DRAMA: Fox News Hosts’ Fiery On-Air Clash Sparks Buzz After Tension Boils Over
Things got tense between a pair of Fox News hosts and their guest on an episode of America’s Newsroom.
Fox News hosts got testy with a guest during a fiery clash (Image: Fox News)
An exchange with a guest got heated on the Friday, June 19 episode of America’s Newsroom on Fox News, as hosts Dana Perino and Matha McCollum fumed that their interview subject wasn’t “America first.”
The Fox News show welcomed Faiz Shakir, a senior adviser to Bernie Sanders, onto the program during the episode, as they talked about the support that Sanders and New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani have thrown to multiple Democratic Socialist candidates ahead of New York’s upcoming primaries.
As some hosts on the network have admitted their support for Donald Trump has cost them relationships, others continue to double down on their convictions about the president’s policies – and that appeared to be the case as Perino and McCollum grilled Shakir.
Bringing him in to talk about the platform held by candidates like Darializa Avila Chevalier, Claire Valdex and Brad Lander, the two women appeared to take issue with his views on several different topics.
As a result, they had some fiery exchanges with the adviser as he explained why he believed in Democratic Socialist policies.
Dana Perino showed exasperation with a guest on America’s Newsroom (Image: Fox News)
The hosts quickly showed exasperation with their guest as he explained a number of the party’s platforms, and also seemed to co-opt the “America First” platform in an attempt to explain that Donald Trump’s policies were not.
“The fact that American taxpayer dollars are unfortunately not spending money on housing, not spending money on improving infrastructure, and instead, having many millions of dollars, billions of dollars, to spend overseas, and this is a bigger issue. You’re seeing it play out…what are some of the issues, the desire to invest in America first,” he said.
“The point about what President Trump was saying is that he accomplished his goals,” Perino shot back, referencing the agreement to end the war in Iran. “He was getting to the MOU, and what he left with the other day was that he didn’t want a global recession. He didn’t want an economic depression. That is putting America First.”
Shakir continued with his thought, pointing out that a major part of the platform surrounded Medicare for All, and that the current administration continued claiming there wasn’t money for things like that, but always money for foreign wars and intervention
The guest, faiz Shakir argued for Democratic Socialist policies (Image: Fox News)
“Unfortunately, he led us down a path where America was not being put first, and we were in a bad place and he’s now pulled us back, and I applaud him for doing it,” he said. “However, I believe there were many of us who were arguing, don’t go into Iran, we have so many domestic priorities here at home and I believe, why can’t we have Medicare for all? We’re always told, ‘well, we’ve got to cut Medicaid because we don’t have money.’ Oh really we don’t have money? We’ve got money for wars we can’t find it for universal healthcare?”
The two hosts then doubled down on their viewpoints as they fired back.
“Where can you point to where we can see success with lifting people up in a way that is not empowering them to start their own business, to get a better education, to do all of the things that capitalism is really all about.”
“The corporate monopolies have too much control over the core of America, and if you talk about health insurance in every other country, modern major country in the world, it’s provided for and through the government. We are the only modern major country that doesn’t provide universal healthcare,” Shakir replied.
Perino repeatedly fought against Shakir’s comments (Image: Fox News)
As the women continued fighting him, Perino asked him if Obamacare was a failure.
“Not a failure, it expanded Medicaid, it gave subsidies to health insurance companies when we could be providing Medicare for all,” he replied.
“It doesn’t work,” Perino fumed, while McCollum said, “I have a friend in Poland, they have to wait months and months and months for a surgery that they need this week.”
“Medicare here is better than what you get with the National health service in Britain,” Perino added. “I lived there, believe me.”
Things also got heated with Martha McCollum (Image: Fox News)
The segment then ended with a more jovial reference to Team USA’s match in the World Cup, with Shakir quipping, “go Team USA today.”
However, while she applauded his remark, Perino ended the interview with a snarky remark.
“At least you’re rooting for America! Talk to your candidates,” she said.
