Things got heated Tuesday night on Fox News’ Hannity when Fox News correspondent-at-large Geraldo Rivera blasted his colleagues for engaging in “cheap politics” by misrepresenting Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s (D-MI) recent comments on the Holocaust, claiming they were vilifying the Palestinian-American congresswoman.
Tlaib has been bombarded with conservative outrage and accusations of anti-Semitism after saying in a Yahoo News podcast earlier this week that she had a “kind of calming feeling” when thinking about her Palestinian ancestors providing a “safe haven for Jews” following the Holocaust.
During a panel discussion with host Sean Hannity and Fox News contributor Dan Bongino, Rivera immediately rallied to Tlaib’s defense, claiming that she “has really been victimized in a way that is unmistakable.”
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Accusing Bongino of distorting “her remarks on the calming effect” by stating they were “related to her feelings about the Holocaust,” Rivera told the conservative commentator it was “an obscenity to try to make that argument.”
“She was not suggesting that you know, the killing of the Jews was something that calmed her,” Rivera exclaimed. “She was saying the fact that the Palestinians suffered so much and gave up so much but at least the Jews had a homeland to go to in the wake of the destruction committed by the Nazis.”
Conceding that Tlaib said this in an “unartful way,” the former talk show host went on to say that “she’s been taken out of context in a grotesque way that is extremely unfair” before insisting Hannity and Bongino had “taken a step too far.”
“There’s no way Tlaib said the Holocaust calms her,” Rivera added.
“You are way, way off here,” Bongino shot back, offering his own brief “history lesson” on the Holocaust to Rivera, who quickly reminded the former Secret Service agent that he himself was of Jewish heritage and a Zionist.
“Don't condescend to me man, I'm a Zionist,” Rivera sniped. “I've got a Jewish star on my hand. You don't condescend to me about the Holocaust."
Bongino, meanwhile, continued to express outrage over Tlaib’s comments in relation to the Holocaust, adding that “some of the Palestinians aligned with the Nazis,” which set Rivera off.
“To lay the Holocaust at the door of the Palestinians...to say that the Palestinians have some responsibility for the Holocaust is so historically inaccurate,” Rivera shouted. “It is another obscenity!”
As Bongino asserted that “there was never a Palestine” after Rivera said Palestinians lost their homeland, Rivera appeared to almost get teary-eyed and emotional.
“This is cheap politics!” the Fox News correspondent said. “This is cheap politics—you’re trying to diminish this woman!”
