallet, in their pocketbook.” – O’Reilly (15:51)
• “If you want to get their attention, that’s a great way to do it.” — Dr. Robbins, advocating freezing regime assets (28:43)
• “Point of the book is not that you need to believe everything that you’re told or every wacky story, but … anomalous events happen, and they happen often enough that we need to be more hospitable to what some might consider radical or wacky theories.” — Miguel Sancho (54:27)

---

Tone, Language, and Attitude

O’Reilly’s tone is consistently direct, sometimes combative, always skeptical. He emphasizes straightforward, often unvarnished analysis—“No spin. Just facts”—throws sharp criticism at political and religious elites he feels aren’t grasping or responding to real-world consequences, and seeks practical advice from his guests. On UFOs, he adopts a playful skepticism, pressing for hard facts while acknowledging public fascination.

---

Summary

This edition of No Spin News delivers a thorough, wide-ranging analysis of America’s Iran predicament—military, diplomatic, and economic—while connecting it to domestic anxiety, inflation, and the political risks facing Trump’s administration as elections loom. O’Reilly interrogates the often opaque, confusing messaging from leaders and experts. The episode closes with a lighter, but rigorously skeptical, examination of UFO claims, punctuated by historical context, expert testimony, and O’Reilly’s signature skepticism.

---

Transcript

[Bill O'Reilly]

Welcome to the no Spin News Weekend Edition

Talking Points memo is about Secretary of State Rubio going to Rome on Thursday to meet with Pope Leo and the president or prime Minister of Italy Maloney, who used to be an ally and is no longer. So it's an important meeting. So Rubio is a good choice. He's a Roman Catholic. He's not confrontational man. I mean, I know him, but his status in my eyes has risen in the last year or so. He has done a very good job as Secretary of State. So on Thursday, he's going to, he's going to the Vatican. And, you know, this is not usual. He's going to visit Pope Leo at The Apostolic Palace, 11:30am Press will be all over it. Then on Friday, he's going to meet with the Pope's cabinet. Yes, the Pope has a cabinet because Vatican's a country. And then on Friday, he's got the prime minister in Rome and they're going under the banner of being conciliatory, which is another good thing. We need the bases, air bases in Italy. We need somebody to be our friends in Europe, and this is the best hope. Now, both Pope Leo and President Trump don't understand each other. They may not want to understand each other. I don't know Pope Leo. Okay, I do know Donald Trump. They talk past each other. It's almost like they're two different languages. And this all stems the Iranian thing isn't really what's on the table. It's immigration. That's what it goes back to. And the Pope, I think, made a mistake getting into the Iranian conflict when he wouldn't follow up with answers to specific questions, like is the Vatican okay with the mullahs having a nuclear weapon? That's a yes or no question. And Pope Leo didn't want to answer it because he doesn't want bad relationships between Christians and Islamists. He didn't want that. So he's not going to answer those kinds of questions. Donald Trump is convinced that Pope Francis, Leo's predecessor, and Pope Leo are liberation theologians. What does that mean? Both of them were missionaries in South America, very poor. Both of them saw people get destroyed by corrupt. I don't know what you're going to call these dictators down there, but they didn't give a hoot about their people and they administered to those poor people. Both Francis and Leo did the same thing, and they became very liberal in trying to help poor migrants. Then you have politics come into it because the United States says we have to stop millions of People from coming in here unattended, which Trump has succeeded in doing. But the popes themselves didn't quite get the why of that. Here's what the President said. Go. So we have the lowest murder rate in 125 years, since 1900, the Lotus murder rate. So we believe strongly in law and order. And he. He seemed to have a problem with that. So there's nothing to apologize for. He's wrong. It's not that Pope Leo has a problem with law and order. He doesn't see it as the top priority. Okay? Now there you go. He could be wrong, because certainly front page of the New York Post today is another guy. He comes in, stabs two Long island women at death, goes on and on and on. When you let millions of people into a country, any country, there's a study going on now in Northern Europe where the immigrants commit three times as many violent crimes as the indigenous population. I mean, that's what you're going to get. These are unattended people. These are people who were dumped out of prison, specifically with marching orders to come here by Maduro and by Mexico, whoever. But the Pope's job is to administer to the poor, not separate them out. Bad, Good. All right, so therefore, the president, who sees unfettered immigration as bad because of violence attached to it, and this is the debate I had with Geraldo, who still to this day refuses to acknowledge the danger of millions of people pouring in here. We don't know who they are or what they've done in their past. He won't do it. All right? And neither will Pope Leo. So we have to attend to the poor. Period. Period.

[Dr. James Robbins]

Period.

[Bill O'Reilly]

Nothing more than that. And it drives some people crazy because they say you can't be advocating a policy that brings danger to innocent people. And that's what unfettered immigration does flat out, does it. Okay, so you got two guys you're talking past you about. Can Rubio broker this? I don't know. Okay. I could by having them both keep quiet. Okay? The Pope doesn't have to be persuaded, and the president doesn't have to be persuaded. You can stay in their own zones, all right? Just don't interfere if something positive is happening. And certainly closing down the poorest border was a positive for this country. And if you don't think so, then you're not, you know, going back to my message of the day, you don't live in reality. You don't. Okay. In addition, the Trump administration has got to start getting some allies on it on Iran. I don't expect Italy to magically come over to our side, but they'll make some progress there. The Pope is not going to get involved with that. He's not. But we do need more allies and it's just crazy we don't have them because it's certainly not a good thing for a terror state to have a nuclear weapon. I don't care where you are or what you're doing now. I know you're paying more for gas. I know everybody knows this is painful, but sometimes you got to see the big picture. But Americans, a lot of them don't want the big picture. They don't want to see it. They won't acknowledge it. And that's where we are. And that's the memo.

You're listening to the no Spin News Weekend Edition.

Ladies and Iran today, US Navy took out six small Iranian boats that were designed to stop shipping. So they're at the bottom of the ocean. You know, it's basically the president's going to have to decide to step it up. I don't think he can go another month or so with the way we are now, particularly because those gas prices are hitting about 450 a gallon. I mean, that's a killer. Joining us out from Washington is Dr. Judy Shelton, the former economic adviser to Donald Trump in his first term. She's a senior fellow at the Independent Institute. So putting politics aside and just getting into the effectiveness of the Iranian war, you'd have to say it's undefined right now. Dr. Or would I be wrong?

[Dr. Judy Shelton]

No, it's somewhat undefined in some aspects. You could claim a certain amount of victory. But we see things heating up today and our markets are responding to that. The price of oil is responding to that. So nothing has been decided in the end.

[Bill O'Reilly]

And that is angering a lot of non ideological voters. People who aren't committed to the MAGA are not committed to the liberal progressive side because they walk out every day, got to pay more money to the essentials of life. And so they're going to take it out on the administration or is there a way they wouldn't take it out on the administration?

[Dr. Judy Shelton]

Well, part of it, as you brought up, is the way those polls are worded. If you ask people if they think it would be a good thing to take away the power from Iran to threaten us with nuclear weapons, they would be very much in favor of that. That's popular in a broad way, but it's true. People don't like to see the price of gasoline go up and they do respond to that. I probably am in that group of mega supporters who thinks that this is all going to work out. I applaud the president for showing leadership. No one said it would be easy, which is why other presidents haven't attempted to confront Iran. I think we're well situated as far as being oil producers ourselves, largely thanks to things that were done under the Trump administration. And I think the price of oil will come down once it's resolved. And meanwhile, companies are doing well, consumer demand is good, people are getting refunds from their taxes. So there's all kinds of indications that will be we'll be doing well once we get through it. But some people are less inclined to get through it. And there's a lot of murmuring going on now.

[Bill O'Reilly]

Okay, but you say that it was not in the beginning defined that it would be this difficult. President Trump made some statements and said, hey, we're going to wax them pretty hard and it's not going to be a long situation. So he raised the expectations of victory in Iran, and now it's coming back to haunt him. Or am I wrong?

[Dr. Judy Shelton]

Well, expectations were high, no doubt, because it looks so easy in Venezuela. Not only. Not only need and minimal loss of life, but the people of Venezuela were grateful. We were saying, thank you, getting rid of the guy. And now oil revenues are going to start to flow to those citizens. It helps us and it helps Venezuela. So it wasn't so easy in Iran. We're dealing with a much more French power, I think more ideologically driven, maybe somewhat irrational as far as when we try to put together military strategy. They have these little mosquito boats, as you say, where we take them out. But they're also attacking, for example, what used to be their own allies in the region, the United Arab Emirates. So they're taking it out on their allies. And maybe that's. That we weren't expecting. So now we're going to have to help the allies. And all of that is dragging us in and making the whole thing take a lot longer. And the more the potential for action by our navy, the more potential for expenses if we're trying to somehow ensure the safe passage of cargo ships through the war loose between all of those risks, treasure, life itself, we're paying a higher price than I think people had been.

[Bill O'Reilly]

Yeah. And I think that the president also, I don't think he was misled. I. It's just the way war is, the fog of war. Final question. You were an economic adviser to Donald Trump. I get hundreds of letters saying, look, America Is self sufficient in energy, Oil, got plenty of it here. Why are gasoline prices going up a buck and a half at the pump? If we have all this oil here in the boundaries of our country, why are they going up so much? How do you answer that?

[Dr. Judy Shelton]

Well, it is a global market. Yes, we're the largest supplier, but the price is pretty much governed by global demand. And so even our biggest producers are in competition with the other major producers in the world. And they even respond when the price goes up. Then they tend to produce more. It's not like we're like opec, but our own producers do respond to price signals that are generated by demand.

[Bill O'Reilly]

We don't have any oil shortages here, but we have higher prices and we shouldn't have higher prices if we have enough oil to service our population. Whereas places like China don't. They have to import all their oil. We don't have to import any of our oil. So people are starting to say, you know, the American oil company is taking advantage of the situation and I'm kind of in that group. Last word.

[Dr. Judy Shelton]

Well, I, I guess we could be the way the old Soviet Union was and say we're totally self sufficient and we don't want to trade with the rest of the world and we just kind of close up shop. And then in economics you're called an autarkic country, so you don't need to trade. But the US has never been that way. We've been hurt by globalization in many respects, but we're still pretty much, we have an attitude of it's an open global market and I think when it comes to energy, those forces are still going to dominate. I don't think we could ask our producers to only produce for the United States.

[Bill O'Reilly]

All right, Doctor, thanks very much. We appreciate it and hope we can talk again soon. Thank you.

This is the no Spin News, Weekend Edition.

Time is not on President Trump's side. Iran is not evolving the way I believe the USA anticipated. And Republicans are getting nervous because the midterms are five months away. Here is the truth, and it's bleak. Most Americans don't care about Iran. They don't care it's a terrorist state. They don't care it may have a nuclear weapon if its research goes undisturbed. They don't care about any of it and entirely about hearing it already. They care about what's going on in their wallet, in their pocketbook, their home finances. That is absolutely true. So therefore resolution is badly needed by the Trump administration and the gop, the Grand Old Party and that's going to be a challenge. And that is the subject of this evening's Talking Points Memoir. So the US is dominating militarily in the Iranian situation, there's no doubt about that. But not economically. So people are suffering all over the world. By Memorial Day here in the USA, gas prices might be $5 a gallon. That's a big hit, okay? As I said, Americans, they're looking at their own personal portfolio, not the big, big geopolitical picture, okay? And the big geopolitical picture doesn't have a lot of positives right now. There's one caveat here. I don't get classified information, okay? I don't know what the plan might be for the Department of War. I simply don't. I do know what Iran's plan is. That's very clear. Wait it out. The world suffers. People in the United States dissent. The mullahs don't care whether their own people. Let's face it, the US economy is under stress, national debt rising, trade war shaking the markets. And meanwhile China is dumping the the dollar and stockpiling gold. That's why I protected my savings with physical gold and silver through the only dealer I trust, American Hartford Gold. And you can do this. Get precious metals delivered to your door or place in a tax Advantage Gold IRA. They'll even help you roll over your existing IRA or 401 tax and penalty free with billions in precious metals delivered thousands of five star reviews and an A from the Better Business Bureau. You can trust American Hartford Gold as I do. Please call 866-326-5576 or text BILL to 998899 again that's 866-326-5576, or text BILL to 998-899 starting a new business can be terrifying. But it helps when you have a partner like Shopify on your side. Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses and 10% of all E commerce in the USA. From household names like Heinz to brands just getting started. Shopify lets you easily create email social media campaigns. Serves as your commerce expert. With world class expertise from managing inventory to international shipping to processing returns and more. It is time to turn those what ifs into with Shopify today. Sign up for your $1 per month [e-mail] Bill please go to shopify.com Bill shopify.com Bill are suffering. They don't care whether they themselves die. I don't care about anything. Wait it out. As obvious as far as the USA and they're obviously controlling everything. We just difficult to ascertain what the next move is. So we control the Straits of Hormuz in a sense that we can get ships in and out of there and we can block ships. All right, so then what inside Iran? And if there's a hope that the Persian people are going to overthrow the mullahs, that's another tough one. 200,000 Iranian soldiers with orders to shoot to kill. You go out of your house, you're causing trouble, you're dead right. This is how fascists and communists control their populations. It's not hard. It's been going on since ancient Rome. Okay, we know that. So if you're banking on that to happen, an uprising, a popular uprising, and it takes some time, if it happens at all, the world itself clearly doesn't care about Iran or what Iran does or has done or might do. Even the Pope doesn't care. This is kind of shocking and that I did not anticipate. And Secretary of State Rubio is going to be in Rome tomorrow on Thursday, I'm sorry, Thursday and Friday to try to amend whatever controversy there is there. But again, this is a truth telling forum you're watching. They don't care. NATO doesn't care. China doesn't care. No one cares. And you add that to the American apathy and got the president walking out, looking around, going, where are my guys? They're dwindling, according to all the polls. So the mullahs know this. They know there's no popular support to remove them from the outside. Therefore they have no incentive, none, to make a treaty to settle it. None. Tough to negotiate on those terms. And that's the memo.

You're listening to the no Spin news Weekend Edition.

Joining us now is a guy who knows what he's talking about, Dr. James Robbins. He was special assistant for Secretary of Defense during the Bush administration. Bush the younger Donald Rems, Rumsfeld was Secretary of defense. And Dr. Robbins is the dean of the Institute of World Politics. We're very pleased to have him. So am I misstating anything? Am I missing anything in general?

[Dr. James Robbins]

Dr. Bill no, I think you've pretty much summed up what the dilemma is. We're fighting this war. It's not just a military war. There's an economic angle, there's a diplomatic angle, there's probably an intelligence angle that we don't know about. There's a lot going on. But as you say, it takes time and there's not a big coalition that wants to wait for this. We're suffering to a certain extent from the economic impacts of this, which, of course, is what Iran's plan is, is to increase that pain. And you're right about the fact that the Iranians think they just have to wait it out. So, as you say, there's really no incentive for them to make a deal.

[Bill O'Reilly]

All right, so I don't know whether President Trump anticipated all of this. I do know that I had a phone call with him about a week before the action started, and he wanted to make a deal. He wanted to go in with a negotiation. He did not want to use military action. You know, talk to him about it, very frankly. And that was his point of view. And I said to him, and I've said this publicly as well, it's the biggest gamble you've ever taken in your life on any front, because these are people who simply see the world much, much differently. It's not Venezuela, it's not any of these other Western countries. These are people, the fanatical, they're willing to die for whatever. They don't care about their own people. So where, where is the negotiating hammer? And I believe that the Trump administration and Israel thought that a destruction of the country would bring them to their knees, and it has not. Were you surprised by that?

[Dr. James Robbins]

I'm a little surprised by it. I mean, it's pretty extraordinary that we took their top leadership and, you know, they're still going and, you know, and then took a couple other levels of their leadership out, and they're still fighting. So that's. It's interesting. I think that they believe, probably rightly, that if they can wait this out, if they survive, they can declare victory. That's all they want to do, right? Yeah. No matter what's going on in their country, if they survive, they're going to say they won. Saddam Hussein did that in 1991 after the desert Storm, because we withdrew. He declared victory. Now, you know, was it a victory? I don't know. He was still in power. So long as they're in power, so long as they're alive, they're going to say that they're winning. And what we've seen throughout the course of this is that rather than seeking compromise, they're actually expanding their demands. They're increasing their demands for ending this thing. So the economic strategy is beginning to tell. Their economy is kind of on the verge of a big collapse, but I think they think they can wait it out. And even if it collapsed, so long as they're in power, they don't care.

[Bill O'Reilly]

You know, it's almost like the Vietnam War, where you could kill as many communists and from the north and the United States certainly did all right. And they weren't going to surrender. No matter what. No matter what, they weren't going to give up. And went on and on and on and on. But now we have the added political component back here of a five term, five month, I should say, midterm election where the power structure could change in this country because Iran doesn't surrender. And, you know, the mullahs know that.

[Dr. James Robbins]

Oh, yeah, they're watching our media. They probably are selecting media that tells them that Donald Trump is in a huge political crisis, that the US Economy is collapsing and things like that. I'm sure that they're very selective in their choice of media. You know what they want to believe. It's not necessarily true, but it is true that there are political pressures building. And when you're fighting the type of war that requires patience and their economy to one day collapse, then, and we don't know when that day is, it becomes very difficult because you do get these countervailing pressures building inside our country for people to say, why are we doing this? And particularly the politicians. So, you know, we're just going to wait for this to happen.

[Bill O'Reilly]

It's the folks, too. They don't understand what's going on. 50% of them don't. And they're mad because they're going to pay more money for gasoline and that's going to reflect inflation across the board. Last question for you. If you were advising President Trump on this, could you bring him anything that he has not done?

[Dr. James Robbins]

I would say ramp up the pressure, not just the military pressure, although there could be some selective strikes on the oil infrastructure, on the gasoline refineries and other things that would help send their economy over a cliff. I would say do more in terms of seizing the secret accounts of the IRGC leaders and other regime people who have these secret hard currency accounts, their own personal fortunes. I mean, if you want to get their attention, that's a great way to do it. And then use that seized money to underwrite the revolution by buying arms, by underwriting propaganda, paying for members of the military inside Iran to defect. I think there are a lot of active measures in that respect. The things that we could be doing and maybe we are doing covertly, but really amping up that effort because we don't have a lot of time now.

[Bill O'Reilly]

People don't understand how it works. So these mullahs, they all have money out of Iran and Switzerland and other places stashed away. And Lindsey Graham last night, the senator from South Carolina was very bullish on the war. He basically said, well, give, give the Iranian people guns. But as you know better than anybody else, we armed the Iraqi resistance and it turned on us. I mean, you know, that's not an easy thing to do, is to arm people who are disorganized and discontent. I mean, they may turn those guns on you.

[Dr. James Robbins]

Yeah, that's true. It can be dicey. This is why I like the idea of undermining some of the military structures that already exist in the country, getting some people to defect. That's how it worked under Mossadegh. It was the army that switched sides. They already have weapons. They're already inside the country. They have a command structure. Maybe they can get the job done for us. And Iran already uses foreign mercenaries to kill their own people. So they don't even trust that their IRGC even would do the job for them. So to the extent we can undermine that, I think it would be positive.

[Bill O'Reilly]

That's the trot with the Trump administration did in Venezuela. Just bought the army. You know, it's. Next time I talk to the president, if ever I will bring that up. But you got to assume that the CIA and they got to know that, that they have to get enough defectors with power to bring this thing at least to some sort of closure. We appreciate it, doctor, Very good discussion. Thanks for helping us out.

This is the no Spin News Weekend edition.

So it's very hard to analyze this Iranian conflict. I have very good sources and it just changes every day. And I don't get classified briefings. Once in a while somebody will whisper something, but I don't have them. I don't see them. I don't know exactly what is going on militarily or even strategy wise. I just don't know. And it drives me crazy because I cannot pinpoint exactly what is happening between the United States and Iran. But here's what I do know. Most people outside of the journalism business have no idea what's going on. They don't know anything about this. They know that Iran's a terrorist state and that it would like to have a nuclear weapon, but that's it. They don't know Hormuz, they don't know oil futures. They don't know. They don't know. And you don't expect them to know. How are they going to know? There was a documentary floating around over the weekend that said that the United States and Israel's bombing didn't knock out hardly any of the serious weapons the Iranians have. That's what the documentary said. I don't know. Okay. I don't believe the documentary because it was done from a anti American point of view. So whatever they said, I was skeptical about it. But I don't know, maybe we didn't destroy as much of the ordinance that Iran has last summer. Not possible weapons of mass destruction. George W. Bush, Iraq. Come on now. Americans in particular, when they don't understand something, this is across the board. No matter what your hobby is or your situation is in the workplace or at home, if you don't understand the tendency here is to get angry. We are not a patient people. Lot of anger and it's rising. That's a threat to President Trump because. And I'm going to go into specifics in a moment. It changes every day, but every day gas prices go up. That's a reality. People understand that they're getting teed off. Okay, Talking points memo. So this Project Freedom has been suspended after one day. Most people in the world have no idea what Project Freedom is. I will tell you. It's to restore freedom of navigation for commercial shipping through the Straits of. Of Hormuz and protect vessels who are going in and out of the Persian Gulf from Iranian attacks. That is Project Freedom. It was in place for one day Monday, Tuesday I was suspended. Okay. Why? Because the Pakistanis, who are trying to get a ceasefire agreement, treaty of sorts, told President Trump that if you suspend it, we have a better chance of getting a deal. That's the explanation from the White House. Credible. Credible. But it's another. It's not a flip flop so much as it's another what? Now what? Hey, this is Mike Slater. I have a podcast called Politics by Faith. I would love for you to listen.

We take the news of the day

and we run it through the Bible.

What does the Bible have to say about this?

Because there's nothing new under the sun.

Read the headlines. Everything's all crazy.

World's coming to an end. It's all in the Bible. And after every episode, hopefully you leave with a proper perspective and a biblical peace. Please join us wherever you listen to podcasts and we also have a YouTube page as well. YouTube.com politicsbyfaith Every major story has a version the news gives you and then a version that's actually true. If you're a critical thinker, if you're somebody who's not tribal, if you're somebody who just wants the facts so you can make your own Decisions. Keeping It Real with Jillian Michaels is the show for you. Subscribe now, wherever you get your podcasts. Okay, so the US has a very heavy military presence in Hormuz. Now, 15,000Americans there can do pretty much what you want there. But the Iranians are being annoying and firing on this ship and using drones. And the insurance companies, that's a key to this. They don't want to insure the tankers going in and out of there. And if you don't have insurance, then the companies who run the tankers don't want to go. Did you know that? It's a big part of all this. And Iran knows the more trouble it can cause at a lower level, the more the insurance companies are going to say, no, we're not going to, not going to insure you for going in and out of the straits. Okay, so freedom, Project Freedom is over for now. Here's what Secretary of State Marco Rubio said. Go. Now. What's really important for you to report and for everyone to understand is this is not an offensive operation. This is a defensive operation. And what that means is very simple. There's no shooting unless we're shot at first.

[Dr. James Robbins]

Okay?

[Bill O'Reilly]

We're not attacking them. We're not. But if they're attacking us or they're attacking a ship, you need to respond to that. Okay? It's a defensive posture again. Do people understand that? What does that mean? They don't, but leave it aside. So apparently this is according to Axios, and I don't trust that organization. Okay, so a website thing and they put out stuff. There is a one page memo deal to end the conflict, but nothing has been agreed upon, so what good is it? Okay, all right, so it's floating around. And the deal that's floating around would be a moratorium on Iranian nuclear enrichment. What does that mean, a moratorium? I guess it means they stop enriching uranium, but I don't know what it means. Do they keep what they have? Because the scientists are saying, you got a lot of this stuff and it's close. I don't know what a moratorium is. Okay. And that the United States, if they get the moratorium, would release a lot of frozen Iranian funds around the world, which would help Iran, and then Hormuz would be open for everybody to go through, but that would take about a month to do that. Why? Why would it take them about a month? I don't know. Okay, so that's what this memorandum 14 point memorandum allegedly says. Here's President Trump. Go. We're not going to let Iran have a nuclear weapon. We're not going to let that happen. And we won't let that happen. And so we're dealing with people that want to make a deal very much. And we'll see whether or not they can make a deal that's satisfactory to us. We have it very much under control. I'm not sure about that because gasoline is approaching $5 a gallon. That's not under control. I think what the President is saying is that the military situation is under control. But I don't know. You see what I mean? Driving me nuts. But I do this for a living. Okay, all right. Not going to have a nuclear weapon. Okay. But there's a bunch of ways you can frame that. Some people might call it spinning. I don't know. I do know that no matter what deal comes forth, Democratic Party and the anti Trumpers will say it's a bad deal. No matter what it gets. I do know that that will happen. So where we are is we are a nation that's getting keyed off. And whenever that happens, the political party in power takes it right on its shin. Always. No exceptions. Always. And that's why there's pressure on President Trump to get this thing resolved. But the mullahs know that. And that's the memo.

You're listening to the no Spin News Weekend Edition.

So one of the offshoots of being president is that you deal with everything. You deal with all kinds of stuff. And UFOs have made a comeback. Unidentified Flying Objects have made a comeback. All right. In this country. Why? I have no idea why. All right, so there is a poll from YouGov. First question, how likely do you think it is that aliens have visited Earth in recent years? Definitely have. Probably have. 47. Definitely have. Not. Probably have. Not. 37. Not sure. 16. And then there's a News Nation poll. Do you believe the US government is hiding information about the existence of UFOs? This is social media dream, this question. Yes. The government's hiding information. No. 28%. Not sure. 28%. Both presidents Trump and Obama have been asked about this. Roll it. I did have one very brief meeting on it, but people are saying they're seeing UFOs. Do I believe it? Not particularly. Do you think, do you think you'd know if there were evidence of extraterrestrials? Well, I think my great, our great pilots would know. And some of them really see things that are a little bit different than in the past. So we're going to see, but we'll Watch it. You'll be the first to know. Are aliens real? They're real, but I haven't seen them. And they're not being kept in, what is it, Area 51.

Area 51.

There's no underground facility. Unless there's this enormous conspiracy and they

[Dr. James Robbins]

hid it from the President of the United States.

[Bill O'Reilly]

Okay, so both presidents. I don't know why Obama said there is. Based on what? If you were a professional interviewer, you would say, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Okay, you just said they're real. What does that mean? Okay, so we're not getting anything, let's put it that way, out of the two most recent presidents. Which brings us to a new book called Evidence of the Extraordinary Discoveries from the series the Proof Is Out There. All right. It's written by a guy I know pretty well, Miguel Sancho, and he is a News Nation producer now. He did the San Francisco thing for us. He was a producer on that project. All right. He's worked for Inside Edition. I worked. I started Inside Edition. He's worked for CBS News on and on and on. Very, very senior guy. All right, so the book is out this week. And I was reading a book last night. I wanted to get Spooky Environment to read this book. And I made sure that I had all the security so Yeti couldn't break into my garage. But I'm reading a chapter on UFOs and this Mexican pilot, Delgado, all right, he's flying a FedEx plane from northern Mexico into the USA, and he and his crew are escorted on their flight up in the air by a red spaceship or something. Tell me a little bit more about that.

Well, Bill, thank you for having me. Thank you to your audience for listening in. And I encourage everybody to read my book or any book in the garage at night. I think that's a wonderful recipe for a great reading experience. I will say this. Yes. I mean, I went into this field as a hard news journalist with a background in investigative and consumer reporting. And it was somewhat serendipitous that I started working with this program. And the first kind of aha moment for me was this conversation I had with Captain Delgado. This was back in 2020. And so he had this video that he'd shot when he was on this flight. And this very peculiar orb appeared off the port side of his aircraft. I believe it was a 767, one of the FedEx cargo planes. And he claims it followed them and tracked them for about 20 minutes and at times hit them with a kind of lighthouse like beam. And the craziest thing about it wasn't just the account. And he shot some cell phone video of it, which is good, not great. It's what you'd expect, kind of a white dot against the black sky. But the most fascinating part of the story and the fascinating part of the video is when he pans over to the console and you can see that the TCAS system, the collision avoidance system, is not detecting any other aircraft in the area. And subsequent investigation also confirmed that the radar hadn't detected any aircraft in the area. So we have a number of sources, instruments that we consider usually normally reliable in modern aviation, confirming this account. And the kind of eureka moment for me, or the epiphany for me was, okay, this stuff isn't just being reported by kooks in their basement with a tinfoil hats or out in the desert looking at the sky with night vision goggles, but people we trust with multimillion dollar aircraft and people we trust with our lives and people that we would normally consider extraordinarily responsible and honorable. And of course, Captain Delgado, who was kind enough to come on the show and tell his story, is just one of many people, some of them with extremely impressive backgrounds and high clearances in the US Milit who have come forward and said not just that they've had a personal encounter, but they have a strong reason to believe that, yes, aliens exist, and further, that they've come here, that we've tracked them, that the US government has encountered them, and that there's an ongoing crash retrieval and reverse engineering program that continues to this day. And that's what people are hoping will be revealed when President Trump kind of dangles the promise of disclosure of whatever the federal government has, whatever documents they have on UFOs.

Well, he could use the. He could use the diversion now, that's for sure. But I'm skeptical about this, as you know. So I don't really know what an orb is. What is an orb? Is that just some round thing that shows up? And is it red, blue? What is it? What's an. What's an orb?

Ah, an orb, indeed. So, yes, the UFO community has a whole classification system of every kind of type and design of ufo similar that you might, you know, have certain types of designs or automobiles. So of course you have the classic flying saucer that had its heyday in the 40s and 50s, and it's still kind of gone out of vogue since then.

So they're not saucers anymore, they're orbs now.

Yes, Orbs are much more frequent. And orbs, like the name kind of implies there's spherical glowing orbs.

So they're up in the air and they're round things and they have lights on them. And the video that Delgado shot doesn't show you much. Now there are other crew members that could have shot video too on his flight. I haven't seen any video that would convince me of anything coming out of that plane. Yeah, some video, but nobody knows what it is. Certainly there's no alien looking out the window waving at Captain Delrado. So I think this might fall under the category of people believe what they want to believe. That you want to believe there's an alien force and they come down here for a snack or why? But I'm still way, way out there as far as being convinced is concerned something wrong with me? Don't answer that. But am I not doing my job?

Yeah, well, the truth is. So you'd said earlier in the broadcast quite perspicaciously that UFOs have come back and the question is why? Well, we know we can answer that. There's two main developments that have sparked what I term in the book the modern UFO renaissance. One is the emergence of these videos, and I don't just mean the Captain Delgado cell phone video, but these extraordinarily compelling military grade videos with the telemetry and with the testimony of the pilots to back them up.

Then why wouldn't Obama and Trump cop to that? Why wouldn't they say, yeah, I mean, I saw this, it was one of our top pilots and they brought it in. And now I'm convinced there some orb chasing people around.

Right, because there's still debate exactly what these videos are showing. Right. The the Pentagon, under pressure from what is now kind of this emerging UFO lobby or this emerging UFO constituency special interest group, is now working or has established, I should say an official investigative agency called Arrow, the Ultimate Anomaly Resolution Office. And they are here to investigate videos such as this. And many times they will try to at least come up with a prosaic explanation that what appears to be a UFO or an alien craft is in fact a sky lantern or an airplane going the other direction, or a drone that happened to be shot or an artifact of the camera. But there are those that they cannot resolve. It's often the case that they say that that is a result of having insufficient data, which is a legitimate response. And they go further to say that they have never to this day come up with conclusive proof of alien technology or craft and you're right, Bill, that there's certain skepticism that is, I think, required when you're approaching this subject, because it's very easy to say, as President Obama, did aliens exist? Where does that come from? That comes from basically a scientific principle or scientific equation under the Drake equation. Not to bore you with all the geek stuff, but statistically trying to establish what the odds are that we are alone in the universe. And as you can imagine, with the number of. Yeah, but he should have been solar system.

That pinhead interviewing him should have stopped him right there and said, wait a minute. And you would have done it. And I would have done anything. Aliens are real. How do we know that?

You know, aliens may exist somewhere at some time. But it's a much bigger question to say, are aliens here now? Have they been, you know, be able to travel here and visit us recently?

Yeah. Well, I don't believe it, but I could be wrong because I don't know what's in the classified area. Now, I wrote a book called Killing the Witches in the last part of the book, because witchery and sorcery and all these people who lost their lives in Salem were all killed because they were supposed to be associating with the devil. And then to close it off the book, I wanted to get a modern equivalent of that. And we went to the movie the Exorcist, one of the biggest hits of all time in the supernatural area. And we found unbelievably crazy stuff that happened. A lot of the actors died. There was all kinds of explained stuff that wasn't really explained, that the director of the movie was an atheist. And then he came out as a believer because he saw this stuff. And I reported it as it went down because it was all on a record. There's nobody who didn't put their name or attach to it. But do I believe that the devil was directly involved with the filming of the exorcist? All I can say is this is really strange, particularly the deaths of the cast. This is really because the odds were way, you know, that all of these people would die or have injuries based upon their experience in the filming. And so that's all I could do. I could say pretty strange. And that's all I can do here that I acknowledge that in your book Evidence of the Extraordinary. There's extraordinary stuff. But do I believe it? No, not yet. Last word.

Point of the book is not that you need to believe everything that you're told or every wacky story, but I think the primary thesis is twofold one that anomalous events happen, and they happen often enough that we need to be more hospitable to what some might consider radical or wacky theories. If you think about every kind of scientific revolution that's changed the paradigms from everything, from the theory of relativity, germ theory of disease, those all started out as highly heterodox ideas and theories that in some cases got their proponents, you know, ridicule, in some cases, shocked.

But that. That's fine with me. You have stuff that's unexplained. You should try to explain it. All right, Miguel, I wish you good luck with this book. And you got a whole bunch. It's not just about UFOs. You got a whole bunch of other stuff that go on. Something in there for everybody. Yeah, Bump in the night. You got Bigfoot in there and sea monsters and all of that.

And miracles.

And miracles. So people will be, I think, enthralled. Appreciate you coming on.

It's very kind of you to have me, Bill. Thank you. This is the no Spin news weekend edition.

Okay, we'll do it live tomorrow. We drop the new one. Chaz Palminteri. Known him for a long time and he plays gangsters and you Soprano fans and whatever, but a typecast of Italians. Is that right? Is that right? Is that the right thing to do? It's one of the questions I'm going to ask Chaz. So we will drop that. Premium members gets it early noon and everybody else gets it around four or five tomorrow, six, whatever it may be. Okay. There we go. Thank you very much for watching and listening to the noospin news. We'll have a Sunday column for you and a whole bunch of stuff if anything breaks on Iran, that will come at you very quickly. See you soon.

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 billoreilly.com Sign up and start watching today.