Will Michael Bloomberg run for president?

'The O'Reilly Factor' examines the Former New York City mayor considering third party bid for the White House

This is a RUSH transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," January 25, 2016. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
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O'REILLY: Thanks for staying with us. I'm Bill O'Reilly. In the Hume Zone segment tonight, two hot topics. Washington Post running a very silly article on Marco Rubio and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg says, he will run against both Republicans and Democrats for president.

Joining us now from Boca Raton, Florida Brit Hume. First of all, let's talk about Bloomberg. He has got the money. Says he put up a billion of his own cash to run. Anything else going for him?

BRIT HUME, FOX NEWS SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, not a lot, Bill, because I don't think he has a natural constituency, or a natural base. He is too liberal for conservatives. I think too conservative for Liberals. He is not really a conservative but is he a capitalist. And as you see on the democratic side, that's not the way to go today. You have got Bernie Sanders who is an out and out socialist. In the lead in the first -- or at least close to in the lead in the first two states. So, you know that shows you where he is on the left. But on the right people will look at him and say, well, wait a minute, this guy is a big gun control guys, you know, he want to decide what kind of beverages you could drink in New York state.

He is a pro-abortion rights and so on. So, I think he would be appealing to a fairly narrow constituency. And it's too late for him to get in, you know, to either party's nominating contest. So he would have to spend a lot of money to get on the ballot as an independent. Now, Bill, remember, he sort of set conditions here. You know, he is worried about Bernie Sanders being nominated. He is worried about Trump, and, you know, this crazy year, you know, those things could happen and he might get in anyway.

O'REILLY: Well, I don't know. He did a good job, I thought, in New York. I mean, I don't care whether he wants me to drink the big gulp or not. It really doesn't affect me. I'm going to drink what I want to drink. OK? Bloomberg telling me that I shouldn't drink it, I mean, what does that mean? But he controlled the city. And as soon as he walked out the door and de Blasio came in New York fell apart, I mean, it was like two days later. So, he has got that going for him. But I do agree, I don't know where he takes from. He doesn't -- conservatives are not going to vote for him. Just on guns alone, they will not going to vote for him. And Liberals are not going to vote for him because he's this capitalist billionaire who has this big home all over the place. And, you know, consumer. Where is he going? So, I think he is basically -- but I think he could run just because he would like to shake it up.

HUME: Well, I think he can. What seems though to be selling this year is somebody with a lot of fire and energy or with a platform --

O'REILLY: He is not a fire guy. Right.

HUME: No, he's not. He's a relatively soft-spoken. Very bright abled guy. I mean, you are right about the job he did in New York. He was very effective as mayor there and did well. He wouldn't have been reelected. But you know, taking that out across the country, usually the profile of a mayor of New York is not the profile of somebody who is an ideal presidential candidate.

O'REILLY: No.

HUME: And I just think, I think, you know, he would just have to narrow a slice to appeal to.

O'REILLY: OK. Let's go to the "The Washington Post" which ran a very silly article as I said about Marco Rubio. I have to almost take myself out of this discussion because "The Washington Post" allowed its editorial page to attack me very unfairly. Wouldn't print my reply. So, I don't have a lot of good feeling toward "The Washington Post" at this point. But the article they wrote on Rubio over the weekend, more recently said that when he was 18 he was hanging around a park after the park closed. That was the article. That was it. And I'm going, are you kidding me?

HUME: Yes. He was drinking beer and hanging around the park after closing hours and he got charged with a minor offense and the charge was subsequently dismissed. Now, it was framed to be fair, Bill.

O'REILLY: Is that a big article though?

HUME: Well, by itself, no. But look, I think the article is much to do about not much. But they did frame it as kind of a turning point for him when he would been kind of drifting and moving in no clear direction. And following this which is one of the series of episodes, he kind of turned things around and got his life moving in the right direction. So, looking at it that way you could say there was nothing wrong with it.

O'REILLY: OK. But --

HUME: -- addressing the sneak in the episode.

O'REILLY: Right. And that's what gets that out of the net. And then on May 20th of last year --

(CROSSTALK)

O'REILLY: Yes. On May 20th of 2015, they did Rubio's finances and then they did an article on Romney, it was a bully in prep school. And you know what I mean, meantime -- 150 FBI agents after Hillary Clinton. I mean, come on.

HUME: Yes. What I would say about those kinds of stories, Bill. There is nothing wrong with journalists doing a real frisk of a presidential candidate's background and looking into things. The problem is, if you don't turn up very much which is the case here, it seems to me you either do a very short story or no store at all.

O'REILLY: Yes.

HUME: This one looks like -- this is a story that could have well been spiked and I don't think anybody would mind.

O'REILLY: Yes.

HUME: And I doubt the world little note, would not remember it anyway.

O'REILLY: I think it makes the paper look bad along as with the Ted Cruz daughters controversy and they had to pull that cartoon. So --

HUME: Well, they did the story about the -- was it the post or the tickets or who did the parking tickets or the speeding tickets story? Was that the post or the "Times"?

O'REILLY: I don't remember but I don't know.

HUME: But turned out the speeding tickets were mostly, they were like 17 - -

O'REILLY: His wife.

HUME: -- of them, all but three were his wife's.

O'REILLY: Yes, I mean --

HUME: You need to know there's a bunch of presidential candidate, his wife had a bunch of speeding tickets. I don't think so.

O'REILLY: All right. Brit, thank you.

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