Not even Fox & Friends is a safe space for President Donald Trump anymore.
On Wednesday morning, guest Gianno Caldwell, a Republican political consultant, strongly condemned Trump’s waffling statements on the recent violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.
“Last night I couldn’t sleep at all because President Trump, our president, has literally betrayed the conscience of our country,” Caldwell said, tears welling in his eyes. “The very moral fabric in which we’ve made progress when it comes to race relations in America, he’s failed us.”
During a combative press conference on Tuesday, Trump again blamed “both sides”—white supremacist demonstrators and the counterprotesters standing in opposition to them—for violence, effectively walking back his statement on Monday explicitly denouncing racists. The president also said there are “very fine people” among both groups.
“Mr. President, people—good people don’t pal around with Nazis and white supremacists,” Caldwell said. “Maybe they don’t consider themselves white supremacists and Nazis, but certainly they hold those views. This has become very troubling. And for anyone to come on any network and defend what President Trump did and said at that press conference yesterday is completely lost and [has] the potential to be morally bankrupt.”
Caldwell added, “I hope the president learns a lesson from his press conference on yesterday. It’s disturbing.”
https://youtu.be/Jis0fLWBBXU
Host Abby Huntsman attempted to move the conversation back to the topic of removing Confederate statues, which the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville was ostensibly about. But Caldwell persisted, explaining that his grandfather, who fled the South, asked him to tell Trump “he should take a look in the mirror.”
The Fox & Friends segment is the latest example of Fox News pundits denouncing Trump’s comments about Charlottesville. Immediately following Tuesday’s press conference, Kat Timpf, co-host of The Fox News Specialists, denounced Trump’s display as “disgusting.”
“It’s crazy for me to have to comment because I’m still in the phase where I’m wondering if it was actually real life what I just watched,” Timpf said. “It was one of the biggest messes I’ve ever seen. I can’t believe it happened.”