For over a decade, Fox & Friends’ Brian Kilmeade has used his platform to spew bigotry and misinformation; Fox is now rewarding him with his own weekend show.
Kilmeade is replacing Jesse Watters, who was recently crowned host of Fox News Primetime. Deadline reports that Kilmeade “will remain a co-host of Fox & Friends, as well as a daily show for Fox News Audio and What Made America Great on Fox Nation.”
In a statement discussing his new show, Kilmeade said, “My ultimate goal is to create a program that will always seek solutions rather than sow division.” However, his comments on Fox News over the years have frequently spread anti-immigrant bigotry, public health misinformation, toxic racism, anti-Muslim rhetoric, and casual sexism.
Just this past week, Kilmeade criticized migrant resettlement programs: “You're poisoning these cities, and these towns, and these schools, with people that don't belong there.” This racist rhetoric echoes the Fox host’s long-standing claims that immigrants are “invading” the United States.
Similarly, three days after the 2019 El Paso, Texas, mass shooting that was inspired by the shooter's anti-immigrant sentiment and his belief that there was an “invasion” on the southern border, Kilmeade said, “If you use the term an ‘invasion,' that's not anti-Hispanic. It's a fact.”