Following his speech to the United Nations on Thursday, Venezuela President Hugo Chavez was confronted with questions by a Fox News reporter. Speaking through a translator, his comments were almost predictably derisive as he called the network filled with “poisons,” suggesting the reporter’s mind “has many confusions.”

Prior to airing the clip of Chavez’s remarks, Fox and Friends host Gretchen Carlson noted his comments about the UN chamber smelling different now that George W. Bush is no longer president of the United States.

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“He says the room has a different aroma this time around,” Carlson began. “It has a little bit more hope.”

In the clip, when Chavez’s interpreter identified the Fox News reporter, it was as though the Venezuelan president’s eyes lit up.

“Fox News? Oh …” Chavez said, lips slowly rising into a smile as two fingers stroked his chin. He began speaking in Spanish.

“I love when I see people from Fox News,” his translator said. “You know how [inaudible] call you? ‘The stupid people from Fox News.’ That’s the way they call you. Not you, of course, not you. Of course not. [Inaudible] is, uh, deficious. Your mind has many confusions, perhaps poisons.”

Asked for a response to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s apparent denial of the Holocaust, Chavez asked several questions of his own.

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“Have you seen the images in Iraq?” he asked. “How the Americans are killing people in Iraq? Have you seen those? Have you seen this? [Inaudible] … Your network hides everything and your president, Bush, [you] supported Bush and you’re criticizing Obama because he’s black. So, that’s why your mind is filled with poison.”

After the clip, Fox News host Steve Doocy defended the network, claiming they show “both sides of the story.”

“If we didn’t have both sides of the story, would we have just run that? Absolutely not,” he suggested.

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Then Doocy took aim at Chavez over Venezuela’s roundly-criticized shutdown of what is apparently opposition media.

Many in Venezuela and around the world have called the government takeovers of numerous radio and TV stations an assault on free speech.

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“He would love to pull the plug on Fox News,” the host said. “But, he’s there and we’re here.”

This video is from Fox News’ Fox & Friends, broadcast Sept. 25, 2009.

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Download video via RawReplay.com