Bill O’Reilly tells Cuomo he ‘let Vance off’ during NewsNation town

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NewsNation’s town hall with Republican Vice Presidential Candidate J.D. Vance was not good enough for Bill O’Reilly, who critiqued the host’s performance.

(Video Credit: NewsNation)

Chris Cuomo grilled Vance on several issues, including past claims of migrants in Springfield, Ohio. Cuomo asked the candidate if he would have handled things differently on that topic, but O’Reilly was not thrilled with how the line of questioning was handled.

The political commentator insisted that Cuomo did not grill Vance hard enough on the “divisive rhetoric” from Trump and his campaign.

“Trump does use divisive rhetoric, it’s part of his presentation. It gets him attention, it worked in ’16. But you let Vance off on it,” O’Reilly said. “I would have brought in two examples of divisive rhetoric. Not to try to ‘gotcha,’ but to see if Vance has perspective on it.”

On the topic of migrants eating pets, Vance conceded that he perhaps should have “been better in that moment,” but also noted that he valued listening to the words of his community over the din of the media.

“Do I wish that I had been better in that moment? Maybe,” he said.

“What am I supposed to do? Hang up the phone and tell them they’re a liar because the media doesn’t want me to talk about it? One of the things that I’ve learned in my time in the United States Senate is that sometimes the media doesn’t always listen to people,” the vice presidential candidate pointed out.

“We have statistics like $350 million just this year on illegal immigrants. It’s unsustainable. You don’t have to go into the Alpo thing with the dogs and the cats … you open yourself up to all kinds of charges with the media gleefully hopping on,” O’Reilly said.

Ultimately, O’Reilly contended that Vance would have done better if he’d just admitted he was wrong and shifted focus to how the migrant crisis has created financial strain on local communities, “Americans like it when [politicians] admit a mistake.”

Cuomo disagreed, arguing that apologies in politics these days are “weaponized” by candidates.

“You really get beaten over the head with apologies in politics now.”