The moment Sean Hannity brought Geraldo Rivera and Dan Bongino onto his Fox News show Wednesday night, everyone watching knew that the sole purpose of the segment was to watch the two Fox pundits fight.
And they did not disappoint, as the bickering pair immediately engaged in a reality-TV-esque food fight that culminated in Rivera calling Bongino a “son of a bitch.”
Rivera, who has apparently made it his mission to create instantly viral moments, began Wednesday night’s fireworks by dredging up his last fight with Bongino, complaining that his Fox colleague had misrepresented his experience with police officers over the years.
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“I have been covering cops for over 50 years. I am perhaps the most deeply experienced reporter in television history,” Rivera said, running down his resume. “I have done hundreds of stories over thousands of hours with cops. Everything from shoot-outs to executing arrest warrants, to roadblocks to drug raids. You name it, I’ve been there. I’ve been to too many cop funerals to even think about. They are horrible!”
Turning to the tragic death of Daunte Wright, Rivera went on to say former Officer Kim Potter exhibited “reckless or grossly negligent behavior” in shooting the 20-year-old unarmed Black man, proposing that tasers should be “the first weapon of choice for a cop.”
Immediately brushing off Rivera’s remarks, Bongino made a show of shaking his head before saying: “I don’t even know how to respond to that. Give me a second to digest the stupidity of that.”
And then they were off!
“You’re nothing but a name-caller! You’re a cheap shot artist!” Rivera shouted.
“You’ve never worn a badge, period. 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,” Bongino, a former police officer, retorted.
After Rivera brought up the fact that “Blacks are twice as likely to be shot by cops as whites,” a statistic Bongino waved off, Rivera then dismissed his colleague’s law enforcement experience—while, at the same time, mocking his multiple failed congressional runs.
“I know more than you! What do you know?” Rivera yelled. “What, did you have a ten-minute career as a cop? You’ve been running for office for the last 20 years.”
“Take a Valium. You’ve really gotta pipe down. My gosh, you’re a 70-year-old man!” Bongino snarked at the 77-year-old.
On and on it went for several more minutes, with the two just arguing over each other and seeing who could make the other more agitated on-air.
Inevitably, the two reached their time limit, but they did make sure to end on a crescendo.
With Bongino repeatedly accusing Rivera of “injecting race into the argument” because “he has nothing else,” Rivera demanded that his colleague “tell that to the Black families that see their sons being killed.”
“You’ve got nothing. All you want to do is see the country burn. You just want to see the country burn,” Bongino replied with a smirk, prompting Rivera to lose his mind.
“I want to see the country burn! You son of a bitch,” he screamed. “I want to see the country burn! You punk! You're nothing but a punk! You're a punk, Bongino!”
“You wouldn't tell that to my face,” Bongino retorted.
“Oh boy,” Hannity finally interjected. “We’ll leave it there.”
