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What started as a standard segment on looting between Fox News colleagues Geraldo Rivera and Dan Bongino Wednesday night quickly escalated into a shouting match before host Sean Hannity managed to cut to commercial.
Geraldo Rivera, a contributor-at-large with a tenure approaching 20 years at the network, lost his temper when podcaster, Fox News contributor, and frequent "Hannity" guest Dan Bongino told him to "take a Valium" and "stop pretending to be a cop."'
Bongino — who served in the NYPD from 1995 to 1999 and ran for Congress in 2012, 2014, and 2016 — continued to lament Rivera cutting him off and "promoting a race narrative" on police brutality.
"If there was a plague of police officers hunting Black men down at night, then I don't understand, how is that happening?" Bongino said as Rivera grew increasingly irritated. "Where is this massive body count?"
As the commercial music began jingling and crosstalk intensified, Bongino told Rivera "you just wanna see the country burn."
"I wanna see the country burn?" Rivera yelled. "You son of a b----! I wanna see the country burn? You punk! You're nothing but a punk. You're a punk, Bongino. You're a punk."
"You wouldn't tell me that to my face," Bongino replied.
"Oh yeah?" Rivera said as Hannity cut to commercial. "Let's see."