Two leading Fox News figures got into a heated debate over whether President Trump was right to order an airstrike that killed top Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani.
Soleimani, who was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans, was killed in the airstrike near Baghdad International Airport on Thursday. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo explained that the decision to target Soleimani was directly connected to an imminent threat facing the American people.
Fox & Friends host Brian Kilmeade got into a heated back and forth over the strike on the show with network contributor Geraldo Rivera on Friday morning.
“I fear the worst. I think what we have done is unleash the beast,” Rivera argued. “You’re going to see the U.S. markets go crazy today. You’re going to see the price of oil spiking today. This is a very, very big deal.”
“This isn’t about his resume of blood and death, it is about what was next,” Kilmeade told Rivera. “We stopped the next attack. That’s what I think you’re missing.”
Rivera replied by pointing out that it’s unclear how Iran will respond to the assassination, while Kilmeade pointed back to Secretary of State Pompeo’s comments.
“Don’t for a minute start cheering this on,” Rivera said. “What you have done, what we have done, we have unleashed —”
Kilmeade then said he would “cheer it on,” to which the guest shot back, “Then you, like Lindsey Graham, have never met a war you didn’t like!”
The host argued that Rivera’s accusation was untrue.
—
UPDATE: Geraldo Rivera apologized to Brian Kilmeade during an appearance on Kilmeade’s radio show.
“First, let me say that I love you, I admire you, I have tremendous respect for you,” he said. “My wife, Erica, called and said I was mean in speaking with you on Fox & Friends. And she said the first thing you do when you talk to Brian or you see him next is apologize. I apologize. You know I didn’t mean anything personally. You know I’m your biggest fan in this building and in this town. I think you really have a total grasp on issues that is profoundly securing, you know reaffirming, reassuring for us. I just disagree with you on this issue of killing Soleimani.”
Kilmeade accepted the apology.
