President Trump calls for action in inaugural address

This is a RUSH transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," January 20, 2017. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
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O'REILLY: All right. You are looking at the Freedom Ball, one of the three galas being held tonight. And Donald Trump is expected to leave the White House momentarily to go to the Liberty Ball and we will take that live as he speaks for a couple of minutes and then dances with his wife.

But first, let's come back to Charles Krauthammer who's been listening in rapture, I might say. To my Talking Points Memo. What was the headline though for you all day that you've been watching this stuff? What's the headline?

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER, SYNDICATED COLUMNIST: Populace wins presidency. It doesn't hide it. This is a serious populace. This is not a conservative speech, this was not in the mold of Reagan. So, I think it marks the end of Reaganism. It's really a third-party candidate which is what Trump was in many ways who ran under the banner of the GOP. So, he has his interesting position. He offers a vision that's populist through and through, but he stocks his administration, the cabinet with conservatives whose agenda is entirely conservative.

So, they are going to go after the Teachers Unions, school choice, go after the EPA, deregulation, increase energy, all the traditional items on the Paul Ryan agenda, you can say the Reagan agenda, and what makes it all the more ironic is that you get that through, he's going to need the establishment. Republican anyway.

O'REILLY: But the Republicans will follow him unless he does breaks with the orthodoxy. But do you think it was appropriate -- now that's an interesting word, for him to basically scorch Barack Obama? Scorched him. All right? And a little and Jeb Bush, the younger as well in that forum when they're sitting right behind him.

KRAUTHAMMER: Generally, I don't. But there is a little bit of poetic justice here. I remember Obama in 2009 being very critical with George W. sitting right there next to him. I don't think a place where the object of your attack is necessarily unable to respond, I don't think it's the place where you attack somebody. So, in some sense, Obama, if you want to say he started it. But generally speaking, the inaugural address is ought to be much more general. But look, Donald Trump is not general. Donald Trump is specific purity.

O'REILLY: Right.

KRAUTHAMMER: He believes in something, he says it. Part of his charm, part of his appeal, and the reason he is president. He doesn't beat around the bush. But his other problem with the address, you said it depends on what the audience thinks, not what we think. That's correct. But he did hang out some markers there. He made promises that are extraordinary. He said the carnage in our cities stops as of today.

O'REILLY: Right.

KRAUTHAMMER: Right here, right now. It's like in his speech at the convention where he said he was going to end violence in America, not diminish it, end it.

O'REILLY: Okay. But that's hyperbole. And everybody knows that.

KRAUTHAMMER: Yes. But you're the President. Hyperbole. But all I'm saying is he's setting a bar.

O'REILLY: Very high.

KRAUTHAMMER: He says, I'm going to eradicate Jihadism in the world.

O'REILLY: Right.

KRAUTHAMMER: Eradicate it from the face of the earth. That is quite a promised. Because this are going to be quoted back then.

O'REILLY: But he's never been understated, he's always been bombastic.

KRAUTHAMMER: But he's never been president until today.

O'REILLY: Okay. But does it matter? Does it matter that he may improve things in the inner-city? And I hope he does, but not 100 percent. If he gets 60 percent improvement, he's a big winner. Nobody is going to remember that he said I'm going to eradicate all crimes, same thing with ISIS. If ISIS is weakened, if we can see a more aggressive approach to them, the folks aren't going to be mad and say, okay, you didn't wipe all of them off the face of the earth. They're going to applaud his accomplishments.

KRAUTHAMMER: If he can reduce the murder rate in Chicago by 60 percent, I would personally will bow to him on that achievement. The problem is, he's making promises on issues and problems that are internal, that have been with us forever. You know, he talked about the violence, we've been trying to eliminate it since Hammurabi. We haven't really succeeded. And a lot of people have tried. So, all I'm saying is he's got to be a little bit careful because he is not -- I mean, I'm going to return jobs, I'm going to bring prosperity. I'm going take people off welfare, put them at work.

O'REILLY: Right.

KRAUTHAMMER: That's a lot to offer. I support all of that. But all I'm saying is, if you were asking what was the effect of that speech, the effect of the speech is in some ways it makes them hostage to his own future history.

O'REILLY: Okay. Now, he now has to do a bunch of things very fast. Next week is going to be wild. Wild! He is going to sign executive order after executive order after executive order to continue to send this message and it's a cliche and I don't like to use it but a new sheriff in town, the swamp is going to be drained, and this is what I'm going to do in a few days, imagine what I'm going to do in a few years. Do you expect that to happen?

KRAUTHAMMER: I do expect it to happen. And I think he's likely to be more successful in that than other presidents for two reasons. Number one, he is endlessly energetic. This guy is the energizer bunny. But he doesn't stop --

O'REILLY: No.

KRAUTHAMMER: -- and he doesn't sleep, he works, that's what he does. I think he'll be working on these one at a time. The other is, he's locking into a historical moment wherein Republicans in the House and the Senate, he made this day but these guys have been working on legislation actual policies, written out in black and white, for years to effectuate reforms that they have thought through and that have been rejected by either Harry Reid in the Senate or Obama.

O'REILLY: Yes. But the big one is healthcare.

KRAUTHAMMER: So, there is this huge backlog of stuff --

O'REILLY: Right. That they have.

KRAUTHAMMER: Pre-thought through.

O'REILLY: Right.

KRAUTHAMMER: Pre-cooked, ready to go.

O'REILLY: He's got gotten an enormous opportunity. Donald Trump does.

KRAUTHAMMER: He works with Ryan and with McConnell. He could do no enormous amount --

(CROSSTALK)

O'REILLY: Well, Pence is going to make that happen. Behind the scene, Pence.

KRAUTHAMMER: Yes.

O'REILLY: So, always keep your eye on him.

Charles, thank you, we appreciate it very much.

KRAUTHAMMER: Pleasure.

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