Kudos to Brian Kilmeade for calling out Lawrence Jones, his Fox News colleague.
On Thursday’s program Jones issued a full-throated defense of police in Uvalde, Texas and said Associated Press reports that law enforcement had tried to stop parents from saving their kids and that officers had failed to breach the building were untrue.
The Texas Department of Public Safety now admits that the gunman was not stopped by school security and was allowed to access Robb Elementary School through an unlocked door. The gunman was inside the classroom for at least 40 minutes before a Border Patrol agent was able to take him out.
Here’s how Jones framed the Associated Press report:
For people to not understand the makeup of this area. A lot of the people that live here, a lot of the law enforcement that live here, kids, went to that school. They were going, not only to get to the community kids, but to get to their own kids. Federal agents’ kids go to this school. Local cops’ kids go to this school. They did everything in their power. One of the teachers that died — and this is going to be revealed within the investigation. She called her husband, who is also a law enforcement agent to get here. Sadly, as he is rushing to get to the scene, he did not make it soon enough…The suggestion that the AP would put out this report, saying that they didn’t run toward the danger is just simply ridiculous.
Mediaite
Videos clearly show parents pleading with police to storm the school even as gunfire rang out from inside the building. Instead, police threatened to arrest moms and dads and they placed at least one woman in handcuffs.
There are also reports that some officers ran into the school only to save their own children. That report has yet to be verified by police.
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Kilmeade, and his colleagues on Fox & Friends, had every right to call out Jones.
Instead of apologizing, Jones doubled down on Friday’s program and said law enforcement officers were just not “great PR people.”
“There is no way in any situation, and I’ve been through numerous active shooter situations, that you go all guns blazing in the room when you have hostages in the room,” Jones said.
Kilmeade immediately pushed back and called out police for spewing “flat-out fiction.”
“That’s not bad communication. That is a lie.”
Click here to watch Mediaite’s coverage of Friday’s dustup. Watch the original report below: