It’s been a tense year for everyone, including at Fox News, where the morning show crowd at Fox & Friends is looking pretty frenemy-esque these days. The cracks started to show themselves a few months ago when Steve Doocy went rogue in response to Trump’s claim that he’d be calling into the show every week. The subsequent dejected look on Brian Kilmeade’s face was comically palpable, and more friction between the two co-hosts seems to be continuing. Monday morning turned into an all-out shoutfest from Kilmeade over COVID-19 guidelines and restrictions amid spiking U.S. cases.
Toward the end of the below video, Kilmeade summed up his anger in regard to states closing down in-person dining and limiting gatherings. “They don’t trust us!” he raged. “They’re making these restrictions and taking personal decisions away. That’s what they’re saying: they know more. Which I find unbelievably disrespectful.”
Brian Kilmeade gets in a fight with Steve Doocy and Ainsley Earhardt about COVID-19 guidelines and restrictions: pic.twitter.com/RqzA7gaY44
— Bobby Lewis (@revrrlewis) November 23, 2020
This outburst followed Doocy and Ainsley Earhardt’s attempt to explain to Kilmeade that the health care system soon won’t be able to accommodate the surge of patients, and restrictions are needed until the vaccines really get rolling, so it’s ultimately necessary to close bars down earlier in the evening in an attempt to curb at least some of the spread. Kilmeade shouted that restaurants are being clipped “off at their knees again,” and here’s how Doocy responded about his shared stance with Earhardt:
“The problem is, and this goes back to the very beginning, they don’t want to overwhelm the hospitals. The numbers are going through the roof and hospitalizations are going up as well. So, ultimately, what we’re saying is, you just have to be smart, understand the risk, and that’s why there are these restrictions.”
Kilmeade didn’t appear to understand why curbing the spread matters, as he puts it, “because the vaccine is no longer a hope, it’s a reality.” And he argued, “We are weeks away from three straight vaccines in a row,” and that’s good enough for him to let the reopening stand unabated. However, health experts have cautioned that it will likely take until May 2021 to get enough of the U.S. population vaccinated to where things can start feeling “normal” in the U.S. The hope is to start vaccinating health care workers in December and go from there, and as Doocy articulated, this situation is “a very super-challenging time” for all. This hasn’t led to any resolution with a fiery Kilmeade as of yet.
Source: https://uproxx.com/viral/fox-and-friends-frenemies-infighting-covid-restrictions/