Donald Trump Upset About GOP Debate Criticism

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Donald Trump Upset About GOP Debate Criticism

Laura Ingraham on Trump's beef with top Republicans attacking his upcoming GOP debate.

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.

Watch "The O'Reilly Factor" weeknights at 8 p.m.

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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.

INGRAHAM: Yes.

O'REILLY: And now he is not. Almost every person who

supported Mr. Cain has gone to Newt Gingrich. And it isn't so much ideology

it's that Gingrich is on the ascent.

INGRAHAM: Yes.

O'REILLY: Whereas Michele Bachmann and... and Rick Perry

they are staying the same single digits, so the Perry... the Cain people said,

you know, it's not too far from Herman Cain to Newt Gingrich so we'll go over

to him. And that's why his poll numbers have skyrocketing.

INGRAHAM: Yes well I was digging into this with my callers

today, Bill. And I was trying... what is it? What is it? Why is Gingrich on the

rise? And it really is coming into play what we talked about a few weeks ago.

The people want to believe that there are going to be big things happening to

transform this government. That it's not going to be a third Bush term. That

it's going to be something fundamentally different.

And a lot of the people who were around and... and from 2000

to 2008 when God bless them George Bush was in power and especially in those

past few years was doing a lot of really liberal things, those people are most

of the ones who are really angry about the rise of Newt Gingrich.

Newt Gingrich can say look, I wasn't there in the 2000s. Yes

I was out there making a lot of the money. But I balanced this budget. I got

Bill Clinton to move to the right on welfare reform. We did some big things.

I'm not perfect but we did some really transformational things.

O'REILLY: Well, certainly he's got a story to tell but I

believe these polls are going to level out. I think that Romney has got a hard

core support of about 23 percent, 24 percent there are a couple of more

debates. One Saturday, right? Isn't there one Saturday?

INGRAHAM: Yes, yes.

O'REILLY: And then the big Fox News a week from tonight.

INGRAHAM: Right.

O'REILLY: And that's going to be huge. And Romney has really

got to step up.

INGRAHAM: He's got to fight for this.

O'REILLY: He's got to, absolutely.

INGRAHAM: It can't be a coronation for Mitt Romney. I think

people think, ok, you think you're entitled to this. And he said the other day

to his credit I have to fight for this, I have to fight for every vote.

O'REILLY: He's got to... he's got to really differentiate

himself from Gingrich in a way that attracts people.

INGRAHAM: Evangelicals are critical in Iowa.

O'REILLY: All right. Laura Ingraham everybody.

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