Fox News hosts joke about Democrats using 'political props' in front of dozens of D-Day grave markers
- Fox News opinion host Laura Ingraham mocked Democratic candidates in the 2020 US presidential election during a televised segment at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in France.
- Ingraham questioned the complexity of the questions recently asked by children at Democratic rallies and suggested the campaigns may have staged kids to be used as "pathetic political props."
- Ingraham and Fox News commentator Raymond Arroyo levied the allegations of staging political props amid the rows of gravestones that were visible in the background at night.
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Fox News' coverage of President Donald Trump's trip to France for the 75th anniversary of D-Day has been criticized for striking a partisan tone in an otherwise apolitical event.
On Wednesday evening, Fox News opinion host Laura Ingraham mocked Democratic candidates in the 2020 US presidential election during a televised segment at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in France.
Ingraham questioned the complexity of the questions recently asked by children at Democratic rallies and suggested the Democratic campaigns may have staged kids to be used as "pathetic political props."
Ingraham and Fox News commentator Raymond Arroyo levied the allegation of staging political props amid the rows of gravestones visible in the background. Established in 1944, the cemetery contains the remains of 9,380 service members, most of whom were killed during the D-Day landings of the same year.
"Kids have been starting to quiz candidates on really complicated constitutional matters," Ingraham said, several yards away from the gravestones. "They're not being coached are they?"
"Oh no, Laura," Arroyo said in an exaggerated reply. "The kids are popping up all of a sudden at these political events."
Ingraham and Arroyo shared a few laughs after playing a clip of an 11-year-old kid asking former Vice President and 2020 candidate Joe Biden a question about impeachment. "Wait, kids say the darnedest things," Ingraham said.
The next morning, Ingraham conducted an interview with Trump at the cemetery, where the two discussed political issues.
With rows of grave markers visible in the background, Trump described former special counsel Robert Mueller, a Bronze Star recipient of the Vietnam War, as a "fool" and railed against his Democratic opponents.
"Nancy Pelosi, I call her Nervous Nancy, Nancy Pelosi doesn't talk about it. Nancy Pelosi is a disaster," Trump said of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. "She's a disaster. Let her do what she wants, you know what? I think they're in big trouble."
Pelosi, who also attended the memorial services, denied questions from reporters about Trump's policies.
"I don't talk about the president when we're out of the country," Pelosi said to CNN. "It's my principle, so I won't go there."
CNN host Jake Tapper, an outspoken advocate for veterans, scrutinized the president's interview amid a solemn occasion.
"It's really not that difficult to imagine what the response might be ... if a Democratic president had engaged in political attacks like that one on the D-Day anniversary, on the grounds of the cemetery," Tapper said in his segment on Thursday.
"But beyond that, it's the reverence that needs to be shown to the men in that dirt. And to their families and to all those who see meaning in their sacrifice," Tapper added.
Allied forces invaded Normandy, France on June 6, 1944. Roughly 2,500 US troops were killed in what was the largest amphibious invasion in history. Around 2,700 British troops and 946 Canadian troops who took part in the assault were also killed.
Trump praised the actions of the Allied troops during a his memorial speech in front of roughly 170 World War II veterans.
"You are among the very greatest Americans who will ever live," Trump said on Thursday. "You're the pride of our nation. You are the glory of our republic. And we thank you from the bottom of our hearts."