Two days after President Donald Trump condemned “hatred, bigotry and violence, on many sides”—he repeated those words, “on many sides”—following white-nationalist violence in Charlottesville, Va., he finally came out on Monday and said he was including “the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans.”
It was more than good enough for Fox News.
“That was a very strong speech,” Outnumbered co-host Sandra Smith said immediately following the president’s remarks.
“Very strong and very good,” Breitbart and Fox contributor Charles Hurt added, hoping that this could be the “last word” on the subject of Trump’s position on race-based violence.
“I don't think anybody’s going to get the last word on this yet,” Harris Faulkner replied, “but I would say this about the president's critics as a whole. If nothing will quiet them, than they don’t have America in their sights. They don't care about us. They don’t care about Americans. And shame on them. They need to step aside and let justice be done. Because if there is going to be justice, it's going to take all of us together.”
Instead of focusing on “skin color,” she applauded Trump for starting with “the color of green” when he spoke about the economy at the top of his speech.
“If you were listening to the speech right now or reading the transcript and you had no ulterior motive,” Abby Huntsman added, “if you had no mission to take it where you wanted to go, which many people have today, I don't think there was anything that he didn’t say there that didn’t say there, that didn’t unite the country. He called out the groups for what they were.”
Huntsman also commended Trump for sticking to his teleprompter, something he declined to do in his more “clumsy” remarks on the day of the rally. She did not understand how the president’s words could possibly by “criticized or politicized” after that.
“If the critics cannot accept anything ever, ever, ever, they are not on our side as Americans,” Faulkner reiterated. “Shame on them.”