Addressing Michelle Obama’s remarks about slaves having built the White House, Bill O’Reilly said Tuesday on his Fox News program that those slaves were “well fed and had decent lodgings provided by the government.”

His comments drew swift rebukes online. He fired back on his Wednesday program, saying that the nation’s first president provided slaves with “meat, bread and other staples” and “decent lodging.”

It all began in a 90-second segment near the end of “The O’Reilly Factor” on the Fox News Channel on Tuesday night, when Mr. O’Reilly delved into the history of the White House dating to George Washington’s selecting the site for it in 1791.