Fox News anchor attempts to explain racist origin of ‘looting/shooting’ tweet to Trump
In an interview with President Trump on Thursday, which partially aired on The Story With Martha MacCallum, Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner attempted to explain to the president the origin of the phrase he used in a tweet on May 28 about unrest in Minneapolis, “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.” The tweet was quickly flagged by Twitter for “glorifying violence.”
Video Transcript
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HARRIS FAULKNER: The tweets--
DONALD TRUMP: Yeah.
HARRIS FAULKNER: "When the looting starts, the shooting starts." [PAUSES] Why those words?
DONALD TRUMP: So, that's an expression I've heard over the years, and it really means to--
HARRIS FAULKNER: Do you know where it comes from?
DONALD TRUMP: Uh, I think Philadelphia-- the mayor of Philadelphia for one--
HARRIS FAULKNER: No.
KYLIE MAR: In an interview with President Trump on Thursday, which partially aired on "The Story with Martha MacCallum," Fox News's Harris Faulkner explained to the president the origin of the phrase he used in a tweet, "when the looting starts, the shooting starts." Trump's tweet was quickly flagged by Twitter for glorifying violence.
HARRIS FAULKNER: It comes from 1967. I was about 18 months old at the time. Everybody's shooting Wiki 'cause they probably got it wrong. But it was from the chief of police in Miami. He was cracking down. And he meant what he said.
KYLIE MAR: The former Miami police chief who used the phrase believed in the use of deadly force against civil rights protesters. And Faulkner informed Trump of why him using that phrase in a tweet gave people cause for concern.
HARRIS FAULKNER: He said, I don't even care if it makes it look like brutality. I'm going to crack down. When the looting starts, the shooting starts.
DONALD TRUMP: Yeah.
HARRIS FAULKNER: Um, that frightened a lot of people when you tweeted that.
DONALD TRUMP: Well, it also comes from a very tough mayor who might have been police commissioner at the time, but I think mayor of Philadelphia named Frank Rizzo.
KYLIE MAR: Frank Rizzo, the former police commissioner and mayor of Philadelphia whose statue was recently removed, was actually famous for telling people to "vote white." And Trump once again interpreted what "when the looting starts, the shooting starts" means to him.
DONALD TRUMP: It means two things-- uh, very different things. One is, if there's looting, there's probably going to be shooting. And that's not as a threat. That's really just a fact because that's what happens. And the other is, if there's looting, there's going to be shooting. It's a very di-- very different meanings.
HARRIS FAULKNER: Oh, interesting.
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