Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson became the latest public figure to experience a hot mic gaffe during an appearance on Eric Bolling’s Sinclair show last week when she told an aide, “Fox News is nicer to me than the lefties.”
“What does it say that Fox News is nicer to me than the lefties are?” she asked after her interview while her microphone was still on. “What does it say that the conservatives are nicer to me? It’s such a bizarre world. I’m such a lefty — I mean, I’m a serious lefty — but I understand why people on the right call them ‘godless.’ I didn’t think the left is as mean as the right. They are.”
Before bringing her back on this week to address her comments, Bolling dedicated a segment of “America This Week” to notable hot mic moments from the past, hitting former President Barack Obama and MSNBC’s Chris Hayes, among others, for theirs. After playing a clip of President Trump on a hot mic, Bolling heralded him as “not your typical politician.”
Bolling said holding off on publishing the comments and giving Williamson a chance to respond isn’t “100% by the journalism book,” but as “an opinion person” and “a good person,” he wanted to give her the opportunity.
“What I was told was if I came on your show, you wouldn’t blast it out,” Williamson said. “And you just blasted it out, so I don’t even know where to go with that. The whole point of a hot mic is, you know — why did you just blast it out?”
Bolling told her he spoke to her campaign staff and informed them that journalistically, Sinclair would have to release the comments. He held them off, he claimed, to give Williamson the chance to respond.
“I was told differently,” she said before saying, “I have found it’s tough out there and I was just talking about the fact that that day, you know, you were certainly very kind to me. Listen, many people on the left are very kind to me.”
A representative for Williamson’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for clarification.
This isn’t the first time Bolling’s show has made headlines. Well over a month into her new gig, Stephanie Grisham did her first television interview as White House press secretary on “America This Week,” bypassing Fox News for rival right-leaning network Sinclair.