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.
Friday, April 14, 2017
The Factor Rundown
Guest Host
Greg Gutfeld
Top Story
Impact Segment
Personal Story
Unresolved Problems
Factor Followup
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Trump's Power Play in Afghanistan
Greg began Friday's program with the news out of Afghanistan, where the USA dropped the so-called 'mother of all bombs' on suspected ISIS hideouts. Sgt. Joey Jones, an explosives expert who was severely injured in Afghanistan, lauded President Trump for dropping the bomb. "I lost my legs in 2010," he said, "when we were clearing a town of IEDs. They turned the town into a minefield because they knew we were coming. When I saw yesterday that commanders are now given the opportunity to use a bomb rather than send Green Berets in to die, that was an amazing thing to me. There is a change in perspective from our commander-in-chief, and this bomb made a statement. It let the troops know that they can accomplish the mission without putting their necks on the line every day. That's why I celebrated." But Democratic strategist Richard Goodstein defended the Obama administration. "There were more people who lost their limbs and died in Afghanistan and Iraq when George W. Bush was president, so it's not a function of what President Obama did or did not do. In fact, it was under President Obama that this 'mother of all bombs' got deployed into this area." But Greg argued, "President Obama dithered, he had a problem dealing with the military and the military had a problem dealing with him."
North Korea Standoff
Turning to another global hot spot, Greg asked Fox News correspondent James Rosen to analyze the tension between the U.S. and North Korea. "We are seeing the Trump administration trying to send a message," Rosen stated, "to North Korea and to its patron state China that business as usual can't go on. They've been testing nuclear devices for over 10 years in North Korea and nearly 2-million people have starved to death to fund that program. But President Trump and his national security team know that unilateral military action against North Korea would present a very different case for retaliation from the target than we saw from Syria. North Korea would probably escalate this very quickly." John Bolton, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, raised the eventual prospect of a unified Korea. "We have tried for 25 years to persuade the North Koreans to give up its nuclear weapons, but ct this regime will do that. This is the world's only hereditary communist dictatorship and 25-million people live in a vast prison camp. The only country that can put effective pressure on North Korea is China, and we need to explain to China that it is their interest to see North and South Korea united in a sensible way. The only solution that will work is reuniting the two Koreas peacefully."
President Trump's Shifting Foreign Policy
Donald Trump is being criticized by some conservatives for being far more willing to intervene than he had indicated during the campaign. Greg asked former Ted Cruz advisor Chris Wilson and former Ambassador Stuart Holliday whether the president is in danger of losing his base. "You can see how vast the alienation has become," Wilson claimed. "Someone said to me that when you see Donald Trump taking the same positions as Lindsey Graham and John McCain, then he has alienated those who got him elected. He promised an 'America first' policy and he is losing his base because of what he's doing." But Holliday contended that President Trump is essentially living up to his promises. "The president campaigned on restoring American leadership. The Tomahawk missile strike on Syria is a long way from deploying a half-million ground troops, and he advocated a strong military during the campaign." Greg concurred, saying, "Donald Trump won election by projecting toughness and I would worry more about a president who is too stubborn and can't evolve."
United Airlines Update
Greg welcomed travel writer Peter Greenberg, who scrutinized the public relations debacle suffered by United Airlines after a man was dragged off one of its flights. "You have rights before you get on the plane and after you get on the plane," Greenberg explained. "If you are holding a bona fide boarding pass and you are sitting in your seat, they can only pull you out of that seat if you are drunk, on drugs, have offensive body odor, or are a fugitive from justice. United Airlines does not want this to go to court, they want to settle this as fast as they can. If the passengers had not shot this video, this man would have been jail for violating the federal law saying you cannot disobey a flight attendant."
Voter Fraud Crackdown in Kansas
Many liberal Americans are upset because Kansas is prosecuting non-citizens for voting illegally. Greg spoke about one recent conviction with Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach. "These cases are really hard to discover," Kobach said, "and so the ones that get prosecuted are a tiny percentage of the problem. This guy we prosecuted registered illegally back in 2011 and voted for six years before we discovered it. If we see more non-citizens voting, we will prosecute them, but we usually only find out when there are unusual circumstances." Kobach contended that voter fraud is rampant. "We had an outside expert come in and do some sampling of our voting rolls. He estimates that the number of aliens on our voter rolls is in the thousands, even though we only see the tip of the iceberg."
Assessing Geopolitical Events
Fox News correspondents Jennifer Griffin and Catherine Herridge joined Greg to survey the tense international climate. "Based on multiple sources," Griffin began, "I can report that the NBC report about the USA planning a preemptive strike on North Korea is false. There was a lot of concern here at the Pentagon that Kim Jong-un might misread these news reports or U.S. military moves. The bomb that was used in Afghanistan was not designed to send any kind of strategic message to anyone." Herridge expressed her surprise that CIA Director Mike Pompeo denounced WikiLeaks as a 'hostile intelligence service.' "It's not every day that the CIA Director drops the hammer on WikiLeaks and Julian Assange," she observed. "Of all the threats they are facing in the intelligence community, Pompeo brought this up because he says it is part of an 'emerging threat stream.' Small entities like WikiLeaks and Edwin Snowden are partnering with traditional enemies of the United States, which is what intelligence experts call the 'grey zone' of information propaganda."
Looking to Next Week
Griffin and Herridge returned to predict the upcoming week's biggest stories. "We are expecting the first major policy address from Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly," Herridge stated. "While so much focus has been on ISIS, people have forgotten that Al Qaeda is not down and out. ISIS has really changed the dynamic of terrorism by taking suicide bombing and mainstreaming it, and we've seen that play out in domestic attacks here in the U.S. But the view is that if there will ever again be a mass casualty attack in the U.S., it will most likely be carried out by Al Qaeda." Griffin looked ahead to the upcoming referendum in Turkey. "All eyes should be on Turkey this Sunday," she declared, "because of this referendum. The U.S. military didn't want to move to re-take Raqqa, the ISIS capital, until after the referendum. All eyes should also be on Secretary of Defense James Mattis and his trip to the Middle East next week. It is part of an effort to build up a coalition and you may soon see some quick moves to take Raqqa away from ISIS." Greg concluded by reminding his guests and viewers, "When it comes to making predictions in a Trump presidency, all bets are off."