First up,
he's a Peabody Award-winning
Fox News correspondent-at-large,
and author of
The Geraldo Show: A Memoir,
Geraldo Rivera!
-(AUDIENCE CHEERS)
-BILL: Hey. How are you?
GERALDO: Good to see you.
-Been a while. Great to see you.
-Yeah. On the same stage.
Yes, yes. We--
Well, we shared a stage in 1994,
-do you remember that?
-That's right. Garry Shandling.
That's-- Garry Shandling?
Was he on the show?
-Well, there was thousands
of people on--
-Oh, we shared the same stage.
-My talk show and your show.
-Oh. Yes. Yes.
But when I did your show,
Garry Shandling was a guest.
Oh, well who the fuck
could remember that?
-(AUDIENCE LAUGHS)
-I had millions of guests
I could never remember.
But-- So, uh, your book,
very interesting, and I know--
Look, I remember you
from Willowbrook
-I remember when-- Yeah.
-(APPLAUSE)
I mean, you were the--
one of the original
crusading reporters,
and you care very much
about your legacy
being as a journalist,
so I do have to ask,
why Fox News? It's...
-(AUDIENCE CHEERS)
-Well, that's a fair question.
I-- I think that
your characterization of Fox
is a stereotype,
with all due respect.
I'm-- I'm pro-choice,
I'm pro-immigration reform,
I'm pro-gun control,
and I'm on Fox News.
It's easy, because Sean Hannity,
for instance,
is such a big personality,
to say that he represents
the sum total of Fox,
but I-- I think that...
-BILL: Good.
-...with due respect,
that there are more voices,
it's not state-run TV.
-It has a...
-Well--
-...conservative-leaning--
-BILL: Well, come on.
MSNBC is as liberal,
as progressive
as you could possibly be.
-Aside for this show.
-But...
-(APPLAUSE)
-(BILL CHUCKLES)
-Yeah, we're-- we're HBO. Um...
-(GERALDO LAUGHS)
But there is a big difference
between MSNBC and Fox News.
I mean, MSNBC
sticks to the truth.
-(AUDIENCE CHEERS)
-They-- They--
-They don't-- They don't--
-(APPLAUSE)
They don't make things up.
I mean, Trump--
There's a loop going on,
between Trump and Fox News.
Would you admit to that?
That he watches Fox--
I mean, what does he do
all morning?
He doesn't come down
to work till 11:00,
he's-- he's there,
doing his hair,
watching Fox and Friends,
(AUDIENCE LAUGHS)
and then he quotes from
 Fox and Friends.
Our policy seems to be
coming from Fox and Friends.
And then he'll say
something crazy,
and they will back it up.
I'm still stuck on your saying
MSNBC is the truth.
No, I'm saying they don't
make things up. They--
-Russia collusion.
-(AUDIENCE GASPS)
Where's the collusion?
-Well, that's what we're inv--
-It's an illusion.
-It's not collusion.
-Well, first of all--
First of all, that's what
the investigation is about,
and the report isn't in yet.
-So you can't say--
-Fourteen, fifteen months.
-I mean, at what point
do you insist that the--
-But the report--
When the report comes out.
Come on, Geraldo, you know that.
When the report comes out.
I'm not saying it's...
it's definitely collusion,
but you can't say
it's an illusion
until the report comes out.
-Would you agree to that?
-I--
I say that anyone
who views the witnesses
who have been interviewed,
-the indictments that
have come down...
-BILL: Wow.
...the scope of
the investigation so far,
-has to come to the conclusion--
-BILL: Everybody in
this administration...
-There's nothing there yet.
-...has been talking to Russia!
-Are you kidding?
-You would blame them
if they had Russian dressing
on their salad.
-(AUDIENCE GROANS)
-But they-- What--
See, this is what I don't get,
is I-- I mean,
I remember thinking of you
as a crusading reporter who was
fighting against the spin.
I feel like now
you are the spin.
-That's so bull.
-(APPLAUSE)
-That's really so bull--
-Why is that bull?
-Because--
-You really don't see
a Russian connection
-with the Trumps?
-I absolutely do not.
Where is the connection?
Give me one-- What's your
best evidence of collusion?
The Trump Tower meeting
with Don Jr., where they said,
"There was no Russians--
Oh, wait, there was one.
There was three,
there was five,
there was eight."
That-- That meeting,
which is that one that
everyone talks about,
is-- was so bland
and benign, and stupid.
Well, you don't know,
you weren't there!
You only know what they lie
about it.
You asked me about Fox News.
Let me tell you how
I got to Fox News.
I got to Fox News,
because I'm a native New Yorker,
9/11 happened,
and three thousand
of my friends and neighbors
were killed.
I had a cushy job at CNBC,
the number one-rated show
on that network, Rivera Live.
I said, "Send me to war."
These sons of bitches
killed all these people.
Six dads in my children's
grade school were killed
that day.
NBC said, "We're not gonna
send you to war,
because your show's
too important,
we've got plenty of
war correspondents,"
I said, "I quit."
So I walked away from
a five million dollar payroll,
I took forty percent of that,
to work as a war correspondent
for Fox.
From-- From November of 2001,
until 2012,
basically, that was my job.
I was a war cor--
Eleven Extended assignments
in Afghanistan,
eleven in Iraq, Somalia,
every shithole on Earth,
I went there and covered
for Fox.
I never got any bad vibes
when I was doing that.
The war petered out,
it didn't end,
Afghanistan's still continuing.
We saw what happened with ISIS
in Iraq and Syria.
So I started doing
more commentary,
and then, now I get tarred
with the brush,
oh, I'm state TV,
-or I'm-- I'm the spinner...
-I didn't say you were.
-I said Fox News is.
-...I'm not-- I'm not--
No, you-- you accused me
of being the spin that and I--
Yes. If you-- Okay.
If you don't see
a connection between Russia
and the Trump organization,
-I-- I'm sorry--
-I know. I know.
-But I'll bet you $1000.
-Okay.
(AUDIENCE LAUGHS)
-I'll take it.
-Okay.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
But-- So, I mean,
where Fox News,
where a lot of
their correspondence is,
is that Trump is clean,
and Mueller is dirty.
-Well, I--
-That's what they're saying.
Mueller is dirty. That is--
That is what you see
on a lot of Fox News.
-Because--
-The opinion shows
in the evening, I agree.
But Shep Smith in the day time,
Bill Hemmer,
-those are news guys,
they're straight news guys.
-Okay.
-Bret Baier in W--
-I'm talking about the shows
in the evening...
-Yeah.
-...that people watch.
-Yeah.
-Yeah, those shows.
-(AUDIENCE LAUGHS)
-They watch--
-They watch the daytime too.
-Or the ones in the morning
that Trump watches.
-So--
-I'm on Fox and Friends
twice a week.
Okay, but at some point,
it's gonna have to come to that.
Is Trump dirty,
or is Mueller dirty?
Where would you say on that one?
-You think Mueller's dirty?
-I don't-- I can't--
-I don't wanna speculate that.
-Mueller.
-I don't wanna speculate.
-But Trump, I mean, like, I--
-I think that it is--
-You don't think that this is
a sleazy crime family?
(BILL STUTTERS)
Sleazy and crime aren't
necessarily the same thing.
-Trump is my--
-No, they're both!
You know Trump is my friend.
I've known Trump for 40 years.
-I don't have--
-I knew OJ!
-(AUDIENCE LAUGHS)
-So did Trump.
-He didn't--
-I interviewed Trump
-about OJ during the trial.
-He didn't remain my friend...
when I felt he had
a certain moral lapse.
Well, in my-- in my family,
my wife agrees with you,
she doesn't like his policies
on so many things
that I've already listed.
So she just can't stand the guy.
I'm different. I can separate
the man who's always been
gracious to me,
always been nice to my family,
you know we were on
Celebrity Apprentice together,
together every day
for six weeks.
-I've known him, really,
through every--
-Who gives a shit?
He's running the world now,
what does that matter
that he was nice to you
at Thanksgiving, Geraldo?
-(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
-I'm not trying to be--
I'm not trying to be
an asshole to you,
I'm-- I'm-- This just--
You're a smart guy,
this befuddles me.
-I looked up to you.
-(GERALDO STUTTERS)
You know, if you don't
look up to me,
because I'm still friends
with the president
of the United States,
-then shame on you, not on me.
-I don't look up to you,
because the president
of the United States
-is doing what he's doing.
-I'm still the person--
Who-- Who liberated
the developmentally disabled?
I mean, seriously?
Who stood shoulder-to-shoulder
with the GIs
in all of those places?
My friendship with Trump
doesn't diminish me.
You know, if he's got problems,
you've got problems with him.
(SCATTERED APPLAUSE)
Yeah. (LAUGHS)
Okay.
Um... What do you think
about Stormy Daniels?
(AUDIENCE LAUGHS)
I'm just, you know-- I--
Here's what I want--
Not the infidelity.
Because other presidents
have done infidelity.
She says that somebody
from the Trump organization
threatened her.
-Now, we're not saying they did.
-Right.
-They would have done something.
 -The New York Times
ran a headline that said, uh...
"Adult Film Star Daughter
Threatened by Trump."
That was the headline,
something like that.
There was no
"allegedly threatened",
no "supposedly threatened".
-Okay.
-Trump gets the worst press
of any president since
Andrew Johnson
in the 19th century.
He does.
-Well, because he's not just
the worst--
-I mean, everything he does
is construed
in the most evil way possible.
Everything is-- is--
I mean, like, right now,
African American unemployment's
at record lows.
Latino unemployment's
at record lows.
The economy is humming,
people are are 4.1 percent--
That happened mostly
under Obama.
-(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
-You know that to be true.
-There's only-- I mean--
-It doesn't work that way.
It doesn't work that way?
-He said--
-Yes, you're right.
Facts don't work that way
-on Fox.
-Well, that's bullshit.
That's the facts, Geraldo.
He's had 14 months
of a thriving economy--
But when did the recovery start?
Who was responsible for, like,
turning the economy from
where it was to where it is?
-You show--
-He continued it.
You showed him throwing away
his script in West Virginia.
When I talk to him, I say,
"Emphasize the things that
you share in common
with most people.
It's the economy, stupid."
If you remember
the West Virginia event
yesterday,
there's a woman who stands up
and says,
"Those tax cuts gave me $2000
extra in my family's coffers."
Two thousand dollars.
What Trump should have done,
and what I would counsel him
to do,
is say, "Yes, and I wanna do
more of that, I wanna help--
A rising tide lifts all boats,
we're gonna make this country
work for everybody,
using Republican, uh,
capitalist kinds of principles,
we're gonna do this--"
Instead, he goes off
on immigrants
and he does things
that are very visceral,
he's very tempestuous,
his Tweets suck,
I wish I could be
his Tweet editor.
But I-- I think to...
When you portray the president
of the United States
as basically the enemy
of the American people,
I think that that's
very dangerous.
Uh... Well,
he's certainly the friend of
the Russian people,
I'll put it that way.
-(LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE)
-But-- But--
But what I was gonna ask is,
Stormy Daniels contends that--
-Stormy Daniels is--
-Just let me ask the question.
Well, let me just
say this. It was--
-That was--
-Of course you don't want me
to ask the question.
-Her 60 Minutes--
-Your answer is better than
the question.
Her 60 Minutes performance
was as empty
as Al Capone's vaults.
(AUDIENCE LAUGHS)
What did she--
What did she say?
Forty-five minutes,
they gave her on 60 Minutes.
-If you'd let--
-Forty-five minutes.
-(BILL SIGHS)
-Okay, go ahead.
Can I just ask you
the one question
I was gonna ask you?
-(AUDIENCE LAUGHS)
-Just the one.
She says that someone
from the Trump organization
threatened her,
came up to her
on the street and said,
"You better shut up about this,
because it'd be a shame
if your little girl's mother
has something happen to her."
Look me in the eye and tell me
you think Trump is above
doing that.
I'm not saying
actually hurting her,
but making that threat,
sending a goon to do that.
You don't think Trump
could do that?
The guy I know
would not do that.
-He wouldn't do it to you.
-He would not do it to me.
But, see, this is the OJ thing.
I-- You know, a lot of--
"OJ was nice to me,"
-Yeah, he was nice to me--
-You know we had
an OJ Simpson--
I-- No one knows OJ's case
better than me.
You know, he had his
bloody fingerprints,
-you had the--
-That's not--
The point is that--
That wasn't the thing I--
-We both agree OJ was guilty.
-But you don't have that
with Russia.
But the point is a person
can be nice to you,
-and then be a monster
somewhere else.
-That's true. That's true.
-Oh, great. I'm so glad
we could agree on that.
-No, that is true.
(LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE)
Okay, I'll just ask
one more thing,
and I'll let you go.
But just-- The lying.
It doesn't bother you?
The lying on a scale
we've never seen?
Just, in that meeting
we were just talk--
the event we were just
talking about in West Virginia,
saying that millions of people
voted illegally.
He's absolutely wrong
about the voter fraud.
-it's been proven that
he's wrong about it.
-But the lying all the time,
-about everything,
it doesn't bother you?
-He's wrong about the military
-to the border.
-It doesn't degrade the country?
-He has never lied to me
in 40 years.
-To you, OJ! To you!
But it doesn't--
You can't separate two--
-You call me OJ one more time,
I'm gonna bop you.
-I'm not saying you're OJ.
But you're-- You can't
separate those two things?
I get it, that he has
seduced you personally,
-you can't overcome that?
-(AUDIENCE LAUGHS)
You can't overcome that
and see that over here
this man is this other thing?
You have a malignancy
inside you
when it comes to him,
where you won't give him
any credit,
and he becomes defensive.
-I gave him credit.
-He becomes defensive.
-Let me tell you, Geraldo.
-And he's a real estate broker
and a reality show host,
he's never had
any political experience.
There-- He's into braggadocio,
he's into, you know,
big-- big stuff, you know,
"Oh, I'm the most famous,
I'm the richest,
-I'm the tallest,
I'm the most beautiful."
-Okay. All right. Well,
there are good people
on both sides of this debate.
-All right.
-(AUDIENCE LAUGHS)
Thank you so much
for putting up with me,
and, actually, it was good
to see you again.
Good luck with the book.
I'm sure the book is good.
