Bill O'Reilly | 09-12-24

when your destination is Discovery there are no wrong turns that's why at its very core the new 2025 Lincoln Aviator SUV provides momentum Beyond mere transportation and this thoughtfully crafted and confidence inspiring SUV your destination is not about where you can go but who you can be Explore More at lincoln.com Lincoln and Aviator trademarks afford or its Affiliates our next guest here on the Rita Cosby Show is a mega bestselling author he has authored an incredible 18 number one ranked non-fiction books including of course the historical Killing series uh which is the bestselling non-fiction series of all time with 19 million books in print he also hosts the awesome common sense with Bill O'Reilly every night 9:00 to 10 p.m. on WABC radio and he has another big Blockbuster book that just came out appropriately on his birthday which I love and the book is called confronting the presidents no spin assessments from Washington to Biden and the great Bill O'Reilly joins us now here on the show uh bill I can't think of a more timely and important time um and before we get to your book just real quickly your assessment of the fact that now Trump is saying no I'm not going to do it um and you know look uh tulsey gabard came out tonight I don't know if you heard and she said why should he do it unless it was a fair location uh otherwise it's like a round two of just getting punched in the face your thoughts I think Trump will do another debate um it depends on how the poll will shake in the next week or two uh this reminds me of 1984 when Ronald Reagan got waxed in the first debate by Walter and the whole Republican establishment was melting down Reagan did a second debate and he uh obliterated Mandel and one in the land slot I don't see what the downside is for Donald Trump to do another debate he'd have to be better than the first one right right I mean as long as he stays away from dogs and cats I I mean you know concentrates on uh as we talked about earlier on Cass and Cosby um the serious issues of the day and and a very fact-based way he could easily beat her in a debate because because she doesn't have anything it's got no solutions to any problems I mean a woman is just blathering out there and you know people who say well K haris won the debate what does that mean and she didn't answer any questions um maybe she helped herself more than Trump did that's probably true because Donald Trump allowed himself to be baited and put on the defensive for the entire 90 minutes and he didn't have to do that um so anyway if I were Trump I would certainly debat her anytime any place um because Trump's got the stronger record yeah no doubt about it um and before I want to get into some of the aspects of your book you have such a great perspective what I love about you Bill and I've had the honor of knowing you for so many years when we work together at Fox News and you are also really a historian um you love the history you love the details you always uncover these details um and one of the things just to equate it to modern times now also with comma since we're talking about her uh you equate her to Warren Harding can you explain for our audience here why uh because you did a lot of work and you investigated Warren Harding yeah this is so bizarre it really is so bizarre so one of the worst Presidents we've ever had is a republican named Warren Harding who won the election in 1920 the man did not campaign he never answered any questions nobody knew who the deucey was he's from Marian Ohio if you wanted to go ask him something you had to go up to his front porch where he was in a rocking chair so the guy um basically said hey I don't even want to be president and KLA Harris does of course um and you know but I know that woodro Wilson and the Democrats are looked upon so poorly that all I'm going to do is stay in my house and I'll win and it's exactly what happened so the Harris campaign is doing close to that they're not putting her out anywhere you can't ask her any questions in a debate forum and in the CNN the one interview she did with Dana Bash when you ask her a question she Dodges it since don't answer it and the interviewers and the moderators go okay that's fine if it were me reading you know what would happen I ask you a question you dodge I say to the audience y you kind of Dodge that you want to try again that kind of thing so uh I don't believe that uh KLA Harris or any of her campaigners even know who Warren Harding is but here's the kicker of the story Warren Harding was an abysmal president horrible and he all he did in the White House was play cards to three in the morning with his corrupt friends get drunk and Chase his mistress around that's that was pretty much his day so if you vote for somebody and you don't know anything about him or her watch out you know um in your book uh because obviously it takes a while and and everybody you know when you do book obviously there's a lot of pre-production you take us from George Washington to Biden how do you what did you learn about President Biden and how do you think history is going to view him Bill O'Reilly well what we did with Biden was because we were writing the book during his third year and nobody knew that he was going to drop out I don't know if he did either by the way no absolutely he didn't know I mean he didn't want to leave he and Jill were hanging on to the furniture right know they had to but I had I wrote an essay on Biden and Martin Dugard my co-author I I thought the fair way to do it is I'll write my essay because I think Joe Biden's the second worst president in history okay and I'll back that up in my essay and then Dugard and I said I don't even want to see your essay would you you would just throw it in you write what you think about Biden and he was much kinder to Biden Marty lives in California he's a mdle more left than I am but I thought that was a fair way to do it and we did the same thing with Trump I wrote my essay on Trump he wrote his essay on Trump and because the historic uh spectrum of both men is not complete so I thought that was a fair way to do it it's provocative I mean me calling Joe Biden second worst president in history I think I can back that up all day long but that's the way we decided to do it to be fair well he might take that as a compliment because some people might call him the worst president in history so he might wrong right exactly now that we've heard Jam right yeah James James Buchanan the president before Lincoln was a coward and allowed the South to arm itself to abuse Federal officials he wouldn't even reinforce Federal garrisons at Fort Sumpter this Buchanan was Far and Away the most irresponsible president and it was all due to cadice he was afraid he didn't want to free the slaves and when Abe Lincoln walked into that White House the Civil War was a fat complete nobody could stop it and it was because of BU Cannon's incompetence you can't top that Rita more than a million Americans were killed in that conflict it it changed everybody's course so I think I'm a pretty accurate reporter historian and that's why the book sold 75,000 copies in two days and thank you all I I can't thank everybody enough but it's phenomenal success already well I'm not surprised because you always have such great stuff and such I I think I always learn so much from your books you know what did you think of when kamla Harris in the debate the other day said oh January 6 uh you know is the worst uh action against a threat to democracy since the Civil War you know look they can say anything they want so Trump says KLA Harris is dumb as IR Rock she's not dumb as IR Rock okay uh KLA haris says Trump is the greatest threat to blah blah BL blah blah blo okay it's it's all hyperbola nonsense propaganda I don't react to any of that I'm like numb to it at this point you know it's when they start with that stuff I just uh pet my dog you know I just tune out this is nonsense tell me something that you're going to do that makes sense to improve the lives of the American people that's what I want to hear Rita now in four years Trump did a pretty good job helping the American people all right real wages up 7% come on um you know Co interrupted that but 7% real wages up to working people that's pretty damn good yeah that is in seven years seven and a half years Kama has not done one thing four years as a senator three and a half as vice president not one to improve the lives of the American people so if you're a fair person at all and you're comparing the two records what conclusion do you come to when your destination is Discovery there are no wrong turns that's why at its very core the new 2025 Lincoln Aviator SUV provides momentum Beyond mere transportation in this thoughtfully crafted and confidence inspiring SUV your destination is not about where you can go but who you can be Explore More at lincoln.com Lincoln and Aviator trademarks afford her its Affiliates ABC Wednesday it's the premiere everyone is talking about I'm Joan and and I'm your first golden Bachelorette loves getting a second second chance when you're 61 years old you have very few opportunities to change your life I have to be ready the golden Bachelorette is proving romance never ages I represent millions of people in their Golden Years looking for love the golden Bachelorette I am ready to find the next great love of my life series premiere Wednesday on ABC and stream on Hulu ready to ring in the new semester pink gotot A+ styles for heading back to campus made for early morning classes midday coffee runs and late night study sessions their latest looks are everything you need to pass with flying colors we're talking tanks that go with literally every fit parachute pants with a throwback 9s Vibe plus cute sweaters active wear and so much more shop now at pink.com or get 15% off in pink stores with a valid student ID exclusions apply well and that's where that message needed to be hammered home I agree uh you know because I do agree it's very crystal clear you know if you look at History Bill and in your great new book confronting the presidents which president do you think did the most I mean you look at obviously we think of you know I know you talked about George Washington Abraham Lincoln I mean there's some so many extraordinary like heroic figures was there were there ones that you said boy they did the most to this country if you could pick sort of the the top three and why s right Lincoln Far and Away the best President Washington number two number three you probably have to give to Franklin Roosevelt although he made a lot of mistakes and he was a dubious character um there's no doubt about it but Roosevelt had a tackle the Great Depression and World War II outside of Lincoln no president ever got handed that kind of a bad hand and roosevel was elected four times and he did a pretty good job of negotiating America through those horrible occurrences so I'd have to go Lincoln one Washington 2 FDR three Teddy Roosevelt four and then it gets to be murky Ronald Reagan was a good president uh he brought back the country's power he brought back confidence in the federal government he did a lot of good things re um he might be in that five six seven range and then we got guys like James K poke nobody ever heard of him everybody thinks he's a rapper you know I tell you about him but he was a very good president how was he Andrew Jackson you know Andrew Jackson was a guy who's kind of crazy but he he did some really good things for the folks so when you read I don't rank him by the way I want the reader to rank the the presidents I tell you what what good they did what bad they did and then you make up your mind about whether they helped to hurt the country now you brought up Andrew Jackson and a character um you always get these interesting nuggets which is why I feel like you you bring these people to life for us um what were some of the most surprising things from him and some of the others some of the quirky things that you learned that maybe most of us don't know well Andrew Jackson was a brawler so he you know he didn't like what you said he punched you and and if you said something about his wife he shoot you he was he was you know really a cantankerous tough um Backwoods guy and his bio is just fascinating um John Quinn's the Adams every morning Rita got up went on a walk to the bomic river about a mile and a half from the White House took off his clothes and jumped in he swam naked in the pomac every morning and people going is isn't that the president there naked luckily they didn't have iPhones then Bill well one time the current got so strong that it came up on the shore and wiped waves clothes he had to he had to walk home he had no clothes on oh my Gody Adam that's a great story I mean we every one of them I have great stories about and and you know people think we mythologize presidents no no no they're normal now I no let me take that word back they're not normal they are just human beings even guys like Washington who you know the father of our country all that George Washington's mother hated him wrote letters saying to the Virginia newspapers my son Georgie is starving me to death and Washington got was Furious he was crazy he didn't even go to his mother's funeral wow I didn't know that that's amazing this person who's like you know a a I mean he's he's one of the great obviously figures in American history and yet his mother didn't appreciate him not at all and it was a backstory to it and I say and I tell you story of all of these people in confronting the presidents but no one knows this stuff which is why um I'm the bestselling non-fiction author in the world because we up with stuff that you don't know and we make it fun to read the book so you're learning and having fun whenever you can do that you're GNA be successful absolutely that is a home run um and Before I Let You Go Bill O'Reilly by the way I'm looking at the book right now I just started it and I can't wait to finish it I'm so excited bill because I you know I love history and I love you um what about Trump who would you equate him to of all the different is there is there anybody that you could uh pair him with or or see traits of his Trump's favorite President is Andrew Jackson but believe me when I tell you there's no comparison between Andy and Donnie Trump was most like Teddy Roosevelt Larger than Life Charisma all over the place no censorship in what he's saying Teddy was um a unbelievably fascinating man and I think Trump is a fascinating guy whether you like him or not I've known him 35 years yeah I agree you know I love Trump I agree I don't love him I mean I know his downside I I I I'm a friend of his so I don't you know if he needs anything from me I certainly will give it to him but Teddy Roosevelt and Donald Trump had a lot of similarities the way they presented themselves to the folks which is why the mag people they'll they'll walk through fire for Trump and Teddy had the bulm people would do the same thing for him so that's the comparison wow well bill I love you I am so excited I know this is going to be with 75,000 copies sold uh this is another huge mega mega best seller there is no doubt about it I think you're going to be a making a 19 now on your list by the way do you have another book in the works already yeah we have to write two more before uh they put me in a cemetery so do you have do you know what the topic is or no can you no I can't say because then somebody will rip it off all right we won't we won't but it's another it's another confronting book and it'll be out next September well you are amazing I this book is awesome I I feel like we have all learned so much confronting by the presidents everybody confronting the presidents no spin assessments from Washington to Biden uh and you learned so much about Modern Times And obviously great history and a lot of things you never knew before from the great bill rilly you can get it at biller ry.com and wherever you get books uh because it is everywhere as it should be Bill congrats I love having you on you got to come back on again soon it was so great to have you here appreciate it Rita very much thank you thank you always a pleasure my friend great great stuff thanks so much