Fox's Mollie Hemingway points finger at "the left" and "media" after attempted assassination of several Democrats
After CNN receives a bomb in the mail, Hemingway lectures "media" for supposed "unhinged and insane" coverage
Published 10/25/18 8:39 AM EDT
From the October 25 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends:
BRIAN KILMEADE (CO-HOST): Mollie, I was struck by the coverage last night when all the packages came in and people were trying to find out what was going on, how unified the anger was at President Trump, as if he has the market cornered on any type of aggressive language. As if we didn't know that Hillary Clinton called for unrest. That [Rep.] Maxine Waters did what she did. As if [former CIA Director] John Brennan hasn't been ranting and raving in person and on Twitter the way he is. And I'm just wondering why people only see one person possibly being responsible and not more. You have to suspend logic.
MOLLIE HEMINGWAY (FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR): There are multiple problems with this. One is that people are responsible for their own actions and it doesn't matter what someone else says. That is no justification for committing violence or threatening violence. And there's also a lack of consistency about this in multiple ways. I mean, a couple weeks ago, someone targeted the Pentagon and Donald Trump with ricin, and I don't recall media figures saying that they were responsible for it, even though they spend all day, every day, attacking the president.
But, it's also true that a lot of people on the left have been calling for incivility. And that is not -- that does not justify anything that has happened. It's totally inappropriate to target people. But, you know, we've heard a lot of calls for incivility. We've seen a lot of mob violence. We've seen a lot of leftist groups taking over the police functions of cities -- of major American cities. So, everyone needs to calm down. Everyone needs to understand that violence is not an appropriate approach.
AINSLEY EARHARDT (CO-HOST): Mollie, do you think this is a good reminder that, like the president was saying last night, he said, I'm going to take a very civil tone, we need to be civil. Is this a good reminder, for both sides, for the left and the right, just to take a step back and breathe? Because so many people came on our show a few weeks ago when Sarah Huckabee Sanders was attacked in restaurants, and when a lot of our leaders, [Sen.] Mitch McConnell was attacked and his wife was attacked, and people were saying, we're so scared we're going to see another incident like what happened to [Rep.] Steve Scalise, that someone is going to get hurt, and it could lead to more violence with all of these leaders standing up and saying get in someone's face. Is this a good reminder for both sides to say, chill out, cool down, and realize we can all get along and just have different opinions about politics?
HEMINGWAY: Right. Again, I think it's important that people be held responsible for their own actions, and just because people are fighting politically does not mean you have the right to attempt to assassinate a baseball field full of Republicans or, you know, going to a restaurant and attack people. But, it's also true that we should be civil because we should have confidence in the strength of persuasion and ideas to get our messages across. And it is not a good sign that people feel that politics is so existentially important that you're seeing this increase in rhetoric -- in just violent rhetoric, or people calling for incivility. That's not a good sign and I think it's a sign that politics is way too important in people's lives, and that they are losing touch with their communities and interaction with other people.
STEVE DOOCY (CO-HOST) We've been talking a lot about the president, and he has been calling for a more civil tone. The president just in the last couple of minutes tweeted this out: "A very big part of the Anger (sic) we see today in our society is caused by the purposefully false and inaccurate reporting of the Mainstream Media (sic) that I refer to as Fake News (sic). It has gotten so bad and hateful that it beyond description. Mainstream Media (sic) must clean up its act, fast." What do you think he's saying there, Mollie?
HEMINGWAY: Well, I think he has had a message that very much resonates with the American people that our media are not contributing to civility, and that they are not doing a good job of just accurately telling the news. And I think, even with these suspicious packages, you are seeing a failure of responsible media coverage. So much speculation without even knowing. I mean, we don't even know if the person doing this is American or a foreign terrorist. We don't know anything at all and, yet, you're having people in major media organizations literally blaming Donald Trump for this. That is unhinged and insane and it's not appropriate behavior for any media.
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