Fox & Friends host Brian Kilmeade deliberately tried to discourage the outpouring of sympathy for the migrant children who have been separated from their families thanks to Donald Trump – with a bigoted suggestion that the children should be thought of as somehow lesser than Americans.
Media Matters caught the exchange on this morning’s Fox & Friends:
KILMEADE: The other thing that I think is the biggest joke that we're not addressing, it wasn't President Trump's idea to have everyone leave from Central and South America in June and well up at the border. Somebody has to deal with this issue. It doesn't matter who the president is. If you don't like his policy, he's also open to your policy rather than just criticizing his. He's trying to send a message to the other countries: This is not the way you do it because this is a country that has rules and laws. The port of entry will be one thing. We can bolster those laws, but we just can't let everybody in that wants to be here.
And these are not -- like it or not, these aren't our kids. Show ‘em compassion, but it's not like he is doing this to the people of Idaho or Texas. These are people from another country and now people are saying that they're more important than people in our country who are paying taxes and who have needs as well.
Cohost Ainsley Earhardt, who likes to think of herself as a tough journalist and not "in the tank" for Trump, did not challenge a word. Instead, she whitewashed the inhumane practice of separating children by suggesting Trump had done the kids (whom she suggested may well be undeserving criminals) a favor:
EARHARDT: Yeah, well he just wants to make sure we vet who's coming across the border, in case it's MS-13 or drugs.
[...]
In many cases, they might be safer. If we know where they are, we’re able to place them with the right families, put them back together with their moms or their dads.
FACT CHECK: The Trump administration has no plan for reuniting the families it tore apart. Those parents who have been separated have a long and difficult path, even if they’ve located their child.
But what else would you expect from Earhardt? She’s the same woman who defended housing segregation in 2011 and was “so tired of protecting the minority” in 2015.
Watch Kilmeade and Earhardt vilify children on behalf of Trump below, from the June 22, 2018 Fox & Friends, via Media Matters.