Fox’s Kilmeade slams Buttigieg for criticism of network hosts during town hall

“Fox & Friends” host Brian Kilmeade ripped 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg for criticism of Fox News opinion hosts during a town hall televised on the network, saying the South Bend, Ind., mayor showed “absolutely no courage.”

“Don’t hop on our channel and continue to put down the other hosts on the channel, or the channel. If you feel that negative about it, don’t come,” Kilmeade said on the network’s morning show Monday.

“Because for him to go out there and take shots of our prime-time lineup without going on our prime-time lineup shows, to me, absolutely no courage,” he added.

{mosads}Buttigieg said during the live town hall from New Hampshire Sunday night that a lot of Democrats were critical of his appearance before noting controversial remarks made by Fox News hosts Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham.

“I get where that’s coming from, especially when you see what goes on with some of the opinion hosts on this network,” Buttigieg said.

“When you’ve got Tucker Carlson saying that immigrants make America dirty. When you’ve got Laura Ingraham comparing detention centers with children in cages to summer camps. There is a reason why anybody has to swallow hard and think twice before participating in this media ecosystem,” he added.

Buttigieg is polling at 7 percent in the RealClearPolitics polling index, more than 31 points behind former Vice President Joe Biden in the race for the Democratic nomination. The 37-year-old mayor is the third Democratic presidential candidate to appear on Fox News in a town hall format.

Last month, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) was featured in a live event from Bethlehem, Pa. that drew nearly 2.6 million viewers.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) appeared a network town hall earlier this month, attracting 1.6 million viewers.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) will appear in a Fox News town hall on June 2.