'When did we become the party of child abuse?': Geraldo Rivera rips Trump's zero tolerance policy in Sean Hannity interview that went off the rails

Fox News

Geraldo Rivera appears on Fox News' "Sean Hannity" on June 19, 2018.

• In an interview with Sean Hannity on Tuesday night, Fox News commentator Geraldo Rivera ripped President Donald Trump's zero tolerance border policy, calling it "child abuse."
• Rivera pushed back on Trump's false claims that he can't stop families from being separated at the border, calling on the president to stop his administration's policy.
• "When did we become the party of child abuse?" Rivera said to Hannity in a heated exchange before they cut to commercial.

In an interview with Sean Hannity on Tuesday night, Fox News commentator Geraldo Rivera ripped President Donald Trump's zero tolerance border policy, calling it "child abuse" and "cruelty".

"This is cruelty as policy," Rivera said after Hannity accused the Democrats of playing politics. "This is an obscenity. This is the government of the United States and the president that we both love, advocating a system by which young children are torn from their mothers."

After Hannity tried to cut him off, Rivera continued by saying that people need to stand up to this immigration policy and do something.

"2,300 children have been torn from their parents forcibly!" Rivera said. "These are little babies, 18 months old. These are 10-year-olds with disabilities! Taken from their parents. This is impossible. We can't condone this. The Republicans are the party of faith and family. When did we become the party of child abuse?"

Hannity's other guest, conservative pundit Chris Farrell from Judicial Watch, attempted to jump into the conversation before Rivera once again reiterated that the policy is a form of child abuse.

Hannity said that it was up to Congress to sit down with Trump and put together an immigration bill for the separation policy to be ended - one of Trump's false claims about the issue - but Rivera said Trump should end it himself given that his administration implemented the zero-tolerance policy.

A fellow New Yorker who also appeared on the president's reality show "Celebrity Apprentice", Rivera is good friends with Trump but doesn't always support his policies.

Rivera's criticism of Trump's policy comes amid growing outrage from members of both political parties over children being detained and separated from their parents when crossing the southern border illegally. Rivera is the latest of several notable Republicans to urge Trump to bring an end to this policy.