On Fox, Bill O'Reilly excused likely presidential candidate and Fox favorite Dr. Ben Carson's recent controversial comparison of Islamic State militants to American patriots, and allowed Carson to double down on his comparison.

On January 15, Ben Carson likened American patriots to Islamic State militants in a speech at the Republican National Committee's (RNC) winter meeting. Carson equated the mentality of American patriots who were willing to die for their beliefs to those who fight for the Islamic State, asserting that “They got the wrong philosophy, but they're willing to die for what they believe, while we are busily giving away every belief and every value for the sake of political correctness.” Carson's remarks were subsequently met with criticism.

On the January 16 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor host Bill O'Reilly excused Carson's controversial comparison, allowing him to double down and claimed the media had taken him “out of context.” Carson insisted that he was “not saying that as a comparison between our patriots and ISIS” but that pre-revolutionary militiamen “had conviction and believed in what they were doing to the point that they were willing to die for it” much like Islamic State militants. Carson added a “warning” that like American patriots and Islamic State fighters, “we have to change” our “process of giving away all of our beliefs for the sake of political correctness.” O'Reilly reassured Carson that he should not “worry about the liberal media” because “they're never going to give you a shot”:

O'REILLY: Now, what did you tell the GOP in San Diego?

CARSON: I told them a lot of things. The funny thing... is I was talking about the pre-revolutionary days and how our bunch of rag-tag militia men defeated the most powerful empire on earth and how they were able to do that. Because they had conviction and believed in what they were doing to the point that they were willing to die for it. And I said, fast forward to today, and you have ISIS. And, you know, they have the wrong philosophy completely, totally disagree with them. But they also have strong conviction and are willing to die for what they believe and we at the same time are in the process of giving away all of our beliefs for the sake of political correctness and I'm saying that as a warning we have to change that. Not saying that as a comparison between our patriots and ISIS, which I've said at the time. I said, the liberal media will of course take that out of context.

O'REILLY: Well, yeah, don't worry about the liberal media, they're never going to give you a shot.

Fox News has long promoted Carson as a likely 2016 presidential candidate despite his former affiliation with the network as a paid contributor.