As predictably as the sun rises in the east, the three Fox & Friends lickspittles found nothing not to love about Donald Trump’s reckless assassination of Iran's Qasem Soleimani. But cohost Brian Kilmeade went the extra mile by declaring himself “elated” at the likelihood Trump has spawned a new war.
Whatever else you may think of Geraldo Rivera, he did a great job of going one against three in calling out the disaster that Trump has likely wrought.
RIVERA: I think that what we have done -- we have been fighting bees. The bees have been swarming all over us. We swat ‘em here, we swat ‘em there. They attacked our bases, they took out the contractor, they wounded a bunch of other people, they've killed a lot of people over the years. What we have done is killed the queen bee. The hive is now busted open. I fear the worst. I think that what we have done is unleash the bees, to keep that metaphor going.
Rivera also noted how needless Trump’s escalation (and its resulting death and destruction) are:
RIVERA: I think that when the de-escalation at the embassy happened a couple of days ago, that was the end of this chapter. The United States, with its firmness, had won the victory. It wasn't going to be Benghazi. It wasn't going to be, you know, Tehran from 1980. We won that tactical victory. Now we have taken this huge military escalation. Now I fear the worst.
But for the lickspittles, with a desk replacing the crotch couch, it’s like Iraq war déjà vu all over again, minus any recollection about how Iraq was not the threat it was cracked up to be. Can fear mongering about a mushroom cloud be far off?
Kilmeade told Rivera he was “missing” the fact that the assassination had “stopped the next attack.”
“It was pre-emptive,” cohost Doocy added.
But Rivera wasn’t buying it, noting that the invasion of Iraq was supposedly based on intelligence about weapons of mass destruction - which led to our having “disrupted the entire region for no real reason.”
“Don't for a minute start cheering this on,” Rivera continued. “What you have done, what we have done, we have unleashed – “
“I will cheer it on. I will cheer it on. I am elated,” Kilmeade replied. But then he took exception when Rivera accused him of never having met a war he didn’t like. “That is not true and don’t even say that,” Kilmeade insisted, despite having just provided evidence to the contrary.
Rivera responded by blasting George W. Bush’s Iraq invasion “for those fake weapons of mass destruction that never existed, and the con job that drove us into that war.” That suggests that Rivera knows Trump is conning us into the next war.
Kilmeade also provided a taste of the Fox News/Donald Trump/GOP rhetoric that is to come against anyone who dares question Dear Leader’s dangerous foolhardiness: “You’re making excuses for Iran.”
Rivera did what any war opponent should do: He refused to accept the premise or to go on defense. “Dammit, I’m not making excuses, Brian, that’s absolute baloney!” he said. The discussion got even more heated as he told Kilmeade, “Your arrogance is exactly what’s wrong with the region!”
Suddenly, Kilmeade was just fine with differences of opinion. “Not agreeing with you is arrogance? Not agreeing with you is arrogance?” he shot back.
“This is a fraught decision that will have implications far beyond the celebratory moment of taking out the terrorist,” Rivera predicted.
Sadly, Rivera is almost certainly right. But thank goodness he’s willing to speak up now and not be cowed into acquiescence. Because I can guarantee you a right-wing attempt to squelch dissent is coming down the pike.
Watch Rivera’s forceful opposition below, from the January 3, 2020 Fox & Friends, via Media Matters.