“Went overboard…”
Fox News co-host Bob Beckel apologized for calling Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, a “punk” on The Five on Wednesday saying it was “not necessary.”
Beckel’s comments occurred during a segment on the program discussing Chaffetz’s comments earlier in the day contending Americans will have more freedom under the Republican healthcare plan and with it, more responsibility.
“Well, we’re getting rid of the individual mandate. We’re getting rid of those things that people said that they don’t want,” Chaffetz said.
He continued: “Americans have choices. And they’ve got to make a choice, and so maybe rather than getting that new iPhone that they just love and they want to go spend hundreds of dollars on that, maybe they should invest in their own health care. They’ve got to make those decisions themselves.”
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and numerous media outlets pounced on Chaffetz’s iPhone comment.
However, in introducing the segment on The Five, Fox News played a clip of then President Barack Obama saying essentially the same thing in March 2014 about the spending decisions people must make.
“What I would say is if you looked at that person’s budget and you look at their cable bill, their telephone bill, their cell phone bill, and other things they are spending on, it may turn out they just haven’t prioritized healthcare because right now everybody’s healthy,” Obama said. “Nobody actually wants to spend money on health insurance until they get sick.”
The Five co-host Brian Kilmeade put the question to Beckel on the media’s apparent hypocrisy in going after Chaffetz’s for his remarks.
“It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it and what party you’re with, right Bob?” Kilmeade queried.
Beckel responded, “First of all, Chaffetz, that punk…”
The former Democrat political operative stopped himself mid-sentence, seeming to realize he had gone too far.
Other co-hosts jumped in as well, reinforcing that he had.
Beckel later took to Twitter to apologize.
Robert G Beckel✔@RobertGBeckel
Went overboard on The Five today and called a Republican congressman a punk. It was not necessary and I regret it.
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“What we’re trying to say — and maybe I didn’t say it as smoothly as I possibly could — but people need to make a conscious choice and I believe in self-reliance,” he said. “And they’re going to have to make those decisions.”
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Source:westernjournalism.com