Fox Business Anchor Calls Joe Biden 'Numb Nuts' on the Air, Says He's 'Talking Out of His Backside

A Fox Business Network anchor called Vice President Joe Biden "numb nuts" on the air Saturday when discussing Biden's recent statements that crime rates will go up if President Barack Obama's jobs bill is not passed.

Dagen McDowell, appearing on a Fox News panel with Neil Cavuto and several other guests, said she took issue with the "scare tactics" the White House has been employing to get the bill passed.

"They're lecturing and hectoring," McDowell said. "President Obama said in July, and I quote, part of the problem with the political proccess is folks are rewarded for saying irresponsible things to win elections or obtain short-term political gain -- and then you've got Numb Nuts out on the campaign trail talking like, he's talking out of his backside."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Cavuto said quickly while the other guests sounded similarly shocked.

As a lot of crosstalk ensued, Fox Business Network correspondent Charles Gasparino asked if anyone was actually surprised Biden was making such statements. He then suggested that calling the vice president "off his rocker" might be a better euphemism.

"I object to calling the vice president a ‘numb nut,’ just to state that for the record," Fortune Magazine editor Adam Lashinsky cut in.

McDowell, seeming to realize what she had said, replied, "I wasn't talking about him," but did not offer any additional explanation.

Mediaite's Frances Martel described the exchange this way:

This kind of language is prima facie unacceptable in political discourse, clearly, but the video is still something of a marvel, as the rest of the panel tries to initially understand what just happened and then distance themselves from it in some sort of dignified fashion.

Earlier this week, Biden told a reporter who questioned the appropriateness of his statements about rape and murder rates,  "Don't screw around with me." Statistics show crime rates have actually fallen in Flint, Mich., the city Biden referenced in his remarks.

MSNBC suspended Time Magazine editor and network contributor Mark Halperin after he called Obama "kind of a d*ck" on live TV in June.

(h/t Mediaite)