Fox News' Geraldo Rivera offers a very cringe-worthy defense of Matt Lauer: 'News is a flirty business'

Fox News correspondent Geraldo Rivera issued a flaming hot take on Wednesday about Matt Lauer, the recently fired Today show host accused of sexual harassment:

Rivera — who seems to have not thoroughly read the Variety article alleging that Lauer gave a sex toy to a colleague as a present, locked female employees in his office, and exposed himself to a co-worker — also suggested that recent allegations of sexual harassment against prominent men in the media were attempts to get back at "bad bosses or hated ex's" or were motivated by financial desires.

In 2016, Rivera made a similarly noxious tweet defending former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes against allegations of sexual harassment. He later apologized and urged people to report sexual harassment "even if the alleged offender is an old friend."

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In 1991, singer and actress Bette Midler told Barbara Walters in an interview that when she met Rivera in the '70s, he and his producer "pushed me into my bathroom, they broke two poppers and pushed them under my nose, and they proceeded to grope me." Kelly O'Meara Morales

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