Posted on 12/15/2021 5:18:51 PM PST by RandFan
Former Fox News host Bill O'Reilly said downplaying or diminishing the seriousness of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol is something that "could never have happened" during his time at the network.
"Fox News is a different place than it was when I was there," O'Reilly said Tuesday evening while appearing on Dan Abrams' primetime show on NewsNation. “I don’t follow it that that closely anymore, but when I was there, there was a discipline from management that diminishing the Capitol riot could never have happened. And I'll state that firmly on the record.”
O'Reilly had joined Abrams' program to discuss revelations this week that top hosts at Fox, including his former colleagues Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham and Brian Kilmeade, had been texting with then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows during the riot, urging Meadows to convince former President Trump to do something to stop the attack.
“I wouldn’t have done it myself,” O’Reilly said of the text messages the hosts sent Meadows. “I would have asked the question, ‘Say, are you guys going to make a statement? What are you going to do? Looks like things are out of control?’ I don’t think I would have advocated; that’s not what journalists do. But it was in a very intense, quick-breaking situation. So I’m not going to condemn anybody here.”
Hannity and Ingraham both defended their texts to Meadows during their nightly programs on Tuesday and played for their audiences portions of their statements the night of the attack.
"I said to Mark Meadows the exact same thing I was saying live on the radio at that time and on TV that night on Jan. 6 and well beyond Jan. 6," Hannity said Tuesday.
"Both publicly and privately I said what I believe: that the Jan. 6 breach at the Capitol was a terrible thing. Crimes were committed," Ingraham said during the next hour. "Some people were unfairly hounded and persecuted, but it was not an insurrection. To say anything different is beyond dishonest and it ignores the facts of that day."
After O'Reilly defended Hannity's comments on Jan. 6, Abrams asked him about Tucker Carlson, who hosts the top-rated show in the country, and his production of a controversial miniseries for the network's streaming service focusing on the Jan. 6 attack.
Carlson's "Patriot Purge" miniseries purports to tell an alternative view of the Jan. 6 attack and features one subject who suggested the incident could have been a so-called "false flag" operation.
"I'm not going to comment on that," O’Reilly said. "I haven't watched [Patriot Purge.]"
O’Reilly was forced out of his prime time show on Fox News in 2017 amid allegations of sexual harassment and was eventually replaced in the network's 8 p.m. hour with Carlson.
O’Reilly, a close personal friend of Trump for years, has since launched a speaking tour with the former president but has appeared rarely in interviews with mainstream media outlets since his ouster from Fox.
Unfortunately.
Love Trump. Don’t know who is behind this.
Beck?
You say that like it's a bad thing, Bill. Granted, Fox still has a lot of room to improve.
Signing in on that note
The Jan6 Protest got out of hand. What the hell were they thinking? (As mob mentality kicked in)
It was not a riot! It definitely was not an “insurrection “. Period
Trump surrounds himself with these people.
De Santis 2024.
WTFUP Trumpers.
Of course after they all went after him like a pack of wild jackals he changed his tune. Duh
Beck?
The Blaze mocks “the inserection” daily.
O’Reilly is a NYC tool and we need to rid politics of ALL NYC tools.
” Queen Nancy put the kibosh to that offer.”
A day or so after Jan 6th, local DC radio stated that Virginia FBI warned QN there was going to be trouble on 6th and she did nothing.
Knew right then, another Reichstag Fire.
Dang. I thought Beck was anti-Trump? Confusing times. Unfortunate.
...... Soooooooo Bill ..... How is this supposed to help your President Trump / Bill O’Reilly History Tour???? Guess that’s about to be cancelled? ..... Or ..... Are you are actually trying to create Interest in the Tour in your own creative way???
One minute he says Fox is more liberal than it used to be, then he claims the Capitol Riot wouldn’t have been down played when he was there. He’s bitter that Tucker is in his slot. This is the same guy who supported Obama’s stimulus package, the bailouts, the 2007 amnesty bill, wouldn’t discuss Obama’s eligibility.
I recall Bill O’Reilly’s attacks on Pamela Geller, the anti-jihadist activist who organized a contest to draw pictures of Mohammed, the founder of Islam, in 2015. At one point, O’Reilly quipped that Jesus wouldn’t have sponsored such a contest. That was too much for even Megyn Kelly, who accused O’Reilly of “catering to the jihadists.”
“the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol”?
What twaddle!
You want a riot in DC? Look at 2017 and not one Democrat managed to care.
PHUQUE OHBLOWHARD.
I never could stand the woman abusing, ignorant ass!
This is one of Trumps flaws. He does not choose the best people
What riot Mr. O’Reilly??? With that statement I am glad to see you gone.
IMO it was planned by Nancy and the FIBS. Agents provocateurs were definitely there trying, and succeeding in stirring up the action. We don’t have anyone in power who is interested in telling the truth of the matter, however.
Agree on both points. We
“Leave Loofah Boy alone!”
No idea why “We” showed up after my comment.
Second time that has happened with my phone. Not using voice-to-text.
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