PETE HEGSETH (FOX & FRIENDS WEEKEND CO-HOST): Hyde-Smith is going to win. The polling shows that. The attempts by the media to further -- and listen, you can say graceless things, foolish things, it doesn't make them racist things in every way that you have said them. I really think people that know her --
JESSICA TARLOV (CO-HOST): You think talking about having a lynching is not -- that doesn't have a racial connotation? Who was getting lynched?
HEGSETH: She's a nice lady with a gift for saying graceless things. First of all --
TARLOV: A “nice lady”? Who cares?
HEGSETH: I don't want to get into the semantics of it, but there were --
TARLOV: You have to, though. She said “lynching.”
HEGSETH: Public -- she did not say lynching, she said “public hangings,” which were -- which refer to lawful executions at certain times in the 19th and 20th century.
TARLOV: Pete.
HEGSETH: No, really. I'm not saying -- you're playing on the field you want to play in, which is saying, “this lady's a racist.” And what she's saying is, her public career shows that she isn't.
