Geraldo Rivera gets shouted down on 'Hannity' for condemning the term 'illegal alien'
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Fox News correspondent-at-large Geraldo Rivera appeared Thursday on Hannity, alongside contributor Dan Bongino. It’s not uncommon for the two to disagree, but on Thursday, when Rivera made the case against the use of the term “illegal alien,” he got shouted down by both Bongino and Sean Hannity. In making this case, Rivera was agreeing with the Biden administration, which has proposed removing the term “alien” from immigration law in favor of “noncitizen.”
For one brief moment, Rivera was able to make his case uninterrupted.
“Illegal immigrant presupposes that adjudication has been made. Legal, illegal. You only get to be illegal when an adjudication has been made,” Rivera said. “So when you call someone presumptively illegal, and usually it's coupled with alien, illegal alien, not only do you make the judgment that the person is there illegally, as if you were the judge in an immigration court, but now he's also an alien.”
But things quickly went off the rails when Rivera alluded to what people think of when they hear the word alien, like as in a being from Mars. Rivera was trying to make the case that calling someone an alien gives people the sense that the person is remote to their lives, and that it’s dehumanizing, calling the term “a horrible thing.” Hannity argued that the term should stay because it’s been used for decades, and quickly jumped at the chance to question if Rivera actually thought people hear the word alien and immediately think the person to whom is being referred is from Mars, using that terminology to belittle Rivera’s argument.
Rivera continued with his attempts to argue his point, but the attempts were futile as he was eventually silenced by Bongino as the segment ran out of time.
After shouting down Rivera, Bongino exclaimed, “You lose this debate tonight. Sorry. I’m declaring a win. One, nothing, Dan Bongino.”
Hannity airs weeknights at 8 p.m. on Fox News Channel.
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