Fox News is engaged in a deliberate campaign to mislead the public in order to get support for Donald Trump’s misguided Muslim ban.
Earlier this week, Fox News political commentator Bill O’Reilly, did a segment on the O’Reilly Factor to highlight what Trump falsely called ‘unsafe conditions in Sweden’ allegedly caused by Middle Eastern refugees.
For the segment, O’Reilly brought in a man named “Nils Bildt,” who was listed as a “Swedish Defense and National Security Advisor”
“There is a problem with socially deviant activity, there is a problem with crime, [and] there is a problem with areas or hotspots of crime,” Bildt said, after saying refugees were unable to “socially integrate” with society.
“If you don’t agree with the liberal, shall we say, common agenda, then you are viewed as an outsider or not even taken seriously,” Bildt added.
However, after watching the segment, Swedish national security agencies revealed they have no idea who he is.
“We have no spokesman by that name,” said Marie Pisäter, a spokeswoman for the Swedish Defense Ministry, who also confirmed that he didn’t work in Sweden’s foreign office. “We do not know who he is.”
And when Swedish newspaper Göteborgs-Posten started digging on Bildt’s background, they revealed Bildt’s actual surname was Tolling, and that he hasn’t lived in Sweden since 1994.
In addition to his lack of credentials, Bildt was also convicted of assaulting a police officer in the U.S. in 1994, for which he served one year in jail. The altercation with the police officer happened while Bildt was intoxicated, according to court documents filed in Arlington, Virginia.
Bildt was also found to have owned several security companies in the U.S. and has a residence in Tokyo, US Uncut reports.
O’Reilly’s failed attempt to mislead the public comes on the heels of President Trump’s remarks on a supposed act of terrorism that happened in Sweden last Friday night, which actually didn’t happen unless you count a neo-Nazi group bombing a refugee center in January.
After his Sweden comment was debunked, Trump blamed Fox News, saying he heard the news on the network.
Watch the segment below, courtesy of Media Matters:
