Bill O’Reilly Says Trump’s Legacy Could Be at Risk If Democrats Win Congress
Key Takeaways
- •Bill O'Reilly warned that President Trump's legacy is at stake if Democrats take control of both the House and Senate in the midterm elections.
- •Trump was impeached twice during his first term—over his Ukraine dealings in 2019 and the January 6 Capitol riot in 2021—and was acquitted by the Senate both times.
- •Republicans hold narrow majorities in both chambers heading into the midterms, when all 435 House seats and roughly a third of the Senate will be contested.
- •O'Reilly said a Republican-controlled Senate would likely prevent Trump's removal, because conviction on impeachment charges requires a two-thirds Senate vote.
- •O'Reilly compared Trump's situation to President Lyndon Johnson, whose presidency was undermined by the Vietnam War and who chose not to seek re-election in 1968.
Conservative pundit and former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly has a long record of controversial commentary, including threats that President Donald Trump could “destroy” people who accused him of ties to the late child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, calls for the president to take a vacation, and remarks that Trump should exact vengeance against actor Robert De Niro. Now, O’Reilly is warning Trump that his “legacy” could be at stake if Democrats retake Congress.
“The conservative pundit named two issues that could determine the president’s fate,” reported The Daily Beast's Julia Ornedo on Thursday. “A prominent conservative commentator predicted a bleak future for President Donald Trump if Democrats take control of Congress after the midterms.”
O’Reilly said that if Democrats win back both chambers, they would block Trump’s legislation and could even move to impeach him. Impeachment requires only a simple majority in the House, and Trump was already impeached twice during his first term — over his dealings with Ukraine in 2019 and over the January 6 Capitol riot in 2021 — and acquitted by the Senate both times. Republicans currently hold narrow majorities in the House and Senate heading into the midterms, when all 435 House seats and roughly a third of the Senate will be on the ballot. The president’s party has lost ground in most recent midterms: Republicans lost the House in 2018, Trump’s first midterm, while Democrats dropped 63 House seats in 2010 under President Barack Obama.
“I can’t tell you who’s going to win, because things are gonna change,” O’Reilly said. “But If the Democrats win the Senate and the House, it’s over for President Trump. It’s over.”
He added, “Because they’ll impeach him, they’ll sue him, every two minutes there’ll be something else and nothing will ever get passed. Nothing. So there’ll be two years of, ‘Let’s get Trump.’ That’s what’ll happen.”
O’Reilly also said that a split Congress, with Republicans controlling the Senate, would make impeachment less likely because conviction would require a two-thirds vote in the Senate.
“If there’s a split and the Senate goes for the Republicans, that’ll blunt impeachment because you need two-thirds of the Senate,” O’Reilly said. “He’s not gonna get impeached and convicted anyway. There’s not the votes there. So this thing is very personal for Donald Trump because he’s gotta know that the Republicans have got to take at least one house. He has to. Or his whole legacy blows up.”
He compared Trump’s situation to that of President Lyndon Johnson, a Democrat who advanced significant social legislation before being derailed by the Vietnam War, which ultimately led him to forgo re-election in 1968. He is not alone in drawing comparisons between Trump and other controversial presidents.
“[If] you understand how inflation impacts presidencies, you do not want to be, if you’re Donald John Trump, in the brotherhood with Joe Biden and Jimmy Carter on inflation, because inflation ruined their presidencies,” CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten said in July.
