Bill de Blasio has invoked “Anchorman”’s Ron Burgundy in issuing a response to Fox News pundit Bill O’Reilly, who during a fundraiser for St. Mary’s Parish in Manhasset on Thursday said he would beat up the New York City mayor if given the chance.
“Stay classy, Bill,” de Blasio reportedly said.
O’Reilly made his controversial remarks – which made the online rounds on Gawker and Politico – as part of a roundtable discussion about television news production that also featured Fox personalities Megyn Kelly and Brian Kilmeade.
“Give him a little Levittown,” Kilmeade told the sold-out crowd at the Tilles Center at LIU Post on Thursday, which was greeted with applause.
St. Mary’s officials have so far declined to comment on the nature of O’Reilly’s statements, but spokeswoman Eileen Symmons said proceeds from advance and day-of ticket sales benefited the parish.
O’Reilly, a Manhasset resident and St. Mary’s parishioner, is a Levittown native and graduate of Chaminade High School in Mineola.
Kilmeade also has ties to Manhasset. Though he grew up in Massapequa, his father owned the former Kilmeade’s Manhasset Hill bar and restaurant on Plandome Road in the 1970s.
