Fox's Kilmeade Suggests Constitutional Rights Should Not Apply To All American Citizens

From the April 23 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends:

Video file

KILMEADE: Although many consider him an enemy, according to the White House, the remaining suspect, the remaining suspect, in the Boston Marathon attack will not be considered an enemy combatant. But will justice now be served anyway and how will the civil liberties be affected? He is now a American citizen. Fox News legal analyst Peter Johnson, Jr. here. Peter: when we talked yesterday, we didn't know what the administration was going to do. Now we know. Not an enemy combatant and he was already Mirandized so the whole public safety issue is out the window. Next thing you know, a high profile defense attorney will be waltzing in here, making a zillion dollars off of him.

PETER JOHNSON JR.: No, there is a legal aid attorney and they're already working in his defense and hopefully justice will be served. In my view, hopefully, he'll be executed for these crimes. The second question to ask, though, is, how does it affect our civil liberties? Big, big time. The climate is going to change in this country. Miranda is gonna be looked at in a different way.

KILMEADE: You think so?

JOHNSON: Absolutely. We gonna be looking at hardened transportation targeting in this country. Five of the 16 plots that Ray Kelly and the NYPD foiled in New York City were transportation related. So we're seeing what happened in Canada. We gonna see a new paradigm about how we conduct parades and marathons.

KILMEADE: Right.

JOHNSON: We're gonna have police lining those routes.

KILMEADE: But when we get the guy, we can't say -- first we're going to tell them you have the right to remain silent. Fantastic. So the bombs that could be exploding and the plots unfolding, we can't ask 'em.

JOHNSON: Sure we can. We did.

KILMEADE: And they have a right not to answer.

JOHNSON: We did. It's the public safety exception.

KILMEADE: Yeah but how long did it last? Three hours?

JOHNSON: But Brian, we're a nation of laws, we're not a nation of [inaudible].

KILMEADE: We are a nation to stay alive. It is not a death sentence.

JOHNSON: So what do we do?

KILMEADE: What do we do? We sit there -- F.B.I. Interrogators sit down with him for a week or two until they feel as though they got accurate information.

JOHNSON: Do you believe in indefinite detention of Americans? Because I don't. I don't believe we should detain -- No matter how loathsome, disgusting, vile, contemptible.

KILMEADE: Two different issues.

JOHNSON: No, it's the same issue, an American issue. No, no, no. Either we believe in the Constitution or we don't believe in the Constitution.

KILMEADE: Not everyone is worthy of the constitutional rights that we have.

JOHNSON: Senator Graham is an expert on military commission and on the law of war.

KILMEADE: Yes.

JOHNSON: But what he's saying is, let's suspend civil rights and constitutional law.

KILMEADE: For public safety. 

JOHNSON: In this particular case and then later we'll reinstate it. Now, what if someone decides to do that to Brian Kilmeade, or maybe his family?

KILMEADE: What if? I'm not blowing up the subway! I'm not doing it -- neither is your family.

JOHNSON.: It's not the president's determination nor Senator Graham's nor anyone else other than a U.S. attorney to decide howsomeone will charged or will they be charged. I believe in the public safety exception. I believe in doing everything we can to get terrorists. But at the same time, I'm saying: don't let the terrorists trample our rights going forward.

KILMEADE: But at least let the hole in his neck heal in order to answer the questions. We didn't even give him a chance to answer the questions.

JOHNSON: I didn't say end it. I didn't say end the public safety exception. I say it could go on for a month.

Previously:

Fox's Brian Kilmeade Proposes Bugging U.S. Mosques

Fox Host Brian Kilmeade Asks Why Racial Profiling Isn't Used To Prevent Terrorism