Bill O’Reilly Angrily Ends Interview Early, Calls It an ‘Ambush’: Report

Former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly angrily jousted with “Firing Line” host Margaret Hoover on September 17 after being asked about old sexual harassment accusations, calling Hoover’s questions an “ambush interview,” the Spotify recording of the interview shows.

O’Reilly told Hoover, “So next time, don’t write some inflammatory essay trying to be a virtue signaler unless you know what the hell you’re talking about.” Hoover told Mediate that O’Reilly “didn’t formally finish the interview through the ‘goodbyes.’”

The interview aired on September 20, 2024, on PBS. The Spotify recording of the interview, which was posted the next day, shows that O’Reilly also called Hoover’s line of questioning “ridiculous” and said he had nothing to say about various angles she asked relating to the sexual harassment accusations and media culture.

The sexual harassment back-and-forth came toward the end of a 46-minute interview. Hoover questioned why O’Reilly should be able to “remake” himself, while his accusers cannot.

Hoover also published excerpts of the interview on her X page on September 20. The video excerpts show O’Reilly saying he didn’t want to comment when asked about the accusations, which The New York Times revealed in 2017.

“You were on my program for four years and you had no problem,” he told her at one point. “You know zero about this.”

Hoover said on “Firing Line” that she had appeared as a commentator on O’Reilly’s former show on Fox News, “The O’Reilly Factor,” a program that ended in the wake of the accusations against him.

Mediate reported that the interview occurred on Tuesday, September 17, while O’Reilly was being questioned during a “pre-taped interview” for “Firing Line,” the PBS show that Hoover hosts.

The show’s podcast describes the interview as, “Bill O’Reilly sits down with Margaret Hoover to discuss his latest book, the presidential race, and the sexual harassment allegations that led to his firing from Fox News.”

According to Mediaite, O’Reilly “abruptly ended an interview with PBS host Margaret Hoover after being questioned on the allegations of sexual harassment against him.” The interview recording on Spotify ends with Hoover saying, “Once again, I just want to point out that I learned from you to ask the hard questions and not be afraid. And I appreciate that you are willing to sit here and have as much of the conversation as you can have.”

However, Mediaite reported that O’Reilly also said, “If you’re going to use that stuff, you’re in for a problem. So I’m telling you right now because that’s just bull,” and, “I’m not going to record any phony crap like that. You’re going to edit this thing and, you know, my attorney is going to be watching.” Mediate reported that O’Reilly then ended “the interview early. He then left the set.”

Those quotes do not appear in the Spotify version.

“This is my seventh year hosting ‘Firing Line,’ and Bill O’Reilly was the first guest on the program who didn’t formally finish the interview through the ‘goodbyes.’ Clearly, he was uncomfortable fielding questions related to the sexual harassment allegations that are a significant part of his legacy,” Hoover told Mediate.

“It’s disappointing that Bill O’Reilly, knowing he would be asked, has not reflected on how the settlements involving him and several women have affected their ability to earn a living in media again, even as he continues to, in his words, ‘flourish’ in independent media,” she told Mediate.

O’Reilly and Hoover began the program by discussing his new book on American presidents. He declared that Joe Biden was the nation’s second-worst president, after James Buchanan. Hoover, who is the great-granddaughter of former President Herbert Hoover, called O’Reilly’s critique of Hoover “lazy” and repeatedly criticized his depiction of Herbert Hoover before she got into O’Reilly’s past. They also debated former President Donald Trump.

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Bill O’Reilly Told the Interviewer He Would Be a ‘Fool to Dredge That Up,’ the Recording Shows

In the interview, Hoover started off the segment on sexual harassment accusations by telling O’Reilly, “I want to go back to 2017. You’re top-rated talent at Fox News. You’ve just signed a four-year deal to renew your contract, and the Times publishes a report on settlements that you had reached with several women over harassment misconduct claims totaling $13 million. You’re forced out of the network. The Times later reveals an additional settlement worth $32 million. I don’t expect that you can comment on this.”

O’Reilly responded, “Well, I knew it was coming. I knew you were inviting me here for a discussion and that would, that would be part of it. But I’d be a fool to dredge that up.”

Hoover then read from a New York Times op-ed she wrote in 2017, which contained the line, “Instead Mr. O’Reilly blamed others, embracing the victimization he so ridiculed of the American left.” She also called his firing a “welcome step” in that op-ed but only a step and said that conservative outlets needed to stand up for women. She said conservatives are supposed to stand for personal responsibility, which O’Reilly did not show when he was accused of sexual harassment.

“How do you respond?” she asked.

“I don’t. You don’t know anything about it,” O’Reilly said. “So you can write whatever you want.”

“I do know about the culture that I experienced there and that’s what I could write about,” she said.

“You were on my program for four years and you had no problem. And that’s what you know about me. You don’t know anything else about me,” O’Reilly responded. “So you write whatever you want.”

He compared her comments about him to Hoover’s criticism on the show of Tucker Carlson as saying things that aren’t true, saying that Carlson has an opinion. “You’re doing the same thing. You don’t know anything about this. You know zero about this,” he said.

In the interview, Hoover also pressed O’Reilly about a law that “empowers women to opt for litigation.”

“I don’t care about any of that. What I care about is due process, and you apparently don’t,” O’Reilly retorted.

“You came here on this program, and I’m asking you questions and you’re answering them. This is due process,” she said, referring to the interview.

“You read a diatribe that you wrote. You wrote it knowing nothing about it. You know nothing about it. Nothing. And yet you wrote this, and you present it to me. I knew you were going to do this, all right, and I’m not afraid. But I will tell you this, due process is very important in this country.”

“I totally agree with that,” Hoover said.

“So next time don’t write some inflammatory essay trying to be a virtue signaler unless you know what the hell you’re talking about,” O’Reilly said.

“I know about the culture I experienced at Fox News,” Hoover said.

O’Reilly continued: “You don’t know anything about me, other than the four years you were on my program, which went swimmingly for you.” As Hoover continued questioning him, mentioning former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson, O’Reilly said, “All right that’s enough. I’m not going to get into this anymore.” He added, “Got anything else on the book or anything else on history? That’s it.”

Hoover then started talking about the concept of a culture warrior. She read an article about how O’Reilly has been flourishing since the sexual harassment accusations.

“Why will our culture give you the ability to remake yourself, but the women who have settled with you will never be employed in television news?” Hoover asked.

“I have no idea about that at all,” O’Reilly responded. “You got anything else? You don’t. So you have plenty in the can. You run what you want. But this is ridiculous. You know when you’re going to do an ambush interview – ”

“This is not an ambush interview,” Hoover said.

“Oh c’mon, stop,” he said. “I knew you were going to do this.”

“This is not an ambush at all,” she insisted.

“It’s an ambush because you’re putting up things that I can’t possibly comment, and you know it,” O’Reilly said.

“Of course, you can comment about what you think about this new law. You absolutely have nothing to say back?”

“I have nothing to say about it,” he said.

“About women, our culture. About how women don’t have the same opportunity you have for a second chance?” Hoover said.

“Look, I don’t know anything about what opportunities anybody has. All I know is that I deliver an honest program. I write books about what people want to read and that is the genesis of my success. I wish everyone else has success too,” O’Reilly said. “That’s all.”

“I learned from you to ask hard questions. I know you would expect nothing less. These are honest and fair questions,” Hoover said.

“The only thing you haven’t learned and you need to is when you ask a question, have it fact-based and if it isn’t fact-based tell the audience that up front,” O’Reilly said.

“The facts are that the settlements are real,” she said.

“I didn’t make any settlements all right,” O’Reilly said.

“There are no settlements?” Hoover asked.

O’Reilly said he had “no idea what Fox News did.”

“I know that can’t possibly be true,” she said.

“You’re wrong and that’s it. I had nothing to do with Fox, how it ran its company, or anything else. We parted. They fulfilled their obligation to me. And I’ve gone on to be a very big success in other venues. That’s it,” O’Reilly said.

“It is my hope that we someday have a culture where our media companies will employ women who were settled with and that the stench of that settlement doesn’t follow them around,” Hoover said.

“I hope that happens,” O’Reilly said.

“Once again, I just want to point out that I learned from you to ask the hard questions and not be afraid. And I appreciate that you are willing to sit here and have as much of the conversation as you can have,” Hoover said. The Spotify recording of the interview then ended.

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Bill O’Reilly Also Critiqued the Performance of Former President Donald Trump in the Interview

The PBS biography for Hoover describes her as “an American political commentator. In addition, she is also an author, feminist, and gay rights activist. Currently, she works as a political commentator for CNN.”

In the interview, she also discussed Trump with O’Reilly, who had mixed comments about the former president, praising his record while criticizing his presentation.

“He has a record to run on,” O’Reilly said, praising Trump for wages going up. “Working-class Americans benefited from Donald Trump,” he said, criticizing Trump for distracting from that message by criticizing Taylor Swift and trying to entertain people. “If he would moderate and bring it down, he would win. But he doesn’t seem capable of doing that,” O’Reilly said.

O’Reilly said he believed that Trump dismantled ISIS, saying that he believes that is Trump’s biggest accomplishment. He also said that Russian President Vladimir Putin is “misbehaving” more now, under Biden. But he believes Trump’s presentation obscures these things.

The interview wasn’t all negative. At one point, Hoover praised O’Reilly for keeping right-wing “fringe” attitudes “out of the mainstream” when he had a show on Fox. She said he was one of the leading media figures to push back against the false “birther” conspiracy theory against former President Barack Obama. O’Reilly said conspiracy theories that Obama was not born in this country are “bull” and added that he doesn’t live in an ideological world where he tries to fit everything into a preconceived notion.

O’Reilly said Obama comes across as a good president in his book. O’Reilly is a registered independent, he said.

“There was an effort to keep out the crazy that isn’t there anymore,” Hoover said.

O’Reilly said some television networks found an “easy villain” in Trump to drive up ratings and that networks’ audiences have become more ideologically hardened as a result of this tactic.

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Sexual Harassment Claims Involving Bill O’Reilly Settled for Millions of Dollars, Reports Say

“There are six publicly known settlements involving Mr. O’Reilly, five for sexual harassment and one for verbal abuse, that total about $45 million,” the New York Times reported.

The New York Times reported in 2017 that a sexual harassment claim involving O’Reilly settled for $32 million. It was filed by a former legal analyst named Lis Wiehl, The Times reported. (Wiehl has gone on to author a book about the FBI. She is a trial lawyer who is the author of 19 books, according to her website.)

NBC News reported that the settlement was “one of the biggest in recent memory, topping even the $20 million payment received by former Fox News host, Gretchen Carlson, who sued the late Fox News boss Roger Ailes, after alleging she was harassed.”

According to NBC News, O’Reilly was “forced off the air” after The New York Times reported that O’Reilly had been accused of sexual harassment.

21st Century Fox told NBC News at the time:

When the company renewed Bill O’Reilly’s contract in February, it knew that a sexual harassment lawsuit had been threatened against him by Lis Wiehl, but was informed by Mr. O’Reilly that he had settled the matter personally on financial terms that he and Ms. Wiehl had agreed were confidential and not disclosed to the company. His new contract which was made at the time typical for renewals of multi-year talent contracts, added protections of the company specifically aimed at harassment, including that Mr. O’Reilly could be dismissed if the company was made aware of other allegations of if additional relevant information was obtained in a company investigation. The company subsequently acted based on the terms of this contract.

O’Reilly’s spokesman Mark Fabiani told NBC News then, “Here are the facts: after the Chairman of Fox News Roger Ailes was fired in July 2015, dozens of women accused scores of male employees of Fox News of harassment — including the current co-president of Fox News Jack Abernathy. 21st Century Fox settled almost all of these cases, paying out close to $100 million. Six months after Mr. Ailes left the company, Fox News Corporation signed Bill O’Reilly to a record-breaking new contract after the company had analyzed and considered the allegations against him.”

In 2018, CNN Business reported on a settlement involving O’Reilly “with Andrea Mackris, a former Fox News producer who filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against O’Reilly in 2004.” A provision in that settlement “required Mackris to ‘lie — even in legal proceedings or under oath — if any evidence becomes public, by calling evidence ‘counterfeit’ or ‘forgeries,'” CNN Business reported.

The New York Times also reported that the settlement “with Ms. Mackris confirms a New York Times investigation that found a private investigator had been used to dig up information about her.”

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