Hey BillOReilly.com Premium Members welcome to the No Spin News, Tuesday September 11th 2018. Take your country back.

I have some comments on 9/11, 17 years later and how it pertains to the country today and I think you'll be interested to hear those. I'll do that a little bit later on. I want to get to the hard news.

CNN poll, just out, 36 percent of Americans approve of the way the president is handling his job. But the poll is, I'm not going to say it's a fraud but it's not accurate and CNN knows it. So why they even bother with the exercise is beyond me. The reason that it's a bogus poll is that 34 percent of those who participated in CNN samples are Democrats, 25 percent Republicans. You know and the rest are independents or unaffiliated. Come on, you can't do that. All right. But obviously they can but that's that's why this poll is a piece of garbage, it means nothing. I put Donald Trump's approval rating at 42 percent, based upon all the polls throughout the country and my reporting in the last month or so. And it goes up and it goes down depending on how bad the media is beating him up. Because there are a lot of people who don't really pay attention, hear things and then you know they change. But the CNN poll is certainly not anything that we can consider trustworthy.

The other story that's getting some traction but is murky. Congressman Mark Meadows, a Republican from North Carolina and a Trump ally. Put out a text that I guess the committee, Congressional Committee just got between former FBI agent Peter Strzok and FBI attorney Lisa Page, the two that wanted Trump to lose the election. So Strzok says to Page quote, "I literally had just gone to find this phone tell you I want to talk to you about media leak strategy with DOJ before you go." unquote. That was on April 10th, 2017. All right. Soon after President Trump took office.

Now, two days later Strzok writes Page again says, "Well done Page", and make some reference to her namesake, which would be Carter Page, a former Trump campaign worker. In between April 10th on April 12th is April 11th. The Washington Post comes out with a piece, note not sourced, anonymous sources, that the FBI obtained FISA warrants to monitor Trump adviser they say, Carter Page. So now it looks like that Strzok and Page were leaking to The Washington Post to make Trump look like he did something wrong and that the FISA judge approved these warrants to spy on Carter Page. That is what it looks like, right? But we don't have the second text, I quoted you the first one, we don't have the text, well done Page, well done what? So Strzok's lawyer Aitan Goelman says hey this isn't about leaking to the media, this is about stopping the leaks. So Strzok's lawyer is saying Peter Strzok and Lisa Page want to stop the leaks. Now do I believe that? No, I'm skeptical but I got a see and so do you, the other texts which Meadows has not put out, I don't know if he has it. So it's a potentially enormous story because of the head FBI guy on the Russian collusion investigation has a media leak strategy and we know the FBI leaks stuff and so does the Justice Department all time. That's not unusual. That happens all the time. Michael Cohen, whole case was leaked by the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, that office, maybe not him but that office. But this is really intriguing. I'm going to predict somebody is going to jail over this stuff. And I was talking to a person today close to Donald Trump and that person said to me, next week Trump is going to declassify all of the FISA warrant stuff. So the public should be able to see it, next week. Got the hurricane coming, all of that now, this is what somebody tells me, so what do I know. Intriguing. So just keep all of this in mind, all right, keep it all in mind.

Now at the time, sitting in the White House briefing room was a man named Sean Spicer, you remember, and he had to get up there every day and answer questions from the press which was openly hostile to Donald Trump from the first day took office. So Spicer was in the middle of all of this, Page, Carter Page, Lisa Page, Peter Strzok stuff but really didn't know it at the time because the text between the two FBI people were secret then, they were private then, they've just been made public this year. So I said you know, I know Sean Spicer has a book, "The Briefing: Politics, the Press and the President", I know he has a book out. I know he's just signed on with the Independence Fund to help the severely disabled vets that we've been helping for more than a decade. So maybe it would be good to talk to Sean Spicer. And here is from Washington, how about that?

"How are you. Bill?"

OK. So put yourself back to April 2017. There you are. There's the press and they're asking you about the Washington Post, FISA warrant story on Carter Page, do you remember that?

"Oh sure. I mean Russia was probably the first, second, third, fourth, tenth thing that they asked every day."

So, the Post writes this article obviously leaked, what was going through your mind at the time? Can you remember?

"Not specifically, but I think every day there was this sense that, that you wondered how this all was coming together and as you put, you get half of the story. So even now we find one part of the text message but what you know, I have a hard time like you believing that the media leaks story is about how to prevent them. I always said if I were texting somebody, I would have said how do we prevent them, not what's our strategy?"

I know. And they're not involved with preventing the leaks either. That's the key to it.

"Right. Yes that's right."

Right, so Strzok and Page had no authority to prevent any leaks. Their authority was investigating the actual alleged occurrence of Russia collusion. So you're right it doesn't really stack. But the lawyer, he's put his neck out on a limb saying oh they were trying to stop the leak.

"Well not only that, I'm no FBI agent but if you look at all the previous stuff that had come out about what they were trying to do in the text to talk about them stopping Donald Trump and the strategy, etc... It fits that therefore, the media leak strategy that they talk about, seems to make sense in the context of how do we leak this to the media, not as his lawyer has put it, how to prevent it."

OK. Well that story will develop and we'll find out if the lawyer is misleading us and Page and Strzok and were actively trying to leak stuff. And as I said if that's true, that's a felony and they're going to go to jail. And I think Comey's got problems and McCabe's got legal problems too. But the Justice Department is so slow, the attorney general of the United States, Jeff Sessions doesn't seem to be engaged with any sense of urgency because yeah, recused but he didn't recuse on leaks. He can even investigate that very, very aggressively if he wants to. So we'll see. Now, why in your opinion and I know you get into this in "The Briefing", did the press hate Trump because they hate him, from the very beginning, why?

"I think there's two reasons. One, there's always been a conservative, Republican bias in the press corps. I think my take on why, more fundamentally is because Donald Trump doesn't, has never needed them in the sense that most politicians from both parties understand that they need the press to get their message out and so therefore they cater to them. They play along with them. And as much as they may not like a story or two, cajole with them and try to get them on their side, grant them interviews, do all this. I think Trump's view has been I don't need you. I have a Twitter account with over 50 million people I can get my word out, if you guys want to sit down and act fairly I'll play with you but I don't need you. And I think for a bunch of people who are used to having, who have big egos and are used to being catered to they didn't like the idea that this president came in and clearly showed disdain for them."

Ok that makes sense. They also were very wrong in their predictions that Hillary Clinton would win. There is a cultural aspect to it is, they just don't like the kind of guy Donald Trump is. Would you agree?

"100 percent. And I think that's absolutely right, they don't like a guy who comes in and kind of does what he wants to do, how he wants to do it. They are used to being sucked up to, they want someone who comes in and says you guys tell us what we should be doing. Help us along the way, write our great story and Trump's view is, I don't need you and I don't need to be told what to do. I have my agenda. You weren't with me. You never were. You've never thought I could win. And they showed disdain for him every single day."

Now in the press room, you had Jim Acosta of CNN who has become the main foil to Sarah Sanders now. Did you notice that CNN in particular, and I want to go down for a few other news organizations, was out to get you and the president from the jump?

"Well I think I mean, it goes back to the January 11th press conference where they released this dossier and were part of implicit in getting that out without getting the facts right first. I think there was no question that whether it was because of a personal animus or what have you, I think there is no question that they were going to do what they could in in terms of how they covered the White House, that they were going to make sure that they were the number one group of folks that were against us. And with respect to Acosta, here's the funny thing, you never see Jim Acosta breaking news, it's all about the antics and the behavior. And that's what I think is interesting about him in particular, is that you've seen this in the briefing room that more people are now getting attention for how they act as opposed to what they report."

Agreed. It's hard though, I'm thinking about the best White House correspondent, I think is John Roberts of Fox, who seems to be fair. His questions are penetrating, and he doesn't root for either side. But when you're sitting on your butt all day and you know it's hard to break stories, so I'm not going to punish Acosta for that. But it seems to me he set himself up as Dan Rather to Richard Nixon. And says you know nobody knows my name right now but I can become very famous torturing Sean Spicer every day. I can become very famous, maybe get a book, certainly get a raise from my masters at CNN by doing that. It seemed to be about self-interests with Mr. Acosta.

"Exactly. It was about the clip, right. So and I would say this about your former colleague John Roberts, I totally agree. But I will say that if you listen to John Roberts reporting it's always insightful. He's bringing something new to the table all the time, that's not the case with Acosta, what he talks about is himself. Look at me not getting a question, it was about him. It wasn't about the issue in the story and that's the point that I think you're making here, which is that he figures how loud can I yell, how far up can I jump up and down. But it's about him and not the story or the issue."

Now, a person like April Ryan also a CNN contributor who obviously despises not only Donald Trump but the administration, the Republican Party, pretty outward. You know she's got a book out too. It's not trying to fake it, I mean she's not, she's a partisan. OK. She's has a right to be that even if she's in the press. Why does she have a seat, in the press briefing room? Because you know that this isn't a reporter, April Ryan is not a reporter, she's an analyst and she's there to cause trouble for you and the president. Why is she there?

"Well look under the First Amendment everyone who you know whether there are an opinion person or a hardcore news person can apply for a pass and the rule I always had and I think most White House is pretty firmly agreed to this, was that if you're a bona fide person i.e. you're publishing something on a daily basis, whether you're right or left, whether it's you know if you look at the Huffington Post and The Daily Beast both publications on the far left, I think they get seats as well. But put Breitbart and The Daily Caller and other people get admitted as well and that's the beauty of the country."

OK. You're evaluating on reportorial access OK. Because I couldn't get a seat in the Obama press room, I don't know whether you know it or not.

"I wouldn't doubt it. And I think my view was though, that what I did is let everyone in and then obviously one of the big reforms that I made was who we called on, so normally and traditionally there have been this precedent of calling on the mainstream guys. My view was that if you're from talk radio, if you're from conservative media, that you have every right to have a question just as well. So I would in faith based media etc, I believe that those people represent constituencies in America that have equal concerns and frustrations and you know issues with this country and they deserve to have their questions asked by the correspondents that represent the publications that are there. So I called on faith based organizations, I called on conservative radio, I brought in local media. My view was that the mainstream elite media had had a stranglehold on the narrative, that they were going to decide what people saw, read and heard and that there were many more voices and issues that needed to get brought into that, to that briefing."

Yeah, I noticed that as well. The two newspapers that from the jump set themselves up as the quote unquote resistance, are the New York Times and The Washington Post. Both editors, Baquet and Baron despise Donald Trump. They hate him. OK. Now, were you aware that these powerful newspapers, weren't really looking to be objective or fair. They were looking to hurt the Trump administration. Were you aware of that from the very beginning?

"Well I mean not only they're from just looking at their coverage, but I mean you look at the Washington Post in particular, they changed their entire slogan to democracy dies in darkness.

Right.

"I mean suddenly that became I mean that you have to wonder, to your point they came at this from the beginning with an agenda, this is bad this is administration is evil and bad. And I think that their coverage especially in the editorials side has shown that. They have put an entire team to focus on every word that this president says. No one did anything similar during Obama!".

Right. You knew that these two newspapers were out to get you and President Trump, you knew that?

"I think that list was a lot longer, I mean there are a lot of publications."

Those are the two that drive the cable TV news coverage and the network news selection on the evening news. Those two papers drive that because my next question was, if you were aware that there's a vehicle trying to harm you, outwardly trying to harm you, is it worth dealing with them at all, to try to give your side? When you know no matter what you say isn't going to matter.

"Well it depends on the story and the reporter to be honest with you. I mean some of it was trying to figure out, was this someone that we thought was reasonable, did we have a strong case but in many cases you know we'd get a call and says hey we're writing this story in five minutes, what's your take on this and we'd realize those aren't people pursuing the truth, pursuing you know strong journalism. So it would depend on the reporter and the story to be straight with you. But again, I think it extends well beyond those publications. There was a lot of people in that briefing room that came every day to pursue an agenda that was against this president and his agenda and policies."

No doubt, still today. Did your boss, the president ever get angry with you about how you handled briefings?

"Yes."

Give me a beef he had, give me an example.

"There were just times in terms of why we didn't push back harder. Why we gave them the platform that we did in the first place. It depended on the story and the day. But there were plenty of times, I mean and it went both ways just to be clear, there were days when I walked out and he said that a boy, that was great the way you handled that. But there were days when he would say why did you, you shouldn't have even given them the time of day on that question, you should have just said that's ridiculous and move on."

So there was a little Monday morning quarterbacking by the boss. Did you feel that you were undermined by other people within the administration?

"At times, sure.".

Why would they do that?

"Because I think that what you see, and you see it still, even to some degree with whether it's the tariffs or other economic policies the president has, where there are competing factions. So I would go out and say something whatever the president decided but there were people who I don't think it was personal but who would go out and say you know Sean wasn't speaking completely for the administration because there's this other faction that had equity in the issue and they were, they should have been brought to, you know been part of this discussion. So there were days when it wasn't necessarily personal but I think people were pursuing an agenda or a policy that the president hadn't agreed with."

The Woodward book paints a picture of a very difficult place to work. That the White House is very difficult and that there's a lot of infighting and historically that's been the case with all presidents or at least most. Would that be an accurate picture?

"I think it more so at the beginning of the administration, the first few months where there were these sorts of different factions and people who were trying to find their way. And it was this president is a disruptor he brought in people from different aspects of business, varying degrees of experience in government, so to some degree there was a little bit of and I don't know that I'd call it infighting as much as churn and I think a lot of that has gone by the wayside. But even today they're still competing sides of the issue. There's a big difference between being chaotic, which I think is what Woodward tries to create and this idea of robust debates that go on. That's something that the president has always believed in. And I think that one of the things that troubles me is this focus by so many of these authors and these reporters, on the style rather than the substance and the results."

OK. Independents Fund close to my heart as you know. I'm so happy that you have signed on to help raise their profile so all Americans can know how much good they have done for the most severely wounded American vets. Why did you decide to take this on?

"A couple of reasons. I've served you know in the military for 19 years. I know what especially on a day like 9/11, how many folks have sacrificed for our country. And what the Independence Fund and I know you've been part of this since 2010, Bill raising awareness, helping to raise money. There's so many times when people serve this country and unfortunately our government doesn't do everything they can in terms of providing the mechanisms and the mobility that they need to continue to lead productive lives and the Independence Fund stepped in and said we're going to make sure that all these people get the resources they need to be as productive as they possibly can.".

Yeah, the high tech track chairs, the high tech wheel chairs. And we've given out thousands of them.

"And the ability... And not only that but really getting to adaptive sports now. So that some of these folks that have been so whether they're you know rowing or so many things that they found so enjoyable in the past that they continue to do after coming back from serving this country. So for me it was one of the small ways that I was able to give back, you know and now that I'm on my own and not speaking for anybody else and able to partake in some of these organizations that I believe do so many great things. I just, this was my small way of being part of a great organization that does so much and so the website the IndependenceFund.org, now we've done a deal with the group to make sure that my book is available. I'm signing the books to people who go there and do it for a donation to help raise money and the funds will go to help bring so many of these track chairs and adaptable sporting equipment to them.".

And the hunting, the hunting is big for the military, they can take these track chairs, they can go hunting and go to the beach, play with their kids. You're doing a great thing, Sean, I appreciate it. Your book again is, "The Briefing", you want to get it. Order it from IndependenceFund.org, Sean will sign it for you for a donation. That's a terrific thing and I can't thank you enough for taking time to talk to us today.

"It's an honor, Bill and thanks for everything that you've done and continue to do. Not just for the Independence Fund but for the movement. So thank you and I hope everyone goes to IndependenceFund.org and orders the book, it's 50 bucks and goes towards helping buy some more of these chairs and adaptive sports equipment."

OK we'll see you soon, Sean. Thank you.

"Thanks, Bill.".

So, 9/11 anniversary. This morning I went to a very moving service in my town here on Long Island. My son, 15 years old, did the solo singing a spiritual song with his chamber choir and Congressman Tom Swasey was there a number of luminaries and it was really, it was a somber service but again the community was united. And I did a talking points memo for Newsmax today, 6 Minutes. And I hope you watch it because I lay out what happened. We were united right after the attack, as a country and then we got divided and it was basically started during the Iraq war and then it got momentum with the progressive, PC movement and the election of Barack Obama who became the most progressive liberal president in history and used his power to try to redistribute income which caused the economy to remain in a morass and people got angrier and angrier and that lead to Donald Trump. Well along the way all of those things divided Americans and now we come to a place where we're a more divided country than ever before, with the exception of the Civil War. That's the truth.

So people say to me, well is it going to get any better? Not in the short term. You are going to have a very intense midterm election. If the FISA stuff is declassified next week by President Trump, those progressives are going to go wild, they're going to go crazy, that's going to up it. Trump's got to do it, if he doesn't declassify the Republicans are going to lose the House and they may lose the Senate. So President Trump ought to know where he is. If he doesn't turn the tide on this thing and show the corruption, the organized corruption designed to take him out of office, if he doesn't do that, he is going to lose. If he does do it, the left is going to go wild and there's going to have to be indictments against the people who illegally surveilled the Trump campaign.

Ken Starr, he'll be here tomorrow. New book, "A Memoir of the Clinton Investigation: Contempt". He says that he's very close to charging Hillary Clinton with, what was he going to charge, perjury, perjury over the Whitewater thing, that will be interesting. Also says he regrets getting involved with the Monica Lewinsky deal. So I will de-brief Ken Starr right here, tomorrow. That'll be fun.

Senator Susan Collins has been threatened if she votes to confirm Judge Brett Kavanaugh, far left groups, always the case, the Maine People's Alliance. George Soros gave the Maine People's Alliance two hundred thousand bucks, The Maine People's Alliance together with Mainers for Accountable Leadership say if Senator Collins, Senator from Maine of course, votes for Judge Kavanaugh they will put in a million three hundred thousand dollars to defeat her for re-election. The Senator says that's a threat, of course it is. Of course, it is. And all this goes back to a San Francisco group. I got to tell you oh boy, it is a tough, tough time in this country.

Hurricane Florence roaring toward North Carolina. Everyone is thinking about you guys in the Carolinas. I've got cousins in Charleston and we hope that the suffering is minimal as the storm pops in.

All right let's go to mail. Ok.

Michael on the message boards.

"Love you Bill, but everyone tried to tell Trump how he should run his campaign and he won. Commentators, yourself included, are still doing it. I think Trump has his ways and somehow connects with the voters enough to work in his favor.".

Perfectly legitimate point of view, Michael and well-thought-out.

James on a message board. I'm sorry. Timothy on a message board.

"You're 100 percent right about Trump needing to get on message heading into the midterms. I wish you would listen to you and get some discipline.".

Mary on the message board.

"Bill, I believe your analysis was a bit off, with regard to Obama's critique of Trump and the, they don't pray like us, criticism. You stated, Trump has never engaged in such an attack, however some would most certainly interpret his proposed Muslim ban during the campaign as an attack on a certain group.".

Not me. I mean those nations that were singled out have no security at all and who boards airplanes, none. You can strap on a bomb on those planes, nobody's going to stop you. For me it was a security issue. If he wanted to ban Muslims he would've said nobody from Saudi Arabia. Didn't stack.

Mike Pastorie. Naperville, Illinois.

"Do you think it's possible that the Republican Party will come up with a viable option at Trump in the next election cycle. Would they do that? And does such a person exist?"

Depends what happens in the next year or so. I think John Kasich is going to run against Trump. I don't think he'll be successful. Trump's support as I said stands at about 42 percent, about 80 percent in the Republican Party. About 80 percent of Republicans support Donald Trump going to be hard for anybody to challenge him unless bad things happen.

Brian Wells. Cincinnati.

"It's hard to believe United States being as polarized as it is, there are, that there are still so many undecided voters."

Brian, if you step back go to the mall, just walk around most Americans don't know what the deuce is happening. They don't read a newspaper. They don't watch news. They don't they know, it's whatever somebody tells them, or they get on their machine.

Eddie Wilson. El Paso, Texas.

"Bill, Democrats keep saying the good economy is because of Obama. All I remember is President Obama contributing policies put in place by Bush, Bernanke, and Paulson."

Look, it's like a baseball manager gets fired. All right. And then two years later the team wins the pennant and the fired manager goes, hey I brought all those young players in. It was my strategy that led to the World Series. You can't disprove or prove anything like that. All we know is in eight years the U.S. economy was stuck in the mud and now less than two years into the Trump administration it is flying. Now those are facts.

Pat.

"Does President Obama get paid for the speeches he makes for the upcoming election?"

No. If he's speaking on a Democratic platform he does not get paid. If it's a private thing, he does and he gets paid plenty.

Mark Obasi. Manhattan.

"It appears to me, Serena Williams' behavior was not far from a current sensitive approach to life by a typical liberal college student. I would like your take on the U.S. Open.".

All right. From what I understand, it was a low level beef. The judge didn't want Ms. Williams coached on the court. He penalizes Ms. Williams she didn't like that, and it erupted into this big thing. What I didn't like was Serena Williams bringing in, oh men do it all the time and you just do it because I'm a woman. There is zero chance that that judge imposed a penalty on Serena Williams because she's a woman. We've got to stop that.

"Killing the SS: The Hunt for the Worst War Criminals on Earth", October 9th. All right. You can preorder and if you do on BillOReilly.com we'll give you a free copy of Old School Life in the Sane Lane, which you'll like.

Killing Patton out in paperback September 25th. If you buy Killing Patton and Killing Jesus in paper back together, 20 bucks.

Concierge Membership exploding, please check it out. We've got a lot of testimonials by Concierge Members. You might want to hear what they have to say, that's direct access to me your humble correspondent.

Word of the day when writing BillOReilly.com please no, jobbernowl. Great word. Tomorrow, Ken Starr on the No Spin News, we'll see you then.