Bill O’Reilly and Geraldo Rivera Throw Down Over NBC’s ‘Chickensh*t Move’ Pulling Morning Joe After Trump Shooting
Bill O’Reilly and Geraldo Rivera threw down on Monday evening in a debate about MSNBC’s decision to pull Morning Joe for a day following the attempted assassination of Donald Trump over the weekend.
The pair joined NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo, and things got heated after Rivera pushed back on O’Reilly, placing some of the blame for Trump’s shooting on media rhetoric around the former president.
Rivera called pulling Morning Joe out of fear of an inappropriate comment from a guest, a “chickenshat” move. He argued the wake of a shooting is precisely when an opinion show is needed.
“This is exactly the time when an opinion show has to stand up and be counted. What they have to say, what their opinions are, to think that they are afraid that they’ll say something inappropriate, quote unquote, I hope they say things that are inappropriate,” he said. “Talk radio, talk TV have been saying things that are inappropriate for decades. It’s part of their tradition. They can’t police themselves? What, do they have tourettes? It think it’s really a chickshat thing to do to cancel the show.”
A heated O’Reilly jumped back in and called MSNBC the “most hateful” network in the country’s history.
“The most hateful network in the history of our Republic is MSNBC. You’ve got a morning show that consistently calls former President Trump a Nazi. Calls him a Nazi,” he said. “That’s what you want to hear? That’s discourse that you believe is noble?!”
“What about all the talk radio? Bill, come on!” Rivera said.
“No what abouts! No what abouts!” an irate O’Reilly threw back.
As the debate was evolving into a screaming match, Cuomo jumped in to pump the brakes.
“Fellas, fellas, not tonight. Hold on. Calm down,” he said. “Bill, you’re better than that.”
“I’m not better than that,” O’Reilly said without missing a beat. “It’s always what about, what about. Deal with the issue! Both of you! Deal with the hate issue. Deal with it!”
After returning to the air on Tuesday, Morning Joe co-host Joe Scarborough said he was “surprised” and “disappointed” by his network’s decision, insisting he would have been broadcasting all day if he could.
Watch above via NewsNation.
