Watch what happened when the Fox & Friends First hosts realized they were not talking to an ICE-supporting Arizona candidate but Barbara L’Italien, from Massachusetts, who wasted no time blasting Donald Trump’s family separations as “illegal and inhumane.”
Fox & Friends First host Rob Schmitt thought he was about to talk to ICE-supporting/Maxine Waters-condemning Ann Kirkpatrick, a Democratic congressional candidate in Arizona, this morning. But somehow, he got L’Italien, running in Massachusetts with an entirely different view.
After playing video of Kirkpatrick getting booed at a debate in Tucson, cohost Jillian Mele introduced “Kirkpatrick” and asked why she supports ICE. Undoubtedly, the plan was to goad Kirkpatrick into talking about the horror of her fellow Democrats moving too far to her left.
Instead, L’Italien not only didn’t support ICE (or condemn Waters), she immediately began speaking “directly to Donald Trump.” From the Media Matters transcript:
L’ITALIEN: Good morning. I’m actually here to speak directly to Donald Trump. I feel that what’s happening at the border is wrong. I’m a mother of four and I believe that separating kids from their parents is illegal and inhumane. I’m actually Barbara L’Italien, I’m a state senator representing a large immigrant community and running for Congress in Massachusetts, I keep thinking about what we’re putting parents through, imagining how terrifying that must be for those families, imagining how it would feel not knowing if I’d ever see my kids again. We have to stop abducting children and ripping them from their parents’ arms, stop putting kids in cages, and stop making three-year-olds defend themselves in court—
You could hear the panic in Schmitt’s voice as he interrupted L’Italien to say that family separations have stopped, “right?” Mele was calmer as she declared families and children “have been reunited.”
Italien tried to continue but she was cut off as Schmitt said, “Who is this?” and “That didn’t go as planned.”
“That happens sometimes,” Mele chirped. Instead of talking to L'Italien, Mele moved on to tease a segment about an adult baseball fan stealing a foul ball from a young boy.
Because on Fox News, only Trump-friendly guests are allowed to greet the Fan in Chief in the morning (and almost any other time).
Watch the hilarious mix-up below, from the July 23, 2018 Fox & Friends First, via Media Matters.