It took just a few minutes for NARAL Pro-Choice America to take down Donald Trump’s defense of Bill O’Reilly.
On Wednesday, Trump lavished praise on the embattled TV host, who together with Fox News, ponied up $13 million in settlement payments to five women accusing O’Reilly of sexual harassment and other inappropriate behavior.
“A man who bragged about committing sexual assault and grabbing women by the pu$$y is defending Bill O’Reilly. Enough said,” Kaylie Hanson Long told TheWrap in an email on Wednesday. (The dollar signs were hers.)
During an interview in the Oval Office on Wednesday morning, Trump went out of his way to defend O’Reilly, telling the New York Times: “I think he’s a person I know well — he is a good person.”
“I think he shouldn’t have settled; personally I think he shouldn’t have settled,” Trump went on to say. “Because you should have taken it all the way. I don’t think Bill did anything wrong.”
So far, O’Reilly has mostly stayed mum on the scandal, only releasing a statement on his site Saturday denying the accusations. But that seems to have done little to quell advertiser’s jitters. At least 20 of his corporate sponsors announced they were dropping “The O’Reilly Factor” in the last 48 hours.
But NARAL says Trump would be wise to sit this one out.
In October, the Washington Post published an 11-year old “Access Hollywood” tape in which Trump could be heard bragging about sexually assaulting women.
“I’m automatically attracted to beautiful women — I just start kissing them, it’s like a magnet,” Trump told “Access” host Billy Bush in a conversation that was caught on a hot mic.
“I don’t even wait,” Trump went on to say. “And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything… Grab ’em by the p—y.”
Since, then more than a dozen women have come forward accusing Trump of doing just that. Trump denied the allegations, calling the women who accused him liars, and threatened to sue them.