Bill O’Reilly says the drumbeat of indictments against Donald Trump is a tactic to inhibit his campaign, and that the former president’s lawyers will be able to convince him to sign a plea deal for “some minor beef” because “nobody on his side believes any of this anyway.”
The former Fox News host-turned-podcaster also reiterated on the syndicated radio show “Clay & Buck” that Joe Biden will not be the Democratic nominee in 2024 – and believes Democrats are holding “high level” meetings with Michelle Obama to convince the former First Lady to run.
“Bill, first up here, this is from your message of the day: The heavy odds are that Donald Trump will have to sign off on a plea deal before the Republican convention next summer,” co-host Buck Sexton said to the Tuesday guest. “Tell us how you see this one going down.”
“Well, the Democratic power structure in Washington, which features the Justice Department, I mean, the Justice Department and the White House are now working together,” O’Reilly said. “Which is not unprecedented, but very unusual. … they’re not going to stop. They’re going to indict Trump on everything they can possibly indict him on. It doesn’t matter whether they get a conviction. What they want is trial dates that inhibit his campaign.”
O’Reilly said Trump will eventually have to “make a deal to plead guilty to some low level beef that, you know, won’t amount to any jail time or anything,” even though he insists now that he never will.
Co-host Clay Travis pointed out that he and Sexton have consistently said – including off-the-air – that they can’t imagine Trump pleading to anything because “his brand is ‘I’ve done absolutely nothing wrong.’” But even Trump can see the writing on the wall, O’Reilly said.
“I believe that the Trump lawyers will convince him and because nobody on his side believes any of this anyway,” O’Reilly said. “A poll came out today, 91% of Fox News viewers don’t think he did anything wrong. … So does it matter what they do now? He’s inoculated.”
O’Reilly has been saying since this spring that Biden won’t be the 2024 nominee, and keeps floating Obama as the highest likely potential replacement candidate.
“My guess – and it’s a guess and I don’t like to speculate – is that Biden will be gone by Christmas because the Democrats have to then go into the primary season,” he said. “So they desperately want Michelle Obama to run. Michelle is not convinced they’re up there in Martha’s Vineyard now in all kinds of high level meetings.”
O’Reilly believes, as many do, that California Gov. Gavin Newsom is waiting in the wings – but suggested that even his own party doesn’t want him to run.
“In lieu of [Obama], then they got to decide where we want to take a chance on Gavin Newsom, who’s got all kinds of problems in California,” he said. “I mean, he’s not a person that would persuade a lot of independents to go. Democrat Amy Klobuchar also in the mix. So the Democrats, they don’t know what to do. They don’t know. But the reason I think that Biden won’t even show up in January for his, you know, any Oval Office is because this Hunter Biden stuff is going to lead to impeachment, maybe even charges.”
A Washington, D.C., grand jury announced Tuesday that it had indicted Trump and others on counts including conspiracy to defraud the United States and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding – the third criminal case being brought against the former president. Trump is due to be arraigned Thursday.
Hear O’Reilly’s thoughts in the audio clip below:
