Bill O'Reilly criticized for electoral college comments: 'All about race'

Fox News host Bill O’Reilly is being criticized online following a Tuesday segment about the Electoral College, which included O’Reilly claiming a push to abolish the electoral college is “all about race.”

Noting that Hillary Clinton defeated Donald Trump in the popular vote thanks in part to substantial support in California, O’Reilly commented that if the Electoral College were disbanded, “presidential candidates could simply campaign in the nation’s largest states and cities, New York, L.A., Chicago, Houston, and rack up enough votes to pretty much win any election.”

He added, “That’s what the left wants. Because in the large urban areas and blue states like New York and California, minorities are substantial. Look at the landscape. Philadelphia, Dallas-Fort Worth, Miami. In all of these places, the minority vote usually goes heavily to the Democrats. Add to that New York City, L.A., Chicago, San Francisco — don’t really have a national election anymore, do you? You have targeted populations. Newspapers like the New York Times and the L.A. Times have editorialized to get rid of the Electoral College. They well know that neutralizing the largely white rural areas in the Midwest and South will assure liberal politicians get power and keep it.”

Saying he felt the Electoral College battle was “all about race,” O’Reilly also explained that he thought the “left” sees “white privilege in America as an oppressive force that must be done away with.”

He continued, “Therefore white working class voters must be marginalized and what better way to do that than center the voting power in the cities. Very few commentators will tell you that the heart of liberalism in America today is based on race. It permeates almost every issue. That white men have set up a system of oppression. That system must be destroyed. Bernie Sanders pedaled that to some extent Hillary Clinton did. And the liberal media tries to sell that all day long. So-called white privilege bad. Diversity good.”

Watch his full remarks below.

A backlash against O’Reilly online was swift, as his name became a trending topic on Twitter into Wednesday morning. Read some of the responses below.