Culture

Bill O’Reilly Clashes With Matt Lauer While Claiming His Firing Was An ‘Orchestrated Hit’ By Political Opponents

Bill O’Reilly had his first big sit down interview with Matt Lauer on the Today show Tuesday morning since being ousted from Fox News in April, after news of five settled sexual harassment lawsuits against the O’Reilly Factor host surfaced and advertisers began dropping like flies. Previously, O’Reilly spoke to Glenn Beck for The Blaze via phone, calling his firing an “orchestrated hit” by the far left, and he likewise remained adamant against any claims of wrongdoing while speaking to Lauer.

In the first clip, O’Reilly shuts down a line of questioning as to him ever having sent a lewd text or email to a fellow employee at Fox News. “In 42 years, I’ve been in this business, I’ve worked for 12 companies, not one time did I have any interaction with HR, did I have any complaints filed against me,” he claimed.

In another clip, Lauer points out the magnitude of the allegations against O’Reilly, and that they had to have been pretty serious for Fox News to let go of their “number one guy” who had carried the network for so many years.

“Doesn’t it seem safe to assume that the people at Fox News were given a piece of information, or given some evidence that simply made it impossible for you to stay on at Fox News?,” Lauer grilled, to which O’Reilly plainly responded, “That’s a false assumption. There were a lot of other business things in play at that time and still today that 21st Century was involved with, and it was a business decision that they made.”

When pressed about whether or not he’s done any soul searching since his firing, O’Reilly insisted that his conscience was clear, referencing an online article which RawStory previously reported to be a smear story against one of his accusers. Echoing his remarks to Glenn Beck, O’Reilly once again called his ousting a “political hit job.” “Is this a vast, left-wing conspiracy?” asked Lauer? “Don’t be sarcastic,” snapped back O’Reilly.

Given the extent of the accusations against him, it would have to be one heck of a conspiracy. Where there’s smoke, there’s usually fire, after all — and this is a lot of smoke. As such, many took to Twitter to call out O’Reilly’s claims.

https://twitter.com/CeeDoubleU14/status/910122835435229184

https://twitter.com/owillis/status/910121469136515072

https://twitter.com/Regularassron/status/910123588790968321

You can watch his full Today interview below.

×