The O'Reilly Factor
A daily summary of segments aired on The O'Reilly Factor. A preview of the evening's rundown is posted before the show airs each weeknight.
Wednesday, April 12, 2017
The Factor Rundown
Guest Host
Dana Perino
Top Story
Top Story
Impact Segment
Unresolved Problems
Factor Followup
Personal Story
Back of the Book
Want KILLING REAGAN Free?
Get the book free when you become a Premium Member. Join up today!
Comments
Sean Spicer in the No Spin Zone
Guest: Sean Spicer


White House Press Secretary led off the show with guest host Dana Perino.

Spicer and Perino discussed many topics, and Spicer emphasized that President Trump had helped bolster the relevance of NATO.


"I think he is made NATO's relevance and commitment of others to look for their financial commitments for too long," Spicer said. "I think many countries have gotten a free ride. The commitment that every NATO member makes is that two percent of their GDP will be put towards defense. Most countries don't live up to that. The U.S. exceeds it."
Trump's First 100 Days
Guests: James Pindell & Erin McPike


Dana Perino asked Boston Globe reporter James Pindell what the headline was of this busy news day.

"I feel it was a great masterstroke for Donald Trump to have NATO in the White House the very moment he has Rex Tillerson in Moscow," Pindell said. "Look, I'm not sure anyone is quite positive what exactly our relationship is with Russia at this point, you hear both from Russia and from Trump that this relationship has very much soured and it's in a very bad place. But obviously creates opportunities and lowers expectations to make a deal. And one thing that Trump was clearly doing today was bolstering the American position when they try to negotiate and they make a better deal when it comes to Russia, when it comes particularly to Syria."

Erin McPike, White House Correspondent for the Independent Journal Review,

"I will tell you what I think the headline is for today, which I know your motto has been embraced the chaos at least since the Inauguration and I think this week, we are seeing this administration become so much more conventional and I think we are seeing the impact of Steve Bannon losing a lot of ground within the White House and you're seeing a lot of these positions coming from the Trump administration, that just looks so much more conventional based on everything we've heard from that press conference today including Donald Trump saying that China is no longer a currency manipulator," McPike said.
Big Stories out of Washington
Guests: Ed Henry & Catherine Herridge


Ed Henry updated us on the palace intrigue at the White House.

I spoke to two top advisors to the President this past weekend who told me that on Friday at Mar-A-Lago, it had been reported that he told his advisors, you know, get together and straighten it out but there was another piece of it that these advisors told me that the President went further," Henry said. "He said, you straighten it out or I'm going to straighten it out and what that tells me is he is getting more involved, he's frustrated about the infighting. You see Steve Bannon there with Jared Kushner, his son-in-law and Reince Priebus, the chief of staff.

"Here's the bottom-line from what I'm hearing from the President's advisors. That the President liked some of the chaos early on, he likes that competitive tension when he's winning. When he was on a bit of a streak early in the administration and back in the campaign. But now that he lost the health care fight, at least round one, they hope to bring it back, and struggling to get the tax reform battle going. ... He wants to move on from all of this. He's certainly not going to fire his son-in-law Jared Kushner, so Bannon and Priebus are the ones on the hot seat."

Catherine Herridge then joined the program to discuss Carter Page, a former Trump campaign advisor reportedly monitored by the FBI for possible improper dealings with the Russians.


"Carter Page worked for the Trump campaign for about six months last year," Herridge said. "He was kind of an informal foreign policy advisor. We've interviewed him twice here at FOX News in the last two weeks in history is very consistent. He told FOX that he never worked with the Russians to help the Trump campaign and he never worked against the interests of this country. But here's the thing, Dana, there's so much daylight between what Carter Page is saying on the record and these anonymous sources who allege that he was somehow the campaign point of contact for Russia. And it's very tough to reconcile these two stories."
Is the Press Tougher on Democrats?
Guests: Eric Beach & Mustafa Tameez


Jennifer Palmieri, communications director for Hillary Clinton, said Thursday that the liberal press is actually harder on liberal politicians on some issues.


"They come harder on us on the palace intrigue, on the process, on things that really shouldn't matter," Palmieri said.

Democratic strategist Mustafa Tameez joined the program and said the press is harder on Democrats on some issues.


"Now, we are finding out [Trump's] campaign manager is registering as a foreign agent for Russia, his National Security advisor was a redshirt foreign agent for Turkey and took money from Russian television. So there is a lot more scrutiny that should have been given to Donald Trump but instead everyone focused on the email scandal that really went nowhere," Tameez said. "And that's an example of why the press went after Hillary Clinton far more than they did Donald Trump."

Republican strategist Eric Beach disagreed.

"Ninety percent -- 96 percent of the campaign contributions for the media went to Hillary Clinton," Beach said. "There was an agenda there. It's not just because they favored her over Donald Trump. The reality is that they wanted to shake the narrative of this campaign and try to distribute that to the public."
Immigration Crackdown
Guests: Don Calloway & Alfonso Aguilar


Both President Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions have recently continued their tough talk on immigration.

Alfonso Aguilar, President, Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles, said the Trump administration is doing the right thing.

"Well, look, we have to enforce the law and what the Trump administration is doing is really looking at people who have criminal record, Aguilar said. "In the case of the border, we're looking at people who are entering illegally on multiple occasions, and I think it makes sense in terms of fencing. We have to extend fencing and ironically by putting in place immigration enforcement measures, by extending and guaranteeing border security."

Don Calloway, a Democratic strategist, disagreed and said there needs to be immigration reform.

"I would love to see immigration reform but the reality of the matter in D.C. right now is the same as it was a year ago," Calloway said. "The House Freedom Caucus is not in a position that is about to allow immigration reform. The Senate came to a very reasonable consensus on immigration reform but there has been nothing in the Trump administration to even show that it supports Rubio and other Republicans."
More on the United Airlines Controversy
Guest: Geraldo Rivera


Geraldo Rivera joined The Factor to discuss the major controversy over United Airlines forcibly removing passenger Dr. David Dao from United flight 3411 on Sunday to make room for United employees.


"I think that when you look at the officer removing Dr. Dao from his seat, to me that's an assault," Geraldo said. "Why do I say that? Because this wasn't a hijacking. Nobody who was in peril of any danger from this man. He was yanking -- they pulled him and dragged him and his face got smashed, his lips are bleeding. I mean, why? What happened here? ... This to me is an airliner run amok, gone mad with their greed to fill every seat."
Controversial Video out of Florida
Guests: Judge Alex Ferrer & Neill Franklin


Peyton Grinnell -- sheriff of Lake County, Florida - has put out an aggressive public service announcement aimed at heroin dealers.


"Enjoy trying to sleep tonight wondering if tonight is the night, our S.W.A.T. team blows your front door off the hinges, we are coming for you," Grinnell says in the video.

Judge Alex Ferrer supported the ad.

"Heroin dealers are the lowermost form of life in America, they don't mind the fact that thousands and thousands of their customers are dying," Ferrer said. "Every single year, as long as they can make enough money to go clubbing that night on the sale of heroin, and here's a sheriff who's basically got elected on a tough on crime platform and telling heroin dealers, hey, you know what? We're coming after you."

Neill Franklin, who advocates for less drug arrests, disagreed.

"This type of approach just pushes people further and further into isolation and that's where they experience, you know, these overdose deaths," Franklin said.

"You know, again most of the people who are out there selling aren't these major drug dealers, these are people trying to manage their addictions. And, you know, so, are these people the worst? The scum of the earth? Not in my opinion, these are who are people suffering from an illness that need medical attention."