Former Fox News Channel star Bill O’Reilly says President Trump’s recent condemnation of “alt-left” violence in Virginia was a form of revenge against the media.
The author of “Old School: Life in the Sane Lane” is convinced that a cultural “civil war” was spotlighted this week during Mr. Trump’s press conference on Charlottesville.
Mr. O’Reilly penned on op-ed for The Hill in which he laid out the president’s rationale for blaming both white nationalists and the “alt-left” for the killing of 32-year-old Heather Heyer: “fair payback.”
“President Trump made the mistake of injecting different opinions into a story where only one point of view is tolerated by the media: Nazi thugs are totally responsible for everything that happened in Charlottesville. Period. If you dissent then you are a Nazi sympathizer,” Mr. O’Reilly wrote. “To understand why the president is elongating the controversy, you have to realize the depth of his resentment towards the activist left.”
The conservative pundit said that Mr. Trump’s comments serve the dual purpose of enraging media enemies while ingratiating himself with his base of support.
“For him, this is fair payback for what he has endured. He sees his opponents as dishonest, deserving of constant disparagement,” Mr. O’Reilly said. “That’s what is happening in the Charlottesville situation. Mr. Trump knows that Nazi sympathizers are bad people but to him they are few in number and have little significance. The organized left, however, has a huge microphone and is causing the president major trouble.”
Mr. O’Reilly concluded his piece by saying Mr. Trump is playing a dangerous game, which will sink his administration if he is not careful.
“In America there is, indeed, a civil war underway. And the president along with his supporters will lose that war unless they fight it smarter. Anytime Nazis are involved you condemn them and walk away. That’s all.”
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.