NewsNation host Chris Cuomo and former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly went toe-to-toe Wednesday night in a heated exchange. The clash came one day after Republicans suffered a string of painful midterm election losses.
The two veteran broadcasters squared off on “CUOMO,” where O’Reilly appeared alongside commentator Stephen A. Smith. O’Reilly hosted “The O’Reilly Factor” on Fox News for two decades. He accused Cuomo of demonizing the “77 million people” who voted for President Donald Trump in 2024. Trump won both the Electoral College and the popular vote that year.
Cuomo, a former CNN anchor, rejected the charge.
“I’m not demonizing ’em,” Cuomo shot back. “I think they were deceived by him.”
The tense back-and-forth continued, and O’Reilly charged that Cuomo didn’t like Trump or “anything about him.”
Cuomo then turned to Tuesday’s results, in which Democrats handed the GOP a series of defeats across the country.
“I’m just saying the American people just told you to be quiet, OK?” Cuomo said.
The remark appeared to leave O’Reilly briefly silent.
Cuomo then gave O’Reilly the floor for one final point on the midterms. O’Reilly blamed the Republican losses on the conflict with Iran.
“If there were no Iran war, the Republicans would have won big time,” O’Reilly said.
It wasn’t the first time the two have clashed on air. O’Reilly is a frequent guest on Cuomo’s program, and their April 8 appearance turned into a shouting match over Iran’s nuclear capabilities.
In that segment, O’Reilly cited International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi, who had said Iran had uranium enriched to 60%. Cuomo countered that O’Reilly was taking Grossi’s remarks out of context. He noted that the IAEA had never been able to go in and independently verify the claim, and that Iran still faced several complex steps before it could build a working bomb.
That exchange turned personal. Cuomo pressed O’Reilly to admit he had been corrected, and O’Reilly insisted it was Cuomo who had made the mistake.
“Keep quiet for a second,” O’Reilly told the host.
“No, it’s my show, pal,” Cuomo fired back, adding that O’Reilly could leave if he didn’t like it. Cuomo also told O’Reilly to stop pointing at the camera and to “be a man.”
Seven months later, Cuomo used the midterm results to make a similar point. This time he argued that voters, not he, had told O’Reilly to be quiet.
O’Reilly’s argument about the Iran war puts him among the Republicans and conservative commentators offering explanations for Tuesday’s losses. Others in the party have pointed to affordability, candidate quality and turnout as they assess what went wrong. With the 2028 presidential cycle on the horizon, that debate is likely to continue on cable news.
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