‘Disgraceful!’: Fox Panel Explodes After Mollie Hemingway Accuses Liberal Panelist of Comparing George Washington to Saddam

A panel on Fox News’ Outnumbered exploded Thursday afternoon during a discussion about monuments depicting Confederate leaders and other slave owners, after The Federalist‘s Mollie Hemingway falsely accused liberal commentator Marie Harf of comparing George Washington to Saddam Hussein.

Outnumbered co-host Melissa Francis asked Harf about how communities should address the controversy about these monuments, considering how some had been vandalized or even torn down recently by protesters — some, unfortunately, who were not Confederate leaders at all, but even monuments representing several abolitionists and Ulysses S. Grant, the famed general who led the Union to victory and was later elected president.

Harf said that she had lived in Charlottesville for years, and had witnessed how “some of the fights became physical” over the Confederate statues there.

She then mentioned that when the U.S. invaded Iraq, our military had helped Iraqis tear down statues of the dictator Hussein.

“While they were only symbols,” Harf explained, “they were symbols of oppression. “They were symbols of a leader who killed so many of his own people, had imprisoned them, had tortured them. And so symbols really do matter.”

Harf noted that “people who tear down Ulysses S. Grant statues, or abolitionist statues, are stupid and are not part of this broader conversation, and are only trying to hijack it for their own purposes.”

However, she continued, “we need a process for the Confederate statues — they were traitors and fought against this country. They should not be honored with these positions, with these statues.”

Later in the program, the panel revisited the issue, and Francis quoted the chairman of Black Lives Matter for Greater New York as saying that the movement would have to “burn down the system if it fails to achieve meaningful change.”

Francis questioned whether it was fair for the Black Lives Matter movement to claim to not have a real organizational structure and avoid accountability for any violence or property damage occurring at the protests.

“That’s pretty convenient, because if people get killed and things get burned down and it’s not an organization, then nobody gets held responsible,” she said, tossing the conversation back to Hemingway.

“Of course it’s an organization,” agreed Hemingway, “of course it has a hierarchy,” noting that corporations that were financially supporting Black Lives Matter were donating to these organizations, and not “random people on the streets.”

Hemingway then continued, and connected the comment by the Black Lives Matter leader to what Harf had said, but misrepresented the comparison that Harf had actually made — and Harf was quick to set the record straight.

“I actually just want to applaud this individual for being honest about his aims,” said Hemingway. “He made a comparison that Marie Harf also made during this show, that sometimes you need to do violent revolution to overthrow things you don’t like. You know, comparing George Washington to Saddam Hussein…”

“I did not say that, Mollie,” Harf interjected. “That’s not what I said.”

“…and that it’s OK to tear down both of their statues,” Hemingway continued, talking over Harf.

“I did not compare George Washington to Saddam Hussein, Mollie,” Harf cut in again. “That’s ridiculous.”

“Hang on, let her finish,” Francis said to Harf.

“Well, I didn’t make that comparison and I’m not going to let her say it,” Harf added but yielded to let Hemingway continue.

“The claim is that it’s okay to tear down statues which this week have included George Washington and Abraham Lincoln and other people like that and abolitionists, because it’s just like what we did when we did a regime change war in Iraq where we helped people tear down statues of Saddam Hussein,” said Hemingway, who then monologued for a bit about what Black people needed was to be “raised by two parents” to “keep you from having bad educational outcomes” or being incarcerated.

When Hemingway finally paused, Harf jumped back in. “Mollie, no, no, wait, I compared Confederate generals to Saddam Hussein. And for you to say that I compared George Washington to Saddam Hussein is disgraceful, Mollie. I’m sorry, that is completely unacceptable and inappropriate.”

“Thank you for the clarification,” Hemingway said, with a smirk.

“And it’s not what I did and shame on you for saying that,” Harf concluded.

Francis then cut off the debate, saying “we can’t devolve into a shouting fest here, let’s leave it there.”

Watch the videos above, via Fox News.

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