Fox News host Laura Ingraham sparked outrage over her “vindictive behavior” after she giddily clapped Monday night while announcing that Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley had been diagnosed with COVID-19 despite being fully vaccinated and boosted.
Among those blasting the Fox News primetime host over her comments was her own brother, who called out Ingraham’s “malevolence” while questioning her Christian faith.
During a recurring segment with Fox News contributor Raymond Arroyo titled “Positively Boosted,” Ingraham—a loud vaccine skeptic and critic of COVID-19 mitigation efforts—took aim at Milley and other vaccinated public figures for testing positive amid the Omicron surge.
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“All right, the triple-vaxxed Joint Chief chairman Mark Milley—our favorite Mark Milley—tested positive for COVID yesterday,” Ingraham gleefully declared on Monday evening, punctuating the news with a round of applause. (A spokesperson for Milley said the chairman is “experiencing very minor symptoms and can perform all of his duties from the remote location.” Berger’s spokeswoman added that the “performance of his duties will remain unaffected.”)
Ingraham reported that Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger also become infected even though he was fully vaccinated and received a booster shot. Nowhere in the Fox News segment was it ever noted, of course, that unvaccinated individuals are far more likely to become severely ill or hospitalized with COVID-19 than people who’ve received their jabs.
Military leadership has come under fire from conservatives in recent months for implementing COVID-19 vaccine mandates across the U.S. armed forces. Furthermore, Milley has stoked Fox News outrage over both his criticism of former President Donald Trump and his defense of so-called “woke” military teachings—specifically critical race theory.
After Arroyo mocked high-profile leaders of the Vatican for being part of the “positively boosted club,” Ingraham and Arroyo ended the segment by wishing “them all the best” following the diagnoses.
“Well, we certainly hope they’re all healthy and fine,” she added. “But stop pushing your mandates.”
It didn’t take long for Ingraham’s remarks to draw criticism.
“Laura Ingraham is often described as someone in favor of ‘Christian values,’” Fr. James J. Martin, editor-at-large of Jesuit magazine and consultant to the Vatican's Secretariat for Communications, tweeted on Tuesday. “But the last time I checked, we're supposed to love our enemies, not celebrate when they get sick. Jesus had compassion for the sick; he didn't laugh at them. Not sure when hate [became] a Christian value.”
And the Fox News host’s estranged brother, Curtis Ingraham, was even harsher in his assessment of his sister. “My sister’s malevolence gives the term ‘schadenfreude’ a whole new dimension,” he shared on Twitter. “And did that cross around her neck get in the way of her clapping?! Just curious.”
As the Daily Beast reported in 2018, Ingraham has long gone after his famous sibling over her right-wing punditry, at times labeling her a “monster” and “hypocrite.”
Former NBC executive Mike Sington, meanwhile, ripped Ingraham for doing a segment that “rejoices over people who test positive for COVID after being vaccinated” while conveniently ignoring how “these people are far less likely to be hospitalized or die.”
And during Tuesday’s broadcast of ABC’s daytime talk show The View, the hosts absolutely tore into the primetime star.
The Fox host’s clapping “is the mind of Laura Ingraham and those that follow Laura Ingraham’s mind,” liberal co-host Joy Behar complained, adding that some conservatives “think it’s so interesting and fabulous a notion” that the triple-vaxxed are getting infected.
“The fact is you can still get it. People need to understand this, but if you don’t have a vaccine, you will probably end up in the hospital,” she added. “Maybe dead!”
After Behar said “you can clap” for Milley because “he didn’t die” from COVID-19, owning to his vaccinations, moderator Whoopi Goldberg chimed in that Ingraham was engaging in “vindictive behavior.”
“It is vindictive,” co-host Sunny Hostin agreed.
Fox News did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
