Geraldo Tells CNN He’s Ashamed of Trump Relationship: ‘A Personal Embarrassment That We Were Friends For So Long’

Former Fox News host Geraldo Rivera told CNN he is ashamed of having ever been friends with former President Donald Trump after Trump said illegal immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country.”

Asked for his thoughts on Trump’s remark during an appearance on CNN Primetime, Friday, Rivera said:

I think it’s vile. I think it’s disgusting. It’s very disappointing. To sink to that level, it’s for me a personal embarrassment that we were friends for so long. This language is racist, it is really disgusting, and, you know, some things cannot abide. We cannot abide certain things and he has crossed the line. I beseech his followers to listen to what he said about poison blood.

Who else used that kind of language? That kind of poisonous rhetoric? It was the Nazis, and I hate to use Nazi or Hitler references, but it is impossible to miss the obvious parallels. Poison blood, it was a direct reference. He made a direct reference that the migrants, the immigrants, mostly Latinos now, may I say, are poisoning, polluting the blood of real Americans. It is intolerable. I mean it’s absolutely beyond the pale.

Reacting to a Trump spokesperson’s claim that the remark was “a normal phrase that is used in everyday life,” Rivera told CNN host Abby Phillip, “Excuse me, I apologize to you and your audience, but I have to say that the spokesman’s excuse was absolute bullshit.”

He continued, “It is lowdown and dirty. Give me a break. You know, normal, everyday discourse? Who talks about poison blood? Who talks about that? Who says that an immigrant is poisoning— it is beyond. It really is beyond the beyond. It’s not— this is not appropriate discourse. This is not— this is not fair play. This is awful. Just awful.”

Watch above via CNN.