Geraldo, you, like many, have accused him of racism.
But if you go back and look at that tweet, he’s not talking about race, he’s talking
about whether or not you love this country and appreciate it.
And if you don’t appreciate it and don’t love it and don’t want to work to make it
better, then maybe you could consider going somewhere else.
There’s plenty of countries on earth.
What the hell.
Come on, Pete.
This is their country.
They’re citizens of the United States.
He was talking about, in general, about the principles of our country.
What if someone said that to you.
You don’t like it, you can leave.
Absolutely.
Some things are intolerable.
They can say that to me.
You cannot say that.
You could totally say that-- You can’t say that to me.
I could say it to you.
I’ve got into 10 street fights based on that.
Someone saying to me, because I’m Puerto Rican, go back to where you came from.
Because I’m not looking-- I was born on 17th Street, this is where I
came from.
I’m not looking at the color of your skin.
I’m looking at what you stand for, the principles of our country.
White, black, otherwise.
It’s not about race.
Once you make nationhood and citizenship like that conditional on your political loyalties,
you run a very dangerous path there.
And you should know that.
There’s a lack of gratitude.
Geraldo, what about the fact that-- A lot of people aren’t grateful to be here.
Gratitude is not a requirement of citizenship.
This is Geraldo Rivera, finally calling his Fox & Friends co-hosts out amid their pretending
that the “Send her back” chant at Trump’s North Carolina rally was, somehow, not racist—
Omar has a history of launching vicious anti-Semitic screeds.
“Send her back!
Send her back!
Send her back!”
…Right.
Now, Pete Hegseth claims, off the bat, that Trump’s initial tweet wasn’t about race,
it was simply an open invitation to explore other countries if you’re not happy here.
And this is some lazy gaslighting by the Fox & Friends host, because while he might claim
that it had nothing to do with race, it just so happened that it was targeting four nonwhite
congresswomen, AOC, Rashida Tlaib, Ilham Omar and Ayanna Pressley, and included a historically
racist trope, which is to go back to your country.
But I guess as the saying goes, it is looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, then …yeah
it’s definitely not a duck, you can trust us here at Fox.
But Hegseth goes a step further, claiming that it’s not offensive because HE wouldn’t
be offended if someone told him he could leave.
Which… yup, foolproof argument.
Trump’s tweet suggesting four nonwhite Americans get out of the country isn’t racist because
the white guy on Fox wasn’t offended.
As if that’s the bar on whether something is racist or not—let’s check in with the
whitest guy in the room and see how he feels about it all.
But then, the kicker, Hegseth defends his position by suggesting that there’s a lack
of gratitude.
And that’s what’s actually behind the curtain, because in the case of Ilhan Omar
for example, it suggests that even though she’s a US citizen, they still view her
as an outsider and that she doesn’t have the RIGHT to criticize, doesn’t have the
RIGHT to be ungrateful.
Their entire argument suggests that she’s not a legitimate member of society, that she
should just be grateful to even BE here and keep her mouth shut.
But that is the absolute antithesis of what it means to be American, which – again – SHE
IS.
Our country is not defined by some obligation to blindly defer to the president or withhold
criticism of our government or to get down on your hands and knees and gush your gratitude
for America.
All of these examples are just empty, shallow displays of what the right THINKS patriotism
is.
In reality, our country is defined by our right to speak out and criticize our government
and demand that we be better.
Imagine if it was unpatriotic to challenge the status quo during slavery, before people
of color and women had the right to vote, when the Japanese were put into internment
camps.
Our past is rife with mistakes, but it was our willingness to stand up and fight to change
them that defines us.
Patriotism isn’t just being obedient little citizens, it’s constantly working toward
creating a more perfect union.
And if that means dissenting so loudly that the White House’s propaganda channel calls
you ungrateful, so be it.
So Pete Hegseth might bristle at what he perceives as a lack of gratitude, and that’s totally
within his rights, and he can absolutely go on national television and complain about
it to whatever empty waiting rooms Fox & Friends is playing to, but as Geraldo says—
Gratitude is not a requirement of citizenship in this country.