This 'Unmanly' Trump Comment Made Fox News Co-Host Want to Spit

Fox News personality Geraldo Rivera is lashing out at former President Donald Trump for calling CNN host Kaitlan Collins "nasty" during his town hall event this week, deeming the remark "so unmanly."

Rivera, a veteran broadcaster and co-host of Fox News' The Five, said in a tweet on Friday that Trump's derogatory remark made him want to start "spitting," despite having "liked" the ex-president "through thick and thin." Rivera was a friend of Trump's before turning on him over his attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election result.

"I've liked President Trump over the decades through thick and thin, even after I pledged never again to support him after January 6th," Rivera tweeted. "But when he called Kaitlan Collins 'nasty' I felt like spitting. It was so unmanly."

Newsweek has reached out via email to the office of Trump for comment.

During the town hall in New Hampshire on Wednesday, Trump scoffed at Collins and said "you are a nasty person" after she pressed him on why he held onto classified federal documents at his Mar-a-Lago home even after receiving a federal subpoena to return them.

The audience burst into cheers and laughter after Trump used the familiar insult on Collins. The ex-president has a history of calling women he dislikes "nasty," having famously referred to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as a "nasty woman" during their 2016 presidential election debates.

The Trump-friendly town hall audience was composed of expected 2024 New Hampshire GOP presidential primary voters. With the event featuring frequent applause, cheers and approving laughter from the crowd, most of the audience appeared to already be solidly behind Trump.

In addition to breaking into laughter after Trump called Collins "nasty," the audience also laughed after the former president mocked former columnist E. Jean Carroll, who claims that he raped her, referring to the alleged rape as "hanky panky" while recalling her version of events.

Some speculated that the remarks about Carroll, whom a jury awarded $5 million on Tuesday after finding Trump liable for defamation and sexual abuse but not rape, may have opened the former president up to additional litigation.

On the night of the town hall, a Rivera tweet compared Trump's remarks at the event to a "buffalo stampede," saying that his comments on "immigration, inflation, energy, Ukraine, abortion & election denial were not fact based."

In a subsequent tweet, Rivera praised Collins for "standing toe-to-toe" with Trump and holding "the high ground" despite the event's "partisan crowd."

While the town hall featured several tense moments that included Collins pushing back against Trump's false claims that the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent and "rigged" against him, the event ended with a cordial exchange between the former president and the host.

Collins thanked Trump for participating in what she called "an important conversation," prompting Trump to shake her hand and say, "Thank you very much, Kaitlan. Good job."

The former president, who has repeatedly called CNN "fake news" in the past, also praised CNN in a Truth Social post on Thursday, thanking the network for providing him a forum to spread "the truth," despite criticism from "the radical left."