PoliticsFox NewsUnited States SenateOhio

Geraldo Rivera Nixes Ohio Senate Run: 'Fox Freaked Out'

“Maybe if I kept my mouth shut another six months it would have been a different story,” the journalist told "Fox & Friends."
Open Image Modal
By 

Senior Reporter, HuffPost

Looks like Geraldo Rivera won’t be running to be a senator from Ohio after all.

Earlier this week, the veteran Fox News journalist floated a Twitter trial balloon hinting he was considering running to replace Republican Sen. Rob Portman, who will be retiring when his current term ends in 2022.

Rivera’s tweet attracted both support and ridicule, but he insisted he was serious, even suggesting this possible campaign slogan on Fox News: “Geraldo for Ohio, from the great river to the Great Lake, I will fight for you.”

But he apparently didn’t have that much fight in him because he changed his mind on Thursday.

On Friday, Rivera appeared on “Fox & Friends” and explained why he changed his mind.

“Well, you know what happens? You wake up, you have a dream and the thing is you probably should keep your dream to yourself,” Geraldo said. “Instead I started talking to [my wife] Erica about it and we both got very enthusiastic,” he said, adding that he could do a lot in that state as a moderate Republican.

Rivera also suggested the decision not to run was made at the behest of network executives.

“Fox freaked out, you know, said pick a lane, are you a journalist or a politician, and I wasn’t ready to, you know, jump off my current turnstile, so, instead I had to kind of embarrass myself and say never mind,” he said.

He added: “Maybe if I kept my mouth shut another six months it would have been a different story.”

Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), who is reportedly planning to run for Portman’s seat, jokingly breathed a sigh of relief at the news when interviewed by CNN.

“I was about ready to start growing a mustache. I mean, that’s where I was going,” he said.

Our 2024 Coverage Needs You

As Americans head to the polls in 2024, the very future of our country is at stake. At HuffPost, we believe that a free press is critical to creating well-informed voters. That's why our journalism is free for everyone, even though other newsrooms retreat behind expensive paywalls.

Our journalists will continue to cover the twists and turns during this historic presidential election. With your help, we'll bring you hard-hitting investigations, well-researched analysis and timely takes you can't find elsewhere. Reporting in this current political climate is a responsibility we do not take lightly, and we thank you for your support.

to keep our news free for all.

Support HuffPost

Before You Go

Geraldo Rivera
He Found Nothing(01 of10)
Open Image Modal
In Rivera's "The Mystery of Al Capone's Vaults," special broadcast he went on the hunt for the infamous gangster's treasure only to come up very short with a bunch of dirt and empty bottles. The special received a lot of attention and was one of the biggest disappointments in television history. (credit:AP)
He Has Been Attacked (02 of10)
Open Image Modal
During a 1988 taping of his show, a brawl erupted between John Metzger, a 20-year-old guest representing the White Aryan Resistance Youth, and Roy Innis, the chairman of the Congress of Racial Equality. Rivera, who got involved in the scuffle, was hit in the shoulder with a chair and then punched in the nose. The rumble left Geraldo with a broken nose. (credit:Getty)
He Has Claimed To Be 'On The Scene'(03 of10)
Open Image Modal
In 2001, while in Afghanistan, Rivera claimed in a Dec. 6 dispatch to have choked up after saying the Lord's Prayer over the "hallowed ground" in Afghanistan where "friendly fire took so many of our, our men and the mujahedeen yesterday", according to The Baltimore Sun, who first reported Rivera was actually hundreds of miles away from the friendly fire incident. Fox News Channel claims it was an honest mistake. (credit:Fox News)
He Has Gotten A Face Lift (04 of10)
Open Image Modal
There's never a dull moment when it comes to Geraldo Rivera and that was especially true in 1992 when the journalist submitted to a facelift in front of a studio audience. Fat from his rear end was used to fill in wrinkles on his face. (credit:Getty)
He Has Been Kicked Out Of Iraq (05 of10)
Open Image Modal
In 2003, Rivera, who was traveling with the 101st Airborne Division in Iraq, was de-accredited by the U.S. military for reporting on the position and movements of United States troops and compromising "operational security." (credit:Getty)
He Changed His Name (06 of10)
Open Image Modal
Geraldo's father's last name was Rivera, but his mother put down the name "Riviera" on his birth certificate because it sounded less Hispanic. She also gave him the first name Gerald - not Geraldo. But Gerald changed his name to Geraldo in the late '60s after a news director at WABC suggested a more ethnic-sounding name would be a plus. (credit:Getty)
He's On His Fifth Marriage(07 of10)
Open Image Modal
Rivera has been married five times in four decades! In 1965, he married Linda Coblentz. After they divorced, he married Edith Vonnegut in 1971 and a year later, he married Sherryl Raymond. Fifteen years later, Geraldo married C.C. Dayer in 1987, but that relationship ended in 2000. In 2003, Rivera tied the knot for the fifth time with one of his employees, Erica Levy, who is 32 years his junior. (credit:Getty)
He's A Self-Proclaimed Ladies Man (08 of10)
Open Image Modal
In his 1991 autobiography entitled "Exposing Myself," Rivera wrote that his policy with women was to keep "one steady and one on the side." The self-proclaimed ladies man - who later called the book "the colossal error" of his adult life- also claimed to have had flings, flirtations or affairs with Bette Middler, Liza Minnelli, and Marian Javits, as well as countless production assistants and groupies. (credit:Getty)
He's Jewish (09 of10)
Open Image Modal
Many people know that Geraldo's father is of Puerto Rican descent, but not everyone knows that his mother, Lilly Friedman, is Jewish. Orthodox Judaism holds that the faith is carried down through matrilineality, meaning anyone born to a Jewish mother are themselves Jewish. However, matrilineality is still contested in the greater Jewish community. Geraldo says he was raised "mostly Jewish" and had a bar mitzvah as a boy. (credit:Getty)
He Has Helped Others (10 of10)
Open Image Modal
In 1972, WABC-TV sent Geraldo to Staten Island to infiltrate the Willowbrooke State School (a Staten Island, N.Y., mental hospital). What Rivera uncovered at Willowbrook won him the Peabody Award, but more importantly, his expose on the degrading conditions children lived in at the mental hospital led to an immediate government inquiry. Willowbrook closed its doors in 1987. (credit:Getty)
Suggest a correction
|
Submit a tip