BillOReilly.com Premium Members welcome to the No Spin News, tonight with a caveat, I'm not here. I am here but it's on tape. Filling in for me, Dr. Monica Crowley. Is this a win for you or what?! Much better looking, much smarter, much more perceptive. Monica is going to be handling the No Spin News throughout the evening, I want you to pay close attention to her and write her some mail, you know, so she can do the mail segment tomorrow. So, we will be back on Monday a week from tonight and Monica will be here throughout the week, and we'll have some specials as well, so I hope you enjoy it. Take it away Monica. 

And thank you so much, Bill. Welcome to the No Spin News, I am Monica Crowley in today for Bill O'Reilly. Thank you so much for being here. We have so much to get to, we've got a lot of news coming at us today.

First up, history was made in the Middle East. Finally, after decades of promises the United States Embassy was moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. We had for decades now, we've had presidents on both sides of the aisle and frankly members of Congress on both sides of the aisle, saying that the capitol, should, of Israel should in fact be Jerusalem and our embassies should be located there. 1995 Congress passed the Jerusalem Embassy Act with huge bipartisan majorities passing that bill into law, ninety five to three in the U.S. Senate, and yet after that we had presidents on both sides of the aisle do precisely nothing about it. Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama never had the cojones to make the move until President Trump. He campaigned on the promise and today he delivered on the promise. Here we have Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the opening ceremony. Take a look. 

"Over a century ago the Balfour Declaration recognized the right of the Jewish people to a national home in this land. And exactly 70 years ago today, President Truman became the first world leader to recognize the new born Jewish state. Last December, President Trump became the first world leader to recognize Jerusalem as our capital. And today the United States of America is opening its embassy right here in Jerusalem. Thank you, President Trump for having the courage to keep your promises. Thank you, President Trump, and thank you all for making the alliance between America and Israel stronger than ever." 

Well, finally we have an American president who means what he says and says what he means and has, as the Israeli prime minister says, the courage to act in America's interest, which also happened to align here with Israel's national interests, finally. 

And perhaps the more important point to consider is that in recent memory we haven't really had a president who understands one basic truth, which is that we have leverage. We're the United States of America by virtue of being the world's only superpower, not only do we have the leverage, we are the leverage. Finally, we have a precedent in President Trump who recognizes that, understands that and is willing to act on it. You do it, you hold people accountable you call our enemies bluff and if necessary you retaliate against bad behavior. We were, I was just recently in Israel and I went down to the Gaza Strip, but the Israeli Defense Forces would not let us close to the Gaza Strip because tensions were rising. But there you see me in the northernmost part of Israel, a town called Metula the northernmost point in the Golan Heights and right behind me you can see the fence, on the other side of the fence is Syria and now you're not just looking at Syria, you're looking at Iran and Russia as well. So, when I was there just a couple of weeks ago, you could feel the tension and now Israel has closed that entire area and I could not go back there today. So, we will see what unfolds and what the reaction is going to be but this President is unafraid to actually use American leverage, to stand for what is right. 

Yesterday, we also had some breaking news from the new national security adviser, John Bolton, he said that maybe, just maybe the United States would levy sanctions on European Union companies that continue to do business with Iran, given that the United States has now pulled out of the JCPOA, which is a fancy title for the Iran nuclear deal, a deal that President Trump has said, correctly, is probably the worst deal in American history. Why? Because the United States under President Obama sent north of 150 billion U.S. dollars to the world's biggest state sponsor of terror and gave that big spit state sponsor of terror a glide path to a nuclear weapon. So, the President withdrew which was 100 percent the correct decision, but now we've got a different set of issues because some of our craven European allies, who are, there companies are on the take in Iran making deals, heavily but cautiously investing in Iran now that sanctions have been lifted under President Obama, President Trump is going to reimpose those sanctions but their unilateral only on behalf of the United States. So, now the Trump administration is in the process of leaning on European countries and European companies to stop doing business with the state of Iran. John Bolton, he was saying look if these European companies don't stop, then the United States would consider levying secondary sanctions on those companies. 

The new U.S. ambassador to Germany, Richard Grinnell who just began work in Berlin last week and in fact on his very first day as a U.S. Ambassador, called German companies on the carpet and said you might want to rethink your business dealings with Iran, that statement was backed up than yesterday by the new national security adviser and guess what? Breaking news as of today Siemens, which is a massive German conglomerate announced that it would be winding down its business in Iran. Why? Because it doesn't want to risk secondary U.S. sanctions. So, this is a perfect example of strong principled leadership from the President, from John Bolton and from Rick Grinnell our new U.S. ambassador in Germany. Watch for other European companies to follow Siemens model and what they've just done here. 

Also, we've got some news on a potential breakthrough with North Korea. As you probably know by now on June 12 President Trump will be meeting in Singapore with the North Korean President, Kim Jong Un. Kim Jong Un has already set a date for the destruction of North Korea's only known nuclear weapons site along with international observers to verify that he's actually going to blow the place up, he's also suspended nuclear and ballistic missile testing and of course Kim Jong Un just released three Americans who were being held prisoner in North Korea. So, it does seem Kim Jong Un is laying the groundwork for a productive and historic summit with the American President but then again you know what, Kim Jong Un is a communist dictator who has made these kinds of promises before. So, President Trump will be meeting with him face to face and he'll be able to gage Kim Jong Un's sincerity and his regime's sincerity and whether or not they actually mean it this time.

Yesterday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, moved to try to sweeten the pot a little bit, for North Korea. He said that the United States would never invest American taxpayer dollars to help North Korea but they would consider lifting sanctions to pave the way for private American investment in North Korea's energy sector infrastructure and also in its agriculture sector. So, Pompeo said quote, "We can create conditions for real economic prosperity for the North Korean people." Note not the regime, people, "that will rival that of the South, that is our expectation, it won't be U.S. taxpayer dollars." It calls to mind a similar example with East Germany when the wall fell, East Germany and West Germany reunified, obviously and that's not in the cards at least not yet with the Korean peninsula but East Germany was an absolute economic basket case thanks to decades of communist oppression and a command economy, and eventually because of private investment flowing into East Germany and a lot of outside assistance as Germany was able to to get on par with the West. So, what does North Korea need? Needs to get rid of its new nuclear weapons and it also needs a growing economy to join the modern world. So, we will see, step one about to unfold. 

Joining us now, I'm so happy to welcome Van Hipp, Van is the chairman of the American Defense International. He's the former deputy assistant secretary of the Army, former deputy general counsel of the Navy and he is the author of the book 'The New Terrorism'. Van, welcome! 

"Monica, good to be with you." 

Great to have you here. So, let's start with the historic move today of the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. What do you think the reaction in the region might be? 

"Well it is to be expected from some of the usual suspects, but I think what it does into what you said in your commentary. Well broadly it shows that American leadership was back. We have a President who keeps his promises, you know the President I think realizes that the reason the states came together in the first place, was to provide for the common defense of the American people. What we're seeing across the board is what they should want whether it's North Korea, where what has just happened now in Jerusalem, this is a President, who understands that his first and foremost responsibility under the Constitution is serving as the commander in chief and keeping the Americans safe." 

You know, Van, we have seen some violence a couple of dozen Palestinians killed in the Gaza Strip, as they're protesting this move and they're engaged in a lot of provocative actions here, that we could have easily predicted has been going on for a couple of weeks leading up to the embassy move today, is the United States prepared for the fallout in the region especially when you parrot with the President's announcement last week about the withdrawal from the Iran deal? 

"I think so particularly when you consider the fact that 11 Arab nations now have come forward and gone actually to the U.N. Security Council urging that Iran be declared a state sponsor of terrorism, that's 11 Arab countries, you've not have seen this 5 or 10 years ago. So, this is very historic, I think the President has made great inroads there, with the Arab nations and I think he's building a coalition if you will, of other Arab nations combined with Israel, who understand the Iranian threat. So look, what the President said today and I think this is important and this is what the rest of the world needs to understand, Israel is a sovereign nation, a sovereign nation determines and decides what there capitol is, not some international organization, sovereign nations determine what their capitol is. Sixty nine years ago, Israel said, our capital is Jerusalem. you pointed out the legislation 24 years ago from the United States Congress, urged and said we've got to move the capital to Jerusalem. How many Republican presidents, or presidential candidates have we seen over the years, who will campaign, when I'm president we're going to lose the capital to Jerusalem. But what always happens, Monica, no matter, who the president has been before, they get in there they get co-opted it by the institutional bureaucrats at the State Department." 

The swamp, Van, the swamp. 

"Yeah, and those who, that's right and they know better than everybody else, but here's a president, who, he's doing what he said he would do. And so I think this is refreshing, and I think that there are some people that are surprised and there shouldn't me.". 

Well I think you're exactly right and that's why so many of his critics and opponents and enemies have no idea what to do with Donald Trump because they've never actually encountered a president who follows through and does it in record time on his promises. Let's turn for a moment Van to North Korea. You just heard me report what Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said yesterday, that if North Korea gives up its nuclear weapons in total and permanently, the United States might help North Korea open its economy to foreign investment. Is that a good idea?

"I think it is and that and the fact that we're having it in Singapore should underscore that. Singapore is a model for entrepreneurial capitalism can do for an Asian country, so I hope we, I hope the administration highlights that when we have the summit there on June the 12th. But Monica, I've got to tell you, I just spoke to, a couple of days ago, to Dr. David Beasley, who heads the World Food Program and he is not a United Nations bureaucrat, this is someone who President Trump and a Nikki Haley recommended to the United Nations, he has reformed the World Food Program, he's called on Europe, Europeans to have a wake up call, he's talked about how radical Islamists have used food as a recruitment tool but he and his team went into North Korea last week, they came out last Friday. Now, the governor told me that man I was surprised, he said we had more access and more transparency than we could have ever had before and the World Food Program has been providing food for women and children in North Korea, since 1995, but he told me they had more access and more transparency than they had seen and he said he was surprised that they let him go where he went, not just Pyongyang, over half the time throughout the countryside but he said to me, I think this gets back to what Secretary Pompeo was saying, he said Van, the farming, the agriculture needs, he said it's like stepping back into the 1800s from an agricultural standpoint, they're using hoes and oxen. So no question we can help them and I think Secretary Pompeo is on the right track, exposing those folks to a little entrepreneurial capitalism will be pretty darn good after they've denuclearized.". 

Well absolutely, and your comment there about transparency is critically important because we've, we've seen the North Korean regime make these kinds of promises on cooperation and disarmament in the past only to pull the rug out from under everybody, so if there is a historic deal it will need to be verified as President Reagan said, trust but verify. So we need international observers on the ground and we need American observers on the ground, right? 

"Amen. And I think one of things that is happening and it hasn't gotten a whole lot of play by the press, one of the sanctions that China has actually complied with and that is to shut off the money laundering that's been taking place by the Iranians, to help fund and finance the North Korean nuclear ballistic missile program, I've documented this going back to 2012, it's one of the sanctions, by all accounts that China has complied with. So, Kim Jong Un has had that source of cash from Iran in the past helped finance this stuff, that's dried up now. So, you talk about leverage, getting back, we've got some leverage now with him and now that we've shut off that money laundering, of Iran's that was taking place through Chinese banks into North Korea, we've got leverage now with Iran."

And you know what, as I said Van, we finally have a President who recognizes that the United States is the leverage. Van we've got to leave it there. Thank you so much for your time and expertise. 

"Great to be with you, thank you. " 

So, Bill spends a lot of time talking about the elite mainstream media and how incredibly out of touch they are. We have another example of this, Nicholas Kristoff, who is a columnist with The New York Times wrote a column about a week ago about the mainstream media's addiction to Donald Trump and it was a remarkable column, especially coming from Kristof at the New York Times. He gave an interview yesterday on one of the Sunday morning shows. Take a listen. 

"I do think that we have to acknowledge that there is so much more happening in the world than Donald Trump and we in the media are essentially all Trump all the time and frankly it's a little rude to say this but I think cable television is particularly true and cable TV."

"It is, yeah." 

"And the upshot is that we risk not covering a lot of really important things at home and around the world and we complain that President Trump is you know, is parochial, isn't paying attention to important things around the world and we're absolutely right, but that can also be said about us."

Wow! Finally some self-awareness from a member of the elite ruling class, the elite mainstream media, quite impressed by that. Now don't expect Mr. Kristof after that confession to start covering Donald Trump fairly or god forbid positively, but at least there is some self-recognition there, that their coverage is all Trump all the time and there are other really important issues that need to be covered. 

In fact, the Daily Beast today had a story about how a lot of Democrats who are running for reelection want to talk about things like health care and yet they can't even get booked on a lot of these cable networks because it's all Russia and Mueller all the time. I have a suggestion for Mr. Kristof because further on in that interview and in his piece, he says that he doesn't really have a solution to it, well how about the obvious solution, number one, how about covering those other issues that you care about. And number two, how about covering Donald Trump as the duly elected President of the United States. There's a novel concept. 

Speaking of the elite mainstream press, Christiane Amanpour on CNN claimed yesterday, that Donald Trump's war on the press said even his threat last week to revoke some press credentials could be empowering the world's worst dictators. Take a look. 

"I mean, look we have for instance in London, this weekend, the President of Turkey, a U.S. ally, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is coming here. This is one of the key abusers of the press in his own country. I mean, I mean taking them to court, you know putting him in prison, I mean just the worst. So, when the President of the United States of America, says these kinds of things, other leaders are empowered, whether they're democratic or authoritarian, dictatorial. They're all empowered to beat up against the press and that's really dangerous around the world." 

Here are some bulletins, to Ms. Amanpour, dictators are abusing the press in their countries anyway. It's part of the job description of being a brutal dictator, nothing that Donald Trump can say or do is going to change their attitude about that. 

Let's now talk about politics because we've got the midterm elections now just six months away. Can you believe it? It seems like it's been going on since the day that Donald Trump was elected and in fact it has. Midterms are right around the corner and joining me now to break it all down is Dr. Jeanne Zaino, she is a political science professor at Iona College and she's also a Democratic strategist. Jeanne, welcome!

"Good to see you, can you believe six months away, it's hard to believe."

Yeah, I know we've been living in this election now for quite a long time. Let's talk a little bit about the change in context, going into November, because we've seen economic growth. So, the President's poll numbers have improved, Congress' numbers have improved, and certainly the Republican party's numbers have improved, in large part because of a stronger economy. Now we're seeing, a lot of these numbers coming out of the generic ballot, which is the straight up question that says come November would you vote for a Republican or a Democrat. No names attached, just straight up party, for the last like year and a half, that generic ballot has had the Democrats at like a 12 or even 15 point advantage. That advantage has largely evaporated, we've got new polls from CNN, ABC News, The Washington Post, etc, no friends of Donald Trump or the Republican Party, now showing that the Democrats advantage is down to one point, up to four points. But that's a really, really narrow advantage and it shows that the Republicans have been able to close that gap and in fact the momentum may very well be with the Republicans heading into November. What's your sense of where the midterms stand right now? 

"Well, on the generic ballot, it is a shocking turn of events as you mentioned we had the Democrats up by double digits for much of the year and come January we started to see a slippage which now is within the margin of error in all those gold standard polls. So those are the polls that call live, they call cell phones, you mentioned CNN, The Washington Post and we have now a real race on our hands, so that is a startling you know, I think a wakeup call for the Democrats certainly, that they have some work to do. Now, that said the generic ballot we also have to keep in mind doesn't measure something important which is enthusiasm and that's where there is really an open question, we don't know, the only measure we have of enthusiasm so far has been these special elections and Democrats are getting out in special elections in numbers which rival presidential election years. That's a very good sign for Democrats but we've seen an uptick in Republican turnout recently as well. So, I think what we're going to come down to in November, is real race and turnout and that's going to be driven in large part by how good of a job, the parties do in getting their base out to vote. So, that's where I think all the energy and focus is going to be, Shelly Adelson’s, 30 million dollars, I think to the...". 

Major passion fusion coming in. 

"... is going to be big for Republicans." 

And you point to something that I've been thinking about over the last couple of weeks, it is true over the last year the Democrats have done pretty well in these special elections but it may be now that the tide is turning and as fellow political scientist here...

"I know I'm so lucky to talk to a fellow political scientist." 

Back at you Jeanne. But what we can't quantify as political scientists, is the psychological component that goes into any election, whether it's voters reads on the candidates or on the issues and it may very well be that now the Republican base is waking up and saying, gosh you know the Democrats have really done well in these elections, that if we don't wake up and really get out the vote, we're going to lose the House and if we lose the House, that means impeachment for Donald Trump. 

"The stakes are so high as you mentioned, with the swirling investigations, the possibility of an impeachment should the Democrats take the House. Those are going to be real calling, you know ways to wake up the Republicans to get out there. But that's really what this is going to be about and the biggest problem Democrats face right now with the generic ballot, is they need about a seven point advantage in order to take back the House, that's what most statisticians have calculated, if they're down to a 1 to 4 percent advantage, that means while they may pick up seats in the House and they likely will historically as you and I know you pick up about 28 to 30 if you're the House, if you're the party out of power, they may not get the 23 votes they need to take the majority and that's really what the focus of the Republican Party has to be and the Republicans have advantages, we can't discount. Number one the economy is very good, the President's popularity has ticked up that's about 42 percent which is the highest it's been, it's still low..." 

Some polls have it even higher. 

"Some have it even higher and they also have an incumbency advantage which is very, very important in these things. So, there are advantages on both sides so I think it's going to be a real battle." 

Given that the economy is so much stronger now, due to the Trump tax cuts and also deregulation. How can the Democrats possibly run against that? Do they have an economic message? 

"Well they do not have one that is resonating with voters right now and you hear this from Democrats as well, who are asking the party to get out there. Now, they do have a message but they have a communication problem with it and that's where they're having a real challenge and part of the challenge is, there's not a real democratic leader of note out there to sound the cry." 

No national leader. 

"No national leader. You know you have Donald Trump on the Republican side and for the Democrats you have a very unpopular Nancy Pelosi, who even Democrats we saw this in Pennsylvania, have run against. And then you have Chuck Schumer who's national, you know he's not nationally as well-known as he might be, and he's the minority leader in the Senate. So they have that challenge in terms of communicating their message. Republicans have done a much better job on that in terms of the economy and the numbers have been very good.". 

Even in itself it's a miracle, given the history of the Republicans right now. Jeanne, thank you so much for your time, Dr. Jeanne Zaino of Iona College and a Democratic strategist, pleasure. We'll be right back. 

Well if it's another day in California, there's another totally insane story coming out of the Golden State, by the way the left has had near one party control of California for quite a while. So, the left has taken a gorgeous state and ruined it. Here another story. 

Democratic Assembly men by the name of Miguel Santiago has introduced a bill in the state legislature that would designate the third Monday in February, as a single school holiday known as Presidents Day but the bill would also get rid of either George Washington's birthday or Abraham Lincoln's birthday, as holiday and instead designate May 1st as international workers day. If that rings a bell to you it should, because international socialist workers day, going way back in history every May 1st, is of course the infamous communist holiday. It was a official holiday of the Soviet Union with military parades etc... Some Republicans in California, there are a few left, they're pushing back on this insanity, thank God.

Let's go to the mailbox, shall we?

Messages that were sent into Bill O'Reilly over the last day or so, here we go.

Robert Clark writes in from Los Angeles, California speaking of California. 

"Mr. O'Reilly question if the leaks from the White House are so embarrassing to President Trump, why doesn't he just fire the whole lot in the White House communications team except for Sarah Sanders. Are they protected by civil service? If not protected and Sanders really wants to send a message, wants to stop the leaks, firing all who were in the room, all who heard the privileged offhand comments about our favorite senator and perhaps share them with the press, well kick their ass out of the door, hang a sign on the door that simply reads next. Just asking, I'm confident that if there were leaks from your staff you would weed out one at a time until the leak stopped. No coddling, simply outrageous." 

Wayne in Chandler Arizona writes this. 

"Hey, Bill so I’ve, got a question. One of the reasons Air Force One gets replaced every few years is because of the increased seating needed to haul the press corps around the globe. In earlier days, I can see how this made sense, but why do we continue it. Maybe that's one thing the President should do, make the press pay their own way instead of ferrying around a bunch of people who hate your guts and tell you so every day of the week. It would certainly save money." 

I agree Wayne, let these mega news operations foot the bill for sending their people around the globe with President Trump, who they so clearly disdain. 

David Pearman in Johnson City, Tennessee. He writes, 

"Bill, someone on Fox News brought up a good point, it was where is the outrage from MSNBC and CNN about the John Kerry-Iranian coalition?" 

I think we all know the answer to that, don't we? 

We also have somebody up on the message board who writes this. Bill did a report on Chicago and the murder scene going on there. Mark K, on the message board writes, 

"Chicago: 9 killed ,76 wounded. Sounds like a news clip from the 1960s on the casualties for a whole week during the Vietnam War. What is going on in that city?". 

It's a good question, again like California and nearly New York, it is a one party town and you get the consequences of Democratic left wing rule. That's the answer to that. 

All right Bill O'Reilly's brand new book called Killing the SS: the hunt for the worst war criminals in history. It's coming out on September 18th. You can preorder at BillOReilly.com. 

Also, the Premium Member referral program, when you buy three Premium Member gift certificates, you get a fourth Premium Member gift certificate, absolutely free and you cannot beat that with a stick, you also get four books of your choice, really fantastic deal. 

Thank you so much for being here today, thank you for being a Premium Member at BillOReilly.com. I am Monica Crowley in today for Bill O'Reilly, and I will see you tomorrow, when I'll also be here.