Did a Fox Host Just Joke About Paul Pelosi’s Hammer Attack?
Fox News host Rachel Campos-Duffy made a bizarre quip Friday about Paul Pelosi after a colleague hypothesized about Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients awarded by a Democratic administration, saying that Pelosi—who was struck in the head with a hammer during a home invasion in 2022—perhaps “needs the hammer instead of the medal.”
The comment came during a Jesse Watters Primetime segment about how President Joe Biden awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to 19 people on Friday, including Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), the former Speaker of the House.
After guest host Pete Hegseth made a point to tell viewers that Biden flubbed the name of the award as the “presidential freedom of medal,” he and Campos-Duffy complained about Biden’s choices, which featured the late civil rights leader Medgar Evers, John Kerry, and Simone Biles. After wistfully remembering how Donald Trump presented Rush Limbaugh with the honor, they thought of recipients they felt would have been more deserving.
Their list could’ve been mistaken for satire, as Campos-Duffy led off with, “America’s frat boys.”
From there, it was Trump, followed by Elon Musk for “absolutely caring about freedom of speech,” then the “truly peaceful protesters of the pro-life movement—the ones that are in jail right now.” (Campos-Duffy didn’t specify who.)
Musician and occasional Fox News guest Kid Rock should also be recognized, she said, along with John Rich and Riley Gaines, the collegiate swimmer-turned-Fox Nation podcast host who has spoken out against transgender women participating in women’s sports.
Rounding out Campos-Duffy’s list was “the classical school movement” and members of the U.S. Border Patrol.
Hegseth, in firm agreement, had his own suggestion: the NYPD officers who “cleared out Columbia.” It wasn’t clear if Hegseth was including the officer who, during that period, accidentally fired his gun in a campus building.
Hegseth then seemed resigned that Campos-Duffy’s selections would never be Biden’s choices.
“It’s probably more likely to go to Paul Pelosi, Susan Rice and Gavin Newsom,” he griped, referring to the United Nations ambassador during the Obama administration and the current governor of California. “So I think your list is correct but a little off-brand for ‘Big Joe.’”
It was at this point that Campos-Duffy seemed to make a casual reference to the brutal attack on Paul Pelosi by a far-right Holocaust denier, which caused a skull fracture requiring surgery as well as other serious injuries to Pelosi’s hands and right arm.
“Well maybe Paul Pelosi needs the—the hammer instead of the medal,” Campos-Duffy said while holding up her right hand as if gripping that tool.
Hegseth replied, “It’s metal.”
“It’s metal,” Campos-Duffy agreed, laughing.
Hegseth, perhaps wanting to cover himself and his colleague, then tried to smooth things over. “We wish him well. We wish him well,” he said, before turning to his Fox & Friends Weekend co-host, “as we wish you well.”
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