Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner addressed what she called the “little incident” with Newt Gingrich a day after he was shut down for invoking liberal billionaire George Soros.
On Thursday’s episode of Outnumbered, Faulkner said the awkward exchange the day before “was not smooth,” adding that each person on the panel-styled show should be given the opportunity to speak.
“So, we had a little incident on the show yesterday that was not smooth,” she said. “While I was leading that segment, we had interruptions, and I sat silently while all of that played out. Also not ideal. Our guest, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who is beloved and needed to be allowed to speak with the openness and respect that the show was all about, was interrupted. Do we debate with fire here? Yes. But we must also give each other the space to express ourselves.”
The moment of reflection came a day after Gingrich brought up Soros, linking the wealthy Democratic donor to the violent riots that have caused damage across the country over the last few months.
“The No. 1 problem in almost all the cities is George Soros-elected, left-wing, anti-police, pro-criminal district attorneys who refuse to keep people locked up,” Gingrich said. “Both Harris and Biden have talked very proudly about what they call progressive district attorneys. Progressive district attorneys are anti-police, pro-criminal, and overwhelmingly elected with George Soros’s money. And they are a major cause of the violence we are seeing because they keep putting the violent criminals back on the street.”
Two other people who appeared on the show, commentator Melissa Francis and former State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf, pushed back on the former speaker, arguing that Soros was not relevant to the conversation.
Soros, a Jewish, Hungarian-born billionaire and philanthropist, has been involved in political lobbying and reportedly spent at least $48 million on in 2019 alone. The 90-year-old with a net worth of roughly $8 billion has poured tens of millions into political campaigns across the country, specifically in races for district attorney.
These political contributions have fed into claims and conspiracy theories, including anti-Semitic tropes, that Soros has outsized influence in the world.
“Why are some in the left so afraid of our mentioning George Soros’ name that they scream anti-semitic? It IS his name. He IS funding pro-criminal,anti police district attorneys. Why is the left afraid of the facts?” Gingrich tweeted more than a week ago.
