Former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly on Wednesday, as he explained his support for the current war in Iran, again admitted he was “wrong” to support then-President George W. Bush in his Iraq War.
“I made a mistake with the Iraq situation, and that haunts me to this day,” said O’Reilly of the conflict, which cost the lives of more than 4,000 U.S. military service members and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis.
He continued, “And the reason I made that mistake is that I didn’t fully understand the facts of the matter. I was taking reporting from The New York Times and others that said [then-dictator] Saddam Hussein was harboring deadly weapons, OK?”
It wasn’t the first time that O’Reilly admitted his mistake, apologizing for his errors when confronted in a 2004 interview.
“Turned out to be wrong,” said O’Reilly on Wednesday. “Saddam didn’t have any weapons of mass destruction, and the chaos that ensued brought a lot of pain on America. I was wrong. OK, there’s a reason I was wrong, but that still haunts me.”
Fast-forward to 0:55 for the bulk of his confession.
The host continues to support Trump’s war on Iran, however, unlike his former Fox News colleague Tucker Carlson — who has repeatedly criticized the administration for launching the conflict and said last month about Trump’s posturing in the war, “Shut up, bitch.”
President Donald Trump offered a plethora of reasons in February for ordering U.S. strikes on Iran, chief among them that the country started rebuilding its “obliterated” nuclear facilities after last year’s 12-day war, and said Wednesday that peace negotiations are “over.”
“Now, the president’s threatening to bomb Iran tonight,” O’Reilly noted Wednesday. “Nobody knows what’s going to happen because these threats come and they go, but this has got to stop. And I don’t see any other way but military to stop it.”
The conflict has already cost at least 13 U.S. military service members and more than 3,000 Iranians their lives, including up to 175 people killed in strikes on a girls’ school — most of them children.
“In Iran, maybe I’m wrong,” O’Reilly said. “But I don’t see any other way here.”