BLOGAugust 25, 2017

Bill O'Reilly: George Washington's 'Strength of Leadership' Is Important for Americans Today

During a time when people are debating which parts of the U.S. are racist and whether or not history should be obscured, Bill O’Reilly has released a new book that examines the Revolutionary War.

“Killing England: The Brutal Struggle for American Independence” looks at history from the perspectives of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and Great Britain’s King George III. On radio Friday, Glenn and O’Reilly talked about the new book and the life of America’s first president.

Washington’s men appeared to witness miracles on the battlefield when their leader had narrow brushes with death and survived over and over.

“The men begin to look at him as absolutely invincible,” Glenn said. Continental soldiers saw his miraculous escapes as God’s intervention protecting him. “He’s having horses shot out from underneath him, but he lives,” Glenn described their accounts.

O’Reilly pointed to Washington’s strength of character as a motivation for sharing this story and making sure Americans are aware of our history.

“Washington was an amazingly brave man,” he said. “The strength of leadership is what I think Americans need to know about.”

Glenn added that it’s vital to look at all of history – and not gloss over the negative parts.

“I want to know the bad and the good,” he said.

GLENN: Bill O'Reilly has a lot to say. But so do I.

And one of the things I want to talk to him about is his new book out called killing England. The brutal struggle for American independence. I have not read much of it. But I have skipped around in it. And it is -- it's an easy read. It's a really good read. And I know a lot about the American Revolution and George Washington. As you know, I wrote a book on George Washington.

This is fantastic. And just -- just tremendous. And it's available now. Killing England, by Bill O'Reilly. We talk to him, right now.

(music)

GLENN: Now, here's the great thing about America: Bill O'Reilly and I can have fundamental disagreements on things -- and we do. We have a different look at things, a different approach on things, and a very different viewpoint on things. But we are friends. We get along because we both know that what we both want in the end is a strong America and a -- a country that can come together again on some basic principles. So as I say this now, I bring on the Antichrist himself, Bill O'Reilly. Hello, Bill, how are you?

BILL: I'm weeping. I'm weeping after that introduction, sitting here in my short pants, and I'm weeping.

GLENN: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

BILL: I have to correct you though, one thing, Killing England will be released to the marketplace on September 19th. Of course, I sent you an advanced copy. But you can order -- preorder on Amazon and BillO'Reilly.com.

GLENN: Oh. That's really good.

BILL: And I was lucky. And I'm glad you referenced your George Washington book as well. I have that in my house. I'm going to reread it now. I had read it a long time ago.

But I was lucky because this whole statue thing, which is much bigger than statues -- much bigger than statues. And I hope we're going to talk about that today.

GLENN: Yes. Yes. Yes.

BILL: That ties into Killing England because you're going to know exactly who George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Ben Franklin were as men and how they conducted themselves throughout their lives. And then you can determine whether statues of them should be pulled down, all right? Because they are coming for Washington and Jefferson.

GLENN: I know they are.

BILL: Here in New York City, as you know, Christopher Columbus -- Peter Stevenson is the latest. They're running wild. They, the far left. And I mean wild.

So there we go. There's my opening remark --

GLENN: So let's start here on the -- let's start on the statues. Because you're exactly right. This is not about -- this is not about oppression and pain, that these statues are calling.

If you want to have a real discussion about the Confederacy and what that was really all about and whether, you know, Bedford -- what's his name? Nathan Bedford Forrest is a guy that we should have a statue on, we can have that discussion. The answer is no. But we should have that discussion on who this -- this guy was and who others were.

BILL: Absolutely.

GLENN: But this is really about taking and tearing down the entire American story and discrediting the entire American story.

BILL: It's even more than that. This is about naked power. Naked power.

So you're seeing now the rise of the far left. You know, you can call it the alt-left. Whatever you want to call it. Antifa. You're seeing them rise up because the media will not challenge anything they do. So we now know that there are college professors, the latest is the guy in Clemson, in South Carolina, who is calling for violence. Violence. Overthrow the country. And if you have to burn down stores or kill cops, go ahead and do it. Why is that man still working? Why is he still working at Clemson University? Why hasn't the press made him a front-page story? This is a college professor.

So the far left, the Antifas understand they can do whatever they want now, with impunity. Because the hate Trump -- media is 100 percent focused on getting President Trump out of office, so they're going to let everything else go.

Now, as far as your point is concerned, the far left hates the country. Yes, we have to start there. They think America is exploitative. It's white supremacy. It's abused minorities, ever since its inception. And it has to be torn down. The whole thing has to go, almost like Czarist Russia and the Soviet Union. Everything has to go. All right?

Well, the first thing that has to go is any remnants of what happened to this country and how it evolved into what it is. And that means history. History has got to be revised, okay?

So we'll revise it in public schools. We're already doing that. And now we'll tear down all the statues and demonize people with whom we disagree. So we're going to demonize Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, you know, historical figures that fought for the Confederacy. That's our starting point.

But then we'll go get Columbus. And after we get Columbus, we'll get Jefferson. Jefferson was a slaveholder. And then Washington.

GLENN: Okay. So help me -- help me separate the Confederacy. Because I personally -- I don't believe that the Confederate flag is anything, but a racist symbol. I'm sorry. I know a lot of people don't agree with that because they have been talked into, that's their heritage.

But if you read the Confederate constitution, it was not state's rights. You had no right to join the Confederacy if you wanted to abolish slavery. You needed to expand slavery. So it wasn't about the defense of our US Constitution. It was about a new constitution and defending slavery. That's historic fact.

Now, with that being said, I am bothered -- I understand because, you know, people have to justify in their own head, you know, were my people years ago bad people, good people, where do I come from? That screws with people. And so they do want to look at it as their heritage. And so they have glossed over a lot of things.

But I have a -- I don't have a problem teaching these guys in proper context. I don't have a problem looking at them as all as individuals. But all of them were traitors to the US Constitution. And all of them in the end were -- whether they wanted to admit it or not -- fighting for the evils of slavery. Agree or disagree?

BILL: I agree on the hierarchy level, the Jefferson Davis level. Okay? But I don't agree on the troops on the ground level.

So let me give you a little -- quickly, a little perspective: About 10 percent of Southerners owned slaves or were trapping slaves, and a lot of them had one or two. Okay?

GLENN: Uh-huh.

BILL: So 90 percent of the South didn't have slaves.

GLENN: Correct.

BILL: In the Civil War, the guys who were fighting on the side of the Confederacy were mainly between the ages of 15 and 22.

GLENN: Uh-huh.

BILL: Many were illiterate. They really didn't know much. And they rallied to a cause that said, "You have to defend Virginia. You have to defend South Carolina. You have to defend Alabama." That's what the rallying cry was.

GLENN: Right.

BILL: So you give them a pass? Yeah.

GLENN: So hang on. I'll agree with you on that. I'll give you that.

BILL: Right.

GLENN: This is the kind of discussion, by the way, America should be having.

I will agree with you on that, that the average person didn't know, didn't buy into it.

BILL: No.

GLENN: It is the difference that we made between talking about Germans and Nazis. We were not against the Germans, we were against the Nazis.

BILL: That's right. And German soldiers were not prosecuted after World War II.

GLENN: Correct.

BILL: So then --

GLENN: Hang on just a second. Those who were directly involved and knew what was going on, they were prosecuted. But if you didn't know what was going on, you were not part of the atrocities. You weren't -- you weren't held responsible for those atrocities.

However, Germans were very clear themselves: We do not appreciate you holding up the Nazi flag and saying, "Well, yeah, but my family -- they didn't fight for the death of all the Jews." That's a no-go zone. We don't glorify --

BILL: Right. And, in fact, it's outlawed -- any Nazi symbols are against the law in Germany.

GLENN: Correct. And I don't agree with that here.

But we don't need to glorify that movement.

BILL: That's a good word, "glorify." I think that's key. So people who are running around saying that, oh, it was the war of Northern aggression. And we were, you know, unfairly treated. That's just crazy. In fact, Abraham Lincoln was really responsible for all of this. Because Lincoln basically said, "Look, war is over. I'm not going to have war crimes trials. I'm not going to hang Lee and all the generals. I'm not even going to do anything to Jefferson Davis. Okay? Except, you know, make him a pariah."

All right. So Lincoln, he was the guy that said, if we want to have a country, all right? We're going to have to have reconciliation. All right? And reconstruction.

Now, he was assassinated by Booth, who was a fanatical Confederate. And then Johnson came in and didn't know what he was doing.

And the whole thing deteriorated for decades into strife. However, right now, what we have to deal with is that the South and Texas and parts of the Midwest are not bad people --

GLENN: Correct.

BILL: Their descendents aren't bad people. They shouldn't be demonized.

GLENN: Correct.

BILL: Lee conducted himself after the war in a very, very honorable way. He was a West Point graduate. People should know about Robert E. Lee. His statue doesn't offend anybody.

However, the statue of Nathan Bedford Forrest in New Orleans does. He's the start -- he started the Ku Klux Klan.

GLENN: Correct.

BILL: It should be taken down.

GLENN: We can't get people in the media on the uber, uber, uber right. And I don't even go into the alt-right. I mean just up against that line of the alt-right. They're still holding up William Bedford Forrest. Or was it Nathan? I don't remember.

BILL: Nathan.

GLENN: Nathan Bedford Forrest.

They won't even admit that he was the key that unlocked the door to the Klan. That he was skinning people alive. He's a very different --

BILL: Why are you even talking about fringe groups? See, here's the difference between the alt-right and the Antifas, all right?

The media, all right? Has demonized anybody, not only far right people, but conservative people. I mean, the mantra last week was, if you voted for Trump, you're a racist. Okay?

So the media has already done that.

On the left, you can be Josef Stalin's first cousin --

GLENN: Correct.

BILL: -- and be going for the overthrow of this government and the media is not going to do anything to you.

Now, American people, they don't want extremism in any way, shape, or form. They reject both groups. All right? And both groups' numbers are very, very low.

GLENN: Yep.

BILL: I said on the BillO'Reilly.com podcast, I've been in this business 42 years. Beck's been in about 65. I've been in every city, every country, I've never met a white supremacist, other than covering that kind of stuff. But never. Never.

GLENN: Yes. Yes. Yes.

BILL: I don't know any. I've never seen any. So where are they if they're taking over the world? I mean, it's just insane.

GLENN: All right. Back with Bill O'Reilly. From BillO'Reilly.com. You can hear his take on the news every day on his No Spin News podcast. He's doing some really exciting things. And I do want to talk to him about Killing England which comes out in a couple of weeks. And I've just -- I've read only a few chapters, kind of skipping around. And it's really, really well written.

Bill O'Reilly, Killing England. And his podcast at BillO'Reilly.com.

RADIO

EXCLUSIVE: Chip Roy Explains His FIERY Rejection of Spending Bill

According to the media, there’s a big fight going on between Republicans over the House’s new slimmed-down continuing resolution spending bill. Some, including President-elect Donald Trump, wanted the bill to pass. But others, like Texas Representative Chip Roy, argued that it still wasn’t ready. However, is the Republican “unity coalition” really crumbling, like the media claims? Rep. Chip Roy joins Glenn to explain what’s really going on. He argues that he IS trying to give Trump and DOGE a 100-day “runway” to fix the country. But he makes the case that, by increasing the debt ceiling by $5 trillion without agreeing on other cuts, this bill gives bad actors the ability to be an “obstacle” to Trump’s agenda further down the line. Plus, he reveals to Glenn that he believes some of these bad actors LEAKED false information about his stance to Mar-a-Lago.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN:

I think we have a great opportunity today. To show you how to have a -- tough conversation, with friends, friends. Where you deeply disagree on something.

But you know that their intent is good. They know my intent is good. Or our intent is good.

And we actually have the same end goal, but we disagree on the path. And we're going to walk away friends.

Chip Roy is joining us today. And, Chip, I love you. And I always will. And I agree with your, we've got to cut spending. We have to. But Liz Wheeler is with me. And we've been talking about it all morning. It's the -- the -- the -- the system of DOGE and Trump, the call-out to the world, in saying, you've got to surrender the Capitol. You know, the bad guys are in and about to take all the money.

Surround, and tell them, come out with your hands up. And that happened. And we scored a massive win, in an entirely new way.

Ask then you stood on principle, one we both agree with.

And it failed!

And so here's -- here's what Liz and I were talking about. Here's what we want to say to you.

And then get your response.

LIZ: Hi, Congressman Roy, this is the way I see it. I want your take on it. I love you. I think you're one of the best members of Congress. I disagree with you on the process that's happening. And I think that is the difference. The process. We elected Donald Trump to be a disruptor. Because Republican members of Congress for decades have been telling they're fiscal conservatives. They want to decrease the debt SEAL. It hasn't happened.

It hasn't -- it hasn't been done. And so Donald Trump comes in with Elon Musk, and uses this DOGE process to first identify these pieces of garbage in the first 1500-page bill. And take those things to the people. We took them to members of Congress. Congress said, okay. We'll listen to you.

So that new process was very effective.

And my question to you is: Once that process was proved to be effective. Which I think is exciting and wonderful.

How do we bridge this divide, with you, to say, okay.

Let's put some faith in this new process. And trust Elon Musk and Donald Trump and the Dow Jones process, to eventually address the debt ceiling, but get this done right now?

GLENN: And not blind trust. Chip.

CHIP: So appreciate you guys. Appreciate being on the show. Particular order. I have to go through a couple of things.

GLENN: Yep.

CHIP: Number one, it's important to remember that my job and my duty is to the Constitution, to God, and the people I represent. I told them, when I came to Washington, I would not -- I would not let the credit card and the debt ceiling and the borrowing of the United States without the spending restraints necessary to offset it.

GLENN: Okay.

CHIP: Right now, all we have are promises and ideas and notions. What I know, that neither of you respectfully no, and that none of your listeners respectfully no are the people that are in the room, that I was in with yesterday. And the day before, who are recalcitrant.

And do not want to do the spending cuts that we need to do.

That I believe the president and the DOGE guys. And everybody want to do.

My job, is to force that through the meat grinder. To demand that we do our damn job. Okay?

GLENN: Okay. So hang on. Okay. So wait. Wait. You're right. You're right. You're right. Go ahead.

CHIP: Number thee, when we were going through the bill, I'm glad the bill dropped from 1,550 pages to 116 pages. Three-quarters of Twitter or X or whatever you want to call it, have been out there spreading false facts that we supported a bad bill and didn't like the better bill.

That's not true. But let's be Lear. The 1400 pages that were cut out. It's a panacea.

There were some good stuff in there. There were some bad stuff in there. There was a lot of disinformation.

There wasn't a $70,000 pay raise. There was a 3,000-dollar pay raise.

I didn't support any pay raise. I didn't support a lot of the stuff in there.

But there's a lot of misinformation. And here's the thing: The 116 pages that were left, and I opposed violently the first bill. I was leading the charge on fighting and killing the first bill.

GLENN: And I love you.

LIZ: The second bill for 116 pages. Turned off -- turned off the pay go requirement. That we slash 1.7 trillion automatically.

And added a 5 trillion that are increase.

My view was, I could not support that, without a clear understanding of what cuts we would get, in mandatory spending next year. And undo any of the Inflation Reduction Act.

The undoing of the student loans. The undoing of the crap with the food stamps.

And everything else. I yield back.

GLENN: Okay. I yield back.

Chip, you're not in a hostile room. We love you. And we agree with your end goals. It's our end goal too. We didn't make that promise that you made to the people that voted for you. So we have more wiggle room here.

But you say -- I think our big difference is, you say, I know the guys in the room.

You're right. You do. And we -- we ceded that earlier today on the show.

You are -- one of us is wrong on trust.

I don't trust any of the weasels in Washington.

But I think Donald Trump and Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have earned enough trust, to get a grace period, here for the first -- maybe the first year.

Or at least six months.

To turn the economy around, and also reduce the size of the government.

And totally flip this thing.

And I know, as somebody who is -- you know, run a company, mainly into a ground. But run a company, and have to switch it, in the middle, and totally reshuffle. That -- that actually costs money, while you're doing it, to bridge the gap.

Because you have to fill up holes while you're filling in the gap.

You don't trust the people in the room. Neither do we.

But we do trust the system that worked on Wednesday with DOGE and Donald Trump.

Where do we disagree?

Can you give them --

CHIP: We don't disagree. And yesterday morning, I was making that precise argument in a room full of conservatives and then a follow-up room with people who will call it, less conservatives.

GLENN: Republican. Yes.

CHIP: And so we were making this argument. And then someone infamously. Something leaked out of the room, somehow out to Mar-a-Lago. That I was being resistant. Because I was negotiating trying to get the agreement to achieve the objective that you just said. I was trying to get, okay. In fact, yesterday morning, I made the argument to a group of conservatives. We need to give the president runway. We need to give him his first 100 days. We need to appreciate JD, and Vivek, and all the people -- and everybody involved. For the president to achieve the objective.

But to get there. We have to make sure that the guys in the room, that are an obstacle to that, don't have the ability to block it.

Because information flow matters. And when those guys tell the president, they can't achieve X.

Then the president will not achieve X. Our job was to force and demand, guys, we need actual understanding of what the cuts will be.

And because otherwise, we're asking us to accept a 5 trillion-dollar limit in our credit card increase. In exchange for nothing!

Literally, in exchange for nothing, but -- but hope.

So our job was to force that change.

Unfortunately, while I was trying to make the argument that we needed something in order to get the votes, someone leaked that down to Mar-a-Lago, and the president reacted.

But now I have to now manage that.

GLENN: Right. I know. I know.

CHIP: They're trying to enforce change in town.

GLENN: So hang on.

We have to leave this. Because I'm going to run against the clock.

I could talk to you all day about this. You were in a meeting this morning about J.D. Vance. Can you tell us anything about that meeting?

CHIP: That meeting happened, because despite what happened yesterday, I'm trying to get this done. Last night, talking to JD, we worked to get this meeting done. We had some good progress this morning.

But there still remains people concerned about spending. That we can work out, what agreement we can reach. On what spending cuts. We can actually get next year, in exchange for giving the vote on a debt ceiling increase.

So it remains fluid. Progress was made. But we have to keep working on it.

And I left that meeting to talk to you. Soil get an update in a minute.

GLENN: Thank you for that, by the way.

I hear there is a new bill that may be coming today.

Is that the one you're talking about?

Or is this another bill that could be another nightmare?

CHIP: Despite other people leaking crap, I refused. I can't say, because it's not been decided by the speaker.

And it's not right to talk about things they're talking about in private meetings.

GLENN: Yeah, but it's -- it's this speaker. I mean, is he really the speaker anymore, Chip, really?

CHIP: We need to hear what bill we need to get forward. And I can't talk about the private meetings. But, look, I'm going to keep fighting for what I promised people that I represent.

I'm going to fight to cut spending. I am going to represent article one.

I'm going to support the president's agenda, but we've got to do that together.

GLENN: Okay.

Chip, thank you.

I think we can -- I think we agree, but I await to see what that means to you. Because we may just have to agree to disagree on this.

But I love you. And I still want you to replace Cornyn.

CHIP: The short version is, for inflation's sake, we cannot increase the debt ceiling $5 trillion without knowing what we're getting for it.

And I don't think anybody should disagree with that.

GLENN: But you don't disagree that Elon Musk and Trump and Vivek are serious about gutting the system.

CHIP: I believe that is their objective. I believe there are obstacles to that objective. And I need to know the sincerity of how we deal with those obstacles, both structural, and human. And we have to figure that out. And that's my job.

America's Favorite Villain Is Ready for Nuclear Fallout. Are You? | Glenn TV | Ep 401

In this episode of Glenn TV — a theatrical how-to guide to survive the breakdown of society after a nuclear attack, according to the new movie “Homestead” from Angel Studios. Glenn Beck interviews the movie’s star and executive producer, Neal McDonough, who plays the head of a family trying to survive as society is breaking down in a postapocalyptic world. You’ve probably seen Neal in everything from the hit TV shows “Yellowstone,” “Suits,” and “Justified” to movies like “Captain America,” “Minority Report,” and the groundbreaking mini-series “Band of Brothers.” Glenn asks Neal what it’s like to play a villain so often, how TV and movies are changing, and how he survived Hollywood as a devoted Christian and husband who refuses to do onscreen kissing scenes with any of his female co-stars. They also discuss his battle with alcoholism, what it’s like working the legends like Sylvester Stallone and Kevin Costner, and the cultural craving for Western cinema. Note: Angel Studios is a sponsor of “The Glenn Beck Program.” Get your tickets for “Homestead” at https://Angel.com/Beck.

Glenn's Show Prep

Bill O'Reilly: George Washington's 'Strength of Leadership' Is Important for Americans Today

Why the REAL story of Hanukkah sounds all too FAMILIAR

EXCLUSIVE: Chip Roy Explains His FIERY Rejection of Spending Bill

Transcript

America's Favorite Villain Is Ready for Nuclear Fallout. Are You? | Glenn TV | Ep 401

4 MAJOR Cover-Ups EXPOSED In the Latest Jan. 6 Report