Laura Ingraham Abruptly Ends Interview After Being Called Out by Guest

Fox News' Laura Ingraham quickly ended an interview on her show with activist and author Steve Almond after he raised a sensitive issue for the presenter.

Almond was on the show to discuss the future of the NFL in the wake of the cardiac arrest suffered by Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin following a tackle during a game on Monday.

Almond, who wrote the book Against Football: One Fan's Reluctant Manifesto, said that the NFL must feel economic pressure from its fans before it will take the steps needed to improve safety for players.

Speaking to Ingraham on her Wednesday show, the pair got into a spat that resulted in the Fox News host abruptly terminating the interview.

Ingraham did this after Almond compared the pressure he felt needed to be placed on the NFL to that felt by Fox News after Ingraham was criticized for a tweet mocking a survivor of the 2018 Parkland Stoneman Douglas High school shooting.

Almond said: "I am focused on the fans, and what I essentially believe, not any government ban is going to make football safer, certainly not some mythic woke mob that you mentioned to try and scare your viewers."

Ingraham interrupted to say: "I'm not trying to scare my viewers, football is not about politics."

Almond replied: "I think that is your entire economic model. Your entire economic model is to scare your viewers, that is your whole gig."

Ingraham then began to speak over her guest and insisted that he wanted football to be banned.

She argued that there were probably many ways to make many sports safer, including baseball and lacrosse.

"Underneath it all you seem to have the belief that football has a history based in racism, and a celebration of the fans, of violence," she said.

"What I am saying to you is, I don't know what kind of fan base you are going to, but they don't celebrate violence, they are there to enjoy the game."

Almond answered: "I agree with you Laura, I don't think the fans are there to celebrate violence.

"I think they tolerate the violence and they see when someone like Damar Hamlin is almost killed in front of them and I remember watching Darryl Stingley get paralyzed, as an 11-year-old.

"I didn't stop watching football and lots of fans don't stop watching football because they enjoy it so much because it is so thrilling.

"The reason people change their behavior is because there is an economic incentive. Couple of years ago when you taunted the survivor of the Parkland mass shooting, you apologized only because advertisers withdrew from your show."

Almond was then cut off and Ingraham continued: "Yeah, yeah, yeah, nice try little buddy. I appreciate it. This is what they always do."

Following a backlash after her tweet on the Parkland mass shooting survivor, Ingraham apologized on her Twitter page, although some advertisers continued to abandon her show.

Newsweek has contacted Fox News for comment.