A Fox News star stunned his own co-hosts when he broke from a conservative talking point around tributes to Confederate figures.
Brian Kilmeade, 62, surprised his Fox & Friends co-hosts Ainsley Earhardt and Lawrence Jones on Thursday when he came out against reinstating a stone highway marker in Charleston, South Carolina honoring Robert E. Lee, a Confederate general who was a major player in the Civil War.
The memorial was taken down in 2021, but suddenly reappeared in Charleston’s Marion Square last December—and Kilmeade thinks it should’ve stayed gone.
“If you read his biography in his own words, he didn’t want a statue,” he told his co-hosts, swiftly sparking a debate.
“I think the statue is not the problem. It is getting the history right,” Jones responded. “The statues are fine. Just don’t think that he’s a hero because he’s not a hero. And so if you’re using the statues as a teaching tool is one thing. But if you’re just every bad figure in American history that you’re taking down, I just don’t think that’s the right message.”
Kilmeade made clear that he wasn’t taking anything away from Lee’s military accolades, pointing out that he “fought well” and was “considered one of the best generals in the country, if not the best.”
“You read his biography, his quotes in the last years of his life, he’s like, ‘I don’t want a statue,’ right? Because people still looked up to him and he was a fine general—there was once a stone at West Point for him, a placard for him,” he said.
“I’m surprised to hear you say that,” Earhardt chimed in. “Because you always say, ‘Don’t erase history.’”
The Daily Beast has reached out to Fox News for comment.
In 2020, during the height of the Black Lives Matter protests, Kilmeade pleaded with protesters taking down controversial statues and memorials to study history “before you decide to destroy it.”
“Learn about it, don’t condemn it,” he said at the time. “And don’t be arrogant about it.”
But he appeared to sing a different tune on Thursday.
“I’m not saying forget who Robert E. Lee did good,” he told his co-hosts. “But I’m just saying, to have Robert E. Lee’s statue back up as if it’s a tribute to him, he made a choice and it was the wrong choice.”
