Bill O'Reilly's "white establishment" comments ignite firestorm

Fox News host Bill O'Reilly went on a white supremacism-laden rant Tuesday night, saying that the effort to abolish the Electoral College is an attempt by "the left" to take away power from the "white establishment."

O'Reilly went on to denounce Democrats for being "reliant on the minority vote and female voters" in their electoral coalition.

"The left wants power taken away from the white establishment and they want a profound change in the way America is run," he said on his show, the O'Reilly Factor. "Taking voting power away from the white precincts is the quickest way to do that."

Throughout his rant, O'Reilly discounted the notion that "so-called white privilege" even exists, and said the left's focus on race and diversity is why "white men have largely abandoned the Democrats."

"The left sees white privilege in America as an oppressive force that must be done away with, therefore white working-class voters must be marginalized and what better way to do that than center the voting power in the cities," O'Reilly said.

O'Reilly's comments blew up on Twitter, with many saying he isn't even trying to hide his racist beliefs anymore.

Others suggested O'Reilly's blatant racism is a byproduct of Donald Trump's election, allowing O'Reilly to feel safe expressing his internal thoughts.

And, while some conservative commentators' words are sometimes taken out of context to make them sound worse than they really were, there was broad agreement that O'Reilly's rant actually was worse when taken in context.