Bill O'Reilly explains to Stephen Colbert why Donald Trump won the GOP nomination

Bill OReilly talks politics with Stephen Colbert

(Image credit: Late Show)

published 3 May 2016

On Monday's Late Show, Stephen Colbert asked his Fox News frenemy Bill O'Reilly what he thought about Tuesday's Indiana primary, and O'Reilly didn't stop talking for the next five minutes. He began by saying that the primaries have been over since Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton won their respective New York primaries, and Indiana doesn't really matter. "Feel the Bern all you want, but the Bern's going to be in the refrigerator and Clinton's going to be the nominee," he said. If Trump doesn't win Indiana, it will give Ted Cruz "a little thing to hang on to," O'Reilly added, "but it's still going to be Trump."

Colbert managed to ask O'Reilly if, since he has known Trump for years, he's "comforted" to think Trump will be one of two candidates in the general election. "I'm not arrogant enough to say that this person or that person isn't qualified," O'Reilly said. "The people in the Republican Party want Donald Trump for one reason: They want to blow the whole establishment up. That's why he's gotten where he's gotten." O'Reilly, it seems, shares that view. He said conservatives are upset because they believe progressives — "your crew," he told Colbert — have won the culture war. (The audience cheered). "They don't like what the country is becoming." When Colbert asked for an example, O'Reilly brought up the illegal immigrant who killed a woman in San Francisco.

You can watch below to hear O'Reilly's entire treatise on why Donald Trump is winning, or you can watch to see Colbert defang O'Reilly's bloviating just enough that the audience doesn't boo him until the very end. Either way, it's good television. Peter Weber

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.