Bill O'Reilly Defends 'Well-Fed' Slaves Comments

Bill O'Reilly used the first part of his show, The O'Reilly Factor, to defend a recent comment he made in response to Michelle Obama's claim that slaves built the White House. During her speech at the Democratic National Convention, the First Lady said, “I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves. And I watch my daughters, two beautiful, intelligent black young women, playing with their dogs on the White House lawn." While some thought it was a wonderful statement, others - such as O'Reilly - pointed out some of the inaccuracies of her statement. O'Reilly took exception to the fact that the White House wasn't exclusively built by slaves and in fact free black and white people also worked on the building's construction. O'Reilly however drew ire from many after saying, "Slaves that worked there were well-fed and had decent lodgings provided by the government which stopped hiring slave labor in 1802." After an uproar that was caused by O'Reilly allegedly being soft on slavery, the pundit doubled down saying, "As any honest historian knows in order to keep slaves and free laborers strong, the Washington administration provided meat, bread and other staples also decent lodging on the grounds of the new presidential building. That is a fact."