Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has come under fire for receiving expensive vacations from a wealthy businessman that he failed to disclose. Bill O’Reilly believes the controversy is a fabrication from what he called the “wicked American media”.
Late last week, ProPublica published a report that claimed Thomas was the beneficiary of trips on yachts and private planes for several decades from real estate mogul Harlan Crow.
Supreme Court Justices are required to file disclosures of gifts annually, but Thomas has claimed contemporaries told him that the “personal hospitality” shown to him by Crow didn’t apply. In response, Senate Democrats have called for investigations into Thomas.
During The O’Reilly Update Morning Edition Tuesday, the former cable news host claimed that Thomas was well within his rights as a Supreme Court Justice and was being vilified by the media.
“The Clarence Thomas thing is illuminating and, once again, shows how wicked the American media really is,” O’Reilly said. “The Justice allowed his longtime friend — Harlan Crow, a wealthy Texan — to pick up some vacation expenses over the years. Mr. Crow had no business with the court. Apparently, there was no Supreme Court edict against that until fairly recently, so Thomas believes he did nothing wrong by accepting his friend’s largesse.”
O’Reilly then said while he feels bad for Thomas, Crow’s character is also under attack.
“It is the civilian — Harlan Crow — who is really being worked over, the media painting him as a Nazi sympathizer because he has a copy of Hitler’s book Mein Kampf signed by the mass murderer. I know this story firsthand because I visited Mr. Crow’s home and saw his historical collection. Yeah, he has stuff from heinous villains, but that’s history. He has much more documentation and letters, things like that, from American heroes. Nevertheless, the left-wing media (is) demonizing Harlan Crow because he’s friends with Justice Thomas.”
