Bill O’Reilly’s been friends with Donald Trump for decades and supported his political career.
But O’Reilly took a different tact in 2024.
And Donald Trump is going to hate what Bill O’Reilly had to say about J.D. Vance.
Bill O’Reilly gives his thoughts on the Vice-Presidential debate
J.D. Vance and Tim Walz faced off in a debate hosted by CBS that was once again marred by the liberal bias of the moderators.
It was safe to say that Bill O’Reilly wasn’t among the 43 million TV viewers thrilled with what he saw.
“I fell asleep twice,” O’Reilly told NewsNation host Dan Abrams.
But O’Reilly delivered praise for J.D. Vance’s performance – although it’s unlikely Trump will be thrilled with how O’Reilly phrased his comments.
O’Reilly applauded Vance for humanizing himself by taking the opportunity to remind voters of his hardscrabble upbringing.
Vance took the first question to recount how he grew up in a home where his mother battled addiction and that he enlisted in the Marine Corps after graduating from high school and then deployed to Iraq before attending college on the GI Bill.
O’Reilly knocked Trump, saying he could never pull off such a move or change voters’ perceptions of him.
“What JD Vance accomplished is he made himself human, unlike Donald Trump, who never does that. And he made himself accessible — I hate that word, but it’s a trendy word now — in the sense that you could go up — and I interviewed Vance a few weeks ago, and he answered all the questions because I don’t allow anybody to dodge on my program, No Spin News. They are not allowed to dodge,” O’Reilly continued.
O’Reilly said the debate helped the Republicans more because of Vance’s superior performance to that of Kamala Harris’ running mate Tim Walz.
“Tonight Vance did his ticket more good than Walz did his ticket,” O’Reilly continued.
Bill O’Reilly wasn’t a fan of Tim Walz
O’Reilly explained that Walz came across like a decent enough guy, but that he was clearly in over his head.
“Walz wasn’t bad. He looks like a guy that I’d invite to Thanksgiving dinner. I don’t think I’d give him dessert,” O’Reilly told Abrams.
“I’d get him out of there because he’d get a little tedious, but he can have an entree and an appetizer. I’d like to talk to him,” O’Reilly concluded.
Right out of the gate, it was obvious that leaks in the media about Walz’s nerves during debate prep weren’t a matter of expectations setting but rather getting out ahead of a bad story.
Walz’s halting answers stood in stark contrast to Vance’s detailed but relatable answers, where Vance combined facts and figures with personal stories to weave a narrative about how Americans prospered under Donald Trump’s Presidency but suffered thanks to the policies pursued by Kamala Harris.
