'I had to speak out': Ex-Fox News personality Geraldo Rivera opens up on break from Trump
Former Fox News personality Geraldo Rivera opened up to MSNBC's Ari Melber on Tuesday about the thought process that caused him to break from former President Donald Trump, whom he has known for years, to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris.
Rivera made this endorsement in a lengthy post to X earlier this month, calling Trump a "sore loser" who was a threat to the Constitution. Asked about this by Melber, he delved deeper.
"What you say also matters and how you say it and who you say it to," said Melber. "Tell us about what you were getting across there and why you went beyond the usual, hey, here is my ticked box, to address people you say Trump has made a liar out of."
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"Well, I've been against the president, the former president, since shortly after the election when it became clear to me that he was drinking some kind of Kool-Aid, that he was being very selfish, he was refusing to acknowledge the will of the American people," said Rivera. "I thought that it was a passing thing, but it wasn't. Then January 6th happened, and right before my very eyes, there he was, after having incited all those people to put their lives on the line and risking so much from the point of view of the country and the officers who were there and so forth. He just unleashed this frenzy."
"I thought that it was so anti-constitutional, it was so selfish, it was so counterfactual that I had to speak up," said Rivera. "And on January 7th, I called for his impeachment. That was our estrangement. I thought that I could ride out this kind of cycle. I don't do a lot of politics. You know, my various capacities. But, you know, to see him being competitive in every single race, if not leading, I began worrying a few weeks ago that this guy could actually defy all the odds and all the indictments and the convictions and the hundreds of millions of dollars in civil penalties and all the rest of it and win and become President of the United States again. So I thought I had to speak out, and I'm glad I did."
Geraldo went on to say that he considers Trump to be a personal "friend," but that he was "embarrassed" it took him so long to see the truth, and "I wish I had bailed on the Trump train a lot sooner, before he threatened the Constitution of the United States."
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