In an effort to blast New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who made a John Lennon reference, “Fox & Friends” co-host Brian Kilmeade made his own statement invoking the musician.
But Kilmeade's sentiment that Lennon "wouldn't be safe in the city" didn’t make sense.
“[Mayor de Blasio] wants you to hum ‘Imagine’ by John Lennon. John Lennon wouldn’t be safe in this city right now. He’d be hiding in his apartment,” Kilmeade said on the Thursday show.
The Beatles member was killed by a gunman in front of his Manhattan apartment building in 1980 by a white man.
The clip was shared on social media and people began mocking Kilmeade’s comment.
The Fox commentator was responding to de Blasio saying he didn’t support defunding the New York Police Department and used Lennon’s song “Imagine” to explain why. Some people protesting the death of George Floyd, a black man killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis, have proposed defunding police departments to signal that change is needed when it comes to police brutality.
The mayor said he is not in favor of the idea during his Wednesday press briefing.
"I don’t mean to make light of this, but I am reminded of the song 'Imagine' by John Legend. We played it at my inauguration. I think that everyone who hears the song in its fullness thinks about — what about a world where people get along differently? What about a world where we didn't live with a lot of the restrictions that we have right now?" the mayor asked.
"But we are not there yet," he said. "We are making progress, I truly believe. I believe the protest movements themselves, the peaceful protest is the essence of how we make progress. The reforms made within the NYPD are progress, deep progress. But for folks who say defund the police? I would say that that is not the way forward. At some point in our history, we may be in a different situation."
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