Fox News viewers heard something very different than what the network had been broadcasting all day when Geraldo Rivera decided to share his view of this weekend’s confrontation on the U.S.-Mexico border on Monday.
Fed up with the way co-host Jesse Watters was characterizing the asylum-seekers trying to get into the United States on The Five, Rivera said, “I refuse to deal with this as a media issue.” He continued: “Because it’s far too important, with all due respect, Jesse.”
“This goes to my soul,” Rivera continued as Watters tried to interrupt him. “Fulfilling my role as the designated piñata on Fox News, I wanna say I am ashamed.”
That statement was punctuated by an apparent joke from Greg Gutfeld: “That’s racist!”
But Rivera was undeterred. “This teargas choked me,” he said. “We treat these people, these economic refugees, as if they’re zombies from The Walking Dead. We arrested 42 people, eight of them were women with children! We have to deal with this problem humanely and with compassion! These are not invaders! Stop using these military analogies. This is absolutely painful to watch!”
“We are a nation of immigrants,” he said. “These are desperate people. They walked 2,000 miles. Why? Because they want to rape your daughter or steal your lunch? No! Because they want a job! They want to fill the millions of unfilled jobs we have in the agricultural sector. They want to wash dishes in the restaurants. They wanna deliver the pizzas. For goodness sake, can’t we suspend our humanity when it comes to this issue? And I fear that it is because they look different than the mainstream.”
With that, the other four members of The Five went back to demonizing Democrats and defending use of teargas against the migrants as footage of them running towards the border played on a loop.