Editor’s note: This story has been updated to clarify the conversation between O’Reilly and Stewart.
Former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly appeared on “The Daily Show” with comedian Jon Stewart on Tuesday, marking his return to the show for the first time in 10 years.
The pair argued over their political differences, with O’Reilly joking that he “really” disliked Stewart but said they could discuss politics.
O’Reilly acknowledged that he and Stewart have “history,” noting that they had an argument about white privilege and race during their last appearance together in 2014.
“We can overcome our differences without hating each other,” O’Reilly said.
“Right now, I really hate him… but I don’t show it,” he joked.
He was a TV news personality for many years. Participated in the program The show will air a special live episode. The show was not broadcast on Monday following the assassination attempt on former President Trump over the weekend.
The former Fox host co-wrote a series of books documenting U.S. presidential assassinations, and he said what’s different about this time compared to past presidential shootings is the emotions that have been fueled online by social media and corporate media.
O’Reilly said shooters who shoot the president “have one thing in common”: they suffer from mental illness. Federal law enforcement officials said Sunday there was “no indication” that the suspect, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, who climbed onto a roof near a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and began firing, had a mental illness.
But O’Reilly maintained that Saturday’s shooter was mentally ill and “in a rage.” He then went on to speak about John Wilkes Booth, the man who assassinated President Lincoln.
“So this is not new, but we are now in a society where hate is rewarded,” he said.
The former Fox host said that while conspiracy theories and doubts flooded social media in the hours and days after the shooting, the “forces of hate” had “receded a little bit” following the assassination attempt on President Trump. He claimed the hate would “be back within two weeks.”
In today’s world, O’Reilly argued, there is no benefit to two people with different political ideologies, such as O’Reilly and Stewart, voicing fair disagreement.
“What can people do about this? Reject it. Stop celebrating it,” he said.
O’Reilly said he pigeonholed shooters as Republicans or Democrats and argued that politicizing the issue “doesn’t help anyone.”
First published at 10:48am
