Prez: Rice a criminal, O’Reilly a good guy
EMBATTLED Fox News host Bill O’Reilly “is a good person,” President Trump said Wednesday, but former national security adviser Susan Rice might be a criminal.Former President Barack Obama’s aide Rice was accused earlier this week by anonymous Trump allies of having asked “dozens” of times to reveal the redacted names of Trump staff members whose identities had been incidentally collected during surveillance on other foreign officials.
The President told The New York Times of the supposed Rice scandal, saying, “It’s going to be the biggest story.”
“It’s such an important story for our country and the world. It is one of the big stories of our time,” he said without providing any evidence supporting the allegations against Rice.
Rice has called accusations she did anything that was politically motivated “absolutely false.”
Trump said he agreed with the notion that Rice had committed a crime, though Republicans who’ve been probing her involvement in the unmasking have said it doesn’t appear she did anything illegal.
“Do I think? Yes, I think,” Trump said when asked whether he agreed that Rice had done something illegal.
Trump did not say whether he had seen any intelligence supporting his claim, but said he would elaborate “at the right time.”
Trump also blasted the media for not sufficiently reporting on the Rice story, but spared his favorite cable news channel, Fox News, from criticism, and defended its most-watched personality. even
“I think he’s a person I know well. He is a good person,” Trump said of O’Reilly. According to reports earlier this week, the network paid out more than $13 million to settle five accusations from women alleging the TV star made lewd comments or propositioned them for sex.
“I think he shouldn’t have settled. Personally, I think he shouldn’t have settled,” Trump added.
“Because you should have taken it all the way. I don’t think Bill did anything wrong.”
O'Reilly’s show, “The O’Reilly Factor,” lost at least 44 advertisers this week after The Times reported news of the settlements.
Trump’s latest comments come just days after he proclaimed April “National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month” and just six months after the emergence of a 2005 “Access Hollywood” tape recording captured him in which he bragged about grabbing women by their genitals.
Trump — who was accused of sexual misconduct by a nearly a dozen women before the election — has a soft spot for Fox News figures mired in sexual harassment allegations.
In July, he repeatedly defended former network boss Roger Ailes amid the former exec’s own sexual harassment charges.
“I can tell you that some of the women that are complaining, I know how much he’s helped them,” Trump told NBC’s “Meet the Press” in a July 24 interview, adding that he considered Ailes a longtime friend.
Ailes left as CEO of Fox News in July following a lawsuit filed by former anchor Gretchen Carlson that he had sexually harassed her over a number of years. Carlson’s allegations led several other women to come forward with similar accusations.