Right-wing commentator Bill O’Reilly is angry that two of his books were removed from a Florida school district under a law that he supported, Newsweek reports.
The Escambia County School District temporarily removed more than 1,600 books from its school libraries in order to make sure that they do not run afoul of a state law that prohibits schools from having sexually explicit books available to students. Among the books removed from the county’s schools are The Guinness Book of World Records, 23 novels by Stephen King, and several dictionaries.
Two of O’Reilly’s books co-written with Martin Dugard, Killing Reagan: The Violent Assault That Changed a Presidency and Killing Jesus: A History, were also on the list of removed books.
This angered O’Reilly, who posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, “A Florida county removes my books…‘Killing Jesus’ and ‘Killing Reagan’ from school libraries. Preposterous! We are investigating and are seeking comment from @GovRonDeSantis. This will not stand.
A Florida county removes my books 📚 "Killing Jesus" and "Killing Reagan" from school libraries. Preposterous! We are investigating and are seeking comment from @GovRonDeSantis. This will not stand. Updates on https://t.co/rryWmyXe7C.
— Bill O'Reilly (@BillOReilly) January 12, 2024
O’Reilly told Newsweek that he had been a supporter of Florida’s book ban law, House Bill 1069.
“When DeSantis signed the book law, I supported the theme because there was abuse going on in Florida,” he said. “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. 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.’”
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.