Bill O’Reilly Speaks Out Against JetBlue After Being Caught on Camera Calling Employee a ‘Scumbag’

Video obtained and published by the Daily Mail this week shows No Spin News host Bill O’Reilly in a heated discussion with a Jet Blue worker after his and many other passengers’ flights were delayed with little to no explanation, something O’Reilly told Mediaite is a bigger problem than just the one flight, and it’s being ignored by the company and the current administration.

O’Reilly was making his way to the Turks and Caicos Islands in the Caribbean when the video was shot earlier this month by an onlooker at the airport.

The specifics of the exchange between O’Reilly and the JetBlue worker are difficult to make out in the video, but the author and former Fox News host can be heard saying that his flight is three hours late. O’Reilly can also be heard demanding the employee find out what’s going on.

The exchange escalates when the employee accuses O’Reilly of threatening violence, something he immediately denies. When O’Reilly is trying to look at the employee’s name tag, he can be heard saying, “you’re lucky I don’t put my fist through it.”

After the employee says something inaudible, O’Reilly replied, “you fucking scumbag, don’t talk to me like that.”

“You’re threatening me with violence, man,” the worker says.

O’Reilly denies this and says, “you’re the one – I dare you? I dare you? Is that what you said to me?”

O’Reilly then observes the man’s name tag and says he’s going to lose his job before walking away.

Speaking with Mediaite, O’Reilly said he handled the confrontation “poorly” and chose the wrong language, but he’s not sorry for confronting the worker. Hundreds of passengers were stranded at the terminal for three hours, he said, before he asked to know what the status of the flight was, something he says he was prompted to do after numerous people recognized him and asked what was going on.

The real story beyond the exchange caught by Daily Mail, O’Reilly said, is staffing shortages airlines like JetBlue are not being honest about, leading to numerous cancellations and delays for their flights.

“The story is JetBlue can’t get their flights off the ground. It was crazy in the terminal,” O’Reilly added, joking frustration among passengers was so fierce he may have prevented a riot by saying something.

O’Reilly addressed the controversy on Tuesday on Twitter and his podcast, saying personally-motivated critics were lying about the interaction.

O’Reilly has been covering the “mistreatment” of passengers by airlines in recent months, including JetBlue. One story included passengers being kept on a delayed JetBlue flight for hours, while multiple people can be seen on video asking to depart the flight.

On the Monday edition of No Spin News, O’Reilly took aim at the continuing trend of flight delays and cancellations at airports across the U.S. and highlighted JetBlue’s own cancellation numbers of late:

So here is over the weekend a JetBlue versus Delta situation. Remember, they fly the same routes much of the time. So on Good Friday, April 15th, Delta had delays, 24%. All right, JetBlue, 51%. 51. Double Delta. And 5% of flights were canceled on JetBlue. Saturday, April 16th. Delays on Delta 19%, JetBlue 44%. Unbelievable.

JetBlue, O’Reilly argued to Mediaite, is committing “fraud in the inducement,” meaning they are selling tickets to flights they know they cannot complete, but are not being honest about it.

The issue, O’Reilly, argues goes straight to Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and the Biden administration not addressing the issue.

“For some reason, the Biden administration is not big on solving problems. This is a huge problem,” he said. O’Reilly said there is an open invitation for spokespeople from JetBlue to address the situation on his No Spin News, but he has heard nothing.