CNN anchor Fredricka Whitfield has said she “misspoke” when she described the actions of the gunman who opened fire on Dallas Police headquarters Saturday as “courageous and brave.” In an on-air clarification Sunday, Whitfield said she “in no way believe(s) the gunman was courageous, nor brave.”
On Fox News Channel’s Fox & Friends Monday morning, guest Kevin Jackson was buying none of that. “She meant it,” said Jackson, a radio host, who suggested Whitfield’s words are part of a growing resentment for police. “This is the way they think. They’re conditioned to believe that anybody that goes after the cops is good.”
Anchor Steve Doocy defended Whitfield at one point saying, “she does not have a history of saying things that tilt either direction.”
The conversation came in a segment on race that began with a discussion of Rachel Dolezal, who just resigned her post as president of the Spokane chapter of the NAACP.
Whitfield’s response Sunday was not accepted by Frederick Frazier, vice president of the Dallas Police Association, who called it “a flippant non-apology” that served as “further insult.” His group is calling on CNN to give “a more appropriate apology.”