Former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly threatened a JetBlue employee at JFK Airport on April 3, 2022, with the video finally going public days later on April 19.
O’Reilly has a long history of misconduct, he resigned from Fox News after the network settled five lawsuits involving women who accused him of misconduct.
The now-viral footage shows O’Reilly getting increasingly angry after being told his flight would be delayed by three hours, leading him to claim the employee would lose his job. Social media has since taken O’Reilly to task, slamming him for his behavior.
The Washington Examiner reported:
“The conservative commentator can be heard in the video asking a JetBlue employee to find out why his flight from New York to Turks and Caicos is ‘three hours late now. Seconds later, after a barely audible back-and-forth, O’Reilly calls the employee a ‘f***ing scumbag’ and tells him, ‘You’re going to lose your job.’ The JetBlue agent is heard in the video accusing O’Reilly of threatening him with violence.”
“You’re going to get that information,” O’Reilly said before storming off.
Watch the now-viral video of Bill O’Reilly:
On Sunday, former Fox host Bill O’Reilly threatened a JetBlue employee at JFK Airport after his flight to Turks & Caicos was delayed: “You f*cking scumbag! You’re gonna lose your job!” pic.twitter.com/30LFyNy2Yj
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) April 19, 2022
O’Reilly defended himself in an email to the Mail, saying:
“It was the airport worker who was arrogant, not him.”
“The guy was arrogant and falsely accused me of threatening him and I said: ‘You’re lucky I didn’t do that.’”
O’Reilly also took to Twitter to defend himself, he tweeted after the video surfaced on Tuesday.
“The character assassins on social media completely lying about my interaction with a JetBlue guy who misled passengers during a five-hour delay.”
The Washington Examiner added:
“The 72-year-old former host of The O’Reilly Factor told a news outlet on Tuesday that he handled the situation ‘poorly’ but did not apologize to the worker, reiterating that the JetBlue flight was delayed for hours without explanation, leading to frustration. He also accused JetBlue of fraudulent behavior, claiming the airline is selling tickets to flights that the company knows cannot arrive on schedule.”
O’Reilly also gave a statement to Mediaite:
“The real story beyond the exchange caught by Daily Mail, O’Reilly said, is staffing shortages airlines like JetBlue are not being honest about, leading to numerous cancellations and delays for their flights,” the website wrote.
“‘The story is JetBlue can’t get their flights off the ground. It was crazy in the terminal,’ O’Reilly added, joking frustration among passengers was so fierce he may have prevented a riot by saying something,” Mediaite reported.
“JetBlue, O’Reilly argued to Mediaite, is committing ‘fraud in the inducement,’ meaning they are selling tickets to flights they know they cannot complete but are not being honest about it.”
Sources: TheDailyWire, DailyMail, Mediaite, TheWashingtonExaminer