"I Was Wrong!" Bill O'Reilly Makes SURPRISE Election Announcement

[0:01] Welcome back to Politics by Faith. This episode today is called Midterms by Faith. Just a few [0:09] days to go. No one better to talk to right now than Bill O'Reilly, host of the No Spin News, [0:15] author of the newest book. He's the number one all-time bestselling nonfiction author. [0:20] Pretty incredible claim to fame there. His newest book, Confronting America, What Has to Change? [0:25] Mr. O'Reilly, my first question for you, sir, is what would you say is different about this midterm [0:30] than others in history that you've seen? The ideological factor, Mike, thanks for having me [0:36] on. It took me by surprise. I didn't think that the Bernie Sanders crew, AOC, Elizabeth Warren, [0:45] were going to be a force in this midterm or even in the presidential election in 2028. I didn't [0:54] believe that they were powerful enough, but I was wrong. And now they dominate the Democratic Party. [1:03] The socialists are hell-bent in changing our system. It's, to me, very deleterious to watch it [1:13] flow down to people who have no blanket idea what a massive government apparatus would lead to. [1:24] And the first thing is the decline of personal freedom. And the second thing is if you have assets, [1:30] they want them. And so that is in play. It's there. And we see the socialist candidates competing. [1:41] I didn't, never thought that was going to happen this time around. [1:45] Is that different than, say, like the 1998 midterms? Was that more about tax rates as opposed [1:53] to what we're seeing today? [1:54] Well, the only comparison you can make in modern times is the Vietnam era, where the far left, [2:04] the Jane Fonda crew, thought they had it. They thought Americans were going to come over [2:10] and support this vision of a strong central government that just tells everybody how to live, [2:17] what they can and can't have. And that fell apart. Disco actually killed the Vietnam War movement [2:25] after the war was over. That's a pretty funny historical footnote there. Disco killed the Vietnam [2:34] protest movement. But now we're dealing with a media that's essentially telling people you're getting [2:45] hosed, okay, that it's rigged, particularly minority people, and you don't have a chance. And [2:52] America is a bad country. And we have to change everything. And traditional American beliefs, [2:58] the MAGA people, they refer to them as, are destructive and bad people. And that's caught on. [3:05] I think partially because Donald Trump is a polarizing president. And a lot of people say, [3:10] well, if Trump likes it, I hate it. There's a big element of that. Because the Democratic Party, [3:16] if you look at their platform, affordability, what affordability? What are you going to do [3:23] to make life better economically for working Americans, Democratic Party? They have no answer. [3:29] They have no answer. And if you look at the history of the Democratic Party in modern times, [3:34] they tax every time they get power. Five biggest tax states are New York, California, [3:41] New Jersey, Hawaii, and Connecticut, all run top to bottom by Democrats. And so affordability, [3:53] having less take-home pay, is not affordability. Hello? But somehow millions of American voters are not [4:04] putting it together. Javier Becerra running for governor of California just the other day. He came [4:10] out and said he's for another per mile gas tax or per mile tax on top of the gas tax. [4:17] Sure. And they have the highest gas prices in the country, California. Because they don't want [4:23] people driving cars that are fueled by fossil fuels. They want to have some windmill attached to [4:32] your car or something. I'm not quite sure what, but if you really step back and you really study [4:40] what the actual plan is among the Democrats, there is no plan. And the problem is that the Republicans [4:51] are so dependent on Donald Trump, he runs everything, that they haven't really broken out and say, [5:00] hey, here's how we're going to make it better for you financially. So we still have sky-high [5:06] insurance premiums, health premiums that are through the roof. And the Republicans, they kind of just [5:13] flounder around on it, and it becomes a vote for or against Trump. And that's where we are. [5:24] Why do you think some people, especially in midterms, don't vote? Who is that person? [5:30] Don't vote? [5:32] Don't vote at all. [5:32] Is that what? Because they're lazy. I mean, that's why. They're apathetic. They don't want to pay [5:39] attention. All they want to do is live on this phone. Bubble people. I have a chapter in [5:45] Confronting America about the bubble people. They create their own little bubble, okay? And that's [5:52] where they stay. Oh, I don't watch that O'Reilly. I don't watch that Slater. Oh, it's too complicated. [5:59] Oh, no. Give me that phone. You know, what's the sports? What's the sports betting number? I want to bet [6:06] on the Packers. You know? And the real radicals love that. They don't want an educated population. [6:16] They don't want people to know what really happens to countries that embrace socialism. [6:22] Because I've been to 90 countries. I know what happens there. [6:28] You've been to how many countries? [6:30] Nine zero. [6:32] There are only like a few more than that. [6:35] Not about 220 countries. But a lot of those countries are little places that you literally [6:45] can't get to. [6:49] I have more political questions, but I'll take this segue. Your book, when you talk about [6:55] going to China, I know we talked about it on the radio, but if you don't mind telling [6:58] people a little bit about it here on the TV too, and the podcast, your trip to China, just [7:03] incredible. And I keep thinking about your son being there too, and watching that. [7:08] And how incredible that had to be for him as well. [7:12] Yeah, it came out of nowhere. The Biden administration wanted to get hostages released. [7:23] And Hamas was willing to release a few of them. But Netanyahu wouldn't cooperate unless [7:31] Trump signed off. And this was about three weeks after Trump was elected for the second [7:36] time. [7:37] So I got a call from the Biden administration and said, can you talk to the president about [7:46] this situation? And I said, okay. And it worked out. And then since that success was on the [7:56] record, I got invited to Beijing. And I took my son, who's a political science guy, with [8:03] me. And the Politburo spent two hours grilling me on President Trump and what he would do [8:12] if they did this. So if we do this, what's Trump going to do? And I can answer those questions. I [8:18] know the president pretty well. But I did not go on my own in the sense that I had to check [8:23] it with the president. I had to tell him I was going. I paid every penny. I didn't take any money [8:29] for anything. But I think it's unique in the sense that a journalist was thrust into this [8:38] political world at the highest level. And I learned an enormous amount from that trip. [8:46] Amazing. Surely you've had to have looked back and say, there had to be some surreal moments [8:52] in your life. That had to be one of them, right? [8:54] Yeah, that was at the top of the list. I mean, this is serious business. And I have a big [9:02] chapter on it in Confronting America. And I didn't back down from these people, from these [9:09] Chinese. There were 12 men, one woman, you know, in the room with me at the Beijing Club [9:17] asking me questions. And I think the woman's the most powerful person in the room. And she [9:22] was watching it on videotape. And it doesn't get any bigger than that. And I said, they said at one [9:31] point, well, what is it going to take that Donald Trump over here to China? And I said, well, you [9:36] got to give him something. So the director of security, which is the, you know, meanest guy in [9:44] the world. So, well, what do you mean? We got to give him something. I got I said, well, for example, [9:48] you got to get out of fentanyl business. And he goes, well, we're not in that business. We just make [9:54] the precursors. And so I lean forward all six, four foot four of me. And he was about five, [10:00] three. And I go, you really need to be in that business. Oh, boy. My son's like sweating. Are [10:09] we going to a gulag? Where are we going after this? But that was, you know, how this actually [10:17] happened. But I've been around a while, Mike, you know that. And I know the world. I think the [10:23] president trusts my judgment. And then I told the Chinese, look, when I go back, I have to debrief [10:28] the president about what this conversation was. I can't just show up here and not go through proper [10:36] channels. I'm an American. I mean, that's it. And it all worked out great. Fentanyl deaths are down [10:45] 56 percent from their high. That's pretty good. I don't know if China had much to do that or if you [10:52] had much to do with that. But even if a little bit, that's pretty good. Mr. O'Reilly, what do you [10:58] think of the argument that cynical people will make who don't vote, who say, ah, they're all the [11:05] same anyway? They're all a bunch of crooks. Nothing changes no matter which party's in charge. [11:10] What do you make to that argument? You know, look, it's the lazy man's argument. You have a [11:16] responsibility as a citizen to participate in your country's well-being. I'm not going to argue that [11:24] most of these politicians are craving. They are. I'm not going to argue that. But so what? [11:31] What does that have to do with you? You know, get off your butt, go out to the polling place, [11:36] cast a ballot for whom you think is worthy of that ballot, and then you go back to your phone [11:41] or whatever the hell you're doing. Go back to your bubble? No, we can do better than bubble. [11:46] We want no bubble. Even if you leave your bubble to vote, we don't want any bubble at all. No bubbles. [11:51] There's a lot of bubbles. I think the bubbles are here forever, especially with this AI stuff. [11:57] Bubbles are going to get bigger and bigger. [12:01] Can I throw one thing out your way that I'm worried about? We talked about it in the monologue here. [12:07] A couple weeks ago, I went down five reasons why I think Republicans are in a better position [12:11] than Democrats at the moment. And one of them was money. Republicans have a lot more money than [12:15] Democrats right now. But you brought up AI. With Anthropic going public in a couple weeks here, [12:20] maybe a $2 trillion valuation, there's going to be about 1,000 George Soroses like that overnight [12:26] worth a billion dollars. 0.05% stake in the company gets you a billion dollars overnight. [12:31] And every single one of those people hate the country or hate Republicans. So maybe we have [12:38] Elon at the moment. There's going to be 1,000 Elons on the other side. Have you thought about that? [12:45] Is that a concern for yours? Money moving forward? Unfathomable amounts of money that we've never [12:50] even had to deal with in this country before? That's what capitalism is. Now, the government [12:55] can regulate a lot of this AI stuff if they pass legislation. And they've got to pass legislation [13:02] about the gangsters who are going to infiltrate this world and hack everybody. That's going to [13:09] be horrible. So that's number one. The federal government's got to have oversight into the [13:16] miscreants who are going to use this in an illegal way. But also, if there is money coming into a [13:25] company or an individual, the IRS has got to be standing at the front door. And the government [13:34] needs to regulate what this situation is going to be. But it is capitalism. So if you are in a [13:42] position where your skill set allows you to get into that world early in certain situations, [13:52] government has no right to say you can't. But it does have a right to oversee what happens. [13:59] And I don't know if they're going to wise up or not. I just don't know. [14:03] Bill O'Reilly, author of many books. How many books total? [14:09] Bill? [14:10] We have 20 number one bestsellers. It's a world record. Never be broken. [14:16] I'm very lucky in that regard. They're all good books. Confronting America, what has to change, [14:23] everybody's talking about all over the world. But, you know, we put a lot of work into it, [14:29] as you know, Mike. I mean, I just don't go on here and blow the, you know, our research is top [14:35] notch. So when I say something, you know, I mean it, number one. And number two, I can back [14:41] it up. And that's unique. Yeah, it's unique. Because most of these people on television, [14:48] they don't know anything and they don't care. [14:53] No Spin News, YouTube, First TV, all over the place. Go get Confronting America. It's [14:57] fun. It's insightful and fun and interesting. Confronting America, what has to change, [15:02] the great Bill O'Reilly. Thank you for your time, sir. Thanks for having me.