Good Morning Britain's ever-outspoken host Piers Morgan had a furious exchange of words with former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani during an interview today, with the 76-year-old politician even going so far as to drop the F-bomb live on air.
After the segment aired, industry regulator Ofcom was hit with 135 complaints, although Morgan apologised very soon after Giuliani swore.
The argument began after Morgan quote one of US President Donald Trump's recent tweets, which contained the words 'when the looting starts, the shooting starts' - a phrase originally used by notoriously racist Miami police chief Walter Headley in 1967.
Morgan told Giuliani: "He should never have said it and you should be big enough to admit he shouldn't have said it."
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Republican Giuliani - who now serves as Trump's lawyer - then accused Morgan of distorting the facts.
"You have misinterpreted him on purpose," he told the host. "It was an accurate warning and it actually happened - people have been killed."
He also claimed that Trump 'doesn't have a racist bone in his body'.
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Morgan then got a bit more aggressive in his challenging of the former mayor, replying: "I quoted him from his own tweet, what are you talking about?
"I don't care if he knew [where the quote came from] or not, why the hell is he using such inflammatory language?"
After Giuliani said that he 'happen[s] to be in favour of truth and justice', Morgan said that the American lawyer sounded 'completely barking mad', telling him: "You've lost the plot."
That's when things really escalated, and Giuliani attacked Morgan, honing in on the fact that the British presenter was sacked from his high profile job at US TV network CNN in 2014.
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"Everyone in America knows you're a failed journalist," Giuliani said. "I know what happened to your show, Piers, and I remember the mistakes you made, and I remember that you f***ed up. You can say anything you want about me, you are trying to create violence in the country."
Morgan and co-host Susanna Reid - who also tried to defuse tensions as the row was escalating - swiftly apologised for the lawyer's outburst. The row continued a little longer, before the video link was cut.
"Just to remind our viewers, this all started when we read out a tweet from the President of the United States," said Morgan.
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"The worry is that that's Trump's lawyer, when people who are friends with the most powerful people in the world, they should hold them to account and tell them when they're going wrong.
"What you don't say is what Rudy just said because that makes things 10 times worse."
He then added: "Anyone offended by that, I'm sorry - I didn't expect it to go that way."
Featured Image Credit: ITVTopics: TV and Film, Good Morning Britain, US News, Donald Trump, Piers Morgan
