Watching Bill O’Reilly interview Donald Trump often turns into a spectator sport. They agree on some points, but the crotchety Fox News host won’t let the presumptive Republican nominee get away with everything. Around the 7:30 point in this video, O’Reilly pokes fun at President Obama and Canadian Prime Minster Justin Trudeau’s lack of focus on the Istanbul airport terror attack during their current meetup. O’Reilly can’t believe the two world leaders began their press appearances with the gay rights issue, and then something remarkable comes out of the host’s ranting mouth. He refers to Trump as a “terror warrior,” and it’s impossible to tell whether O’Reilly is serious or trolling. Trump takes the statement as a compliment, but is it?
These days, it’s difficult to predict how O’Reilly feels on many issues, and he surprised everyone by calling for stricter gun laws after the Orlando nightclub massacre. Where Trump is concerned, O’Reilly wavers. He once lectured the real estate mogul over his debate skipping antics and called Vladimir Putin an “idiot” for wanting to befriend Trump. And O’Reilly previously tried to make Trump soften his plan to ban Syrian refugees from the country. But there’s usually some begrudging respect between these two men.
That’s how tonight started too. They both agreed that Hillary Clinton would be weak on terrorism, and Trump claimed Americans “will be afraid to walk outside.” They merrily bashed Clinton for a few minutes, and Trump ruined the rapport by informing the Fox News audience that Syrian refugees are undercover Islamic State members: “One other thing. They are letting tens of thousands of people come in from Syria and nobody knows who these people are, and a lot of those people are ISIS.” At that point, O’Reilly has had his fill for the evening and explicitly disagrees with his guest. Because even Bill O’Reilly won’t go there.