"Fox & Friends" expressed rare criticism of Donald Trump after the president suddenly announced a temporarily immigration ban amid the coronavirus pandemic. Co-host Ainsley Earhardt was worried about what might happen to foreign workers, specifically her au pair.
"Many families here, including mine — we have au pairs, and we rely on them," she said. "I go to work at three o'clock in the morning, so I need her there. And I need her in my house so that she can help me with my daughter."
"Many families rely on child care from other countries," Earhardt continued. "These au pairs come here on work visas. They have to go back to their country to get the visas renewed, and we've been talking in my house about how that's going to happen."
That's when co-host Brian Kilmeade revealed the existence of an apparent broader au pair contingent at Fox News.
"Yeah, I just want to say — I know a lot of people who have au pairs that come here legally," he said. "Someone we all know has been waiting on one for a matter of months now . . ."
Details of Trump's plan remained unclear when his favorite morning show took up the issue Tuesday morning, including when it would go into effect, who would be affected and how long the "temporary" ban would last.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany released a statement indicating that the order would address concerns about employment and income for U.S workers.
"As President Trump has said, 'Decades of record immigration have produced lower wages and higher unemployment for our citizens, especially for African-American and Latino workers,'" she said. "At a time when Americans are looking to get back to work, action is necessary."
But Earhardt wanted answers, and she appeared to make a direct appeal to the president for them.
"These are questions that we have that — hopefully the president will roll out a plan, and we'll all be informed on how this is going to affect all of our lives," she said, again referencing the au pair situation.
Earhardt falsely claimed in 2017 that 5.7 undocumented immigrants voted illegally in 2008.
The Fox News host, who appears to be riding out the pandemic by the beaches of the Hamptons, presumably with her au pair, lamented in late March that women forced to stay home to prevent the spread of COVID-19 "can't get their nails done."
"Women — all my friends are saying — you know, this is not a priority. People are dying, and I realize that," she said at the time. "But they can't get their nails done."
Kilmeade pointed out, seemingly unintentionally, other complications with Trump's move on Tuesday.
"I'm wondering if there could be a testing procedure done once things settle down here in a month or so — so those people that are coming here legally through visas will be able to come here through work visas and maybe be students in the fall," he said. "I'm not sure how that's going to go, but we'll see."
Kilmeade dismissed public outrage about Trump family separation policy at the Mexico border in 2018.
"Like it or not, these are not our kids. Show them compassion, but it's not like he's doing this to the people of Idaho or Texas," he said at the time. "These are people from another country."
Earhardt reassured him then that Trump "just wants to make sure we vet who's coming across the border, in case it's MS-13 or drugs."
Kilmeade later walked back his remarks on Twitter, saying that he "didn't mean to make it seem like children coming into the U.S. illegally are less important because they live in another country."
The Fox News host said one year later that he feared that immigration could "destroy" the "color of the country.
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