Bill O’Reilly: ‘They Want Me Dead! They Do!’

Bill O’Reilly used the start of Wednesday night’s O’Reilly Factor to defend himself against a sparky little storm of criticism about his Tuesday comments on a line in Michelle Obama’s Democratic Convention speech: “I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves.” O’Reilly had responded by saying the “slaves that worked there were well-fed and had decent lodgings.”

O’Reilly’s remarks were widely reported, criticized, and derided; the Fox News host condemned the “phony outrage,” and specifically chided Stephen King and Bryan Cranston for needling him on Twitter.

O’Reilly’s Wednesday response started out aggressive and escalated to shouting paranoia. He gave Wednesday’s “Talking Points Memo” the piquant title “Vicious Attacks By Media Deceivers,” and brought on Fox regulars Geraldo Rivera and Eric Bolling for reinforcement. “We who work at this network have to band together,” O’Reilly told Rivera and Bolling, “to call out the people who are trying to destroy this network!” Bill said Fox contributors must “call out” the “lies” of the “far-left press… by name.”

O’Reilly then shifted to one of his favorite punching bags, Black Lives Matter, criticized protests under that banner, and made a looping, vague argument about the violence that has occurred at various political protests. Then the host said, “I’m afraid it’s going to happen to me at Fox News!” His voice rising to a shout, O’Reilly bellowed, “They want me dead! They do!”

Rivera in particular looked a bit startled at how quickly the chat had moved from Michelle Obama to the host’s fears of personal attack. The entire segment was indeed startling. Perhaps the recent decision by Rupert Murdoch to oust long-time Fox News mastermind Roger Ailes has made O’Reilly worried about his own place in the world, but as for any threat of personal harm… as I said: startling indeed.

Watch O'Reilly’s initial comments: