MONTGOMERY, Alabama --- Television host Bill O'Reilly told a crowd of about 2,000 people at a Faulkner University fundraiser tonight that Mitt Romney did not want to win the presidential election.

O’Reilly said he offered to let Romney appear on his prime time Fox News show the Monday night before the election.

O’Reilly said his initial idea was to split the hour between Romney and President Obama, but Obama’s campaign turned it down.

So O’Reilly said he offered the entire hour to Romney. He said he made the offer by phone to Mrs. Romney.

“We never got an answer. We never got a reason. They just didn’t do it,” O’Reilly said.

“So we’re sitting there going, 'Does this guy want to lose?' The answer is yes, he did not want to be president of the United States, and that’s why he lost.”

To further make his point, O’Reilly said Romney could have bested Obama in the third presidential debate by asking him directly about the American deaths at the consulate in Benghazi.

“It would have knocked him right out,” O’Reilly said. “He could not have answered. He would have evaded it. He didn’t have the answers. He could have just won the election right there.”

But O’Reilly said Romney never asked.

“I tell you, that man, Mitt Romney, did not want to win the election,” O’Reilly said.

O'Reilly spoke for about 30 minutes at Faulkner University's Benefit Dinner, which raises money for scholarships for the private, Christian university. Ticket prices started at $150 for general admission.

The host of "The O'Reilly Factor" and best-selling author did not take questions or speak to the media.

He made no pretense about fitting in naturally as a southerner, saying, "I am such a Yankee, you have no idea," and asking if he had pronounced "y'all" correctly when he first greeted the crowd at the Montgomery Renaissance Convention Center.

But O'Reilly did show some familiarity with the state's college football culture.

He noted that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was a "big guy, could be playing nose guard for Auburn."

On President Obama: "I don't have any beef personally with Barack Obama. But he's wrong. He's wrong. If the University of Alabama had five losing seasons in a row, you would burn Saban at the stake. We've had five losing seasons under Obama."

O'Reilly touched only briefly on some of the major political headlines of recent days, such as the effort by some Republicans to stop funding for Obamacare, even if it means a federal government "shutdown."

But he talked more about political polarization. He said President Clinton appeared on his show today, taped this afternoon, and pointed to cable news as a cause. But O'Reilly said he disagreed, and said there was a real difference of philosophy in the red-state view of limited government and the blue-state view of bigger government. He described Obama as "a secular guy," who believes in the latter view.

"He wants the government to redistribute wealth to people who don't have very much," O'Reilly said.

He said that might work in a country the size of Sweden, but would not work in a country of more than 300 million people.

"Who's going to pay for that?" O'Reilly asked. "We can't possibly generate enough money to pay for it. It's impossible."

O'Reilly opened his remarks by talking about his new book, "Killing Jesus: A History," which follows earlier books "Killing Kennedy," and "Killing Lincoln."

He said he wrote the new book partly because the country is becoming more secular and said atheism is on the rise. He said it was important to consider how Jesus built a massive following.

"How does a poor carpenter in a backwater like Nazareth become the most famous person in the world?" O'Reilly asked.