White men on Fox News compare Trump's threats to deploy federal agents to desegregation

Written by Bobby Lewis

Published

As the country is still experiencing mass protests against police brutality in the wake of the killing of George Floyd -- a few of which have turned violent -- President Donald Trump has threatened to send federal agents to Democratic-run cities in order to enforce the law. Several Fox News guests or contributors, many of whom happen to be white men, have drawn parallels between these threats and earlier federal efforts to enforce racial desegregation. 

On the July 21 edition of Fox News’ America’s Newsroom, American Conservative Union Chairman Matt Schlapp said that the need for Trump to stop “these violent mobs” had a precedent in President Dwight Eisenhower using “federal resources to help Black kids integrate schools and to protect them.” Schlapp, who recently lost one-third of his lobbying firm’s disclosed business due to his racist comments about Black Lives Matter, called for Trump to use federal authority to protect “people of color [and] young Black kids” from murderers and arsonists. 

From the July 21, 2020, edition of Fox News' America's Newsroom

MATT SCHLAPP (CHAIRMAN, AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE UNION): These are not peaceful protesters. These are people that are trying to rip down statues, take over private property, and what do you tell the grandmother who was just on this show that these are peaceful protesters, as she has to deal with the death of her grandson? Look, President Eisenhower used federal resources to help Black kids integrate schools and to protect them. In these cities, the overwhelming number of victims are people of color, are young Black kids, and I think we need to use federal resources to make the murders, make the arson, make the violence stop. I agree, it's the mayor's responsibility. These socialist mayors, all of them, are simply failing the job and their people are at risk. And the president would be making politics out of it by just sitting around and trying to get the benefit of it. He's trying to solve the problem.

Also on July 21, Fox contributor and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich suggested Trump has an “obligation to defend innocent Americans” from the protesters and compared the situation to when “the government sent the FBI into Mississippi” in the 1960s to investigate the Freedom Summer murders when “it was clear that the local police would not hunt down who killed them.”

From the July 21, 2020, edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends

NEWT GINGRICH (FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR): Chicago and New York in one weekend had 152 Americans shot, in one weekend. Now at what point does the president of the United States have an obligation to defend innocent Americans whose city governments refuse to defend them? You may remember, in the 60s, the government sent the FBI into Mississippi when civil rights workers were being killed and it was clear that the local police would not hunt down who killed them. And so -- and because they were Americans, they deserve protection.

On July 19, Fox News contributor and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee told the Sunday edition of Fox & Friends Weekend that Trump has a “responsibility to protect [federal] property, and to keep some semblance of the civil rights of all of American citizens in place.” Huckabee cited the desegregation of Little Rock Central High School in 1957, when Arkansas refused “to follow the absolute law to integrate the schools,” saying, “The 101st Airborne came in and made sure it happened.”

From the July 19, 2020, edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends Sunday

MIKE HUCKABEE (FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR): So yes, the federal government has every right, but they have responsibility to protect that property and to keep some semblance of the civil rights of all of American citizens in place. And if the local officials won’t do it, then the federal government has to do it. And there are many historical examples of that -- one of which is a pretty big one, from my home state of Arkansas way back in 1957. When then-President Eisenhower said, ‘hey, if the state's not going to follow the absolute law to integrate the schools, then we'll do it from the federal level.’ And the 101st Airborne came in and made sure it happened.