O’Reilly regrets – Bill O’Reilly said he regrets how he treated Barney Frank during their 2008 on-air clash, acknowledging that he was “too mean” after Frank died Tuesday at age 86.
Barney Frank’s death pulled a familiar viral clip back into the spotlight—and this time. Bill O’Reilly wasn’t doubling down. On Tuesday’s episode of “No Spin News. ” the veteran broadcaster looked back at his 2008 “The O’Reilly Factor” exchange with the Massachusetts congressman and said he’s regretted it “quite a bit.”.
O’Reilly revisited the moment from that episode, when the conversation with Frank—who at the time was chairman of the House Financial Services Committee—slid into a shoutfest. He said he “openly derided Congressman Frank on television,” after ripping into Frank over the country’s financial crisis.
Some of that confrontation still lives in headlines: O’Reilly called Frank a “coward.” On Tuesday. though. he acknowledged the anger didn’t stay in bounds. “Barney Frank passed away today. Now. I’ve said before that one of the few things that I regret in my 50 years of journalism is that I openly derided Congressman Frank on television. ” O’Reilly said.
He described Frank as a committed liberal from Massachusetts, noting that Frank served 16 terms—“That’s 32 years”—and said: “Not a good guy — I’m not speaking ill of the dead, but you know, gruff. And it was his way or the highway.”
Then O’Reilly tried to draw a line between his view of Frank’s character and his view of the moment itself. He conceded he didn’t think Frank was “malevolent. ” adding: “[He] came on a program to talk about the collapse of the economy when people couldn’t pay their mortgages and. since he was overseeing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. I blamed him and he denied it and things got heated and I was too mean to him.”.
O’Reilly said he “didn’t have to be” that harsh and that the regret has stayed with him. “I didn’t have to be and I’ve always regretted it,” he continued. He also claimed he sent Frank a note: “Look, I’m sorry about that. I mean, you’re so wrong. You still were misleading the audience, but I overreacted to it.”.
Even as O’Reilly stood by criticism of what he believed Frank did for the audience, he praised Frank for public service. He called Frank a longtime “public servant” and “the driver behind gay marriage.” O’Reilly’s full commentary was shared with viewers through a video embedded in the segment.
Frank’s death came Tuesday night at his home in Ogunquit, Maine. He died at 86. Before his passing, he had entered hospice care while battling congestive heart failure.
The sequence O’Reilly laid out connects the same two points that made the original clash so explosive: a dispute over the country’s financial crisis involving Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. and the heated delivery that turned it into a headline-grabbing shouting match. On Tuesday, he didn’t revisit the policy argument first—he went straight to his own tone.
Bill O’Reilly Barney Frank No Spin News The O’Reilly Factor Fannie Mae Freddie Mac LGBTQ+ rights gay marriage hospice care congestive heart failure Ogunquit Maine