Jake Tapper Explains Why He Fact-Checked Bill OReilly on Twitter

CNN anchor Jake Tapper appeared on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert Tuesday night where he explained why Bill O’Reilly’s tweet claiming Tapper’s CNN show has “low” ratings prompted him to respond by calling out the former Fox News anchor’s sexual harassment allegations.

Tapper recently responded to O’Reilly’s criticisms of his ratings on Twitter, saying, “‘Low’ would be sexually harassing staffers and then getting fired for it — humiliated in front of the world. Now THAT would be low.”

“Fact check: Our ratings are fine,” said Tapper to Colbert. “He just wanted to take a shot at me because I had been mentioning him as a sexual predator on air when we were covering the Harvey Weinstein scandal and also pointing out that Weinstein is not the only one. O’Reilly and [Roger] Ailes were horrific sexual predators at Fox.”

“I’m a journalist, so I like to explain things,” Tapper added. “I felt he was using the word ‘low’ incorrectly.”

Sean Hannity kicking serious butt in the ratings. Tapper on CNN as low as you can go.

— Bill O’Reilly (@BillOReilly) October 18, 2017

“Low” would be sexually harassing staffers and then getting fired for it — humiliated in front of the world. Now THAT would be low. https://t.co/e2d6kOHL7F

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) October 18, 2017

O’Reilly has recently been dropped by talent agency UTA after The New York Times reported over the weekend that he paid $32 million to a former Fox News analyst to settle a harassment claim she made against him. Fox News’ parent company, 21st Century Fox, knew of the settlement before granting a four-year extension of his contract at $25 million a year. He was fired in April and left the network with a $25 million payout.

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