O’Reilly: ‘After the second debate, you’ll know’

When asked his prediction for whether Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton will occupy the Oval Office come 2017, Bill O’Reilly said it all comes down to Sunday’s town hall-style debate in St. Louis.

{mosads}“It’s after the second debate you’ll know. So on Monday or Tuesday of next week, you’ll pretty much have an idea of how it’s going to go down,”  the “O’Reilly Factor” host told ITK Thursday night at the premiere of National Geographic’s “Killing Reagan.” The new film, starring Tim Matheson as former President Ronald Reagan and Cynthia Nixon as Nancy Reagan, is based on the bestselling 2015 book co-authored by O’Reilly.

Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, has more than once compared himself to the Gipper, but O’Reilly says he “can’t see any Reagan in any politician” working today.

“I think Reagan was a unique guy who brought a skill-set to the governorship of California and the presidency, a trained actor who could sell his vision of the country very well,” O’Reilly said.

“I don’t think any politician does that very well today,” he added.

Asked about not being considered a “consistent conservative” in an interview on “Face the Nation” earlier this year, Trump replied, “Well, usually, I just evoke the name Ronald Reagan.”

“I mean, Ronald Reagan was a fairly liberal Democrat and he evolved over years and he became more and more conservative,” Trump said. “And he was not a very conservative person, but he was pretty conservative and he ended up being a great president.”

Reagan, O’Reilly said at the premiere in Washington, “was a very committed believer in what he thought was right. Now, I see that in Trump and Hillary Clinton.”

“I think they both, they have certain values that they believe should be in play. And they believe them,” the Fox News host said. “They’re not phonies. I don’t see either of them as phonies.”

O’Reilly said Sunday night’s second of three scheduled debates between the two could be Trump’s last chance to turn around his struggling campaign.

“I think the people are going to watch Trump, and they’re going to look for some things in him. If he shows them, it’s going to be tight. If he doesn’t, Hillary will win big.