(CNN) CNN political commentator Van Jones likened President Donald Trump's defense of Fox News host Bill O'Reilly to spitting in the face of conservative women.

"Donald Trump owes conservative women everything," Jones said on Wednesday during his CNN town hall series "The Messy Truth." "They came out for him in droves. They stopped Hillary Clinton and they put him in power. And those are the kinds of women, it's pretty safe to assume, work at Fox News."

In an interview with The New York Times , Trump defended O'Reilly against new revelations that he, Fox News and parent company 21st Century Fox had paid a total of $13 million in settlements to five women who accused him of sexual harassment or verbal abuse.

"Personally I think he shouldn't have settled. Because you should have taken it all the way. I don't think Bill did anything wrong," Trump told the Times.

"I think he's a person I know well -- he is a good person," the President also told the newspaper.

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