Fox & Friends Host Blows A Gasket After Eric Holder Slams Fox Over Radical Islam Obsession

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During Wednesday morning’s broadcast of Fox & Friends, co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck flipped out over comments made by Attorney General Eric Holder Tuesday when he stated Fox News was overly preoccupied with the use of the term “radical Islam” when discussing the Islamic State. Holder was speaking in front of the National Press Club when he was asked why the Obama Administration doesn’t use the term when referring to ISIL. The Attorney General said that the media spends more time discussing what ISIL should be called rather than having a conversation about what should be done, specifically calling out Fox News.

“We spend more time, more time talking about what you call it, as opposed to what do you do about it, you know? I mean really. If Fox didn’t talk about this, they would have nothing else to talk about, it seems to me.

Radical Islam, Islamic extremism…I’m not sure an awful lot is gained by saying that. It doesn’t have any impact on our military posture. It doesn’t have any impact on what we call it, on the policies that we put in place. What we have to do is defined not by the terms that we use, but by the facts on the ground. So I don’t worry an awful lot about what the appropriate terminology ought to be.”

Well, you just knew Fox wouldn’t stand on the sidelines long after the AG called them out. After playing a clip of Holder’s comments, Hasselbeck flipped out, listing off some of the atrocities committed by ISIL, as if to claim the Attorney General had somehow said ISIL wasn’t a threat or an extremely dangerous organization.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me. You have 21 Coptic Christians beheaded on a shoreline. You have 45 people burned alive, and this is on the heels of a Jordanian pilot being burned alive via video that we’ve all had to see that gruesome attack on humanity alone. Yet Fox is the problem? Wow!”

While Hasselbeck was the most demonstrative with her poutrage, her co-hosts also jumped in on the whinefest, showing their collective butthurt over Holder calling them out for Fox’s irresponsible and xenophobic coverage. Brian Kilmeade accused Holder of not wanting to find the root cause of the issue. This led to the show playing a clip of Rev. Franklin Graham pushing for a religious war against ISIL in the Middle East, with Graham saying the President refuses to acknowledge the religious aspect of the actions taking place.

Making sure he got in on the action, Steve Doocy grumbled that Holder and the Obama Administration were tougher on Fox News than ISIL. (Of course, conveniently ignoring the 16,000 airstrikes that have been conducted against the group in the past six months.)

“They want to kill us and yet the Attorney General, chief law enforcement officer for the United States of America, is bugged by the fact that Fox brings up the accurate point they are Islamic extremists, let’s call it Islamic extremism. Obviously this administration talks tougher about Fox News than they do about ISIS, which, that’s sad.”

Yeah, I’d say the Attorney General touched a nerve with his comments. You can watch a clip of the Fox & Friends segment here.

Justin Baragona

Justin Baragona is the Managing Editor at Politicus Sports as well as Senior Editor at PoliticusUSA. He was a political writer for 411Mania.com before joining PoliticusUSA. Politically, Justin considers himself a liberal but also a realist and pragmatist. Currently, Justin lives in St. Louis, MO and is married. Besides writing, he also runs his own business after spending a number of years in the corporate world. You can follow Justin on Twitter either with his personal handle (@justinbaragona) or the Sports site’s (@PoliticusSports).