‘Fox & Friends’ Host Brian Kilmeade Turns on Trump, Defends Twitter Suspension

Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade on Thursday morning chastised President Donald Trump for inciting an insurrectionist mob to storm the U.S. Capitol, calling his pal’s behavior “terrible” while saying Twitter was justified in suspending the president’s account.

“Let’s be honest,” Kilmeade sighed in response to Wednesday’s MAGA riot, a violent attempt by Trump supporters to stop Congress from certifying President-elect Joe Biden’s victory. “Since November 3, or when we got the verdict by November 5, the president’s behavior has been terrible.”

Despite long being one of the president’s most loyal allies, Kilmeade went on to grouse that Trump’s post-election behavior had “cost him two Senate seats” and resulted in the GOP losing the majority in the upper chamber. At the same time, the Fox host, who has largely backed Trump’s voter fraud conspiracies, sympathized with the president’s belief that the election was “stolen” from him.

“We can also say this about the president of the United States: He obviously believes with every fiber of his being that he won this election,” Kilmeade noted. “The problem is his legal team hasn’t had any success at all proving that, which is why Richard Nixon of the 1960s folded his tent, why Al Gore made a speech and said ‘even though I think I won, it’s time for a peaceful transition of power.’”

Stating that the “president didn’t do that,” Kilmeade said that the president instead used his “Stop the Steal” speech on Wednesday to urge his followers to march to the Capitol and “fight” for him.

“Now it’s true, his people do not have a track record of violence, absolutely true,” Kilmeade insisted. “Well, that track record broke. And even if it was infiltrated by people who don't like him, it doesn’t matter. When you send 50, 60, 70, 80,000 people to the Capitol, which is guarded by a handful of cops and 150 National Guards, guess what? They are going to get in.”

Kilmeade, who the night before suggested that the mob was justified in attacking the Capitol because of the Russia probe, condemned the rioters’ actions when they breached the Capitol, saying it was “one of the worst things I have ever seen.”

Adding that several of the president’s allies in Washington have now distanced themselves from him, Kilmeade also pointed to Trump’s statement in which he finally committed to an “orderly transition” of power.

“I think when the president made those remarks, he couldn’t even use his own Twitter account,” he declared. “He had to use Dan Scavino’s because he has been justifiably suspended for the last 24 hours.”

Kilmeade concluded by trying to compare protests over police brutality to a seditious riot, complaining that the left is now “suddenly condemning violence” and embracing “law and order,” though he acknowledged Biden’s comments calling on Trump to “end this siege” were “perfect and have been very strong since he won the election.”

Co-host Steve Doocy doubled down on Kilmeade’s praise for Biden, saying he was “very presidential” on Wednesday. Doocy also said that instead of cutting a Twitter video—one that was eventually removed for peddling conspiracy theories and further inflaming chaos—Trump should have delivered a statement on live television to calm his supporters.

While Kilmeade panned the president's behavior and actions, Fox & Friends Weekend host Pete Hegseth—a part-time Trump adviser—defended the MAGA mob, saying a short time later that these are “not conspiracy theorists motivated by lies” and instead “born-again Americans” who “love freedom.”