On Wednesday, Fox News host Brian Kilmeade was the center of a media firestorm after some observers believed he used racially charged language to describe an event Vice President Kamala Harris was attending. Thursday, Kilmeade addressed the controversy.
After being accused by Eugene Daniels — a POLITICO reporter and President of the White House Correspondents Association — of saying Kamala Harris was skipping the Congressional address of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to attend the national convention for a historically Black sorority.
In describing the event, Kilmeade said the Vice President would rather address “a sorority, a college sorority.” However, some claimed that the FOX & Friends host said “colored” sorority, including Daniels.
He later walked back his claims after the insistence by Fox News, Brian Kilmeade, and Lawrence Jones — who was on set as the incident took place — that the host said “college.”
Early Thursday, Kilmeade addressed the situation, defending himself from the accusations before stating he isn’t going to back down from his opinions.
“This ends up being this big thing … They corrected it, but it didn’t stop for four or five hours. People like Jamie Harrison — head of the (Democratic National Committee) — calling me a clown, making racial, accusations. People across the country just see the headline and start throwing things, things out. It disparages me, disparages this company,” said Kilmeade.
“It’s a learned moment for everyone on the couch, everyone watching,” Kilmeade continued. “From now on, things have changed. Are they looking to label anyone any time a racist, sexist, misogynist? I’m not going to back off anything I say. I think it was a huge mistake of going to a college sorority instead of the Prime Minister’s address, and I’m not going to apologize for it. But people who are in the media should be responsible when they report things.”
