NewsNation anchor Chris Cuomo had Democratic comedian/TV talk show host Rosie O’Donnell and conservative media personality Bill O’Reilly on his show this week to talk about the presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump — and the famous feud between O’Donnell and Trump which started in 2006. (Both O’Reilly and O’Donnell have long histories with Trump.)
While a co-host of The View with the late Barbara Walter years before Trump was president, O’Donnell often harshly criticized Trump, and Trump responded by hammering O’Donnell in the media, which at the time included O’Reilly’s highly-rated Fox News show, The O’Reilly Factor.
Back then, O’Reilly encouraged Trump to beat O’Donnell “intellectually” rather than merely speculating about her sex life and throwing insults at her, including calling O’Donnell a “pig face,” which Trump did repeatedly. O’Reilly told Trump that such insults were not helpful to anyone — but of course that was before Trump rode his insult train, unrestrained, straight into the White House.
This week on the Cuomo show, O’Donnell agreed with O’Reilly when he said, “I don’t want this country to descend into the mud. I don’t, and that’s why I challenge Donald Trump.” But that’s where their agreement ends.
Rosie O’Donnell had a feud with Trump after she went at him on air while she was on The View. Tonight, Rosie came on to discuss what happened and share her perspective on where we are right now and how we got here…then we brought in Bill O’Reilly to the conversation! pic.twitter.com/BApjA6lWiJ
— Christopher C. Cuomo (@ChrisCuomo) April 18, 2024
O’Reilly goes on to discuss Trump’s upcoming Jan 6 trial (“I don’t think he was behind it”) and said “If that trial ever gets up, I think he’ll be acquitted, there’s too much exculpatory evidence.” O’Donnell “totally” disagrees, and says Trump instigated, planned, and “demanded it of his fans.”
O’Reilly then offers O’Donnell a $10,000 bet (proceeds to go to a favorite charity) “that Donald Trump will not be convicted of insurrection because he’s not charged with it.” Cuomo sighs and tells O’Reilly, “that’s so cheap,” and suggests they make a bet that Trump won’t be charged with anything in the case. O’Donnell accepted the bet.