Bill O’Reilly commits battery with an umbrella

Posted by Josh Glasstetter at Right Wing Watch on December 8, 2011 - 11:42am

Anyone who has watched the footage of Bill O’Reilly’s infamous meltdown on the set of Inside Edition knows that the Fox News personality has a hot temper.

But you would expect the Fox News personality, who has sent his producers to literally stalk people like Huffington Post reporter Amanda Terkel, to have a relatively thick skin and be able to keep his composure in public. Not so, it turns out. Check out this video shot last night:

Bill O’Reilly, who at the time was reportedly walking out of a Newt Gingrich fundraiser held last night in DC, is asked by Wisconsin community organizer Brendan Lane if he attended the fundraiser. O’Reilly ignores him and then, with no prompting, strikes Lane with his umbrella. He then says, “Hey, sorry about that.”

O’Reilly, with Brendan Lane following at a distance, then walks with his now-broken umbrella over to a Capitol police officer. Incredibly, you can hear O’Reilly say that he wants to press charges against the man he just struck.

Posted by Ryan J. Reilly at Talking Points Memo: December 8, 2011, 11:30 AM

Bill O’Reilly got a taste of his own medicine on Wednesday when a man with a camera chased him down and peppered him with questions outside a D.C. hotel where Newt Gingrich was holding a fundraiser. His response? Apparently, to hit said man with an umbrella.

Branden Lane of Milwaukee, who is part of a group called Wisconsin Jobs Now and was in D.C. as part of the Take Back The Capitol movement (pictures), told TPM he was standing outside the Willard when someone pointed out O’Reilly walking out of the hotel. He followed him, camera in hand, asking him if he was Gingrich’s fundraiser.

“Leave me alone right now,” O’Reilly tells the man.

“Mr. O’Reilly, were you at Gingrich’s fundraiser?” Lane asked.

The video then shows O’Reilly’s open umbrella hitting the camera. “Sorry about that,” O’Reilly says as the wind flipped his umbrella inside out.

O’Reilly, we’re told, was actually on his way to the White House for a holiday party and he fact that he was staying at the same hotel where Gingrich’s fundraiser was taking place was likely a coincidence.

When he got to the White House gate, O’Reilly appears to have asked an officer to take Lane into custody.

I interviewed Lane after he shot the footage last night:

A Fox News spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. O’Reilly will address the video on his program tonight, according to Mediaite.

In 2007 "Bill O'Reilly threatened on national radio to come to my house and 'surprise me' ."

In 2008 amidst reports of a scuffle breaking out, in this video Bill O'Reilly tells Fox News Brian Wilson what happened at a Barack Obama rally: "I had to gently remove someone from blocking our camera shot...I might have called him an SOB [son-of-a-bitch]...no one on this Earth is going to block a shot on the O'Reilly Factor!"