Kids Recite Pledge of Allegiance in Bizarre, Flag-Laden Fox & Friends Segment
In case you thought that Fox & Friends was planning to pivot from its unwavering commitment to jingoism just because Brian Kilmeade said some rude things about President Donald Trump being worse than Barack Obama, think again!
On Friday morning, the show opened a segment on the Pledge of Allegiance by having school-aged children stand up at staged desks, put their hands on their hearts while holding up a small American flag in their other hands, and recite the Pledge of Allegiance to two larger American flags (and a Christmas tree that very well may stay posted in the Fox studio until February).
Here’s a clip of the segment, shared by host Pete Hegseth on Twitter in a post begging parents and teachers to “demand patriotism in our classrooms”:
Tag yourself. I, for one, am the weird adult in the background who is heard elongating the last two words of the pledge “FOR ALL” after all the kids are done reciting. (This is almost as weird as those dancing “USA Freedom Kids” in Captain America-esque dresses at Trump’s 2016 campaign rallies who ended up suing him. Almost.)
The segment goes on to feature talking points from James Robbins, the author of a book titled Erasing America, such as that some schools no longer say the pledge because the Supreme Court said they didn’t have to, and that schools are teaching “bad things” about U.S—aka the truth about slavery and Native America genocide and how we inspired Hitler’s eugenics movement—instead of things like “civics.”
Hegseth laments that the parents he talks to across the country say they don’t even know if their child says the pledge at school, showing that even adult Americans don’t care enough to bother making sure its part of our youth’s everyday routine.
“Go to your superintendent, go to your principal, and say, ‘If you don’t say the pledge, tell me why you don’t,’” Hegseth urged. “What’s so wrong about this great country that you can’t spend—I don’t know, what did that take? 25 seconds to say the pledge? That’s about it. I mean, it’s nothing.”
Hegseth wrapped up the segment by asking a bunch of impressionable children—whose brains are still forming—why saying the pledge, a thing that most kids do every day while half-asleep at 7:30 a.m., is so important to them. Just a regular old Friday at the only news channel courageous enough to say, “America. How about it?”