Fox News host Neil Cavuto dropped Catholic League President Bill Donohue like a hot potato during live coverage of the devastating fire at France’s Notre Dame Cathedral after the right-wing conspiracy theorist refused to stop speculating about the cause of the blaze.
Donohue, a telephone guest on Monday’s edition of Your World with Neil Cavuto lasted a mere 70 seconds before Cavuto dropped him.
Cavuto remarked the cathedral will be forever scarred by this tragedy and Donahue immediately brought up conspiracy theories.
“Well Neil, if it is an accident, it’s a monumental tragedy,” Donahue said. “But forgive me for being suspicious.”
“Just last month, a 17th-Century church was set on fire in paris,” he said. “We have seen tabernacles knocked down, crosses have been torn down, statues have been smashed.”
Cavuto jumped right in.
“Bill we don’t know that, we don’t know,” Cavuto said. “So if we can avoid what your suspicions might be, I do want to look at what happens now.”
The Fox News host added the renovation effort was pricey and involved a number of Catholic fundraising campaigns.
“I know in this country and abroad, this renovation was paid for upfront,” Cavuto said.”
He followed that up by asking Donohue “How much more the Catholic Church commits to this, or do you think now they first want to get to the bottom of it?”
But the idea of conspiracy theories was apparently too much for Donohue to ignore.
“Well first they have to get to the bottom of it, and they will rebuild it, there’s no question about that,” Donohue said. “I’m sorry when I find out that the Eucharist is being destroyed and excrement is being smeared on crosses, this is what’s going on now.”
At this point, Cavuto realized Donohue wasn’t going to change his tune so he gave his tone-deaf guest the boot.
“Wait a minute Bill, I love you but we cannot make conjectures about this so thank you, Bill, I’m sorry, thank you very very much,” he said, dropping the call.
And he offered a brief explanation to his viewers.
“I do want to let people know, and again we’re not trying to be rude to our guests here, but there is so much we do not know about what happened here,” he said.
Cavuto noted that while instances like those described by Donohue have occurred, “it is another leap to start taking views like that.”
Fox anchor Shephard Smith also kicked a guest off the network for stubbornly speculating on the cause of the fire, and apparently, even president Donald Trump seemed to allude to the possibility that the fire was deliberately set by saying “I hope the cause of the fire was the renovation.”
BuzzFeed News reports that the cause of the fire remains unclear, but the cathedral has been undergoing extensive renovations. Law enforcement officials are looking into how the fire started but the Paris prosecutor’s office said it’s believed the fire was accidentally started.
You can watch Neil Cavuto drop kick Donahue in the video below. In the video following that, Donahue offers a disturbing defense for the Vatican’s sins.
Featured image courtesy of the video above
