Bill O’Reilly Defends Trump’s Civil War Comments, Blasts ‘Morons’ On Cable News
"The sheer craziness of this obsession ..."
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No longer restrained by the formalities of network television, former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly launched a scathing attack on former CBS News anchor Dan Rather and the other “morons” on cable news for criticizing President Donald Trump’s claim that Andrew Jackson could have prevented the Civil War.
“You may have seen a bunch of people on cable news, and that’s one of the reasons I don’t really miss it, saying that President Trump is a moron for saying that Andrew Jackson might have prevented the Civil War because of Jackson’s skills in running the country,” O’Reilly said Tuesday on his No Spin News podcast.
“So Dan Rather, who knows very little about history, and others go out and they hammer Trump like he’s a moron.”
Trump told the Washington Examiner in an interview Monday that he believed Andrew Jackson could have prevented the Civil War. “He was a very tough person but he had a big heart. He was really angry that he saw with regard to the Civil War, he said ‘There’s no reason for this,'” Trump said of the nation’s seventh president.
Jackson, a staunch defender of keeping the country unified, had threatened South Carolina with a federal invasion during the Nullification Crisis during his presidency. However, Jackson died in 1845, sixteen years before the Civil War.
Rather blasted Trump in a Facebook post Monday for having a “grade schooler’s” understanding of American history.
“The sheer craziness of this obsession by Donald Trump with Andrew Jackson and the Civil War is a carnival act unlike anything I have ever seen at the White House,” the former CBS host wrote.
“These are the rantings of someone who really should be focused on the job of governing. Should we not conclude that he approaches policy decisions with the same half-baked conspiracies with which he apparently approaches history?” Rather asked.
“To be President of the United States is to part of the great American story. To not understand that story is to not understand the presidency.”
O’Reilly didn’t agree with Rather’s insinuation that Trump’s view on Jackson amounted to a “half-baked conspiracy.”
“Trump was right,” O’Reilly said Tuesday. “Andrew Jackson would not have tolerated any secession movement at all and would have moved federal troops much faster into the problem situations. James Buchanan, Old Buck, did nothing. He was afraid. And that emboldened the South. End of historical story.”
“These morons that you see on cable news, just turn them off. Just turn them off because you are never going to get an honest story.”
“They know nothing,” O’Reilly concluded.
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