Geraldo Rivera to Dem Cohen: Apologize for Purple Heart Slur

Geraldo Rivera says Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee owes the military an apology for saying FBI agent Peter Strzok deserves a Purple Heart, the prestigious military decoration given to soldiers wounded or killed in combat.

"I think Congressman Cohen owes all of the service members who have been killed or wounded in action a heart-felt apology. He never should have gone there," the Fox News personality said Friday on "Fox & Friends."

"There are some places where even in the most outrageously partisan, rhetorical debate … you cannot go and you cannot use the Purple Heart to cloak a political operator in immunity. I think it's really, really unfortunate and Congressman Cohen owes those families an apology."

On Thursday, Cohen said Thursday the embattled FBI agent deserves a Purple Heart for his testimony in front of a congressional hearing during which he was pounded by Republicans over anti-Trump text messages he wrote.

"If I could give you a Purple Heart, I would. You deserve one," Cohen said at the joint hearing before the House Judiciary Committee and House Oversight and Government Reform Committees.

Rivera said: "I do believe that the Republicans have attacked Peter Strzok as a way of discrediting [special counsel] Robert Mueller. I think that Congressman Cohen is right about that.

But, he added, "Having covered the war in Afghanistan … in Iraq. Having attended many, many memorials for wounded and killed service members … and then to have a congressman in that flamboyant way use the Purple Heart, almost as an obscenity, to give to a political operator within the FBI and the Justice Department, I think is really obscene."

• John Sununu on Peter Strzok: 'Liar, Liar Pants on Fire'
• Jeffrey Lord: 'Partisan' Peter Strzok Must Get the Ax