Hey BillOReilly.com Premium Members, welcome to the No Spin News, Wednesday, August 23rd, 2017. 

And this is absolutely true. You can't see me because I'm out on eastern Long Island and I'm kind of glad you can't see me because I'm in my wetsuit. 

I just got out of the ocean and the ocean is terrifying today up here. Huge waves, nine footers. But of course, you have to go in and challenge the elements. So I'm in my wetsuit doing the No Spin News. 

And I'll tell you what, I do most of the research and stuff like that early on in the day. And then I go out and do what I have to do, whatever. And it was good being out in the ocean. You can think about things. Nobody there to bother you. Nobody wants a picture. Fish walk by, they don't know who I am. It's great. 

So I am exactly sitting here talking into a microphone wearing a damp wet suit off an ocean experience today which was fabulous. Not a better place on earth in the summer than eastern Long Island. 

All right let's get to the Trump speech because that's what everybody's talking about. I did get a couple of mails that said you think you're overdoing the Trump analysis, and I thought about it, because I think about all the criticism that I get, and I go "well, what else do you want me to do?" I mean, he is driving the narrative of the United States right now, the president is driving it, and it's a struggle to see whether the forces against him are going to get him out of office because that's what it's all about, overturning the election. And you all know that. 

So what else am I going to do? I'll get into a few things other than the president today. But this is the big deal. 

So, what happened? All right so the president took a beating on Charlottesville, we all know that, and he was branded by people who hate him as a racist, neo-Nazi sympathizer, KKK sympathizer, on and on and on and on. So, as always, the president was insulted, personally insulted, and he doesn't overlook it. And I talked about this a bit yesterday. 

You may remember an interview I did with President Bush the younger where he was getting just killed over the Iraq war. And I went in to the White House and I said to him, "Don't you feel you should fight back against your critics, primarily on NBC News, who are just killing you about Iraq and why let them define the narrative, you know, put forth your side of the story." 

And he just looked at me and goes "Factor," he called me Factor. He goes, "Factor, I have more important things to do." 

And that was his philosophy for eight years. He just ignored it. A hundred and eighty degrees opposite that is President Trump. He doesn't ignore anything. So, when they branded him the neo-Nazi sympathizer he got angry and spent a large portion of his speech last night at the rally excoriating (Word of the Day, excoriate) the press for unfair coverage in his opinion. 

Now, I've done two columns on this. They're available to be read on BillOReilly.com. The president made some mistakes in his Charlottesville analysis. I tell you where he did. But did he do it with any malevolent intent? No he did not. But not only did the hate Trump forces try to brand him in an evil way, but also brand his followers, which is why you saw, you know, people bailing out of...you know, if you still like Donald Trump then you're a neo-Nazi sympathizer as well. 

Trump addressed that last night, not as much as I think he should have, but he did. He said, "you know, they're coming after you for voting for me. 

Now, it was a friendly crowd, obviously Phoenix, Arizona. He carried Arizona by a lot. They love him there. And the people were enraptured. The speech was the usual undisciplined kind of stream of consciousness. But the points that he wanted to make he made. Now, of course, and I'm going to play the reaction, of course the Trump haters hated this speech. They're going to hate everything he does. But for me, somebody watching the president, he had a perfect right to do what he did last night. He had a perfect right to define the Charlottesville thing the way he thinks it should be defined in his opinion. Perfect right to do it, perfect right to castigate John McCain for shooting down the Obamacare thing. 

You know, I told you that in my opinion the McCain vote was personal. He despises Trump. And you know, I think he voted to keep Obamacare so that Trump would be damaged. I could be wrong on that. But I've got to go back to if that were George W. Bush trying to get rid of Obamacare, I don't think McCain would have ever done that. 

Anyway, I have reaction, after speech reaction, from mostly CNN. Don Lemon, Ana Navarro, I don't even know who Rick Wilson is but he's in there, and a former national security person, James Clapper. Roll that tape. 

Don Lemon: He’s unhinged. It’s embarrassing. I don’t mean for us, the media, because he went after us. But for the country. This is who we elected as president of the United States? A man who is so petty that he has to go after people that he deems to be his enemy like the imaginary friend of a 6-year-old?

(EDIT)

Ana Navarro: I am not a psychiatrist I am just a regular human being who knows a lot of people and knows the difference between right and wrong which is more than the 71 one year man baby seems to be able to know

(EDIT)

Rick Wilson: he is not in touch with reality at a degree in which he is willing to go out and let his id run around the stage

(EDIT)

James Clapper: and I don’t know when I’ve listened and watched something like this president that I found more disturbing. 

So Mr. Clapper says he found the Trump speech disturbing. Why? Why? He's putting forth his point of view. Donald Trump's putting forth his point of view on not only Charlottesville but all policy matters. Why would that be disturbing? He does it in a flamboyant way, he does it in the way that got him elected. He's talking to his base. 

So why did Donald Trump do it in the first place? Because he, and this is absolutely true, after a beating like Charlottesville, if you just slink away it looks like you're defeated. It looks like your enemies won. So you had to come back. And the best way for him is to come back in a campaign rally form. That's what it was, like a campaign rally to show his base that he's not defeated, that he's not demoralized, that it's the same old Donald Trump that you voted for. "Here I am. I'm Putting up that border wall. I went down to Yuma, Arizona where they did put a wall up in 2007, sixty three miles of it, and cut the intrusions 82 percent." 

So, you know, Trump, "I'm putting the wall up. If they don't give me the money, they being Congress, I'll do something and put the wall up anyway." 

OK. So, I don't know why Clapper is so disturbed. What'd you think he was going to do. He's not going to surrender. He believes that he didn't do anything wrong in Charlottesville and morally he didn't. He just made tactical errors, and again, I'm not going to go over my columns. They're there for you to read on either The Hill or BillOReilly.com. I think I nailed it.

And I think that if I had a discussion with President Trump he'd see my point. Because it could have been a big win for him, Charlottesville, in the sense that he could have put himself on the side of light and not got involved in this crazy back and forth, which is seriously crazy.

You know, if Clapper were here I'd say, "Listen, Jim, you don't believe that Donald Trump's a racist, do you? Do You believe he's a neo-Nazi sympathizer? Do you?" 

And if Clapper said yes, I'd say, "OK, back it up. Back it up with a fact." 

If he couldn't, Clapper couldn't, it's all ad hominem, to the man, smear. And they are smears. 

So you're not expecting Trump to reply to that? Are you crazy? 

Alright, so if you had to grade last night, you give Trump a B. Because I would have had, if I were him, a more disciplined, surgical speech. You know, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing. 

The president kind of wandered around and a lot of people, you know, after an hour, went "you know, do I, am I going to hang in?" 

I figure, you know, 20/25 minutes you should be able to get all your points across. This podcast here runs about 30 minutes and we do a whole bunch of stuff.

Alright so, just summing up, the president had to do what he did, rally his base, show he's not damaged, get his campaign points across that he's going to still do what he says he's going to do and his enemies are not really affecting his behavior, and the hate Trump press, primarily driven by CNN... it's interesting, CNN hates him more than MSNBC and MSNBC loathe Donald Trump. But CNN has emerged as the...The New York Times and CNN are the two that hate Donald Trump the most and will do anything to get him out of there. I mean anything. 

Alright, now, a couple of other stories I want to tell you about as I'm dripping here salt water on my carpet. 

The Antifa movement, this is the people that Trump tries to call out in the Charlottesville situation when he was talking about how bad the Nazis were, he made the mistake of going over to Antifa in the same paragraph. Can't do that. Got to separate the two. 

This crew is anti-American. They're not anti-fascists, they're anti-American. Here's more proof. They have now put out for college students a guide on how to set up an anarchist organization on campus. OK.

Here's the quote in the guide: 

"It's that time of year again when students head back to school with the government lurching towards tyranny and fascists killing people on the streets. It has never been more pressing to organize on campuses to promote self-determination and collective defense against oppression." 

That means arm yourself and go out and cause trouble in the name of self-determination. Alright, this crazy anarchistic thing put out by Antifa goes on: 

"If you are a student, now is the time to lay your plans, whether that means founding a formal student group, coordinating an informal network, or at least preparing to distribute literature. To do our part, we will be publishing a series of articles exploring different examples of student organizing." 

And one of the anarchistic groups that has been set up is called The Uncontrollables. That's good. So what this is is basically what the anarchists always do. They organize for destruction. They want to destroy. They hate the country, they don't like the system, they don't like capitalism, so we're going to bring it down, power to the people, right on. Right out of the the late 60s, early 70s.

So the Antifa crew, do I ever think they're going to be anything formidable? No I do not. You remember that Wall Street thing a few years ago amounted to nothing. Black Lives Matter, that's around, and they have a small following. But these groups usually don't tend to take on any kind of acceptance, and the same thing with the Nazis. 

I said in my column, I've been covering the news for 42 years. I've never met a white supremacist outside of reporting. Never. I don't know any. Where are you? I've been to every state, every major city in this country. Never met one. I've been to Couer d'Alene, Idaho. There was supposedly a big compound up there in Hayden Lake. I didn't see any white supremacists up there. 

Let's get on to ESPN. Now this used to be a dominant sports network owned by Disney. It's now fallen on very hard times because they injected left wing politics into their sports presentation. Alright, mostly political correct nonsense but some hardcore lefties work for ESPN and you know, a lot of people don't want to hear that when they're watching the game. They want to just see the sporting event. They don't want to have stuff rammed down your throat. 

OK. So there was a football game at the University of Virginia scheduled to be broadcast on ESPN. One of the broadcasters, his name, Robert Lee. He's an Asian-American sportscaster who's been with the network for a year. He's been moved to a different game, Robert Lee, because of his name. Because they didn't want an announcer name Robert Lee to do the University of Virginia football game. Are you kidding me? You think I'm making this up. I am not. 

This is absolutely true. So this has been roundly condemned, even by left wing loons, as being one of the dumbest things that anybody has ever seen in the American media. 

And ESPN is just symptomatic of what's going on. I'm a football fan. I played college ball and I like the game. I understand the violence of it. And I never understand why they can't put foam on the outside of their helmets. That's something that they could do, why don't you do it? 

Anyway, Monday Night Football, when I was growing up, was the sporting event in this country. Howard Cosell, Don Meredith, Frank Gifford, you all remember of a certain age. Monday Night Football, how dominant was that? Have you checked out Monday Night Football on ESPN lately? I mean, really. 

OK, so, you know, back in the day things were better. Here, yeah. So I don't know, ESPN, I don't know how it all happened but it did.

On another sports but political story, we're having an increasing now presence of football players not standing for the national anthem. OK. And this is because of Colin Kaepernick, who is unemployed, and I've said this before, Kaepernick is good enough to play in the NFL. He may not be good enough to start at quarterback, but he's good enough to play. 

However, he was making an enormous amount of money from the San Francisco 49ers when they cut him. I don't know what he'd be willing to play for, and they're not going to pay, they being the teams, a backup quarterback an enormous amount of money. Not going to happen. So he's out of work. There are some teams that won't hire him because he's a radical guy and didn't stand for the national anthem. I believe that. But I think he should play. 

If I were a GM and I could get Colin Kaepernick for a decent salary, I might bring him on. He's got athletic talent, he could play. But he's out of work. 

So, now other NFL players are doing the same thing, including a white guy. It basically comes down to social justice. They believe America is not fair in a variety of different ways and so they're not going to stand up during the national anthem. Totally ignoring the majority of Americans who love their country and think it's a noble place and are insulted by people insulting the national anthem, and that's what they're doing. That's a protest that insults the flag and the national anthem. That's what it does. 

Now, you can do it. Because this is a great country, we allow that kind of dissent, but it's insulting. And a lot of fans don't like it. Now, down in Dallas, at the Cowboys training camp, the owner, Jerry Jones, a conservative man, loves his country, and he's not down with his protest at all. And he's made the Dallas Cowboys pretty much aware of that. Roll the tape. 

Jerry Jones: I just feel so strongly that the act of recognizing the flag is a salute to our country and all of the people that have sacrificed so that we can have the liberties we have. I feel very strongly that everyone should save that moment for the recognition of the flag in a positive way. 

So, basically the message from Jerry Jones is if you're a Dallas Cowboy and you don't stand for the anthem you're probably going to be playing for the San Diego Chargers. No, they're not in San Diego anymore, they're in L.A. now. Wherever. 

So that's the message. And it goes from team to team. OK. 

So O'Reilly's the GM of an NFL team. How do I handle this? And I said this last year when the Kaepernick thing first broke. I say to my players, "if you don't want to stand for the national anthem, then you stay in the locker room until the game begins. But I'm not going to let you under the banner of our team insult the flag and insult fans who believe in the country. I don't think that's appropriate. I will also give you, the dissenting player, a room, a special room on Tuesday, which is usually press day, where anybody can ask you anything, you can say anything. You get a special room to do that, the dissent room. But you're not going to go out and kneel down or sit down during the anthem. If you do, we're going to put you on waivers." 

Now that's pretty much what Jerry... I don't think Jerry Jones gave them other options, but he's obviously sending a message that's not going to happen in Dallas.

So that's that. Now let's get to the mail. And then we have a couple of notes, programming notes. And I'm hoping you're enjoying the audio version only on the No Spin News. Monday we'll have video again and then it's to the end of the summer, it's back and forth, because I've got to be out here in the ocean and do a lot of other things. 

So Claude in Burlingame, Kansas is mad at me. Claude's mad. 

"President Trump said the truth, period. I'm sick of people nitpicking him to no end no matter what side of the topic you're on. The Nazi like people are the ones who invented the KKK and now the ones who are called Antifa and Black Lives Matter were and are all Democrats. Start calling a spade a spade, Bill. Lay off President Trump. He said exactly what he should have. Sorry if he didn't hold his head right and didn't chant the correct enchantments exactly the way you would have liked." 

Number one, Claude, I'm not laying off any president. My job is to keep an eye on all the powerful so you, Claude in Kansas, don't get hosed. So I'm not going to lay off anybody. 

Secondly, I have been ultra fair to Donald Trump. I mean, there's no doubt. But he has made mistakes and when he does I'll point them out. I mean, that's what I do. That's my job. I'm not cheerleading for anyone and I never have. But I liked your letter, it was feisty. 

Chris and Kelly Bondy up in Ontario, Canada are BillOReilly.com Premium Members and we appreciate everybody in other countries joining us here. 

"Bill, do you think the reason the far left is branding President Trump a Nazi is to dissuade independent voters who voted for him in 2016 from voting for him again?" 

Yeah, of course, they're trying to demonize the president and anybody who voted for him as being a bad person and if you turn against Trump you're a good person. So that that's the line of bad/good. And it's even more than that. If you're in the media and you give him a fair shake, then the Black... not Black Lives Matter, they're associated, but they don't do it directly, the Media Matters people will try to destroy you. They'll attack you, spread false rumors about you, try to get your sponsors. So it's an organized campaign. Disgusting, shouldn't be happening but it is. 

OK. Frank Mandy. Medford, New Jersey. 

"Trump's inability to consistently articulate his point of view coupled with a propensity to reply to the endless negative media coverage leads to missteps that cause the cycle to repeat. Frankly, it's getting tiresome." 

I agree, Frank. I think the president has to pick his spots. Can't respond to everything. But I think the Charlottesville thing had to be done last night. But I agree that we've got to do important things here, you've got to overlook some stuff when you're the nation's leader. 

Christine, Toms River, New Jersey. 

"Bill, do you believe that the Antifa are as evil as the neo-Nazis? You mentioned in your mail segment tonight that you don't believe they are. Not all of them anyway. Why is that? Who exactly do you think Antifa are and who do you think supports them? Media Matters, Color of Change, ProPublica, the Southern Poverty Law Center? Do any of these radical left groups have any connection to the Antifa?" 

They all do. All the ones you mentioned, Media Matters. Color of Change, ProPublica, Southern Poverty Law Center, all have connections to the anti-fascist movement, which isn't really the anti-fascists movement because these people themselves are fascist, many of them, the Antifa people. 

Now, are they at the same level as neo-Nazis? No. Not yet. They're not there yet. Nazis are a separate crew. And you can read my column and you'll find that out fast.

OK, Kevin is in Randolph, New Jersey. A lot of Jersey BillOReilly.com Premium Members, we love that. 

"Bill, respectably disagree with you on Robert E. Lee. He committed treason and should've been hung immediately after the war. The good ole boys from West Point stuck together as they viewed him as valuable for reconstruction." 

Of course. Of course, but Abraham Lincoln did not want reprisals taken against the confederate leadership with the exception of Jefferson Davis. OK. So Robert E Lee, Lincoln knew, was a symbol to the south. And if he had been hung for treason, which you could have made a case to do, I'll agree with that, Kevin, you would add much more guerilla warfare in the south. Many, many more deaths. And Reconciliation would have been setback which it was after Lincoln's assassination when Vice President Johnson took over, who was a clown. 

So Lee, you know, did he commit treason? Yeah. But there were reasons why he was incorporated back into the Union once the Civil War was won. 

Dorothy, South San Francisco, California. 

"Bill, I am currently reading The Smear by Sharyl Attkisson because of your previous interview with her. Everyone should read this book. It clearly shows the tactics of Media Matters. And I thought of you as I read them." 

Sure, Media Matters smeared me, attacked me, and unfortunately, I wasn't smart enough to fight back. There were a lot of reasons for that, not going to make excuses but I should have done what Sean Hannity did. I said that many times. I should have taken them on directly. But Sharyl's book, The Smear, if you really want to know what's going on, that's the book to read. That is the book to read. 

A few more letters, I always enjoy this. I hope you do too. 

William Vlasak. Sea Cliff, New York. 

"With the increase of troops in Afghanistan to eliminate terrorists, do you think the destruction of the poppy fields there will aid in the defeat of funding terrorism and lessen our heroine problem here in the USA?" 

No because the heroin that we get comes from Mexico, most of it. Some from South America. The Afghan heroin goes to Europe and Russia of all places, big heroin problem there. The reason that the United States doesn't take more direct action to destroy the poppy fields is because this is a source of income for many Afghans, who if we destroy their fields would turn against us. Now, I say maybe you should pay them directly as much as they get and then, you know, tell them, "look, we'll give you the money, don't even cultivate the fields." 

I don't know if that could work. But there's a lot of economic things involved with the poppy fields in Afghanistan, the opium. But you've got to clamp down. But we don't, we're not directly affected by that here, William. But it's an excellent question. 

Johnny Blaser. Centralia, Washington. 

"I'm 31-years-old, have watched you since college. You referenced Hall and Oates High on Consolation. I'm a younger fan, but a big fan of Hall and Oates. Didn't know you were that hip." 

Come on, Johnny. Everybody knows I'm hip to be square, as Huey Lewis once sang. I like Hall and Oates. I don't think Hall is a real nice guy, Oates is. But their music is, you know... a lot of people make fun of the Hall and Oates music. Why? The songs are very catchy. Some of them, like Possession Obsession are really well thought out. So, you know, I'm a hip guy, John. I mean, if you could see me now in my wetsuit. How many people do podcasts in a wetsuit if you're not talking about being an aquanaut or something. 

Final letter. Rafael, Melbourne, Florida.

"Just renewed my Premium Membership after only ninety five days because I want to get your new book Killing England as soon as possible. We enjoy the No Spin News because it's the only news that tells the truth." 

Killing England out September 19th. If you become a Premium Member you get it free. If you preorder it, you get 50 percent off any of my other killing books. 

I've got to get into the shower, I'm going to get pneumonia here. We appreciate you guys being Premium Members. We're on it. Anything happens, we're going to be right there. Alright. Enjoy the rest of the summer, we'll talk to you again soon.