Fox’s Harris Faulkner Schools Trump On ‘Looting’ And ‘Shooting’ Tweet

WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 19: U.S. President Trump speaks to the press after meeting with Republican Senators in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill, May 19, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
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In a sit-down interview with President Trump in Dallas, Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner explained the origins of the phrase “when the looting starts, the shooting starts,” which the president tweeted in the first days of protest following the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police.

“You look at me and I’m Harris on TV, but I’m a black woman, I’m a mom,” Faulkner said in the portion of the interview that aired Thursday evening. “You’ve talked about it, but we haven’t seen you be a consoler in this instance. And the tweets, ‘When the looting starts, the shooting starts.’ Why those words?”

“So, that’s an expression I’ve heard over the years,” Trump responded. He said that he thought it was attributed to Frank Rizzo, the former Philadelphia mayor and police chief.

Faulkner, again taking a personal tone, said that the phrase was popularized by Miami Police Chief Walter Headley in 1967.

“I was about 18 months old at the time,” Faulkner said, adding that Headley pushed officers to freely use violence to break up civil rights protests.

 Faulkner, who has defended Trump in the past, later called the remarks “incendiary.”

The tweet also was flagged by Twitter for violating rules against “glorifying violence.”

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Notable Replies

  1. That’s the very essence of the phrase, “wasting your breath.”

  2. So Trump’s defense is that he thought the comment originated with a northern racist!

  3. The unchastised Toadglans immediately gave zero fucks.

  4. JC. He was like a little school boy in the principals office in that clip. Has he lashed out against her yet?

  5. FAUX News seems to be cutting ties to Trump bit by bit. I hope they both go down the toilet but it is still a good sign of Trump’s prospects in November.

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