Bill O’Reilly should probably update his “talking points” to include not rejecting a woman’s comments by mocking her appearance.
During the Fox News personality’s Tuesday appearance on Fox and Friends, O’Reilly responded to a clip of Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) speaking on patriotism by saying that he “didn’t hear a word she said,” because he “was looking at the James Brown wig.” By James Brown wig, O’Reilly was referring to Waters’s hair.
In the clip, recorded on Monday, Waters spoke to the House floor about how black Americans have continued to stand for the United States despite facing discrimination and isolation, and that they are more patriotic than House Republicans for standing up for democracy and against, “the destruction that [President Donald Trump] is about to cause this country.”
During the entirety of Waters’s remarks playing during the segment, O’Reilly mockingly nodded his head and pumped his fist in agreement. Then, when asked by a Fox and Friends host what he thought about Waters’s words, O’Reilly replied that he was too distracted by the “James Brown wig” to listen to what she had said.
African-American woman in Congress speaks up against the president, Bill O’Reilly says he won’t listen because of her hair. pic.twitter.com/GVOkZNBNX9
— Media Matters (@mmfa) March 28, 2017
When another host told O’Reilly that he couldn’t “go after a woman’s looks,” he replied by saying, “I didn’t say she wasn’t attractive. I love James Brown!”
Hours later, O’Reilly issued an apology in a statement to Business Insider, and said he would further address his comments during The O’Reilly Factor tonight:
“As I have said many times, I respect congresswoman Maxine Waters for being sincere in her beliefs. I said that again today on Fox and Friends calling her ‘old school.’ Unfortunately, I also made a jest about her hair which was dumb. I apologize.”
As Business Insider noted, O’Reilly was previously criticized for derogatory racial comments made he last year in an interview Trump in which he asked the then presidential candidate how he would help lower the unemployment rate for black Americans since “many of them are ill-educated and have tattoos on their foreheads.”
H/T Jezebel
