Fox News’ Geraldo Rivera took offense on Tuesday when co-host Katie Pavlich dismissively said Kamala Harris was only chosen as vice president because of her “gender and skin color,” calling his Fox colleague “mean” while defending the veep’s qualifications.
During Tuesday’s broadcast of Fox News panel show The Five, the majority of the hosts took great delight in blasting Harris’ NBC News interview, which featured the veep struggling to defend why she hasn’t visited the southern border yet. Pavlich also contrasted Harris recently warning migrants “not to come” to the United States with previous remarks she’s made on immigration.
While Rivera said that he “deeply admires” Harris for being a “historic figure,” he does feel that she struggles at times when pressed by the media.
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“She has kind of a quirky nature that when pressed, remember in the presidential primaries, how unpleasant she sometimes comes across when she’s under pressure,” he declared.
He also went on to say that her trip to Guatemala and Mexico has been a “disaster” so far, adding that Harris needs to pressure the leaders of those countries to “play ball” in order to mitigate the flow of migrants.
“She really has blown it,” he asserted. “I think she can recover. She can mature in office, but that’s not a winning formula.”
As the rest of the panel took turns slamming Harris and suggesting this recent trip spelled an end to her future presidential ambitions, Pavlich claimed that Harris was solely in her position due to her identity.
“This is what happens when you choose your vice president based on gender and skin color rather than actual talent and expertise,” she sneered.
“That’s way—that’s so mean,” Rivera, playing the show’s liberal foil, interjected.
“Oh, it’s mean? It’s actually true,” Pavlich shot back.
“She was attorney general of the state of California, she was a United States senator,” Rivera contended. “You can’t demean her!”
Pavlich, meanwhile, offered a baffling defense of her remarks: “There’s a reason why she got zero votes and had to drop out of the race before they even started taking votes.” She moved on to attacking Barack Obama before anyone could point out that Harris could not have gotten “zero votes” if she ended her campaign before any votes were even cast.
