Fox News
- Two Fox News stars got into an intense shouting match on "Hannity" Wednesday night.
- Longtime correspondent Geraldo Rivera called Dan Bongino a "son of a b—-" live on-air.
- "I wanna see the country burn? You son of a b—- … You're a punk, Bongino," Rivera said.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
What started as a standard segment on looting between Fox News colleagues Geraldo Rivera and Dan Bongino Wednesday night quickly escalated into a shouting match before host Sean Hannity managed to cut to commercial.
Geraldo Rivera, a contributor-at-large with a tenure approaching 20 years at the network, lost his temper when podcaster, Fox News contributor, and frequent "Hannity" guest Dan Bongino told him to "take a Valium" and "stop pretending to be a cop."
-Acyn (@Acyn) April 15, 2021
"There's a big difference between reporting on a baseball game and playing it, Geraldo. You never wore a badge, period," Bongino said after Rivera talked about Black Americans being three times more likely than whites to be killed in an encounter with police.
"Not interested in your reporting on it, because reporters deal with facts, and you brought the race card into it the other night when we had this debate, despite having no facts to back that up, and when I brought up the facts that there is no systemic racism-" Bongino continued before Rivera cut him off.
"I know more than you. What do you know?" Geraldo said after Hannity tried to simmer the panelists down. "What'd you have, a ten minute career as a cop? You've been running for office for the past 20 years!"
-Alex Salvi (@alexsalvinews) April 15, 2021
Bongino - who served in the NYPD from 1995 to 1999 and ran for Congress in 2012, 2014, and 2016 - continued to lament Rivera cutting him off and "promoting a race narrative" on police brutality.
"If there was a plague of police officers hunting Black men down at night, then I don't understand, how is that happening?" Bongino said as Rivera grew increasingly irritated. "Where is this massive body count?"
As the commercial music began jingling and crosstalk intensified, Bongino told Rivera "you just wanna see the country burn."
At that point, Rivera let loose with an expletive on the primetime program.
"I wanna see the country burn?" Rivera yelled. "You son of a b----! I wanna see the country burn? You punk! You're nothing but a punk. You're a punk, Bongino. You're a punk."
"You wouldn't tell me that to my face," Bongino replied.
"Oh yeah?" Rivera said as Hannity cut to commercial. "Let's see."
Hannity did not address the exchange after he returned from commercial break, cutting right to his interview with Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana.