(NewsNation) — For nearly 248 years, the United States has struggled, survived and succeeded under the leadership of popularly elected presidents.
While some have achieved greatness, others have failed miserably. Some were just forgettable.
Bill O’Reilly examines each president in his new book “Confronting the Presidents: No Spin Assessments from Washington to Biden.” The book is an instant #1 on the New York Times Best Seller list.
O’Reilly broke down who he believes are the five worst in a special report with Leland Vittert, host of NewsNation’s “On Balance with Leland Vittert.”
5. Franklin Pierce
O’Reilly says the nation’s 14th president was a dud because “he didn’t do anything.”
During the New Hampshire-born president’s tenure, he sowed discontent across America with his handling of slavery through the Kansas-Nebraska Act and an unfeeling approach to politics.
“Franklin Pierce was a drunk … and that really affected his ability to make decisions and to even function on some days,” O’Reilly said.
“What did he do? He didn’t do anything. He kind of just sat there and got drunk every night at the taxpayers’ expense. We were paying for his wine. All right?” he added.
4. John Tyler
The first vice president to take over the office, John Tyler — nicknamed “his accidency” — was “a mediocrity,” according to O’Reilly.
What did he do while in office?
“Nothing! Because everybody hated him. His own party hated him. The only reason that he was on a ticket with Harrison is because he was pro-slavery, and Harrison needed some southern states. That’s it,” O’Reilly said.
Tyler joined the Confederacy after his stint in the White House, with O’Reilly calling him a “cheerleader for slavery.”
“There’s nothing else that he did because he served such a short time,” O’Reilly said. “He got nothing done at all, nothing.”
3. Lyndon B. Johnson
Another vice president who ascended into office, O’Reilly ranks Lyndon B. Johnson as the third worst president of all time.
“He did good, but his bad outweighs it in a tremendous way,” O’Reilly said.
Johnson took over when John F. Kennedy was shot and killed in 1963, championing landmark civil rights legislation and sweeping social reform agendas.
The dark mark on his legacy, however, is his role in the escalation of the Vietnam War.
“He’s not going to lose a war. He does not care how many American boys are killed or maimed,” O’Reilly said.
Johnson eventually decided not to seek reelection.
2. Joe Biden
O’Reilly’s newest book acknowledges the difficulty of assessing a president until at least two decades have passed since their time in office.
But, he’s willing to make an exception for the sitting president, Joe Biden.
Biden’s decades of political experience haven’t been enough to cushion some of the blowback from his decisions — like the one to remove U.S. forces from Afghanistan in 2021 or his border policy, O’Reilly said.
“All I’ve seen from Joe Biden, from his many years in the Senate, to his vice presidency, to his presidency, all I have seen is ‘I’m going to do what the Democratic Party wants me to do.’ I’ve never seen an independent thought,” O’Reilly explained.
“I’ve never seen a conviction that ‘we must get this done.’ I’ve never seen a reach out to try to heal the country as he promised,” he added. “I don’t see one thing that he’s done to try to heal this country, not one.”
Biden also decided against seeking reelection, a fact O’Reilly said made him “feel sorry for Biden.”
“I don’t dislike Joe Biden,” he clarified. “I just think he’s been a disaster for the country.”
1. James Buchanan
O’Reilly blames James Buchanan, who was in office from 1857-1861, for the start of the Civil War.
Choosing him as the worst president on the list wasn’t a hard decision to make, O’Reilly said.
“No, he leads the league by a big margin, not even close. Oh, this guy was the worst,” he told Vittert.
O’Reilly said the escalation up to the war — southern attacks at Union depots, the organization of brigades and terrorizing Black people — was not treated seriously by a “coward” like Buchanan.
“He does nothing, doesn’t send federal troops, doesn’t cut off money,” O’Reilly said. “In fact, at Fort Sumter, when the Union force is surrounded, he wouldn’t send ships to help them.”
Though preventing a Civil War seems like an impossible task for anyone, O’Reilly — and a letter from Harry Truman — says otherwise.
He claims “a president like Jackson would have been 100 times more powerful than these organizing rebels.”
“I mean, all you had to do is incarcerate about 10 of them, all right, and they didn’t have any leadership, and they knew who the 10 were that were running around causing all these problems,” he added.
Given the chance, O’Reilly said he’d like to “go back and slap him” for his inept presidency.