Geraldo Rivera Tells ‘The View’ And NewsNation That He Had “Toxic Relationship” With ‘The Five’ Co-Host; Will “Never Forgive” Tucker Carlson For Jan. 6th Misinformation — Update
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UPDATE, Friday: Geraldo Rivera continued his criticisms of former colleagues at Fox News and at the network itself in an appearance later on Thursday on Chris Cuomo’s NewsNation show.
“Fox left me. They fired me from the number one rated show The Five. After they fired me, I said, ‘Well, wait a second. You know, I don’t want to work here anymore.’ If you are firing me from the number one show, what are you going to do?”
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Rivera said that they gave him a “plethora of options,” including a series on the candidates for president, “and they said you could finish that up on Fox Nation to do that.” He declined.
Rivera said that he had a “toxic relationship” with one of The Five regulars, and although he didn’t identify him, he had previously clashed with Greg Gutfeld.
On Twitter and in press interviews, Rivera criticized Tucker Carlson for suggesting that the January 6th attack on the Capitol was an “inside job.” Rivera told Cuomo that in one instance, he got a call from Fox executives who told him he was suspended. He said they told him that he was not supposed to speak to the press without authorization, “which of course is catch 22 because they never clear it.”
“I wanted to speak out on that because I was very offended by it,” Rivera said.
“Everyone knows that it was Donald Trump inciting an insurrection,” he said. “He inspired those people. He directed those people, he encouraged those people, he sicced those people on the capital of the United States, he stabbed the Constitution in the back. And I think that for Fox to pretend that there was an honest debate about January 6, or the 2020 election, I think, was obscene. And I think it needed to be said.”
PREVIOUSLY, Thursday: Geraldo Rivera said on ABC’s The View today that his recent firing from Fox News’ The Five came amidst his “toxic relationship” with one of the show’s co-hosts.
Rivera wouldn’t identify The Five co-host beyond saying the person was male, which leaves Jesse Watters or Greg Gutfeld. Rivera often sparred on-air with Gutfeld over issues including abortion rights and immigration, and the debates at times became personal. (Rivera specifically said today he has a good relationship with Jeanine Pirro, adding, “I discovered Jeanine.”)
Watch The View interview above.
In a wide-ranging interview, Rivera described the atmosphere at Fox News in the wake of the Dominion lawsuit settlement as one of “fear,” indicated that he supported the decision by Ray Epps to file a defamation lawsuit against the network, said that Donald Trump “stabbed the Constitution of the United States in the back” by encouraging the Jan. 6th attack, and that he would devote whatever is left of his journalism career to opposing a Donald Trump re-election. He also said he will “never forgive” Tucker Carlson for spreading misinformation about the Jan. 6th riots.
Speaking of Carlson, Rivera was asked by The View co-host Sara Haines if Carlson’s influence is “waning” since he was fired from Fox News and moved to Twitter. “I hope so,” Rivera responded, adding that while Twitter is “a fine outlet,” compared to the platform of Fox News it amounts to “screaming into the wilderness.”
While Rivera praised Carlson’s talents as a writer and on-screen talent, he condemned Carlson’s “drift” into “this murky area, this swampy area” of these “funky kind of conspiracies.”
“I don’t like to be unkind, but what he did, just as I will never vote for Donald Trump, I will never forgive Tucker about January 6th,” Rivera said.
Rivera said that the network’s recent multi-million-dollar legal settlements has led to an “atmosphere of fear” at the network, and that the financial impact will hit both stockholders and, through possible layoffs, lower-level news staff. “The high-profile journalists [will be] fine,” he said.
Rivera parted ways with Fox News last month after more than two decades. He initially said at the time that he was leaving his perch at The Five voluntarily (“That’s what we all say,” View co-host Joy Behar quipped today), but later conceded that he had been fired from the popular show.
Today, Rivera provided more details, noting that a “toxic relationship” with one of The Five‘s co-hosts led to his firing, and that the discord had been getting increasingly personal. “I thought it was very unfair that in our disputes, he was always favored.” Rivera said his appearances on the show began to dwindle, sometimes being canceled on the day of airing.
He said Fox News offered to find him a spot on another show, but that he responded, If you fired me from the #1 show, then I’m going to quit.”
Asked by View co-host Sunny Hostin why Fox couldn’t have built a new show around him, Rivera said, “My ideology does not fit Fox. They always kind of squeezed me in.”
Rivera defended his longtime chummy relationship with Donald Trump, saying the two “came up” together in New York City during the 1970s and that Rivera’s stint as a contestant on Celebrity Apprentice – which aired shortly before Trump announced his presidential bid – provided “tremendous access” to Trump “even though he knew I didn’t vote for him.
“What happened to him was that he lost the [re]election and became a crazy guy,” Rivera said, to which Behar responded, “He was crazy before that.”
“He was always nice to me,” Rivera said.
“Did he know you were Puerto Rican?,” snapped Hostin?
At one point, Rivera said, “I am vowed to dedicate whatever energy I have left in this profession is to ensure he is not ever re-elected president ever.” Trump, he said, “incited a riot, he encouraged people to go there and ruin their lives.”
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