Fox News anchor Dana Perino became tearful during a segment on “America’s Newsroom” on Thursday in an interview with a survivor of domestic violence discussing Illinois’s move to end cash bail.
During the segment, Perino became tearful after Illinois woman Cassandra Tanner Miller, whose estranged husband, Chris Miller, attacked her family, described the violence she experienced.
Cassandra Tanner Miller said that she had just put her son down for a nap when Chris Miller appeared at her door and began to beat her and strangle her.
“My estranged husband was standing at my back door, whipped it open, stepped inside and said, ‘Are you all ready to die?’ ” Cassandra Tanner Miller said.
“I yelled to my daughter to go get my son, to get out and don’t stop for anything. But my estranged husband dragged me in front of the stairs blocking any exit that my children would have had,” she said.
Chris Miller killed her son, who was a toddler. However, Cassandra Tanner Miller and her daughter were able to escape to get to the hospital while Chris Miller killed himself in the home.
Chris Miller had been arrested earlier that month on aggravated assault and other charges but was released on a “no cash bail bond.” Cassandra Tanner Miller said the morning of the incident her husband was supposed to be in court for the charges.
Perino had tears in her eyes listening to the story and told co-anchor Trace Gallagher that “I don’t think I’ve ever cried on TV. That was really hard.”
“I understand that there is concern that cash bail has hurt segments of the population, that there’s concern that minorities are hurt more. But we also have to think about these victims,” Perino said.
The segment came after Illinois Gov. J.D. Pritzker (D) signed a bill that would make Illinois the first state to end cash bail by 2023, The Chicago Tribune reported.
Cassandra Tanner Miller met with Pritzker after the incident where he asked her how he could help prevent another tragedy like hers from happening again, she said.
She said she asked him not to sign the bill as no cash bail has harmed domestic violence survivors like her.
“He absolutely let me down. I made a plea to him prior to him signing this bill asking him to hold up and to actually think about victims,” Cassandra Tanner Miller said. “This is the problem with the justice system as in a whole is that the people that are in power that make promises … giving us false hope … only to let us down and put us more in harm’s way.”
“He completely failed the entire domestic violence community,” she added.