Earlier today, we reported that Russia had issued a statement demanding that Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly apologize for calling Vladimir Putin “a killer” during his pre-Super Bowl interview with Donald Trump. At that point, it was impossible to predict whether or not O’Reilly would cave to Trump’s best friend and issue an apology for his remark or if he’d stick to his (metaphorical) pro-America guns and refuse to back down. Really, though, there’s only one way this could’ve played out: with O’Reilly leaning on his “I’m the smartest guy in the room” attitude and standing by his assertion that Putin is, in fact, a killer. After all, O’Reilly didn’t get where he is today by apologizing, he did it by screaming “fuck it” and doing it live (so to speak).
According to Deadline, O’Reilly opened his show on Fox News tonight by feigning surprise that Putin’s administration would demand that he, “your humble correspondent,” apologize to “Old Vlad” for saying he’s a killer. He then added, “I am working on that apology but it may take a little time. Might want to check in with me around 2023.” He also mentioned that anyone interested in learning more about “the violent history of Vladimir Putin” should check out a book called iWar: War And Peace In The Information Age, which he surprisingly did not write.
It doesn’t seem like Trump or the Kremlin have responded to O’Reilly about this yet, but considering that the biggest guy on Fox News is kind of rebelling against the Trump administration now, things might be getting a bit more interesting pretty soon. Or maybe Trump will just whine about this on Twitter, Putin will order some clandestine operation to undermine O’Reilly’s reputation, and none of us will notice that anything has changed. Either way, you’ve gotta love this kind of dissension in the ranks.