As the rest of the world mourns the late Prince Philip after news of his death on Friday, April 9th, 2021, Fox & Friends has chosen instead to play what social media has condemned as an offensive and racist blame game. Political parties in the UK have announced that they've temporarily suspended campaigning "as a mark of respect," for Prince Philip. Organizations, like the World Wildlife Fund, that Prince Philip poured much of his time into supporting, have been quick to post tributes to his life's work. Cricket teams are holding moments of silence.

But, Fox & Friends host, Brian Kilmeade , went a shockingly different direction, blaming Harry and Meghan and their interview with Oprah Winfrey on Prince Philip's death. Kilmeade commented,

"There are reports that [Philip] was enraged after the interview and the fallout from the interview with Oprah Winfrey, so here he is trying to recover and he's hit with that,"

Kilmeade went on to justify his allegations by referencing British TV personality, Piers Morgan's past comments. Piers Morgan, himself, abstained from blaming anyone, tweeting,

"A very sad day for our country. Thank you, Sir."

Twitter has taken no time in condemning Fox & Friends Brian Kilmeade's comments as senseless, repellent, and, as a few tweets claim, racist. One disgusted tweeter wrote,

"Faux News should be removed from the air."

Another wrote,

"So offensive. Harry lost his grandfather, no matter whatever else has gone on, like any of us, he should be allowed to grieve without harassment. @FoxNews always takes things too far."

A third chimed in via a tweet,

"Of course, Fox and Friends found a POC to blame."

Writer Roxane Gay tweeted,

"Whew. The way they are gonna blame the Duchess of Sussex. Smh. Jesus be a force field around her.”

Kilmeade's comments are already making the rounds on British news. Neither Kilmeade nor the show he hosts has yet to retract or apologize for his alarming comments. But, as HuffPost notes, when Fox & Friends uploaded its morning program to Youtube, Kilmeades' comments were conspicuously absent.

This isn't the first time that Fox & Friends Brian Kilmeade has drawn the ire of the Twitter-People. When Fox & Friends covered the aftermath of the Oprah interview, he defended Piers Morgan for "standing up for himself" while hosting a guest who questioned the veracity of Meghan Markle's claims. Kilmeade also generated social media controversy after suggesting that the British Monarchy was not racist because the British empire was composed largely of people of color.

In fact, many on social media have pointed out that his comments surrounding the Duke of Edinburgh's death are just one in a long history of racist, on-air comments.

Linking to a 2009 video clip, one revolted Twitter user tweeted,

"If you had any doubts about his intent on the Meghan Markle comments, don't."

In a discussion about an Alzheimer’s study conducted in Sweden, Kilmeade didn’t think the study applied to Amercians at all,

"We keep marrying other species and ethnics.”

As per HuffPost, Kilmeade later apologized for the comments, but only after a public outcry. This latest outburst from Kilmeade is just the most recent in a long line of overstepping the bounds of good taste.

#Fox&Friends #Royals #PrincePhilip