Once In Favor Of FL Book Bans, Bill O'Reilly Slams Removal Of 2 Of His Books

ESCAMBIA COUNTY, FL — Former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly slammed Florida and Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis after two of his books were removed from Escambia County school shelves.

"Killing Jesus: A History" and "Killing Reagan: The Violent Assault That Changed a Presidency" were both pulled from schools and are pending review to determine whether they violate new state laws regarding books and other materials in public schools.

At least 1,600 books were temporarily removed from schools in the Florida Panhandle district, including dictionaries.

“Preposterous,” the conservative commentator wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter. “This will not stand.”

Also Read: Dictionaries Pulled By FL School District Over Sex Ed Law: Reports

He added, “Things are getting crazy with book banning in Florida.”

O’Reilly once supported DeSantis’ removal of books that allegedly contain pornography or sexual content.

"When DeSantis signed the book law, I supported the theme because there was abuse going on in Florida. There were far-left progressive people trying to impose an agenda on children, there's no doubt about it. And the state has an obligation to protect children. But the wording of the law was far too nebulous in Tallahassee," O'Reilly told Newsweek.

He added, "So, that law needs to be tightened up, DeSantis needs to come out publicly and say 'this is insane, we're not going to cooperate with this and we're going to investigate the people who did it.”

In a video shared on his website, O’Reilly said he reached out to the governor’s office and spoke with his deputy press secretary, Julia Friedland.

“Obviously, there’s an abuse of power going on,” O’Reilly said. “I knew that Julia was going to be snooty, arrogant and dismissive. I knew that because I know how the DeSantis office operates in Tallahassee. If you don’t kiss DeSantis’ ring, they get snippy. And that’s exactly what Julia did, basically told us to go eff off. OK.”

The commentator said DeSantis should speak out against book banning in the state.

“This is outrageous. He should know that. He should come out and say as governor of Florida, I’m not going to sanction this,” O’Reilly said. “But he won’t do it and that says a lot about Governor DeSantis.”