Former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly on Monday urged New York City voters not to support Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani, but used such outlandish rhetoric during his NewsNation appearance that even conservative anchor Leland Vittert had to push back.
“We’re about, in New York City, to elect a mayor who simply will not enforce any laws,” he told the “On Balance” host. “Any laws! It is gonna be anarchy and blood in the streets, and anybody who votes for that Mamdani is, in my opinion, committing an act of evil.”
“Pull a lever for that man, you are responsible for what happens later,” O’Reilly continued.
The fire-and-brimstone talk was too egregious for Vittert, who certainly isn’t a progressive — let alone a Democrat. The pundit noted many working-class people support Mamdani because of his vow to keep food prices low and not because they’re “evil.”
O’Reilly appeared to reject that idea entirely and doubled down on the fearmongering.
“If you are not smart enough to know the man you’re voting for has said out of his own mouth that he does not believe in incarceration, that he has called the NYPD racist, that he wants to knock out the gang investigation unit, and you pull that lever, you’re enabling evil,” he said.
The former Fox News host then truly ramped up the rhetoric — by referencing Adolf Hitler.
“In 1934, [Paul von] Hindenburg died in Germany, the president,” said O’Reilly. “Hitler was the chancellor. There was a referendum, ‘Yes or no, give Adolf Hitler dictatorial powers.’ Ninety percent of the German population voted yes, so they got blood on their hands.”
Mamdani, a democratic socialist and state assemblyman who was born in Uganda and moved to New York City at age 7, has endured Islamophobic remarks and accusations of antisemitism before — simply for accusing Israel of committing a genocide in Gaza.
O’Reilly appeared terrified that Mamdani wants to defund the police, meanwhile, even after the candidate stated in June that he doesn’t — and merely wants additional resources to build a Department of Community Safety to help people going through mental health episodes.
Left: Charles Sykes/Associated Press; Right: Yuki Iwamura/Associated Press
“Policing cannot protect Americans,” said O’Reilly. “Policing is reactive — it’s after you’re dead, after you’re raped — they’re not proactive. You can hire as many cops as you want. The only way to drive it down is, as Trump did in D.C.”
President Donald Trump notably federalized the capital’s local police force last month and deployed National Guard troops to combat the purported “bedlam” there. The controversial move spawned protests, arrests and a naturally expected reduction in crime that was already creeping down.
O’Reilly appeared to be stunned that armed soldiers had criminals “afraid to come out of their homes.” After flat-out rejecting restorative justice, a philosophy fostering reconciliation between criminals, their victims and the community, he once again trashed Mamdani.
“I’m trying to get across to the NewsNation audience and to you, Leland, that all of us are responsible, all of us, for fighting evil,” said O’Reilly. “But most of us turn away.”
