OAN anchor patrolled news offices with handgun after homeless man got in building: report

A top anchor at the far-right One America News Network (OAN), Dan Ball, patrolled the halls of the network's headquarters openly carrying a handgun earlier this year, in response to a homeless man getting into the building, reported The Daily Beast's Confider on Monday.

"A female on-air personality was visibly shaken after encountering the unauthorized visitor in the building early one morning, these sources said. 'It can be kind of scary at the studio on the early morning shift when you are pretty much the only person there,' one OAN insider explained. 'Especially on the weekends when you are basically there alone,'" reported Justin Baragona.

That's when Ball, "who views himself as the face of the network," sprang into action, with word spreading across the staff.

"It got to the point where Dan was walking around with his firearm downstairs like some sort of Howdy Doody, like he was going to stop someone if they came in," another OAN insider added. "It was just way over the top. The bravado and the ego was very much what fueled it."

California has strict regulations on open carrying of handguns in public, but the law allows it in certain private business establishments if the person is lawfully licensed.

According to the report, Ball took it upon himself to undertake this vigilante patrol in large part because OAN's meager budget doesn't have enough for a full-sized professional security operation.

"The Trump-boosting channel has faced extinction ever since DirecTV and other providers dropped it, costing OAN nearly all of its revenue. In recent months, the network has cut costs by closing up its Florida and New York offices and reducing its D.C. operations to a couple of staffers," said the report, as another example of how tight money is for the network. "Furthermore, despite devoting much of its programming to illegal immigration, OAN staffers told Confider that ownership won’t even send reporters to the U.S.-Mexico border even though it is only 15 miles away."

Reached for comment by Confider, Ball reacted in fury, calling the reporter a “f--king hack,” hanging up, and sending an email with the message: “Go print your lies, like you always do … You are just a lying POS propagandist for the left. Oh, and go f--k yourself. Print that.”

Ball, who has previously interviewed Trump in an exchange where the former president promoted his election conspiracy theories, reportedly mortified his own network earlier this year when he starred in a music video with pro-MAGA rapper Forgiato Blow, where he danced and spat lyrics criticizing prosecutors for indicting Trump.