Geraldo Rivera to Brian Kilmeade: You have never met a war you didn't like
Rivera: “Your arrogance is exactly what's wrong with the region. ... You're not a front-line fighter that has to go back into Iraq again.”
Published
Citation From the January 3, 2020, edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends
GERALDO RIVERA (FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT-AT-LARGE): This is huge. That does not mean to say that I believe that this was a smart move. I think that what we have done -- we have been fighting bees. Bees have been swarming all over us. We swat them here, we swat them there. They attacked our bases, they took out the contractor, they wounded a bunch of other people, they've killed a lot of people over the years. What we have done is killed the queen bee. The hive is now busted open. I fear the worst. I think that what we have done is unleash the bees, to keep that metaphor going.
AINSLEY EARHARDT (CO-HOST): But what else are we supposed to do, Geraldo? [CROSSTALK] I mean this guy, he has blood on his hands. Exactly.
RIVERA: What else are we supposed to do? I think that when the de-escalation at the embassy happened a couple of days ago, that was the end of this chapter. The United States with its firmness had won the victory, it wasn't going to be Benghazi, it wasn't going to be, you know, Tehran from 1980. We won that tactical victory. Now we've taken this huge military escalation. Now I fear the worst; you're going to see the U.S. markets go crazy today.You're going to see the price of oil spiking today. This is a very, very big deal.
BRIAN KILMEADE (CO-HOST): And I don't know if you heard, but this isn't about his resume of blood and death. It is about what was next. We stopped the next attack.
STEVE DOOCY (CO-HOST): It was pre-emptive --
KILMEADE: That's what I think you're missing.
DOOCY: -- according to the secretary of state.
[CROSSTALK]
RIVERA: By what credible source can you predict what the next Iranian move would be?
KILMEADE: The secretary of state and American intelligence provided that info.
RIVERA: Oh, they've been excellent. They've been excellent. The U.S. intelligence has been excellent since 2003 when we invaded Iraq, disrupted the entire region for no real reason. Don't for a minute start cheering this on. What you have done, what we have done, we have unleashed --
KILMEADE: I will cheer it on. I will cheer it on.
RIVERA: You, like Lindsey Graham, have never met a war you didn't like.
KILMEADE: That is not true and don't even say that.
RIVERA: If President Trump wanted de-escalation --
KILMEADE: We should just let him kill us for another 15 years.
RIVERA: If President Trump wanted de-escalation and to bring our troops home, what this was a reaction to --
KILMEADE: What about the 700 Americans who are dead, should they not be happy -- because of him?
RIVERA: What about the tens of thousands of Iraqis who have died since 2003? You have to start seeing -- what the hell are we doing in Baghdad in the first place? Why are we there? Why aren't these forces home?
KILMEADE: You're blaming President Bush for the maniacal --
RIVERA: I am blaming President Bush.
KILMEADE: -- killing of Saddam Hussein?
RIVERA: I am blaming President Bush in 2003 for those fake weapons of mass destruction --
KILMEADE: Right. Oh my gosh.
RIVERA: -- that never existed, and the con job that drove us into that war.