Let's get started right out the gate, y'all, with my first guest. He's a political commentator, doesn't call himself conservatives. 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 six pm 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?
I'm the same, which is tragic for everyone, but consistency there is something to be said for it.
How would you describe yourself?
Let me just start out there right when you say I'm the same, much of the chagrine of everyone.
What would you describe yourself as being? Bill O'Reilly?
Independent, thinker, bloviator, provocateur at times, okay, judgmental and very Irish American.
You do know that when you say you're an independent, a lot of people say, you know what, Steven, and when you're gonna ask that man win 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 that 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
grow skepticism this man's way. But could you see yourself voting for a Democrat? Have your voted for a Democrat in recent memory?
Bill o Roddy, I voted if it's Swazi in November. Okay, Congressman the third district. He's a Democrat, and know him well. I think he's an honest man. I voted for him because the Republican didn't really advance anything. In my eyes, that overrode what I know about Swashing. Look, the people 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.
But let me interject.
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 after how many years? How many days we know you little.
Bit as fifty how they don't know you, Bill, 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 on Fox record number sixteen 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 sixty percent traditional, twenty percent non aligned in twenty percent liberal that would watch us on a daily basis. Now it's ninety five 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 John 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 apparent's on David Letterman. I got a standing oh 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 ideo loge.
Who dislikes you more the left, or the extreme left or the extreme right.
No, the left for sure, okay, because I have very little tolerance for the woke people. The extreme right is much narrow, It's a much more narrow crew than the left. The left has really made in roads 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 idea log 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 maga, and so he plays to that audience.
You know, when we think about you know this Sunday, Westbury, New York, three pm Eastern Standard time, You'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'Riley, 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.
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 gonna say, and you say I with passion, and so that unpredictability about Steven A. Smith attracts an audience. Same thing with me, Cuomo A little bit more, Doctor Naire left, although he's changed a little bit. When you say the one and only Chris Cuomo, I almost applauded.
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. 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 choet, 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.
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 Yolta conference at 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 have people that had an attitude, and I said.
WHOA, I like Bill o'reiley. I know that might shock you, but I like him.
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 fifty 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 I don't want tribalism in this country. Tribalism is a weakness, not a strength. I don't like the tribes. So about ten years ago, I went to a concert the Eisley Brothers and Frankie Mays and time all black audience at Jones Beach. Okay, yep, I walk in. I'm the only white guy in a place except for the security cards. So my date goes, she's looking at me. She goes, are you sure this is a good idea? I said, this is gonna be great. So I was sitting right down front, and so I
walked 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 yeah, you're gonna 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, I don't agree with my point of view about life. But it was good nature 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 gonna try to market this into something bigger. I don't know whether I'll be able to succeed.
Oh you probably. You'll probably succeed because you got me. You got me. We ain't losing Bill. We ain't try to lose it. It's just the way that it is.
Let me get to some issues that that that I have to I have to approach with you right now. I want to get right into the headlines around the Donald Trump in this new administration featuring Elon Musk. Last week, Steve Bannon was on Cuomo on News Nation and said that Trump will run again at twenty twenty eight 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 Conley to
that Bill, O'Reilly. I want you to explain yourself as to why you wrote it off, man.
Because in the constitution it says you can't do it. What is that I'm gonna do? Have a vote to two thirds of the state to overturn the constitutional amendment. Look at the map. You're not gonna get two thirds 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 or 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. Betten knows is no way that Donald Trump's gonna run for a third term. Trump knows it, everybody knows. But they just throw the hander inad out hoping that some nit wit on CNN will get upset and rant and rave. This is a hobby for them. They enjoy this, okay, But what does it do like that? It's just today.
If example, if somebody or CNN or MSNBC goes off, what and they provoke somebody to do that, what is the what is the fallout from it? In the eyes of a Trump abandon et cetera.
There isn't any those people are 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 prime administration does. They throw out all of this stuff. About twenty percent of it is real and the other
eighty percent is what they call hyperbole. And so Trump will go, oh, Joe Biden is the worst president of all time, and everybody go, yeay, well he's not. He's the second worst, right, not that he is worse than James Buchanan, But he doesn't care. He's going for the headline.
I don't think he's just going for the headlines.
I think it's it's the ol bait and switch, coax them or provoke them in the singing and doing something stupid that resembles, 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 comment's about featuring Elon Musk, the world's richest man.
As a chief advisor. Musk has been given up.
Presidented access and all the private citizen has ever received.
Why should we, as the American people be okay with this 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, Saint Patrick's Day, I was in a cabinet meeting in the White House. I was invited there by the President, who occasionally asked for my presence because he knows that a lot of people will only tell him what he wants to hear, and I, knowing him thirty five 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 about that. I had a twenty 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 a TV business fifty 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 must 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.
I'm looking at Trump right now with Musk, and I'm seeing suggestions about oddly cutting waste, fraud, etc. And I remember a friend of mine sent me a video because he's a Republican, and he was saying, Stephen A Before you want to sit up there and excoriate Trump and Musking what they're doing. He sent me videos of Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer back in twenty and twelve. I remember correct that. I think it's twenty ten, And then it was again in twenty twelve, literally using the same
words fraud, waste, et cetera. We're going to have to cut medicare. This is what they were saying at the time. So 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? In 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 thirty five years, how would you label the job that he has done us far? Critique the job that he has done us far? The positives and the negatives?
Well, I have to break it out, just do one uniform. So on the border A plus all right, knocked out the open border in record time, ninety four percent 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 Homan. I have a pretty good idea on what the strategy is going forward, and I'm 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. The 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 of balanced. 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 cease fire, 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. Knows that. How you shut down all the banking to Moscow, Wow to me bank that does business with Russia, and that'll that'll be it for Putin.
All the Oligarusic will turn on them, military will turn on him. 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.
Getting back to Elon Musk some of the waste, fraud, et cetera. Department of Education, what Trump's want in terms of it's 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 lost the working class, and Donald Trump won an election because the working class have 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 cost.
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 gonna 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 thirty six trillion dollar 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 is wobbly now? If the United State SUTs a default on its debt, can't pay its interest on a saving response, you're looking at a depression situation here. So you've got to downsize it and win any downsize and good people are gonna use lose their jobs. But the good news is there plenty of jobs in a private sector, plenty
of jobs. You can make a good living in this country if you're honest in and work hard and have skills. It's not like you're going into the desert. You're not. It's opportunities Bill at this point.
At this point, you gotta be your life.
You got to be fair as you can about it 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 thirty six trillion dollar debt, when we think about the state and 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 thirty six trillion, thirty six thirty seven trillion dollar debt, I'm saying, wait a minute. Reagan was in office, HW 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 day into up to the proceedings per se. But you had both parties up
in there. When you think about our thirty seven trillion dollar debt, who's most culpable for that 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 at the money. Capitalistic nation. This isn't Sweden. Okay, we don't do cradle the grave entitlements here. The Democratic Party wants that kind of a system. That's why Bernie Sanders and a constant cortezro on the tour now to
convince Americans to do socialism that will 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 had no interest in cutting anything, none, because it's too hard. Then they ah, yeah, we'll get it any it. Ah, we'll give it to him. We'll do this, we'll do that. We got much money the Pentagon waste. I mean, it's ridiculous.
How much money they waste. They don't discipline their buys, they don't supervise their bills. They waste money because it's an endless figot. It's not like you're running a household budget. All right, Oh yeah, we need more money. Come out and they'll give us more money. It's called pork po RK. And the main job of the congress people in SATU is bring the poor homb to the state. And that's got to be revised. We get out of money bill.
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.
But he's doing it. That's why, bread my skin. He's doing it. He's going We're gonna pype 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. I paid so much money in these pharmaceutical companies to get these vaccines that he 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 improvements 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 ninety percent of American politicians in both parties don't want to supervise spending. It's the last thing on their minds. Steven A. It's boring, it's numbers on a sheet. They don't want to do it.
Last two questions before I'll let you get on out of here and thank you for your time. Number one, do you give and Bernie Sanders any snowballs 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.
O Sanders is eighty three, so he's not going to do anything. Cassio 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 Ocassio Cortez supports that Sanders does. So I don't think Americans want that kind of oppressive government. Maybe twenty twenty five percent do. And that's the crew that these
people play for. But here's the rub. The corporate media loves those people, even though they're the biggest greed heads in the world. The corporate media. You can't get more greedy than them. It's all about money. I mean, else cut your throat. They'll cut my throat for money, the corporate media. But they like Sanders into Acrossio Court does. 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 season your private property. I don't think they're gonna get anywhere on that.
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?
Well, it give me a lot of laughs. Number one, it's gonna be very funny. And then the Q and A with the audience I think is going to be the most fascinating part. We're going to have the second half of the show the audience at Westbury Music Fair and again, you go to Bill O'Reilly dot com, you go to Stephnasmith dot com. We'll link you right over
to the box office. So you go to Ticketmaster, a call a theater VIP sold out fast, so we put fifteen more out and then we're putting extra sections in two 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 two hour, fifteen 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 Phony's so Cuomo and Steven Ada are not Phony's me. It's almost horrifying on the way I am so. I think that the audience is going to get bang for their buck and remember what they see.
I would like to state this for the record. I'm pretty oppressed. 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 you elevate your style to something.
You do understand that, Bill Rally right, You do get that it's gonna be tight.
I was down on Palm Beach this weekend. I bought a Brioni tie for the occasion. I had a trade in my car to buy it. But okay, no matter what kind of pink jacket you show up with, what kind of little pocket hanky you have, it's not gonna top this Brioni tie.
All right, man, I'll see you Sunday, buddy. It looks it's good talking to you.
Man.
Take it these Bill, we'll talk.
So thanks having me, Steve it ay all right. Three