Bill O’Reilly says the CIA had a deal with the Venezuelan military and security forces to seize now-former president Nicolas Maduro without a fight, citing anonymous sources – sort of?
The assertion was firm – but the “No Spin News” host created his own set of rules to make it Sunday, on one hand claiming multiple sources told him about the prearrangement, while on the other saying he doesn’t “report anonymous stuff as fact” and later classifying the information as “opinion analysis” by inference.
O’Reilly was fielding a question from a subscriber to his website, who asked for clarification of his sources on the matter. That’s where the former Fox News anchor and veteran journalist began the intricate tap-dance.
“Now, my source for the information is anonymous,” O’Reilly said. “So I did not report it as fact. I used it in my opinion analysis on NewsNation Saturday night.”
He then rolled the clip from his news-hit, in which he said:
“So the CIA pinpointed where Maduro was, that the army would not help him. His own army didn’t help him. His own police force didn’t help him. OK? Nobody helped him. Delta Force went in. The CIA guy said, ‘There he is. Go get him.’ They got him. And now he’s walking around with a silly hat in Brooklyn.”
O’Reilly restated that his sources were anonymous, “and I don’t report anonymous stuff as fact, which separates me. But I can incorporate it into my opinion analysis.”
He then referenced a Wall Street Journal report that said the CIA had cultivated a source inside Maduro’s circles who tipped off his whereabouts.
“Maybe they’re the same sources as I have. But what The Wall Street Journal didn’t report is that the CIA made a deal with the Venezuelan army. Because you cannot have a foreign army — USA — drop into a military compound where the president of a country is residing, grab that guy, take him out of the country without one single gunshot fired. That is impossible.”
Next came the pivot: “I’m not on the level of Sherlock Holmes, but I have some deductive reasoning powers, and I know a deal was made. And other deals have been made, and I’ll tell you about them as they unfold. But the CIA, which largely resides in the American embassy … is running that country.”
O’Reilly added that the Venezuelan military had to go along with the bold raid, which saw no American casualties.
“When I say something, I’m very, very precise about whether I’m reporting a fact or I’m reporting an opinion. And when somebody tells me something … and they need to be protected, I protect them. And I won’t tell you it’s fact. OK? Like most of the others will. They’ll use anonymous sources as facts. I don’t.”
Whether he spoke with people firmly in the know or was just inferring, O’Reilly asserted that “I don’t get it wrong. I can’t remember the last time we had to correct a story … I say it, you can trust it. Trust is earned.”
Watch the entire report in the video above.
