Apparently, Fox & Friends cohost Brian Kilmeade is facing some blowback for “wondering” if Rep. Ilhan Omar “is an American first.” Good, he should be.
As I wrote earlier today, Kilmeade echoed Jeanine Pirro’s disgusting attack on Omar. Except that where Pirro cited Omar’s hijab to accuse her of being anti-American, Kilmeade used some cherrypicked comments Omar made about 9/11 to suggest she sided more with the terrorists than America.
Even in the brief clip played on Fox & Friends, where she said, “CAIR was founded after 9/11 because they recognized that some people did something and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties,” it was clear Omar was talking about how Muslims have faced discrimination as the result of a few bad actors on 9/11, not trivializing the events of that day,
But Fox pretty much proved Omar’s point for her when the Trump Friends focused on just part of that one line to suggest that her Muslim faith makes her overly sympathetic to the terrorists and insufficiently on the side of the U.S.
KILMEADE: "Some people did something" -- like an unprovoked attack killing people in the Pentagon?
[…]
KILMEADE: Thousands in the Pentagon, and, you know, the Flight 93, as well as in the World Trade Center? Really? There's some few people did something? You have to wonder if she's an American first.
[…]
KILMEADE: So as a Muslim American, you should be more outraged because they sullied your religion. In the name of religion, they kill Americans and still do it on a daily basis.
[…]
She should use this opportunity as a Muslim leader not to dismiss a Muslim attack -- a Muslim extremist attack.
As I explained in my earlier post, there’s no way these were rogue, off-the-cuff remarks by Kilmeade. In fact, he repeatedly glanced down at his notes.
But instead of apologizing to Omar, Kilmeade suggested he had been misunderstood – then doubled down on his attack:
I didn't intend to question whether Rep. Omar is an American - I am questioning how any American, let alone a United States Congresswoman, could downplay the 9/11 attacks.
— Brian Kilmeade (@kilmeade) April 10, 2019
No worries, Brian, we know exactly what you intended.
If you missed it the first time, you can watch his full remarks – clearly teed up by the framing of the discussion – below, from the April 10, 2019 Fox & Friends, via Media Matters.
(Kilmeade image via screen grab)
This NYC gutter rat should focus on boosting his radio show’s profile. People are shocked that he even has a radio show on the air, due to the poor marketing and pr coming from the Foxie department.
:D
