Bill O’Reilly, who obsessively attacked abortion-provider Dr. Tiller as “the baby killer," said he didn't “want to sound callous” - as he dismissed 13,000 American deaths from coronavirus as no biggie.

In fact, O’Reilly suggested that 13,000 deaths was a bit of good news during his chat with Sean Hannity yesterday. Media Matters caught the discussion on Hannity’s radio show. It started with Hannity asking O’Reilly if he could “fix” things so that life can get “back to normal.” O’Reilly offered this “optimistic” outlook:

O'REILLY: But we're making little steps. Bernie Sanders, you know, he's -- he's gone, that's really good for everybody. The projections that you just mentioned are down to 60,000, I don't think it will be that high. 13,000 dead now in the USA. Many people who are dying, both here and around the world, were on their last legs anyway, and I don't want to sound callous about that. 

HANNITY: You're gonna get -- hold on, you're going to get hammered for that.

O'REILLY: Well, I don't care. I mean, a simple man tells the truth.

Hannity jumped in to throw O’Reilly a lifeline, pardon the pun. “You mean people that have underlying conditions and compromised immune systems. Any virus you’re saying would’ve…” Hannity began.

O’Reilly interrupted, “Not only that, they were damaged.” He went on to claim that the death rate in Italy and Spain is 10 times higher than in the U.S. because they have socialized medicine and because “many more people smoke.”

FACT CHECK: Dr. Maria von Kerkhove, of the World Health Organization has noted that more and more younger individuals are becoming seriously ill from COVID-19. Not all who have died had underlying conditions. “But what we are seeing in some countries is that there are individuals who are in their 30s, who are in their 40s, who are in their 50s who are in ICU and who have died,” she said.

O’Reilly’s comments would be despicable coming from anyone but they are especially so coming from him. Rolling Stone has a good reminder of O’Reilly’s “pro-life” campaign against Dr. Tiller:

According to Salon, between 2005 and April 2009, O’Reilly talked about Tiller on 29 episodes of his show. He repeatedly referred to him as “Tiller the Baby Killer” and hurled all sorts of other epithets in Tiller’s direction: He equated him with Nazis, al-Qaida and NAMBLA; said he was “operating a death mill”; claimed he was “executing babies about to be born”; and equated his profession with the actions of Mao, Hitler and Stalin.

In perhaps the most direct attack on Tiller, O’Reilly came close to saying that he personally would be violent toward Tiller if he could get away with it:

“And if I could get my hands on Tiller – well, you know. Can’t be vigilantes. Can’t do that. It’s just a figure of speech. But despicable? Oh, my God. Oh, it doesn’t get worse. Does it get worse? No.”

If only the 10,000 American coronavirus fatalities had remained fetuses!

You can listen to O’Reilly’s callousness below, from the April 8, 2020 The Sean Hannity Show, via Media Matters.

(O’Reilly image via screen grab)