Former Fox News anchor Bill O’Reilly decided not to appear on CNN this weekend because he “wasn’t comfortable” appearing on the network.
“Bill O’Reilly called me yesterday, and although complimentary toward me personally, regarding me as a straight shooter and so on and so forth, said that because of his history with my network, he just wasn’t comfortable in coming on, at least at not at this time,” Michael Smerconish said Thursday on his Sirius XM Radio Show, “The Michael Smerconish Program.“
O’Reilly interviewed Smerconish in August on his online show and said he’d come on CNN in September to promote his book, “Killing England.”
“I’m going to do your program in September, after the book comes out,” O’Reilly said at the time. “I’ll see you on CNN in September.”
Smerconish said he’s disappointed that O’Reilly won’t come on his weekend CNN program. “[It] disappoints me, because I think we’d have had a good conversation,” Smerconish said. “Needless to say, there’s a lot of ground that I would have liked to have covered with him. But that’s not going to happen, at least not now.”
Instead of O’Reilly on Saturday’s 9 a.m. program, Bob Costas will guest.
The news of O’Reilly’s non-appearance on CNN comes just after he was interviewed on “The Today Show” last week and on Fox News’ “Hannity” on Tuesday.