Hawk Newsome – co-founder of Black Lives Matter in New York City, cut short his interview with Fox News’ Dan Bongino on Saturday night after being called a “coward” for refusing to condemn vandalism allegedly linked to his group.
“Do you condemn rioting and burning down buildings?” Bongino, a former NYPD police captain, asked during the interview.
“No,” Newsome responded. “What I’ll say is, I understand when a police officer unjustifiably kills someone, why people lash out. I understand that completely. I’m not going to condemn, nor am I going to condone it.”
Bongino pushed back, calling Newsome’s response “cowardly,” before once again asking the BLM leader to condemn violence: “Isn’t that cowardly?” the Fox host asked. “’I’m not going to condemn it, but I’m not going to condone it – so I don’t want to take a stand’? … You seem to talk a lot of junk and then when I put you on the spot you won’t answer a damn question. Do you condone violence or you condemn violence? You’re all over the place. Just condemn violence and burning of buildings down. How hard is it?”
After claiming Bongino wasn’t giving him a chance to answer, Newsome compared BLM protests to the response from U.S. authorities after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center.
“OK, so when Osama bin Laden attacked the World Trade Center, did you say America should deal with it peacefully?” Newsome said, adding, “I don’t condone it, I don’t promote it, but I will not condemn it.”
After Bongino called his response “cowardly,” Newsome cut the interview short.
“You’re trying to bait me,” he answered, before storming off the set.
Check out Hawk Newsome’s full conversation with Dan Bongino up top.
