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The National (Scotland)
The National (Scotland)
National
Laura Pollock

'This is bats**t': Emily Maitlis swears live on Channel 4's US election coverage

CHANNEL 4 was forced to apologise for journalist Emily Maitlis's language during the channel's coverage of the US election. 

Speaking with a panel, Maitlis reflected on the campaign and mentioned Donald Trump claimed that Haitian immigrants were eating pet cats and dogs.

The former president, who is expected to return to the Oval Office, made the unproven claim during a debate with his White House rival Kamala Harris.

Maitlis said: "It's not that they disagree about one thing. The whole thing is asymmetric. When Donald Trump talked about eating cats and dogs. Half of America was thinking, 'this is bats**t. I can't believe what he's saying. This is going to be the end of him'."

Co-host Krishnan Guru-Murthy laughed with the panel, but interjected: "Stop swearing. I have to tell them [the guests] off for swearing and then you do it."

Maitlis quickly apologised.

Moments later, Guru-Murthy shared an update and said: "I will tell off Emily later because I know she started swearing. It may be the middle of the night in Britain but we're still a little bit sensitive about that stuff."

Maitlis did not rejoin Guru-Murthy.

However, she later responded to an account claiming "there's a MAGA hat in the post" to someone who could share the clip of Maitlis swearing. 

She replied: "Do I get one? Sadly no disgrace. Left to record @TheNewsAgents. - for half an hour."

The incident came after Boris Johnson was “fired for banging on about his book” during a guest appearance on Channel 4’s coverage of the US election.

The former UK prime minister was told off for holding up his memoir and plugging it just minutes into the live programme.

Guru-Murthy told Johnson to “put it away” and “stop it, enough” as he twice referenced his new book and attempted to hold it up to viewers.

Guru-Murthy described the former prime minister’s actions as “so cheap”.

Johnson retorted: “There’s absolutely nothing you can do to stop me… I’m allowed to plug my book.”

Later during the panel discussion, Johnson said he met with former US president and Republican nominee Donald Trump after his attempted assassination in July.

“In case I failed to mention this, I am promoting my book Unleashed, and I had a talk with him about Ukraine,” he said.

When asked about following in Trump’s footsteps regarding a political comeback if he was to win the presidential election, Johnson said: “The answer is obviously contained in Unleashed where you’ll find the full discussion of this subject.”

Co-host Maitlis told him: “We are not all going to read your book, so just tell us, do you want to have a political comeback…. You can’t actually answer a single question.”

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