Fox News correspondent at large Geraldo Rivera placed the blame for Wednesday’s Capitol riot squarely on President Donald Trump and Senators Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz Friday morning.
“I think that what happened, history will judge him and it is something grotesquely disappointing to me, what happened,” said Rivera of the president, who directed supporters to descend on the nation’s capital this week in protest of President-elect Joe Biden election win.
Rivera, a friend of the president’s who has shared personal insights into his feelings, added, “I tell you, I blame Sen. Josh Hawley and Sen. Ted Cruz as much as I blame the president. Those are two brilliant men … They knew there was no constitutional, judicial or legislative path to overturn the election and yet they went along with the phony challenge to the Electoral College.”
Hawley and Cruz both announced ahead of Wednesday’s joint session of Congress that they would object to certifying Biden’s win. In doing so, they and other Republican lawmakers aligned themselves with Trump, who has baselessly claimed for two months that the Democratic party’s presidential win is the result of widespread voter fraud.
Asked by “Fox & Friends” co-host Steve Doocy why the senators — who both objected to the certification of Biden’s win, even after the deadly riot — would align themselves with a losing strategy, Rivera said they’re “in competition to inherit the Donald Trump constituency.”
After Rivera blasted their “cold, cruel, lean, hungry ambition,” co-host Brian Kilmeade said he was “taking leaps” and didn’t know the senators’ future plans.
Kilmeade defended Cruz specifically, saying he didn’t know the riots were going on and didn’t incite them.
“You are so wrong,” Rivera told Kilmeade, calling the senators “very clever people” who “knew the impact of their words.”
Watch the disagreement below, via Fox News.
Brian Kilmeade and Geraldo Rivera have another one of their usual fights, this time over Republicans' encouragement of the Capitol attack. There's more to it but the popular obsession with these moments completely misses the point of Fox News. This does nothing to counter misinfo pic.twitter.com/A4Jzd6r6bn
— Bobby Lewis (@revrrlewis) January 8, 2021