At the end of their discussion, which was the first 20 minutes of tonight’s O’Reilly Factor, Bill O’Reilly went in for the ask, even though Donald Trump asked him not to, off camera, before their interview.
“Would you consider? I want you to consider… all right, come back, forgive, go forward, answer the questions, look out for the folks. I just want you to consider it,” O’Reilly asked, hoping Trump would reconsider pulling out of tomorrow night’s debate on Fox News.
“Well, even though you and I had an agreement that you wouldn’t ask me that, which we did, I will, therefore, forget that you asked me that,” said Trump. “It’s not up to me, Bill. I told you upfront I said ‘don’t ask me that question’ because it’s an embarrassing question to you and I don’t want to embarrass you.”
O’Reilly acknowledged he’d been asked not to ask the question, but told Trump, “I’m not going to listen to anybody, any political person, tell me ‘don’t ask me anything.'”
Last night, Trump backed out of the final GOP debate before the Iowa Caucus. He’s planned his own campaign rally set for the same time, two miles away, at Drake University.