Bill O’Reilly’s No Spin News and Analysis - Press Dishonesty on Iran, Joe Kent's Resignation, Sen. Ron Johnson Weighs in on Anti-Trump Media Bias, & TSA Warns of Possible Airport Shutdowns

Episode Date: March 19, 2026

Tonight's rundown: Hey BillOReilly.com Premium and Concierge Members, welcome to the No Spin News for Wednesday, March 18, 2026. Stand Up for Your Country.  Talking Points Memo: Bill breaks down Joe Kent’s resignation and looks at the anti-Trump media reaction. Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) joins the No Spin News to discuss false reporting in legacy media, the Iran conflict, and if the SAVE Act will pass. Will airports shut down if callout rates continue to increase? Bill looks at TSA Administrator Adam Stahl’s latest statement. The latest in the Epstein investigation: Rep. James Comer (R-KY) formally subpoenas Pam Bondi. Final Thought: Bill recaps the White House’s St. Patrick’s Day event. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Uh, where are my gloves? Come on, heat. Any day now? Winter is hard, but your groceries don't have to be. This winter, stay warm. Tap the banner to order your groceries online at voila.ca. Enjoy in-store prices without leaving your home. You'll find the same regular prices online as in-store.

Many promotions are available both in-store and online, though some may vary. The game begins in three, two, one. Ready or not, too, here I come, only in theaters Friday. After surviving one deadly game, Grace and her sister Faith must now face off against four rival families in a fresh round of blood in games filled with more action, scares, laughs, and combustions. Starring Samara Weaving, Catherine Newton, Sarah Michelle Geller, and Elijah Wood. Ready or not two, here I come, only in theaters Friday. Get tickets now. O'Reilly here. Welcome to the no spin news from Washington, D.C. Wednesday, March 18th,

2006. Stand up for your country. Well, big day here. We've got Senator Ron Johnson for Wisconsin, and I just finished chatting with Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina about Iran. He's got all kinds of new stuff. We're going to break a lot of news on Iran. So I think you'll be very interested to hear all that. Then we get the VOTID law, and Senator Johnson is very involved with that going on. It's just very busy and it's freezing cold. Just an aside, I had to shoot my book cover at the Capitol building today. I felt like I was in Greenland.

I mean, it was so cold. I know I'm whining. A beautiful shot. Capital background, here I am. They'll touch me up, so I look a little bit better. But I'm sitting there going, it's March 18th. What's going on in D.C.? Ayah, aye.

Descent on Iran. We had a big story break yesterday. We told you about it. I've done a little bit more investigating, and that is a subject of this evening talking points memo. So by now, you probably know, the director of National Counterterrorism, a man named Joe Kent, 45 years old.

serving the Army for 20 years. It was confirmed last year about this time, April 9th. He quit. He said that there was no reason to invade Iran with air power. And it was not imminent that there was any danger from that country. And now, Lindsey Graham contradicts that. Very interesting debate. So we did a traceback.

on on Mr. Kent and you know he basically doesn't like the fact that Israel he believes

was calling some of the shots here this is what he said in his resignation letter quote this echo chamber and he's talking to President Trump here was used to deceive you into believing that Iran posing imminent threat to the United States

so you should strike now it was a clear path to a swift victory. This was a lie. It was the same tactic the Israelis used to draw us into the disastrous Iraq war. It cost our nation the lives of thousands of our best men and women, unquote. So I don't think Israel dragged us into the Iraq war. I don't think they did. That was a miscalculation on the part of the Bush administration with weapons of mass destruction after 9-11.

But Mr. Ken has his point of view. Now, he was a stand-up guy on resigning, but you need to know a little bit more about this. So for whatever reason, Kent was not involved in the Iranian action. He was put on the shelf. And that was very strange, because when you have an action against a foreign nation, you're going to have counterterrorism. And Kent's in charge of counterterrorism.

terrorism and you got them on a bench. That tells me something was going wrong there. Clear to me also that Mr. Kent does not like the Israeli component in all this. Okay. There are others who feel the same way he does. Obviously, President Trump is not one of them. We get into all of this, as I said with Senator Graham, I think knows more about this and any human being on earth the exception of Mr. Trump. All right, so once that broke, that you have a Trump administration official breaking away from the Iranian action, and the timing was not good, because combat's still going on here, and I don't respect Ken's timing.

You want to do that, you wait. You don't do it when the planes are in the air. All right, so the, of course, anti-Trump press, they love this. Roll it. What's so striking here is that Kent is an ultra-Trump loyalist, someone who supported the president through all three of his campaigns. His own base is asking the same questions that a lot of other Americans are asking, why are we at war with Iran? Why did we attack Iran when we did? What are the goals of the war?

And how and when does it end? Now, we've gone over this before with Ms. Wallace. It's possible questions to answer. You can't answer them. Nobody could, but she continues to say that the Trump administration is evading or lying or whatever, because she's getting paid to do that. Remember, Nicole Wallace worked for Bush, but she's got money now. And Masters over at MS.

Tell her what to say, and she says it. And that's exactly what's going on. If she were working at Fox News, then she'd do whatever they told her to do, just so you know. When will it end? Lindsay Graham does a timeline for us, and it's interesting. Now, Vice President J.D. Vance was also skeptical about the Iranian action. It's not a bad thing to have an administration with his opposing points of view.

But Vance, of course, did not publicly say anything against it, which is responsible. He's a vice president. You don't make the commander in chief look bad when the commander in chief has decided to launch a military action. And you just don't do that. That's not treasonous, but it's certainly disloyal. Okay. So got a few updates.

Israel killed the Minister of Intelligence for Iran last night. Chmell, Khatib, he's done. Gas prices in USA continue to go up. $3.84 cents, up about a buck from a month ago. Buck a gallon. That hurts. No doubt about it.

And that is a consideration for all of this, particularly with the midterm elections in November. And the Revolutionary Guard Corps, is warning people to stay away from Saudi Arabia. Iran hates Saudi Arabia.

It's a Shia, Sunni thing and all on that. I can't even get involved with that. But Iran's threatening Saudi Arabia. Because Saudi Arabia is backing the action, backing the U.S. action. Okay. And that's where we are. Now, I'm making this part of the Talking Points memo. There's a report from the Institute for the Study of War.

Now, we have looked at this. It's a think tank in D.C. where we are that provides analysis of armed conflicts and security issues around the world. It doesn't look like there's anything partisan here. Okay? Looks like that they do studies and they base analysis off that. And they say, quote, let me get there, quote, that everything is going pretty well. All right, there it is.

The war in Iran is currently in a phase in which the military trajectory, relatively positive, the USA is steadily destroying Iran's ability uses the most essential tool in war, drone missile attacks, which in turn underpin the entire Iranian strategy, unquote.

Well, you never know that, listening to the Nicole Wallace's and the CNN's of the world, reading New York Times, Times of Washington Post. You never know that. They are right to their opinion, but I mean, come on. Trying to get accurate information here. It's not easy to get it.

So I thought you'd, I thought you would like to know that. And that's the memo. Now, with all of this anti-Trump stuff, particularly when American military is involved, With all of it, there is an element that says these television networks that don't tell the truth should be sanctioned. Okay? So Brandon Carr is ahead of the FCC. He said, quote, broadcasters that are running hoaxes and news associations, also known as fake news,

have a chance now to correct course before their license renewals come up. Let's face it, the U.S. economy is under stress. National debt rising, trade war, shaking the markets. And meanwhile, China is dumping the dollar and stockpiling gold. That's why I protected my savings with physical gold and silver. Theroux, the only dealer I trust, American Hartford Gold.

And you can do this. Get precious metals delivered to your door, or place in a tax advantage, gold IRA. It'll even help you roll over your existing IRA or 401K, tax and penalty-free. With billions and precious metals delivered thousands of five-star reviews and an A-plus from the Better Business Bureau, you can trust American Hartford Gold as I do. Please call 866-326-55-7576 or text bill to 99-8899. Again, that's 866-326-5576-5576 or text bill to 998899.

In communities across Canada, hourly Amazon employees earn an average of over $24.50 an hour. Employees also have the opportunity to grow their skills and their paycheck by enrolling in free skills training programs for in-demand fields, like software development and information technology. Learn more at aboutamazon.ca. The law is clear. Broadcasters must operate in public interest. They will lose their licenses if they do not. That is a threat, a direct threat.

Now, there have been two occasions that I pointed out to you where the television press has reported fallacious stories. Two. First was the invasion of the Kurds, which is picked up by a lot of people, that the Kurdish people, army, whatever it may be, we're going to invade Iran. That did not happen.

I told you it wasn't going to happen because there's no supply line. You can't get them in there logistically. Okay? And the second story, which was as absurd as it comes, is reported by ABC News, that Iran was targeting California with drones. It's totally untrue.

And so is the current thing. And when you report something as fact, it's got to be true. Right? And both of those stories got a lot of traction. And America's like, okay, what the deuce is going on here? We are we having a ground war? Are we going to California going to go up with drones? Even Gavin Newsom said,

I don't have any evidence of that. There's no evidence that there's going to be any drones fired at us. And I'm going, does ABC News apologize? No. They didn't apologize. So, you know, Carr, I don't like the heavy hand of government on the communications industry. obviously I'm doing this for 35 years.

I don't want the government tell me what I can and can't say. But if I'm wrong, every small possibility, right? Anyway, there was some reaction to Carr, and one of the reactors is Senator Ron Johnson, a friend of the program from Wisconsin. He joins us now from Washington. So, Senator, you went on a record and you said, look, I don't like this, you know, FCC surveillance, let's call it that, correct?

Well, little, Bill. That question was sprung on me before I even heard what Carr said or the points he was making. I wasn't aware of what he was pointing to in terms of what the broadcasters were reporting falsely. But, you know, having the question sprang on me, I resorted to what my basic belief is, is like you, I don't like the heavy hand of government. I don't care who wields it. I'm a strong defender in the First Amendment and freedom of speech and freedom of the press. That said, these broadcasters are granted licenses to use this incredibly lucrative broadcast spectrum,

and they have a certain responsibility to the public. So I'll hedge my comments a little bit from a standpoint of, you know, the legacy corporate media is highly biased. When they get something wrong, I think they do have a duty to correct the record. and if they consistently don't do that, if they consistently report false news, don't correct the record, their license just might be in jeopardy.

But again, I would prefer the federal government not having to wield that kind of power. It'd be nice if we had unbiased broadcasters, but we don't. And we never will again, because it's too much money and being biased. That's easy money to make. But there's a difference, and here's a difference. So when you report,

something and you say this is happening, this is a fact, and it's not a fact, that it's totally wrong. You have an obligation to correct the record. And you know, the anti-Trump media rarely does that once in a while, but rarely, they'll just let this stuff go. Opinion is opinion. I mean, almost every pundit on television, with the exception of me, is a question. is wrong every day. The Washington Post has not given back its Pulitzer Prize for the Russian collusion hoax stories, right? You got a pull surprise for that completely false narrative.

They never apologized. They haven't given back that poster prize. So no, I'm no fan of the legacy media, trust me. But I'm not a big fan of the government. And what the Senator is talking about is that the Washington Post and the New York Times ramped up this Russian collusion thing that Trump was involved in 2016. Totally bogus story.

They won Pulitzer Prizes, didn't give them back. I mean, and that was the end, to me, that was it. But what I'm trying to say is that opinion, you can be wrong, and that's not a problem, but a fact that, hey, in California, the Iranians are getting rid of, drone you. I mean, come on. And then you get into irresponsibility. But here's something very interesting that there are certain networks on the air.

CNN is one of them that won't book guests, all right, that go against their philosophy. So CNN despises Donald Trump. So you very rarely see that. I think they have one guy punded on quite often who sticks up for Trump. But it's a mountain of people against him. MS does the same thing. The networks do the same thing, not as much. You don't see a lot of Trump people on there. Comedians late night, you don't see anybody.

The view doesn't ever book people who are against their liberal point of view. That disturbs me now. Now I'm saying, and there's only one correction, Senator, only one. That would be the government licensing stuff, right? Yeah, but I think cable news is different than broadcast news. I don't think it's the same kind of licensing requirements. They're basically paying for their ability to broadcast or cable. And you've got competition, too.

Again, I like the fact we have a free press. We have all these alternate media types now. And that's a good thing. I'd rather have more speech than government restricting speech. Okay. You live in a swing state, a very important state, Wisconsin. And as we reported, oil prices, gas prices, pump up a buck very quickly. And Wisconsin is not a wealthy state and it's working people.

You know that. You know the state as well as anybody knows it. Are those people now are going to accept the Iranian action? Or are they going to rebel against it because they're getting hurt in their own personal finance world? Well, I need to point out in June of 2022, national gas prices average about $5 a gallon. Inflation was 40-year high at 9.1%. Now, that wasn't caused by a war that we had to engage in. I mean, Iran was at war with us for 47 years.

They are a menace. They are proving themselves to be a menace. We had to act before we couldn't act. Before they became a nuclear power, had so many missiles, had so many drones that you simply couldn't do. doing right now. So again, gas prices are up because of President Trump having the courage to act before it was too late. The gas price under Biden, they were up there because of his war on fossil fuel because of the policies they were undertaking. So it's important to point out with the American public yet, nobody likes high gas prices. But we actually were bringing them down with Trump's

policies of drill baby drill. And again, I hope people appreciate the fact that we had to act. I mean, we have to take Iran out. We can no longer allow them to menace the world. They've been doing it for 47 years. We cannot let them be a nuclear power. But I don't think we, you know, we don't want them to, we can't allow them to plug up the straight-horne moves either. They have to be ended that evil regime. The polls are about 50-50. The longer the Iranian thing goes on, the more of the economy be damaged. And then the midterms loom in November. So it's really impossible to predict it. I don't know how many Americans at this point in history, Senator, are putting their country before themselves. You know what I mean?

We're all human beings. We're selfish. The one thing that I'm optimistic about, and again, stunning achievement already by Israeli and U.S. military and our brave men and women, but the fact that now you have Iranian citizens basically being able to call in air strikes, That's the way you can weaken the regime, get rid of the evil doers in Iran so the Iranian people can take over. We've never been able to do that before in warfare, where you basically have the Iranian people who want to be freed of this evil regime being able to call on air strikes. It's got the Iranian security troops shaking their boots. Great article in the Wall Street Journal today about that. So that gives me some hope.

All right. We all need hope. Finally, a Save America actor, very involved with this. On the merits of it, you should have to show an ID because it's in the Constitution that you cannot vote unless you're American citizens. So how else could the authorities police the Constitution unless they're asking for proof of citizenship? That doesn't seem to be that complicated, yet you have an entire party, the Democratic Party, that opposes that. This episode is brought to you by FedEx. These days, the power move isn't having a big metallic credit card to drop on the check at a corporate launch.

The real power move is leveling up your business with FedEx intelligence. And accessing one of the biggest data networks powered by one of the biggest delivery networks. Level up your business with FedEx, the new power move. When West Jet first took flight in 1996, the vibes were a bit different. People thought denim on denim was peak fashion, inline skates were everywhere, and two out of three women rocked, the Rachel. While those things stayed in the 90s, one thing that hasn't is that fuzzy feeling you get when WestJet welcomes you on board.

Here's to WestJetting since 96. Travel back in time with us and actually travel with us at westjet.com slash 30 years. I'm just, and they're going to block that save act. That's going to be blocked. You're not going to get the 60 votes in the Senate. I'm just flabbergasted at this that an entire party would say, ah, we don't really care about what the Constitution says. We don't want any requirement in order to register to vote.

How stunned are you? Well, it doesn't surprise me. This is existential to their game plan of turning America into one-party nation. If they get the majority, they will, eliminate the filibuster, they'll end the filibuster, turn Puerto Rico, D.C. to states, those past the Supreme Court, we need to stop them from doing that. So right now the split in the Republican Party isn't so much, would we like to have the filibuster to stop really bad liberal legislation? Yeah. But the split is, do we believe that Democrats will end it and should we do

it first? I'm in that camp versus the other people that are hoping against, so I'll hope the Democrats won't do it. But the sad fact that, the, the, the sad fact that, the matter is this is their game plan. That's why they flooded millions of people into to America, you know, plus up these sanctuary cities and states, get more members of Congress, make it very easy to cheat. And the fact that they allow illegal immigrants to vote in some of these local elections, like in D.C., like in New York, once you're registered to vote in a local election, makes it pretty easy to vote in a federal election. Of course, Democrats sit there, oh, we don't want to do that. No, that's exactly that they want to do. So they're going to lie

all day long during this debate, but we're having this debate to hopefully expose the Democrats for who they are and make them defend. Why are they opposed to what 80% of American people support? Well, Minority Leader Schumer continues to make the argument that this is unfair, that a lot of people don't have IDs, and they can't get IDs. So some woman who's been married to five different guys has five different names and doesn't have the names. on her birth certificate or whatever it may be. And I'm saying to myself, Chuck, do you not understand the states can remedy that very, very quickly? Because the states, of course, are in charge of getting people credentials so they can register to vote if they're American citizens.

Am I wrong? Am I going off the path here? No, in the end, Senator Lee, it's his piece of legislation. He's made it as easy as possible to get the kind of ID, but you have to go through the effort to show that you're a citizen. have the type of ID to vote. But in the end, he leaves up to the states because we still want states to administer elections. Yeah. We're just talking about some very common sense

national standards governing those state-running elections. Yeah, because all you have to do the state legislature would say, okay, you don't have an ID, a valid ID. We're going to send you one. Here's the form. You fill it out, and then you'll get your ID, and you'll be able to vote.

But you don't hear that. You hear Jim Crow and this is that, and they don't want this one to vote. They don't want that one to vote. And, you know, my head's going to blow off. We've been here in Washington for three days. I feel like I've been here three months, Senator. I don't know how you guys do it.

I mean, this is like crazy. I was just on the floor. I listened to Schumer. Yeah, your head wants to explode. You are forced to refute what he says to say. I know. It's just so crazy. But this bill is not going to pass to Save Act this time around.

I don't like busting out the filibuster because. I said exactly what you pointed out. If the Republicans do get around doing that, then the Democrats are going to use that to do all kinds of insane stuff when it's their turn, when they have the power of the three, you know, the House, the Senate, and the presidency. Last word on Wisconsin. How do you have a poll?

How do you put your finger on how the folks are feeling in your state? How do you know how they're feeling about gas prices? Do you get information coming to you? Well, if you're a candidate, you're doing that kind of polling, and it's getting, you know, it gets the micro issues. But in Wisconsin, you just basically say it's going to be a 50-50 race. You know, if it's a November election, a fall election, it's going to be close.

No matter who's running, who's at the top of the ticket, it's going to be close. We're that close to state. That's right. We have a very conservative senator, and we have a very liberal senator as well. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but that's what we've got. And that's because of Milwaukee and Madison, those are the two big urban centers that vote left, right?

Yeah, so, you know, two me always used to describe Pennsylvania, is you've got Philadelphia and Pittsburgh and then Alabama in between. That's very similar to Wisconsin. We got Milwaukee, we got Madison, and we got a very conservative rural area throughout Wisconsin, and it just breaks down pretty much 50-50. All right, Senator. Thanks very much to take any time to talk to us.

Really appreciate it. Hope to see again soon. Stay well. We have another Senator, Lindsey Graham, on the brand new podcast. We'll do it live. But, of course, we don't do it live. We do it on tape. Now, the Senator Graham podcast is big.

I think the man knows as much about Iran and what's going over on the world than anybody. And Lindsey Graham's a hawk, no doubt about it. I wanted to take Iran out, but I have a lot of questions for him. So we're going to drop a preview on We'll Do It Live this evening at 8 o'clock Eastern and the whole podcast tomorrow, Thursday. day. Okay? I guess about noon is when they do it. I mean, I don't know. I have a big staff that does this, but I think it's new. Anyway, it's a little complicated. So right now I'm going to run a one-minute

preview clip in a minute. I'll call for it. Then at 8 p.m., I'm going to be on Cuomo on News Nation, discussing the Lindsay Graham interview with another clip. And also at 8 o'clock simultaneously, word of the day, we will post a preview. Okay? And you can get all this on YouTube, bill o'Reilly.com, you know, the usual. Go to bill o'Reilly.com.

It's much easier there. And then tomorrow we'll opt the whole thing. Does that make sense? At Desjardin, our business is helping yours. We are here to support your business through every stage of growth, from your first pitch to your first acquisition. Whether it's improving cash flow or exploring investment banking solutions, with Desjardin business, it's all under one roof.

So join the more than 400,000 Canadian entrepreneurs who already count on us, and contact Desjardin today. We'd love to talk. Business. All right, let's roll the 60-second clip. I like JD, but I can say this. He's been consistent about Iran shouldn't have a nuclear weapon. You know, everybody says...

But he doesn't want to... Come on, you know that he was a dissenting voice. You know that. I don't know it. I wasn't there, but I can tell you this. His actions about the regime were different than mine. He didn't see it at the same threat level. I do.

But I think he's been loyal to the president. Don't doubt. He's been loyal. And he's a good man, but I will say this. The threat that Iran possesses is just not a nuclear capability. They've been funding terrorism at an industrial scale. 40 years. I wrote a book on it.

Okay, you wrote a book? You need to buy it. There are 221 Marines killed in Beirut by Hezbollah. There is no Hezbollah with Iran. Hamas couldn't exist one day. There's no October 7th by Iran. The hooties, all funded by Iran. The third thing they do is that, you know, they try to get a nuclear weapon.

They fund terrorism. And they've just been basically the worst people on the planet trying to disrupt the region for religious purposes. Okay. So again, tonight on News Nation 8 o'clock, Cuomo, we'll be talking about the Senator Graham interview. As you know, the Democrats are not going to fund Homeland Security because they don't like ice. And that means that hundreds of thousands of air travelers are online, TSA, a lot of them have quit, a lot of them not showing up, the security lines

are around the block, particularly in South Florida. South Florida, I'm having a very hard time. Lauderdale, Miami, Hollywood, they say two, three-hour waits to get into the gate. I mean, this is crazy stuff. Now, what are you going to say?

Okay, talked about it with you know, Senator Johnson and look, the Democrats are sneaking out this territory. That's what they're doing. Will it hurt them? I don't know. I don't like it. I don't think there's any excuse for it, but people have short memories.

Anyway, that's undeniable that this is happening. And here's the director of the TSA. Go. We have a National Deployment Office Force, and we've fully depleted that. So at this point, we're fully stretched. And so, frankly, there's not much else we can do. As the weeks continue, if this continues, it's not hyperbole to suggest that we may have to quite literally shut down airports, particularly smaller ones. You know, I think it's going to get resolved, but I'm optimistic in this regard.

But it should never happen. All right, Epstein is back. Oh, God, this will never end. So the House Oversight Committee, that's James Comer, is going to subpoena Attorney General Bondi and Commerce Secretary Lutnik talk about Epstein. Ms. Bondi is set to show up to the Oversight Committee on April 14th. Okay? And Luttoning knew him, and Lutnik admits it. He lived near him in New York City, and I guess Lutnik went to the island, some crazy.

thing. And so, and Bondi made a mistake of saying, well, I have all the files on my desk. It's 3 million pieces of paper. Of course, Attorney General didn't have all that. I don't even think she knew the extent of this craziness.

But anyway, Comer's doing the right thing in subpoenaing Republicans because he brought the Clintons and he brought the Democrats in, so let's be fair. Okay, final thought about my White House appearance yesterday. in a moment. Okay, here's a final thought from D.C. We'll be getting out of here tonight.

I was at the White House for the Irish reception. I did see President Trump. I did not talk to him. It was logistically impossible. He had the Irish president there, Michael Martin. It was a big dog and pony show. But the White House is magnificent. So I'm Any excuse, I'll go. Now, if you want to go to the White House, because they've cut back big on the tours, got to go through your congressman. Got to make a request.

And your congressman can get it done for you, put you on a tour. It takes a while. But I'd love every American to see the White House. In the Irish thing yesterday is good food, always good food. Nobody was drunk. That was good.

They did give you booze if you wanted it. And I met a lot of very interesting people. You know, people know me and I post for a lot of pictures and things like that. But I had some very nice conversations with folks. It was very worthwhile. Again, I saw Mr. Trump from a distance. I don't know whether he even saw me. It doesn't matter.

You know, if he needs to. reach me, he's got my private number. So that's what happened. It was a good St. Patrick's Day, and I hope yours was as well. So thank you very much for watching and listening to this edition of No Spin News. See you tonight on News Nation. I hope you watch the Lindsay Graham podcast, and let me know what you think. Thanks again for watching.