Bill O’Reilly unloaded on critics of President Donald Trump after the commander in chief switched planes amid an Iranian threat against his life, dismissing those outraged that members of the press were unknowingly left aboard Air Force One as “fools.”
O’Reilly joined NewsNation’s Katie Pavlich on Wednesday evening and defended the decision by Trump’s team following the reported threat while the president was in Turkey for a NATO summit.
The Washington Post first reported that Trump secretly switched planes in Turkey following the threat. The president traveled to London aboard a separate military aircraft while members of the White House press pool remained on Air Force One without knowing about the change.
The move sparked criticism over the possibility that reporters and others aboard Air Force One had been used as unwitting decoys.
But O’Reilly wasn’t buying the outrage.
The former Fox News host acknowledged that he did not know exactly how serious or credible the Iranian threat was, saying that based on the information he had seen, it appeared somewhat “half-baked.”
Still, O’Reilly argued Trump’s security team had little choice but to take precautions.
“You have to protect the president of the United States. You have to,” O’Reilly said.
He argued that informing the entire press corps about a possible assassination threat would defeat the purpose of taking security precautions.
O’Reilly said he felt bad for anyone aboard Air Force One who may have believed they were placed in danger, but added that he did not believe the threat had reached a level suggesting those aboard were actually in harm’s way.
“This was a cautionary move, which anybody would do,” he said.
O’Reilly then mocked the idea that officials should have alerted reporters that Trump was leaving Air Force One because of a possible threat against the aircraft.
“I mean, come on, these people are fools,” O’Reilly said.
He accused Trump’s critics of failing to understand how presidential security works and argued that some are more interested in attacking Trump than considering why the decision was made.
“They don’t know how it works. They don’t care how it works. All they wanna do is bash Trump all day, every day,” O’Reilly said.
Pavlich agreed with O’Reilly’s assessment and offered an even more direct message to members of the press complaining about the incident: “stop whining.”
She noted that cabinet officials also remained aboard Air Force One alongside members of the press pool.
Pavlich argued that traveling with a president inherently comes with potential risks, particularly when accompanying Trump.
“That’s the job you sign up for,” she said.
Pavlich concluded that journalists who want to continue traveling with the president should accept that those risks are simply “part of the gig” rather than complain about the precautions taken to protect him.
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