Trumpland

‘Fox & Friends’ Pelts Its New Live Audience With Chicken Sandwiches

SQUAWK BOX

A raucous mix of fans, conservative pundits, and Fox News ‘experts’ filled the seats on day one. And out came the Chick-fil-A and Lee Greenwood music.

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It’s apparently not just your grandparents who watch Fox & Friends.

Today, America got a look at President Trump’s favorite morning show’s new live studio audience—seemingly made up of civilians, conservative commentators, and “experts.”

And for their efforts to schlep into a cold, pre-dawn Manhattan, they were honest-to-God pelted with Chick-fil-A sandwiches while they discussed the possibility of a Mexico border wall.

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During the unusually raucous Fox News morning show, co-host Ainsley Earhardt lamented press coverage of the shutdown, claiming that “some of these reporters, they would make you believe that the rest of the world, or the rest of our country agrees with Nancy Pelosi. But our audience… no one agreed with Nancy Pelosi, they all want the president to continue doing this.”

It’s unclear how the TV audience was chosen, but it was made up of a variety of conservative voices, including Joseph Pinion III, a self-described advocate for “progressive conservatism,” who was wearing a blue suit and a red, white, and blue tie. He smiled as the sandwiches flew past.

Nearby and clad in plaid, audience member Joe from Boston suggested that “more media” attention would help end the shutdown. He was quickly followed by a woman in matching pink lipstick and a pink beret, who added that President Donald Trump should take Sen. Chuck Schumer and the House speaker down to the border on Air Force One to show them the problem first-hand.

The woman’s suggestion was met with wild applause before Aerosmith and Run DMC’s “Walk This Way” was piped in and everyone went to commercial.

When they came back, the red-meat conservative subjects varied from NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick kneeling during the playing of the nation anthem to Attorney General nominee Bill Barr, before ultimately coming back to the border wall.

“If [walls] didn’t work, they wouldn’t be around prisons,” said co-host Brian Kilmeade. “This should not be happening; this is a solvable problem.”

Earhardt noted that frequent Fox News guest and purported law-enforcement expert Darrin Porcher, a former NYPD lieutenant—who previously sparked controversy for suggesting that people facing an active shooter should sacrifice themselves by rushing the gunman—was sitting in the audience to give his opinion. Porcher stood out from the crowd in his clean-pressed suit.

“Border security is very important, but it’s multi-faceted,” said Porcher. “What do you see at the southern border of Mexico? You see a wall.”

Ultimately, the segment ended with the entire studio singing along to, of course, “God Bless the USA,” Lee Greenwood’s conservative-world country standard.

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