Appearing as a guest on Friday's Fox and Friends, FNC's Geraldo Rivera touted GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump as "the reasonable man on the stage" at last night's presidential debate, and went on to praise Trump's "unparalleled courage" for taking a position of neutrality on the Arab-Israeli conflict.
After acknowledging that the GOP presidential candidate would have to answer for his history of having illegal immigrants doing construction work for him, Rivera brought up Trump's position on Israel as he added:
My point, Brian, is that in the big picture this was the reasonable man on the stage. How is that, that this is the person who stands up there and says in an act I think of unparalleled courage in American politics: "I am going to be neutral when it comes to Israel and the Arab surrounding nations...
After co-host Brian Kilmeade jumped in to complain, "Hamas is equal with Israel? That's an embarrassing statement!" Rivera continued:
Brian, do you want peace or do you want this deteriorating situation, this malignant situation to continue? He is a man who doesn't say, "I'm only on one side."
Below is a transcript of the relevant portion of the Friday, February 26, Fox and Friends on FNC:
8:18 a.m. ET
GERALDO RIVERA: I think that that particular story is an embarrassment Donald Trump has to deal with. My point, Brian, is that in the big picture this was the reasonable man on the stage. How is that, that this is the person who stands up there and says in an act I think of unparalleled courage in American politics: "I am going to be neutral when it comes to Israel and the Arab surrounding nations, I want-"
BRIAN KILMEADE: Hamas is equal with Israel? That's an embarrassing statement!
RIVERA: It's the other -- Brian, do you want peace or do you want this deteriorating situation, this malignant situation to continue? He is a man who doesn't say, "I'm only on one side." He's a man who says, I want, don't you think-
KILMEADE: An eleventh grade social studies kid would know the answer to that question.
RIVERA: All right, let me ask you this, let me ask you this: Can anyone put these people together in a room and negotiate in the way that Trump has negotiated: "What do you give up? What do you give up? Okay, I'll give this street, I'll give you that neighborhood. You can have that wall. You can have this synagogue. You can have that mosque." I think that Trump is the only one that can reasonably negotiate a deal in the Middle East.
KILMEADE: He doesn't even understand the history of the -- he doesn't even understand the history of the peace talks. You got to go there with the knowledge and a fundamental understanding.
