Bill O’Reilly’s No Spin News and Analysis - The O'Reilly Update, January 17, 2025

Episode Date: January 17, 2025

Confirmation hearings continue, inauguration no shows, DeSantis chooses Rubio’s replacement, and chopsticks in the air. Plus, the Message of the Day, a simple man’s analysis of the fires in LA. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Annoguration, no-shows, Rubio's replacement, and chopsticks in the air. It's all coming up, then Bill's going to be here with your message of the day. But first, Attorney General's in 20 states are urging the U.S. Senate to quickly confirm Donald Trump's nominees for Attorney General, Secretary of Homeland Security, and FBI director. That's Pam Bondi, Christy Noam, and Cash Patel. Pam Bondi's hearing was on Wednesday. Nome's confirmation hearing is today. Cash Patel will be formally nominated on Monday and probably confirmation hearings next week.

The Democrats are indeed going to use whatever procedural delays they can use to push back the final vote on Pete Hegeseth until Wednesday or Thursday of next week. Politico framed this as Republican. want to ram through Pete Higgsett's vote on Monday. They want to ram it through. If the Democrats push this back for no reason at all, then we'll be without a Secretary of Defense for a couple days. Well, just sour grapes in Capitol Hill.

Nancy Pelosi will be joining Michelle Obama and not attending the inauguration. She's been to 11 presidential inaugurations in her lifetime, dating back to JFK in 1961. But this one's just too much for her to handle. Who will be there? Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg. The net worth of these three individuals is $885 billion, joined by the CEO of Google,

who also donated a million dollars to the inauguration fund. Worth noting about Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon and current owner of the Washington Post, they changed the mission statement of the Washington Post to Democracy Dies in Darkness back in 2017 to go against Trump. They changed it. Rividing storytelling for all of America. Chief Justice Roberts will swear

and the president, as is customary. The vice president gets to pick who he wants to issue the oath of office, but vice presidents have historically chosen another justice, in this case, Brett Kavanaugh. Marco Rubio's had a great hearing to be Secretary of State. He will be confirmed, which means Ron DeSantis gets to pick who his replacement will be in the Senate. And he's made his decision, the current Florida Attorney General, Ashley Moody.

DeSantis said he wanted somebody that's going to work with the president to deliver on the mandate he earned from the American people. Speaking of Elon, SpaceX once again launched its super heavy rocket booster and caught it as it was landing back on its launch pad, caught by two giant metal arms that Elon calls chopsticks. Elon posted a video of Mr. Miyagi catching flies with chopsticks next to a picture of his rocket landing back down to Earth. I'm Mike Slater from the podcast Politics by Faith. The Great Bill O'Reilly has your message of the day. Next. 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.

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you can trust American Hartford Gold as I do. Please call 866-3-2-6, 55-76, or text Bill to 99-88-9-8-9. Again, that's 866-326-5576-5576 or text bill to 998899. Time now for the O'Reilly Update, message of the day. On this Friday, let's delve into a simple man's analysis of the shocking fires in Southern California. In 2018, then President Trump scorched, sorry about the pun, the fire-plagued state saying it was a mess. and that the leadership in Sacramento is ignoring giant fire warning signs. So how did Governor Newsom and the legislature react to that?

Well, they ignored Trump. Did the Golden State build water storage plants? No. Did the governor lead an effort to clean up forest brush? No. How about expanding the firefighting capabilities, especially in Southern California? Did that happen? No.

In fact, Los Angeles cut its firebush. budget, but expanded payments to the homeless with no drug testing or any oversight. Now, the harsh truth is California authorities failed to protect residents from an obvious fire danger. Instead, the state spent billions on wasteful green programs that were largely theoretical. Yet if Gavin Newsom was able to run again, which he cannot, there's a good chance left-wing California voters would return him to office. The question then becomes, Should American taxpayers rebuild California via federal relief funds when the people in California, the politicians,

don't protect the residents, and the residents say, that's fine with me. Should we, the other folks, support that? Well, because of humanitarian concerns, we have to. I'm Bill O'Reilly. I approve the message by writing it. can reach me. Bill at Bill O'Reilly.com. Bill at Bill O'Reilly.com. Name in town if you wish to opine. Now let's go to the mail. Christopher, concierge member. That means Christopher has a direct

line to me, direct email address. Chris gets in trouble. My team will try to help him. Okay. Bill O'Reilly.com, concierge membership. Christopher, it says, in general, skill set, experience, and characters should be considered when assessing the nominee's qualifications for a position, if Trump and his team feel Hegseth is qualified, that's good enough for me. A lot of people feel that way. Trump wants him, Trump should get him. But a lot of people don't subscribe to that. Like Tim, the last thing we need in a position of Defense Secretary is a rookie.

Heg Seth may be brave, but being a major is not a rank that qualifies him to be the mastermind of such a massive undertaking like the Pentagon. Opinions divided on that. No doubt about it. Alice. Kamala Harris can't leave quickly enough. How rude and unprofessional of her not to allow the Vance family admission, she is a bitter woman. Why are you believing this report? I said it yesterday. Can't confirm it. It might be true, but you're believing it. You're believing it because you want to believe it. You don't like Kamala Harris. Step back from that. You can be skeptical, all right, and still hold. your values. David, I remember when President Nixon was interviewed by David Frost, he did admit making a mistake in Watergate, but after he was out, after he was out of office. We're talking about admitting mistakes while you're in. Okay? Ben Ostrob, Hong Kong. Okay, Ben. You ask people to write in if they knew of a president admitting a mistake other

than Clinton on Lewinsky, I believe President Kennedy admitted his handling of the Bay of Pigs was a mistake. We can't find that. So if you know where it is, let me know, Ben. Stay safe in Hong Kong. In a moment, something you might not know. Meet the most capable CRV Honda has ever dreamed up, the all-new CRV trail sport hybrid. With all-terrain tires and available enhanced traction control, it's built for wherever the day takes you.

Heated front seats and a heated steering wheel, ideal for winter drives and crisp early starts. And with generous cargo space, it's ready for big gear. and even bigger getaways. The CRV trail sport hybrid. Learn more at honda.com slash CRV. Now the O'Reilly update brings you something you might not know. 34 years ago today, the armed forces of the United States launched a land invasion of Kuwait and Iraq.

The mission would go down as one of the most successful campaigns in U.S. history. Here is the story of Desert Storm. August 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait, an oil-rich country and strategic ally of Europe and the USA. Three months later, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution authorizing the use of force against Iraq and its leader Saddam Hussein. The dictator ignored the UN's warning. Quote, American society cannot accept 10,000 dead in one battle. they will not attack, said Saddam.

Well, he was wrong. On January 16th, American and British forces launched a six-week air campaign against Iraq. More than 100,000 tons of bombs were dropped on target surrounding Baghdad. On February 24th, a massive ground offensive began. Saddam's forces were rapidly overwhelmed. In less than 24 hours, the Iraqi army surrendered. Four days later, Kuwait was liberated. President Bush the Elder declared to cease fire on February 28.

Iraq promised to comply with all future UN resolutions. 125 U.S. soldiers and roughly 50,000 Iraqi troops were killed in the conflict. And here's something else you might not know. Operation Desert Storm was not only the most successful military campaign in history, toppling an entire army in less than 100 hours, but it was also one of the largest global coalitions ever assembled. Countries from every continent participated, including Argentina, Australia, Morocco, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Ireland, Turkey, and Sweden. General Norman Schwarzkopf, known as Storm and Norman, commanded an international army of 700,000 troops.

A larger battalion than the Allied invasion of France during World War II. Back after this. Hi, I'm Tricia, your friend and jeweler at Shane Company, where we're all about you, your style, your budget, your dream engagement ring. Are you looking for a style that's classic, modern, vintage, or something in between? Not sure? At Shane Company, we're here to help. We have so much style under one roof because a friend knows you like options. Drop by or visit us at shanko.com. Shane Company, your friend and jeweler.

Thank you for listening to the O'Reilly update. I am Bill O'Reilly. No spin, just facts, and always looking out for you. Thank you.