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Geraldo Rivera And Dan Bongino Raise Their Voices In Fiery Migrant Caravan Debate

Fox News 11/30/2018

Mike Brest Reporter
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Geraldo Rivera and Dan Bongino yelled at one another Thursday night during a heated argument on “Hannity” over how law enforcement officers at the southern U.S. border should handle the incoming migrant caravans.

Rivera defended the caravan during a similar debate on Monday during Fox News’ The Five. They had been discussing border agents’ use of tear gas to disperse the crowds trying to cross into the country at the San Ysidro port of entry between Tijuana, Mexico and the San Diego area.

“This is something that goes to the very quick,” said an emotional Geraldo. “This goes to my soul. Fulfilling my role as the designated piñata on Fox News, I wanna say I am ashamed. This tear gas choked me.” (RELATED: U.S. Border Agents Arrest MS-13 Gang Member ‘Intending On Filing For Asylum In The United States’)

Bongino began by referencing these comments.

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“Geraldo, again, I appreciate your nice comments. I consider you a friend. But you are way, way off base on this. I have stood at roll calls, I was a law enforcement officer. I’m not looking for anybody’s pat on the back, your tax dollars paid for it, it was a great job. But I ask you the same question Sean asked you. You’re giving a lot of platitudes. Nobody wants to see anybody tear gassed. You win, point stipulated. We both are empathetic to that. But, that was not the choice of the border patrol officials,” Bongino began.

“The choice was made by people who stormed the border illegally. I ask you a very simple question and I would sincerely appreciate an honest answer. You’re standing in the face of these border patrol agents, patrolling our border, just doing their jobs to keep our nation secure,” he continued. “What are you telling them to do when a rock comes at their face? What? What is your answer? Nobody produces an answer?”

Central American migrants -mostly from Honduras- sit alonh the concrete waterway of the bordering Tijuana River right across the El Chaparral border crossing point in Tijuana, Baja California State, Mexico, on November 25, 2018. (GUILLERMO ARIAS / AFP)

“This is what you do not do, Dan. You do not shoot tear gas at women with small children,” Rivera responded, with Bongino interrupting but letting Rivera continue. “You and Sean are both the grandsons or great grandsons of immigrants. Italian immigrants, Irish immigrants, they were slandered just like you are slandering these people. They have diseases. They’re bringing disease. Read the newspapers from the middle of the nineteenth century. The Irish were bringing diseases. The Italian were diseases. This is a slander. What you don’t do is you don’t —.” (RELATED: NBC Reporter Releases Count Of Caravan Migrants Staying In Shelter — They’re Mostly Men)

Hannity and Bongino both interrupted stating, “What do you do?”

” You send Spanish-speaking ambassadors to the crowd. You explain to them that they are not able to rush the border. We explain to them the facts. You explain to them the reality of what is happening. This is the stain on the Trump presidency,” Rivera answered.

“There are hundreds charged in the border and charging at police. What if it is thousands? What to do then? That is an important question you need to answer.”

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