Fox News’ Melissa Francis Says Colleagues Shared Sexual Misconduct Claims With Her While at NBC

On Thursday night, Tucker Carlson spoke to Fox News colleague Melissa Francis about something she said months back about sexual predators in the media.

Last spring, Francis appeared on NBC to promote her book the day after Bill O’Reilly was fired from Fox News. When asked by Kathy Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb about what was going on at her network, she responded by saying that they’re going through a “painful” period and were “embarrassed.” But she also insisted to Gifford and Kotb that their network was “full of sexual predators” as well as everyone else.

“These people exist at every single network and I could tell you who they are and I bet you know who they are,” Francis told Carlson.

She then shed some light on her experience at NBC (she previously had worked at CNBC for years before joining Fox Business in 2012).

“I had colleagues who I knew of who were assaulted by people sexually,” Francis continued. “One woman who was a friend of mine came to me in tears. And I said, ‘You need to go report this. I’ve seen you in tears after the incident. I would be happy to support you.’ She said, ‘I don’t think they will do anything about.'”

She continued, “And then I said, ‘Well, call Gloria Allred. We’re in the media. You know, have a news conference, stand out there on the street corner.’ And this woman in particular, who I have a ton of respect for, said ‘And I will never work in this industry again. And I’ve worked really hard to get to this point. And I don’t want to throw away by whole career.’ And there were others who were assaulted and who were harassed. And those people- some who are still at NBC and others have gone on to the other big networks and are still working there.”

Carlson followed up by asking if the predators were also still working at NBC and the other networks, which she confirmed.

“I want to be clear; it’s not an NBC problem. It’s not a Fox problem,” she added. “I think we’re learning — it’s not about any political persuasion, it’s not about a network. I mean, one of our makeup artists said, This is happening at the post office. This is happening at the sanitation department.’ It’s everywhere, but people are paying attention to it in certain industries because it’s more interesting. But I would say this; the people who committed these acts still work at these networks. And these women have been afraid to come forward. They need to know that they can.”

She also said she’s “confident” that the sexual predators will be outed, but it “wasn’t [her] place” to name them because she wasn’t assaulted.

Watch the clip above, via Fox News.

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