Bill O’Reilly Scolds CNN's Scott Jennings for Personal Jab at Tiffany Cross: “You Lost the Argument”
“Stick to the facts”—O’Reilly rebukes Jennings for derailing debate with personal insult against former MSNBC host.
In a rare moment of on-air self-reflection, veteran broadcaster Bill O’Reilly called out Republican commentator Scott Jennings for making what O’Reilly deemed an “unnecessary” personal attack against former MSNBC host Tiffany Cross during a CNN panel discussion.
O’Reilly, who has built a career on his often combative interview style, opened his monologue by acknowledging his own history of making mistakes on air. But this time, he wasn’t focused on himself—he was focused on Jennings’ misstep.
The moment in question occurred during a recent CNN segment when Jennings, defending Donald Trump’s foreign policy, deflected an argument by Cross by blurting out, “You got fired from your job.” The jab came after Cross criticized the idea of Trump trying to “take Greenland,” labeling it as a colonial mindset. Jennings’ comeback had nothing to do with geopolitics—and O’Reilly wasn’t impressed.
“Jennings was wrong to say you were fired from your job,” O’Reilly said bluntly. “It had nothing to do with the conversation whatsoever. Nothing.”
O’Reilly went on to read from the transcript, pointing out how Cross was clearly aiming her argument at Trump’s policies—not Jennings personally—when he fired back with a deeply personal dig.
“Once you get into the personal stuff… you lose credibility with me,” O’Reilly said. “Because your argument should be stronger. You don’t need to get into that personal stuff.”
And while O’Reilly noted that he doesn’t agree with Cross on “anything,” he was adamant that Jennings hurt his own position by resorting to a personal insult rather than sticking to the facts.
That’s when O’Reilly brought up one of his own lowest moments on television: a 2008 interview with Congressman Barney Frank during the financial crisis. In that segment, O’Reilly famously called Frank a “coward” multiple times—an outburst he now admits was a mistake.
“I shouldn’t have done it. I didn’t lose my temper, but I displayed my temper,” he reflected. “And therefore, my point was lost.”
He drew a direct comparison to Jennings’ error. “Jennings lost the debate because of that personal attack.”
Despite O’Reilly’s known political leanings and critiques of Cross’s record—particularly her controversial takes on race—he stressed that attacking someone’s job status is not only irrelevant but also weakens the argument.
“You don’t say ‘you got fired,’ because she might have been fired unfairly,” he said, noting that he didn’t know the circumstances behind Cross’s dismissal from MSNBC. “I wasn’t her manager.”
O’Reilly added that MSNBC still employs hosts who are just as inflammatory as Cross was accused of being, making the attack even more out of place. His bottom line? “If you’ve got the facts, you don’t need the insults.”
In an age where mudslinging has become the norm, it was a surprising bit of media accountability… from Bill O’Reilly, of all people.