Fox & Friends host Pete Hegseth spoke out about his ongoing suspension from Twitter on Monday night’s edition of “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”
Hegseth was suspended temporarily from the platform on Saturday after posting the anti-American manifesto of Pensacola shooter Mohammed Alshamrani, calling the actions “Islamist terror” in the Tweet. Alshamrani, a Saudi military student, shot and killed three people and wounded another 12 on Friday at Navy Station Pensacola.
“The coward posted it just hours before his terrorist attack,” Hegseth wrote. “This is Islamist terror. No reason to ever mince words. Saudi Arabia must be held to account.”
Hegseth used his Instagram account on Sunday to speak out against the ban:
Hegseth posted on Monday that Twitter had “denied” his appeal, but promised to never delete the tweet:
The Fox News host reiterated his stand during an appearance with Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
“I simply posted the words of the terrorist who killed three Americans in a terrorist attack, yet I’m violating the Twitter policy on terrorism and therefore I am banned” Hegseth pointed out, adding that though he typically doesn’t “play the veteran card,” his military service makes him acutely aware of extremists’ “true motivations, hatred for America, hatred for Israel.”
Without free speech, Hegseth said, “we’re gonna get the false narrative of the PC folks from Silicon Valley every single day of the week. And they banned me, and if they’ll ban me, they’ll ban anybody.”
“They told me if I delete the tweet, then I can go back on the platform,” Hegseth told Tucker when asked about the current status. “If I don’t, I’m gone. Of course I’m not going to delete the tweet, the tweet was just simply sharing the manifesto and exposing the motives of this terrorist. If I don’t do that, then I don’t get to tweet anymore. You are so right, Tucker,” he continued.
“It’s not the people who have a profile, it’s the thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of Americans who share stuff about radical Islam, which is taboo, who are blocked every single day. Silicon Valley is in bed with defending under the guise of defending against Islamophobia anyone who exposes the things that radical Islam is doing. That’s what I ran up against here.” (RELATED: ‘This Is Not The Capitalism That I Signed Up For’ — Tucker Carlson And Steve Hilton Discuss Busting Big Tech’s Monopoly)
“There’s literally no limit to the things you can say about Christianity or Christians and remain on the platform,” said Carlson.
“Endless,” said Hegseth. “The double standard. Everybody knows it. Is there. It’s blatant.”
Twitter has defended its suspension of Hegseth, telling the Washington Examiner on Monday that the Fox News host clearly violated their policy by posting the manifesto, which they enforce “judiciously and impartially” to all users.
