Geraldo Rivera Calls Greg Gutfeld an “Insulting Punk” in Abortion Debate

Whoever tuned into FOX News’ The Five on May 4 saw Greg Gutfeld, a comedian-turned-commentator, get into a shouting match with Geraldo Rivera, a veteran TV personality with a net worth reportedly in the millions.

The on-air fight went viral in headlines and on social media, but even so, Rivera might not have the name recognition that he did at the height of his talk-show fame. So, here’s more information on Rivera, his career, and his showdown with Gutfeld.

On The Five on May 4, Rivera and Gutfeld disagreed about the leaked Supreme Court majority opinion draft that would overturn Roe. v. Wade. And as the two men grew heated, Rivera even called Gutfeld an “insulting punk,” as HuffPost reports. Gutfeld argued that pro-choice people “don’t have the balls to state their case plainly” and should just say they “prefer freedom over fetuses.” He also said that those who support a woman’s right to abortion are “more concerned about what they will lose than what they will gain.”

But Rivera thought Gutfeld’s points were “baloney,” saying, “What am I going to tell my daughters now, that they don’t have control over their body? That they can’t make those choices for themselves? That some old man scratching his belly in some other state is going to [make that choice for you]?” Rivera seemingly referenced his and Gutfeld’s intense debate that night, tweeting, “The Five is a fun place to work because all points of view have freedom to speak their minds.”

And in a series of tweets on May 6, Rivera said that the “storm over abortion rights is only beginning.

“Don’t be surprised at the scale of the disruptions, including widespread protests and civil disorder,” he said, in part. “However you stand on abortion, everyone understand that what was for 49 years deemed a constitutional right, is being taken away. Disruption and reaction are unavoidable. … American politics will now mostly be about abortion. That is the battleground. Immigration, war, even inflation will pale in comparison to the heat this brings.”

A lawyer by training, Rivera began his television career more than 50 years ago, with a reporting job at WABC-TV in New York. A few years later, he went national with a job co-anchoring Good Night America and regular investigative reports on 20/20. And from 1987 to 1998, he hosted the daytime talk show Geraldo, which memorably aired a 1988 fight between white supremacists, Black activists, and Jewish activists, during which Rivera suffered a broken nose.

Rivera is also a seasoned war reporter, according to his FOX News bio, which mentions that the 78-year-old has “been on the frontlines in virtually every international conflict since 1973.” In fact, he joined FOX News as a war correspondent in 2001 before hosting Geraldo at Large on the channel. According to Celebrity Net Worth, Rivera has a net worth of $20 million.