Geraldo Rivera delivered one of the harshest condemnations of Donald Trump ever aired on Fox News Friday afternoon when he appeared on The Five and took the president to task for threatening Minneapolis protesters with violence.
After first criticizing Democrats for “studiously avoiding” the looting and vandalism by “anarchists” in that city following the police killing of George Floyd, Rivera pivoted to attack Trump directly.
“But the other thing is, the president, in these tweets, ‘when the looting starts, the shooting starts,’ c’mon!” Rivera said, referring to the tweet that Twitter hid from Trump’s timeline because it broke its rules on “glorifying violence.”
ADVERTISEMENT
“What is this, 6th grade?” he asked. “You don’t put gasoline on the fire. That’s not calming anybody. Who are you daring?” Rivera mocked the idea that any demonstrators would stop what they’re doing because Donald Trump tweeted that they might get shot. “That’s not going to happen!” he exclaimed. “All he does is diminish himself.”
Rivera, who has at times both admitted that Trump is a “racist” and called him a “civil rights leader,” went on to say that he “laments” the “recklessness of his tempestuous nature when it comes to Twitter.” In response to Trump’s accusations that Twitter is trying to censor him, the pundit called on the president to “self-censor himself.”
Trump attempted to walk back his incendiary comments in a pair of tweets on Friday, claiming that he was just worried about the safety of the protesters. “It’s very simple, nobody should have any problem with this other than the haters, and those looking to cause trouble on social media,” the president wrote, adding, “Honor the memory of George Floyd!”
