Bill O’Reilly has come under fire after a video of him arguing with and seemingly threatening an airline worker for his flight being delayed has gone viral.
In the video of the heated argument, which was taken by a fellow passenger waiting for the same flight to the Turks and Caicos Islands on Sunday, April 3rd, the 72-year-old former The O’Reilly Factor host can firstly be seen and heard telling a JetBlue worker, “You’re going to lose your job,” after the flight was delayed for several hours at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. The stunned airline employee and O’Reilly can be seen arguing amongst themselves, after which O’Reilly then demands to see a manager.
Things then seem to take a drastic turn, as O’Reilly – who has his face mask pulled down to below his chin despite the laws at the time stating that they had to be worn over the nose and mouth at all times – then tries to escalate things by saying: “We need to know what you’re going to do. It’s three hours late now.” He then puts his hand in front of the JetBlue employee when it appears like he is going to respond to him, and then wags his finger at the employee, adding, “No, no, no, you’re going to find out.”
The No Spin News and Analysis podcast host can then be seen stepping even closer to the employee, presumably to read his name tag, and says, “You’re lucky I don’t put my fist through it.” The employee’s response isn’t audible at that moment, but O’Reilly’s response most certainly is, and he can be heard saying, “You [expletive] scumbag, don’t talk to me like that.” “You’re threatening me with violence, man,” the JetBlue employee responds, which O’Reilly replies with, “No I’m not.” The video ends with O’Reilly saying, “You’re going to get that information,” before storming away from the desk.
The character assassins on social media completely lying about my interaction with a JetBlue guy who misled passengers during a five-hour delay. We’ve covered on https://t.co/rryWmyXe7C. I expected this.
— Bill O’Reilly (@BillOReilly) April 19, 2022
The passenger who shot the video told The Daily Mail: “I was so taken aback. I couldn’t believe how arrogant he was. That poor JetBlue guy just works there, it’s not his fault the flight was delayed, he was just trying to do his job.” O’Reilly has denied any wrongdoing, and actually called the employee the arrogant one. He said: “The guy was arrogant and falsely accused me of threatening him and I said, ‘You’re lucky I didn’t do that.'”
The Killing the Killers: The Secret War Against Terrorists author also issued another response on social media, after The Daily Mail first published the now-viral video. “The character assassins on social media completely lying about my interaction with a JetBlue guy who misled passengers during a five-hour delay,” he wrote on Twitter on April 19th.
