Bill O’Reilly says the commander in chief should not be firing off tweets without checking to make sure they are based in reality.
"The problem with President Trump is that he doesn't base his tweets, many of them, on facts," O'Reilly told Newsmax TV's John Bachman in an exclusive interview Thursday.
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"He's the president. He can give an opinion, and it's okay. But if his opinion is based on false information, he's going to look bad, and he gives his enemies ammunition."
A case in point, the former host of "The O'Reilly Factor" said, was Trump's incendiary blast at Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, following the horrific terror attack at London Bridge last Saturday.
"The mayor of London thing is the best example," O'Reilly said. "The mayor of London was warning people in his city about the increased police presence, and he was saying don't worry about it, because it's not out of control.
"Trump took that a different way, tweeted out, and then gave his enemies all of this stuff. That's the problem with him."
That brouhaha began when the president on Twitter accused Khan of downplaying the threat of terrorism a day after three terrorists smashed a van into pedestrians on London Bridge, then stabbed revelers with knives. Eight were killed and 48 injured before the madmen were shot dead by police.
Hours after the carnage, Khan told the BBC: "My message to Londoners and visitors to our great city is to be calm and vigilant today. You will see an increased police presence today, including armed officers and uniformed officers. There is no reason to be alarmed by this. I'm reassured that we are one of the safest global cities in the world, if not the safest global city, but we always evolve and review to make sure we're as safe as we possibly can be."
That had Trump erupting on Twitter:
A spokesman for Khan said the mayor had "more important things to do than respond to Donald Trump's ill-informed tweet that deliberately takes out of context his remarks."
In another tweet, Trump said:
O'Reilly said that sort of haphazard tweeting has to stop.
"If you're the president, and you're going to tweet, you got to make sure that your tweets are fact based," O'Reilly said. "Everybody needs an editor, and he needs one."
O'Reilly's latest historical book is called "Bill O'Reilly's Legends and Lies: The Civil War," published by Henry Holt.
The newest installment in The New York Times #1 bestselling companion series to the Fox historical docudrama, "Bill O'Reilly's Legends and Lies," delves into the deadliest war in American history. The book chronicles the birth of the Republican Party, the Confederacy's first convention, the Underground Railroad, the Emancipation Proclamation, the Battle of Gettysburg, and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
"It's is the third in a series of 'Legends and Lies,' and we're in the middle of a civil war right now in America," O'Reilly told Newsmax TV.
"The real Civil War, which was the low point in American history, there's a lot of myths surrounding it, as you know. So, we take this book, and we walk through, and it's a beautiful book. It's got a lot of illustrations, Americans nine to 90 will enjoy it, and that's my goal: to make history fun.
"To make it come alive, and to have people absorb knowledge at the same time, become literate and why their country was so divided back in the 1860s. It's relevant today. We're a divided nation today."
O'Reilly, 67, now hosts a podcast called "No Spin News." He was forced to quit Fox News after The New York Times reported five women had received $13 million in payouts in exchange for not pursuing lawsuits or baring allegations of sexual harassment or inappropriate behavior.
He denied the allegations — saying he settled the cases to spare his family — and his attorney, Marc Kasowitz, had said O'Reilly was the target of a "smear campaign" financed by left-wing advocacy groups.
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