Bill O'Reilly on Brokering a Secret Hostage Release Deal

SPEAKER_1 (0:01)

Today, on The James Altucher Show.

Bill O'Reilly (0:04)

So, Jake Sullivan was a national security advisor under President Biden. And he called a friend of mine and said, look, can O'Reilly set up a meeting between Biden, not the man, but his foreign policy people, and Donald Trump? So my friend said, if anybody can do it, it's O'Reilly. And I did it. And it led to four hostages being released. I can't get on CNN.

They never booked me in a million years. Even though when I go on any show, their ratings go up.

So what's the deal? Why are you blackballing non-liberal authors?

SPEAKER_1 (0:52)

This isn't your average business podcast, and he's not your average host. This is The James Altucher Show.

James Altucher (1:09)

After the election, you know, before Trump was sworn in for a second term, Biden's national security team needed to reach the president-elect about the hostages in Gaza. And they, like, couldn't get through. So who do they call?

Bill O'Reilly.

And Bill says he basically set up the call, he moderated it, didn't offer a single opinion. And, you know, about two weeks later, four hostages were released. And that's kind of the whole book. Confronting America, What Has to Change. Bill was in the room. He names names. No anonymous sources. I mean, it's Trump, it's Mamdani, it's Soros, it's even like Paul McCartney and David Letterman. In 1996, Bill launched The O'Reilly Factor, which was an opinion show that actually said it was an opinion show. And it became one of the biggest hits in cable news history. And now he runs like three media companies of his own. Fair warning, I was kind of more opinionated in this one than I usually am. Bill has really strong views on the media, on Iran, on New York City. And I think I only played Devil's Advocate like once. So, listen and decide for yourself. And at the end, I asked him about his father's last words, which were about never reaching his potential, and whether Bill feels like he's reached his. And I kind of expected him to say he's still chasing it. He didn't. This is Bill O'Reilly.

First off, Bill, how are you feeling? You mentioned in the book in January you were sick. What was going on?

Bill O'Reilly (2:46)

Well, I'm an old guy, you know. I got a little ailments here and there, but we're trucking along.

So I appreciate you asking. We're okay.

James Altucher (2:56)

Well, stay healthy and keep writing these books. This one I feel was a little more personal than a lot of your books. It's not like, you know, killing, you know, X, Y, Z. This is like you name people, you name names, you say what's wrong with them and you take no prisoners. So what was going on? What inspired the book?

Bill O'Reilly (3:15)

Eyewitness history. So when you've been around as long as I have, you see a lot of things. Been to 90 countries. I know everybody, even you, James.

James Altucher (3:27)

I'm nobody, but yes.

Bill O'Reilly (3:29)

When somebody is doing something, whether it's good or bad, I can usually get to them and either discuss a situation or have them on one of my broadcasts or whatever, maybe.

So over the years, I've interviewed five presidents and so I decided to basically put down who these guys and gals are and some of the mistakes they've made, some of the good things they've done. But it's not a milk toast thing. It's a very sharp point of view. We have this problem. Why aren't we fixing this problem? Here's the solution to this problem. And that gets some people upset, but you know me, I don't care. I just wanted to write a book that was informative, no anonymous sources, as you pointed out. All the names are right there.

And you learn a lot if you read it.

James Altucher (4:24)

There's a lot of interesting stories where you were in the middle of some pretty big situations. Like I had never heard the story of you kind of almost brokering between the Obama White House and President-elect Trump. Can you describe that story?

Bill O'Reilly (4:39)

Well, there was a situation when Trump was elected the second time. He wasn't yet sworn in. Where the Biden administration wanted to get to President-elect Trump about the hostages in Gaza. And they couldn't get him.

So Jake Sullivan was a national security advisor under President Biden. And he called a friend of mine and said, look, can O'Reilly set up a meeting between Biden, not the man, but his foreign policy people and Donald Trump?