NEW YORK, NY – APRIL 02: Geraldo Rivera attends Sean Hannity & Friends celebrate the publication of “The Geraldo Show: A Memoir” by Geraldo Rivera at Del Frisco’s on April 2, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Jared Siskin/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)
Former Fox News personality Geraldo Rivera was recently fired from the show on which he appeared and argued with Greg Gutfeld and Jesse Watters, “The Five.” After that, he decided to quit Fox News completely , deciding that he was done with the network and his disagreements with it. His longstanding feud with Greg Gutfeld also played a role in his quitting.
So, now that Geraldo is off of Fox News, he will be appearing on ABC’s “The View” as a guest. He announced as much on Twitter, “Delighted to do TheView Thursday. Wonder what they’ll ask me about.”
Though the comment was facetious and they’ll certainly ask him about his time at Fox News and why he left it, trying to get him to attack the network for its defense, at times, of President Donald Trump and for not being sufficiently committed to “our democracy,” there are a number of other things about which it could ask him to excite its woke audience.
One is his defense of affirmative action. In one of his last moments on Fox News,Geraldo defended that race-based policy and described himself as being a product of it, saying:
“I was a product of affirmative action over a half a century ago … When the Ford Foundation and Columbia Journalism School got together to integrate the local news teams in New York, there were no black reporters, no Hispanic reporters, no women.”
Continuing, he added that because that lack of diversity was “shocking,” he was chosen to be one of the diverse candidates. In his words : “And it was shocking. And that was as late as 1968, 69. So I was selected. I was making news representing a group of Puerto Rican activists, the Young Lords, who had taken over some buildings up in the Spanish Harlem. And I was their lawyer and their negotiator. And I made a lot of news as their spokesperson. And so I got discovered that way, and they drafted me through the Columbia program, and the rest is history.”
Beyond the affirmative action issue and his leaving Fox News, “The View” could ask him about his feud with FNC’s Greg Gutfeld, one of its few remaining hosts that brings in a notable number of viewers. Though Geraldo has refused to comment on his fights with Geraldo in the past, he did tell the Associated Press, “There has been a growing tension that goes beyond editorial differences and personal annoyances and gripes. It’s not worth it to me.”
Perhaps, now that he’s gone from Fox News and no longer has to argue with Gutfeld and Watters every day, he’ll get into more detail about what made his fights with Gutfeld so contentious.
However, he also might not. When leaving Fox News, he said, I love Fox and the people at Fox. I always will. I will never let anyone separate us. I am beyond grateful, I love you for it.” So he might just harbor no ill will and want to retire in peace rather than stir up a contentious fight. Time will tell.
