O’Reilly Fires Back at Killing Reagan Critics: They Don’t Want Us Telling Truth

Bill O’Reilly tonight fired back at Republican critics of his new book Killing Reagan, saying that for once, “it’s not the left attempting to deceive us.”

He claimed that his co-author Martin Dugard received emails from two Reagan allies––former California Governor Pete Wilson and former Reagan White House staffer Christopher Cox––”warning us not to say anything negative about Mr. Reagan.” He even claimed they “went to my bosses to try and spike the book.”

O’Reilly also brought up a “hit piece” from four historians in The Washington Post that he dismissed as “almost comical.”

He contended that they’re angry because he wrote about Reagan’s struggles in the White House and said they’re just completely off-base with their claims that he made up facts.

Watch above, via Fox News.

UPDATE –– 10/20, 12:56 pm EST: Craig Shirley, one of the historians who wrote that critical WaPo review, has responded in a statement obtained by Mediaite:

So far, I’ve written four books on Ronald Reagan, written dozens of articles, given dozens of lectures, am a Trustee of Eureka College, taught a course there entitled Reagan 101, and have lectured at the Reagan Library and the Reagan Ranch. My co-authors Kengor, Skinner and Hayward are equally knowledgeable about our 40th president. Thus it is fair to say we probably know a little bit more about Ronald Reagan than Bill O’Reilly. We certainly know the facts of Ronald Reagan.

[image via screengrab]

— —

Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac

Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com