Geraldo Rivera salutes affirmative action in final Fox News appearance

Geraldo Rivera used his final appearance on Fox News to praise affirmative action, which was struck down by the Supreme Court as it relates to college admissions this week.

Noting the court’s decision was “a very controversial decision that will impact many people of color,” Rivera said, “I was a product of affirmative action over a half a century ago.”

“When the Ford Foundation and Columbia Journalism School got together to integrate the local news teams in New York, there were no black reporters, no Hispanic reporters, no women. And it was shocking. And that was as late as 1968, ’69,” Rivera, 79, said Friday during an appearance on “Fox and Friends,” the network’s flagship morning talk program.

“So I was selected, I was making news representing a group of Puerto Rican activists, the Young Lords, who had taken over some buildings up in the Spanish Harlem, and I was their lawyer and their negotiator,” he continued. “And I made a lot of news as their spokesperson. And so I got discovered that way, and they drafted me through the Columbia program, and the rest is history.”

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More on SCOTUS’s affirmative action ruling from The Hill

• Supreme Court upends affirmative action in college admissions
• READ: Supreme Court’s affirmative action majority opinion
• Thomas in rare occurrence reads affirmative action opinion from bench
• Five things to know about Supreme Court’s decision to curtail college affirmative action
• Black leaders blast Supreme Court for overturning affirmative action

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Rivera announced this week he was leaving Fox after years at the network following his being taken off the network’s top-rated program “The Five.”

The hosts of “Fox and Friends” threw an on-air going away part of sorts for Rivera, complete with balloons and fake mustaches as a nod to the longtime television news personality’s trademark facial hair.

Rivera has not commented on what his plans are moving forward, or if he will seek a future in the broadcasting business, but in a Twitter message earlier this week he posted a picture of himself shirtless in a pool with the caption, “80 year old contemplating retirement.”