Bill O’Reilly caught on camera berating JetBlue employee at airport
By MixDex Article may include affiliate links
Former Fox star Bill O’Reilly was captured on camera berating a JetBlue employee over a delayed flight and lack of communication.
The video, which was taken by a passenger and first released by The Daily Mail, shows O’Reilly, in an increasingly heated confrontation with a JetBlue gate agent where O’Reilly demands to speak to a manager.
“It’s three hours late now,” he is heard saying, presumably referring to the flight delay from John F. Kennedy airport in New York.
The worker tried to start responding, but O’Reilly started pointing a figure at the employee’s chest while declaring: “You’re going to find out.”
Things continue to escalate when O’Reilly looked at the worker’s name plate and said “You’re lucky I don’t put my fist through it.”
The employee appears to respond with something unintelligible, to which O’Reilly fires off “You fucking scumbag, don’t talk to me like that.”
“You’re threatening me with violence,” says the worker.
“You’re the one … I dare you? I dare you? Is that what you said to me?” is O’Reilly’s response. At another point he also told the staffer “You’re going to lose your job.”
After the video became public, O’Reilly took to Twitter, blaming the employee and the “character assassins on social media completely lying about my interaction.”
He claims the JetBlue agent “mislead” passengers during a five-hour delay.
The character assassins on social media completely lying about my interaction with a JetBlue guy who misled passengers during a five-hour delay. We've covered on https://t.co/rryWmyXe7C. I expected this.
— Bill O'Reilly (@BillOReilly) April 19, 2022
The incident took place Sunday, April 3, 2022, ahead of a flight to the Turks and Caicos. At the time, there was a federal mask mandate requiring passengers to wear masks at airports and on planes.
O’Reilly is seen with a mask pulled down near his chin, exposing both his mouth and nose and the masked worker had stepped out from behind a divider.
In a statement to The Daily Mail, O’Reilly accused the airline employee of being “arrogant” but did admit the confrontation got heated.
JetBlue did not comment to The Daily Mail, saying it had not seen the video at the time.
In addition to normal weather and maintenance delays, airlines have been seeing a spike in delays and cancellations as they struggle to keep up with a surge in demand for travel and staffing shortages, with thousands of cancellations blamed on those issues in recent weeks across many major carriers.
JetBlue is considered a low cost airline.
A quick check on current rates for April 24, 2022, show the airline’s higher priced “Blue Extra” tickets going for between $179 and $295 one way to O’Reilly’s destination from JFK, though it’s not clear what prices were April 3.
It’s likely prices could have been higher because many schools were on spring break around that time and it was also exactly one week prior to Easter.
JetBlue does not offer traditional business or first class categories, but does offer customers who are willing to pay more the opportunity to select seats in advance. It also offers the opportunity to buy seats with extra legroom along with priority boarding for an additional fee.
O’Reilly has a history of alleged physical and verbal abuse. He was fired form Fox’s right leaning cable network in 2017 after multiple sexual harassment complaints. He and Fox had to pay millions in settlements, including a $32 million one paid shortly before he signed a new $100 million deal with Fox in 2017 before he was axed.
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