'We don't censor on this show': Harris Faulkner denies banning criticism of George Soros after online backlash

Fox News host Harris Faulkner addressed the social media outrage over a bizarre moment when one of their guests appeared to be barred from speaking about George Soros.

Faulkner denied the show had censored speech in a statement made on air on Thursday.

"So, we had a little incident on the show yesterday that was not smooth," said Faulkner.

"And while I was leading that segment we had interruptions and I sat silently while all of that played out, also not ideal. Our guest former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who is beloved and needed to be allowed to speak with the openness and respect that this show is all about, was interrupted," she explained.

"Do we debate with fire here? Yes! But we must also give each other the space to express ourselves. As the only original member of this six-year-old amazing daytime ride known as 'Outnumbered' — I especially want to rock and roll with every voice and perspective at the table," Faulkner said.

"We don't censor on this show," she concluded. "And that's why we are winning weekdays at noon!"

Here's what happened

Faulkner and her co-host Melissa Francis faced scathing criticism on Wednesday from viewers who believed that they had banned criticism of left-wing billionaire financier George Soros.

Gingrich pointed out, correctly, that Soros had helped fund left-wing organizations that aided many district attorneys in getting into power to soften law enforcement policies.

"Progressive district attorneys are anti-police, pro-criminal, and overwhelmingly elected with George Soros's money. And they are a major cause of the violence we are seeing because they keep putting the violent criminals back on the street," Gingrich said.

"I'm not sure we need to bring George Soros into this," interrupted Francis.

Faulkner moved on after a very awkward and tense moment of silence between the panelists.

Some critics pointed out that many of the facts Gingrich listed about Soros' meddling in law enforcement had been reported by Fox News itself, most notably in July.

On her official Twitter account, Faulkner retweeted a message on Thursday that reiterated that she did not apologize for the incident, but simply explained what happened to the viewers.

Here's the video of Faulker's comments: