In an Oval Office interview this morning, Pres. Trump discussed the media coverage of former National Security Adviser Susan Rice‘s role in the surveillance scandal.
In the interview with the New York Times’ Maggie Haberman and Glenn Thrush (two of Adweek’s Political Power Players) Trump praised the coverage of Fox News and Bill O’Reilly. O’Reilly himself has been in the news this week following a Times report that he and Fox paid $13 million in settlements to five women who’d accused him of harassment.
“I think he shouldn’t have settled; personally I think he shouldn’t have settled,” Trump said. “Because you should have taken it all the way. I don’t think Bill did anything wrong.”
Trump and O’Reilly have known each other “a long time,” O’Reilly told us last year. Since 1990 by one account. In today’s interview, Trump defended O’Reilly.
“I think he’s a person I know well — he is a good person,” said Mr. Trump, who during the interview was surrounded at his desk by a half-dozen of his highest-ranking aides, including the economic adviser Gary Cohn and Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, along with Vice President Mike Pence.