Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner made it clear she was less than impressed when a guest referred to her as “far right” in a segment on the right-wing network this week.
During her show The Faulkner Focus on Thursday morning, Ms Faulker was joined by Democratic politician Desiree Tims and GOP strategist David Avella for a debate about the launch of President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign.
The exchange became heated when talk turned to who will be the likely Republican candidate to take on the current president in the 2024 White House race.
Ms Tims predicted that the US is headed for a 2020 Trump-Biden rematch – pointing out some polls that place Mr Biden “crushing” Donald Trump.
“There are also polls that came out recently that show President Biden absolutely crushing former President Donald Trump,” she said.
“Look, the reality is we’re gonna have another match-up in 2024 between likely President Biden and President Donald Trump and I think the results are gonna be the same.”
Ms Faulkner interrupted her guest at that point, saying that this is the outcome that Democrats want.
“I know you want it to be him [Mr Trump] and I believe you believe that it will be,” she said.
Ms Tims responded by saying that “you guys on the far right” are instead hoping for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis as the Republican nominee.
“I know you guys on the far right really want Ron DeSantis to be the nominee but I don’t think he has the charisma or personality to beat out the entertainer-in-chief,” she said.
Ms Faulkner clearly took issue with being labelled “far right”, firing back that she is actually “a journalist”.
“I don’t know who you are talking to in terms of ‘you guys,’ I know that that wasn’t meant for me,” she said, speaking over Ms Tims.
“I’m a journalist!”
Ms Tims appeared to ignore the anchor’s response, prompting Ms Faulkner to reiterate what she said during a lull in the discussion.
“So, and hopefully, yeah, OK, I’m sure you heard what I said,” she said.
The altercation comes amid a turbulent time for Fox News, as the network reached a $787m settlement with Dominion Voting Systems and fired its top TV personality Tucker Carlson.
Carlson was fired on Monday following what is said to have been a direct order from Rupert Murdoch.
Fox News has still offered no explanation for the sudden exit of one of its most-watched host but several explanations have cropped up in reports.
His ousting came just days after the network agreed to pay $787m to Dominion over election lies the software company claimed were pushed on Carlson’s and other personality’s shows.
While the payout avoided a trial, it was too late to prevent embarrassment from court filings including messages where Carlson complained about Fox News exceutives.
