A Fox News panel got very personal very fast during The Five on Monday, with one co-host resorting to calling for the control room to end the madness after Geraldo Rivera threatened to get physical with another co-host.
The panel was talking about Donald Trump’s efforts to highlight the recent killing of Kate Steinle, who was allegedly killed by an undocumented Mexican immigrant already deported five times for felony convictions. The case has become a flashpoint, and an important element of Trump’s aggressive campaign against illegal immigration.
The squabble began with Jesse Watters praising Trump for tapping into the “red-blooded American bloodstream,” with his fiery comments about undocumented immigrants, which he said resonate with a public tired of watching a “skinny community organizer” president run the country.
Rivera provided the spark for the show’s powder keg, chiding Watters for his “disrespectful” description of President Obama and saying Trump backers are “exploiting the misery of that family” by buying into the candidate’s talking points about Steinle’s killing.
“Trump, who is my friend, is going to learn that immigration is like a cheap drug. You get a big bang, a real quick high, and a very long hangover,” Rivera said.
“It’s not a quick high when people are being murdered in San Francisco,” Watters fired back.
Co-host Eric Bolling jumped into the debate, telling Rivera that he’s the one who “exploits and sensationalizes everything.”
“You’re lucky that you’re my friend, or I’d knock you out right now!” Rivera told him. “That’s absolute BS! … What do you do? Where do you get your stuff from?”
At that point, co-host Kimberly Guilfoyle called for the control room to cut to a commercial break and give everyone a chance to cool down.
Watch the full blowup below, via Mediaite:
