Activist recounts clash with umbrella-welding Bill O’Reilly

Branden Lane, an activist with Wisconsin Jobs Now and Take Back The Capitol, on Thursday described his brief confrontation with Fox News host Bill O'Reilly.

Lane spotted O'Reilly on Wednesday coming out of a D.C. hotel where Newt Gingrich was holding a fundraiser. He walked up to O'Reilly, holding his camera, and asked him if he was attending the fundraiser.

O'Reilly responded by saying "leave me alone right now" and then jabbed Lane with his umbrella. O'Reilly later told a nearby policeman he wanted to press charges against the activist.

"I was just asking him a simple question," Lane told Olbermann. "We see what kind of person he is."

O'Reilly has been criticized for using "ambush reporters" to target figures such as professor Bill Ayers, filmmaker Robert Greenwald, celebrity Angelina Jolie, journalist Bill Moyers and Rep. Ron Paul.

On his show Thursday, O'Reilly said he was worried Lane “might have had a knife” and that he was lucky he had an umbrella, because otherwise he might have punched Lane.

Watch video, courtesy of Current TV, below: