November 1, 2024 • 7 mins
Bill O'Reilly's new book with Martin Dugard is a No Spin look at all 45 presidents. 'Confronting the Presidents' is a great read that humanizes all of our Commanders-in-Chiefs. Bill details the three Presidents he'd invite over for a cocktail party. He reveals the seldom spoken-of President that accomplished the most. Plus, what does Bill O'Reilly thin of Presidential term limits? Fun listen!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It is a great pleasure to have with us today.
A gentleman who has written a great new book with
his friend Martin Dugarde. Bill O'Reilly has written Confronting the
Presidents No Spin Assessments from Washington to Biden.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Hello, Bill O'Reilly.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Gunner, thanks having me on. Appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
All right, So you've gone through a lot of research
on this. If Bill O'Reilly is going to have a
cocktail party, who is the president that you would like
to invite?
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Or give me two or three?
Speaker 3 (00:28):
All right? Teddy Rose about number one. Teddy gets the
seat at the head of the table. Honest guy, lively guy,
loved his country, unbelievable stories, and Teddy would tell him honestly.
So you gotta have Teddy JFK. Yeah, because I got
lots of questions for him. Okay, Thomas Jefferson would be there.
(00:53):
Not a good guy, but a brilliant man, and every
American still benefits from what he and James Madison put together.
So there are your top three.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
I love that, Bill O'Reilly.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
The new book is called Confronting the President's No Spin
Assessments from Washington to Biden. In your research with Martin,
anything surprising that popped up. That may have moved a
lesser known president up the list for.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
You, sure, James K. Pope. So, Gunnar, if you go
out on the streets of Indianapolis after your shift today
and you stop people going, how about that James K. Polk,
Well he's a rapper, right, Yeah? I like James K.
Nobody knows who he is. He was a brilliant one
term president whose perspicassidy were to the day, extended the
(01:41):
USA from Atlantic to Pacific. The guy was dying while
he was in office, and he still accomplished an amazing amount.
So James K. Polk would be on the positive side.
Lyndon Johnson on the negative side, Johnson was corrupt through
and through and I did not know, du guard and
(02:04):
I didn't know until we started researching how bad Johnson
really was.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Oh, I cannot wait to dive into that chapter. Bill
O'Reilly is with us?
Speaker 2 (02:13):
All right? Bill?
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Print, radio, television, You've done it all, not what has
been the most successful?
Speaker 2 (02:19):
What has been the most fun for you? Out of
those three forms of media?
Speaker 3 (02:24):
Well, that's an interesting question. Look, I devoted most of
my energy. I've been in journalism fifty years. I started
when I was ten years old, of course, but I
devoted most of my energy to getting to the top
of the television news industry, which I did hard work
and luck, hard work and luck. Okay, the books are
(02:48):
tremendously satisfying because they are my legacy. Long after I'm gone,
people will read the thirteen Killing books and the Confronting
series which we just started. We are the best selling
nonfiction authors in the world. So those are the two
accomplishments that you know, I can look back and say
(03:09):
I earned it. No uncle into business, nobody doing me
any favors. Yeah, I earned it, but I'm very fortunate
to live in America where I had the possibility of
earning it.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Absolutely, Bill O'Reilly with us grabbed that book confronting the
President's no spin assessments from Washington to Biden. So there
was a great comment in your press release eating habits
of the presidents. In a couple of weeks ago, and
I had read this article about Dwight D. Eisenhower and
how he loved to grill dirty steaks at the White House.
(03:45):
Basically hot coals that you throw on the grass or
the dirt, and then you throw the steak right on
certain coals and you cook it that way.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Odd presidential eating habits.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Well, I mean well, almost all of them were kind
of flamboyant at the at the feed trial, you know,
we had a guy, William Taft who got stuck in
the bath of he was so fat and they couldn't
get him out. Was a efty boy, and he was
(04:18):
in Rover Cleveland. It was three hundred pounds. Those guys
like the chow down. But we had others like Lincoln
didn't really care about food too much. He was, you know, God,
he was the best president, but boy he had every
day was another disaster for him. But I wanted to
make them all gunner human And that's why we threw
(04:39):
all of this in because even though there have only
been forty five presidents in our history, all of them
had family problems, they all had idiosyncrasies. Jean quincy otams
and swim naked every morning in the Potomac. My god.
So I wanted to get that humanity into the book,
and I think that's why it broke number one on
(05:00):
the New York Times list.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Yeah, the new book is called Confronting the Presidents. No
Spin Assessments, from Washington to Biden. Bill O'Reilly is with us.
Bill talk about presidents did have been good family men
that have had a lot of family in the White
House or that through your research.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
You find wow, you know, this guy was a pretty
good father.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
Okay, Teddy Roosevelt number one, he had problems with his
oldest daughter, Alice, who was Hellian, But Teddy was a
very devoted father. And then you can go and most
of the presidents were family oriented in the sense that
(05:41):
they Lincoln, for example, lost his son very early. I
think the boy Tad was seven or eight. Devastated Lincoln.
I mean, there weren't many derelict fathers in there. John Adams,
of course, his son John Quincy Adams became president. But
(06:01):
back then it was a whole different child raising thing.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Sure, you know, now it's.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
You know, you're hovering over your kid. Back then it
was okay, kids, ten, let's get him out in the field,
and you know, it's a work for a living.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Yeah, absolutely different thing.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
Jimmy Carter was a good guy with his family. Reagan
had some family problems, you know, killing Reagan. We went
over that pretty intensely. But I think I think most
of the presidents loved their children and did right by them.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
All Right, we're going to have to get you out
of here on this. We've seen presidents with cognitive issues,
Joe Biden, Reagan at the end of his era. Is
it a good idea to put an expiration date on
the presidency, an age limit?
Speaker 3 (06:45):
No. I let the folks do that. I think we
saw pretty vividly what happened to Joe Biden. I don't
think people are going to forget that. So, but I'm
not a big believer in limiting people through FIAT. The
folks to side.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Well, Bell, your books have been wonderful, your years on
television always enjoyable. Best wishes, keep up the good work,
and thank you for the new book Confronting the Presidents.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
I appreciate you, Me and Gunner best everybody in Indiana.
It is a great pleasure to have with us today.
A gentleman who has written a great new book with
his friend Martin Dugarde. Bill O'Reilly has written Confronting the
Presidents No Spin Assessments from Washington to Biden.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Hello, Bill O'Reilly.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Gunner, thanks having me on. Appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
All right, So you've gone through a lot of research
on this. If Bill O'Reilly is going to have a
cocktail party, who is the president that you would like
to invite?
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Or give me two or three?
Speaker 3 (00:28):
All right? Teddy Rose about number one. Teddy gets the
seat at the head of the table. Honest guy, lively guy,
loved his country, unbelievable stories, and Teddy would tell him honestly.
So you gotta have Teddy JFK. Yeah, because I got
lots of questions for him. Okay, Thomas Jefferson would be there.
(00:53):
Not a good guy, but a brilliant man, and every
American still benefits from what he and James Madison put together.
So there are your top three.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
I love that, Bill O'Reilly.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
The new book is called Confronting the President's No Spin
Assessments from Washington to Biden. In your research with Martin,
anything surprising that popped up. That may have moved a
lesser known president up the list for.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
You, sure, James K. Pope. So, Gunnar, if you go
out on the streets of Indianapolis after your shift today
and you stop people going, how about that James K. Polk,
Well he's a rapper, right, Yeah? I like James K.
Nobody knows who he is. He was a brilliant one
term president whose perspicassidy were to the day, extended the
(01:41):
USA from Atlantic to Pacific. The guy was dying while
he was in office, and he still accomplished an amazing amount.
So James K. Polk would be on the positive side.
Lyndon Johnson on the negative side, Johnson was corrupt through
and through and I did not know, du guard and
(02:04):
I didn't know until we started researching how bad Johnson
really was.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Oh, I cannot wait to dive into that chapter. Bill
O'Reilly is with us?
Speaker 2 (02:13):
All right? Bill?
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Print, radio, television, You've done it all, not what has
been the most successful?
Speaker 2 (02:19):
What has been the most fun for you? Out of
those three forms of media?
Speaker 3 (02:24):
Well, that's an interesting question. Look, I devoted most of
my energy. I've been in journalism fifty years. I started
when I was ten years old, of course, but I
devoted most of my energy to getting to the top
of the television news industry, which I did hard work
and luck, hard work and luck. Okay, the books are
(02:48):
tremendously satisfying because they are my legacy. Long after I'm gone,
people will read the thirteen Killing books and the Confronting
series which we just started. We are the best selling
nonfiction authors in the world. So those are the two
accomplishments that you know, I can look back and say
(03:09):
I earned it. No uncle into business, nobody doing me
any favors. Yeah, I earned it, but I'm very fortunate
to live in America where I had the possibility of
earning it.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Absolutely, Bill O'Reilly with us grabbed that book confronting the
President's no spin assessments from Washington to Biden. So there
was a great comment in your press release eating habits
of the presidents. In a couple of weeks ago, and
I had read this article about Dwight D. Eisenhower and
how he loved to grill dirty steaks at the White House.
(03:45):
Basically hot coals that you throw on the grass or
the dirt, and then you throw the steak right on
certain coals and you cook it that way.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Odd presidential eating habits.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Well, I mean well, almost all of them were kind
of flamboyant at the at the feed trial, you know,
we had a guy, William Taft who got stuck in
the bath of he was so fat and they couldn't
get him out. Was a efty boy, and he was
(04:18):
in Rover Cleveland. It was three hundred pounds. Those guys
like the chow down. But we had others like Lincoln
didn't really care about food too much. He was, you know, God,
he was the best president, but boy he had every
day was another disaster for him. But I wanted to
make them all gunner human And that's why we threw
(04:39):
all of this in because even though there have only
been forty five presidents in our history, all of them
had family problems, they all had idiosyncrasies. Jean quincy otams
and swim naked every morning in the Potomac. My god.
So I wanted to get that humanity into the book,
and I think that's why it broke number one on
(05:00):
the New York Times list.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Yeah, the new book is called Confronting the Presidents. No
Spin Assessments, from Washington to Biden. Bill O'Reilly is with us.
Bill talk about presidents did have been good family men
that have had a lot of family in the White
House or that through your research.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
You find wow, you know, this guy was a pretty
good father.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
Okay, Teddy Roosevelt number one, he had problems with his
oldest daughter, Alice, who was Hellian, But Teddy was a
very devoted father. And then you can go and most
of the presidents were family oriented in the sense that
(05:41):
they Lincoln, for example, lost his son very early. I
think the boy Tad was seven or eight. Devastated Lincoln.
I mean, there weren't many derelict fathers in there. John Adams,
of course, his son John Quincy Adams became president. But
(06:01):
back then it was a whole different child raising thing.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Sure, you know, now it's.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
You know, you're hovering over your kid. Back then it
was okay, kids, ten, let's get him out in the field,
and you know, it's a work for a living.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Yeah, absolutely different thing.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
Jimmy Carter was a good guy with his family. Reagan
had some family problems, you know, killing Reagan. We went
over that pretty intensely. But I think I think most
of the presidents loved their children and did right by them.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
All Right, we're going to have to get you out
of here on this. We've seen presidents with cognitive issues,
Joe Biden, Reagan at the end of his era. Is
it a good idea to put an expiration date on
the presidency, an age limit?
Speaker 3 (06:45):
No. I let the folks do that. I think we
saw pretty vividly what happened to Joe Biden. I don't
think people are going to forget that. So, but I'm
not a big believer in limiting people through FIAT. The
folks to side.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Well, Bell, your books have been wonderful, your years on
television always enjoyable. Best wishes, keep up the good work,
and thank you for the new book Confronting the Presidents.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
I appreciate you, Me and Gunner best everybody in Indiana.
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