Fox News host slammed for linking Baltimore Key bridge disaster to immigration: ‘Reprehensible stupidity’

Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo has been slammed after she attempted to link the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore to Joe Biden’s immigration policy.

In an early morning broadcast on the right-wing channel, Bartiromo asked US Senator Rick Scott for his take on the bridge collapse, linking it to the “wide-open border.”

“Let me also get your take on what’s going on in terms of world affairs. The White House has issued a statement on this saying that ‘There’s no indication of nefarious intent in the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge,’” Ms Bartiromo said.

“The ship involved in the collapse of the bridge is 948 feet long, called The Dali, a Singaporean-flag container, but of course you’ve been talking a lot about the potential for wrongdoing or potential for foul play given the wide-open border. That is why you have been so adamant,” she added.

There is no suggestion or evidence that the bridge’s collapse was in any way linked to federal immigration policy.

Ms Bartiromo was slammed for her remarks, with MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle describing her comments as “reprehensible stupidity.”

“The people still unaccounted for...the workers who were on the job at 1AM fixing potholes... the families experiencing unimaginable grief today... They deserve better than this absolute garbage & reprehensible stupidity,” she wrote on X.

“What’s next, someone saying the Titanic hitting the iceberg is a result of Trump not building the wall?” another person wrote.

The tragic incident unfolded just before 1.30am ET local time on Tuesday morning when the Singapore-flagged Dali ship slammed into one of the bridge’s pillars.

Multiple cars were crossing over the bridge at the time, including one the size of a tractor-trailer.

Authorities said a group of workers were also on the bridge at the time of the collapse, who were “doing some concrete deck repair”.

Desperate rescue efforts are currently underway to find survivors in the freezing waters, with just two people pulled from the river so far and at least six unaccounted for.

Baltimore fire chief James Wallace said one person was rescued uninjured, while a second person, believed to be part of the work crew, was in a serious condition in hospital.

At least five vehicles were also submerged in the water after the crash, authorities said.

Meanwhile, Singapore’s port authority confirmed all 22 crew members who were on board the Dali were accounted for and there were no reports of any injuries.

Although the exact cause of the crash has not yet been determined, an unclassified intelligence report, obtained by ABC, revealed the Dali container ship “lost propulsion” as it was leaving port.

“The vessel notified MD Department of Transportation (MDOT) that they had lost control of the vessel and a collision with the bridge was possible,” ABC quoted the report by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency as saying. “The vessel struck the bridge causing a complete collapse.”

The FBI were on the scene of the crash on Tuesday morning, however, officials later confirmed that there was no indication that terrorism was involved in the incident and that the crash was not intentional.

At a press conference held in the hours after the incident, Baltimore mayor Brandon Scott said the bridge collapse was an “unthinkable tragedy.”

“We have to be thinking about the families and people impacted, folks who we have to try to find. This is what our focus should be on right now, we’re going to continue to work in partnership with every part of government to do everything we can to get us through the other side of this tragedy,” he said.

“Never would you think that you would see, physically see, the Key Bridge tumble down like that,” he added.

“It looked like something out of an action movie.”