If you thought Tucker Carlson’s on-air existential crisis over Arcata’s decision to remove its William McKinley statue would satiate right-wing media consumers’ need to be annoyed on this particular subject, well, you don’t know how the beast feeds. 

During his Fox News Radio show yesterday host Brian Kilmeade announced that an online article on the fate of the McKinley statue was the “#1 story on FoxNews.com right now” and added his voice to the chorus of those flabbergasted that such a thing could happen.

“It’s gotta stop here,” Kilmeade said. “I hope everyone gets involved in the Facebook movement to push back on it before eight months pass, $65,000 is spent and the statue is taken down.”

He was not alone in his outrage. Kilmeade’s guest and Fox News pundit Karl Rove — who just happens to also be the author of “The Triumph of William McKinley: Why the Election of 1896 Still Matters” — ran down a list of McKinley’s accomplishments and examples of the 25th President’s racial sensitivity. Rove, too, was aggrieved on McKinley’s behalf.   

(AUDIO) Brian Kilmeade and Karl Rove discuss McKinley

“Here’s a man who’s of exemplary character, so what is their beef with him?” an exasperated Rove wondered. Kilmeade pressed Rove on how he planned to stand up to the activists in favor of the statue’s removal. 

“Are you going to get involved in this? I mean, Karl Rove, you’re not just an author, historian and great American, you wrote The Triumph of William McKinley and they’re trying to get rid of his triumph.”

“I’d say watch the Wall Street Journal on Thursday, my friend,” Rove replied. Stay tuned, I guess.

But the rending of garments did not stop there. Former Utah congressman and new-ish Fox News contributor Jason Chaffetz picked up the ball while filling in as the guest host on last night’s edition of The Ingraham Angle — as you may have heard, regular host Laura Ingraham is taking some much-needed time off.

“American history is on the chopping block again,” Chaffetz declared before moderating a somewhat odd statue removal discussion that frequently veered off topic. (Watch that above, should you need to.) 

The debate continued, further, on Tuesday morning’s edition of Fox and Friends, when a refreshed Kilmeade and Ainsley Earhardt welcomed Arcata resident David LaRue, an anti-statue removal advocate, who said he was surprised that the Arcata City Council had moved so quickly on this issue. 

“There were some whispers among more activist parts of our population that they were going to put it up for a vote on the ballot and I didn’t worry, because I knew the city of Arcata, the people of Arcata, would never vote to remove this statue,” LaRue said. “So I was shocked when the council went over our heads and did this.”

In response LaRue told the Fox hosts he set up the “Let the people vote on the McKinley Statue” Facebook page and launched a GoFundMe page to raise funds to “hire an attorney to quickly file a request for a temporary injunction to stop the city from removing the statue.” 

“We are going to stop it,” LaRue said (watch the segment below).

As previously noted on LoCO, the process to remove McKinley from the Arcata Plaza will be a long one — the earliest the statue could be moved is likely October. So conceivably Fox News and the like have a while to beat on this drum. As such, it may be worth noting that last weekend’s Los Angeles Times statue coverage was noted on Twitter by white supremacist leader Richard Spencer who, you may recall, played a large part in the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, VA last year. 

# # #

PREVIOUSLY: