Former Newsmax host Grant Stinchfield took aim at his successor Eric Bolling on Wednesday, telling him to “sue your plastic surgeon” after the ex-Fox News star bashed him and other right-wing personalities for baselessly linking COVID-19 vaccines to an NFL player’s cardiac arrest.
Immediately after Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed on Monday night and was administered CPR on the field, Stinchfield joined other prominent anti-vaxxers in blaming Hamlin’s life-threatening incident on the NFL’s vaccine mandate. MAGA grifters and conspiracy theorists have rallied around the #DiedSuddenly movement, which misleadingly claims that young athletes are dropping like flies because of the vaccination.
While the specter of far-right cranks using Hamlin’s medical emergency to shamelessly appeal to the anti-vaccine crowd drew expected pushback, Bolling also surprisingly took a swing at the conspiracy mongering.
During Tuesday’s broadcast of his primetime Newsmax program, the conservative host blasted “opportunists who used that moment to score political points” over the vaccine as “a young man lay dying and dead, literally, for a moment.” And while he didn’t directly mention Stinchfield in his monologue, his production team plastered the ex-Newsmax star’s tweet on the screen.
“These people lost all compassion, and the only emotion they could muster up was opportunism,” Bolling continued. “And for what end? To be first to be able to tell some Twitter followers you were first to blame the vaccine? Are we so empty? Are we so empty that we need to score a first comment on a divisive issue that we ignore what was happening on that field right there?”
Bolling, who recently let disgraced journalist Lara Logan spew blood libel and unhinged QAnon theories on his show, further criticized anti-vaxxers for tying heart-related athlete deaths to the vaccines. At the same time, though, he assured his viewers that he’s “vehemently against mandates” and feels vaccinations should be a personal choice.
It didn’t take long for Stinchfield to fire back in predictably Trumpian fashion.
“Eric Bolling, buddy, this is how out of touch you are,” Stinchfield exclaimed in a video posted to his social-media accounts. “You called me an opportunist literally when I’m trying to save lives! But you don’t get it about all that, do you?”
Prior to Newsmax unceremoniously dumping his primetime show last June and replacing him with Bolling, Stinchfield was outspoken over his refusal to get the shots. In fact, the then-Newsmax host was unable to attend his network’s holiday bash in December 2021 because the venue required proof of vaccination.
“Look, if I was President Trump I could do a massive takedown like this. President Trump would say something like the ratings-failure, low IQ Eric Bolling whose career is washed up and has to become a lapdog for the executives at Newsmax,” Stinchfield continued in his video, which was filmed while he walked along a street. “And he’ll do their bidding at all costs because he can’t get a job anywhere else.”
Bolling, who parted ways with Fox News in 2017 amid sexual misconduct allegations, joined Newsmax in 2021 after a stint at local TV giant Sinclair. Stinchfield, who has now lost jobs at NRA-TV and Newsmax, currently hosts a podcast and has recently been guest-hosting broadcasts on an obscure Christian network.
“Eric, I would say this. Before you attack your friends, why don’t you look in the mirror and see if you like what you see? And then maybe you oughta sue your plastic surgeon for jacking your face all up,” Stinchfield sneered in his Twitter video. “But I’m not President Trump. I’m nicer than that.”
He concluded, snarkily: “Eric, listen to me. I can help you. I know your ratings aren’t where mine were. Just call me! I texted you. You can text me back. I got all kinds of advice. I can help you get the ratings back where they should be. But going on the attack and putting me in the great company of Tucker Carlson—you attacked the two of us. I guess any publicity is good publicity, so in the end, I should thank you.”
After he was effectively ghosted by Newsmax when the network pulled his primetime show, Stinchfield claimed he was canceled by the conservative channel for refusing to go after Carlson to increase his ratings. (Stinchfield’s program aired opposite Carlson’s primetime Fox News show.) Bolling, meanwhile, has repeatedly blasted his former Fox colleague—especially over Carlson’s Kremlin-friendly rhetoric since Russia invaded Ukraine.
As for TV ratings, Bolling’s viewership is largely on par with Stinchfield’s. In the latter’s final month on Newsmax, his show averaged 198,000 total viewers and 29,000 in the key advertising demographic of viewers ages 25-54, while placing fourth in its cable news time slot. During the first full quarter of Bolling’s show airing in primetime, the ex-Fox star attracted 207,000 viewers overall and 23,000 in the demo while also placing fourth during the 8 p.m. hour.
