Screenshot : Fox News ( Twitter )

Frequent Fox News guest Geraldo Rivera seems like a pretty tough guy. I know this because he keeps posting pictures of himself looking admirably ripped for a 70-something year old. But do you suppose Geraldo is tough enough to fight a CIA officer? He sure does!




During Friday morning’s taping of Fox & Friends, Rivera waxed philosophical on the looming impeachment battle over a now-public whistleblower complaint describing how President Donald Trump pressured Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to interfere in the 2020 election by launching an investigation into Democratic frontrunner Joe Biden and his son Hunter.

“This is gonna be what the impeachment is all about. Maybe one or two little other things [unintelligible],” Rivera explained.


Then things got a little weird.

“So it’s gonna be the president of the United States in a conversation that was intercepted by a rotten snitch,” Rivera continued. “I’d love to wap him, but that’s another story.”

It’s at this point we should make a few things clear.

1) Speaking under oath to a congressional hearing this week, Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire insisted that the the as-of-now unidentified whistleblower “did the right thing,” and “has followed the law.”


2) While the identity of the whistleblower is still unknown, the New York Times reported on Thursday that they are a “CIA officer.”

3) President Trump has been extremely transparent about wanting to see harm come to the whistleblower, telling an audience of diplomats (and their children!) that: “You know what we used to do in the old days when we were smart? Right? The spies and treason, we used to handle it a little differently than we do now.”


Put it all together, and you’ve got a septuagenarian TV personality horn-dogging for a fight at the president’s urging with a CIA officer who—according to Trump’s own intelligence chief—acted completely legally.

Very cool and normal!

Correction, 4:06 pm E.T.: This story have been updated to correct Joseph Maguire’s position. He is the acting director of National Intelligence, not acting National Security Advisor.