‘Vigilante Justice is a Crime’: Chris Wallace Triggers Tense Exchange on Kenosha After Rebuking Fox Co-Host

Fox News anchor Chris Wallace faulted Fox News contributor Katie Pavlich for implying that vigilante justice was an understandable response to a lack of police action amid protests — leading to a tense debate over what was actually said.

While the Outnumbered panel was discussing the ongoing protests in Kenosha following the police shooting of 29-year-old Black man Jacob Blake, Pavlich faulted Democratic leaders for failing to stop violence — arguing that vigilantes emerge without police officers present.

“The argument of vigilante justice, when you have no police around to defend businesses and people who are being attacked, and their livelihoods burned to the ground, there is a void that is filled,” she added. “You have to ask yourself, when resources are offered at the beginning of when these riots break out and rejected by Democratic leaders over and over again, you have to ask the question why.”

Pavlich used the protests in Baltimore as another example of demonstrations that became violent and destructive — claiming that the city’s leaders were not able to defend their citizens.

Fox News host Melissa Francis praised Pavlich for making that point and added that state and city leaders are just as responsible for the violence as vigilantes are.

Following the break, Wallace made it known to the rest of the panel that he took issue with Pavlich’s choice of words and faulted her for implying that the vigilante’s actions were justifiable.

“I’ve got to push back on something we said at the end of the last segment because there seemed to be the implication that somehow vigilante justice was understandable or justified by the lack of sufficient police action and authority and presence in some of these cities –” Wallace said before Francis cut him off. 

Francis claimed that was not what was said in the last segment but Wallace pushed back, pointing out that it was still implied. “Let me finish,” Wallace said, as Pavlich asked which co-host he was referring to.

“Just as it is fair to say that rioting and looting is a completely inappropriate response to George Floyd or Jacob Blake, vigilante justice is a completely inappropriate response to the rioting in the street,” Wallace added. “There is no justification for what happened in Kenosha and vigilante justice is a crime and should be punished as a crime.”

Francis said that Wallace’s statement was obvious, twice, before Harris Faulkner stressed again that the statement was never made.

“You were saying ‘fill a void’ and I don’t think that’s right,” Wallace shot back.

“The one thing that Melissa said is nobody is saying that the right thing to do. But to actually point out that it is, in fact, a crime is the nuance of what Chris Wallace is saying,” Harris added. “I feel like we’ve had a complete conversation on that.”

Watch above, via Fox News.