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20 September 2011updated 05 Oct 2023 8:25am

“I have more power than anybody other than the president“

The Fox News presenter, Bill O'Reilly, claims that he can "get things changed, quickly".

By Samira Shackle

Bill O’Reilly, presenter of The O’Reilly Factor, made a rather bold statement in an interview with Newsweek this week:

I have more power than anybody other than the president, in the sense that I can get things changed, quickly. I don’t have to go through the legislative process; I don’t have to do any of that. I can just bring it to the people, and say, look, this has gotta be dealt with.

It’s actually a step back from comments he made last year, when he was asked whether he would run for presidency in 2012:

I have more power doing what I’m doing.

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O’Reilly certainly has huge influence as a leading presenter on America’s “most trusted” news channel. However, as the Huffington Post points out, he may have a slightly inflated idea of his own importance — for example, offering to broker the debt ceiling negotiations earlier this year.

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