Media reaction to Donald Trump on 'The Factor'
Bernie Goldberg weighs in on the controversial GOP front-runner's interview on 'The O'Reilly Factor'
This is a RUSH transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," January 28, 2016. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
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O'REILLY: Thanks for staying with us, I'm Bill O'Reilly in the "Weekdays with Bernie" segment tonight. Let's get right to the purveyor of BernardGoldberg.com which joins us from Miami.
All right. First up, media reaction to the Trump interview. Anything catch your eye?
BERNARD GOLDBERG, BERNARDGOLDBERG.COM: Yes. I was absolutely stunned by the amount of coverage given to the interview. I could be wrong about this, but I think there was more coverage of your interview than when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. I may be a little off on that. It was all over the place. And in very important places. It was on the networks, the "New York Times," "The Washington Post," all over the internet, of course, but there was one thing, one thread that ran through almost all of the stories that I either read or saw. And that is the interview, Bill, was covered as entertainment, as a show. Not as politics.
Donald Trump is running for president of the United States but it was covered like fight night on the FOX News Channel or shootout at the O.K. Corral. Listen, I've used this term before and forgive me for using it again. But the United States of entertainment and that's where we live whether we like it or not. In the United States of entertainment. Entertainment is king and that interview was pretty entertaining and that's why it's received the massive amount of coverage that it has.
O'REILLY: All right. But there is another reason why it was covered as entertainment was because the liberal newspapers our competition on cable and on broadcast doesn't want you to give FOX News legitimacy. So, they know as I said in the talking points memo that many consider us the most powerful news agency in the world. You don't want to give us more credibility so that if they have to cover us and they did, they are going to cover us in an entertainment or snarky way. Would you disagree with that?
GOLDBERG: No. There was some snarkiness. There is no question. And I would offer up this advice. Take a vanilla milk shake. Take a sip of it. And then follow the advice you gave Donald Trump. Turn the other cheek and forgive these people who have been snarky to you.
O'REILLY: I didn't make a big deal of it. And I'm glad you
GOLDBERG: I know.
O'REILLY: Absolutely the best. Now, the reason that I injected the vanilla milk shake into the debate so if people don't know. And there was actually a picture in the daily news, New York Daily news of me sitting at Yankee stadium with Trump and both of us drinking vanilla milk shakes. Now, a lot of people didn't know what I was talking about. But what I was trying to do was use a sense of humor to Trump because I knew he would get it right away to cajole him into being responsible and showing up at the debate so people could take his measure.
GOLDBERG: Right.
O'REILLY: I don't drink, Trump doesn't drink. So we are at the game, instead of getting beers, we get milk shakes. And inevitably I wind up paying for them. All right. So, that's what -- that was all about.
GOLDBERG: But for months you have been saying that one of the reasons Donald Trump is successful is because he doesn't care what anybody thinks. And last night he proved that he doesn't even care what you think. No matter how much you try to guilt him --
O'REILLY: Right.
GOLDBERG: You tried to guilt him with those vanilla milk shakes. It didn't matter.
(INAUDIBLE)
O'REILLY: It didn't matter.
GOLDBERG: I mean, you talk about his independence and his toughness. He showed the evidence of that last night. The milk shakes didn't matter. The cajoling, the imploring, the beseeching, none of that mattered.
O'REILLY: But he didn't have a good --
GOLDBERG: For all I know Donald Trump.
O'REILLY: There is more to it though.
GOLDBERG: Knowing Donald Trump, he may still show up at this thing before it's all over. But --
O'REILLY: You know who is the man behind the curtain and here he is, it's what's my line. But what I wanted him to do and what he didn't do and this is what politicians do all the time was say, look, I said you owe it to the country to do this because you are running for president. And a lot of the people don't really know, yet, you know, who you are or what you want. And you owe it to them to be there in these kind of situations even if you think it's tough. He didn't answer that.
GOLDBERG: Let me just make a quick observation about that. It didn't come off to me so much as a political interview as a spat between two old buddies and a very, very, very public spat. As far as the journalism is concerned. You and I just disagree on this. I don't think it's a good idea for a journalist, even an opinion journalist, giving advice to anybody running for president of the United States. It just causes problems but we disagree and, you know, reasonable people as they say disagree.
O'REILLY: Yes. I mean, look, you can look at it as advice giving but I look at it as looking out for the folks. I want the electorate to elect the next time around the best possible candidate. Therefore, I want all the candidates to get as much exposure as possible. As I said in the talking points memo and I believe firmly, people voted for Barack Obama they had no blanking clue who they were voting for, none. And I don't want it to happen again. So, you can say it's advice giving, but I'm saying, I'm looking out for the folks.
GOLDBERG: But you don't think that's an unreasonable interpretation. I mean, I know what you are saying but I'm not --
O'REILLY: Yes. Do I think it's unreasonable? No. I don't think it's unreasonable. But do I take it seriously?
GOLDBERG: You know, Bill, I hope it goes up your nose that --
(LAUGHTER)
O'REILLY: Good line, Goldberg. Show them what you are drinking. Show them what you are drinking before the interview, right now.
GOLDBERG: Red bull.
O'REILLY: Look at that, see? He can't just come on as a normal person. He has got to be stoked. All right.
GOLDBERG: Hey, listen, without a red bull, I would fall asleep during the segment.
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