NEW YORK — Former Fox News host Geraldo Rivera visited ABC’s “The View” Thursday, where he dished on the toxicity of his former colleagues and said he should have left Fox News far earlier.
Rivera, who ended his nearly 22-year run with the right-wing cable channel at the end of June, claimed his exit was due to a “very toxic relationship” with one of his co-hosts on afternoon program “The Five.”
While Rivera didn’t identify the host by name, he did refer to the person as “a guy,” leaving the only options to be Jesse Watters and Greg Gutfeld. Tensions between Rivera and Gutfeld have been well-documented, with the duo often arguing on-air over issues including abortion rights and immigration.
Rivera told “The View” — which he called “the antithesis of ‘The Five’” — that Fox News began frequently canceling his appearances on “The Five” as things between he and the unnamed host grew more awkward.
According to Rivera, after Fox News executives eventually told him he would no longer be a member of “The Five,” he decided to step down as a network correspondent altogether.
“My ideology does not fit Fox,” he stated.
Rivera considers himself a moderate Republican.
The Brooklyn native explained he joined the network after the U.S. was attacked by al-Qaida terrorists, led by Osama bin Laden, on Sept. 11, 2001. The highlight of his experience was getting to break the news in 2011 that the terror mastermind had been killed by U.S. troops.
“The person who had caused all the suffering ... the guy that did that to us, the reason I went to Fox, was gone,” he said. “I should have left Fox then, in 2011, but I didn’t have the courage.”
Instead, Rivera hung around another dozen years and watched the growing network become more radical and less credible, culminating in lies about the 2020 presidential election that resulted in a $787.5 million settlement with a voting technologies company and the disgraceful departure of conspiracy-pushing prime-time fabulist Tucker Carlson.
“Fox had a moral crisis after the election,” he said.
Rivera added that he’ll never again support Donald Trump who “lost the election and became a crazy guy.” Nor can he forgive Carlson, who repeatedly spread lies about the integrity of the 2020 election, and then worked to undermine the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by extremists who believed the election was rigged.
“I don’t like to be unkind, but what he did, just as I will never vote for Donald Trump, I will never forgive Tucker about Jan. 6,” he said.
