Fox News host Pete Hegseth said Tuesday that the viral “Let’s go Brandon” meme was more aimed at liberal media than at President Joe Biden.
Hegseth told “The Faulkner Focus” host Harris Faulkner that although “Let’s go Brandon” had become a euphemism for “Fuck Joe Biden,” the real reason it had become a cultural phenomenon was its simultaneous dig at media. (RELATED: ‘Damn It! You Have To Recognize We Wanted Out Of This 20 Year War’: Geraldo Rivera And Pete Hegseth Go At It Over Afghanistan)
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“The chant setting off a monumental meltdown across the media as left-leaning journalists jump to provide cover for President Biden,” Faulkner began.
“Here is Jim Sciutto from CNN: ‘Think about the lessons the Let’s go Brandon crowd is teaching their children.’ That tweet lit up the social media platform,” she continued. “Some responses to that were, ‘Staggering hypocrisy and gas lighting.’ Another: ‘People like this aren’t serious. They act like 2017, 2020 never happened.’ And: ‘You are supposed to be a journalist, not a lap dog.’ What do you make of it?”
“It was the cover-up that made this clip go viral in the first place,” Hegseth reminded Faulkner. He was referring to the Talladega race won by Brandon Brown and the NBC reporter who said on the air that the crowd — which actually appeared to be chanting “Fuck Joe Biden” — was cheering Brown’s victory and saying “Let’s go Brandon.”
“Whether the NBC reporter knew the chant was one thing or ”Let’s go, Brandon,’ it was emblematic of the cover-up we’re seeing right now,” Hegseth continued. “Don’t listen to the crowd, don’t listen to the inflation numbers, don’t listen to the border, don’t listen to the crime, don’t listen to what happened in Afghanistan, that was a great success. The media will cover at every turn. ‘Let’s go, Brandon,’ has become the rallying cry for Americans who say, ‘We don’t buy what you are selling, we don’t want the policy you are selling.'”
Hegseth went on to argue that the meme had capitalized on everything people were looking for — something humorous they could latch onto.
“People are laughing about it because if they weren’t laughing they’d be crying about the direction of our country,” he concluded.
“I go back to Robert DeNiro and Hollywood, big awards event, popped out the f-bomb against President Trump,” Faulkner replied.