Fox News co-host Bob Beckel plans to go on air on Monday to address his use of an ethnic slur to describe Chinese people, a network spokesperson told Politico.
During “The Five” on Thursday, a Fox show Beckel co-hosts, the token liberal voice used the word “Chinamen” to refer to Chinese people, who he said are educated in the U.S. and then return to China to hack U.S. computers. He called them the “single biggest threat to national security.”
“They have been, they will be and they can wait, they’re very patient. You know what they just did? As usual, we bring them over here and we teach a bunch of Chinamen — uh, Chinese people — how to do computers. They go back to China and they hack into us, right?” he said last week.
Politico’s report did not say whether Beckel plans to apologize for the remark. The statement come amid calls for his resignation from two different politicians.
California state Sen. Ted Lieu (D) said the public should be alarmed by Beckel’s “racist, xenophobic” comments. “I am one of those ‘Chinamen’ with ‘Oriental’ eyes that immigrated to America and majored in computer science,” Lieu said in a statement. He said the Fox News co-host should resign immediately.
Additionally, U.S. Rep. Mike Honda (D-CA) called it “inexcusable” that Beckel had not yet apologized and said Fox needs to do “the right thing and fire Bob Beckel.”
“The Five” airs weekdays at 5 p.m. ET.
Watch Beckel’s comments below:
