Bill O'Reilly, who for two decades was host of Fox News' top-rated "The O'Reilly Factor" before being fired in April, insisted in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter published on Wednesday that the accusations of sexual harassment against him are false, hinting that "stuff will come out" to show that.
O'Reilly said he does not miss much about being on television, insisting that "This summer, I realized it was much nicer to be out in the ocean than it was to be in the studio."
He said that once he became the top-rated show, "The business got really nasty. What people don't realize is that I was under attack constantly for 16 years. … And then, as social media grew and got wildly out of control, the attacks got more vicious, more disgusting."
O'Reilly said he has not decided if he wants to return to television, saying "There are some interesting projects in development … but it has to be the right situation."
But he was eager to share plans for the expansion of his online empire, BillOReilly.com and to talk about "Killing England," the latest historical book in his best-selling Killingseries, which is out on Sept. 19.
Speaking about politics, O'Reilly said President Donald Trump's mistake in his remarks about the Charlottesville violence "was that you can never under any circumstances equate Nazis with anyone else."
O'Reilly said that Trump did not make the statements in order to avoid alienating his white nationalist supporters, but because "He acts and he speaks emotionally … And that's why he got elected. People rallied to that because they're tired of the automaton politicians."
O'Reilly said he was appreciative that Trump came to his defense in his final weeks at Fox News.
"He's very loyal to his friends," O'Reilly said. "I think he understands that no one was mistreated on my watch, because that's the truth. He knows the politics of it because he has been in the same circumstance — accused — and the press will take any allegation and make it a conviction."
O'Reilly said he was not interested in badmouthing Fox News. "I'm not going to say anything bad about Fox News. I have 20 years, six months in there, and I think it would be untoward for me to say anything negative about Fox News."
O'Reilly appeared to be sympathetic towards his former colleague Megyn Kelly, saying he did not understand the media criticism against her. "She worked her way up from being a reporter, and now she's making good money, and she's in a good position. So what has she done wrong?"
However, when asked if he had seen her interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin, O'Reilly said that she asked the right questions, but that Putin made her look stupid by denying everything.
O'Reilly insisted that if he interviews Putin, the Russian leader's intimidation is "not going to work, because I'd get right in his face."
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