Ellen DeGeneres thanked “The O’Reilly Factor” host Bill O’Reilly this week after the Fox host called out critics who demanded Ellen be fired as a spokeswoman for JCPenney stores due to her sexual orientation.

After DeGeneres, host of “The Ellen Show” was announced as a spokesperson for the department store, a conservative group known as the Million Moms slammed the decision to have a lesbian represent the store.

But on an episode of “The O’Reilly Factor” Monday O’Reilly said he didn’t think firing DeGeneres was in keeping with “the spirit of America.”

“What is the difference between a McCarthy era communist blacklist in the 50s and the Million Moms saying, ‘Hey, JCPenney and all you other stores, don’t you hire any gay people, don’t you dare’ What is the difference?” O’Reilly said.

On her show Wednesday, DeGeneres thanked him saying, “you didn’t really make it clear if you were going to shop at JCPenney but if you do you can use my employee discount any time you want.”