Geraldo Wishes He ‘Bailed’ on Ex-‘Hangout Buddy’ Trump ‘A Lot Sooner’: ‘So Disappointed In My Kind of Blindness’
Geraldo Rivera told MSNBC’s Ari Melber he is “disappointed” he did not jump “off the Trump train” sooner, describing himself as having a “kind of blindness” to his former buddy’s flaws.
Rivera joined Melber on Tuesday to discuss the election and his recent endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris over his once friend, former President Donald Trump. Melber brought up Ret. Gen. John Kelly’s recent claim that Trump told him Adolf Hitler “did some good things” when asking Rivera if he takes the “threat” of Trump seriously.
Rivera had participated on Trump’s The Celebrity Apprentice just before he announced a run for president and Rivera called it an “intoxicating situation.”
“In my personal point of view, here I was, my hangout buddy was suddenly going to be in the oval office, the president of the United States, or running for president of the United States,” Rivera said. “That is a very, very heady mix. That is a very intoxicating kind of situation. A lot, I would submit, a lot of why people go do work in Washington and the White House can be close to power, and I don’t know what consciously my thought process was, except to think that it was pretty cool.”
The former Fox News contributor admitted he “overlooked” some controversies, including Trump’s public insults against the late Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and his rhetoric about the southern border and migrants. Rivera first broke with Trump when the former president claimed the presidential election of 2020 was fraudulent without proof of the widespread fraud he was describing. He has not spoken to Trump since November 2020.
“He was horrible toward the memory, the sacred memory of of Sen. John McCain. It was just his service to the country and all the, you know, the flag at half staff at the White House. Why the hell is that flag down, famously or infamously said Trump,” Rivera said.
His friend, according to Rivera, turned out to be exactly the person his critics were describing.
“You forgive so much and I am so disappointed in my kind of blindness because when push came to shove, he was revealed by his own actions to be exactly the person that his critics were saying that he was,” he said.
Rivera would not agree that he felt “contrite” or “embarrassed” by his support of Trump, but he said he wished he “jumped off the Trump train” much sooner.
In his endorsement of Harris, Rivera said his former friend Trump “cannot be trusted to honor the Constitution.”
Watch above via MSNBC.
