
Loading summary
A
Hey, if you're here listening, you know you don't want spin, right? You know that Bill knows that Bill does not mess with the spin. You want it straight. So here's a straight recommendation. I'm Mike Baker, former CIA officer, and every day on the President's Daily Brief, I do for national security and geopolitics exactly what this show does for the news. No agenda, no hysteria, no opinion, just the facts. We tell you what's happening, you decide how to think about it. It's named for the brief that lands on the President's desk, and it runs every single day. 20 minutes in the morning, 10 minutes in the afternoon. Smart, fast, honest. Follow the President's Daily Brief on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen.
B
My ideology is I'm not in any crew at all. Anybody who thinks that NPR and PBS are fair brokers of information is the lunatic. The they're not. I'm not at the altar of socialism. They'll kill you. They have the power to kill you. So I want to talk about Bill Maher tonight, and I have a long history with Mr. Moore, and he said something on NPR. He did a podcast that's very interesting, and I want to analyze it for you in this long form. We call it podcast. You may call it. We'll do it live. Now, I was on Mars program last December, went pretty well for me, and I suspect with my book coming out, Confronting America, that I'll be back on with him sometime in the fall. He's in la, I'm in New York, so it's not an easy gig. And I don't want to put him on a satellite unless I have to. I'd much rather do it in person. So anyway, he goes on npr and you need to know a little bit about this. So I first ran into Mar when he. Shortly after 9 11, the attack, was fired by ABC. Okay. And he was fired because he said that the terrorists were not cowards. And he was calibrating that the terrorists themselves who flew the planes into World Trade center in the Pentagon and then out in Pennsylvania, knew they were going to die and were willing to die for their cause of Wahhabism or whatever nutty thing they embraced so they couldn't be cowards because they're willing to give up their lives. That's what his thinking was. My thinking is a little bit different, that if you're brainwashed, if you subject yourself to a ideology of murder, which these people did, and it goes on today, terrorism and murder, then you're a coward because terrorists Kill innocent people. You're not in a foxhole. However, I understood Mars point, and I didn't like the fact that ABC fired him. You know, if you want to bring me on to debate him about it, more than happy to do it or anybody who poses Mar's stance. That's how you handle. You just say you're fired because we don't like what you say. And the sponsors are mad, okay? The sponsors are always mad and they'll get over it. So anyway, I did stick up for Mar, and he wrote me a nice note about it. You know, I thought it was a respectful thing to do. And that was it. And then I've run into him a few times over the years. He got increasingly left wing, which departs from my ideology of fact finding. See, my ideology is I'm not in any crew at all. I want to know what happened, why it happened, and how it affects you and me. That's my ideology. And wherever that's going to lead me, I'm going there. Now, I have in the last nine years been able to prosper with that ideology because I don't work for the corporate media anymore. I don't have some pinhead tell them, oh, I know the audience might be upset. I don't care. I don't care, okay? And Mar doesn't care either. So his program on HBO has been on for 24 years or whatever, and it's successful. And he really doesn't care about what ABC wants or the sponsors want. Kind of respect that. Anyway, let's get to the matter at hand. So ma goes on NPR YouTube operation. Now, I am not an NPR fan, okay? Because I did an interview with a woman named Terry Gross years ago, and she has a popular program on npr. And it was the most ridiculous interview I think I've ever done. I mean, a woman had. It was pure ideology. And at one point I said to her, hey, look, I'm not a conservative or whatever you want me to be or think I am. So you're like debating the wall here. We know you're far left progressive, and it's fine. Now, if you have questions of facts, if you have questions of history, okay, more than happy. But this is nonsense what you're pulling here. This is Terry Gross, all right? And so why would I bother with that? And PBS, same way. Same exact way. Almost 100% down the line. We call them limousine liberals in Manhattan, but they're really hardcore progressives. So Maher used to be in that crew. He's very, very left wing. And that's what Hollywood is. He lives in Hollywood, as I mentioned. All right? So he was embedded there. And at that time, if you want to be a loon on the left or the right, you're perfect. Right under the Constitution to do that. That's the way you want to live. Go ahead. I don't care. You're hurting people. Then I step in. So I kind of didn't lose track of Mar. I knew what he was doing. But then he turned a little bit because the progressives had gotten so crazy with the MeToo stuff and the banishing people and the canceling and the you got to do it my way and Nancy Pelosi threatening everybody in Congress. If you don't vote my way, we cut off your money. On and on and on. And Martin liked that. And so he turned a little bit. He didn't lose a lot of currency. Remember, he's on HBO. He's not on linear TV. So he goes into this podcast from NPR on July 15, all right? He talks to a guy named Steve Inns. Keep who I don't know. And I'm going to analyze a good part of the conversation for you in our Do It Live broadcast. Let's begin with Mar going after NPR's audience. Roll it.
C
Your audience is gonna love this, by the way. The audience is a little more diverse than you might think. Really? Sure. Some people. I mean, I'm surprised you even had me on, because I just think of this place as so different than what it used to be. And like, I would. What I always want people to do, but it's so hard to get people to do these days is just. Just engage with the argument. You can hate me, whatever, for, whatever your reasons, you know, I'm too old, whatever I am. Are you engaging with the argument? Tell me if I'm wrong about something, and then we're gonna be cool. But that's not what either extreme does in this country anymore. And I. Maybe I'm wrong, but I think of this place as, like, on the far extreme of the left. But I could be wrong. Yeah, maybe there's a little more variety in who we talk to than you might have told. Who you talk to is different than what people believe.
B
NPR's not wrong. NPR lost its government funding because Trump didn't like him. Okay, we know that. And so did pbs, because they are. It's boring to me. Boring. Okay. There's nothing on there that I want to listen to because I know what they're going to say on what they're going to do. They never surprise you. It's right down the line. And other news operations are the same way. They know who their audience is. Every organization, okay, on television and radio takes research. They pay for research and the research tells them who is watching and what kind of people they are. Okay, so are they progressive watching? Are they conservative watching? And the problem is that the management gets a hold of this research and they pay a lot of money for it and then they tell their people, hey, don't go against the orthodoxy, okay? Most people watch as the progressives, well, we're going to give them progressive soup every day. That's Whitmore and saying, and he's right. Anybody who thinks that NPR and PBS are fair brokers of information is a lunatic. They're not. And they don't even have to compete for money because there are donation driven now, okay? And it has infected all of the news agencies, every single one of them on television, everyone plays to its perceived choir, its audience, okay? So when Maher's telling this guy Innskeep, look, I'm surprised I'm even here because I don't spout across the board progressive tenants. I'm not at the altar of socialism. And so. But to BBS credit, they did book them, but they booked them for other reasons, just to get a little publicity. The last time anybody heard NPR do anything, never. Now the second soundbite is President Trump. This is a complicated relationship. Now Trump is very sensitive to all, all criticism, all right, I get away with a little bit. But he does not like to be disparaged, the president. Most politicians are like that, but they don't say it. They don't go after the disparage jurors. Trump does. That's the big difference. I mean, Harry Truman, your head will blow off. I have letters written by Harry Truman about the press. Oh my God, Teddy Roosevelt. Even though way back then you didn't have the electronic media, they hated it. They hated the media, but they wouldn't come out and say it. Trump does. All right? And then Trump gets vengeance, or tries to on the people that he perceives are trying to hurt him. And there are plenty of those. Now Maher, his instinct, and I'm taking this from watching him, not speaking with him, is not to like Donald Trump because he's. The president's undisciplined and he does things off the cuff that you know can be unsettling. But Maher will give Trump credit on occasion. So therefore the president invited Trump, President invited Maher to a dinner at the White House, which is a great honor, even if you don't like Trump, is the White House. Okay. And you respect the office. And Maher went to the dinner and they got along okay. I know the guy who put this together and it went okay. But then when Maher went back to Hollywood and jabbed Donald Trump a few times and the relationship soured again. So this was a topic on the NPR podcast. Go.
C
Why do you think he would play a crazy person on tv? He has the choice. Well, he is a crazy person in the extent that he definitely has a form of Tourette syndrome. He just blurts out whatever is on his mind often. It's funny. He's both at the same time. The most full of person and also the most honest. But just there's something different about the mind that does that. He just speaks his interior monologue, which is just, you know, that is a certain type of mental disorder. But it seems to come out when he feels in any way attacked, which is like outside of his comfort zone. You know, what can I tell you? I mean, I just found a very different person. You know, the people who attack me have no argument. They just have a feeling. Their feeling is, I never want to come in second in a I hate Donald Trump the most contest. Boring. Okay. Nobody has been harder on Donald Trump. That's why the dinner happened to begin with. It was sort of a Nixon to China thing, you know.
B
All right, so notice the question from Mr. Inskeep that started that portion. Why do you think he would play a crazy person on tv? That's. Is that an opinion? I guess it's an opinion. It's not really a question because a lot of Americans, 77 million of them, admire the candor. They like the fact that President Trump speaks his mind and goes after what they put perceive as bad people. So that's not crazy. When you're reelected another time after you serve your first term, that's effective. 77 million voted for him. Okay. But to ins. Keep the interviewer, chub's crazy because Inskeep is used to Barack Obama or Kamala Harris, you know, or these people, the standard politicians who will say what they're told to say in a way that is as least offensive as they can make it. That's what Steve, I don't like that myself. Now, does the President go over the line? Yeah, yeah, I go over the line sometimes. All right, he does. He gets frustrated. He gets tired. He gets fed up with certain people. ABC News is his big target. Cnn close second. Because in and out Day in and day out, they are pounding the man. Pounding and pounding and pounding and pounding. Hey, I went through it. I know exactly how Donald Trump feels. Exactly. And your instinct is a lash. And I have. And Trump wins a lot of that. Colbert vanished, vaporized, okay? Kimmel on the ropes. He wins a lot by the assault. So this is not some crazy person on TV as NPR would have you believe. Now, to Steve Inskeep and the NPR management, Trump is crazy because number one, they don't like what he does, they don't like his policies. And number two, he's saying stuff that sometimes isn't true, misleading, emotional, whatever it may be, though, he's crazy. Dismiss him. But Marshma smart enough not to dismiss him. Now the line about the mental disorder. It's not a mental disorder, Bill. And if I go on his program in the fall, I'm going to talk to him about this. Trump, this is not a mental disorder. This is real. It's real that the President of the United States is attacked every day, every day by a media that loathes him. That is reality. And when he started his political life, I was the first interview, you may remember that, okay, when he came down a stairway or the escalator, the Trump Tower, he pivoted and went back up into the room where I was waiting for him. We did the interview. And I never thought he'd win. I never thought he'd win. I told him, I said, you're never gonna win. But when he started his political campaign, he just destroyed Jeb Bush and all the others you remember on that debate stage. Just cut them down, little Marco, Lyin Ted, and they're all going to go, what? Nobody has ever done this. That's literally true. Nobody, no politician running for president ever done it. Not a mental disorder. It was a calculation. Okay, with mental disorder, Tourette's or whatever mars assigning to President Trump, it would have blown right up, but it didn't because there were so many millions of Americans fed up with the standard politicians. That's why Biden had to hand it off to Harris. And they got waxed. And of both of them, come on, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, I mean, these are people that they don't problem solve, you know, what are we having for dinner? So I think that Maher makes a big mistake when he assigns this as a mental disorder or Tourette's or some kind of thing. Like it almost diminishes the skill set that Trump brings to the debate and the deal making process. He brings a skill set it's different from everybody else's. It doesn't work all the time. Hasn't worked with Iran yet. Okay, but it works a lot. Now the final soundbite gets a little personal because Mar is talking about Americans and there are millions of them who just simply cannot accept opposing points of view. Roll it.
C
It's always, I think, better to engage and to feel like, oh, this is a person who at least has the respect to listen to my bull. Because what the right wing hates the most about the left is their condescending attitude. And I don't blame them. The left has this attitude like, and this is true of the Trump dinner, you are just too deplorable even to break bread with. That really gets them. And I don't blame the feeling, the feeling they have about that. You know, talk to them. They're, as I always say, everybody's a monster till you talk to them.
B
And that remains a huge component of the Democratic Party, this arrogance that we know better, okay? That our strategies are noble and MAGA and the Republicans are evil. This is what they push. Now, I've interviewed a lot of high profile liberals in my career. Most of them, when they come in to talk with me, are respectful. Some of them aren't. You remember Barney Frank and all that kind of stuff. But I would say half, 50% of the Liberals that I know personally as human beings are as arrogant as you could possibly be. The word is supercilious. So if you don't agree with them that you are, just get out of here. In fact, the younger people, younger Americans, say under the age of 35, they don't even associate. They wouldn't even associate. You can't even go out on a date. All right? You've got to pass a political litmus and social test for these people to even consider you as a human being, to even consider having a conversation with you. That's how arrogant they are. Now, I'm trying to think back in history. Have we ever gone into that kind of a situation as a country? Have we ever seen that before? It's murky. The Civil War certainly had Southern people mostly, who, if you didn't believe in enslaving human beings, that you were the devil, and I'm willing to lose my life to protect the enslavement of human beings. Staggering. Think about it. Step back. Staggering. But it was there. And then you had the people, Ku Klux Klan, all of those people who said, you know, we're going to persecute fellow human beings, fellow Americans, because They're all in America, okay, Because of their skin color. We'll hang them, we'll deny them the right to vote, will deny them jobs. They can't sit in the same bus lane. What is that? You know, that kind of irrationality? You just look at it, you go, what? So we have had that kind of movement here in America, but it hasn't been as bad as most other countries. That's all they're going to do, is slit your throat. Okay? Here we had one big one, the civil war. A million dead on both sides, but we're not usually like that. But this growing progressive movement, which is really a communist movement. And if you watch the no spin news, you know, I'm documenting this communist stuff. I'm not just spouting it, documenting them. Guy like Mayor Mam Doni is desperately seizing control of the means of production in New York City. He wants the government to run everything. That's his goal. That's communist. And at the same time, Mamdani does not want to put criminals away. So public safety is absolutely cratering here. Now that in the past has not been a communist dictum. You got out of line with Stalin or Mao or Ho Chi Minh or you're done. Even today, you go to China, you spit on the floor, you can be taken and will be taken and charged with crimes against the people. Spitting on the floor can get you taken out of society in Beijing. I saw it when I was over there. It's usually not attached soft on crime to the communist movement. Okay, it's usually totalitarians will control antisocial behavior. But there is no arrogance on the part of Xi or Putin or any of these other martinets, the mullahs. And the reason there isn't any arrogance is because they'll kill you. They have the power to kill you without any due process. Did you know there are vans in China, big vans that go from town to town and execute people convicted of serious crimes against society. The van rolls into town, cops bring you out, they gas you or whatever they do, and that's it. Did you know that it still exists? So the communist leadership around a country doesn't have to be arrogant. They'll blow the hell out of you. But here the arrogance on part of the left is growing and that is going to hurt the Democratic Party in the midterm elections because the thinking is going to be and a lot of things are going to happen, people go, oh, can you predict it, O'Reilly, what's going to happen? I can't predict anything? It's two and a half months. All right, Iran might surrender. The economy is doing well now. It might double. How can I predict gas plummet once the Iran thing gets behind us if it ever does? All right, so I can't predict anything other than the Bruce Springsteens of the world, the Robert De Niro's. How arrogant are these people? Even Mick Jagger, Mr. Arrogance says they're arrogant. Okay, come on. Marriors don't like that. They don't. The world feels increasingly unstable between global conflicts and skyrocketing debt. Smart investors are ditching the dollar for hard assets like gold. One uncertainty hits. I trust American Hartford Gold to protect my savings. They make it simple and have physical gold and silver delivered to your door or placed inside a tax advantaged IRA. Their specialists can even help roll over your 401 tax free with an 8/better business bureau rating. Their record is unmatched. So don't wait. Protect your wealth with something real. Please call now. Tell them O'Reilly sent you to receive up to $20,000 in free silver with your first purchase. 866-501-5201 or text BILL to 6553-286650-15201 or text BILL, 65532 or click the link in the video description. Now on the right you got a certain amount of that too. That arrogance that you know America right or wrong and we know best. And if you're a liberal we don't want to talk to you and there. But it's nothing like the growing progressive movement in the usa. So I suspect that Maher understands all that. He's a Cornell grad, well educated, well read. He's not, you know, Jimmy Kimmel. He follows what's happening. And I suspect that he himself understands this arrogance primarily because it affects him directly. So he has complained that when he tries to book a liberal guest that they won't come on his program because they don't want to answer any questions. I'm not going to answer that question from the O'Reilly or that Maher, I'm not going to do that. That's arrogance and Mar didn't like that. That's the seed of that. Now Maher himself, I don't know the dynamics inside his program. Keep your wellness routine going strong all summer. Cachava's new travel packs help you stick to your daily ritual even when you're on the go. Just one packet of Cacava's all in One Nutrition Shake provides complete nutrition wherever you are with 25 grams of protein,
A
6 grams of fiber, greens, adaptogens and more.
B
Simplify your daily ritual. Go to cachava.com and use code news for 15 off.
A
That's K A C H-A-V A.com code news.
B
I don't know, you know, I. I mean, we get calls and this producer here, that's. But I suspect that Mars calling most of the shots, he does have a team of writers. You know, I don't have. I write everything I do. I don't have any writers. But he has a team of writers. He does comedy and all of that. So maybe he's got five or six people in the room and they're fashioning what he wants to say in his monologue. But I suspect that Maher, pretty much a free agent. HBO is not going to march in there, as I said earlier in the broadcast here, and tell him what to say or do. Maher's not that kind of guy. And I respect that. And so the left, npr, getting back to that interview, lost a big ally when Maher defected. And he defected more because of style than substance. So I'll submit to you that if the election for president were tomorrow and the Democrats put up anybody who could make a point, that Maher would vote for that person and not Trump. Okay, could be wrong, but I doubt it. His sympathies still lie in that area. He lives again in Hollywood. And in Hollywood, it's a monolith. You go away from the progressives and their arrogance will try to bring you down. Now, not only will they not associate, they'll try to ruin you out there. They'll try to ruin you, your family, you, everything else. It's frightening, but that's what communism is. Some of you know I do not recommend companies lightly, especially regarding the irs. I've done my homework. And America Tax Group is the real deal. Their seasoned attorneys aggressively fight for individuals and businesses nationwide. They specialize in eliminating penalties, stopping collections, resolving audits. No matter the size of your debt, your balance doesn't sit still. It grows. Every day penalties up to 25% plus daily, compounding interest on everything you owe. The IRS and state tax authorities do not need court approval. They can seize your home, freeze your bank accounts, garnish your paycheck, and start taking what's yours at any moment. Every day you wait, this gets worse, not better. So please call 888-300-8035. Call them now before they act. Use my code, Bill 26, and you will receive $500 off priority access to their team and a free consultation. This Independence Day, celebrate your medical freedom. Our friends at all Family pharmacy want to make sure you can always get the medications you trust. And right now is the perfect time to stock up. They're running a buy one, get one free sale on all their essential medications. If you've been thinking about stocking up, now's the time. Having what you need on hand before you need it can make all the difference. Everything is done online. Complete a short medical form, licensed physician reviews it, your medication shipped directly to your door. Don't miss out. Please go to allfamilypharmacy.com bill take advantage of the buy one get one free sale. Final point here. So I take this time we'll do it live to do these interviews that we do and have been very successful. And I didn't know whether they were going to be or not. Not a podcast kind of guy or anything like that. I don't live in that world. But they've been very successful and we really thank the people who have submitted. You know, we did the last major interview with Lindsey Graham, the late senator, and that's on billowreilly.com if you want to see the same thing. If you want to see the whole thing, I should say. But we have been very, very successful and I don't like to depart from that format. So I'd rather be talking to Bill Maher about all this himself, but we just couldn't work that out logistically. But I felt it was important because there is something going on in America that most people have no clue about. This progressive communistic movement hasn't caught on in most places, but it has in the big urban centers. San Francisco, Louisiana. Chicago, Boston, New York, D.C. it's caught on. And tens of millions of dollars being pumped in to candidates who are communists, okay, who want to control the means of production. They don't want you to have your say. They want a total system. They think capitalism is. How many times Bernie Sanders said the oligarchs to corrupt oligarchs. How many times? Okay? When they say stuff like that, believe them. I think Maher knows that. I think he knows. He hasn't really addressed it about how far these people have come so quickly. Think back five years ago. No mayor, ma'. Am. Dummy. Okay? Couldn't happen. But Bernie Sanders, he's the godfather of this movement. And then George Soros, still pumping that money out with his son Alex up in Westchester County, New York, still pumping that out, okay? That combination. They control the Media, news media, they control Hollywood. They control a lot of what you see on social media. Okay. Their candidates that they select are well funded. Millions of dollars going into election for district attorneys never happened before. This coordinated effort is building now. Trump's a bulwark. He sees it. Is he going to make a big deal out of it? I don't know. He's got other problems. Iran, we got to get this thing settled. The economy, lower prices. He's got to pay attention to that. The president does okay, but he sees it because this is what he does. He analyzes what's happening and then he reacts to the reality of the situation. And believe me, I've known a guy 35 years and I can't tell you how many conversations I've had with him. So I know how he operates, what's important to him. Maher, I'm looking forward to talking to him about my book, my new book. I don't know how he's going to feel about it. There's a lot of anti drug stuff in that. He's a big pro drug guy. Drugs are really, really bad for everybody, for the country. Really bad. And I make a big deal out of that. But I do other things that he, I think is going to respond to in a positive way. But who knows? So sum it up. NPR was smart to get on mar on the show. NPR revealed itself as being an arrogant progressive organization. But we all knew that. Maher acquitted himself pretty well. I thought explain why he believes what he believes and what's going on with the arrogance thing, which is important because people do listen to him and that's why I'm taking the time on we'll do it live to go through this. Now you can reach me at bill@billorilly.com if you want to add anything or dissent. And we love that. Billoriley.com and it's a shout out. I hate that cliche, but shout out to YouTube. Thank you very much because you have really advanced the cause of freedom in my opinion, all throughout the United States of America. We will see you next week.
Date: July 16, 2026
Host: Bill O’Reilly
This episode centers on Bill O’Reilly's analysis of Bill Maher’s July 15th appearance on NPR, reflecting on Maher’s evolving relationship with progressives and the larger ideological divides in America, particularly within media and political discourse. O’Reilly bridges personal anecdotes, media criticism, and issues of arrogance, tribalism, and honesty in public life, using Maher as a lens to examine the left’s drift and its consequences.
Maher singles out progressive condescension:
O’Reilly concurs, going further—asserting “arrogance” is a defining trait of today’s progressives and that it damages not only social relations but the Democratic Party’s electoral prospects.
Sociopolitical Context:
O’Reilly likens the progressives’ intolerance of dissent to past moments in U.S. history marked by deep division, referencing the Civil War, the KKK, and draws a controversial analogy to communist regimes:
| Time | Speaker | Quote/Paraphrase | |---------|---------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 06:17 | O’Reilly | “He [Maher] turned a little bit because the progressives had gotten so crazy… and Mar didn’t like that.” | | 08:25 | Maher | “What I always want people to do… is just engage with the argument. …Are you engaging with the argument?”| | 09:00 | O’Reilly | “Anybody who thinks NPR and PBS are fair brokers of information is a lunatic. They’re not.” | | 13:56 | Maher | “He [Trump] definitely has a form of Tourette’s syndrome. He just blurts out whatever is on his mind often. …That is a certain type of mental disorder.” | | 14:26 | Maher | “The people who attack me have no argument. They just have a feeling. Their feeling is, I never want to come in second in a ‘I hate Donald Trump the most’ contest. Boring.” | | 15:35 | O’Reilly | “That’s not some crazy person on TV as NPR would have you believe.” | | 18:35 | O’Reilly | “It almost diminishes the skill set Trump brings...He brings a skill set that’s different from everybody else’s.” | | 20:48 | Maher | “What the right wing hates the most about the left is their condescending attitude. And I don’t blame them.” | | 21:05 | Maher | “Everybody’s a monster till you talk to them.” | | 21:24 | O’Reilly | “Half… of the liberals that I know personally as human beings are as arrogant as you could possibly be. The word is ‘supercilious.’” | | 22:23 | O’Reilly | “The growing progressive movement, which is really a communist movement.” | | 22:54 | O’Reilly | “They want the government to run everything. That’s his goal. That’s communist.” |
O’Reilly closes by stressing the significance of the left’s growing “arrogance” and the risk that America increasingly silos itself into hostile ideological camps. He credits Maher for recognizing these dangers and for engaging, however contentiously, with all sides. O’Reilly frames the battle lines for the future as not simply left vs. right, but reasoned debate vs. tribal arrogance — positions personified, in his telling, by NPR, Trump, and Maher.
For feedback or dissent: O’Reilly invites audience response at bill@billoreilly.com.