Hey, welcome to the No Spin News. Bill O'Reilly here. It is Monday, February 23rd, 2026. Stand up for your country. So right outside the wall you see in the back of me is two feet of snow on Long Island. And everybody panics. It's not Minnesota here or the Dakotas or Canada. It's like, oh my God, snow. But it's a pain. When I was a little kid, I lived for days, snow days. And all the urchins didn't have to go to school today and all that. But just the sheer volume of trying to get around, you can't. So I hope that everybody in the Northeast took a rest day. I don't have any rest days, so I got to work. But let's call this winter, okay? Enough. Let's kind of segue into spring. I think that's a good idea. All right, the U.S. hockey gold is the subject of this evening's Talking Points memo. Right before we started to tape this in a late afternoon, it was announced that the U.S. women's hockey team, one to gold, is not going to appear at the State of the Union. They were invited by President Trump. Members of the men's team will appear. Not all of them, because there's a whole kind of logistical, because the NHL starts midweek back up. But this is an interesting story because there's a huge culture difference between women's sports and men's sports in America. And that's the subject of this evening's Talking Points Memo. It goes beyond that, of course. We are a divided nation, deeply divided. And the political hatred is growing. All right. And it's spurred by President Trump's presence, no matter what he does. All right. It's spurred by immigration, ICE, all of that. And the third is the economy. So some people are having trouble keeping up. Okay. So when you get all those elements swirling around, then you have a divided country, which is what we have. So you get two gold medal winners, the men's hockey team and the women's hockey team. The men's team, very respectful and patriotic. The women's team, not so much. Sorry, ladies. It's not as bad as a women's soccer team, which was anti-American in my opinion, but it's a different culture. Okay, let's run it down for you with some facts to back it up. It's always nice, right? So after the USA defeated Canada on Sunday, the Hughes brothers, these guys are amazing, one of whom won the game with a goal in overtime, said this. Go. This is all about our country right now. I love the USA. I love my teammates. It's unbelievable. The USA Hockey Brotherhood is so strong. And we have so much support from next players. And I'm so proud to be American today. I love the U.S. and it's the greatest country in the world. So I'm happy to represent it here with these guys. And that's really special. All right, so that's Jack and Quinn Hughes. And you got to, you know, when I'm watching it, I got up early 8 a.m. to watch it. I was proud. I, you know, I just said, you guys did what you had to do. And the reason that the USA won was because of Connor Hollaback, the goalie, plays a little Winnipeg Jackets, but he's from Commerce, Michigan. He blocked 41 and 42 shots. I mean, without him, Canada would have won. Canada was getting more shots on goal and had the better of the play, but the USA would not give up. And so they deserve their win. The only controversy that we can see was when Kash Patel, the director of the FBI, showed up in the locker room after the game to hoist a beer with the boys. Okay. Now, I'm not offended by this. And there was a reason that Mr. Patel was there. The FBI provided some security expertise to the Italian government during the entire Olympics. It wasn't like Patel just flew over for the game. he's the head of the bureau and the bureau was working with the Italians to make sure nothing happened and nothing did happen. It was miraculous. So if Patel wants to go in and have a good time with the boys after the game, I don't have any problem with that. But of course, others do. Roll the tape. His spokesperson says he was in Milan on official business. Well, So, aren't there more officially pressing business matters to be dealt with here in the States that maybe he could have done a better job than showing up in Milan on a private job? He showed up at the, for American athlete security, he showed up at the end of the Olympics. And so I think generally in law enforcement, when there's an issue, you show up at the beginning so that you can prepare security. He was chugging beer. You're not playing. You're not, you know, and he's behaving like he's like a member of Animal House. Please. You know, number one, I don't think Ms. Goldberg even knew that the FBI was assisting the Italian government. And the other ones, you show up at not at the. I don't know why Disney. I just don't know why, you know, but it's never going to change over there. So on the Internet, which we ignore because they're haters, they're serious haters. These are seriously damaged people. I have to point out the Huffington Post is the worst. This hate hates the country, hates the United States. In Canada, there was mild criticism. Go. Look, I'll just say, number one, I certainly echo everyone's sentiment feeling today and how this stinks. It's a tough one. Canada deserved to win this game. They outplayed the U.S. So what? You know, I mean, come on, accept it gracefully. All right. I wrote a message of the day. It's on Bill O'Reilly dot com. It's about nationalism. And there is a good part of nationalism and a bad part. And the final point I want to make before we get to our guest Stephen A. Smith, is that you are looking at a situation that is far more important than a sport So our country I don know if it ever going to come together again Not in my lifetime. I don't think it will. I think this division is there to stay between the red states and the blue states and the women's team and the men's team. And under a constitution, perfectly, you know, there's no demand that we're in lockstep. But it makes me sad. It does. And that's a memo. All right. Joining us from Miami, where he's hiding out from the snow, is Stephen A. Smith, who is the premier sportscaster in America. Whether you like him or not, he is. and he's the author of Straight Shooter, a memoir of second chances or first takes that's still in circulation, his book. Where am I going wrong here, Stephen? Well, I would say to you, let me first applaud you on where I think you're going right. I do believe that, you know, I don't have any problem whatsoever with the FBI director being in the locker room celebrating with Team USA. he's the FBI United States of America his rooting interest clearly is undeniable and we've seen plenty of elected officials at sporting events rooting on team USA what's wrong with him being there I see no issue with that whatsoever and even though I have a great relationship and I love me some Whoopi Goldberg she's a friend I've known her for many many years and I respect those on the view even though we may disagree from time to time um i just think that they were off with what they were complaining about when it came to cash patel being there being present etc etc um where i would disagree with you uh is when you talk about disney because i would remind you bill o'reilly i've been working for years being for over 20 years i work for disney and they certainly don't control what i say and i certainly have opinions that are far different from them so I would say to you, specify the view as opposed to specify Disney, because I work for it, too, and they don't have any influence over what I say. Let me rebuy it, because I didn't know you were going to bring this up, and it's an interesting topic. Sure. Disney puts on a propaganda show every day, a left-wing propaganda show every day. You don't do that. You do sports. I don't. ESPN does sports. Now, in the globe of sports, you've got a lot of different opinions. You got Steve Kerr out in Golden State Warriors. Greg Popovich. Greg Popovich others. But you got conservative guys. You got that. But Disney, under the banner of news, which of course it isn't, the view is not news, throws a left-wing propaganda show on that does not book one conservative guest the whole year of 2025. You think that's okay? I don't think it's okay. I don't think they think it's okay. And I think that's why they've made efforts to correct it. Now you might have. What efforts? What efforts? I'm just saying, you've seen, you've seen conservatives coming on. I didn't know I was here to talk about that, but I won't run from it. I will tell you that. I think you've seen, they know that it's a problem that needed to be addressed. And as a result, it's in the process of being addressed. Cause I think you've seen more conservatives coming on that show. Now you've been, you've been on the show in the past. Well, Marjorie Taylor Greene was one of them. I forgot who else was up there. The only reason she was on there was to bash Trump. She could never get on there until she started to bash Trump. Then they want to. But then you also have. Well, they would tell you they I don't know this because I'm not a part of that show. But they would tell you that Republicans have been invited and they've been. Bullets. Bull. That's what they would say. That's what they would say. I don't know that to be true, Bill. And neither do you stop that. You don't know that to be true. Yeah, I know. I know. They've been on my show on many occasions. They don't turn me down. you know i'm out of fact you're not conservative than republicans turn me down what liberals than republicans turn me down so i mean i get where you're coming from it's a propaganda thing that's shoved down the throat and it's okay if they would have a counter to it but they don't okay that's fine and i can agree with that but isn't it true bill and you would know this better than me because of the year the decades you've been in television you see it everywhere now like whether cnn msnbc fox news everybody has their own arm everybody has their own tilt we've seen that before that's true seeing it a lot so i mean you can't deny it's not about one show it's not even about one entity it's about the business itself which is something that we've lamented one of the things that i've said and i've said this publicly so i can say it to you again about late night late night's got an issue do you know what would have resolved the issue from day one, you're comedians. What's the number one things comedians say? Nobody is safe. Everybody is open to be parodied, ridiculed, et cetera, et cetera. And there seemed to be this concerted effort aimed at one individual who happens to be our president who's in his second term, considerably, excessively more than anybody else. Had they went after everybody, we wouldn't have these problems. And they ruined themselves. We wouldn't have these problems. They ruined themselves. So I agree with you there. So did SNL. All right, let's get to the women's men's. Sure. So there's a different culture, I believe. OK, in the locker rooms of both. Would I be wrong in saying that? Um, yeah, but but but but maybe not for the reasons you're thinking. I think that a lot of times with with with the guys, for example, you're going out there and you're fixated on your performance, but you're not necessarily as connected to the issues in an intimate and more emotional manner than some of the ladies are. And the ladies are smart as a whip. They pay attention to a lot of the issues. They're mindful, they're cognizant. And most importantly, they seem to be a bit more unafraid to speak out about various issues. Well, like you brought up in your monologue when you talked about immigration, it could be immigration. It could be the state of our country. Wouldn't it have been better, though, for the coach of the women's team just to say, I'm letting the ladies decide for themselves rather than issue a statement. But we don't know that that's not what happened. No, no, they issued a statement. The women's hockey team said we're not showing up for the State of the Union, even though we're invited by the president. Yeah, but what I'm saying to you is that the coach wasn't speaking for them. I mean, they let it be known that's how they feel collectively. Okay, but they don't run the asylum. All the coach had to do was say, if there are any dissenters who would like to go to the State of the Union, you're free to go. They wanted to embarrass Trump. That's what they wanted to do. No, no, no, no, no, no. I disagree with you that. It's not about wanting to embarrass him. it's about emphatically disagreeing with them and letting it be known. I want to get it. Well, listen, everybody on that women's team disagrees with Trump. You don't think he's one person who likes the president. I think it's, listen, I think it's entirely possible that collectively speaking, a lot of them, if not all of them don't like him, but you're missing the point why, and I'm going to get at you about this bill O'Reilly again, policy aside, How many times have you and I go back and forth about the optics and how things are done? Everybody's not in the weeds the way that you are. Look at the details that you provided. Look at when you were talking about Cash Mattel. You literally gave us information about what he was there for, what his work entailed prior to the celebration upon Team USA winning the gold medal You be surprised You know how many people didn know that but they come to the no zone and then they find it out There a lot of things that you know The fact of the matter is that far more often than not people are not going by that. They're going about how things look. They're going about, they're catching stuff on a surface level as it pertains to how he chooses to do things. We all know that if you open the borders and you let over 12 million people in here illegally and what have you, that things have to be done. They know that. But in the same breath, how you go about addressing the issue, the sensitivity that you verbalize and you express, all of those things play a role. And you yourself have said you didn't like the way he did things sometimes, the way he does it. And that's what people have meant. But here's where you're making your mistake and I'll give you the last word. I don't mind the dissent. Okay. But the men's hockey team honored the country They didn't honor Trump, but they were respectful when they got the invitation. Some of them will go and some of them would. OK, but the women's team was not respectful to the office of the presidency. First thing, first thing, let me say this. I completely agree with you about the importance of respecting the office. I don't want that to get lost in our back and forth. Respect the office is incredibly, incredibly important. You're right. But, Bill, you have to respect what you know better than most. This is America. And in America, it's not just about freedom of speech. It's not just about freedom of expression. It's the freedom to feel the way that you want to feel. We don't like, you may not like how somebody has gone about doing things. But it is their right to do it. And I know you're not questioning their right to do it. You know they have a right to do it. What I'm saying to you is that if you believe that a person that's serving as our commander in chief is classless, he's devoid of decorum, you wish he would act better, and he really has riled you up and really, really turned you off, and you have an opportunity to express yourself in a fashion where you're engaging in what you would deem to be reciprocation, that might be what's behind it all. I'm not saying that every woman on that team feels that way. I'm not. Okay. I don't believe it. But what I'm trying to say to you, whether it's 12, 15, or 20 people, it's entirely plausible that they could feel that way. And you're right. Let them express it as individuals. But don't use the team banner. But you don't know what I'm saying to you as a guy covering sports. You don't know that they were prohibited from doing that. you don't know if they made the decision to have a voice speak for the collective body as opposed to them wanting to speak individually some of them they may have preferred it this way if that were the case the team did not announce it which would be very unusual and i would say to you i would say to you that in covering sports when a team comes to that conclusion more often than not trust me those players made the decision and deferred to them. I've been covering sports for 30 years. A lot of times players hide behind the team. Players hide behind the team a lot. I think they really do, Bill. They really do. They hide behind the team a lot. Seriously. Absolutely correct. All right, Stephen A., thanks for the lively debate. We really appreciate it. We'll see you soon, I hope. No problem. All right. All right. I need more time. Okay, the tariff ruling wrote a column about it. Most boring subject on earth. I explain it. What it all comes down to is six of the Supreme Court justices wanted to rein in President Trump's power. They could have voted either way on this. It's not patently unconstitutional. OK, but you can find a way to make anything unconstitutional. Read the column on Bill O'Reilly dot com. It's free. You don't have to join anything. But that's what this was all about. So six out of the nine say it's too much. They all know that Trump can regulate tariffs in other ways. All know that. Not going to be any refunds. That's not all going to happen. But that was the genesis of the ruling. Iran's up next. So Thursday, more negotiations. I have no idea what this is going to lead to. I know that it's incredibly complicated and dangerous to attack that country. And the USA is the one that has to do it. And the others, you know, I don't think they'll dissent. Other than maybe China and Russia, but they won't dissent on it. But boy, the specter of thousands of dead civilians, that kind of thing. So I want to get a take on how difficult this is. And joining us in Washington now is Sina Tusi. She's a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy. Closely follows what is happening in Iran. I have gone over this with my audience and we know the downside. the paramount question is if the United States takes military action, which would be bombing, no troops on the ground, is that enough to overthrow the mullahs, get them out of there because the protests inside Iran are so intense? Hey, Bill, great to be on. Yeah, that's in many ways the million dollar question. I mean, the Iranian regime, this government that's been in power for almost 50 years now is much more entrenched and multi-layered with its military institutions, with its security institutions than, for example, Saddam Hussein's government was in 2003. And, you know, we just had a conflict with them last summer in the June war, where in the middle of, you know, at that point, there was five rounds of negotiations between the U.S. and Iran and Israel launched a surprise attack last June. And in that surprise attack, it was very clear by what the Israelis targeted that they kind of hoped that it would lead to the collapse of the regime. I mean, in their opening strike, they took out a lot of the senior military figures. During that 12-day conflict, they tried to take out the political leadership. They struck targets like the national television headquarters. They struck Evin Prison, where there's a lot of kind of political prisoners held. But, you know, we saw that there weren't protests or wasn't an uprising that coincided with those protests. I mean, with that attack then. Now the calculation might be that, you know, the domestic situation has gotten worse in Iran. There have been these bigger protests trying to capitalize on that. But I think it's a huge gamble. And the risks are very palpable. Like Iran can hit back. It hit back during the June War. It really drained a lot of American missile interceptors, like the THAAD missiles that we need in China. We need for the balance of power globally. So the risks would be high and it could really spiral into a much bigger conflict in the Persian Gulf region. But President Trump has to do something because he's already made help is on the way statement. And he doesn't want to go down in history looking at like Barack Obama win Syria with the red line. Correct. Yeah, I think Trump, you know, he's he's already done a lot when it comes to pressuring the Iranian government in an unprecedented way, more than any other US president has since the 1979 Iranian Revolution. They been under these maximum pressure sanctions And Trump has said the whole time that he wants a deal that you know the Obama deal was a weak deal and that he can get a better deal And I think he is positioned to get a stronger deal than Obama did. So his pressure, if he cashes in the kind of bargaining chip of this pressure and gets a stronger deal that really puts the lid on that nuclear program, that it seems like we'll get other concessions from this Iranian government, can even get Iranian or U.S. companies to invest in Iran and, you know, oil contracts, rare earth minerals. These are things that are apparently on the table. That would be a very strong deal. And Trump can very persuasively argue that, you know, he was tough with the Iranians and he got a better deal. But to now, you know, in the midst of these threats and to have cornered himself into launching a big war against Iran, that could ultimately be very counterproductive for American national security interests, you know, our troops in the region and just regional stability overall? Well, I can tell you because I've talked to the president myself about the issue that he doesn't fear the government of Iran. They don't fear it. What they fear is that it's Ramadan, that dead Persian civilians will ignite the region because, of course, they'll be on television and that their instability and unintended consequences of all the civilian deaths would really might put things out of control. That is the fear. Give you the last word. Yeah, that's a big risk. I mean, President Trump has really, you know, hailed himself as a peacemaker. He got the Gaza ceasefire. There's some semblance of order returning to the region. We just had the Gaza Board of Peace meeting last week. There's this push for regional integration. So, you know, in the aftermath of all that, for us to enter a big war with Iran, I think that risk of this having regional spillover, you know, Yemen can get involved. The Houthis can get involved. Iran has threatened to destabilize the Persian Gulf. You know, it's sitting right there. You know, it's got these ballistic missiles. It's got cruise missiles. It's got allies in various parts of the region. So I think that's a very real risk that should really call for a sober assessment of the costs and benefits. Yeah, they don't know what they're going to do yet. It's still on the fence. No decision has been made, although the Pentagon does have war plans. Those plans have been drawn up. Mr. Tuthies, thanks very much. We'll check back in with you because we know you know a lot that's going on there. And it's very nice of you to help us out today. Thank you. Thanks for having me. All right. State of the Union tomorrow night. I'll have a preview for you tomorrow. I'll pretty much know what it is. There are two counter demonstrations, a bunch of Democratic House members say they're not going to show up. Good. Good. So there's going to be a People's State of the Union. And this is hosted by Joy Reid and Katie Fang, two unbelievable far lefties. and it's just going to be at the National Mall. Nobody's going to show up. It's snow and it's cold. I don't expect anybody. The reason those Democrats are boycotting the State of the Union is money. This far left money is they finance these people and they have to run every two years. Remember that. So if they don't show up, they lose their money. That's it. Second one is State of the Swamp, a live stream starring Mayor Fry, Mayor Johnson of Chicago, Robert De Niro, Mark Ruffalo, Stacey Adams, Ron Wyden, Jim Acosta, Miles Taylor. Now, this is sponsored by Defiance.org, another far, far left outfit. it. This is not money. This is just PR for these people. So they're there. They're not going anywhere. They're, thank God, not even close to being a majority. Mexico. So they gunned down the biggest cartel leader over the weekend. His name was Nemesio Cervantes, known as El Mencho. So they kill him. 59 years old. And the Mexican armed forces got him. So the cartels immediately counterattack and they burn down Puerto Vallarta, which is the fourth largest tourist town in Mexico. Shows you how powerful the cartels are. Now, the reason they got El Mencho was the CIA, the American CIA pinpointed him to the Mexican authorities and say, you get them or we'll get them. That's what happened. So Scheinbaum, the president of Mexico, we'll have to get them. She didn't want to get them because this means war with the cartels. She doesn't want it. Now, remember, this guy, El Mencho, he was in charge of an outfit that was just smuggling droves of fentanyl and heroin and cocaine in here. National security threat all day long. So right now, 62 people, and that's probably a way low estimate, have been killed in this. We are watching it very closely. Vandami needed or needs, if you want to come to New York, snow shovelers. So you get 19 bucks an hour shoveling snow, New York City. Problem is you got to have an ID. So Vandami doesn't want any ID to vote. but New York City, if you wanted shop, shovel, and snow at 90 bucks an hour, you got to show an ID. I love this. And Mandani said, well, it's a longstanding requirement. You could banish it in a second, you hypocrite. So New York City, I got to do this final thought. You're going to love this. We'll be back in a moment. Before we get to the final thought, we want you to pre-order our hats, which are breaking records now. So we got two of them, No Spin Nation, throw them on up there, and USA 250 because it's our anniversary, okay? So they're the, and they're really good. They'll last forever. So check those out on our store on BillOReilly.com. Where did they not be bellicose? B-E-L-L-I-C-O-S-E. I have been accused of being bellicose. All right, here's a final thought. So on March 4th, a week from this coming Wednesday, Cuomo is going to be in Israel. So News Nation asked me to do his whole show. Okay, I'm going to do the whole hour. March 4th, 8 p.m. News Nation. But I'm bringing back the factor. We're going to have some really surprised guests, and it's going to be the factor. Time capsule. Okay, you don't want to miss this. So I'm pleased to do it. And we'll cover the news, but we'll cover it like we used to cover it on the Fox News Channel. March 4th, 8 p.m. News Nation. Be there. Thanks for watching the No Spin News. I'm Bill O'Reilly. We'll see you again tomorrow.
