Bill O’Reilly’s No Spin News and Analysis - NO SPIN INTERVIEW: Stephen A. Smith

Episode Date: August 26, 2024

Bill talks with author and ESPN host Stephen A. Smith about race and politics in America. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At the end of July, Donald Trump got involved with talking about the vice president's ethnicity, whether she was South Asian, African American, right? And I said this on News Nation. Go. The broadside against Kamala Harris was that she's a phony, that she used one bit of ethnicity to do this, one bit to do that. But Trump didn't articulate it. But let me send this message to everybody. Any American who injects skin color into any conversation these days in a negative way is a fool. Period. You're foolish.

Skin color doesn't have anything to do with politics, with the way we live, and who we are as Americans. There's nothing to do with it. Now, if you are a person who lives and dies on skin color, I feel sorry for you. All right, note the word negative. Okay, I'm going to quote it again. Any American who inject skin color into any conversation these days in a negative way is a fool. I stand by that until I'm in the ground.

But that comment was the subject of robust debate. Stephen A. Smith on News Nation. Go. Respectfully, Bill O'Reilly, who wants to? earth are you to say such a thing. You are not black. You are a white individual in the United States of America, and we know there's a white power structure that has existed in this country and forever. And so we understand that. Let's get that out the way first. Secondly, when he talked about skin color, well, again, if you're living in our skin, come talk to us. Until then, you don't

have a right to say that because you don't know what we experience as black people. And joining us now from L.A. is the author of a very good book. Straight Shooter, a memoir of second chances and first takes. Enjoyed reading that. And you know him. He's on ESPN with the sports. And he's ambidextrous because he talks politics as well, Stephen A. Smith. So first of all, thanks for coming on. Most would have fled in terror. But you are here. I'm telling you that if you talk about skin color in a negative way, you're a fool. And you think you can talk about skin color in this country and really move the discourse along in a positive way? You really believe that? Well, I think that if you are an individual that's fair-minded, which, shockingly, or to a lot of people out there, I find you to be fair-minded, I think if you're talking to somebody and you're fair-minded and you take into account the position that they're coming from, then obviously it's going to heighten your level of sensitivity because you're not going to understand that you're not living in their shoes.

And when I listened to you speak the other day, like I said, I have a distinct advantage when it comes to you. When you had the O'Reilly Factor, I barely missed it. It was an elite show. Obviously, you were a preeminent voice in the world, the King of Cable Television, as they said. weeknights at 8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on Fox News Channel, I watched you all the time. And I know that you are an independent. You don't consider yourself a Republican or a Democrat, and you do what you believe the facts tell you. And so my attitude was, where was that Bill O'Reilly when he was talking to Chris Cuomo?

I didn't see that person. I saw a person that's... Well, let's get specific. What do you mean? My thesis is that we're all Americans. Okay, pluribus, uno, all right? Okay. And that we are beyond, we are post-racial in evaluating people on the basis of their skin color

or disparaging people, as Trump did to Kamala Harris. Nobody did, all right? We are beyond that here. And if we're not, then people like me and you should disparage the skin color people. people. That's the point. That's the point I made. Yeah, but you were saying also, in other words, you were alluding to this reality that that's virtually non-existent, that that's not something that's really going on in everyday America today. I would say to you, it might be more the exception than the rule in today's generation compared to what it was decades ago, but it still exists. Ask any black person, and they'll tell you that. We deal with things. I'm not talking about personal prejudice and bias at all. Okay.

My thing was centered around Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. That was the context of the remarks. Yeah, but you were expensive. What? But you were expensive. You went, you were expansive. I was expansive in the context of anybody making decisions to attack another person or criticize another person on the basis of skin color is a fool.

I agree with that. He agreed there. Well, that's what it was. Look, I understand the reality that African Americans and other minorities are treated differently in some places than Caucasians. Everybody gets that. But when politicians at the highest level, Stephen, this is very important for a guy like you who has access to a lot of minority viewers and listeners.

It's very important you understand that. When these people devolve into criticism because of skin color, that should not be acceptable. It's not acceptable. Nobody is saying that it was, and I'm not saying that you are saying that it was saying is acceptable. I'm saying when you contextualize what you were saying, you said, you became a bit more expansive.

And you said, let me go on to say this. Anybody who does, as you just articulate it, is a fool. And I'm saying to you, there's a whole bunch of fools out there, Bill O'Reilly. Are you paying attention? There's a whole bunch of fools. Of course, I'm paying attention. I lamb base those people all the time. Let's get specific now.

So we talked about the overall general point. I want specific answers. There are Americans, millions of voters, who vote on a basis of skin color. So if you're black and a black candidate is running, you see that person more favorably. Is that right or wrong? I think that's wrong. I think the one place where it was right was with Barack Obama. There was no way in hell that black folks were not going to vote for Barack Obama for the presidency of the United States.

Why? Why were black folks going to vote for Barack Obama when they didn't know anything about him? He didn't really distinguish himself in the Senate. Why were they going to vote for? Well, first of all, I'm not going to speak for all black folks, but I'm going to say this to you. No, I know, I know. But you're a penny. I'm going to say this to you, Bill.

There were about 43 presidents that arrived before him that had an opportunity to screw up, and they were all white males. How come he couldn't get an opportunity? That was the thinking that a lot of folks in our community had, not all. And that's legitimate. In other words, a first chance. That's number one. Then secondly, when you take it to account, I'll tell you this, you know, black folks hold black folks accountable all the time.

So this notion that because you're black, you're automatically going to get our support. I'm sorry, that is not how it works. Black folks are putting black folks in jail all the time. They're making sure they're in prison when they break the law. They're calling 911 to call a cop for them all the time. Oh, that happens all the time. It makes no mistake about it. I think where it gets interesting, however, is when you think about your lane, the political landscape,

but the political apparatus that exist in this country, you might think that somebody is supporting this candidate because they're black, when in fact they happen to be black, but they may be a liberal and their ideology may vibe with that particular voter. Possible. But you know as well as I do that people like Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson before him, although Jackson wasn't nearly as bad as Sharpton, traded. on skin color to whip up resentment, look, one of the things that is absolutely false is the charge that Donald Trump is a racist. He is not a racist. I've known a guy I've never called

him that. I've never called him. Of course not. You wouldn't be on the program or I'd be just hammering you like into putting if you did. You haven't. The reason you're on a program is because you're sane, and I want to hear your point of view. And when you said that, I said, get them on and we'll debate. And as I said, most people wouldn't have in your position. They would have run, but you didn't. But anyway, there are people in this country who vote because of skin color. And I'll give you a vivid example. African Americans were bailing from Joe Biden. They were bailing from him. Yes, there was a, there was a perception that the man was way beyond capacity to do the job. Yes. Okay. But as soon as Kamala Harris came in as a woman of color,

that jazzed the whole minority community. And you know it. All the polls say it. Wait a minute. You know, you know better than me, Bill. I would challenge you on that. How come it can't be the galvanization of a bunch of women out there because obviously reproductive rights is going to be a huge element in this election. All right. Reproductive rights, hooey. Okay. It's an issue. It's an issue, but it's not the dominant issue in this country. What the dominant issue is, is elevating people in the working and middle of class, so they have some security, which Trump did in his four years as African-American employment

and wages went way up. But let me just, let me just tell you this. You have a situation now in this country where Kamala Harris has no record at all, none, did zip for four years in the Senate. Nothing. I don't care what she did in California. That's a local situation. I'm talking national policy. You have a situation where this woman did nothing in the Senate was a terribly unpopular vice president, 32% approval, and won't talk to the press. Totally avoids the press. Hey, listen. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Wait. I called out about avoiding the press. I said you got to show up and do so you.

You got to talk. You got to take some tough questions. Okay. I've been on the record. that already. But it's not about you. It's about her. Okay? So you got three strikes on her. Nothing in the Senate, terrible vice president, won't talk to the press. Yet, you have delirium in Chicago. The greatest person ever, here's Kamala Harris. And I'm going, this is not based on public policy. This is based on emotion and a number of other things. That it shouldn't be. based on. Go ahead. Well, what you could say it shouldn't be, but you've been around considerably longer than

me, and you certainly have been in this realm considerably longer than me. You know emotions play a role in terms of how you're going to vote. So that's number one. All right, I didn't say it makes it right. I said it's a reality. I'm talking reality. I'm not talking right or wrong. I'm talking reality. Now let's take into the count this.

There was no primary. Guess what? Why was Biden, even in a position where he could show up on June 27th to debate against Donald Trump. There was clear slippage before then, but somehow, some way, they greased the skids and made sure there was no competition. And then when suddenly you saw him on center stage on June 27th, and he clearly looked like he had lost his fastball significantly, by the way. All of a sudden, everybody was in panic mode. So now you don't have a situation because you're running out of time. The Democratic National Convention is about to show up. You've got to have a presumptive nominee, right? And this person, it was the Biden-Harris administration, not the Biden administration. Now in the binary system that we live in, they're saying, okay, it's one or the other. Okay, it's her. She doesn't really have a record to show on. She was four frackage. We said now she's against it. The border issue. Over 10 and a half million people,

you highlighted it at the beginning of the show. The people that have crossed the border, that was supposed to be on her watch because even though she wasn't the czar, she was perceived as being the czar. Okay, we've got that issue. We've got inflation as an issue. What the hell are the Democrats or the liberals, you know, celebrating for? They're celebrating this celebrating because of the alternative. The alternative is an individual in a lot of people's eyes who is as loose of a canon as they come, who they don't believe they can trust, who they believe will engage in vengeance. Okay. It's an anti-Trump vote. I understand that. There you go. That's why Biden got elected in the first place. That's right. And you said Biden lost his fastball.

Stephen A, he never had a fastball. He was a knuckleball pitcher from way back, okay? Can we be nice? He never had. Can we be nice? He never could bring me. Everybody can't be Bill O'Reilly, man. Everybody can't be Bill O'Reilly. No, you're right. He was another ball and that's a basketball. I got it. One of me is quite enough. Look, I'm going to send you, and I want my producer to write to sound overnight confronting the president's to Stephen A, because I want him to see that. Last question for you. Okay. So now, you're a common sense broadcaster because I said you're amy, Dexter, you do sports, and you do contemporary things that are beyond sports. Yes, sir. You must know how corrupt the corporate media is, even though you work for ABC. And I don't want your bad mouth ABC to do it right by you, okay, because you deliver for them. Same thing. When you deliver, you get paid, as they say in the dugouts of every major league baseball team.

But you must know the level of corruption in this country. that has, seeks to destroy Donald Trump, not only as a candidate, but as a human being. And a lot of that destruction directed at him, has affected him and affects this race. So we may elect a president that is not capable of running this country, Kamala Harris.

I don't believe she's capable of running it. Where we know Trump is capable, whether you like them or not, That's a disturbing situation. Last word. I don't know that he's capable at this point because of the point you just made. I think that he has been, listen, I've been on the record saying, go get him. If you, go beat him.

Stop looking for all the assistance of the world. I understand they may have had, they felt they had cases against them. The insurrection on January 6th, you know, the vote, looking for 11,000 votes, 11,700 votes in Georgia and all in the other stuff. I've been of the mindset, go out there and beat him. All right, if he is all that you say is, go out there and beat him. There is no doubt in my mind. It's not about one network. It's not about anybody. The corporate media, as you will call it, clearly doesn't want him on board. But when are we going to ask the question from your vantage point, Bill, as to what he does to bring it on himself? The presidency is a statesman's position. It's about galvanizing.

It's about bringing the country together. It's about unifying all of us and making sure to we understand a priority that America needs to be. And conducting ourselves accordingly. You've got cabinet members out of the wazoo that talk about him at every turn because he called them every name under the sun. He dismissed them. He questioned the intelligence.

He did everything after he didn't want them anymore. He just twist and turned, even turned against Fox News at one point. And we all know what they did to help him along the way. He does damage to himself without getting into all the other stuff that people want to say about it. No, daddy, he brings it on himself.

And we have chronicled that here. And by the way, just for your information, and I appreciate the common words about the O'Reilly Factor, we reach more people here on a daily basis now than I ever reached it. Through social media, through YouTube. I didn't know. Nobody knows because the corporate media won't tell you that. All right?

Well, listen. That's why Vance is coming on on Thursday, and you should watch that interview. Because I'm trying to say to them, it's a changing media environment here. Because most Americans know the fix is in. They know the corporate media has allied up, partnered up with the Democratic Party. That's not healthy for our democracy.

But it's not about partnering up with the Democratic Party. I don't think that's what it is. People like me, for example, I have no problem seeing a bunch of Republicans in the Senate and Congress. But you're an independent, though. Yeah, yeah. But what I'm saying is my issue, when I think about the presidency, I'm looking at you and who you are and what you stand for and whether or not the country can trust

that you'll lead for all of us instead of thinking about yourself and who you want to exact vengeance upon. That is an issue. You can't ignore that. You can't ignore that. Listen, my job is to point out strengths and weaknesses of both candidates.

Trump's got some strengths. Kamala, I'm not sure. I haven't seen it. You're not sure. And I'm saying not being sure is better than knowing that this particular person that scares the living hell out of you.

Well, it doesn't scare me, but I understand that he does scare millions of people. You're Bill O'Reilly. You're Bill O'Reilly. You don't have to deal with a lot of stuff the average Joe in America has to deal with. You ought to put me on your ESPN show with plug confronting the president.

I'll put you on my podcast. I'm going to bring you on my podcast. We have more time. Yeah, well, I'll do your podcast. But here's what I want to talk about, how the NFL, okay, is operating because that's an untold story about how the national football league, the largest spectator sport, most important spectator sport in the world, past soccer now, okay, how they really

operate. And I'm not, and I'm not a bad-mouthing NFL guy, by the way, okay? But it's fascinating. And most sports cases are afraid of it, but you're not. So we'll do that. They're ahead of the curve. They're head of the curve in a lot of ways, and a lot of people are following them. Thank you, Stephen, for coming in. I think the viewers and the listeners got a lot out of that conversation. We really appreciate it. No problem, Bill. Take care.