Bill O'Reilly rants at New York Times reporters who exposed sexual harassment allegations against him

Updated

Former Fox News host Bill O'Reilly ranted to several New York Times reporters who revealed in reporting over the past few months that O'Reilly made numerous settlements with women who accused him of sexual harassment.

Sitting with Times reporters Emily Steel and Michael Schmidt, O'Reilly insisted that the numerous claims against him were inaccurate, saying they were part of a political plot to bring him down, though he did not reveal any details.

"We have physical proof that this is bulls---," he said. "It's on you if you want to destroy, ruin my children's [inaudible]."

"Why don't you be human beings for once?" he continued. "This is horrible, what I went through. Horrible what I went through. This is crap, and you know it."

O'Reilly insisted that The Times' "figures are wrong" and that they were "making assumptions," and claimed that ousted Fox News host Eric Bolling's son died because of allegations against the former host, though police still have not released information about Bolling's son's death.

After staying quiet for several months, O'Reilly has reemerged to promote his new book and insist on his innocence.

The Times' audio of their interview with O'Reilly was released several days after The Times reported that O'Reilly settled a new sexual harassment claim for a record $32 million in January, a month before Fox News' parent company, 21st Century Fox, renewed O'Reilly's contract. O'Reilly began ranting at the reporters at the end of the interview when they all stood up to leave.

The former host appeared last month in mostly softball interviews with Fox News, Breitbart News, and The Hollywood Reporter, though on NBC's "Today" show, he clashed with host Matt Lauer, who pushed back on O'Reilly's claim that the revelations of sexual-harassment settlements by him were a "hit job."

Listen to the audio at The New York Times.

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