This is a RUSH transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor,"December 08, 2011. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

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BILL O'REILLY, HOST: "Impact" segment tonight, as you may know Donald Trump has been selected by News Max to moderate a Republican debate in Iowa at the end of December. That is causing some controversy. Right now Mitt Romney, Ron Paul, Rick Perry and Jon Huntsman say they will not participate. Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich say they will. Michele Bachmann undecided. And Mr. Trump doesn't like the criticism he's getting from some Republicans.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

TRUMP: Frankly I know a lot more than, you know, a lot of the so- called pundits that you read about. Karl Rove is an example. What did he do? He gave you Bush and he and Bush crashed and burned and to be honest, Laura, nobody could have won that election in all fairness to John McCain because of what took place during the Bush Administration and that was Karl Rove.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

O'REILLY: All right. With us now here in Washington is Laura Ingraham who had Mr. Trump on her radio program earlier this week. So he's pretty teed off about this whole thing.

LAURA INGRAHAM, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, I... I just gave him a call a few minutes ago. I talked to him.

O'REILLY: You can get Trump on the line, right.

INGRAHAM: I can. I used your name. I said it was Bill O'Reilly calling and they took the call immediately. So I chatted with him for a few minutes. And I said, look why are you so angry? You seem angry on my show.

O'REILLY: Yes.

INGRAHAM: And he said you know why I'm angry? Because the country is going to hell.

O'REILLY: Right.

INGRAHAM: And we don't seem to want have a serious debate about some of the big issues facing our country which I think he wanted to have at this debate. China, what do we do the about the rise of China and not just discussing it in broad terms. What specific trade policies are going to be put in place so we even the playing field as China cheats, big issue.

O'REILLY: Full disclosure I know Trump pretty well and we go to some Yankee games together.

INGRAHAM: Yes.

O'REILLY: But I don't understand why they won't show up. And if I were running for president on the Republican side I would want Trump asking me questions.

INGRAHAM: Well and he's a Republican...

O'REILLY: I think that... because here is the advantage to the Republicans.

INGRAHAM: Yes.

O'REILLY: And I don't know why they are not going on. Even if they don't watch the debate, it's going to be on every Web site, your show, my show, everything.

INGRAHAM: Yes.

O'REILLY: And there is Trump. But he's going to give you a little jazz. You can give it right back to him. It's not like its Wolf Blitzer and you can't make fun of Wolf. You can make fun of Trump.

INGRAHAM: And but... but Trump also, I think he would ask questions. Like ok, how will we know that your presidency won't be like a third Bush term? I think he thinks it's important to have a debate about what happened preceding this Obama Administration.

O'REILLY: Yes.

INGRAHAM: How did it turn out that we go from eight years of Bush to Barack Obama. That's why he is angry I think.

O'REILLY: Yes but the Republican contender should be able to handle Donald Trump...

INGRAHAM: Yes... if you can't handle Donald Trump then good luck of going against the billion dollars of Barack Obama. I think -- I think...

O'REILLY: Well, yes.

INGRAHAM: I think everybody was like, oh it's a reality show.

O'REILLY: I don't know why they are not. I sympathize with Trump on this one.

INGRAHAM: He's -- he's a good brand manager Bill.

O'REILLY: Right.

INGRAHAM: And if the Republican Party was as good at brand managing they would do a better job.

O'REILLY: News Max a conservative outfit, they asked Trump to moderate, I think it's more interesting than to have... you know the usual people and, you know, not to disparage any journalist.

INGRAHAM: Right.

O'REILLY: But Trump brings in a lot more heat.

INGRAHAM: Business, negotiation. He knows how to negotiate. And Mitt Romney, remember, is really good on China from Trump's perspective. He said look we might have to put tariffs on China because the marketplace globally is totally unfair now and skewed because China is cheating. So it's not a fair marketplace. Romney would have been good in that debate.

O'REILLY: All right. Two weeks ago Herman Cain was a player.