← The Stephen A. Smith Show
The Stephen A. Smith Show
Interview Only: Bill O'Reilly grades President Trump. He dismisses Steve Bannon's Trump for a 3rd term talk..
00:29:05
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- [00:00]
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- [00:38]
Bill O'Reilly
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- [01:10]
Stephen A. Smith
Let's get started right out the gate, y'all, with my first guest. He's a political commentator, doesn't call himself conservative. He says he's independent on television and radio. He's a personality there as well. He's an author who is probably best known as host of his former show, the O'Reilly Factor on Fox News Channel. You can catch him every weeknight at 6pm Eastern on the no Spin News. Please welcome the man himself, the one and only Bill O'Reilly. Welcome to the show, sir. How are you?
- [01:40]
Bill O'Reilly
I'm the same, which is tragic for everyone, but consistency, there is something to be said for it.
- [01:47]
Stephen A. Smith
How would you describe yourself? Let me just start out there, right when you say I'm the same, much to the chagrin of everyone, what would you describe yourself as being?
- [01:57]
Bill O'Reilly
Bill O'Reilly, independent, thinker, bloviator, provocateur at times.
- [02:06]
Stephen A. Smith
Okay.
- [02:07]
Bill O'Reilly
Judgmental.
- [02:09]
Stephen A. Smith
Okay.
- [02:09]
Bill O'Reilly
And very Irish American.
- [02:13]
Stephen A. Smith
You do know that when you say you're an independent, a lot of people say, you know what, Stephen? A. When you gonna ask that man when the last time he voted for a Democrat? Because they can't see you vote for a Democrat when they when you say you're I, like you said the independent thinker, but usually you just say independent. And what I'm saying is, is that, you know what, he says he's an independent, I'm going to believe him. I call myself an independent. Let's not, let's not throw skepticism this man's way, but could you see yourself voting for a Democrat? Have you voted for a Democrat in recent memory, BILL o'reilly I voted for.
- [02:45]
Bill O'Reilly
Swazi in November, Congressman in the third district. He's a Democrat and know him well, think he's an honest man. So I voted for him because the Republican didn't really advance anything in my eyes that overrode what I know about Swozzi. Look, the people who try to pigeonhole me don't know anything about me. They don't know how I analyze the news. They don't understand my philosophy because they believe what they want to believe and I'm used to it.
- [03:22]
Stephen A. Smith
But let me, let me, let me interject. I, I get the part about they want to believe what they want to believe, but you can't say they don't really know you. I mean, Bill, you've been on the air how many years, how many decades? We know you a little bit now, 50 years. So how they don't know you, BILL.
- [03:38]
Bill O'Reilly
But it's a segmented audience. We had an enormous audience and we do today, millions and millions of people every, every day watch me in some capacity. And at fox, record number 16 years, consecutive, number one. But the audience that will devote time to listening to me is primarily traditional, not conservative. The far right, they don't like me at all. They attack me all the time. But it's a traditional audience because they know where I'm coming from. The liberal audience we had about, because we did analytics when I was at fox, it was 60% traditional, 20% non aligned and 20% liberal that would watch us on a daily basis. Now it's 95% conservative, traditional at Fox, they've lost that. So we know that most liberals, they don't want to listen to O'Reilly and they believe what they want to believe. But here's a good and interesting point for you. When I do shows like Jon Stewart, there's an enormous audience on the left for those shows and they don't come out of it hating me. In fact, my last appearance on David Letterman, I got a standing O for Letterman who did his best to try to make me look foolish. A standing oh, it shocked him. So I think that I have a broader appeal. But I agree with you that a lot of people think that I'm some kind of conservative ideologue.
- [05:21]
Stephen A. Smith
Who dislikes you more, the left or the extreme left or the extreme right?
- [05:27]
Bill O'Reilly
No, the left for sure, because I have very little tolerance for the woke people. The extreme right is much narrower, it's a much more narrow crew than the left. The left has really made inroads in this country, and they control the Democratic Party. The far left does at this point, whereas the right has not done that. You know, Donald Trump's not an ideologue. He couldn't give you any kind of verse about the Republican Party or ideology. He's more of a deal maker. But his audience is maga, and so he plays to that audience.
- [06:11]
Stephen A. Smith
You know, when we think about, you know, this Sunday, Westbury, New York, 3:00pm Eastern Standard Time, we're going to have the Three Americans Live event, myself, you and the one and only Chris Cuomo. You see the promo right there? Yes, I have been. I have been promoting it every single day, every single show. Bill O'Reilly, as I've been instructed by someone who will remain nameless, but it's sitting right in front of me. The point that I'm saying, Bill, is this. When we see this event coming up, what do you believe and what would you articulate to the audience that we're going to give them that they haven't seen before?
- [06:48]
Bill O'Reilly
Excellent question. So I did this as an experiment to see if we could meld three different audiences into one enjoyable afternoon. And I'm not sure whether we're going to succeed or not. We'll succeed. As far as capacity in the theater, we sold a lot of tickets, but will the audiences get along? Will there be an equal amount of different thinkers? I don't know. But I did it because I am tired of the choir. One of the reasons that you are successful both in sports and now you're making a move into policy is because people don't know what you're going to say. And you say it with passion. And so that unpredictability about Stephen A. Smith attracts an audience. Same thing with me. Cuomo, a little bit more doctrinaire, left, although he's, he's changed a little bit. When you say the one and only Chris Cuomo, I almost applaud it. We really don't need another one. But he's there and we are going to listen to what he has to say. But I want to show the country. And we're going to shoot this, by the way, for tv. I'm not going to run it. It's more of a pilot situation. But you have to come see us if you want to see what we do. But I'm hoping that we can meld this so that everybody has a good time, even if you disagree or you are a different mindset than the person sitting next to you in the theater, that you all come out and have a good time and learn something, because I'm going to bring it as I always do. So it is a very interesting experiment because if you watch television now, it's all choir. It's all right wing, left wing. They're horrible. Whatever we do is great, and that's boring to me, and I don't like that. I like robust debate. I like hearing different points of view.
- [08:49]
Stephen A. Smith
Yeah, absolutely. And I'll give you credit for that, because a lot of people would look at you and they'd see you hosting on Fox News years ago. They'll see you hosting your show now, and they wouldn't get that impression. And they look at me and you'll come to me like you did last week. Get out your phone or your notebook and take these notes down. And you brought up the Yalta Conference and all of this other stuff. Yes, I've been reading up on it, Bill, by the way. I've been reading up on it. And you had people that had an attitude. And I said, whoa, I like Bill O'Reilly. I know that might shock you, but I like him. You know, I think he likes me. And we like going at each other in our own. In our own way. I know that. I don't know as much as that man. Humble yourself. The man been covering politics for 50 years. I'm just getting started. I think he would have a head start. Get over it, for crying out loud. But the world that we live in. I think one of the reasons you came up with this idea is because you are lamenting the fact that we can't have reasonable, sensible and respectful discourse, and you believe that's something that will transpire this weekend. To that, you say, what?
- [09:53]
Bill O'Reilly
I don't want tribalism in this country. Tribalism is a weakness, not a strength. I don't like the tribes. So about 10 years ago, I went to a concert. The Isley Brothers and Frankie Mays and Time, all black audience at Jones Beach. Okay?
- [10:10]
Stephen A. Smith
Yep.
- [10:11]
Bill O'Reilly
I walk in. I'm the only white guy in a place except for the security guards.
- [10:17]
Stephen A. Smith
Oh, my goodness.
- [10:18]
Bill O'Reilly
My date goes, she's looking at me. She goes, are you sure this is a good idea? I said, this is going to be great. So I was sitting right down front, and so I walk down to the seats. Everybody sees me. It's an outdoor venue, and half the crowd knew it was me. And I'm just. I'm waving. Everybody's waving at me, and everybody want pictures with me. It was. And that's the America that I like now. They don't agree. I'm sure that most people at the concert, particularly Ronald Isley, own agree with my point of view about life. But it was good natured and that's what I want to get back to. And that's why I'm doing this show. It's my production company, as you know, and I hope we're treating you well. You are. And I'm going to try to market this into something bigger. I don't know whether I'll be able to succeed.
- [11:23]
Stephen A. Smith
No, you'll probably be. You'll probably succeed because you got me. You got me. We ain't losing, Bill. We ain't trying to lose. It's just the way that it is. Let me get to some issues that, that, that I have to, I have to broach with you right now. I want to get right into the headlines around the Donald Trump and this new administration featuring Elon Musk. Last week, Steve Bannon was on Cuomo on News Nation and said that Trump will run again in 2028 and win. When pressed by Cuomo that Trump is termed out, Bannon said the team is developing ways to elect Trump a third time. You wrote it off. I did not take kindly to that. Bill O'Reilly, I want you to explain yourself as to why you wrote it off, man.
- [12:00]
Bill O'Reilly
Because in the Constitution, it says you can't do it. What is going to do? Have a vote at 2/3 of the states to overturn the constitutional amendment. Look at the map. You're not going to get 2/3 of the states to do that. It's ridiculous. It's what they always do. All right. You have to understand, if you read the United States of Trump, which is by far the best book ever written about Donald Trump by me, your humble correspondent, it's all about provocation. It's all about putting your opposition off balance, getting them annoyed, getting them emotional. And that's what these MAGA people do. Bannon knows there's no way that Donald Trump's going to run for a third term. Trump knows it. Everybody knows. But they just throw the hand grenade out, hoping that some nitwit on CNN will get upset and rant and rave. This is a hobby for them. They enjoy this. Okay, but what does it do? It's like a head to that.
- [13:07]
Stephen A. Smith
Like, for example, some, if somebody on CNN or MSNBC goes off, what, and they provoke somebody to do that, what is the what, what is the fallout from it in the eyes of a Trump abandoned, et cetera?
- [13:21]
Bill O'Reilly
There isn't any. Those people aren't going to Vote for him anyway. So they don't have any downside to it. It's like a heckler in the dugout or on the bench, in a basketball game or football game. You try to throw your opposition off balance. You try to confuse them by throwing in all of this stuff and calling them names or whatever you do. And that's what the current administration does. They throw out all of this stuff. About 20% of it is real and the other 80% is what they call hyperbola. And so Trump will go, oh, Joe Biden's the worst president of all time.
- [14:01]
AT&T Advertiser
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- [14:04]
Bill O'Reilly
Well, he's not. He's the second worst, right? Nobody is worse than James Buchanan. But Trump doesn't care. He's going for the headline.
- [14:15]
Stephen A. Smith
I don't think he's just going for the headlines. I think it's the old bait and switch. Coax them or provoke them in the saying and doing something stupid that resembles the rhetoric during the campaign. And as a result, you're able to point to them being crazy, et cetera, et cetera. And that's why you need to vote for me, because you can't trust the liberals. I think that's what he's doing. But let me get to my next question because I'm still on President Trump's administration. This time it's about featuring Elon Musk, the world's richest man, as a chief advisor. Musk has been given unprecedented access to no other private citizen ever received. Why should we, as the American people, be okay with this?
- [14:51]
Bill O'Reilly
Bill O'Reilly, you don't have to be okay with it. I don't. I'm not telling any American you should be happy with Elon Musk there, because I don't know. So last Monday, St. Patrick's Day, I was in a Cabinet meeting in the White House. I was invited there by the President who occasionally ask for my presence because he knows that a lot of people will only tell him what he wants to hear. And I, knowing him 35 years, will tell him what I think and try to back it up. And he likes that. So I'm there, and sitting right next to me is Elon Musk, who I met one time before in Hollywood and didn't talk to him. I just said, hey, how you doing? And he said, I had a 20 minute conversation with him and my son witnessed it because my son was on my left flank. And in the conversation, he asked me about what he might improve on in his presentation and I told him my opinion, but I've been in the TV business 50 years, I know how to present. He listened and that was it. Now I'm neutral on Elon Musk, so I am bullish on wasteful spending and getting rid of it. But I don't want people to get hurt unnecessarily. So I want a very deliberate, methodical machine to downsize the federal government. I admire Musk's success. Everybody should. He brought those astronauts down and the media didn't give him nearly as much credit. That was a brilliant, brilliant operation to get those two astronauts down and Musk was behind that. So I admire his success, but I'm neutral on him because I don't really know him very well. And I think that's a fair way to play it at this point.
- [16:57]
Stephen A. Smith
I'm looking at Trump right now with Musk and I'm seeing suggestions about obviously cutting waste, fraud, et cetera. And I remember a friend of mine sent me a video cuz he's a Republican and he was saying, Stephen A. Before you want to sit up there and excoriate Trump and Musk and what they're doing, he sent me videos of Nancy Pelosi and Chuck schumer Back in 2012, I remember correctly, I think it's 2010. And then it was again in 2012, literally using the same words, fraud, waste, et cetera. We're gonna have to cut Medicare. This is what they were saying at the time. So again, once again, once again, we point to some hypocrisy. Considering that reality. As you look at Trump and how he's marched forward, how would you judge his first few months in the White House and his return to the White House. It's one thing to talk about doing stuff, it's another thing to actually look at what he's doing. As the man who's known him for 35 years, how would you label the job that he has done thus far? Critique the job that he has done thus far, the positives and the negatives.
- [18:05]
Bill O'Reilly
Well, you have to break it out. You can't just do one uniform. So on the border, a plus. All right. Knocked out the open border in record time. 94% intrusions less than Biden had. That is an incredible achievement. Incredible. As far as the migrants inside the United States, I just talked to Tom Holman. I have a pretty good idea on what the strategy is going forward and I am supportive of it. You have to get the dubious people out. And if a criminal alien is dating an alien that doesn't have a criminal record, they both go Homeland Security is not going to delineate at that level. So I'm with him on the economy. The tariff thing was too much, too soon, and it shook the market. Now I think the market is going to come back, but I don't know. And that was not a good thing for the Trump administration because people get nervous when you see that kind of a drop that fast. And I don't know why he had to do all the tariffs at once. You could just piece it out a little bit. I don't think she'd be invading Canada or Greenland or Panama. I think when you can get what you want without rattling their cage to that extent. But it's the same thing. Rattle them up, keep them off balance, and it'll be easier to get what we want. So Trump is trying to get better economic deals. He wants more companies to move back to the United States. That seems to be happening with Putin. I'm optimistic that there is going to be a ceasefire, but Putin will drag it out as long as he can. But I'll tell you this, and I know this to be true, and this is the most important thing we'll probably have on a Stephen A. Smith podcast tonight. If Putin makes Trump look bad, Trump will hurt him. How knows that how? He'll shut down all the banking to Moscow.
- [20:14]
Stephen A. Smith
Wow.
- [20:15]
Bill O'Reilly
They'll sanction any bank that does business with Russia and that'll be it for Putin. All the oligarchs will turn on them. Military will turn on them. The only reason Putin's in power is because he buys the military and the very, very wealthy criminals who run Russia. You shut off their banking, nobody wants the ruble. They can't get dollars. It's over for Putin.
- [20:37]
Stephen A. Smith
Getting back to Elon Musk, some of the waste, fraud, et cetera. Department of Education. What Trump's want in terms of its eradication. Your thoughts about federal employees losing their jobs? I mean, you know, this is. These are real lives that are being affected. People bring that up a lot of times when folks on the right get critiqued. The belief is they don't care enough about the working class, but the left does. Even though we now know that the left has lost the working class and Donald Trump won an election because the working class had more faith in him than they did in the left. Your thoughts about the Trump administration and their position on that? Federal jobs, people losing their jobs right now in terms of cutting costs.
- [21:19]
Bill O'Reilly
I mean, look, I'm very sympathetic to anybody who's honest in making a living and trying to improve the nation. Some people are going to get let go. That shouldn't get let go. And I am calling for the Trump administration to be as precise in its cuts as it can be. There's a lot of waste. There's a lot of people not doing what they should do. The federal government has to be downsized. It has to be. You can't carry a $36 trillion debt. I mean, we're going to run out of money in July according to Federal Reserve. And I mean that you think the stock market's wobbly now. If you're going to say starts to default on its debt, can't pay its interest on the savings bonds, you're looking at a depression situation here. So you've got to downsize it. And when any downsizing, good people are going to lose their jobs. But the good news is there are plenty of jobs in the private sector, plenty of jobs. You can make a good living in this country if you're honest and then work hard and have skills. It's not like you're going into the desert. You're not. There's opportunity, Bill, at this point, at this point in your life, you got to be fair as you can about it.
- [22:26]
Stephen A. Smith
At this point in your life, and I'm not talking about you in terms of how you're living. I'm talking about your knowledge of how Americans can and should live from your prism. When we think about a $36 trillion debt, when we think about the state, in the plight of this country, particularly on those terms, who's more culpable? Is neither party? Is one party significantly more culpable than the other, or is it a combination of them all? I think about a 36 trillion, 36, $37 trillion debt. I'm saying, wait a minute. Reagan was in office. H.W. had a term. Reagan had two terms. W had two terms. Trump's now back for a second time. I understand Obama and Clinton was in the mix. They interrupted the proceedings per se.
- [23:08]
Bill O'Reilly
But.
- [23:09]
Stephen A. Smith
But you had both parties up in there. When you think about our $37 trillion debt, who's most culpable for that? Bill O'Reilly.
- [23:15]
Bill O'Reilly
All of them. I mean, vote buying is just a scandal. We'll give you this, we'll give you that. We'll give you this, we'll give you that. We'll give you this. You can't. You don't have the money. Capitalistic nation. This isn't Sweden, okay? We don't do cradle to grave entitlements here. The Democratic Party wants that kind of a system. That's why Bernie Sanders and Ocasio Cortez are on the tour now, to convince Americans to do socialism, that we'll take care of you, okay? We'll spend on you and we'll take the money from O'Reilly and Stephen A. Smith and we'll give it to you. That's what they do. But the Republicans, they have no interest in cutting anything. None, because it's too hard. Then, ah, yeah, we'll get ready to win. Ah, we'll give it to them. We'll do this, we'll do that. Look how much money the Pentagon wastes. I mean, it's ridiculous how much money they waste. They don't discipline their buys. They don't supervise their builds. They waste money because it's an endless spigot. It's not like you're running a household budget. All right, oh, yeah, we need more money. Come on. They'll give us more money. It's called pork. P O R K. And the main job of the congresspeople and senators bring the pork home to the state. And that's got to be revised. We're running out of money, Bill.
- [24:37]
Stephen A. Smith
If politicians who are not known to be business folks, who aren't, who aren't considered individuals that pride themselves on making deals have been excessive with the use and the exploitation of pork, why in God's name should anybody believe that Trump is going to be a better option than those individuals that preceded him that contributed to the deficit?
- [25:01]
Bill O'Reilly
But he's doing it. That's why Brett Musk in he's doing it. He's going, we're going to wipe out a lot of the unnecessary spending. He's doing it. He didn't do it in the first term because Covid wrecked everything they had to pay. The federal government had to pay so much money, these pharmaceutical companies to get these vaccines, that it just blew everything up. But now he's doing it. Now I don't know whether he can get through the swamp. I think he's going to make an improvement on that. He's got to go into the Pentagon. Has to. And I believe that'll be coming. But we do need to compete with China's military. We got to build more ships. That's going to cost a lot of money, but there are ways to do it. You have to want to do it. And in the past, 90% of American politicians in both parties don't want to supervise spending. It's the last thing on their mind. STEPHEN A. It's boring. It's numbers on a sheet they don't want to do it.
- [26:02]
Stephen A. Smith
Last two questions before I let you get on out of here and thank you for your time. Number one, do you give AOC and Bernie Sanders any snowball's chance in hell of resonating with the vast majority of American citizens once before the election? I would tell you hell no. But these things could be a bit cyclical, they could be a bit mobile. And if you're disgusted with Trump and Musk or whatever, who knows, what chance do you give them for resonating as faces for the left in the next couple of years, moving forward, particularly before the midterms?
- [26:34]
Bill O'Reilly
Well, Sanders is 83, so he's not going to do anything. Ocasio Cortez is a socialist, hardcore, maybe a communist. If you hear anybody say they believe in a wealth tax where the government would come into your home and take stuff from you, that's communism, that's confiscation. And I believe Ocasio Cortez supports that. Sanders does. So I don't think Americans want that kind of oppressive government. Maybe 20, 25% do, and that's the crew to these people play for. But here's the rub. The corporate media loves those people. Even though they're the biggest greedheads in the world, the corporate media, you can't get more greedy than them. It's all about money. I mean, they'll cut your throat. They'll cut my throat for money. Corporate media. But they like Sanders and Ocasio Cortez. It's one of the great anomalies of all time. And so they get a free ride, these two. But the American people you mentioned seizing your private property. I don't think they're going to get anywhere on that.
- [27:42]
Stephen A. Smith
Before we get on out of here Sunday, three Americans live. You, me, Chris Cuomo, I know what you're hoping for. What should they expect?
- [27:55]
Bill O'Reilly
Well, give me a lot of laughs. Number one, it's going to be very funny. And then the Q and A with the audience, I think is going to be the most fascinating part. So we're going to have the second half of the show, the audience, at Westbury Music Fair. And again, you go to billorilly.com, you go to stephenasmith.com, we'll link you right over to the box office, or you go to Ticketmaster or call a theater. VIP sold out fast, so we put 15 more out, and then we're putting extra sections in, too. So there's a big demand for the show at this point. But the Q and A's are going to be fascinating about what the folks want to know from us and they can direct a question to any of the three. So I'm looking forward to it. I just think it's going to be a 2 hour, 15 minute show that you remember the rest of your life. And the most important thing about the show is it's authentic. I would not do a show with phonies.
- [28:54]
Stephen A. Smith
Neither would I.
- [28:55]
Bill O'Reilly
So Cuomo and Stephen A. They're not phonies. Me, it's almost horrifying. I'm the way I am. So I think that the audience is going to get a bang for their buck and remember what they see.
- [29:11]
Stephen A. Smith
I would like to state this for the record. I'm pretty impressed. It looks, the suit that you have on now looks pretty sharp. But you know you're gonna have to do better Sunday, right? You're gonna have to up your game and elevate your, elevate your style to some degree. You do understand that, Bill O'Reilly, right? You do get that?
- [29:27]
Bill O'Reilly
I was down in Palm Beach.
- [29:28]
Stephen A. Smith
It's gonna be tight.
- [29:30]
Bill O'Reilly
I, I was down in Palm beach this weekend. I bought a Brioni tie for the occasion. I had a trade in my car to buy it. But where do you see this tie? Okay. No matter what kind of pink jacket you show up with, what, what kind of little pocket hanky you have, it's not going to top this Brioni tie.
- [29:57]
Stephen A. Smith
All right, man. I'll see you Sunday, buddy. It's good talking to you, man. Take it easy, Bill. Take it. We'll talk soon.
- [30:03]
Bill O'Reilly
Thanks for having me. Stephen a.
- [30:05]
Stephen A. Smith
All right.
- [30:12]
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- [30:49]
Bill O'Reilly
Okay, so we all need to get.
- [30:51]
Stephen A. Smith
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- [31:04]
Bill O'Reilly
Appointed seats melt away your stress.
- [31:07]
Stephen A. Smith
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