“Should we bring back Karl?” Pauline Hanson’s outburst on Today show
One Nation leader, Pauline Hanson, faced a tough interrogation regarding her party’s latest antics while appearing on a breakfast show this morning – but she snapped back with equal amounts of ferocity.
TV veteran and co-host of the Today show Deborah Knight grilled Hanson over the successive opinion polls that revealed her party’s primary vote has collapsed, almost halving over the duration of the campaign.
“The latest Newspoll, it shows support for One Nation collapsing to four per cent, on par with Clive Palmer’s party,” said Knight.
“In light of all the things you’ve faced, all the scandals, all the things that have been going on, can you really blame people for having doubts about One Nation and considering Clive (Palmer) over you?”
And to absolutely no one’s surprise, the question was not received well by the Queensland senator.
Hanson took aim at the Today show’s abysmal ratings, which have plummeted since Karl Stefanovic was sacked at the end of last year.
Knight was his replacement, co-hosting the show with Georgie Gardner. But despite her years of experience in front of the camera, the new duo have not proven to be popular amongst viewers.
“I’ve actually gone up since the last election, unlike your show, Deb, since you’ve actually taken over,” said Hanson. “You’ve actually gone down in your viewership.”
“Ooh, you’re having a go,” Knight fired back.
And that wasn’t the end of it, as the politician then criticised Knight’s ability as a host.
“So, should you hand over your job or should we bring Karl back? Should we bring Karl back? You have a go at me about this all the time.”
The attack, which visibly shocked Knight, was posted to Today show’s social media accounts, but was quickly taken down in a matter of minutes.
A video of the segment was then posted on the Today show’s Facebook page, but was heavily edited to cut out Hanson’s comments regarding the program’s viewership.
Hanson then took to her own Facebook page to comment on the altercation:
“I got a little fired up in this interview but when the media attacks, you have to hit back,” she said.
“Funny how they deleted my comments about their terrible ratings from the videos they put out on Twitter and Facebook. Just goes to show you can’t trust media to let you know what really happened!”