Rachel Maddow is none too pleased about the firing of “60 Minutes” veteran Scott Pelley this week, and she minced no words about it on Tuesday night. The MS NOW host promptly called out the “Hungarian-style oligarchic takeover” of CBS, live on-air.

In discussing the news, Maddow argued that new “60 Minutes” executive producer Nick Bilton was “installed” at the show “as part of the sort of bald-faced Hungarian-style oligarchic takeover of that news organization,” and marveled at his termination letter to Pelley.

“I mean that sort of as a joke but also sort of deadly serious,” Maddow said. “I mean, there’s nobody who is more acutely attuned to the value of a free press than those who are trying to take it away. And when the president baldly says, ‘I am going to use the power of the state in order to get the media that I want,’ and he lines up oligarchic friends in order to do that for him … again, there’s no pretense.”

“There’s no saying this is for any other reason,” Maddow continued. “There’s nothing else going on at CBS news other than what we can see is happening at CBS News.”

Maddow added that she has no idea where Pelley will land after CBS, but hoped that it could possibly be MS NOW. Regardless of where Pelley goes next though, Maddow simply wants him on-air.

“I hope he’s on TV tomorrow, and I hope that everybody in journalism and everybody who values a free press, figures out ways to outmaneuver the people who are trying to take the free press from us,” she said. “But it is a fully joined fight at this point.”

Alicia Menendez readily agreed, and added that she takes Cecilia Vega, another “60 Minutes” correspondent who was recently fired, at her word when Vega called out the current environment at the show, and at the network.

“So I am with you 100% on the fact that there is nothing to litigate here,” Menendez said. “It is very clear what they are doing. The mandate for Bari Weiss is not excellent journalism, or editorial discretion, or to turn this into a new product. No, it’s to grease the wheels of her corporate overlords, and let’s be honest, stars across the board when it comes to that objective.”

You can watch the full discussion from MS NOW in the video above.