Geraldo Rivera lashes out against anti-vaxxers on Fox News and Fox fans fire back
Geraldo Rivera went off on anti-vaxxers Tuesday, which did not go over well with Fox News viewers who witnessed his blunt invective on “The Five.”
“If you are unvaccinated, you are an arrogant, selfish SOB,” Rivera declared.
Rivera tried to explain to the show’s hosts that people who choose not to get vaccinated have an obligation to get tested regularly and should not be surprised to find themselves marginalized by the rest of society.
Animated co-host Greg Gutfeld asked Rivera if he had proof “that people were walking around willy-nilly spreading the disease.”
Rivera stated that the overwhelming majority of people being hospitalized for COVID-19 have not been vaccinated. He conceded that some people may not be able to get the vaccine, but noted those people were among a small minority.
As noted by Raw Story, Fox News’ observers on social media went ballistic on the mustached TV newsman, who is frequently at odds with his more conservative colleagues.
CNN’s Jim Acosta predicts Fox viewer ‘whiplash’ as vaccine misinformation gives way to science
“Do you realize how many viewers you have lost on The Five because of Geraldo Rivera?” a woman named Gretchen Smith tweeted at Fox News. “Good luck with viewership. You lost mine months ago and this just solidifies it.”
It was roughly nine months ago Fox News called the election for President Joe Biden, which did not sit well with many viewers.
Some viewers claimed Rivera’s opinions were based on “fake statistics” while others railed against “illegal immigrants.”
“That arrogant, selfish SOB, Geraldo, can kiss my healthy unvaccinated a--,” tweeted another Rivera critic.
“He’s a joke and a bad decision having on #TheFive,” wrote another viewer.
Watch Geraldo Rivera go ballistic at Fox News pundit Dan Bongino
The 78-year-old correspondent-at-large previously upset Fox News viewers by declaring President Biden the winner of the 2020 election and calling on Donald Trump — whom he called a friend — to bow out gracefully. One of Rivera’s most memorable outbursts came in a clash with Fox News personality Dan Bongino, who accused him of playing “this emotional game with the audience” and pushing misinformation during a discussion about strife in the Middle East.
Rivera, who’d called Bongino a “son of a b---h” several weeks earlier, this time called him “a punk” before tossing a wadded-up piece of paper at the camera.
On Tuesday night, Rivera tweeted quotes from Republican senators laying responsibility for the Jan. 6 uprising at the nation’s capitol on Trump. While that comment is unlikely to help him make amends with the far right-wingers he’d earlier offended, his position on that topic seemed to win him some new fans.
“Good lord, I’m on Geraldo’s side of something?” wrote baffled Twitter user Jory Soderman. “We live in strange damn times.”
A bipartisan commission appointed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) began hearings on the events of Jan. 6 on Tuesday.
