O’Reilly on Fox suit: ‘I would never have’ misled viewers

(NewsNation) — Newly released court documents reveal that Fox News anchors were calling out Donald Trump’s claims of election fraud while simultaneously promoting them on air.

That’s resulted in a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against the network by Dominion Voting Systems.

Author and journalist Bill O’Reilly, who hosted the No. 1 show at Fox News for years, told NewsNation host Chris Cuomo that had he still been in the chair, he would have handled coverage of Trump’s claims in a different manner.

“Fox News could have handled this a lot differently, and if I had been in the chair, they would have,” O’Reilly said on “CUOMO.” “They (conservatives) wanted to believe the election was a fraud. … But I’d be damned if I’m going to mislead my audience.”

O’Reilly went on to say that Fox won’t lose viewers, despite the lawsuit. However, he said that if they lose, it will be a “catastrophe.” On the other hand, if they win, then “opinion” about what happened in the 2020 election gets a “much wider width.”

“I would never have done what CNN, MSNBC did on Russian collusion. Or what Fox did on the election fraud. I would rather be fired. I would rather leave the job. I am not going to sell out for ratings ever, and I never have and that’s why I was number one for 16 years.”

Watch O’Reilly’s full interview in the player above.