Bill O'Reilly | How Presidential Legacies Shape America: An In-depth Look at U.S. Leaders

[00:00:08] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm really interested in the history of the presidents of the United States because

[00:00:13] [SPEAKER_01]: These are the guys that have basically not only shaped the country but to some extent have

[00:00:18] [SPEAKER_01]: Shaped the world. I say these are the guys because it's been all men

[00:00:23] [SPEAKER_01]: You know, there's a woman running for president Kamala Harris

[00:00:26] [SPEAKER_01]: In fact, I will have a upcoming prediction podcast about who I think will win

[00:00:32] [SPEAKER_01]: Few weeks ago. I had on David Rubinstein to discuss his book on presidential history

[00:00:36] [SPEAKER_01]: But today we have Bill O'Reilly with his new book

[00:00:41] [SPEAKER_01]: Confronting the President's No Spin Assessments from Washington Biden

[00:00:45] [SPEAKER_01]: I would say Bill O'Reilly is one of the world's experts on presidential history

[00:00:50] [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, he's interviewed a bunch of presidents. He's written, you know, in addition to this book confronting the president's

[00:00:56] [SPEAKER_01]: He's written books like killing Reagan killing Kennedy the United States of Trump

[00:01:01] [SPEAKER_01]: It's written all these books on on me killing Lincoln was his most popular book

[00:01:06] [SPEAKER_01]: He's written all these books about

[00:01:08] [SPEAKER_01]: The president's this book his latest book confronting the president's

[00:01:13] [SPEAKER_01]: Really is an in-your-face like what was good and what was bad about each of these presidents

[00:01:19] [SPEAKER_01]: I learned so much stuff a lot of scandalous stuff actually about well-known

[00:01:24] [SPEAKER_01]: private, you know, like the private lives of these presidents these presidents that we revere and

[00:01:29] [SPEAKER_01]: It's just fascinating also fascinating to talk to bill not only about the book and who is who the most underrated

[00:01:36] [SPEAKER_01]: presidents are and all that kind of stuff, but also what's going on with the current election and

[00:01:41] [SPEAKER_01]: What does he think of the candidates and the economy and inflation?

[00:01:46] [SPEAKER_01]: So here's Bill O'Reilly on

[00:01:49] [SPEAKER_01]: Confronting the president's but also what's going on right now?

[00:01:57] [SPEAKER_00]: This isn't your average business podcast and he's not your average host. This is the James Altucher show

[00:02:14] [SPEAKER_01]: So in all this research and you uncover all these things

[00:02:17] [SPEAKER_01]: I didn't know about any of these presidents

[00:02:19] [SPEAKER_01]: But in all this research who would you say your opinion changed the most about in terms of their quality of their presidency?

[00:02:28] [SPEAKER_02]: Well a guy like

[00:02:29] [SPEAKER_02]: James K Polk nobody knows who he is you go out on the street you go. Hey, how about that James K Polk?

[00:02:34] [SPEAKER_02]: They go. Oh, he's a rapper, right? Yeah. Oh

[00:02:38] [SPEAKER_02]: Nobody knows anything about him

[00:02:39] [SPEAKER_02]: But he was in the top ten of presidents because he was able to expand America from ocean to ocean

[00:02:47] [SPEAKER_02]: And he was present during the Mexican-American War again

[00:02:50] [SPEAKER_02]: I mean people have no idea but the guy had a really solid vision of what America should be in the future

[00:02:58] [SPEAKER_02]: much much

[00:03:00] [SPEAKER_02]: developed more developed than his

[00:03:02] [SPEAKER_01]: Contemporary so he's watching can I ask you about him because sure he was was critically important. He made the largest

[00:03:10] [SPEAKER_01]: He he brought in the most land of any other president like you people

[00:03:15] [SPEAKER_01]: You know Thomas Jefferson with the Louisiana Purchase, but according to your book, he basically got that whole, you know all the kind of

[00:03:23] [SPEAKER_01]: States around Mexico plus the whole Northwest region

[00:03:27] [SPEAKER_01]: Like what

[00:03:28] [SPEAKER_01]: You know and the other thing about him, which I learned in your book

[00:03:31] [SPEAKER_01]: He only he promised to stay only one term and he did I don't know of any other president who was like that

[00:03:39] [SPEAKER_02]: There was

[00:03:41] [SPEAKER_02]: There were a few Rutherford Hayes

[00:03:44] [SPEAKER_02]: Another guy nobody knows anything about but Polk

[00:03:48] [SPEAKER_02]: Got all this territory for the United States. I remember

[00:03:53] [SPEAKER_02]: Great Britain and France and Spain they wanted

[00:03:57] [SPEAKER_02]: The Western part of what is now the United States

[00:04:01] [SPEAKER_02]: So this wasn't like a layup and Polk got it essentially free

[00:04:06] [SPEAKER_02]: because we kicked the butt of the Mexican government, which was corrupt and didn't know what they were doing and

[00:04:12] [SPEAKER_02]: when we defeated them and they had to sign the Treaty of Hidalgo we got all that land and

[00:04:18] [SPEAKER_02]: If we if they didn't sign a treaty the United States would have Mexico, Mexico would be part of our country now

[00:04:24] [SPEAKER_02]: So they had to sign it. So Polk and the reason Polk was a one-termer was that he knew he was gonna die

[00:04:31] [SPEAKER_02]: And he died just a few months after he left office

[00:04:35] [SPEAKER_02]: He got one tour of the USA and then he was down because this guy had horrendous horrendous health problems

[00:04:41] [SPEAKER_02]: But there were a few presidents, the Rutherford Hayes I

[00:04:46] [SPEAKER_02]: Mentioned who

[00:04:48] [SPEAKER_02]: Didn't really want they didn't revere the power. Okay, it's not like today these politicians all of them across the board

[00:04:55] [SPEAKER_02]: They love the power James. They're in it for power

[00:05:00] [SPEAKER_02]: many of our presidents in the past weren't that way and

[00:05:05] [SPEAKER_02]: You know when you're not in it for the power, it's much easier to walk away

[00:05:11] [SPEAKER_01]: you know, it seems like a

[00:05:13] [SPEAKER_01]: Bygone tradition to not be in it for the power. Like you look at like Calvin Coolidge or

[00:05:20] [SPEAKER_01]: Or Polk or some of these earlier presidents?

[00:05:23] [SPEAKER_01]: They seem to have they seem to have a real agenda about what they wanted to accomplish. They accomplished it they left and

[00:05:31] [SPEAKER_01]: You know Calvin Coolidge is another under

[00:05:34] [SPEAKER_01]: Valued president I think in history. What do you think has changed?

[00:05:38] [SPEAKER_01]: What what when someone's like, you know a billion years old why do they cling to power

[00:05:44] [SPEAKER_01]: Because fun

[00:05:46] [SPEAKER_02]: FUN fun, it's fun right around an Air Force One of every whim everything taken care of

[00:05:55] [SPEAKER_02]: You know everybody kissing your butt

[00:05:58] [SPEAKER_02]: It's fun. They like it and what's the alternative? You know?

[00:06:03] [SPEAKER_02]: So that's why they cling to power it's not looking out for the folks

[00:06:08] [SPEAKER_02]: I'll tell you that these most of these politicians today not only in the presidency

[00:06:12] [SPEAKER_02]: But in the Congress and in state legislatures, they're looking out for themselves. Not the folks

[00:06:19] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and so so what I mean again, what other presidents do you think?

[00:06:26] [SPEAKER_01]: Actually came into office and did good because it's hard to recount the accomplishments of any recent president

[00:06:32] [SPEAKER_01]: Maybe because history is too close

[00:06:35] [SPEAKER_02]: well, let's start with

[00:06:39] [SPEAKER_02]: JFK

[00:06:40] [SPEAKER_02]: So that's 1960

[00:06:44] [SPEAKER_02]: And JFK had a vision. It wasn't a particularly courageous man

[00:06:48] [SPEAKER_02]: His brother Bobby Kennedy is much more courageous took on the mafia and was willing to do things that JFK was not

[00:06:54] [SPEAKER_02]: But JFK had a vision he wanted to get out of Vietnam before it blew up in our face which it did

[00:07:02] [SPEAKER_02]: And I think that he wanted

[00:07:05] [SPEAKER_02]: The plight of African Americans to be better. So I would give him a plus category in that LBJ was unbelievably corrupt

[00:07:14] [SPEAKER_02]: Incredibly corrupt and while he did have some sympathies for downtrodden people what he did was just

[00:07:21] [SPEAKER_02]: Massively incompetent. So he's a ridiculous guy Nixon

[00:07:27] [SPEAKER_02]: Obviously broke the law but Nixon's vision particularly overseas was good and he got a lot of things done

[00:07:33] [SPEAKER_02]: Which is why one in second term in a landslide

[00:07:37] [SPEAKER_02]: Because the American people knew that he was a pretty smart guy, but then of course he went off to rails

[00:07:43] [SPEAKER_02]: Then Ford well very well intentioned. All right, not a

[00:07:49] [SPEAKER_02]: brilliant man

[00:07:50] [SPEAKER_02]: But I think Ford essentially wanted to do good things

[00:07:55] [SPEAKER_02]: Carter comes in after Ford beats him in

[00:08:00] [SPEAKER_02]: 1976 and Carter was very well intentioned

[00:08:04] [SPEAKER_02]: You know, he really wanted to help people but he was so in over his head. He just couldn't do the job

[00:08:10] [SPEAKER_02]: I mean get it

[00:08:10] [SPEAKER_02]: You got a guy from Georgia at that point not a sophisticated state and you're popping him into the most powerful

[00:08:16] [SPEAKER_02]: Position in the world and he was clueless

[00:08:19] [SPEAKER_02]: His clueless economically his clueless foreign policy nobody respected him overseas

[00:08:24] [SPEAKER_02]: Disaster Reagan came in and Reagan was the opposite of Carter a very tunnel vision guy

[00:08:30] [SPEAKER_02]: This is the way country should be run and Reagan's presidency was successful

[00:08:35] [SPEAKER_02]: Even though it was in and it was out. He almost died because the assassin almost killed him. Okay, very successful

[00:08:42] [SPEAKER_02]: George Bush the elder

[00:08:45] [SPEAKER_02]: He's a he was a machine guy, all right a Republican machine guy I liked him

[00:08:51] [SPEAKER_02]: I thought he was uh, I don't know

[00:08:55] [SPEAKER_02]: Decent man. I guess that's the word you want to use but he wasn't a crusader or anything like that

[00:09:01] [SPEAKER_02]: Clinton came in Clinton was a technician and

[00:09:04] [SPEAKER_02]: Clinton did some good for the country and then he fouled it all up with the Lewinsky stuff, but Clinton was smart

[00:09:11] [SPEAKER_02]: Then after Clinton you got into the modern

[00:09:16] [SPEAKER_02]: Era here Bush the younger 9-11 blows up his entire presidency and leads to catastrophe in Iraq

[00:09:24] [SPEAKER_02]: But Bush the younger again like his father

[00:09:28] [SPEAKER_02]: Decent man. I mean he wasn't conniving and he wasn't evil in any way at all

[00:09:34] [SPEAKER_02]: But he didn't manage the economy. Well, and he just got buried in the

[00:09:39] [SPEAKER_02]: Jihad and all that that led to Barack Obama now

[00:09:42] [SPEAKER_02]: I reassess my opinion of Barack Obama because I know him pretty well

[00:09:47] [SPEAKER_02]: Interviewed him three times and I work with him on Brothers Keeper, which is a project that is tremendous

[00:09:52] [SPEAKER_02]: Which never really rose to where it should part of that was Obama's fault

[00:09:57] [SPEAKER_02]: Because he didn't embrace what I suggested he would do

[00:10:02] [SPEAKER_02]: To make this mentoring, you know, a brother's keeper is mentoring inner-city

[00:10:07] [SPEAKER_02]: African-american youth tremendous program still exists, but Obama, you know got hammered by conservatives beat McCain beat

[00:10:15] [SPEAKER_02]: Romney and Obamacare was really but if you look at Obamacare now down the road

[00:10:21] [SPEAKER_02]: Obamacare has helped a lot of Americans and there's no doubt about that. All right, it has

[00:10:27] [SPEAKER_02]: So that assessment changes Obama made huge mistake in Iraq pulling all US troops Isis then rose up

[00:10:35] [SPEAKER_02]: Obama recognized the mistake and then went back in and tried to but Trump is the guy who really wiped out Isis and

[00:10:43] [SPEAKER_02]: Obama's eight years led to Trump because Americans are kind of fed up with the whole establishment

[00:10:49] [SPEAKER_02]: They didn't like the end of the Obama era and then Trump comes in Trump himself is a dealmaker

[00:10:57] [SPEAKER_02]: He wants what's best for America, but it's not a personal thing as far as the folks are concerned

[00:11:03] [SPEAKER_02]: He loves his supporters

[00:11:05] [SPEAKER_02]: he loves the MAGA people but Trump is like I'm gonna make the best deals for the country it kind of worked and

[00:11:11] [SPEAKER_02]: He was hit with Kovat and all that and then Biden came in a disaster an absolute disaster

[00:11:16] [SPEAKER_02]: second worst president ever

[00:11:19] [SPEAKER_02]: Because he created the problems the bad presidents like Herbert Hoover, for example

[00:11:25] [SPEAKER_02]: He inherited the terrible economy the Great Depression

[00:11:29] [SPEAKER_02]: Hoover was clueless couldn't get us out of it FDR had to

[00:11:34] [SPEAKER_02]: Hoover couldn't his vision was so limited bad president, but

[00:11:39] [SPEAKER_02]: Biden

[00:11:41] [SPEAKER_02]: Created the open border by himself. No Congress nobody else him and

[00:11:46] [SPEAKER_02]: Then ignited inflation from 1.4 when Trump left to more than 9%

[00:11:51] [SPEAKER_02]: How painful is that?

[00:11:57] [SPEAKER_01]: Take a quick break if you like this episode, I'd really really appreciate it

[00:12:01] [SPEAKER_01]: Please share with your friends and subscribe to the podcast

[00:12:06] [SPEAKER_01]: Email me at Alcatraz email calm and tell me why you subscribed. Thanks

[00:12:10] [SPEAKER_01]: You know, there were there were

[00:12:21] [SPEAKER_01]: multi-trillion dollar bailouts in 2020 I

[00:12:25] [SPEAKER_01]: Almost you you know, you can't say whether there was Congress whether it was president

[00:12:29] [SPEAKER_01]: It was it was the increase in the money supply in 2020 that ultimately led to inflation

[00:12:34] [SPEAKER_01]: Although it did occur under Biden's term the actual inflation

[00:12:39] [SPEAKER_02]: I

[00:12:40] [SPEAKER_02]: Will disagree with your assessment a bit

[00:12:43] [SPEAKER_02]: After Kovac hit you had to the federal government had to go in and

[00:12:49] [SPEAKER_02]: prop up both people and companies

[00:12:52] [SPEAKER_02]: They had to yeah, they did it fairly see they they did it fairly successfully

[00:12:58] [SPEAKER_02]: But then the private economy kicked in pretty fast

[00:13:03] [SPEAKER_02]: under Trump and when Trump left

[00:13:06] [SPEAKER_02]: The employment was going up the production was going up and inflation was 1-4

[00:13:15] [SPEAKER_02]: All Biden had to do is ride that wave

[00:13:17] [SPEAKER_02]: But instead he goes inflation reduction act

[00:13:22] [SPEAKER_02]: Totally absurd not needed and that blew up the printing of the dollar

[00:13:28] [SPEAKER_02]: But the worst thing Biden did you can almost forgive him that mistake was attacking the fossil fuel industry

[00:13:34] [SPEAKER_02]: By slapping on all these regulations that made it much more difficult to harvest oil and other energy from the ground fracking

[00:13:42] [SPEAKER_02]: Okay, and then the en masse core companies that deal in fossil fuels raised all the prices

[00:13:51] [SPEAKER_02]: And then the truckers had a raise all their prices and then the grocery store had a raise all their prices

[00:13:57] [SPEAKER_02]: That was the lighted fuse that the combination of printing all these dollars and the American people have known nothing about that

[00:14:04] [SPEAKER_02]: And Biden signed executive order if the executive or if the executive order under the banner of global warming that

[00:14:11] [SPEAKER_02]: Strangled the American energy industry and of course backtracked

[00:14:16] [SPEAKER_02]: Once the prices got out of control essentials up 20%

[00:14:21] [SPEAKER_02]: Then now Biden's, you know pushing production all but he's still

[00:14:25] [SPEAKER_02]: Not allowing an war drilling or the Keystone pipeline still

[00:14:30] [SPEAKER_02]: Because he wants to placate the global warming progressive left so by was a disaster top to bottom I asked my

[00:14:38] [SPEAKER_02]: Democrat friends

[00:14:40] [SPEAKER_02]: Give me one thing that Joe Biden did that's helped this country one

[00:14:45] [SPEAKER_02]: crickets

[00:14:46] [SPEAKER_02]: You got one James

[00:14:48] [SPEAKER_02]: Let me think

[00:14:50] [SPEAKER_01]: Okay, you gotta think it's not easy

[00:14:54] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean and that that's my point a little in general is that the presidency

[00:15:00] [SPEAKER_01]: Doesn't really have from a constitutional perspective that many responsibilities, right? They can't make laws

[00:15:06] [SPEAKER_01]: They're just like a police force that enforces laws. They could veto laws, but that's rare

[00:15:10] [SPEAKER_01]: So and they can propose laws, but again some laws get passed some don't so it's hard to really pick. That's why

[00:15:18] [SPEAKER_01]: Inflation and economy. I always think it's a mixed bag

[00:15:20] [SPEAKER_01]: It's hard to pinpoint, you know where these things actually start but I see your point on the oil like normally demand side inflation

[00:15:27] [SPEAKER_01]: Oh if the price of apples go up then people switch to peaches

[00:15:31] [SPEAKER_01]: But with oil you have to use oil as part of almost every aspect of our lives so that you can't ignore the demand side

[00:15:39] [SPEAKER_01]: inflation there as opposed to money supply related inflation that happened and that's what and that's what happened and

[00:15:45] [SPEAKER_02]: You might be underestimating the power of the executive branch in

[00:15:50] [SPEAKER_02]: 2024

[00:15:51] [SPEAKER_02]: Because in the last 10 years the executive orders coming out of the White House have been unbelievable

[00:15:57] [SPEAKER_01]: I mean speaking of which like now we have this election. It's very

[00:16:02] [SPEAKER_01]: Polarizing obviously, but you know in your book

[00:16:04] [SPEAKER_01]: there are times even more polarizing particularly like right before the Civil War and in the

[00:16:08] [SPEAKER_01]: presidencies before then and then maybe in the events leading up to

[00:16:11] [SPEAKER_01]: 1968 with with Vietnam and and and everything going on then do you think this is

[00:16:18] [SPEAKER_01]: What what era of our past would you say this type of polarization is similar to?

[00:16:25] [SPEAKER_02]: Well, this is second Civil War obviously is first you got a million Americans dead from the war from wounds and disease and all that

[00:16:33] [SPEAKER_02]: so that was the biggest catastrophe ever to hit this country and

[00:16:37] [SPEAKER_02]: Now a second dwarfs what happened in Vietnam we had polarization in Vietnam, obviously

[00:16:43] [SPEAKER_02]: But it wasn't it wasn't fundamentals. It was policy

[00:16:48] [SPEAKER_02]: Okay, Vietnam policy engineered by Lyndon Johnson

[00:16:53] [SPEAKER_02]: was a disaster and

[00:16:55] [SPEAKER_02]: Some people wouldn't acknowledge that but it was right now you have hatred personal hatred

[00:17:02] [SPEAKER_02]: Between the progressives and the traditionals not so much Democrat Republican. It's a progressive movement that drives

[00:17:10] [SPEAKER_02]: The Biden White House and it's the traditional movement that doesn't want to pay for gender-altering

[00:17:17] [SPEAKER_02]: Surgery, you don't want to pay for that

[00:17:20] [SPEAKER_02]: Okay, and there's no day time

[00:17:24] [SPEAKER_02]: between the progressives and the traditionalists none they hate each other and

[00:17:29] [SPEAKER_02]: That's why you're seeing the political rhetoric coming out of Trump and Harris is so hot

[00:17:35] [SPEAKER_02]: I mean they shook hands in front of the debate, but I

[00:17:39] [SPEAKER_02]: Don't know if that was a real sincere. Hey, good luck

[00:17:43] [SPEAKER_01]: But you know, what's interesting about that is I sort of feel like everything is a strategy now. So even

[00:17:49] [SPEAKER_01]: Kamala going up to Trump right at the beginning of the debate and

[00:17:53] [SPEAKER_01]: Shaking his hand. It's like she and her team had a meeting about it and

[00:17:59] [SPEAKER_01]: A similar meeting right? So how do you know now like, okay

[00:18:04] [SPEAKER_01]: So for instance Kamala says oh there's price gouging from grocers

[00:18:07] [SPEAKER_01]: But as you said, you know, you have to look at what okay

[00:18:11] [SPEAKER_01]: If the oil prices are raised trucking prices are raised healthcare prices are raised

[00:18:16] [SPEAKER_01]: How could the grocers don't even control what they charge for products?

[00:18:19] [SPEAKER_01]: So all this economics coming out of the candidates like that is just it's just stupid

[00:18:23] [SPEAKER_01]: So, how do you know what these people even believe in?

[00:18:28] [SPEAKER_02]: Well, you watch the no-spin news

[00:18:30] [SPEAKER_02]: My news broadcasts and radio broadcasts every day because I'll tell you what their motivations are. What's true?

[00:18:36] [SPEAKER_02]: What isn't true and we don't do the ideological thing here. We don't do the party thing here. I'm registered independent

[00:18:42] [SPEAKER_02]: But I do see a tremendous amount of danger on the far left because they want to change every part of our

[00:18:49] [SPEAKER_02]: Country including the economy. They want to centralize

[00:18:52] [SPEAKER_02]: Federal government controlling the marketplace and you can't do that. It's never worked in history

[00:18:57] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, Americans Americans are partially at fault

[00:19:00] [SPEAKER_02]: James because of this

[00:19:04] [SPEAKER_02]: Because you make a nice living off this so they spend the majority of their leisure time when they're not working

[00:19:11] [SPEAKER_02]: Staring at this at the phone and trying to read and trying to learn

[00:19:17] [SPEAKER_02]: It's right out why I wrote confronting the president's is absolutely relevant today

[00:19:21] [SPEAKER_02]: What happened with George Washington and Thomas Jefferson and on and on it's relevant to today. Well, actually it's so interesting

[00:19:29] [SPEAKER_01]: I didn't even know until I read your book how much

[00:19:32] [SPEAKER_01]: Their friendship had dissolved so that they were enemies like Thomas Jefferson planting stuff in the media of George Washington

[00:19:38] [SPEAKER_01]: It's crazy to think about

[00:19:41] [SPEAKER_02]: Well, Jefferson didn't like the strong central government that Washington and Alexander Hamilton and John Adams espoused

[00:19:48] [SPEAKER_02]: So and Jefferson was kind of a sneaky guy

[00:19:52] [SPEAKER_02]: You know, he's on the ten, but he was a kind of a sneaky guy Jefferson

[00:19:57] [SPEAKER_02]: And then he you know, he's brilliant and he helped every American in the freedom realm

[00:20:02] [SPEAKER_02]: There's no doubt Thomas Jefferson did that but as a personal guy

[00:20:06] [SPEAKER_02]: very dubious

[00:20:09] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and so and so

[00:20:11] [SPEAKER_01]: again, like I don't understand how much of it is for show like when when when someone like

[00:20:16] [SPEAKER_01]: The progressive left or like Kamala appeasing the progressive left says. Oh, we've got a tax unrealized capital gains

[00:20:22] [SPEAKER_01]: Just economically doesn't she realize that brings the economy to zero basically

[00:20:27] [SPEAKER_02]: She doesn't understand doesn't want to understand. It's not really germane to her pursuit of power

[00:20:33] [SPEAKER_02]: This is what the progressive left wants

[00:20:35] [SPEAKER_02]: This is what Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren want she's gonna go along with it. It's what the money people in Hollywood

[00:20:42] [SPEAKER_02]: She's a front person

[00:20:44] [SPEAKER_02]: That's what she is. I mean look James. I don't want to sound really conceited here, but can you imagine me?

[00:20:50] [SPEAKER_02]: interviewing Kamala Harris one-on-one

[00:20:53] [SPEAKER_01]: No, really picture that and I and I say that being a big admirer of how you

[00:20:59] [SPEAKER_01]: interviewed Barack Obama and

[00:21:01] [SPEAKER_01]: You always it was consider it was considerate from both sides. I remember the very first interview. I was expecting fireworks

[00:21:09] [SPEAKER_01]: This is before he was elected

[00:21:10] [SPEAKER_01]: I was expecting fireworks there weren't any you guys seem like best friends by the end of it and I

[00:21:16] [SPEAKER_02]: Learned a lot about both of you from watching that interview. Yeah, and that's my job that you learn about these people

[00:21:21] [SPEAKER_02]: So when a Kamala Harris gives an interview to a Philadelphia reporter and a reporter asks a very good question

[00:21:28] [SPEAKER_02]: How would you bring down inflation? You don't get more simple than that

[00:21:32] [SPEAKER_02]: It's a simple question and then she launches for two and a half minutes about her upbringing in Oakland, California

[00:21:38] [SPEAKER_02]: I mean you don't get away with that with me. I would say madam vice president with all due respect

[00:21:43] [SPEAKER_02]: You're not even close to answering this question. I'll pose it again. How would you bring down inflation?

[00:21:49] [SPEAKER_02]: That's how you do it

[00:21:50] [SPEAKER_02]: but unfortunately the

[00:21:53] [SPEAKER_02]: Journalism industry has collapsed in America

[00:21:56] [SPEAKER_02]: And they've got people who won't do that because they don't want to get in trouble

[00:22:00] [SPEAKER_02]: They're happy with their paycheck coming in. They're told what to say many of them and I say it

[00:22:06] [SPEAKER_02]: They're getting well paid to be parents and I've been in the business 50 years

[00:22:11] [SPEAKER_02]: I know I know Mike Wallace Tim Russert. I know

[00:22:15] [SPEAKER_02]: Dan Rather all these people

[00:22:17] [SPEAKER_01]: Okay, here's a little bit though like like here's the problem is that you you get if you take aside

[00:22:25] [SPEAKER_01]: If you're on a team you get 80 million people like you if you're not on the team if you try to be unbiased

[00:22:32] [SPEAKER_01]: You already have a platform bill

[00:22:34] [SPEAKER_01]: But if you're starting out in news and you try to be unbiased no one's gonna like you both sides will hate you

[00:22:40] [SPEAKER_02]: Well, you don't have to be unbiased

[00:22:42] [SPEAKER_02]: See, that's the key to success

[00:22:45] [SPEAKER_02]: all you have to be is fair and

[00:22:50] [SPEAKER_02]: State your case to the audience whoever your audience is

[00:22:53] [SPEAKER_02]: This is why I believe what I believe and here's why I back it up, but I'm gonna interview

[00:22:58] [SPEAKER_02]: You know surely over here and she sees it differently, but I'm not gonna hate Shirley

[00:23:03] [SPEAKER_02]: I'm not gonna try to make surely look poor or bad, but I am gonna

[00:23:09] [SPEAKER_02]: Pressure Lee to answer my questions. The audience will respect that. I mean look my audience is not ideological

[00:23:17] [SPEAKER_02]: It's all over the place and it's worldwide now. Thanks to YouTube

[00:23:21] [SPEAKER_02]: I don't even know what YouTube was and my people coming in go. Hey, you have 50 million views on YouTube. I go what I

[00:23:28] [SPEAKER_02]: Mean ten times more people watch me on the social media now. They watch me at Fox

[00:23:33] [SPEAKER_02]: Ten times more it's crazy. It's a new world, but I haven't changed

[00:23:39] [SPEAKER_02]: I'm the same I'm in your face if I ask a question

[00:23:43] [SPEAKER_02]: I want an answer but what's changed is the other people in my business

[00:23:49] [SPEAKER_02]: Most of them don't do that. They let these politicians go off on tangents and

[00:23:55] [SPEAKER_02]: Trump gets that treatment, too. I mean Trump goes

[00:24:00] [SPEAKER_02]: You know my question to Trump and I asked this to JD Vance a couple of weeks ago when he was on the nose of

[00:24:05] [SPEAKER_02]: The news how you know?

[00:24:07] [SPEAKER_02]: Deport ten million migrants. Are you gonna do it courts are gonna block you. You must know that how's that gonna happen?

[00:24:14] [SPEAKER_02]: And Vance really didn't have any

[00:24:16] [SPEAKER_02]: Answer for it because it isn't gonna happen and that's my job

[00:24:21] [SPEAKER_02]: To make Americans understand what's real and what's BS

[00:24:26] [SPEAKER_01]: So if this election comes in close, which it looks like obviously

[00:24:29] [SPEAKER_01]: It will it seems like it's it's down to a few swing states and all those swing states are like almost dead

[00:24:34] [SPEAKER_01]: Even right now in the polls. What do you think happens? November 6th the day after the election?

[00:24:39] [SPEAKER_02]: No idea because I'm not miss Cleo

[00:24:42] [SPEAKER_02]: I'm not clairvoyant and so many things in the next seven weeks are going to occur

[00:24:48] [SPEAKER_02]: That nobody knows about I mean, it's just this election is so chaotic. It's so much

[00:24:55] [SPEAKER_02]: pandemonium on both sides

[00:24:57] [SPEAKER_02]: That anybody say oh is what I think is gonna happen. It's ridiculous because there are so many factors that

[00:25:06] [SPEAKER_02]: Are going to influence Americans look both candidates have

[00:25:12] [SPEAKER_02]: Their base the MAGA people gonna vote for Trump

[00:25:14] [SPEAKER_02]: They don't care what happens and the progressives and liberal people are gonna vote for Harris and they couldn't care less

[00:25:21] [SPEAKER_02]: If she's a communist or a socialist Judah both believe what they want to believe

[00:25:26] [SPEAKER_02]: But that middle group is bigger than people think and they can be swayed

[00:25:32] [SPEAKER_02]: if

[00:25:33] [SPEAKER_02]: Something appears to them that makes sense

[00:25:37] [SPEAKER_02]: So yesterday I said that if I'm candidate Trump and I want to win and I'm assuming he does want to win

[00:25:43] [SPEAKER_02]: But he's making mistakes

[00:25:46] [SPEAKER_02]: That are almost inexplicable

[00:25:47] [SPEAKER_01]: You know like what the debate was a mistake and some things he did in the debate was a mistake

[00:25:52] [SPEAKER_01]: But what else did he do?

[00:25:54] [SPEAKER_02]: Well, I don't think they eating cocker spaniels helped him. Did you?

[00:25:58] [SPEAKER_02]: Know I'd say I debate the debate II kind of fell apart. Well, I don't think he fell apart. He just allowed

[00:26:05] [SPEAKER_02]: The moderators put him on the defensive and he didn't narrate the debate

[00:26:09] [SPEAKER_02]: All you got to do is narrate the debate tell the people in real time what's happening. It's all

[00:26:14] [SPEAKER_01]: You win. I mean you mean saying like look I'm not being fact-checked here. I mean come on

[00:26:19] [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, you can say hey, you can say to David Muir the ABC guy

[00:26:23] [SPEAKER_02]: Hey, that was a pretty big softball. You just gave him to the vice president and you let her wail on me

[00:26:29] [SPEAKER_02]: All right. Do you have a softball for me David? Can you give me one? Not say you do it

[00:26:34] [SPEAKER_02]: You just be up front

[00:26:36] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, go on the defensive, but the unforced errors that Trump is making a hurting him

[00:26:43] [SPEAKER_02]: There's no doubt. So what I said yesterday was look if I'm Trump after this Florida thing. I

[00:26:49] [SPEAKER_02]: write a letter to the American people and

[00:26:52] [SPEAKER_02]: I put it out on my social media account

[00:26:55] [SPEAKER_02]: Calling for a tamping down of hatred and then I say I hope my opponent signs this letter

[00:27:03] [SPEAKER_02]: So you are proactive now trying to tamp down the political hatred in this country and you are the target of it

[00:27:11] [SPEAKER_02]: That puts him into a very very good place

[00:27:17] [SPEAKER_02]: but you know, I

[00:27:19] [SPEAKER_02]: Know the man 35 years. I've written a book the United States Trump that traces explains why it is what he does

[00:27:25] [SPEAKER_02]: But right now

[00:27:28] [SPEAKER_02]: He's just careening if he focuses he could very well win

[00:27:33] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's interesting. I thought after RFK jr. You know, it was it was you know, that was an extra let's say

[00:27:40] [SPEAKER_01]: 2% at least across every state that was gonna go towards him

[00:27:43] [SPEAKER_01]: But it didn't it didn't you know now the polls are back to where they were before

[00:27:47] [SPEAKER_02]: RFK jr. Is not a factor in this race at the time

[00:27:51] [SPEAKER_01]: He was pulling about 5% evenly across all the states, but that seems to have diminished

[00:27:56] [SPEAKER_01]: I mean in terms of how aware people are of him in your book there were I mean look at

[00:28:16] [SPEAKER_01]: 1876 that election that was a better election with the for B. Hayes your guy, you know

[00:28:21] [SPEAKER_01]: That was one I was thrown into the House of Representatives and corrupt deals were made just like, you know

[00:28:26] [SPEAKER_01]: John Quincy Adams versus Andrew Jackson

[00:28:28] [SPEAKER_01]: So there have been times where the nation's been divided but there's a lot of vitriol with I mean there were protests in DC in

[00:28:34] [SPEAKER_01]: 1876 when on inauguration day or in 1877 so

[00:28:39] [SPEAKER_01]: You know that the vitriol has existed but now it does seem like it's pulling families apart

[00:28:44] [SPEAKER_01]: You know in ways that I've never seen before

[00:28:46] [SPEAKER_01]: That's because of social media

[00:28:49] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, you know the media is so intense in this country now the combination corporate media

[00:28:54] [SPEAKER_02]: Which is essentially corrupt and social media which has no editors. It's the Wild West

[00:29:00] [SPEAKER_02]: Combination and people you can ramp people up to an extent that you couldn't do it in

[00:29:05] [SPEAKER_02]: 1876 when most people are just trying to figure out how they're gonna eat supper. What kind of bear can I shoot to have a dinner?

[00:29:11] [SPEAKER_02]: It's a little bit different and then but now with this electronic and did devices everywhere

[00:29:18] [SPEAKER_02]: It's easy easy to incite and that's the big difference

[00:29:21] [SPEAKER_01]: Do you think back in the days of let's say Walter Cronkite the reporters were truly?

[00:29:27] [SPEAKER_01]: Neutral or or not there?

[00:29:30] [SPEAKER_02]: They were they've never been that way

[00:29:31] [SPEAKER_02]: But they were much better trained and there was a standard of behavior because I was there that you had to adhere to

[00:29:39] [SPEAKER_02]: And if you didn't you were fired or you didn't get anywhere in your career. So there were standards

[00:29:46] [SPEAKER_02]: I mean when I took jobs, I was handed the Associated Press

[00:29:51] [SPEAKER_02]: Standard book and this is how you do it. But no, I mean people are people they've always said biases

[00:29:57] [SPEAKER_02]: always had

[00:29:59] [SPEAKER_02]: People belief systems Peter Jennings was a liberal man and I know him as well as anybody

[00:30:04] [SPEAKER_02]: Professionally because I work very closely with him

[00:30:08] [SPEAKER_02]: But he never let that bleed over

[00:30:10] [SPEAKER_02]: To his presentation. I mean if he was gonna ask somebody a tough question and there were two people he'd ask the other person a tough

[00:30:17] [SPEAKER_02]: question

[00:30:18] [SPEAKER_02]: But that doesn't happen anymore

[00:30:19] [SPEAKER_02]: I got about three minutes and the reason I'm liking this conversation James doing a very good job

[00:30:25] [SPEAKER_02]: But I got people lined up for media on confining the presidents, but we got about three three minutes

[00:30:32] [SPEAKER_01]: so so of the presidents you you researched in the book and

[00:30:36] [SPEAKER_01]: Did any stand out not as good or bad?

[00:30:39] [SPEAKER_01]: But a fascinating personality that you could see writing a novel about because you know, you've written many novels about the president's as well

[00:30:45] [SPEAKER_02]: No, there aren't novels. They're all nonfiction. It's the killing series, right?

[00:30:50] [SPEAKER_01]: But but there it's almost like a I mean I've read them

[00:30:52] [SPEAKER_01]: It's almost like a fictionalized version of what of what happened. Yeah, but it's all true

[00:30:55] [SPEAKER_02]: So I don't want to confuse anybody anything that I write. It's all true a hundred percent backed up we write in a style

[00:31:04] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, you it's entertaining. You see most nonfiction is dull

[00:31:09] [SPEAKER_02]: Abraham Lincoln far and away the best personality arrow killing Lincoln my first book

[00:31:13] [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, here's a guy who loses his young son. His wife is a nut

[00:31:16] [SPEAKER_02]: He almost loses the war

[00:31:19] [SPEAKER_02]: He deteriorates physically in four years if you look at pictures when Lincoln took over and then four years later

[00:31:25] [SPEAKER_02]: It's like two different human beings. I mean this guy overcame so many things and the process he was kind

[00:31:31] [SPEAKER_02]: He was a kind individual. So he one of God George Washington fascinating guy

[00:31:37] [SPEAKER_02]: tremendous

[00:31:38] [SPEAKER_02]: presence

[00:31:40] [SPEAKER_02]: Won the Revolutionary War. I don't think there's a handful of people maybe could have done that

[00:31:46] [SPEAKER_02]: We were just fortunate to have him in charge of our forces here

[00:31:50] [SPEAKER_02]: All of the president's all 45 of them had aspects of the personality that were fascinating to me

[00:31:56] [SPEAKER_02]: Teddy Roosevelt my god, I mean this guy was just the cliche is a force of nature

[00:32:02] [SPEAKER_02]: But he was and he accomplished so much and he had a very clear vision of what he wanted to do

[00:32:09] [SPEAKER_02]: but they were all flawed men and

[00:32:12] [SPEAKER_02]: That's the real crux of confronting the presence I tell you the good the bad

[00:32:18] [SPEAKER_02]: We kind of leave out some of the ugly but not all of it

[00:32:22] [SPEAKER_02]: Particularly in Lyndon Johnson who boy talk about a bad guy. You want it? You want a bad guy?

[00:32:28] [SPEAKER_01]: That's the guy and it is fascinating to read about all these little known names

[00:32:32] [SPEAKER_01]: Like let's say the Millard Fillmore's of the presidency where you know

[00:32:37] [SPEAKER_01]: They're never written about never talked about but it's interesting to see how their place in history and so on and you

[00:32:43] [SPEAKER_01]: Listen the book really great book. I love the topic. I love the book. Good job

[00:32:49] [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for coming on the show

[00:32:51] [SPEAKER_01]: I really appreciate it bill and would would enjoy the opportunity to talk to you again on your next book or whenever

[00:32:57] [SPEAKER_02]: Well, we'll definitely do that James nice job, and I appreciate you having me on. Thank you