Bill O'Reilly on JFK's assassination and Chris Christie's presidential chances
(CBS News) The presidency of John F. Kennedy comes alive this weekend on the National Geographic Channel, in a docudrama based on Bill O'Reilly's book "Killing Kennedy." This book is just one in O'Reilly's series on historic men, with his latest being "Killing Jesus."
On "CBS This Morning" Friday, the television personality said the most important thing he learned from his research into JFK was that there is no truth to the conspiracy theory that there was more than one gunman.
"Americans are very confused because there's a lot of money to be made in this conspiracy deal, but J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI chief, wanted there to be a conspiracy, that's the key to my whole book and the whole thing. Then he controlled the investigation," O'Reilly said. "Most people don't know the Dallas Police Department controlled the whole assassination investigation because it wasn't a federal crime, it was a murder."
O'Reilly told the "CBS This Morning" co-hosts that the local police force "messed up big time" and because of their mistakes, Hoover sent 80 agents down to Texas "with orders to find a conspiracy" so that as head of the FBI he could run the investigation, but they couldn't.
The author also spoke to the co-hosts about the re-election of the Republican Chris Christie in the blue state of New Jersey and if he could be a model for other members of the GOP.
"Christie is a good politician, in the sense that he's a populist, he's glib, he knows how to handle himself," he said.
When asked if Christie could make it through a Republican primary, O'Reilly said he thought that the governor could, even in tough states like South Carolina.
"The Republican party needs to win," he said. "So - you know - sure, there are going to be right-winged people who don't vote for him, but I think if you are a Republican, you are going to have to field somebody to beat Hillary Clinton and certainly Chris Christie can give Hillary Clinton a run."
However, O'Reilly wasn't all positive about Christie and said that the New Jersey politician's biggest weakness was that he is an "impatient man" and in the national spotlight, that characteristic is going to "hurt" him. According to O'Reilly, Christie will not sit down for an interview with him.
"He won't submit to an interview with me ... so, I can't tell you policy-wise how versed he is because I've never seen him on under that spotlight," he said. "He's going to have to get under it, whether it's me or somebody else."