Former Fox News anchor Eric Bolling granted his first major interview Wednesday since his abrupt resignation from the network last year following an investigation into accusations of sexual harassment
But in a rare case of holding their punches, “Morning Joe” hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski began their interview with Bolling telling viewers that there would be no discussion of the harassment scandal that led to Bolling’s exit from Fox News back in September 2017.
“Eric, you lost the job that you loved at Fox News amid controversy and a lot of people might want us to ask you a lot of questions around the circumstances around that departure,” said Brzezinski. “But for this segment, we’re going to leave those questions for another time.”
Bolling’s career at Fox News unraveled in August 2017 after Yashar Ali published a story in HuffPost revealing that the anchor sent sexually suggestive text messages to several female Fox News and Fox Business employees, and made lewd remarks to female employees.
Fox swiftly suspended him and launched an investigation. The show he co-hosted, “The Specialists” was also canceled shortly after he decided to exit the network before his contract expired. Bolling is one of several former network stars who left Fox News in the wake of sexual misconduct accusations.
Instead of focusing on his ouster, the “Morning Joe” segment focused on Bolling’s work tackling America’s opioid crisis.
Bolling’s son, Eric Chase, was found dead of an accidental overdose the same day Fox News announced that Bolling was leaving the network. Bolling thanked Scarborough for his support after the news, and described how he first learned of the death.
“My wife and I had gone out to dinner, we were about to turn the page on my career. Went out to dinner, everything was fine. On the way home from that dinner, my cell phone rang and [my wife] was driving and it was one of Eric’s friends who was in a panic,” he said.
For the record: A previous version of this story incorrectly said that Bolling had been fired by Fox News; he and the network mutually agreed to cut ties last September following an investigation of multiple accusations of misconduct toward female employees.