Judging Freedom - Bill O'Reilly : Israel/ Ukraine Biden/Trump and America's Decline

Episode Date: January 17, 2024

Bill O'Reilly : Israel/ Ukraine Biden/Trump and America's DeclineSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Thank you. Hi, everyone. Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Monday, January 15th, 2024. My guest today is one of the world's most recognizable persons, Bill O'Reilly. Bill is clearly one of the great movers recognizable persons, Bill O'Reilly. Bill is clearly one of the great movers and shakers of our era in the media. I had the pleasure of working with him for 20 years at Fox. And quite frankly, he taught me a great deal about dealing with the media and dealing with people on the other side of the camera who don't like what you say. Bill, it's a pleasure, my dear friend. Thank you for coming on the show.

I have a couple of topics I want to talk to you about that I know you've opined on extensively. Let's start with Ukraine. Just a few minutes ago, the Guardian of London reported that President Zelensky has asked Swiss officials to put together a high-level peace conference. Isn't it over for Ukraine? And wasn't it a catastrophic mistake for the United States to waste $100 billion there? I don't think so. Ukraine is not going to defeat Russia, but Putin has got to be dealt with. And yes, it was expensive to deal with him. There's no doubt about it. But if you let Putin march into all of these countries, Belarus and Lithuania, Latvia, all of that, and do what he wants, you just have chaos in the world. So the Ukrainians are brave.

They fought him to a standstill. They want to get out now because they know that the West is tired, doesn't want to keep pumping money into Kiev. So I'm not surprised that Zelensky wants some peace. But Putin's played a long game. And Putin is a brilliant tactician, evil, evil man. But he knows the West doesn't have the heart for a long campaign. Even if people aren't dying in the West, the money he knows. And Putin doesn't care if 500,000 Russians get killed. He doesn't care. He's a murderer himself. So he's playing a long game and he's accomplished a couple of things. Moscow is now closer to Beijing, which is bad for America. And he's

managed to get that, cleave that relationship. And he's stronger than Biden. If Trump were president, I think the thing would have been handled a lot differently. Can't say how, but he knows Biden's fairly weak. And no matter what old Joe says, Vlad is a tougher guy. say Putin may have his eyes on Belarus and Latvia and Lithuania. There's no evidence for that whatsoever. My argument is the reason he did what he did in Ukraine is because we threatened to put offensive NATO weaponry there and because eastern Ukraine has been part of Russia since Catherine the Great was in charge. Well, I guess you forgot about Georgia, not the state, but the country where Putin dominates. Just waltz right in, took it over. Belarus, separate country. Putin dominates the country.

They both had free elections, Bill. OK. Free elections, Judge. I mean, you got and ditches over there. So Joe Biden gave a little talk, I read from the prompter to the press right before Christmas and saying if Putin, I think I'm quoting him, you remember this because you talked about it on one of your shows. If Putin takes Ukraine, there is nothing to stop him from attacking a NATO country. And if that happens, you will see what no one wants and no one expects, American boys fighting Russian boys.

Do you really think that will happen, Bill O'Reilly? I don't think that would happen that way, but I think Putin would undermine and will undermine, he's not going to stop undermining, all the countries that he borders. That includes the nations up north, which is why Finland joined NATO. I mean, Putin, he's Hitler-lite. This is a guy who wants to expand his power. And he's going to do it. If you were the president of the United States, and after you put me on the Supreme Court,

the Chinese had entered into a treaty with the Mexicans and there were Chinese troops and offensive weaponry in Tijuana aimed at Dallas. What would you do about it? Well, I do what JFK did. There would be a blockade and nothing in, nothing out. But look, there was no alliance between Ukraine and NATO. It didn't exist. And most of the NATO countries didn't want it to exist. So you can trump up any reason to do anything,

which is what Putin did. Oh, I'm afraid. I'm afraid of, you know, come on, judge. There isn't one country in Europe that's bellicose. Word of the day. Not one. They don't want conflict with Russia. They don't want anything. They just want to have their croissants and tea and that's it. This is all fabricated. So if you know the world, and I do, you know there are villains in the world. And Putin is at the top of the list.

So in 2022, about a month into the special military operation, as Putin calls it, the Russians and the Ukrainians had a handshake on an agreement in Turkey, which would have kept NATO out of Ukraine and Russia out of Ukraine. And there was a handshake on the agreement. And Joe Biden sent Boris Johnson to say, don't sign it. We have your back. The Americans have your back. Now they want to put together a similar agreement. After 10 million Ukrainians left the country, 500,000 Ukrainian young men are either dead or so injured they can't go back to the military, and their economy is ruined because they don't have these 500,000 young men to work once the war is over. Wasn't that a catastrophic mistake for Joe Biden and Boris Johnson to sabotage that handshake agreement? And wasn't it a catastrophic mistake for Ukraine

to rely on the endless pit of money coming from the United States, which you and I know can't be endless? If it happened, it was a blunder. I don't know what happened. It's not on the record. There's no proof that it happened. It doesn't stack to fund this war, but we can make it very difficult for Putin. And we have. Putin is not very popular in his own country right now. He can't go anywhere, can't travel outside the country. In the country, he's surrounded by tanks wherever he goes. We've made his life difficult. I hope that they can come to some deal. The deal will say where Russia is now, they'll stay. And then there'll be elections or whatever nonsense, because there'll never be free elections. And then Ukraine goes back.

It's a lesser country now than it was, but the war stops. That's what's likely to happen. All right. Here's a little clip from one of the Ukrainian negotiators at the conference in Turkey where there was a handshake agreement that was disrupted by Biden and Johnson. Tell me what you think of this. And to my mind, very quickly after invasion in 24 of February last year, he very quickly understood his historical mistake. And I was in that moment in the group of Ukrainian negotiators. We negotiated with the Russian delegation practically two months, in March and April, the possible peaceful settlement agreement between Ukraine and Russia. And we, as you remember, concluded the so-called Istanbul communique.

And we were very close in the middle of April, in the end of April, to finalize our war with some peaceful settlement. For some reasons, it was postponed. But to my mind, Putin, this is my personal view, Putin in one week after started his aggression in 24 February last year, very quickly understood he did mistake and tried to do everything possible to conclude agreement with Ukraine. A statement, if true, and I have no reason to disbelieve him,

should appeal to you. Putin made a mistake, knew it was a mistake right away, began the negotiation, they concluded the negotiation, and then something happened. He doesn't mention Boris Johnson or Joe Biden. Do you still question whether or not there was an agreement? Wait, who was that guy? A negotiator for the Ukrainian government at the- What's his position in the Ukrainian government? He is a former ambassador. I don't think he's in the government anymore.

He wouldn't be saying that. You know, I got to be real suspicious about this. Not the way the USA does business. We don't send Boris Johnson over to negotiate treaties. It's just not the way the country does business. Look, Biden's befuddled. He doesn't know what's happening from day to day. He can't grasp complex issues anymore.

He's mentally not up for the job. But this whole thing doesn't stack up for me. I'd have to know a lot more about this guy, what his job was, who was at those meetings. Putin wasn't at them. He wasn't there. Fair. No, no, I wasn't there. If I were there. Yeah, I mean, come on. I mean, anybody can say anything. Is the behavior of the IDF in Gaza genocide, as has been alleged and I believe adequately demonstrated at the International Court of Justice last week.

I'd have to see the war maps. I'd have to see what the IDF is actually trying to accomplish before I make that statement. My question to you would be, if you are the president of Israel, how would you defeat Hamas? What would you do? Well, I would probably have a two-state solution, but that doesn't seem to be feasible. There isn't a state. You can't have a two-state solution when there's only one state. Well, you'd have to recognize, the UN would have to recognize- Recognize who? Hamas controls Gaza. But you're moving off the question.

Hamas was created by the U.S. No, no, no, no, no. I'm not moving off the question. Wait a minute. What do you mean no, no, no, no, no? I'll ask the question. I'm expanding the question. If you're going to make an accusation that Israel is responsible for genocide, which is the execution of civilians. Yes.

Okay. You're saying you don't know what's happening? No. Are we genocidal because of the atomic bombs in Japan? Yes. Oh, we are? Yes. That was an attack on civilians,

but I don't want to talk about that. I want to talk about what's happening now. It's all intertwined. How do you protect yourself against a terror group like Hamas that comes in and wipes out 2,000 of your citizens? Well, you don't do it by killing babies. Well, wait. What do you mean killing babies? We killed babies, the United States, in World War II every day.

Not to wipe out a race of babies, as the leadership of the Israeli government has said they want to do. They're animals, let's bury them alive. You think that Israel, the Israel military and government is sitting around going, we want to kill as many innocent Palestinians as we can. They don't consider any Palestinians to be innocent, and they've said it. They consider babies to be snakes. How about a baby? Come on. You see, you're showing a naivete.

All right. This is a war. Israel has to defend itself against a terror group. All right. This is a war. Israel has to defend itself against a terror group. All right. In a war that's urban, you're going to have civilian casualties. Do you think that's what happens in every war? But casualties that are the byproduct of shooting at soldiers or killers are acceptable. Casualties that are civilian and intended are not acceptable morally, legally, or internationally. I don't believe the Israeli military is launching campaigns to kill ordinary citizens and babies. They're dropping 2,000-pound bombs on refugee camps

that have no military people in them. And you don't think they're trying to kill civilians, Bill? I don't know that to be a fact. I haven't heard that report anywhere. And believe me, if it happened, you would have heard of it. Here's a tape. Chris, this is number two of the oral argument at the International Criminal Court. So this is brief. It's been a minute long. This is one of the South African lawyers speaking to the court, making an argument about what Israel has done. In the midst of this argument, he runs a tape of Israeli soldiers dancing on the rubble in Gaza and saying, we're going to slaughter them like we did Amalek. You remember Catholic school. You remember what Amalek is, but here you go.

On 7 December 2023, Israeli soldiers proved that they understood the prime minister's message to remember what the Amalek has done to you as genocider. They were recorded by journalists dancing and singing. We know our motto, they are no uninvolved, that they obey one commandment to wipe off the seed of Amalek. The prime minister's invocation of Amalek is being used by soldiers to justify

the killing of civilians, including children. These are the soldiers repeating the inciting words of their prime minister. I'm coming to occupy Gaza and do Hezbollah. I seek my one mitzvah to wipe off the singing of Amalek. And you know him, I know him as well. I actually met him in the green room outside of your studio in the good old days. Bibi Netanyahu reminded the Israelis of Amalek. That's a reference from the Old Testament where supposedly God said,

kill all the Amalek, even babies and sucklings. And that was the reference that Bibi used that the troops are now picking up. You still think that this is a lawful war? If there is evidence that the Israeli government and the military are launching campaigns against civilians to kill civilians, then that evidence needs to be put forth. Not by some guy in South Africa who has no blanking idea. Now, the dance you just showed, that's disturbing in this sense. It shows a lack of discipline

on the part of the Israeli military. They have to have discipline when they go into these places. Now, the Israelis say, we aren't targeting civilians. We're hunting down Hamas leadership and fighters, but they hide in, and this is, you know, to be true, if you read my book, Killing the Killers, they hide in civilian enclaves.

So when we go in to get them, there are civilians being held hostage by Hamas in those enclaves. And the final point I'll make is that the Hamas action in October was solely directed at civilians in Israel. There was no military component. It was slaughter Israeli citizens. Now, one atrocity doesn't justify another. But this has not been reported accurately. And I don't have access. I don't have access to the military plans of the

Israelis. I don't. There were 200 troops that were killed on October 7th. Some were actually killed by the Israeli military because they looked like they were going to be close. That was a reactive force, but the thrust of the terror attack was on a kibbutz, and you know it. Agreed. I agree. But there were troops that were killed as well. Let's switch gears. I don't think Joe Biden's going to run for re-election. I think Chuck Schumer and the Democrats are going to say, what are you, crazy? You can't pass a driver's ed test. How are you possibly going to take on Trump? We've got to switch gears, go home to Rehoboth, tell everybody that you're going to work on the economy and work on Israel and you don't have time to campaign.

What do you think? Well, I've said that for a year, that I don't think Joe Biden's going to be the nominee. The only way it shakes down, though, is if Biden resigns like LBJ did and says you mean we're dying as a candidate you don't mean resign the presidency no resign as a candidate right i'm not running again right okay so lbj in 68 said i'm not i'm not running again and biden would do that very close to the convention in the summer and say, I'm giving my delegates to Michelle Obama or Gavin Newsom or whoever.

And Schumer didn't have anything to do with it, by the way. Whoever the Democratic big shots want. The Biden campaign's being run by Jeffrey Katzenberg. Do you know him? I know of him. I've actually met him at Fox. I know exactly who he is. He's a Hollywood mogul. Katzenberg

has with Spielberg and Geffen and Ari Emanuel. They have a cabal. The cabal has another cabal in silicon valley which is who do they want or who do they want to replace by you throughout um if they had a consent oh they'd love to have michelle

but anyway you need to understand this chuck schumer has no power at all no all right well i use chuck schumer as a metaphor. The leading Democrats will go to Joe and say, you got to step down. It's the money. It's the progressive money men, the Soros of the world. They know that Biden is incapacitated and they know he could lose to Trump or Nikki Haley. So they're desperately trying to find someone where Biden would not run. Okay. And then give his delegates to that person. What about Vice president? Well,

no, she's not a factor anymore. She is gone. Okay. So Michelle Obama surfaces last week, last Monday, a week ago on some podcast, Jay Shetty. Why?

She got no book, didn't have lunch with Oprah. So people like you and I would talk about her. Why? She doesn't seek that. She's never been a headline seeker, an exposure seeker. There was a reason that she did it.

I'm here. I'm here. I'm ready to remind everybody that she's here. Now, when I saw that, I went, oh, so don't be surprised if she starts to rise up. What about your old friend Hillary? No way. She's detested by the American public. No way.

What brought about woke and the degrading of basic Judeo-Christian values in America? How did we get to the point where they're telling children, you can change your sex and you don't have to get your parents' permission? There's always been, since the 1920s, after the Russian Revolution, a movement in America to impose communism or socialism. Oh, it's always been there. Constant. OK, it exploded in the 50s with the McCarthy era. Everybody was a communist, but it's always been there. And then it became dormant. All right. And then with the rise of the most liberal president ever before Joe Biden, Barack Obama. Biden is the most

liberal president. But when he ascended, the progressives then organized. Now, Barack Obama was not progressive enough for that. Remember, he deported more foreign nationals than any other president. He wasn't progressive enough for the Hollywood people, the Silicon Valley people, for Soros. But they had a foothold. And then as when Trump took over, they used the loathing of Trump by the media to co-opt the media. So the press hates Trump so much that they now glorify the progressive movement. Once you have the corporate media pumping up a movement like that,

then you run wild. And that's what happened. Bill O'Reilly, always a pleasure, my dear friend. I hope we get to work together soon, either on my show, your show, or wherever the fates may take us. All the best. Thanks for having me, Judge. Thank you. Coming up at four o'clock this afternoon, Professor John Mearsheimer, you know you'll hear a decidedly different view of Ukraine and Israel from the good

professor. I hope you appreciated Bill as much as I do. Judge Napolitano for Judging Freedom. Thank you.