Fox News anchor Bill Hemmer completely steamrolled liberal contributor Juan Williams during a Tuesday morning discussion on President Trump’s continued racist attacks against Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) and Baltimore, with Hemmer telling the lone black panelist that Trump doesn’t see race and that he’s been very “equitable” to African-Americans.
In the segment, first spotted by Mediaite, the Fox News panel immediately reacting to Trump’s press remarks in which he kept up his racially divisive rhetoric, calling Cummings a “thief.”
“There is no reason for anybody to allege that Elijah Cummings is a thief,” Williams contended. “That is just low.”
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Conservative pundit Charlie Hurt pushed back, claiming Trump’s attack on Cummings had nothing to do with race, and that the president is “an equal opportunity offender when it comes to being combative.”
A frustrated Williams attempted to point out that there is a distinctive pattern in who Trump chooses to publicly attack.
The long-time Fox contributor highlighted examples of Trump targeting people of color in a way that “excites racial passions,” adding that “this is divisive and rank language—and I think it hits people of color in a specific way.”
As Williams continued to note that Trump’s targeting of a “vulnerable population” takes place during a spike in hate crimes and white-nationalist violence, Hemmer, a news anchor, interjected to defend Trump’s record on race.
“Criminal justice reform, decriminalizing marijuana, how do you feel about all that?” Hemmer asked, prompting Williams to say he “would congratulate” Trump on those issues but that such a record is “obscured” by his racist language and actions.
“Allow me to preface this,” the Fox anchor responded. “When you take it in its totality, don’t you see a fairness? A president who is being equitable on the overall issues, who doesn’t see it as color? He doesn’t see it as race? He just sees what he believes is right and what is wrong.”
Williams shot back that he sees a president who has no sense of the “history of race in this country,” causing Hemmer to express shock and further ask: “Haven’t some of his policies helped African Americans?”
“I’m arguing that you take the whole picture,” the ostensibly “straight-news” anchor added, leading Williams to bring up Trump’s infamy as the leader of a racist birther movement and how his family business was sued in the past for discriminating against black people.
Co-anchor Sandra Smith, meanwhile, cut off Williams to highlight black Trump supporters who have rallied to the president’s defense before playing a clip of Trump administration official Lynne Patton running down Cummings.
