Fox News host defends Andrew Jackson’s role in the Indian Removal Act, Trail of Tears
Brian Kilmeade: “But the American Indians were the tribes that fought with the British against us in the War of 1812. I don't know if you were rooting for the British in the War of 1812, but I'm not.”
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From the June 23, 2020, edition of Fox News’ Fox & Friends
BRIAN KILMEADE (CO-HOST): Nobody says you're on a statue because you're perfect. You're on a statue, you're memorialized, because people in that generation said you made a huge impact. No one doubts that Andrew Jackson was imperfect. But also nobody doubts that he made a huge impact on an entire generation — not just his eight years in office. Leading up to there as a major general, an orphan at 13, fighting in the [Revolutionary] war at 14, loses his entire family. Finds a way to become a major general, a war hero, and a two-term president. My goodness, how dare you put a rope around his neck and try to tear down his statue, when you see the people of that time and that generation — the nation mourned when he passed.
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I'm just wondering where Democrats are. He's a Democrat. Where are the Democrats, who should be equally outraged? We should be able to come together on this.
STEVE DOOCY (CO-HOST): Well, you know, the thing about Jackson, Brian, and he's been a target in that park for a very long time, in addition to owning slaves, you know, it's about the fact that he signed the Indian Removal Act, which back in the 1860s, I think, what it did — 1830s, that is to say — during the fall of 1838, I believe, was when they moved all those Cherokee Indians, they had that forced march, thousands died. It was the so-called Trail of Tears. And that is why so many people are angry, because he is a symbol.
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KILMEADE: All right, I'd just like to add something real quick on the Trail of Tears. Martin Van Buren was president at the time. It was almost as -- very similar to when Eisenhower had the plan to invade Fidel Castro's Cuba, and it was Kennedy that used the plan. Martin Van Buren used the plan that he thought that Jackson left for him, and it ended up being a disaster for the Indian community and for a stain on our country.
DOOCY: It was.
KILMEADE: But he also adopted an American Indian son. And he also — yes, he fought Indians. But the American Indians were the tribes that fought with the British against us in the War of 1812. I don't know if you were rooting for the British in the War of 1812, but I'm not.
DOOCY: Well, I was just trying to explain why there has been anger toward Jackson and that particular statue in Washington for a while.