Dan Abrams Confronts Bill O’Reilly Over Trump and Fox News Hosts Misinformation on Covid Vaccines

Bill O’Reilly defended former President Donald Trump for not appealing to vaccine-hesitant supporters with facts on Monday during an interview with Mediaite and founder and NewsNation host Dan Abrams.

O’Reilly was fresh off a four-city tour with the former president when he joined The Dan Abrams Show to talk about everything from vaccines to the responsibility of journalists to report accurate information. Abrams made clear more than once that he thought it was a good thing that the former president and O’Reilly were supporting vaccines and that they deserved “credit” for saying it in front of a crowd where some might be reluctant to hear it. But after Abrams asked the former Fox News host about social distancing during his events with Trump when there were many empty seats, the conversation grew tense.

“We couldn’t social distance,” O’Reilly said. “We’re in Florida and Texas, which don’t have mandates and people are free to do whatever they want. I should point out that Donald Trump is not for mandates, all right? He does want people to be vaccinated.”

Abrams responded, “Those are two totally separate issues, right? The question of mandates is a separate question for as far as I’m concerned, I wonder though, why it takes, for example, the former president being asked by Bill O’Reilly if he’s been boosted, rather than going out there and saying, ‘Hey, everybody. I’m boosted. The vaccines are great…’ We had to wait until O’Reilly asked him the question.”

O’Reilly asserted that Trump does not take up the issue of vaccines because he does not want to alienate some of his supporters.

Abrams then turned to O’Reilly’s former employer, saying that “some of the people on Fox News, in particular, have been making people reluctant to get the vaccine based on what they’ve been saying publicly.”

O’Reilly interrupted, saying Abrams was giving the network “way too much credit.”

“The people who – on Fox News – don’t like the vax have a perfect right to that opinion.”

Abrams replied, “Of course they have a right to it. It doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do.”

O’Reilly responded by saying, “It’s their job to say what they think!”

“Really?” Abrams reacted, incredulously. “So facts don’t matter then? Everything’s opinion?… [CROSSTALK] … It’s not opinion, Bill. You know this isn’t opinion. You just said it yourself. That it saved x number of lives, whatever number that is.”

Abrams went on,”I’m talking about the fact that the vaccine works. That’s a fact. When I say ‘works,’ it means that prevents people from dying.”

Watch above, via NewsNation.