Politics

Fox Suspends David Bossie For Saying Black Host Is Out Of ‘Cotton-Picking Mind’

Fox & Friends Weekend/ Fox News/ Screenshot

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Vandana Rambaran Political Reporter
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Fox News Channel suspended President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager and current adviser to the president, David Bossie, from his duties as a contributor after he said a fellow guest was out of his “cotton-picking mind.”

While sparring with Democratic strategist Joel Payne over Democrats’ equating Trump voters to Nazis, Bossie interrupted Payne’s defense of the comments. (RELATED: Trump Surrogate: ‘The Mainstream Media Is In To Destroy This Presidency’ [VIDEO])

“You’re out of your cotton-picking mind,” Bossie said to Payne in the closing comments on Sunday’s edition of “Fox & Friends Weekend.”

“Let me tell you something, I’ve got some relatives who picked cotton, and I’m not going to sit here and allow you to attack me like that on TV,” Payne said. “I’m not out of my cotton picking mind.”

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Bossie later apologized for his comments on Twitter. “During a heated segment on Fox & Friends today, I should have chosen my words more carefully and never used the offensive phrase that I did. I apologize to Joel Payne, Fox News and its viewers,” he wrote.

Payne appeared later in the day on MSNBC, where he spoke to journalist David Gura about the incident.

“Unfortunately that’s par for the course for this president and the people who surround him,” Payne said of the adviser who Trump repeatedly refers to as one of his media “warriors,” a phrase used to dub the president’s loyalist supporters.

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Fox host Ed Henry condemned Bossie’s language following the segment. “David Bossie’s comments today were deeply offensive and wholly inappropriate,” he said. “His remarks do not reflect the sentiments of Fox News and we do not in any way condone them.”

The Fox News contributor has been suspended for two weeks following the incident.

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