MSNBC Anchor Clashes On-Air With Scott Baio: ‘I Do This For A Living’ (VIDEO)

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During MSNBC’s coverage of the Republican National Convention on Tuesday, host Tamron Hall clashed with actor Scott Baio over his earlier attacks on First Lady Michelle Obama’s appearance over social media.

Hall told Baio, who spoke Monday night at the convention, that he’d blocked her on Twitter. She guessed it might’ve happened after he tweeted an unflattering photo of First Lady Michelle Obama years ago.

Baio, who starred on “Happy Days” and other sitcoms in the 1970s and 1980s, told Hall the block must’ve been a “mistake” but played off the remarks, saying he has “a certain sense of humor.”

“But does joking about a woman that way make America great again?” Hall asked.

“No, it’s a joke about a woman yelling at her husband! We talk about – my wife did this, my wife is breaking my chops today,” he tried to explain.

“But that wasn’t about your wife. That was about the First Lady,” Hall fired back.

Baio said he jokes about “all politicians’ wives” and downplayed the impact of putting those remarks out on social media.

But Hall took him to task, saying “we should all want to be better people to teach our children.”

“But – let me finish. I agree with you. You have – I’m not a parent. But I see how this may or may not affect our divisiveness. White people, hey, black people, hey. When we tweet things out that were so ugly. And then we say –” she said, as Baio repeatedly tried to interrupt.

“It has nothing to do with race,” the TV star responded.

“I didn’t say that. I said we are all together,” Hall said flatly. “I do this for a living. You can’t chop my words up. I am telling you clearly what I said. What I said was, we’re all here together.”

The verbal confrontation continued to escalate as Hall pressed her guest about whether there’s a “higher Scott Baio.” Even as Baio got increasingly exasperated, Hall ended the segment with a smile.

Watch a clip of the interview, captured by TPM:

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