Bill O’Reilly explains his Trump tour

NEWS AND OPINION:

Tickets are already on sale for “The History Tour: Donald Trump & Bill O’Reilly,” a four-city series featuring the former president and the veteran broadcaster set to take place in December. Ticket prices range from $106 to $7,506 according to Ticketmaster.

“These will be wonderful but hard-hitting sessions where we’ll talk about the real problems happening in the U.S., those that the fake news media never mention. I will be focusing on greatness for our country, something seldom discussed in political dialogue,” Mr. Trump said in a recent statement.

His future partner, Mr. O’Reilly, meanwhile, revealed the origins of this intriguing pairing in a new interview.

“I said to myself, ‘I don’t know what the deuce happened during four years inside the Trump White House. I don’t know how they got that coronavirus vaccine in seven months, which is a miracle. I don’t know what Trump said to Vladimir Putin and vice versa, I don’t know why the border wall didn’t get built. I don’t know anything because the corporate media didn’t report anything.’ They either hated him or they loved him. You never got just the facts,” Mr. O’Reilly told Talkers Magazine editor Michael Harrison in a new podcast.

“So I thought, ‘how can I right this wrong?’ I think the American people are stronger when they know the information, when they know what happened. So I said, ‘I’ve got to convince Trump to go out on a history tour with me.’ It wasn’t an easy pitch,” Mr. O’Reilly said, revealing that he journeyed to Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s Florida home, to present his idea.

“I’ve known Trump for 30 years, and I wrote a pretty good book called the ‘United States of Trump,’ which explained exactly how he got elected. But the book stopped there,” he continued.

“So I said, ‘You know Mr. President, if you want to run again or be a political titan going forward, you really have to get facts about your administration on the record. There’s nobody better than me to do it, because I am a pretty tough interviewer. And if you come with me, it’s not going to be a rally,’” Mr. O’Reilly explained.

“It took him two months, but he signed a contract to do four interviews. And if they do well and he doesn’t punch me in the mouth — which is a possibility and that would be worth the price of the ticket — we’ll do more,” he concluded.

Mr. Harrison conducted the interview on June 11 and released it to PodCastOne.com, a digital network. Mr. O’Reilly, meanwhile, can be heard on the “O’Reilly Update,” a daily national radio feature syndicated by Key Networks.

BIDEN’S HONEYMOON IS OVER IN IOWA

Enthusiasm for President Biden appears to be cooling in the Hawkeye State.

“Biden’s approval rating among Iowans is underwater six months into his term in office, with 43% approving of the job he is doing and 52% disapproving,” said a Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll released Tuesday.

“That’s a reversal from the last time the question was asked. In March, by a narrow margin, more Iowans approved of the job Biden, a Democrat, was doing as president (47%) than disapproved (44%),” the news organization said.

Mr. Biden’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic was the only issue which garnered a positive rating for the president; he won approval from 53% of the respondents. The remaining responses were tepid at best, and sometimes downright dismal.

The poll found that a mere 29% of Iowans approved of Mr. Biden’s efforts on immigration, 35% approved his work in criminal justice, 40% on the economy, and 45% on infrastructure.

“The percentage of Iowans who say the nation is on the wrong track has risen to 59%, up from 51% in March, while 31% say the nation is heading in the right direction. That’s down from 38% in March. Ten percent say they are not sure,” the poll analysis said.

“Just 4% of Republicans say the nation is headed in the right direction, while 92% say it’s on the wrong track. For Democrats, 69% say things are headed in the right direction, and 20% say they’re on the wrong track. For independents, the breakdown is 26% right direction, 59% wrong track,” the analysis said.

The poll of 807 Iowa adults was conducted June 13-16 by Selzer & Co. and has an error margin of 3.5 percentage points.

MEANWHILE IN WISCONSIN

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Tuesday that it had designated a 962-square-mile area of Wisconsin’s Lake Michigan as a national marine sanctuary.

The Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary will protect 36 historically significant shipwrecks — 21 of which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The federal agency says that Lake Michigan’s cold, fresh water has helped preserve the lost vessels.

“Several of the known shipwrecks are essentially intact and look much like they did when they sank. The area also includes Wisconsin’s two oldest known shipwrecks, and archival research suggests there may be dozens more yet to be discovered,” the federal agency said.

FOXIFIED

Fox News bested rivals MSNBC and CNN in the June 14-20 week, earning 2.2 million primetime viewers on average, according to Nielsen Media Research. This is the 18th consecutive week Fox News has emerged as No. 1.

The network also ruled the airwaves during President Biden’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Geneva, delivering 3 million viewers. “Tucker Carlson Tonight” and “Hannity” both enjoyed audiences of 2.8 million while “Unfiltered with Dan Bongino” was the top weekend cable news show for the third week in a row with 1.6 million viewers.

POLL DU JOUR

• 40% of U.S. adults “strongly agree” that democracy is the best form of government; 43% of Republicans, 35% of independents and 54% of Democrats agree.

• 26% overall “somewhat agree” it is the best form of government; 23% of Republicans, 28% of independents and 29% of Democrats agree.

• 8% “somewhat disagree”; 7% of Republicans, 9% of independents and 6% of Democrats agree.

• 8% overall “strongly disagree”; 12% of Republicans, 12% of independents and 2% of Democrats agree.

• 18% are not sure; 16% of Republicans, 17% of independents and 8% of Democrats agree.

SOURCE: An Economist/YouGov poll of 1,500 U.S. adults conducted June 13-15.

• Kindly follow Jennifer Harper on Twitter @HarperBulletin.