Sean Hannity took to his radio show to implore disgraced Fox News host Bill O’Reilly to return to the cable network after being sacked amid a sexual harassment scandal.
‘Do you want to come back? I think you should come back,’ conservative show host Hannity asked O’Reilly Monday.
O’Reilly who just last week gave an interview saying he’s glad to be out of the ‘nasty TV business’ responded to his former Fox cohort ‘I’m at the beach every day. You want to drag me back into the swamp?’
Fox’s Geraldo Rivera agreed with Hannity that O’Rielly should return, tweeting: ‘Bill O’Rielly has already done felony time for a misdemeanor, Time for work release-You don’t have to like him-it’s fair.’
Sean Hannity brought disgraced former Fox News host Bill O’Rielly on his radio show and said he should return to Fox News
Geraldo Rivera, left, and Bill O’Reilly, right. Geraldo agreed with Sean Hannity that O’Reilly should return to Fox News
‘Bill O’Rielly has already done felony time for a misdemeanor, Time for work release-You don’t have to like him-it’s fair.’
In April O’Reilly was fired from the conservative cable network after allegations of sexual harassment, abuse and racial discrimination of female colleagues was revealed.
‘I think you want back in the swamp and I think you’d love it back in the swamp,’ Hannity said.
‘I’d know your friends would love you back in the swamp. There’s not a day that goes by that people don’t ask me, ‘How’s O’Reilly doing? When is he coming back?’
But rather go back behind the anchor desk, O’Reilly said he’s focusing on the ‘investigation’ into his firing from Fox News, which he thinks was a conspiracy.
O’Reilly had been a ratings monster for Fox News during his two-decade tenure, but was forced out after it was revealed five secret sexual harassment accusers were paid $13million.
An unrepentant Bill O’Reilly insists he’s glad to be out of the ‘nasty TV business’ as he claims he was only fired after the far-left and media plotted to ‘destroy’ him
O’Reilly said instead of getting back to the hosting desk, he’s focusing on ‘investigating’ his firing and believes he was the victim of a left-wing conspiracy plot against him.
‘There’s a machine that the far left has developed to harm anyone with whom they disagree,’ O’Reilly said, calling himself a ‘victim.’
‘There’s not going to be any he said, she said. Going to be stone-cold facts.’
Months following his firing, he still seems bitter about the decision.
‘Once you get a famous name, and once you’re in the political arena, the combination is devastating,’ he told the Hollywood Reporter in a lengthy interview, where he blamed the left and the media for ‘attacking’ him and plotting to ‘destroy’ him.
‘If they can get you, they’re going to get you. And so we warded it off for 20 years, and then finally, you know, all of this happened, and that was it.’
But he remains unrepentant about the claims that got him fired, claiming the accusations are false, adding that ‘stuff will come out.’
O’Reilly added to the Reporter that he appreciated Donald Trump coming to his defense when the sexual harassment claims emerged as ‘he has been in the same circumstance.’
Former Fox News television presenter Bill O’Reilly launched his new half-hour Internet show last month
‘The press will take any allegation and make it a conviction,’ he said.
O’Reilly insists he doesn’t miss his Fox show, adding that he was ‘under attack constantly for 16 years.’
‘The business got really nasty,’ he added. ‘Once I became No. 1, once we passed Larry King, it was every single day.
‘Then you have the business, you have the competition. I mean, you don’t think those people are sad that I’m not sitting in that chair anymore, do you?’
In fact, he claimed that Fox News coverage had suffered without him.
‘They’re still a very strong brand… But I’m a different agent. I do things differently, and that’s why we were very successful. When I watched the Harvey coverage on television, there was a sameness to it. And that would not have been the case on our show.’
O’Reilly, 67, was fired by Fox News earlier this year amid growing accusations he sexually harassed female colleagues.
Two of the women who received settlements after accusing O’Reilly of harassment, Andrea Mackris and Juliet Ruddy, stated that they believed he was masturbating when he called them up for unwanted phone sex conversations.
His ex-wife also claimed in court and divorce documents that O’Reilly had abused her, allegedly beating her and slamming her against a wall.
O’Reilly said he was glad Trump came to his defense in the weeks before he was fired (Donald Trump (L) and O’Reilly attend the game between the New York Yankees and the Baltimore Orioles at Yankee Stadium on July 30, 2012)
The news anchor still strongly denies the multiple claims. But while he seemed to accept being fired, O’Reilly said the method in which he was sacked was ‘sad.’
‘I’m not, you know, one of these guys that wants to hang on to the cliffs,’ he said. ‘You don’t want me working for you, that’s fine.
‘But the way it was done, I’m over in Rome [on vacation]. My [legal] team was caught by surprise because we had an amazing amount of exculpatory stuff that we had presented. And it just — it was sad. That’s the word, sad.’
He is now working on his own ‘operation’ to take on his ‘declining’ old employer.
The ousted Fox News star launched his comeback last month with a daily online show on his website for premium subscribers, originating from what he called a ‘new prototype studio.’
He also claims he’s fielded numerous offers to return to cable TV but hasn’t decided on anything yet. One offer that was publicly made, and rescinded, was by One America News, after O’Reilly said he wasn’t ready to commit to a long term project, he said.
O’Reilly was ousted from the O’Reilly Factor (pictured) on Fox in April in the wake of sexual harassment allegations