Fox & Friends Host Praises Trump ‘Not Picking a Side’ on Charlottesville Violence: ‘There’s a Reason” Whites Protesting
Fox & Friends host Pete Hegseth praised President Trump for not “immediately picking a side” in his statement on Charlottesville.
In a segment flagged by Media Matters earlier, the hosts on the President’s favorite morning show discussed his remarks yesterday in which he condemned violence “on many sides.”
Even though Trump received criticism for not being more direct, Hegseth praised the statement:
“I think the president nailed it. Condemned in the strongest possible terms hatred and bigotry on all sides as opposed to immediately picking a side out the gate.”
He went on to make the following observation, saying at one point that “there’s a reason” some of the protesters were in Charlottesville in the first place:
“Antifa also ought be called out, just like the violent aspects of Black Lives Matter ought be called out. You can call that out but still also listen… to the grievances of young African-American males in urban quarters who feel like they are looked at differently by police. That discussion still should be had. Just like young white men who feel like, ‘Hey, I’m treated differently in this country than I feel like I should have. I’ve become a second-class citizen. They tell me I have white privilege.’ None of that justifies racial preferences or violence at all. But there’s always a grievance underneath it that it’s worth talking about. We should never live in such a politically correct culture that we can’t at least have a conversation. There’s a reason those people were out there. Some of it is outright racism and needs to be condemned. A lot of it, though, is ‘I feel like my country is slipping away. And just because I talk about nationalism––not white nationalism––doesn’t mean I’m talking in code, that I’m a racist.'”
He reiterated that last point on Twitter later:
Note to Libs: American Nationalism (aka Americanism) ≠ White Nationalism. Putting America first—regardless of race/sex/creed/class—unites us
— Pete Hegseth (@PeteHegseth) August 13, 2017
Watch above, via Fox News.
[image via screengrab]
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Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac
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