Eric Bolling And Geraldo’s Hallway Chat Spills Over Into Heated Immigration Exchange
Geraldo Rivera ran into his pal Eric Bolling in the hallways at Fox News, and couldn’t help but give him a piece of his mind over a discussion that latter had on The Five over immigration. That chat, over the humane (or lack thereof) proposed treatment of illegal immigrants, then spilled over to a column on Fox News Latino, one that Rivera and Bolling debated spiritedly on Follow the Money last night.
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Rivera mostly took offense at the way Bolling approached the illegal immigrant problem without focusing on the individuals affected. “I think your attitude toward illegal aliens is way too hard-lined, way too draconian,” he told the host, and found it not “to be in any sense humane or American.” He added in his opening statements that calling for all illegal immigrants to be shipped out “helps fuel this enormous hatred,” and while he added the caveat that Bolling was a “thoughtful person,” he took issue with the tone of the debate overall.
As Rivera noted that illegal immigration had helped bolster many otherwise underprivileged communities, Bolling countered by asking how he was sure it was the illegal immigrants, and not the legal ones, who had helped in that regard. He followed up by asking, “do the people that came here legally want these illegals here?… Don’t they feel cheated when they went through the expense, the time, the pain?” Rivera responded with a “darwinian” claim: those who can survive the arduous process of getting here illegally are not the type of people who would waste their time on such things to do harm to the country.
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The conversation then turned to taxpayers who may object to the idea of their money “that we work hard for… going to something, frankly, that’s illegal.” In that case, Rivera did empathize with Bolling and taxpayers, but he did not agree that any American jobs were at play. The rural work that illegal immigrants do, Rivera suggested, was not work that would be taken up by “strapping farmboys from Nebraska” should the illegals be deported, but other immigrants from places like Somalia that are granted asylum.
The conversation ended of a friendly note, though the two agreed to disagree. You can watch the whole debate via Fox Business below:
