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- [00:00]
Sid Rosenberg
Foreign
- [00:04]
Bill O'Reilly
here. Let's get started. Let's talk Iran. Okay. I don't know how this is going to work out. I played it a bunch of different ways. In my mind, it's really impossible to come to some kind of rational conclusion whether there's going to be a new regime there, whether the action is going to help America in the long run. Very, very difficult. We know a couple of things that the Iranian defenses, the ballistic missiles, the drones, the nukes, severely damaged in just two days. Okay, so we know that. And that's a good thing. We know the Mullah, Chop Mullah, the Ayatollah Khomeini is dead and about 50 others, including the head of the Revolutionary Guard. Another good thing, two good things, okay? Six American service people dead, not a good thing, obviously. And there might be more as I speak to you, but Iran looks impotent and all of their friends have abandoned them. They have no friends. Nobody's helping them. China, Russia, no, it's like foregone conclusion. This is not going to work out well for the theoretic Republic of Iran. So all that's fact. There's no guessing or we'll see. Those nitwit television pundits. If you hear somebody on television, go, we'll see. Turn a channel. They're insulting you. They, they're getting paid to say, we'll see. Get an 8 year old in there to say that. All right, so we did a little research on the history of all this. The Iranians really started to step up the nuke activity under President Obama. And you'll remember that Secretary of State was John Kerry. Kerry tried to get a deal where international inspectors would go in and make sure that the Iranians didn't have weapons grade nukes. Okay. And the Iranians, they said, okay, we'll make a deal. And with Obama and Biden, remember, Trump was in between them. But Trump repudiated the deal that was made. Trump says, this is a horrible deal. We're not doing it. But Obama and Biden participated in the anti nuke deal, which the Iranians broke, but not before they got $16 billion from the United States in unfrozen funds. So the sanctions on Iran froze their money all over the world. The Iranians had money in Switzerland and other places. It's all frozen, couldn't get it. Biden and Obama unfroze $16 billion, went right to Tehran. Tehran turned around, reinstituted its nuclear program, violating the treaty. Okay. And then gave billions of dollars to terrorists. Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis arming Them. And then, okay, they made all kinds of weapons to kill Americans and Jews and Israelis. And you'll remember on October 7, 2003, Hamas, armed by Iran, went in and killed 1200 Jews, took hostages. Was it 26Americans killed in it? Okay, so these are bad people. And you could justify any military action against it. Now, the Democratic Party opposes everything that Donald Trump does, with a few exceptions, like Senator Fetterman of Pennsylvania, but it's a block vote. We hate Trump. Whatever he does, we're not going to support it. If Biden, and he never would have had confronted Iran with military action, Democratic Party would have supported it, but not Trump. Okay, so we know that. But one of the people who spoke out. And you haven't heard anything from John Kerry, by the way? I think he's on Nantucket, hiding. I don't know, but he's been silent. Kamala Harris steps up and says this. Go.
- [04:36]
Kamala Harris
Donald Trump has dragged us into a war the American people do not want. He has put American troops in harm's way. I unequivocally, equivocally oppose this war of choice. And everyone should.
- [04:52]
Bill O'Reilly
Okay? So for four years, she sat there as the Biden administration negotiated deal after deal that the Iranians broke all of them and Trump had to bomb them last June, the nuclear facilities. So Harris sat there for four years and watched this. Yet she opposes military action. She got 75 million plus votes to be president. So if she were president, obviously Iran wouldn't be any danger. She would never do anything to him. Right. You wouldn't confront them. How could you if you're condemning this action? You couldn't. What would you do? She doesn't know. Frightening to me. 75 million Americans voted for her to lead this country, yet she has no solution to any problem at all. I've never heard her put forth a solution to anything. I'll prove it. So when Trump got in for his second term, first he did was shut the border down. Okay? Nobody in. We have to reorganize this whole thing because under Biden, we got 15 million people, foreign nationals here. We can't supervise them running up to that. The Biden administration was under some pressure to do something about the open border. Here's what Vice President Kamala Harris said. Go.
- [06:38]
Kamala Harris
My trip to Guatemala and Mexico was about addressing the root causes. The stories that I heard and the interactions that we had today reinforce the nature of those root causes. A lack of economic opportunity, very often violence, corruption, and food insecurity and basic needs not being met, including a Fear of cartels and gang violence. So the work that we have to do is the work of addressing the cause, the root causes.
- [07:17]
Bill O'Reilly
Well, how do you do that? These are independent countries, Mexico and Guatemala and Honduras and Colombia and Venezuela. How do you do it? Address the root causes. How? How? Nothing. Well, no, no, we have to withdraw. We have to meet him. Everybody knows that poverty drove people to try to get in here. The root causes, food insecurity. What are you going to do? Feed them all? This is what I mean. If Kamala Harris had been elected president of the United States, I can't even imagine how weak this country would be. And it's not a partisan analysis. This is on her, not Democrats. Fetterman probably be a good president, but this woman. Beyond the pale commotion's running high, of course, about the Iranian military action. And I understand dissent, you know, this is a very risky thing for President Trump and his administration to go in to a country of 90 million and try to change the regime, which is what this is all about. At the same time, they are wiping out Iranians ballistic missile capacity and its nuclear research, which is a good thing. If you read my book Confronting Evil, you'll know how evil these mullahs are. And they would kill us if they could. There's no doubt about that. But if the military action is a stalemate, then Donald Trump will be weakened and most likely lose the midterm election. So there's a lot on the line here. So one of the most emotional centers of the country is New York City because you have a large Jewish population and Israel, of course, involved with this military action to protect itself. And then you have a Muslim mayor, not a large Muslim population, but there are Muslims here and there's tension. So WABC radio dominates the talk radio landscape in and around New York City. Its morning man, Sid Rosenberg is phenomenally successful and he's a friend of mine and he's an emotional guy and he doesn't like Mayor Ma' am, Donnie at all. Bad blood. So when Mandani came out opposing the Iranian military action by the Trump administration, here's what Rosenberg said. Go.
- [10:20]
Sid Rosenberg
How many times does this terrorist sympathizer have to spit in your face? Mr. President, before you say enough is enough. His over the top criticism of the Maduro capture, Ice Bibi, and now this great operation in Iran is too much for most of us. Bottom line is he's an America hating Jew hating radical Islam cockroach running our once beautiful city.
- [10:44]
Bill O'Reilly
Now, Mr. Rosenberg has apologized for the cockroach remark and I talked to him on the phone and said, yeah, you got to do that. Why? Because it doesn't elevate the point you're trying to make. Okay? Now, you can describe Mayor Mamdani any way you want in a political way, but calm. An insect denigrates the person who does that. That's the point. And Sid got it. Sid apologized on his radio program, okay? Mandani, who doesn't listen to wabc, replied after Sid Rosenberg made the initial comments. Go.
- [11:27]
Sid Rosenberg
Muslims in this city, for almost as
- [11:31]
Chris Cuomo
long as we have been in this
- [11:33]
Bill O'Reilly
city, have had to deal with those
- [11:37]
with power and platform dehumanizing us and
- [11:44]
Sid Rosenberg
to be called animals, insects, to be
- [11:47]
Chris Cuomo
called a jihadist mayor, to be called a cockroach.
- [11:51]
Sid Rosenberg
This language is both painfully familiar to me as a Muslim New Yorker, but
- [11:56]
Kelly Meyer
also as someone who was born in
- [11:58]
Sid Rosenberg
East Africa, and it is difficult to hear.
- [12:06]
Bill O'Reilly
Okay? And I don't have a quibble with the mayor's dissent on the dehumanizing aspect of the insect comment. However, Mandani is being disingenuous because he's attacked Israel all day long. All right? I'm not going to say he's anti Semitic, but he's certainly anti Israel. He blames them for everything. And that's on a record. You just look it up. Okay? Google Mayor Mamdani, Israel comment. Boom. I mean, way too many for me to read. Okay? And Mandani also is a guy who uses his ethnicity every time there's a controversy. Oh, to Muslims. There's no anti Muslim feeling in New York, okay? There isn't. It doesn't exist. Now, there are nuts, individual nuts that run around, but they hate Irish, they hate Italians, they hate blacks, they hate Puerto Ricans, they hate everybody. They're there, but that's not an organized thing. Now, I've been through this. You'll remember that when I was on The View After 9 11, the show attacked me. Why? Because an imam wanted to build a mosque at the site of the World Trade center, which had collapsed. And I said, no, Inappropriate. You don't build a Benihana, okay, in Hiroshima. That's not what you do. And then Behar and Whoopi Goldberg walked off like I'm some kind of anti Muslim person, which I'm not. Spent a lot of time in the Middle east and never had a problem with any Muslims. So what the con is c O n is that when you're attacked, you fall back on, oh, you're Islamophobic or you're a racist or you're an anti Semite, whatever it may be. Instead of debating the issue, Mamdame should go on with Rosenberg, should explain why. Why he opposes taking out a murderous regime in Tehran. Seems to me to be a good thing. Mandani doesn't think it's a good thing, apparently. Okay, so I'm going to quote Mandani and just wrap it up. Here's what he said right after the military action began February 28th. Today's military strikes on Iran carried out by the United States and Israel mark a catastrophic escalation in an illegal war of aggression. Bombing cities, killing civilians, opening nuclear wide. It's not illegal, okay? The Iranians have violated the nuclear treaties, okay? Mandati never come up against me ever in a million years. He couldn't last 30 seconds in the arena of facts. All emotion, emotion. So Sid got emotional, made a mistake. Mamdani uses that mistake to say, oh, no, all Islamophobes. And I've gone through this my whole life. You're the mayor. You're 34 years old. You're the mayor of the largest city in the country. I don't know if there's a lot of Islamophobia attached to that. And I'm tired of it. I'm tired of the racist stuff. I'm tired of all of this stuff because it's dishonest. And you listening to me right now know it's dishonest. They use this stuff when they don't have a counter argument that makes any sense. Stop it.
- [16:11]
Kelly Meyer
Is it fair to ask? When Pete Hegseth says, I mean, we're ensuring the mission gets accomplished, it is fair to ask, what exactly is the mission?
- [16:26]
Bill O'Reilly
Kelly Meyer is a very good correspondent. And I'm not going to say that a question was unfair. It's naive a bit, and it's not a slap on Kelly. But in any war, and you've covered them and I've covered them, the unintended consequences and the chaos, they call it the fog of war for a reason. Nobody can really predict what's going to happen. And that's what the American media wants. They want A to B to C to D. And then if it doesn't happen, they can come in and criticize President Trump or whatever president. That's what they want. I'm not saying Kelly wants that, but the goal is always to pin the politicians back and if they don't live up to what they say, go in and get them. So it's a fairly easy equation. Right now in Iran, what the Trump administration wants is The Venezuelan model, which is the country does what the USA tells it to do, which is exactly what Venezuela is doing now. So whatever Caracas decides, they gotta run it by Washington and get the. Okay, that is the goal. Yeah, a lot different in a country of 90 million that have fanatical Islamists who hate America. It's a lot more difficult. But that's the goal right in Tehran.
- [17:59]
Kelly Meyer
Okay, so religious fanatics though, who chant Death to America. That's very different than, than a bunch of socialist generals with a bunch of gold stuff on their chests that have Swiss bank accounts. Is it not a little naive to think that these people who've been chanting Death to America for 47 years are suddenly going to go, oh, no problem, we'll do whatever you say, Mr. Trump?
- [18:20]
Bill O'Reilly
No, it's not naive because there have been uprisings that have led to the deaths of 40,000 Persians. So that's why the action took place and began on Saturday because there was an opening whereby the population was turning against the mullahs and this is a time to strike and weaken the government there. That's terror based. That's why it happened at this point in history.
- [18:45]
Kelly Meyer
Yeah, but aren't those two different things?
- [18:46]
Bill O'Reilly
The Persian people isn't Venezuela.
- [18:50]
Kelly Meyer
No, hold on, hold on. The Venezuelan model is you take out the top leadership, you give the next tier an ultimatum. You say you're either with us or, or you're going to meet the same fate. What you're talking about is a popular revolution of tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of people taking to the street and overthrowing the government. Those are different things. Which one do we want?
- [19:11]
Bill O'Reilly
You want them both. The end result is what you're looking for and that's a friendly government to the west. And that would never happen under the Mullah's theocracy. So you're hoping that when you downgrade the power of the mullahs that the Persian people will rise up and overthrow them. And that could certainly happen.
- [19:34]
Kelly Meyer
Okay, I agree with you. It could certainly happen. That would be by far the best option. There is a split.
- [19:40]
Bill O'Reilly
That's best case scenario.
- [19:42]
Kelly Meyer
Yeah, I agree with you. The best case scenario, there is now a split, particularly on the, I call it the far right or the loony right or whatever you want to call it, the Hitler adjacent right that says that America should not be fighting this war because it is not in our interests. Here is Megyn Kelly today. Take a listen.
- [20:04]
Bill O'Reilly
I understand how this helps Iran perfectly. Well, I get it. I mean, I hope long term we'll see but they seem rather jubilant. 80% of the country does not support the Ayatollah. He was a terrible, terrible man. No one's crying that he's dead. No normal person. But our government's job is not to look out for Iran or for Israel. It's to look out for us.
- [20:28]
Kelly Meyer
Why is the message from President Trump and others, which seems so painfully obvious of everything that Iran has done, has the blood of more Americans on its hands than any other government of the past 50 years? Why is it people don't want to believe it? They feel as though they have to oppose President Trump for something. I can't figure it out.
- [20:50]
Bill O'Reilly
Well, I'll give you one name. Charles Lindbergh. So. Exactly. In the late 1930s, you had a very robust stay out of Hitler's way movement in the United States. Exactly for the same reasons. Something about the two oceans have given the American people a false sense of security, even in the atomic age. So there aren't very many right wing isolationists. There are a few. And it's the only thing that the right wing has in common with the left wing. The stay out of everything, let it all happen, and we'll be safe here. Well, we're not safe here. 9, 11 proved we're not safe here. And so we went in and destroyed Al Qaeda and ISIS and that. And now the same principle is in play with Iran. But it's harder because there's 90 million people there and I'd say 20% of them are fanatical jihadists. That's a lot of folks. That's more than guys living in the desert or in Tora Bora in Afghanistan. But there was an opportunity there to hope that the Persian people would say, enough. And that's why this is happening now.
- [22:06]
Kelly Meyer
The response back here in America, I think, is fascinating because we saw it after Venezuela, right? Suddenly there were thousands of people in the streets with Venezuelan flags, not in favor of the Maduro raid, but against it. Same thing now. Thousands of people. The progressive left, the People's Forum, Code Pink Answer Coalition, all funded by Neville Roy Singham. There is this meeting now that is being exposed of the progressive left and radical Islam, the Red Green Alliance. Has it gotten too big of a foothold in America to cut out?
- [22:39]
Bill O'Reilly
No. The progressive left is based on hating Jews. That's it. They hate Israel, they hate Jews, they're anti Semitic. All of these people are in the same boat, the far right. And there aren't many of them. There are very, very few of them. They have a Variety of different reasons for opposing international action, military action, but the majority of Americans understand extremism. And I believe, and I hope I'm right, that they reject it every time, that extremists never, ever get a foothold here because extremists will take away your freedom. It's as simple as that. That's what extremism is, taking away your freedom. Now getting back to Iran, it's a gamble. And you have to understand that the minority party, the Democrats, will oppose every single thing, everything that Donald Trump does.
- [23:36]
Kelly Meyer
And we have a congressman.
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Bill O'Reilly
Biden had launched this action.
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Kelly Meyer
Yeah, well, Biden would have never launched it.
- [23:40]
Bill O'Reilly
Yeah, Biden has launched this action. No, but if he had, Democratic Party would have been on board. Okay. And Kamala Harris coming out today and condemning the action. I said, where were you, lady, for four years?
- [23:54]
Chris Cuomo
Right.
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Bill O'Reilly
Iran was running roughshod.
- [23:56]
Kelly Meyer
No, it's because Trump has made Obama and Biden look weak and feckless on Iran and shown how ineffective they were. Bill, stay with us. We have the tapes. Bill and Hillary Clinton get starring roles in the Epstein saga. The Bill and Hillary Clinton deposition tapes are out. They answered questions about their relationship with Jeffrey Epstein as part of the House Oversight Committee investigation.
- [24:24]
Chris Cuomo
Was wondering if you also agree that President Trump should answer questions of this committee.
- [24:31]
Bill O'Reilly
That's for you to decide. But he did know him well and
- [24:36]
I once had a brief discussion with him about it. You have said that you've never been to Mr. Epstein's island. Is that correct? You know what, I am so tired of answering that question. If you have one scintilla of evidence to the contrary, put it forward. I have never been on his island, period.
- [24:57]
Kelly Meyer
Back again with Bill O'Reilly, host of the no Spin News billo reilly.com youm know, Bill, normally when a big story leaves the news cycle because of a bigger story like the Iran war, it's dead, it's gone. Think you know Gary Condit with the missing intern before 911 disappeared. Why does the Epstein story, no matter what, keep coming back after all of these other big news events?
- [25:25]
Bill O'Reilly
Well, it's a diminished story now. I believe some interesting things to it. Hillary Clinton never should have been called. And that makes a far set of our federal government to call the woman. Whether you like or not, she was secretary of state, first lady, put her in a position to try to embarrass her over nothing. I'm appalled that that happened. Never in a million years should Hillary Clinton have been called into that hearing. As far as the former president is concerned, there's photographic evidence that he was cavorting with Epstein. That needs to be put into perspective. Okay? But this whole thing is a farce. Everybody knows it's a farce. It's designed to embarrass the President of the United States. That's what it's designed to do.
- [26:16]
Kelly Meyer
Designed to embarrass.
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Bill O'Reilly
If there are crimes committed by the Justice Department, crimes of omission, where they had evidence against people who participated in assaulting these young women, then those crimes should be adjudicated. Absolutely. But to call in people to try to embarrass them. And it's fairly clear that President Trump did not have anything to do with Epstein after their falling out. Even Bill Clinton said that in his sworn statements. And why are we doing this? Why are we doing this? This is a pure smear, Trump, and it harms the country. And I think Americans are starting to wise up to that.
- [27:07]
Kelly Meyer
We've been saying it for a long time that this is un American. It's the Salem witch trials. It's what the Soviets used to do of guilt by association. You must prove yourself innocent. And I agree with you. There is a part of this that Democrats love about getting Trump, but there's a huge number of Republicans who are in on this as well. James Comer is the head of the House Oversight Committee. He's the one who's allowing the hearings. You've got Nancy Mace, you've got Lauren Boebert, you've got others. We have been on this show extraordinarily direct that there is no one else to charge. If there was, the Department of Justice under how many zillions of presidents would have charged them? And we put that to Nancy Mace, who's on the Oversight Committee and one of the big pushers of this Republican from South Carolina. Take a listen.
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Bill O'Reilly
How are other foreign countries arresting people that were not?
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Kelly Meyer
England is doing more than one because the US Has. Because the US Is a country of law. I don't like witch hunts or the Al Capone standard, but I know you have to go.
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Stephen A. Smith
Well, go ahead and keep defending a pedophile.
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Bill O'Reilly
That's fine. That's your legacy.
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Stephen A. Smith
That will not be mine.
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Kelly Meyer
Okay, I'll let you make the accusation. Congresswoman, you're always welcome back. Thank you very much. First time for everything. That was me being accused of defending pedophiles, although she would never name who it is that I was defending. This, to me, though, is beginning to feel like the JFK assassination or UFOs, one of these stories that just will never die. Because both sides have a vested interest in keeping it alive.
- [28:38]
Bill O'Reilly
But there's another aspect to it that many of these politicians, not all, some are sincere, are just playing politics. I mean, they believe that there's anger about preferential treatment for wealthy, powerful men. And so they're playing to that. And you just nailed it, Leland. If they had any evidence, put it forth. You know, the big story last week was, well, I won't release three pages of unbelievably smear accusations against President Trump. Well, when you look at what was in those pages, this woman is a total loon. She doesn't know whether she met Trump and Epstein together. She doesn't know what state they were in. She doesn't know whether she was driven or went on a plane and subsequently was charged with crimes herself. This is what they held back. Because you don't put out unverifiable evidence like that. Because that's the French Revolution. That's the guillotine. That's Salem. Okay? Execute them based on nothing but accusation. So you hold back. In any responsible country that has due process, unverifiable information that would damage human beings, you hold it back. Not Schumer. He wants it all out there. He doesn't care whether it's verifiable.
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Kelly Meyer
He doesn't care if the woman.
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Bill O'Reilly
He doesn't care.
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Kelly Meyer
No, that's true.
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Bill O'Reilly
No, he's leading the charge, okay? And it's disgraceful. It's horrible. What if it was you, Chuck?
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What?
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It was your family. You want that stuff out there when you know it's not true? Oh, yeah, yeah. Put it out. Bull. Makes me angry.
- [30:27]
Kelly Meyer
Yeah, I think makes a lot of people angry. Clearly made Nancy Nias angry with me.
- [30:35]
Leland Vittert
Hey. Of course, the Democrats going nuts over Iran. He didn't get congressional approval. He didn't do this. He didn't do that.
- [30:41]
Bill O'Reilly
He did.
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Leland Vittert
But when Obama did the Libya, they had just the opposite position. So should we just expect this from Democrats?
- [30:48]
Bill O'Reilly
Yeah, I mean, there's a poll today that 5,941 against the Iran action. When you add in almost 90% of Democrats oppose anything that Donald Trump does. And then you have some isolationists on the far right. Poll makes sense. But the Trump administration doesn't care about polling numbers at this point. They sense weakness in Tehran. They sense that the Persian people were ready to change their government, and that's what ignited the action. It's an optional action. They didn't have to do it now, the Trump people, but they felt that they had a good chance to overthrow the mullahs, because of the Persian dissatisfaction with that government.
- [31:38]
Leland Vittert
Yeah. You talked to the president about Iran earlier, right?
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Bill O'Reilly
Yeah, I had a long conversation with him. He didn't want to do the military action. He's not the kind of guy that likes a lot of bloodshed on his watch. He wants to be known as a peacemaker. He thinks that's the way to enhancing his presidential legacy. And we talked about options. I was not very confident that he was going to be able to make a deal.
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He was.
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He thought the mullahs would come around, and the fact that they didn't was insane. And now 50 of them are talking Allah even as we speak. You know, these people, they live in a bubble. They live in a world that doesn't exist. And when the United States says, look, you either come to a deal or we're going to hurt you militarily, I mean, you got to come to the deal. You don't have a plan B. So Trump is a logical, linear thinker. That's the way he looks at it. Well, they don't want to die, but apparently they didn't care about dying, so they're dead.
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Leland Vittert
You know, he always thinks, same thing with Ukraine. I'll make a deal as soon as I get in. He's the greatest deal maker, and he works in the business world. I don't think he realized when you get into international politics, you're dealing with psychopaths and lunatics. There's just no deal. You can't make a deal with some of these people, can you?
- [33:02]
Bill O'Reilly
Well, the big thing is you can uphold the deals that you make in business. Once you sign that contract,
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they have
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to do it, or they get hauled into court and punished. In an international deal, these people could say, yeah, we'll make a deal. We'll sign it. Then. They don't live up to anything. Who's going to force them? Yeah, well, I guess that's a big deal. That's the look Putin tells Trump all the time. And I know this to be true. Yeah, I'll make a deal with you. Yeah, we'll work it out. I mean, this has said that 50 times to Trump, and then he doesn't. And what are you going to do? You can't do anything about it unless you want to attack Putin. And you can't do that because of the nukes.
- [33:42]
Leland Vittert
Yeah. You ever think you know Trump as well as anybody? Do you ever think sometimes, especially lately, says, what the hell did I get myself into here with this press?
- [33:51]
Bill O'Reilly
He loves the job. He just Likes the constant action. You know, Donald Trump's an action junkie. Loves stuff going around, swirling around challenges. He loves a job. He's not exhausted, although, you know, he's going to be 80 years old and it's taken his toe. You can see him posture is a little hunched now. And, you know, obviously age is going to affect him, but he's an amazing guy, in my opinion. The energy level that he brings and the clarity of thought, and I'm one of the few people on earth that can really have a conversation with the man.
- [34:31]
Leland Vittert
Yeah.
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Bill O'Reilly
Because I. I don't fear him. I'm not looking any to get anything from him. I don't work for him. So it's like two guys who've known each other for 35 years, and I don't call him, I don't intrude on him. But when he calls me, I give my honest opinion. But we're able to speak in a way that's different than how he speaks to people who are under him and have to obey him. And then the press, of course, is out to hurt him. He knows that I'm not in that category at all. I'm going to treat him fairly. So I think I have unique conversations with the man. I can tell you he's on it because I'm on it. You.
- [35:12]
Sid Rosenberg
You know that.
- [35:13]
Bill O'Reilly
Yeah, I know what's going on. And there's very, very little that escapes him. His observations, his ability to access information, to understand both sides. It's really, you know, Obama was like that, too. Obama was very crisp in his mental capacities, but Obama had a whole different agenda than Trump, and that's why Obama let a lot of things go that Trump does not.
- [35:45]
Kelly Meyer
Yeah.
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Leland Vittert
Hey, he surprised everybody this morning, announcing he'll go to the White House Correspondents Dinner. What does he think?
- [35:52]
Bill O'Reilly
Yeah, I don't know if that's a good thing. Well, so I invited him to the dinner in 2011. It's amazing how time passes 15 years ago, and we sat there right in front of President Obama as Obama took him apart.
- [36:09]
Chris Cuomo
Funny.
- [36:09]
Bill O'Reilly
It was funny. I'm going to run a clip on the no Spin news tonight, but boy, oh, boy, Trump did not like that. And I'm going to remind everybody what the whole thing was. I'm not sure that this is a good decision because I got to tell you, I've never seen hatred at the level the Washington press corps has for a president, ever. Nixon was loathed. Oh, they hated him. And they didn't like Reagan either. But here is a Whole different ball game. So, number one, it depends who the emcee is going to be, and I'm sure Trump will have a little input on that. Well, they've already announced Chelsea Handler or somebody like that.
- [36:54]
Leland Vittert
No, they already announced no comedian this year, so that's okay.
- [36:57]
Bill O'Reilly
So that's one of the reasons he's going, because he's not going to get harpooned. But. But there's gotta be an emcee. And it'll probably be this Juju Chang, who's CBS correspondent is the head of the Correspondence Association. Yeah, but all of them hate him, so I'm not sure he's got control over it. I may go. Just like as a bouncer, I may go. I'm not sure yet.
- [37:28]
Leland Vittert
You actually were a bouncer once when
- [37:30]
Bill O'Reilly
you were a young guy, right?
- [37:31]
I was. I worked at the Rec Bar in Miami beach, the hottest spot in Florida. That was a whole nother story. Boy, that was hysterical.
- [37:42]
Leland Vittert
Now, that would be a good book. What the hell went on at that Rec Bar in heyday of Miami?
- [37:46]
Bill O'Reilly
I'm gonna. I'm gonna incorporate it in my next book, the story. There's a kicker to the story that pertains to today, but I am gonna. I am gonna write about that. I was a high school teacher and I had to make extra money because I like to eat once in a while, and they were paying me nothing down there. So I signed on as a bouncer to work at the Rec Bar. It was a mob place, and they paid me cash and, you know, I worked Saturday nights and I got enough money to eat for the week, but it was hysterical. What a place. Yeah.
- [38:20]
Leland Vittert
Legendary in Miami. Hey, we're almost out of time. The acquisition of Warner Brothers, all that Paramount, they'll own cnn. What do you think they'll do with cnn?
- [38:30]
Bill O'Reilly
Wipe it out.
- [38:31]
Leland Vittert
Really? What do you mean?
- [38:31]
Bill O'Reilly
They're all gone.
- [38:32]
They're all going to go. They can't keep them. So it's not going to be all at once, but you'll see attrition. And then the problem with. With the new management, Skydance, is that there's not a lot of talent out there anymore. It's not like you got journalists coming out of college like that. Football and basketball. It's very, very scant. You got people who are afraid. They don't really have a good grasp of what's happening. So what do you replace your Jake Capras with? What do you replace Anderson Cooper with? That's going to be their problem. But the perception of the talent over there is that it's so hateful that no conservative or traditional American is going to watch that network. And that's why it's failing so badly.
- [39:28]
Leland Vittert
Huh? Oh, that's interesting. So you mean maybe switch it to something else, like another network, Another.
- [39:37]
Bill O'Reilly
They'll keep it because they make a lot of money overseas. Oh, wherever you go in the world, they get cnn and they got those countries got to pay for that. So they're making money, but they're not competing in America.
- [39:54]
Chris Cuomo
So let's bring in Bill O'Reilly, Stephen A. Smith, and let's get after what's going on here. Bill O'Reilly, you saw the interview with Fetterman. He's finding himself a man without a party. But on this issue, it is not new for politicians left and right to say if Iran messes up, we'll go after them again. Hillary Clinton told me she would obliterate them in 2008. How do you think this is playing so far?
- [40:24]
Bill O'Reilly
Well, it's 5050 according to a Fox News poll out today. And right after the action was initiated, it was 59, 41 against. So the American people, according to polls, Fox Polls is the greatest. But they're coming around to look, this is a dangerous situation. There was a window of opportunity in history to come in and get the bad guys. And the Persian people were rebelling. So this was the time to do it. But it's important that people understand this is exactly like Afghanistan after 9, 11. It's exactly the same campaign. And what the Bush administration told the American people was, look, we got to go in and get these Taliban out of there because they're protecting the al Qaeda people who killed us and we can't allow that. And the nation basically said, okay. And that happened. And it didn't happen with many casualties. The problem was that the Bush administration tried to nation build, which is impossible in a place like Afghanistan or Iraq. It's a tribal country. It's never going to change. Persia is a little bit different, more sophisticated population. They seem to want some semblance of freedom. And that's why President Trump moved. He didn't want to move. I spoke with him lengthy on the phone and he offered the mullahs a really good deal to get out of this, to give up their nuke program and their ballistic missiles. And the United States and other countries would then rebuild their economy, help them with safe nuke energy. And the mullahs just basically said blank, you, we're not going to do it. So if you're president and you know there is a clear and present danger because you know that the mullahs are reconstituting their nuclear program after being bombed out last June. You know that. And then the Persian people are on the uprise. You're going to do it and you're not going to confer with Chuck Schumer before you do it because Chuck, Chuck will run out and tell everybody everything. And President has 60 days, 6, 0 to do any kind of military action he wants under the banner of national security.
- [42:50]
Chris Cuomo
Right. I mean, look, what's different here from 911 is one, we were attacked on 911 and two, Bush had Congress, they voted now on fugazi information because of the yellow cake weapons of mass destruction lies that they told. But he never declared war unilaterally and President Trump just did. STEPHEN A. How does that factor to you?
- [43:15]
Stephen A. Smith
Well, I think that has to have that has to be a factor because you know, he's going to have his cynics and Bill O'Reilly repeatedly, whether he's writing his columns or whether he's doing his show, repeatedly reminds us about how much the Democrats hate President Trump. And he's absolutely right because we see it in their behavior, we see in their attitude towards him and they disagree with everything that he does. We understand that. But still, in all that doesn't completely absolve the president. For example, you know, when you talk about neutralizing Iran's nuclear capabilities, that's something that the president bragged about. So it's not beyond the pale for cynics and critics to ask the question, well, since you were bragging about it even during the State of the Union address about how you had neutralized them, what was the urgency for now? Why did this need to be done now? What capabilities did they truly have when you just finished telling us you neutralize their capabilities? Those kind of things add fodder to the critics and the cynics who don't trust the damn thing that he says. It doesn't make them right. But the reality is, is that there's plenty of people in the United States of America who don't trust him as far as they could touch him. It's just that simple. And they've looked at it from the standpoint that this is a man that can't be trusted and they're wondering about what his agenda is in the Middle East. When you went over to Qatar, when you went over of Saudi Arabia, when you went into the Middle east and you were doing whatever it was that you were doing over there and Then you find yourself in this position where you've attacked Iran, you did it in concert with Israel, and everybody knows Benjamin Netanyahu and what he wants to do, what he's always wanted to do to Iran. So they take those things into consideration. Again, Bill comes from a very educated position, somebody that speaks to the president directly. So we're not here, I'm not here to question his facts. I'm just simply saying when it comes to the cynics and the skeptics and what they have to say from afar, from a distance, you do find yourself scratching your head and saying, make it make sense. You said they didn't have any capabilities, really. And now here you are saying that's justification for bombing and then uttering the word war when you didn't necessarily go to Congress to do it. Yes, the Gang of Eight was addressed by Marco Rubio. And we get that. We got that part. We understand that. And you shouldn't have to inform 535 people because they would let it out. Bill's absolutely right about that. That's true. But somehow, some way, whatever protocol is necessary and ordinary is not something this president is prone to do, which elevates the level of suspicion thrown in his direction.
- [45:46]
Bill O'Reilly
I think that's a fair analysis. I think that's a fair analysis. But you have to understand a couple of things, that the goal of this, if you want to be honest about it and stop playing political games, which I despise, is to get rid of the theocracy. That's the goal. And there was a window.
- [46:07]
Chris Cuomo
They say that's not the goal.
- [46:09]
Bill O'Reilly
That is the goal. Get rid of the theocracy. Look, Korma, you can, you could quote 55 people. I'm telling you, the goal is to break the mullah stronghold on Iran. That is the goal. Were they reconstituting nukes? Yes. Were they within days of a breakout? No. But there was a window of opportunity to break them, and it's still undefined. But the most important thing for President Trump is a huge risk, personally for him. Huge.
- [46:51]
Chris Cuomo
Huge. Because how many service members die? How long does it take? I mean, that's why. No, even the IDF says that's just immature. Three weeks.
- [47:00]
Bill O'Reilly
Look, if you know anything about war, that's just immature. Those questions are sophomoric and stupid and a waste of everybody time.
- [47:07]
Chris Cuomo
Nobody knows how many people die is a stupid. And so you sound like somebody who doesn't have anybody in the service, Bill, because let me tell you something. If you were worried about him not Coming back. It's not sophomore, it's not stupid. You have families who are never the same because of the price of the commitment.
- [47:24]
Bill O'Reilly
Everybody valued it should be measured. Everybody should predict war. Everybody knows it.
- [47:32]
Chris Cuomo
That's why you go into it the right way and you get votes from Congress and you don't just do it and then see how many die.
- [47:40]
Bill O'Reilly
It's a bunch of. Not a smart approach, bunch of garbage. There hasn't been a president, and Fetterman pointed this out, Fetterman pointed it out. Hasn't been a declaration of war since World War II. Presidents know they have to move, they have to move fast.
- [47:54]
Chris Cuomo
Trump said we're at war with Iran. No president has ever said that unilaterally before. So none.
- [48:01]
Bill O'Reilly
What?
- [48:03]
Chris Cuomo
So against the Constitution, Congress declares war hit.
- [48:09]
Bill O'Reilly
So he is using a phrase.
- [48:14]
Chris Cuomo
Okay, all right, Stephen, get in there, help him out. Help out your friend.
- [48:21]
Stephen A. Smith
Article 2. Article 2 of the Constitution gives the president the right to do what he did. They could sit up there and they go through the wars, powers resolution and all of that, but the bottom line is it's going to be much ado about nothing. It's not going to amount to anything, Chris, because they're going to say he had the right to do what he did. And then when you, when you see what happened today on the Senate, when they voted to support him in that regard, that's much ado about nothing. But I will say this, Bill, here's the reality. Of course, in war, there's going to be casualties, but it can't be expressed flippantly. You can't have the commander.
- [48:57]
Bill O'Reilly
I didn't see anybody do this as
- [48:59]
Stephen A. Smith
flipping when it comes.
- [49:00]
Chris Cuomo
You just said even asking the question is sophomoric and stupid.
- [49:05]
Bill O'Reilly
It is stupid and sophomoric and a waste of everybody's time because nobody knows. It's impossible to know.
- [49:13]
Chris Cuomo
So it's dumb, but no, it's not dumb because you got to think about whether what you're going to do. Look, did they lose anybody the first time they bombed?
- [49:23]
Bill O'Reilly
No answer to it.
- [49:25]
Chris Cuomo
I'll give you the answer. Did they lose people the first time they bombed? No. Did they lose people when they went into Venezuela? No. Why? Because of how they did it and how they risk managed. Are they doing that here?
- [49:39]
Bill O'Reilly
No.
- [49:39]
Chris Cuomo
And that is why it's such a dangerous.
- [49:42]
Bill O'Reilly
I don't know what they're doing. Okay.
- [49:45]
Chris Cuomo
Obviously they exposed people in the region and that's how they're getting killed. Listen, so it's not the same way
- [49:50]
Stephen A. Smith
it was last to know we're to supposed, supposed to have some big idea
- [49:53]
Bill O'Reilly
what they're doing, not listen, we're supposed
- [49:56]
Stephen A. Smith
to have some idea what they're doing.
- [49:58]
Bill O'Reilly
They're trying to change the regime. That's what they say.
- [50:03]
Chris Cuomo
They're not, by the way, for what it's worth, I don't care. Contradicting the president and the secretary of war. You should.
- [50:09]
Bill O'Reilly
Why?
- [50:10]
Right?
- [50:10]
Chris Cuomo
I mean, so you're just saying we just can't believe them.
- [50:13]
Bill O'Reilly
I'm saying so you don't care what
- [50:14]
Stephen A. Smith
they say, but you care about people asking these questions that are South Moroccan stupid in your mind?
- [50:19]
Bill O'Reilly
Yeah. I mean, which one is it?
- [50:21]
Stephen A. Smith
So you don't care. You don't care what they say?
- [50:22]
Bill O'Reilly
Stephen, maybe you're not offended, but I don't want to waste my time on people going, well, how long is it going to take? Nobody knows. Let's go to the next question.
- [50:35]
Chris Cuomo
The people who plan it should know. But let's take a break and we'll come back and we'll discuss this baloney. Okay? Okay. Okay, Bill, you can feel how you want to feel. It doesn't make yourself mork or stupid. We'll be right back after this. I'm back with Bill O'Reilly and Stephen A. Smith. That's Texas state Rep. James Talarico. You've seen him on this show, pulled a big upset over the squad beating Jasmine Crockett. She was up as much as 25 in some polls. What does this mean for the Democrats? Is this a good thing for them? Is it a good thing for Republicans? STEPHEN A. How do you see it?
- [51:11]
Stephen A. Smith
Well, I just finished interviewing James Carville about an hour and a half ago. He thought it was a good thing for Daniel Democrats because he said that's the kind of candidate that you want. He brought up, you know, Jasmine Crockett offending the Hispanic community when she talked about we're done picking cotton and she talked, accused him of having a slave mentality. This is his words, not mine. And he also brought up calling Governor Abbott Governor Hot Wheels after he had said something denigrating about her. To my understanding, nevertheless, he was pointing out how, how you know what, you have a party, meaning the squad, because he was alluding to some of them as well. And he was talking about how having this disdain and alienating white male voters, you're not winning general elections if you do that. That was his position. My position is simple. You're in the state of Texas. And James Telorico wasn't nearly as well known as she was he did not have the national profile that she had. Certainly her politics and his politics were pretty much aligned on everything from tariffs to immigration, so on and so forth. Taxing the rich, of course, that's always something that folks on the left will say, no doubt about it. But in the end, it came down to elements of style. It's styles make fights. And her style, you know, marketing herself as somebody that would challenge Trump at every turn and battle up against the quote, unquote, establishment, establishment, or a person who thinks he is a king. That's entirely different than Telorico's message, which was to isolate and focus on Ken Paxton and how he believes that guy is going to be the GOP nominee for the, for the Senate seat in Texas and how we need to turn our attention to that. So his mentality to do that and to lean on religion, Christianity, et cetera, et cetera, and not be about battling Trump. People believe his style worked and that's what ultimately won him the day in the state of Texas compared to what you're doing.
- [53:07]
Chris Cuomo
A lot of new voters he's doing. Talarico's doing his victory speech rally right now. Bill, let me ask you something about him. Oh, yeah, I'm sorry, Stephen, go ahead. Yeah.
- [53:21]
Stephen A. Smith
Also remember, I can't forget that she also complained that people were turned away from the polls because a different location and what have you, and she's lamenting that that played a role in her losing the election as well. So we can't forget to mention that.
- [53:36]
Chris Cuomo
Right, 100%. But he was with her and petitioned the court to extend voting in those places. So it's not like Talarinico was part of the suppression effort. Now he's celebrating the win. Bill, do you think he has a chance of beating a Corny or a Pax and is that the right test whether or not he can win in Texas? Do you think there's anything about this that is a signal?
- [53:59]
Bill O'Reilly
Well, first of all, I want to point out that Mr. Tellarico looks exactly like Richie Cunningham for Happy Days. And that's got to give him. It's got to give him a few votes. You know, look at him. How you doing, Mr. C? Look, Texas is a unique state, and in its voting patterns, if Jasmine moves up to Massachusetts, she can be governor, she can be senator, she can be dictator, she can be whatever she wants. Minnesota, California, that's where she should be. I lived in Dallas for two years, so I know the state pretty well. It's a traditional state. And tell our ego comes off As a much more traditional politician doesn't want to blow it all up as Jasmine Crockett wants to. And so that's why he won. It was like, okay, this guy not going to throw hand grenades. Now, as far as a general, these two old guys against Talarico, Tellarico's got some advantages there. I mean, Cornyn and Paxton, they're. Paxton, they've been around forever and we've heard it right? So if I'm Tellarico, I'm pretty happy tonight.
- [55:21]
Chris Cuomo
You know, he's a big fix. America first.
- [55:23]
Stephen A. Smith
Well, I will say this.
- [55:26]
Bill O'Reilly
Well, that's good, because we need to get fixed.
- [55:28]
Stephen A. Smith
Well, I will say this so I
- [55:32]
Bill O'Reilly
hope Richie can do it.
- [55:33]
Stephen A. Smith
I'll tell you where Telo has a chance. I'll tell you where I think Telo has a chance. Cornyn and Paxton are going to get so ugly with one another. I mean, Cornyn's already talking about his personal life and threatening to expose even more stuff. It's going to get very, very, very ugly in that race, in that runoff. And perhaps some pearls will be dropped that can be utilized by Telorico to have a chance. That's the only chance I see him having in this race is if they tear each other to shreds. And there's so much ammunition that Texas decide they don't want either one of those guys.
- [56:14]
Chris Cuomo
Do you think that what's happening in Iran, Bill, is going to be on the ballot in the midterms?
- [56:20]
Bill O'Reilly
Absolutely. That's what I would say. And big risk for President Trump. So if it goes America's way and there is a regime change and Iran becomes civilized nation again, Trump's going to have a lot of wind at his back if it goes south. This is huge because right now the press is doing everything it can to root for Iran. The press is actually rooting for Iran. I watch abc.
- [56:52]
Chris Cuomo
When you say Iran, you mean the people or the regime?
- [56:55]
Bill O'Reilly
They want America to lose.
- [56:57]
So.
- [56:58]
So World news tonight on ABC. And I work for ABC. So did you did 15 minutes last night, did eight segments. Every segment negative. And I mean really negative. Every segment now, one positive word, not one word on how bad the Mullers were. David Muir, in addition to that, David Muir said The World Tonight 70 times in 17 minutes. So, I mean, I'm going, what the deuce is happening? I worked for Jennings, who was excellent, okay, But I didn't even watch the other two. I just watched World News Tonight, and after watching it, I wanted to surrender. We should surrender to Iran. Watching ABC News, we Lost. That's how crazy it is. They want Trump broken.
- [57:53]
Chris Cuomo
I don't think that anybody, I don't think anybody's betting against the US Military or the idf.
- [57:58]
Bill O'Reilly
No, but their sentiment is right. They want Trump broken. And if Iran can break him, that's what the media wants to see.
- [58:10]
Chris Cuomo
Stephen A. What are you saying? I'm sorry to cut you off.
- [58:12]
Stephen A. Smith
What I would say is wanting Trump. What I would say is wanting Trump broken isn't always the same as wanting the United States to lose. I wouldn't go that far. I think that Trump has his enemies. Obviously, you're right about that, Bill. Nobody wants him looking good. That is true. Unfortunately, on too many occasions, there's too much interest in him looking bad as opposed to recognizing what benefits come to the United States of America by his or the GOP's actions. And that's something we have to take into consideration. But in the sense. Same breath, he brings a lot of it on himself, too, because of how he acts, because of how. In your face.
- [58:46]
Bill O'Reilly
We're just talking.
- [58:47]
Stephen A. Smith
Because of how duplicitous he can come across from time to time.
- [58:50]
Bill O'Reilly
We're just talking here. We're not talking a big global picture.
- [58:53]
Stephen A. Smith
I know we're talking around, but, but see, but look, hold on, hold on. I know we're talking about Iran, but the fact is, is that because we're talk. Even though we're talking about Iran, when you make the statement that they want America to lose, I'm just simply saying it comes from all of those places.
- [59:10]
Bill O'Reilly
Well, you know that. Rationalize it any way you want, but a lineup has to be made. The producer of the World News Tonight with David Muir made a lineup that consisted of eight separate stories, all of which were negative to the United States. Sorry, Stephen A.
- [59:28]
Stephen A. Smith
Okay, that's fine.
- [59:29]
Bill O'Reilly
Sorry.
- [59:31]
Chris Cuomo
Listen, I get.
- [59:33]
Stephen A. Smith
I'm not justifying an 8.0imbalance. I'm not justifying that. There is no justification for that.
- [59:38]
Chris Cuomo
Yeah, no, look, I get it. And look, we know what's going on. And Stephen A. You're right. Bill's not wrong, but you're also right. He asks for it. You get what you ask for with the media. You want to fight, they're going to come at you.
- [59:49]
Bill O'Reilly
He has done that stake.
- [59:52]
I'm sorry.
- [59:53]
Listen, you put that.
- [59:54]
Chris Cuomo
Listen, I'm glad that you put it. I'm glad that you see it that way because that was my earlier point. This is a life and death situation for the people on Iran, for the regime, who we care about least, and for the Americans and the Israelis who are doing the fighting. So it is life and death. You're right. We'll see how it plays out.
- [60:10]
Stephen A. Smith
People consider everything with the president life and death.
- [60:13]
Chris Cuomo
Yeah, that's true. Bill O'Reilly, Stephen A. Smith, I love you both.
- [60:20]
Sid Rosenberg
Good morning, Bill. How are you, buddy?
- [60:22]
Bill O'Reilly
You know, you gave me my title for my next book.
- [60:25]
Sid Rosenberg
What is that?
- [60:26]
Bill O'Reilly
Killing Cockroaches. I'm gonna have a big can of
- [60:31]
Sid Rosenberg
Raid on the COVID You know, a lot of people are making jokes about that because they still don't understand why it was received. But again, that's fine. If it offended people, I've apologized. But I do want to ask you what? What you did what? You know, because you've been through a pretty public controversy in a big, big way and more than one over your immense and amazing career. So when these types of things pop up and one day you're going to work, and the next day your face is on every newscast, local and national across the country. What did Bill or Roddy do to.
- [61:07]
Bill O'Reilly
Well, you got to know the rules. The rules of the road are that if you want to attack a white man in America, you can, all right, Unless that man is in a classified minority, then you can. But if you're just going after a guy like O'Reilly or Rosenberg, then you can say whatever you want to say. No pressure group. There aren't going to be any letters. You can just go out there and hammer us all day long. But then if you decide to go into a minority group and you say anything that is controversial, then you'll be branded. They're going to brand you a racist. Is Islamic phobe, you know, anti gay, whatever it may be, you know, because that's the protection that they've. And this is the far left rules that they put around certain groups. So my big controversy, and everybody will remember, was when I went on the View when Barbara Walters was doing the program and there was this crazy imam who wanted to build a mosque on the side of 9 11. You remember that?
- [62:28]
Sid Rosenberg
I do. And I was vehemently against it.
- [62:31]
Bill O'Reilly
That's like building a Benihana in Hiroshima. Okay, no, that's great. We're not doing that. It's inappropriate. Okay. So I go on just as a logical guy. I'm not going on hit anybody or anything like that. And. But Behar and Goldberg and I saw Whoopi Goldberg the other night at the Knick game. They were just appalled that I would actually oppose this. And I'm going, wait a minute. It's just A matter of being appropriate. If the imam wants to build a mosque three blocks away, I'll help him. I'll get a hammer. I'll come right on out there and help him. Which is true. But that area there should not be subjected to any kind of controversy at all. None. So then Bayhar goes, well, what do you mean? What do you mean? I said, did you miss it? Islamists attacked us on 9 11. They screamed together.
- [63:43]
Sid Rosenberg
Yeah.
- [63:44]
Bill O'Reilly
And. And they jump up from their seats. Not an easy thing for those ladies to do. Okay? And they stormed off the set.
- [63:52]
Sid Rosenberg
They walked off. That's right. I remember that. Yep.
- [63:55]
Bill O'Reilly
Right. Google it, O'Reilly. View Muslim Walk off. Okay? It's hysterical. So then I go to Walters. I go, did I get this wrong? Did Norwegians attack us on 9 11? I mean, do I not have the story correct? It was. And then the. Here they come. I'm Islamic phobe. I'm this, I'm that. You know, I was like, now, nobody at Fox News at the time took it seriously, perhaps because I was delivering unbelievable ratings, but I didn't get a lot of heat from inside the company, but everywhere. And that wasn't when the Internet was like, it was now. That was just the beginning of it. And then the other one I had was I sent Waters out to Chinatown just to do a sights and sounds. What we called what's Going on in Chinatown is the biggest Chinatown in the country. So Waters goes in and he makes fun of a few of the Chinese people. You know, they're doing taekwondo. They're kicking you in the neck. They're all of that. Oh, my God. Oh. I mean, we had groups coming in, and I said, the Waters. I said, well, I'm not doing it. You have to sit with them. Let them yell at you for now.
- [65:20]
Sid Rosenberg
What year was this? I'm just curious.
- [65:23]
Bill O'Reilly
Waters thing was 215 to 15.
- [65:30]
Sid Rosenberg
Okay. Because I remember in the early 2000s talking about the Chinese being on Imus. And I referred, because when I was a kid in Brooklyn, you know, the dry cleaners, the Chinese dry cleaners, and I said it like that, and they're like, no, you can't say that anymore. I go, you can't. Really?
- [65:45]
Bill O'Reilly
Yeah. I mean, there's all kinds of rules and craziness, but I think that, you know, over the years, I've learned a few lessons. And the lesson is, don't make it personal. Just don't make it personal. So if you call somebody a name, then you're into the personal. So I did call somebody a name the other day, but it was a name that applied. I was in. The word was moron, right? And I couldn't think of another word. What the person was saying was so ridiculously dumb, I had to. But I wasn't. Basically, I was just saying, look, what this person is saying is just moronic. It just doesn't make any sense. And they're saying it for this reason so you could take the high ground. Look, here's the deal with Mandani. And everybody should know this demand is in way over his head, okay? He can't run the city. I was in the city last night. It's already running down. It's already filthy. I was driving up 3rd Avenue, and it was unbelievable. It's one of the main thoroughfares in Manhattan, and there's garbage everywhere. And the guy is not going to be able to run the city. So then his supporters need to put a quadrant of protection around him, because they already know that he's not going to be able to run the city. And the protection is if you say something bad about him, if you criticize him, then you're Islamic phobe or whatever they're going to call you. It's a defensive play to avoid criticism. Interestingly enough, a guy like Gavin Newsom doesn't have that. He doesn't have that because he's a white guy with Ricky Nelson hair. And so you can go well on him, but if you did the same thing to Kamala Harris out there, they'd have a noose around you now.
- [67:38]
Sid Rosenberg
Yeah, that's true. You know, we. You and I spoke. I did tell the folks, I'm inside baseball being completely transparent here. I did call Bill a couple nights ago. Bill is my guy, and he knew about the story, obviously. But you said something that a lot of people have told me the last couple of days. This was the day before I apologized to the mayor, and I told you about all the tweets I received from all the people in this city, from governor to city council members, senators, AG over. And you said, well, clearly this was an orchestrated attack. I'm not sure if you use those Two words, but 100% right.
- [68:14]
Bill O'Reilly
Oh, look, Schumer and Hochul and Tish James aren't listening to us right now. Why? They hate us. They're not listening to us. So they don't know the context of anything. They don't know what the discussion was leading up to your description of the mayor as, you know, a insect. So they don't know why you did that. And I'm not justifying you doing it, but. But someone called their people, they all had people and said, oh, you better get on board. And then somebody dictated it to them and they just said, okay, because they don't like you. And that's the way it goes. It's not like they're interested in. Well, what did they really say? What was the context of it? No, they. Virtue signal. They play to a crew. And that's what it's called, piling on. And that's been around forever.
- [69:24]
Sid Rosenberg
So to close out the Mumdani talk here, it's been recommended to me by a bunch of people that I meet him, even NJ Burke at Channel 7 Eyewitness News. He was the first to bring up the apology to Mamdani on the air yesterday afternoon. He said, hey, did you hear this? And the mayor said I did. And he said that he call you. And the mayor said, no, no, no. He saw it on social media and he said, well, basically if he did call you to take the call. And I think it went something like that. And the mayor put the onus on me. Well, you know, if he calls me, let him call me. Something like that. And the people that are very, very close to me, they don't like the mayor. That's no big surprise. Okay? And they would rather I did not have any association with the mayor, let alone meet him. But a lot of folks have said to me, maybe you sit down with them and you know, above and beyond the publicity which you go through the roof, we know that above and beyond that, there may be a good healing process for the city. What do you think about that possibility?
- [70:18]
Bill O'Reilly
If it were me, I would have him on the program.
- [70:23]
Sid Rosenberg
Well, you have to understand, it's not as easy as I would have him on the program. He has to say, yes, but, you
- [70:29]
Bill O'Reilly
know, to go over to Papaya Graves Papaya for a couple of hot dogs, not going to do you much. It's a photo op. Okay. And then, you know, you'll have little hot dogs and they'll come out and you'll look at the camera and then. But if the most instructive part of this whole thing would be for you to talk to him in a respectful way on the program and say, listen, you know, I shouldn't have said that. And I'm a passionate guy. You're a passionate guy. You said things that you regret saying. Right. Mayor, he's going to have to say, yes. I said, we have common ground there. And then when we go over the line, we apologize, but. And Then you have a discussion about his stance toward Israel. That's number one in my mind. Okay, about his stance toward Trump. He runs down at Trump, tries to get what he wants and comes back and he bad mouths Trump. What's that all about? Okay, you see if you can advance. You give him an hour on wabc. You're going to get a whole bunch of stuff, and it's got to be civil. Now, I'll predict that Mandami won't do that. He won't, because he's not secure enough to do it, and he doesn't have to do it. So he's not in a position where he's getting any kind of negativity that he already didn't have. So the people don't like him. They don't like him, and they're never going to like him. So it doesn't really matter what you call them. And, you know, that's the way these guys evaluate it. But it would be really riveting radio. And that's the offer I would make. And then you can go out for some papaya dogs after that, right?
- [72:14]
Sid Rosenberg
I mean, you left out the part about the cops. You. I mean, so many other groups in the city that are angry and they feel offended, you know, again, I.
- [72:22]
Bill O'Reilly
People, I do an hour easy with him, right?
- [72:26]
Sid Rosenberg
You're talking about 30 or 40 different topics. I know that he did put Jim Dolan in that position yesterday, but he did not show up. He did not even show up for Ronald Hicks when he was installed as archbishop. That's never happened before.
- [72:37]
Bill O'Reilly
Why didn't you go? And if you say scheduling, you look at him and go, come on. You know, you're. You dictate your own schedule. And this was perceived as disrespectful, but, you know, in order to get him on, and I don't believe he'll do it again because there's no reason for him to do it.
- [72:55]
Sid Rosenberg
Not only is there no reason, but, you know, he could also say that, well, if I go on your show, he. Isn't that a home game for you? You could say that, I guess.
- [73:05]
Bill O'Reilly
Well, that's ridiculous, because WABC is the biggest talk radio station in the country, right? So if Mandani is really interested in persuading people, as he should be, that he is looking out for them, why wouldn't you go on? I think that's right.
- [73:25]
Sid Rosenberg
And the funny thing is, you know, we all live in our little world. So, for example, Bill. And again, the Iran war. But, you know, in my world, my Twitter, my Instagram, my Facebook, my people, my listeners. And those are big numbers, you know that. Very, very big numbers. You know, they're all supporting me. They're all supporting me, you know, and
- [73:42]
Bill O'Reilly
then he doesn't matter because they're here, they're not there. It's just you and him.
- [73:48]
Kelly Meyer
Right.
- [73:48]
Sid Rosenberg
But in radio, but in his world, his Democrat world, they're all supporting him.
- [73:54]
Bill O'Reilly
Look, I know that, but his job, and he's actually said this is he wants to be the mayor of all New Yorkers. True, right, yes. Well, if you have a constituency that does not like you and I'm giving you an hour to try to persuade them that you're good for the city. So why aren't you going to take it?
- [74:16]
Sid Rosenberg
I think I'm not going to have a choice but to extend a radio invite to the mayor to do exactly what you're saying. I don't think I've got a choice.
- [74:24]
Bill O'Reilly
You got to be funny about it. You got to be nice about it.
- [74:27]
Sid Rosenberg
Sure, I'm a funny, nice guy.
- [74:30]
Bill O'Reilly
Yeah. I mean, look, you can, you can say, listen, if you do this, mayor, I will treat you to a tanning session right after.
- [74:39]
Sid Rosenberg
Right. I've already promised John Stewart that though. Just so you know, I'm running out of tanning cash because John Stewart said, who put Thanos in the air fryer a couple of weeks ago? Your friend John Stewart. Very funny. But yes, we'll try to make it funny, be light hearted. So the invitation is out there. I know that NJ Burkitt from Channel 7 and you know, 1010 WINS and all these stations are listening and watching every morning. I've seen my face on New York 1 about 50 times already today. So it's out there. And it'll be like the beer summit. Remember Barack Obama's beer summit a couple of years ago? Remember that?
- [75:11]
Bill O'Reilly
Sure. And if you really wanted to sweeten it up for Mandani, you could make nj, who's been around since us, Grant, the moderator. Okay, you bring him in.
- [75:23]
Yeah.
- [75:23]
He said, look, you know, if you feel uneasy that the deck's gonna be stacked against you, njl be, you know, the guy with the, with the horn.
- [75:32]
Sid Rosenberg
I love it. NJ porket. He'd be great at that. He's actually very, very good at his job. He really is Channel seven.
- [75:38]
Bill O'Reilly
You know, here's how long he's been around. When I was a correspondent for Channel 2, he was on the street. Wow. Amazing how long these guys last.
- [75:47]
Sid Rosenberg
Yeah, he's got to be, because I. The other Guy that I, I saw during the storm, he was out there in, in Jersey, actually, by Asbury park, is Anthony Johnson. He's also very good at his job. Very good.
- [75:57]
Bill O'Reilly
Yeah, there's a bunch of them that have been around forever. Janice Huff, the weather lady on Channel four.
- [76:03]
Sid Rosenberg
Yep.
- [76:04]
Bill O'Reilly
And you got to give him credit for hanging in. I mean, we're talking now 40 years.
- [76:08]
Sid Rosenberg
Oh, my God. Let's get to the, the war again. I, I mentioned this to Rick Scott, the senator from Florida this morning, and other folks have been this for the last couple of days. This is not overwhelming support. In fact, I've heard bipartisan, no support for this war. People that certainly, at the very least, don't want to see any boots on the ground, never see it progress to that point. People that are upset that we're fighting a war when President Trump promised us he campaigned on no wars, no more wars. Now, look, I've been making the point that he's just finishing a war that Iran started. He didn't start it, but no wars, and we're in a war. Then of course, you get the anti Semites who say, oh, this is Israel, this is Bibi. He's calling the shots, which Trump has actually made public statements about the last two days and called them ridiculous. But that, that feeling is out there. So there's a lot of folks out there on both sides of the aisle, Bill, that don't love this war. And now with four servicemen dead, and again, this talk about the possibility of boots on the ground, they like it less and less. What are your thoughts?
- [77:13]
Bill O'Reilly
Well, again, you've got to be versed on what's really happening, which is hard because the media doesn't report that. So after I watched World News Tonight on Tuesday evening, I thought that the USA was going to surrender to the Muellers. We lost already. Do you believe David Muir, who's actually John Wick, by the way. That's who he really is. Okay. Yeah, we, we lost.
- [77:39]
Sid Rosenberg
Well, that. And by the way, that's a TV guy, and that's bad enough. And we all know, we remember, you know, the Muir with Lindsay Davis during that debate, how really biased and pathetic the both of them were for Channel seven. I'll take it a step further. I'll take it to politics. The top guy for the Dems in Congress, Hakeem Jeffries, said the same thing yesterday. We've lost the war.
- [78:00]
Bill O'Reilly
Yeah, we've lost. So we, we should be capitulating now and then surrendering to the mullahs. So they did eight segments in a row on World News Tonight. And all of them were negative. And I'm going, geez, oh, how can we lose? And it's only been 48 hours. We already lost how this is possible. So here's, here's what really happened. If you're anybody interested to know the Iranians after they lost their primary nuclear facility in June of last year, that
- [78:37]
Sid Rosenberg
would be Natanz, I think, right?
- [78:39]
Bill O'Reilly
Yeah. They immediately pivoted to their plan B and C labs and continued to try to develop weapons grade nuclear weapons, all right, and uranium and all that. So Mossad and the CIA, which have infiltrated that country in a very high level, they knew that. And that teed Trump off. And then they basically were polishing up their ballistic missiles, this was Iran, and pointing them at Jerusalem. So Netanyahu, backchannels, of course, gets in touch with the American CIA and says, look, these guys, they're not going to stop and something bad is going to happen to my country. So we got to mobilize. So that's, that was the beginning. Okay? Now Trump did not want a shooting war. I talked to him extensively about this. One on one on the telephone in a late night conversation. He did not want it, but he offered them a very good deal, said, look, we'll give you uranium for peaceful purposes, but you got to get rid and have weapons inspectors go in and you got to dismantle the ballistic missiles. And the mullah said, blank. You gave him the middle finger. So then Netanyahu about a week ago called Trump on a secret line and said, hey, the mullah and all his pals are going to be meeting on Saturday in this location. We can get them all with one attack, wipe them all out. And in addition, the Persian people are ready to overthrow whatever theocratic government comes in after that. So Trump gave them one more chance, the Mullos, one more big chance, okay? With Witkoff. And Mueller said, no, it was like Maduro, okay? And so Trump hit them. Now no one knows what's going to happen after that. This is why these reporters are so irresponsible and stupid. Well, when is it going to end? How long is it going to go? Hey, you moron, this is a military action. Now, as far as American troops inside Iran, that's never going to happen.
- [81:10]
Sid Rosenberg
Are you sure about that?
- [81:11]
Bill O'Reilly
Even been discussed?
- [81:12]
Sid Rosenberg
You sure about that?
- [81:14]
Bill O'Reilly
100%.
- [81:15]
Sid Rosenberg
Okay?
- [81:16]
Bill O'Reilly
Because that's Iraq, Radu. You see what I mean? No, I can't insert American troops into a nation of 90 million that has an army of 200,000. You can't. And Trump's not going to do that. Now, whether a few Kurds wander across the border, throw a couple of hand grenades and then wander back, maybe. But it's not going to be the US infantry, and everybody knows that except John Wick at ABC News. He doesn't know. I say send him over. Just him.
- [81:56]
Sid Rosenberg
I love it.
- [81:56]
Bill O'Reilly
And he can wipe out the whole, you know, theocratic structure. So when I'm watching the coverage, I know what's happening. And I'm going to myself, this is so crazy, because Trump isn't stupid. The American public would never support infantry going into Iran ever, under any circumstances, would that be supported. And right now, the latest fox poll is 50 50. So after the bombing, CNN poll came out. It was 5,000, 941 against. It's tightening up now despite the media and the Democratic Party going.
- [82:40]
Sid Rosenberg
We already lost some Republicans, too. And I was going to ask you that because as we wrap up this amazing conversation, again, proving why you're the best at when I mean that sincerely, I'm not patronizing you. Everything comes back to politics here. Okay? So we know that the State of the Union went so well that even you, even you admitted that even though the State of the Union is months out from the midterms in November, you thought that Trump really helped himself and the Republicans. Now, the war, I thought, may have, you know, taken off some of that tarnish and kind of pulled back some of that great momentum that he had last Tuesday. Even 50, 50 is not great. So it's an easy question. Do you still feel like the momentum is in Trump's favor as we head towards the midterms, or do you think the war kind of evens things out?
- [83:30]
Bill O'Reilly
It's a neutral now? Because this is a huge gamble on the part of President Trump's administration. Enormous. If it works and Iran becomes a civilized nation that isn't threatening Israel in the west, then Trump elevates himself to a very, very high position.
- [83:54]
Sid Rosenberg
But what does that entail? And again, I'm for this.
- [83:57]
Bill O'Reilly
I mean, change in regime, right?
- [83:59]
Sid Rosenberg
And then who's responsible for the next people in power? That. And again, I'm for this. Don't get me wrong. But I've got to ask these questions.
- [84:05]
Bill O'Reilly
No, that's fine.
- [84:05]
Sid Rosenberg
Who's responsible for putting the next people in power? I mean, I don't know. I guess my point is I don't know exactly what victory looks like. I mean, I take killing the Khomeini is a huge victory. So I'm already, I'M ready.
- [84:19]
Bill O'Reilly
Victory looks like Venezuela. That's what it is. You get rid of the bad guys at the top and then you put in a pliant government that does pretty much what the United States tells.
- [84:32]
Sid Rosenberg
Okay, but Venezuela is the size of a borough. You're talking about 90 million people, possibly six or seven layers of government that still want to kill us and the Israelis, everybody else. So it's not. It looks like Venezuela, but you can't compare the two.
- [84:48]
Bill O'Reilly
One is, that's the, that's what, that's the model. The end game is. And the Persian people themselves, they're the ones that have to demand a responsible government. We can't do that. Israel can't do that. Europe is, you know, Europe, they don't do anything. And they never would do anything because that's just not the culture over there.
- [85:13]
Sid Rosenberg
No, they're bad. They're bad people. Come on. Stomach. He stinks. Macron stinks. But we keep asking the Iranian people to take over, and that's great. That's the best case scenario. But last I saw. And again, I'm just playing devil's advocate here, when the Iranian people, very courageous, very, very courageous, went to the streets, they gunned them down like a big firing squad. 40,000 died.
- [85:35]
Bill O'Reilly
Yeah.
- [85:36]
Sid Rosenberg
So how did them. Right. How does that inspire Iranian people to do it again?
- [85:42]
Bill O'Reilly
That is part of the reason that the mullah is now conferring with Allah.
- [85:48]
Sid Rosenberg
Yeah, that's true.
- [85:50]
Bill O'Reilly
That's so outrageous that President Trump decided, look, we're going to hit these people hard and their own people aren't going to stand up for them, which is exactly what's happened.
- [86:02]
Sid Rosenberg
But those people are still in danger. So my point is, do we arm? Do we arm those people? How do we help those people? Speeches don't stop people from getting shot down in the streets.
- [86:13]
Bill O'Reilly
You got to make a deal with the army, with the generals, which is what the Trump administration did in Venezuela. Okay. You got to make a deal at the high level of the Iranian armed forces and say, look, we're not going to go away, so if you want anything left, you've got to cooperate. And that's certainly doable. That's possible. But the army's got to stand down. And, you know, the Revolutionary Guard never will. You can't make a deal with them. They're insane. They're Islamists, they're crazy. So you're going to have to put them in prison. And the army can do that. But that's the. If you understand geopolitics, the guys with the most guns rule. And that's what Trump is hoping that he's going to be able to get to these Iranian generals, that they're going to say, yeah, it's over. We're going to put in a better government. We'll run it until the civilian government get organized. And the Persian people will go along with that. And I believe the Persian people will. And the other thing is, the response from Iran has been so anemic. I mean, this is what they got. They're lobbing a few drones in. That's it. I mean, come on, this is supposed to be some fierce nation armed by Putin in China. That's what you got.
- [87:39]
Sid Rosenberg
Yeah. No, it's been. And of course, Putin and China, they want nothing to do with this, and they won't do it.
- [87:44]
Bill O'Reilly
We'll see you later.
- [87:45]
Sid Rosenberg
Right. I mean, we have seen innocent people die in apartment buildings in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem last weekend, but in numbers. And unfortunately, when it comes to war, we talk about numbers. Anybody dying is a horrible thing. Four, five, six servicemen, horrible thing. But the numbers, you know, 10 in Israel, five or six so far. American casualties, unfortunately. Now, again, every life matters. But those are not big numbers. To your point. It's not like Iran came back with a fury.
- [88:12]
Bill O'Reilly
No. And they don't have it. They don't have any capability to defend themselves. So then when you hear, oh, we're losing, and if you add up all the Americans that the Iranian government killed over the past 30 years, it's in the tens of thousands.
- [88:29]
Sid Rosenberg
Yeah.
- [88:30]
Bill O'Reilly
So, I mean, you know, look, all this is nonsense. And you see these corrupt people on television, they're going, oh, what about that? You know, and all that has to happen here is discipline. All right, just. And that's why you don't know how long it's going to take. All right? You keep degrading their weapons, you degrade their defenses, you're making deals with the generals behind the scenes, and then hopefully it all comes together. If it does, enormous victory for Trump, he sweeps the midterms. If it doesn't, Trump gets hammered right between the eyes.
- [89:11]
Sid Rosenberg
Yep. Impeachment. Get ready for that word.
- [89:13]
Bill O'Reilly
It won't be impeachment, but the Democrats will win in November.
- [89:17]
Sid Rosenberg
Yeah. Then they'll impeach him every day. I love you. This is an amazing segment, as always, and we covered so much. Bill O'Reilly, 27 minutes of Radio Gold from the best ever. Bill O'Reilly, thank you so much.
- [89:30]
Bill O'Reilly
Thanks for having me, Sid.
- [89:35]
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