Tuesday on Fox News Channel’s “The O’Reilly Factor,” host Bill O’Reilly reacted to Monday night’s results from the Iowa caucuses, in particular Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s second-place finish.
O’Reilly credited Cruz’s effort, but also blamed Trump for skipping the Fox News Channel debate in Des Moines, IA a week earlier.
“You know, the TV media goes nuts over these early political events and there’s a lot of nonsense being spouted. ‘Talking Points’ would like to set the record straight tonight. Ted Cruz won, largely on the strength of religious Republicans in Iowa and the well-organized campaign there. The senator had to win and he did … Donald Trump ran second and his snub of the Fox News debate hurt him,” O’Reilly said. “Here’s the proof – late deciding voters broke for Marco Rubio 30 percent. Ted Cruz 25 [percent], Trump just 14 percent. Had Trump shown up and done well in that debate, the late-deciding numbers would not have been that way in my opinion. All the other Republican candidates got hammered, including Jeb Bush, who spent some time and some money.”
Despite the second-place finish in Iowa, O’Reilly insisted that Trump still remains to be a threat in the race for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination.
“The media of course despises Donald Trump and will paint him as a loser if they can, but here on ‘The Factor’ we’re fair, and the truth is Trump remains very formidable,” he added.
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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