Hey BillOReilly.com Premium Members, welcome to the No Spin News for Thursday August 17th, 2017. 

A wild Q&A with Glenn Beck on his radio program this morning about the Charlottesville situation but more importantly about these far-left groups that are subverting our democratic process, how they're doing it, and how it's affecting the media, politics, and everything else. 

We posted it on BillOReilly.com without the commercials so you can just cruise through it.

I really recommend you listen to this. It's quite something. So let's begin today with a CBS poll. Now, CBS pulling outfit, not the greatest. But you know, these are snapshots that are worth considering, I think. 

The first question was: Do you approve or disapprove of the way Donald Trump has handled the response to Charlottesville? Approve, 34 percent. Disapprove, fifty-five percent. Don't know, twelve. 

As you may know, Donald Trump clarified his statements on the events in Charlottesville Saturday and he explicitly criticized racist groups and violence. Do you feel it was necessary for Trump to make additional statements on Monday or was that not necessary? Necessary, 55 percent. Not necessary, 36. Don't know, not paying attention, 9. 

All right, third question: So far, do you think the policies of the Trump administration have encouraged racial unity in the USA, have encouraged racial division in the U.S.A, or have not had any effect either way. Encourage racial unity, 12 percent. Encourage racial division, 44 percent. Not much effect, 39 percent. So when you add that up, that's 51-44. Not a trouncing. Which shows you the huge divide between the folks and the media. 

Final question: For you, from what have you heard or read do you consider the attack that lead to injuries and loss of life in Charlottesville to be an act of domestic terrorism or not? Yes, act of terrorism, 63 percent. No, not an act of domestic terrorism, 27. 

It was terrorism. Look, just like today in Barcelona. In Barcelona, Spain, same thing. Same deal. Drives a car into a plaza where there are hundreds of people milling around trying to kill people. And this is what ISIS does. And this is what this guy in Charlottesville did. The same thing. No difference. So we should note that. 

Now, part of my conversation with Beck, we got into a number of things. The economic council that President Trump put together, he has now dissolved because some people resigned from that council. Now, some of them did it for conscience reasons, they don't like how Trump is conducting his presidency. OK. Their opinion, they have a right to do it. But many of them are doing it because pressure groups like Color of Change, Media Matters, are saying, " if you associate with Donald Trump at all, we're going to call for a boycott of your company." 

It's what these people do. That's what they did to me. And they're paid to do it.

This doesn't happen on the far right. Only on the far left. So you had a bunch of people on that presidential council say "I'm going to resign." Again, some did it conscience, some did it out of fear. Same thing in the media. 

Believe me when I tell you, many, perhaps most commentators on cable news, not talk radio, that's a different thing, on cable news are frightened to have anything to do with Donald Trump right now. 

One of the exceptions is Sean Hannity. Now, whether you agree with Hannity or not he's in for Trump and he's never wavered. And he's been threatened with boycotts all over the place. But to Hannity's credit, he attacks back. I wish I had, but there was a complicated reason why I didn't and I can't really get into that. But Hannity learned a lesson from me. And he's stating his case and he isn't wavering. Now, again you don't have to agree with him. But he has a right to say what he believes, not be threatened. 

And that's the conversation I had with Glenn Beck today that I hope you listen to. 

I want to bring in Peter Hasson, associate editor for The Daily Caller, who has researched some of these far-left pressure groups. 

((Interview)) 

OK. So let's get to Steve Bannon. I don't follow party politics much; you guys know that if you followed me for years. I'm not a party politics guy. The Trump administration, you know, to me they do what they do. 

I thought Kelly was a good appointment as chief of staff, the general. He's a no nonsense guy. He didn't look too thrilled about the Charlottesville presentation from the president. But the president has the final word. 

Now, Steve Bannon, a very close adviser to Donald Trump. He's a controversial guy. I don't believe a word they say about him because I always give people a presumption of innocence, always, no matter who they are. And I don't really follow the ins and outs of what Steve Bannon says.

So he gives an interview much like Scaramucci did to a non friendly entity and he comes out and he says some stuff about North Korea, there's no military solution. He calls the Nazis reprobates or whatever he does. He says that he has a lot of power, Steve Bannon says. 

But to me this is all self-defeating for him. Again, I've got no pony in this carousel. I don't know Steve Bannon. I met him once. I don't know if the president listens to him, doesn't listen to him, I don't know any of that.

But to me, reading the situation, he's not going to be there much longer in the White House because Kelly, it's not Kelly's kind of guy. And the interview that he gave, you know, you look at those and you say "why bother? Why do this." 

You know, it doesn't make a lot of sense. Like Scaramucci's interview didn't make a lot of sense. And I think when it comes at that point, Trump's under siege, he's going to try to get the controversy lower, I think. 

So, we tape this podcast earlier in the day. By the time you're looking at it Bannon may be gone. Maybe out of here. You know, I think his days, or even hours, are numbered. All right, but I could be wrong. This is speculation. I don't like to do that but it's educated. You know, you see a pattern of behavior and that's the Bannon story. 

Let's get to this statue thing. OK. This is another example of fascism. Now we're seeing the statues come down. Some of them should come down, as we discussed. 

We got a lot of good mail today, I'm going to spend a lot more time on the mail today than usual because there's some really good letters, thoughtful letters. 

Look here's a statue deal. If it's in historical context, as is Gettysburg, battlefield, that kind of thing. Certainly, Confederate generals and Confederate soldiers, certainly are fine. The war between the states was probably the most intense thing that's ever happened to this country. OK. You don't whitewash it. You don't black it out. 

But if it's an honor, if you're honoring a guy like Jefferson Davis, no. Jefferson Davis does not deserve to be honored at all. Neither do people like Nathan Bedford Forrest, we talked about this earlier this week, head of the Ku Klux Klan after the Civil War, he doesn't deserve it. So you can remove that statue, put it someplace else. Put it in the war between the states museum. That's OK. All right. 

So here's what's going on. In Baltimore, four monuments have been removed. Baltimore, you figured that, very liberal town, minority driven town, you figure that's going to happen. Durham, North Carolina you saw the Confederate soldier monument come down, toppled by far-left protesters while the cops allowed the vandalism. 

Gainesville, Florida, Confederate soldiers removed. New Orleans, for monuments removed. Annapolis calls for removal of Roger B Taney's statue. He was the chief justice in the Dred Scott decision, horrible decision. They don't want him around Annapolis.

Charlottesville, the Robert E. Lee statue getting taken out, that's what prompted the supremacist march. 

Jacksonville, Florida, Confederate monuments are being removed. Lexington, Kentucky, same thing. D.C., proposal to remove Confederate statues from the U.S. Capitol building park. 

I'd have to see those statues. I haven't seen them. The next time I get down to Washington I'm going to look at them. And then all across the country, Los Angeles, marker for Confederate vets removed. You know... all over the place this is happening. 

Now, it’s going to be a successful campaign. Even though President Trump tweeted today "Sad to see history and culture of our great country being ripped apart with the removal of our beautiful statues and monuments. You can't change history. But you can learn from it. Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, who's next? Washington, Jefferson? So foolish." 

OK. And I think the majority of Trump supporters feel the same way. I have a little bit more of a nuanced thing. I think you have to see what the statue is, what the purpose of the statue is and make your decision.

As I said yesterday, and it is certainly valid, we fought World War I and II and defeated very bad people. Everyone should know about that and a statue would remind people about it, that we defeated Hitler, he put the little mustache. But you're never going to see that because he's such a heinous bad guy. In the Confederate army, there were some terrible people. All right, there were terrible people in the Union army. But the Union army was fighting for the preservation of the United States while the Confederates were fighting for a new country that headlined slavery. There's a big difference. 

OK. And I'm going to deal with this a little bit more in the letter thing.

Finally, a terrible story in Utah. Twice deported man, 32-year-old Victor Francisco Michelle Laura, 32, twice deported, twice came back, three times came back. Snuck in, came back, came back. OK, three-time loser. And this is Kate's Law right here. Admits to abusing, sexually abusing a 7-year-old girl multiple times. The girl says thousands of times, but anyway he's being held at $200000 bail, which I thought was low, but I don't know. We're working on why that... bail should be a million. He's never going to get out. But again, I mean, look, this kind of stuff, you get three jumps over the border? No, no Kate's Law. 

All right. August is winding down. I was hoping to take the last two weeks off. I can't. I can't. So I'm going to be here as much as I can be here but I am going to be traveling. But we'll do audio most days, video some days, because there's too much going on. 

And you guys, you know, you're Premium Members, you come to us because I think you understand what we deliver here is as honest as I can be on the analysis, and with all the stuff in play I've got to be around. So you'll have something every day in the last two weeks of August. Then as I said yesterday, in the early part of the fall we're going to start to accelerate BillOReilly.com No Spin News.

We're still working it out but it's going to be a lot of fun and it's good, you're going to love it. Because we believe that this is a tremendous growth industry, that people aren't getting what they need from the news agencies right now. And we're going to give it to you. OK. 

Let's get to the mail. 

Lawrence Monroe. Port Charlotte, Florida. 

"Bill, you explain exactly what the left is doing. You kind of scared the hell out of me. I know you're speaking the truth but I don't want to see this country change into socialism or wherever the left wants." 

Look, at this point, it is a fait accompli that the politically correct left is winning. That doesn't mean there's going to be a fundamental economic revolution. This is where Trump can get back his mojo. If Trump continues to be able to create jobs and stimulate the economy so wages go up, this other stuff isn't going to matter so much. And then you'll see the far left and the left recede in power. But right now, as we just talked about with the statues, the momentum is on their side because their opposition is afraid. They're afraid. 

So if you stick up for Trump then you're a Nazi. If you call out Color of Change you hate blacks. You know, this demonization that Alinsky wrote about, Saul Alinsky, this is a reality. And people are afraid. I can tell... I'm not going to do it because it's not fair. But I can tell you commentators are scared to death on television. They're frightened out of their minds. And then you have the rest of them are in the pack. Whichever way the pack goes they go. All right. So it's concerning. 

It's not at a crisis point now but it could be, it could get there. 

Rich Fleischauer. Benton Harbor, Michigan.

"Recent Premium Member but longtime Factor fan. I don't remember all this hate before President Obama. In your opinion, what responsibility does he play?" 

Not much. I thought that President Obama was a true believer who masked what he really wanted, which was a quasi-socialistic economic system and a withdrawal from any engagements abroad that were confrontational. That's what his two-pronged system was, and he masked it. But he wasn't, or isn't, a nasty guy in the sense that he's not a hater. I never ever saw that from him. And I was in his presence a fair amount. 

Steve in Jerseyville, Illinois. 

"Bill, I think your assessment of how President Trump should have handled the issue regarding the KKK, Nazis, and white supremacists is correct, but I strongly believe that it needs to be clearly stated that the people on the right that Trump is referring to when he said there are good people on both sides of the issue." 

The problem is there weren't any good people marching with the Nazis. And that's where that message got lost. You can't... the best thing I've said all week is when it comes to Nazis you condemn them and walk away, that's all. You don't have any other linkage. So if Trump had just condemned them and then three days later said, "you know what, people who don't want to see statues destroyed about our historical legacy, they're not all bad people." He could have done that separately. But you can't do it in conjunction with Nazis. 

James Guglielmino. Burbank, California, where we'll be, Miller and I in December, James. No we're not in Burbank, we're in Anaheim. But that's just down the freeway.

"Bill, it's true George Washington Thomas Jefferson were slave owners. Slavery is condemned today as it should be. I believe we're all products of an era in which we live. So were Washington and Jefferson when having slaves was the unfortunate norm of the day for the well-to-do." 

I get into this seriously in Killing England. All right. This is lucky for me almost that this talk about our Founding Fathers and how they behaved is in play because Killing England is all about George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin, and what they were really like.

And we take you into their slave situations and then you can make your judgment about them. Whether they were basically good men or not. But believe me, the left isn't going to stop at Robert E. Lee. They're going to go after Jefferson and Washington. It's coming. But when you read Killing England, the totality of their lives, and that's what we give you, you're going to be very surprised. And I think that information will become very useful in this day and age. 

Donald McKeough. Coral Springs, Florida. 

"Bill, I mostly agree with you. But Hideki Tojo compared to Robert E. Lee or any southern commander? Really, is that what you wanted to say? Atrocities committed by the Japanese in the Pacific were truly beyond the pale. With few exceptions on both sides of the Civil War, it was an honorable war." 

No. It wasn't. It wasn't. It was a brutal war with atrocities all over the place. I mean, when you have a guy like Sherman going through the south, scorched-Earth burning and killing civilians, come on. 

Andersonville, the Confederate prison, that was as bad as any Japanese prison. It was not an honorable war. And I'll prove it. Look at this. 

It says, quote, "The general commanding takes this means of informing the people that he has not come among them to disturb them. The Home Guards are required to come in at once. and deliver up their arms. Those who failed to do so will be regarded as enemies of the government and treated accordingly. Those who comply will be treated as noncombatants and private citizens. Private citizens who seek opportunity to ambush our soldiers, commonly known as bushwhackers, will be regarded as outlaws and orders will be issued to shoot them wherever found. If any of our men are fired on while passing through the country, I will lay waste the entire surrounding neighborhood." 

General J.H. Morgan. All right. One more time, I'm just going to show you. This is the actual proclamation from the general. Not a reproduction. 

This war, the Civil War, was as brutal as it comes. Legends & Lies: The Civil War, ok, you need it. 

What else do I have here? 

That was a good letter, by the way, Donald. I thank you for writing that letter.

Grace Smith. Smithton, Illinois. 

"In your opinion, do U.S. citizens who hold extremely hateful views have the same constitutional legal rights as those who do not?"

Yes, but they can't break the law. There is such a thing as a conspiracy to commit harm. They can't break the law but if they're just a loon they have constitutional rights. 

Elizabeth Marnach of Philadelphia. 

"Just became a Premium Member and I'm so happy. Just want to thank you for helping me on a daily basis make sense of the political climate of my country. I cannot continue to watch cable news because it's nauseating and exhausting trying to get to the truth. Thank goodness for a big bad Bill." 

I guess that's me. Big Bad Bill. Look, Elizabeth, I'm happy you're on board. It is hard to get the truth from the American media. 

Joe Mello. Lincoln, California. 

"First of all, Trump needs to be a Premium Member of BillOReilly.com." Yes, he does. "You're right on about what's happening to our country. Trump and Kelly need to listen to you."

I think they get my messaging somewhat. I hope they do. I haven't spoken to the president in a while. But he, you know, I think respects me even when I disagree with him. 

Robert Thomas. Palm Desert, California. 

"My wife and I listen religiously to the podcast each afternoon. After today's podcast, we find ourselves beginning to seriously worry about safety in today's world especially for those of us who believe in this country and our president." 

You know, you've got to be careful, Robert. I am. You've got to be very careful. There are people who will hurt you.

And finally, Laura on the message board, Clinton, New York. 

"Bill, thank you for creating this avenue that continues to opine common sense. God bless you." 

Thank you, Laura. Appreciate it. 

Two ways to reach me. On the message boards, you're all entitled to post there. Some of you are shy and I understand that, So then you go Bill@BillOReilly.com. 

We have now closing in on 2,100,000 Twitter followers. That's @billoreilly. I'll post another corgi picture soon. They're very popular. 

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