O'Reilly Lets Trump Off The Hook For His Misleading TV Ad That Misrepresented US Southern Border

Bill O'Reilly: “You Got To Be Careful ... The Media's After You”

Written by Brendan Karet

Published

Fox host Bill O'Reilly gave GOP frontrunner Donald Trump a friendly platform to respond to criticism of his misleading campaign ad that misrepresented the U.S. southern border by using footage of Moroccan immigrants crossing into Spain.

After Donald Trump's campaign released his first televised campaign ad, a Politifact analysis of the ad found that it misleads viewers by using footage of immigrants crossing the border between Morocco and Spain while a narrator claims that Trump will “stop illegal immigration by building a wall on our southern border.” 

On the January 4 edition of his Fox News show, Bill O'Reilly discussed the ad with Trump pointing out that the footage was misleading but dismissed the criticism, telling Trump that he must “be careful” because “the media's after [him]”:

BILL O'REILLY (HOST): Now, you just put out an ad that features the southern border, and you're saying that you're going to put up a wall and stop the madness. Now you're criticized because some of the video in the ad, which looks like it's from Mexico, is from Morocco. So, the press is all over you on that. How do you react?

DONALD TRUMP: All it is, is a display of what it is going to look like, and what our country looks like. That was just video footage. It's just a display of what our country's going to look like. We're like a third world country. We're a dumping ground, so you can just take it anywhere you want, but it's really merely a display of what a dumping ground is going to look like. And that's what our country is becoming very rapidly. 

O'REILLY: Alright, so you don't think the video was a little misleading, with the talk of the border fence? For Mexico, you use a Morocco video. You don't think that's misleading?

TRUMP: No, I think it's irrelevant. All we want to do is what it's going to look like. They picked something. They could have picked something else. We could pick plenty of footage, that I could tell you Bill.

O'REILLY: You should have probably put the Mexican footage in there though, because you got to be careful about -- you know, with the media's after you.