Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly has doubled down on his comments that enslaved Africans who built the White House were “well-fed.” He made the comments on Tuesday, in response to first lady Michelle Obama’s speech at the DNC Monday night.

Michelle Obama: “I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves, and I watch my daughters, two beautiful, intelligent, black young women, playing with their dogs on the White House lawn.”

That was Michelle Obama speaking Monday night at the DNC. This was Bill O’Reilly’s response.

Bill O’Reilly: “Slaves that worked there were well fed and had decent lodgings provided by the government, which stopped hiring slave labor in 1802. However, the feds did not forbid subcontractors from using slave labor. So Michelle Obama is essentially correct in citing slaves as builders of the White House, but there were others working, as well.”

Bill O’Reilly’s comments sparked widespread outrage and were seen as a defense of slavery. But on Wednesday, O’Reilly claimed the statements were “just a fact.” Actually, primary sources contradict his claims. In a letter from November 28, 1800, first lady Abigail Adams described enslaved Africans forced to labor on the White House’s construction as being “half fed, and destitute of clothing.”