Bill O’Reilly’s No Spin News and Analysis - Charlie Kirk’s Memorial, Leland Vittert Analyzes President Trump’s Speech, Democrats Oppose Resolution Honoring Kirk, & Kaelan Deese on Biden’s Cognitive Decline Probe

Episode Date: September 23, 2025

Tonight's rundown: Hey BillOReilly.com Premium and Concierge Members, welcome to the No Spin News for Monday, September 22, 2025. Stand Up for Your Country.  Talking Points Memo: Bill takes a look at the memorial service held for Charlie Kirk on Sunday. NewsNation host and author of the soon-to-be-released "Born Lucky," Leland Vittert, joins the No Spin News to analyze President Trump's speech at Charlie Kirk's memorial and the criticism that followed. Several Democrats opposed a resolution honoring Charlie Kirk. Bill fact-checks remarks made about him by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). Kaelan Deese, Department of Justice reporter at the Washington Examiner, discusses an unreported story on the ongoing probe into allegations of Biden’s cognitive decline. Final Thought: “Confronting Evil” is number one on the New York Times bestseller list. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey, Will O'Reilly here. Welcome to the NOS-VIN News Monday, September 22nd, 2025, stand up for your country. Well, I'll have to tell you this evening. I have a little bit different take on the Charlie Kirk Memorial Service yesterday than most people do, because that's me. I mean, I always see things a little bit differently, and we're going to lay it all out there for you. You know, it was an important event,

and I'm not sure Americans understand how important. I'm going to try to bring some perspective. Also, tonight, I'm going to tell you about a story that's been way underreported, and that's a congressional hearings about Joe, Biden in the White House. I mean, I hardly got any traction at all because the Democrats and the liberal media don't want you to know what was going on there. I just think it's fascinating. I'm a historian, wrote confronting the presidents, and confronting will come out paperback

in November. Obviously, we got the hardback of confronting evil out now in hardback. and I wrote a new Biden chapter in the paperback, scorched them. I'm not going to pretend that I just scorched them because he did a lot of damage. So that's a heads up. But anyway, let's start tonight. The Talking Points Memo is on a memorial. So more than 100,000 people showed up, which is an extraordinary showing of support for Charlie Kirk and his family.

I'm taking this from the Glendale Police estimate. Some people say there were 200,000. It was packed. Cables took it, but networks did not. Networks had football and other things, and I understood that. Cables were there. They ran it, CNN, MS, FNC, News Nation. And generally speaking, I was popping back and forth.

They covered it. straight. It wasn't a bunch of, afterward there was a problem, and I'll tell you about that in a moment, but as a coverage unfolded, it was fine. Very emotional. And the star of the show, if you want to use that context, but the most memorable person in the memorial service was Erica Kirk, Charlie's widow. And she did an extraordinary thing, and I'm sure you heard it, but I want to put it into the proper perspective. Let's roll that tape. Charlie's life was a turning point for this country.

It was a miracle. Let that miracle. It was Charlie's life be your turning point as well. Choose prayer. Choose courage. Choose beauty. choose adventure choose family

choose a life of faith most importantly choose Christ okay now some objected to that you know the atheists but why would you Charlie Kirk's movement turning point was essentially

a conservative Christian movement so you remember that there was a period of time about 10, 15 years ago when conservative Christians had their own, and they'd still, to this day, have their own network, and they, you know, but that, Kirk was political, but he was also theological. So that was perfectly in context to talk about the man's legacy. You would have to do that. So I know some people went know, hey, conservative Christians are entitled to tell you and everybody else what their

belief system is, and this was certainly in context. Then Erica Kirk stunned the world, I would think. Roll it. My husband, Charlie, he wanted to save. Young men, just like the one who took his life. That young man. That young man, on the cross, our Savior, Father, forgive them, for they not know what they do. That man, that young man, I forgive him. Now that was an unbelievably powerful moment, particularly when you put it into the

context of that Erica has at home a three-year-old daughter and a one-year-old son and the daughter's going, where's daddy? Do you imagine? I can't. I can't. Yet she, and I think very sincerely, said that she forgives the assassin. And I'm not at the level of Erica Kirk. I have a hard time with this. And I'm going to play a soundbite from the president in a moment who he and I are on the same

wavelength here. I have a very hard time forgiving evil. Unless there's repentance. So in my book, Confronting Evil, none of the 15 miscreants ever showed any sign of remorse for their horrible,

horrible deeds. I don't know about this guy in Utah. You know, we don't have access to him. But after he shot and killed Charlie Kirk, there was no thread go, what did I do, or anything like that. I have a hard time. I've talked about this to Catholic theologians at a very high level. I said, look, I'm supposed to forgive Hitler. I'm supposed to forgive Mao.

I'm supposed to forgive Stalin, the slavers, the robber barons, the United States. assassins, Lear Briadlong, and they don't repent? There's no, I'm sorry. If you're a Christian and somebody asks you for forgiveness that I'm sorry, you have to forgive them. We have to resign because that's the theology. But if they don't and they continue their evil ways, and the only reason that this assassin can't do more damage is because he's in court, what do you do so but again i am not as benevolent a person as erika kirk so then the president

picked up on that and now his speech was written for him as almost every president does but he had lived this part roll of tape in that private moment on his dying day we find everything we need to know about who Charlie Kirk truly was. He was a missionary with a noble spirit and a great, great purpose. He did not hate his opponents. He wanted the best for them. That's where I disagreed with Charlie. I hate my opponent. And I don't want the best for them. I'm sorry. I am sorry, Erica. But now Erica can talk to me and the whole group, and maybe they can convince me that That's not right, but I can't stand my opponent. Well, he's an honest guy anyway, you know, and again, I got a list, you know, I got a list.

And, boy, and I know that Donald Trump, you know, people try to destroy him and his family, very, very hard. But that goes back to Mrs. Kirk. The president then picked up on the legacy. What does this all mean for the country, roll it? We owe Charlie a profound and eternal debt of gratitude now. Just like Charlie and Erica made turning point hot, we are looking at a country that has the chance to attain a level like never before.

Tariffs are making us rich again, richer than anybody ever thought was possible. And the only one challenge you in them are people that hate our country or foreign countries that are paying a price because they did the same thing to us for years. They took advantage of us. Well, it's negatively political.

And again, some people objected, but I'm saying, okay, I understand the objection. But it's perfectly in a context to what Charlie Kirk did, and he lost his life because he spoke out on policy. So Mr. Kirk was killed because of his political point of view. And so when you have a president there knows the world is listening, he's going to reinforce that point. point of view because he knows that everybody in the arena is on his side and Charlie Kirk's side. Would I have done it probably a little differently, but it was not out of context, as some people are saying, in my opinion. So, again, the legacy will be the conservative Christian

movement, will become more powerful, particularly because Erica Kirk is now in charge and extraordinary woman. That's for sure. And that's the memo. Bill O'Reilly here. I recently sat down with President Trump in Florida. And I can tell you, he is laser focused on helping Americans prosper during a second term. That's why I have joined forces with Alexander Green, chief investment strategist at the Oxford Club, for a special presentation called The Rebirth of the American Dream. In this groundbreaking event, you will discover why Donald Trump's policies could trigger an economic boom, how the AI revolution could help create more millionaires than at any other time in history, details on six specific

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and he was the chief anchorman for that network covering the memorial. You must have seen some things that you weren't expecting. Yeah, for sure. For sure, Bill. You know, your producer emailed me for this hit and said that you wanted to discuss the stuff I picked up on that folks at home didn't get to see. The number one thing that folks at home didn't get to see that we saw was as President Trump became nakedly political, and as he said, I hate my opponents and on and on and on, people started walking out, and not a few. Tonight on my program on News Nation, I will show you the video. of the stands emptying as Trump went on and turned this in to a rally speech.

And I think what it shows is that for as much as President Trump understands his crowd, and look, following Erica Kirk was unbelievably hard, but he just did not understand the moment. How many, so there were, what, 70,000 inside? By the end of Trump's speech, it was less than half full. maybe even a third full. It was a stunning rebuke of President Trump. And I think you have to realize that stadium was filled for Charlie Kirk.

Donald Trump's done a lot of things. He has never filled a football stadium with overflow. And Charlie Kirk did. And I think this brings us to understanding the difference between Turning Point USA and the organization that Charlie Kirk created and what they believe in and the politics of Donald Trump. Now, you can say very easily, well, look, Trump's just incapable of not being the center of attention, of not being the most important person in the room. That may be something to it, but there was a squandering, I think, by President Trump of the moment and just not understanding what the crowd needed at that time. Do you think he got it back afterward with the embrace of Erica Kirk and sympathy that he showed to her?

And the second question I would have would be, if you have a memorial based upon a man who was assassinated because of his political beliefs, shouldn't those beliefs be highlighted? See, that's why I didn't have any problem with what Donald Trump was saying. I would have said it a little bit differently. I wish I had written a speech. But I didn't have any trouble because that's the essence of this whole thing, that Charlie Kirk lost his life because he espoused certain things and they're compatible with President Trump. Well, a couple of things to that.

One, Charlie Kirk was the first person who was able to merge politics and faith. So many had tried to turn a faith movement to a political movement in America. He did it. And I'm not an analyst or a partisan or a guy with opinions. I'm a journalist. And I don't think it really matters whether people think they should be able to or it makes sense or the views were compatible. The crowd spoke with their feet. When Donald Trump did that, he lost the audience. I mean, I had folks calling me at home saying, what is going on here. And the idea, I think, that, you know, Erica Kirk gave that speech, you had that moment, and you said something else you couldn't pick up on. When she said that

I forgive, I forgive, you know, my husband's assassin, I've never been in a room, a room, a football stadium that you felt the emotion. The physical response of, I sort of wanted to throw up. I sort of wanted to cry. I had admiration. I'm still emotional thinking about that moment. And the fact that then Donald Trump walks out and goes, hey, Lee Greenwood, nobody can sing it like you. What are you doing? Well, I didn't say, I think it'd be a little harsh on Trump on that one.

I think what he wanted to do, because I know him so well, and I know how he prepares for this kind of stuff, I think he wanted to basically get on the side of Erica Kirk, get on her side and then say, as I said, in the lead up to you this interview, look, Erica Trump is a better person than I am. I can't do it. Erica Kirk. I'm sorry, Erica Kirk is a better person than I am.

I can't bring that level of forgiveness. I thought that was a good moment for Trump. Look, I thought the embracing her was a great moment. He should have done it. at the beginning. That's what the crowd needed. So I'm just telling you from being in the room, that when he came out and did the whole Lee Greenwood thing, it just didn't work. It felt like a rally. This wasn't a rally. This was a revival. I think it's a valid point. You did not want, you did not want it to feel like a rally, but it's so hard. Just keep this in mind.

And I'll talk about this on your show tonight, because I'm going to be on with Leland 9 on News Nation. you lose your life because of your political beliefs, whether it's Martin Luther King, Jr., whether it's Bobby Kennedy, whether it's John F. Kennedy, when you lose your life, that's what took his life. Somebody reinforcing those beliefs to a crowd that may not know. Because remember, a lot of people didn't know Charlie Kirk. They don't know what you turn to The only point is that's true. But remember, he's playing worldwide here. Yeah, Bill, I hear you.

Just as I've, I've not covered politics as long as you have, but from my sort of covering of the movement and the people, he missed the moment to hold people's hand and to say, I feel your pain and I feel your loss. And we can all learn from you, Erica. And I'll put it another way, just raw politics here. Donald Trump never filled the football stadium. Charlie Kirk did. The power of Turning Point USA to pull together a 100,000 person event in a week was stunning. Yeah. You were all the media.

So they did all this. That organization's got serious power and serious staying power. And I think you run the risk of squandering this moment to merge MAGA and Turning Point USA. That was the moment that Trump had. But that's not what he does. He, Donald Trump, lives in the moment. He doesn't, he's not thinking about that.

But here's something interesting. The criticism of Trump, after the memorial service ended, on the networks and MS and CNN, was muted. It was muted. Everybody was told to tone it down because they would have opened up even on the view today and a few of the others they

didn't come after him the way they might have yeah look I think we're in a different moment politically because of one these networks have seen the backlash that has happened with their viewership two they've seen the backlash that's happened corporately um and the threat of that and the feeling about that is very real. I didn't watch the coverage. I was sort of doing our doing it. You have to trust me on that one. I got it.

I got the stats here. Once we banish you, I'm going to read them. But anyway, look, I understand what your point of view is. I have a, see it a little bit differently. Yeah, I understand. But I'll just give you, I'll give you this last thing to think about. is this is what the conservative movement in America is going to be. And I think you saw a two-path turning point, if you will, or an inflection point here, of does MAGA become turning point, which has this very deep faith-based discussion and basis, or do they remain separate?

Now, that's the inflection point. Nobody can predict. I will tell you this. If Erica Kirk decides to run for higher office, he'll win. Well, that's what I always said about her husband, right? That if her husband, yeah, if her husband would have been president or a nominee. All right, Leela, we'll see you tonight, nine Eastern News Nation. We appreciate it very much.

Now, here's the data. An hour I had my staff analyze this. An hour after the memorial ended, we gave it a 60-minute arc, so MS had no conservative voices on at all. You would expect that. CNN had two Republicans on in the hour. FNC didn't have any Democrats on. No liberal, they just went straight conservative. News Nation, not an ideological network, so they were due to in reporting more than pundits.

So that's how it shook down. Okay. This is a story that I want to put it to some kind of perspective for you. House of Representatives, all right? Friday, September 19th, two days before the memorial, this was sponsored by the Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, a resolution honoring Charlie Kirk. Essentially, this is what it said. The resolution condemns the strongest possible terms the assassination of Charlie Kirk, all foreign political violence. Commends and honors of dedicated law enforcement emergency personnel for their efforts of finding suspect response for the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

Since the deepest condolences, sympathies of Charlie Kirk's family, honors the life, leadership, and legacy of Charlie Kirk, and finally close upon all Americans to reject political violence, recommit the respectful debate, uphold American values, and respect one another as fellow Americans. Okay, so that passed, all right, 310 to 58. All Republicans voted for in the House. But 58 Democrats did not. Okay. You know, you've got to explain this, but they won't. But Ocasio Cortez, the congresswoman from New York, she went a bit further in her rejection of the Charlie Kirk resolution. Roll the tape.

The majority proceeded with a resolution that brings great pain to the millions of Americans who endured segregation, Jim Crow. and the legacy of bigotry today. We should be clear about who Charlie Kirk was, a man who believed that the Civil Rights Act that granted black Americans the right to vote was a mistake, who after the violent attack on Paul Pelosi claimed that, quote, some amazing patriot, unquote,

should bail out his brutal assailant. And accused Jews of controlling, quote, not just the colleges. It's the nonprofits. It's the movies. It's Hollywood. It's all of it. Unquote. Okay. So we did a fact check because this is important. Charlie Kirk did not criticize civil rights and granting black Americans the right to vote. He did not say it was a mistake. So Ocasio-Gortez lied.

What he did say was that the Civil Rights Act is too broad. because it allows trans people to participate in women's sports. That was the context. Secondly, Paul Pelosi attacked. What Mr. Kirk said was that others who commit assault were not punished as harshly as the assailant of Mr. Pelosi. I don't think I would have made that analogy, But it's certainly not that he wanted the man out in the street.

Okay. The third one is very weird about the Jews. We can't find any video of that at all. Okay? Apparently, some far-left organization put this out, but it's not backed up. And there's no date on it. It's supposed to be on his program that Charlie Kirk Show, but there's no date. So we don't know what that's all about.

I do know that Alexander Ocasio-Cortez is not invested in telling the truth. And I know that with 100% certainty. Kimmel. Okay, so there is a negotiation, according to a number of press agencies between ABC and Kimmel, that maybe he won't be fired, maybe he'll be suspended, and maybe he'll come back, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe. I don't know. I know some of the affiliates

aren't going to take him back, even if he comes back. So this is, you know, I don't know why Colbert's still on air until May, for what? You know, they're done. But we'll keep you posted. So the left has made this

and not only the left, but Rand Paul, a Republican senator from Kentucky, They've made this a freedom of speech. Government is trying to deny our freedom of speech. That's, they spun it over. It's not Kimmel blacking out all conservative voices for three years inappropriately misleading the country about the assassination. No, it's not that. It's a government's footprint is now threatening freedom of speech. Here's what Mr. Paul said. Go. I mean, this is television for goodness sakes. You have to sell sponsorships. You have to sell commercials.

And if you're losing money, you can be fired. But the government's got no business in it, and the FCC was wrong to weigh in, and I'll fight any attempt by the government to get involved with speech, I will fight. Okay, so I disagree with Mr. Paul, and that's not unusual. Okay, I don't see the world the way he does. He says the FCC was wrong to weigh in. Why? I mean, the three networks are using the public airways,

and they're supposed to be broadcast. Okay. Let me give you a quote. We'll put it up and I'll read it for those listening on the radio. The Federal Communications Commission regulates public airways use and requires licensees to serve the public interest, convenience and necessity by addressing local commoning news. Okay, is the public interest, let me just ask a very simple question because I'm a simple man. Served by a total blackout of all the networks, CNN, and MS. No conservative or traditional voice can appear on. on their air? Is that serving the public interest, Senator Paul? Because that's been going on for 10 years now. 10 years. Blackout, totally. And I know that better than anybody I wrote the message of the day because I got to sell books. And I used to be on all the networks,

everybody, and now I can't get booked because I'm not a liberal. Only liberal authors, liberal movie stars, liberal musicians. That's all they'll take. Okay, come on. When Gutfeld from Fox was on Fallon, that was a big deal because it never happens. Isn't that a violation of freedom of speech and expression? Shouldn't the FCC be looking at that? That's Putin's stuff. That's what Putin does.

It's what China does. No criticism. Oh, come on. That just really gets me. All right, here's the underreported story. of the year. So there is testimony going on in the House Oversight Committee, that's Comer, okay, James Comer, about whether President Biden was actually running the country while he was in the Oval Office, because there are questions about he might not even have been making the

decisions. That's how far gone he was. And they had the chief of staff, Jeff Zinz, and they're on September 18th, a couple of days ago, Friday. So joining us now from Washington is a reporter for the Washington Examiner, who's actually been covering the proceedings here, Caitlin Dease, while many other reporters and news organizations are kind of ignoring this. Is that surprise you, Caitlin, that hasn't gotten more traction in this story? Well, I wish it didn't surprise me, but it entirely does, because everything about what Democrats have said during these investigations that the House Oversight Committee has been doing is constantly just, you know, questioning or telling the press not to look back in the past.

Don't believe your lying eyes about everything that you saw in the last four years of the Biden administration. And the press seems to be sort of going along with that the full way through. Meanwhile, you have no sense of hesitation to go through and cover some of the retrospective parts of the Biden administration, whether it be the Jake Tapper collaborative book, Original Sen, or Kamala Harris' upcoming book. But it's ironic because those books and those retellings of 2024 are kind of getting exactly to the point of what the Oversight Committee is finding in these investigations. And, you know, at first, you know, there was a little bit of a comment from here and there on certain, you know, political aides. Then in the middle of these investigations, we got silence from people pleading the Fifth Amendment, including Biden's doctor. And that all sort of hit an apex this last Friday or the last week with Jeff Zions whenever he gave his full-threaded testimony and really showed kind of the reason why a lot of these people in Biden's inner circle did plead the first. fifth because he didn't really hold back.

He really sort of kind of contended with the fact that Biden was declining in the final years of his. Yeah, this was one of the few. Now, the only crime would be if they actively misled, you know, you could prosecute there. I don't expect that to happen. What surprised you? Give me two things that you assembled about these hearings that surprised you to most.

Give me two. Well, the most surprising thing from this most recent hearing was whenever Zion basically explained that Hunter Biden was sitting in on several of these meetings about pardons that inclemency acts that the president was doing in this final days in office. The other thing that didn't necessarily come from the hearings but was sort of spurred up as part of the hearings was whenever the oversight project was able to subpoena records from the DOJ that showed that there was a high-ranking deputy there and there that was basically raising caution to the White House about the way that some of these, you know, clemency proposals were phrased, talking about how this phrasing that it was going to be for nonviolent offenders, this deputy in the was able to point out there were 16 of clemency acts that were given to former incarcerated people that were actually, you know, violent cases that they just were given clemency as part of the sweeping orders that the president was doing. I don't think anybody believes that Biden knew what those clemency orders were. The auto pen just did his job for him, and that was that. That's what I believe. Do you believe that?

I think that we are getting to a clearer picture from the oversight committee that they're going to be able to show that there were multiple occasions whenever senior aides contradicted themselves when they said that they believed Biden was fit to serve another four years when behind the scenes they were scrambling and creating accommodations for the fact that Biden was not looking good in public and so I think that what we're getting to is a report that the oversight committee is going to put out and I think that if they have any information that they have haven't divulged yet. It's going to show exactly that Biden didn't know everything that he was doing and be able to present the case that maybe he wasn't privy to any of the clemency acts that he was. I mean, we know that he wasn't, yeah, he wasn't signing off on individual clemency acts. Okay. Carolyn is saying a case. We really appreciate your time time. Thank you. In California, Governor Newsom has signed a bill saying law enforcement can't wear masks in raids of things. like that. Well, that's aimed at ICE. California has no jurisdiction over ICE. So the quote from the Department of Homeland Security from Trisha McLaughlin, who's a spokesperson, is this. Good news for

Americans of Public Safety, ICE and DHS law enforcement are part of the federal government. We don't need to abide by this garbage. So basically what the Homeland security center is to new newsome if your uh state police or anybody else attempts to arrest a federal officer who's wearing a mask you're going to get arrested that and i they won't californ authorities won't