This disgraceful discussion came just a few days after Fox came under fire for a chyron calling President Joe Biden a “wannabe dictator” who had “his political rival arrested.” But this was far, far worse - and there’s no way that Fox can blame this on some rogue employee. Former baseball player Curt Schilling is a host on the FNC-related OutKick network and Jesse Watters is a prime time host on the channel. There was surely a producer in the control room, too, who overheard the remarks and did not call for ending the discussion or major pushback.
In a discussion about what Trump’s own former attorney general has called a “very, very damning” indictment full of “solid counts” of Trump’s abuse (or worse) of national secrets, the Jesse Watters Primetime show went full violent fascism.
“I'm tired of listening to Jim Jordan and Matt Gaetz and Dan Crenshaw and all these people talk. Talk - that's all they're doing,” Schilling complained. "We're up against a side and a force that doesn't play by the rules, refuses to play by the rules.”
“Just look no further than the unconstitutional legal thing going with former President Trump and we're not doing anything about it,” Schilling continued. “We're talking about it, and we get excited and we get emotional. That's it."
It’s obviously Donald Trump who has broken the law. But on Fox News, it’s Democrats or those who for them who are always guilty.
"They break the law and they do the things they need to do to ensure their agenda is driven forward and we're watching them gut our nation from the inside out,” Schilling said, in a moment of unintended irony.
But then he began framing political violence as patriotic: “I mean, you look at the guys, the young men that signed the Constitution and all the things that -- they sacrificed everything to come out from under a tyrannical government and then, eventually at some point, there was a man at Concord who decided he was going to pull the trigger,” Schilling said. “I feel like we're getting back to a point where somebody is gonna have to pull a trigger because everything we hold dear, everything this country was founded on is being just dragged through the mud and mocked and made fun of. This country was founded on Godly principles. No matter how offensive that is to the left, it's true."
Watters interrupted to offer the mildest of pushbacks. "Well, I'm going to assume that you mean 'pull the trigger' metaphorically," he said.
"Absolutely, well, no," Schilling replied. "I mean, it doesn't matter if I say ‘metaphorically’ because they're going to run with that quote no matter how I put it.”
Watters nodded.
“I could have phrased it in any possible way, saying, 'Stand up and fight and blah, blah, blah,' and I would be inciting a riot while Maxine Waters says, 'Get in their face and beat the hell out of them,' publicly," Schilling claimed.
At that point, Watters could have and should have pushed back forcefully. Instead, he gave Schilling a stamp of approval.
"No, I understand," Watters responded. "I've said this to Jim Jordan. I've said this to these congressmen. You know they throw a subpoena around. They fire off a really bold letter, 'Gotcha.' Republicans need to go on the warpath. And that means that you gotta use every tool necessary. They gotta do what's being done to them because that's the only way this is gonna stop."
All TV shows pre-interview their guests and have a good idea of what they will say. We don’t know if Schilling specifically spoke of assassination in his pre-interview but it’s likely the show knew he’d use at least use a dog whistle.
And Fox News was just fine with that.
