Watch: Fox’s Brian Kilmeade Defends Andrew Jackson and the Indian Removal Act

Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade went to bat for President Andrew Jackson on Tuesday after protesters tried to tear down his statue. The Fox & Friends host defended the 19th century president, whom historians consider an unabashed racist responsible for genocide against Native Americans.

Kilmeade not only defended Jackson’s actions but he blamed the infamous Trail of Tears on Jackson’s successor, Martin van Buren. While van Buren was president when that particular march was forced, absolving Jackson of responsibility is ahistorical.

“I’d just like to add something to the Trail of Tears,” Kilmeade said. “Martin van Buren was president at the time. It was almost very similar to what Eisenhower had the plan to invade Fidel Castro’s Cuba and it was Kennedy that used the plan.”

Still in shock over one of the most racist, ignorant things Brian Kilmeade has ever done — defend Andrew Jackson's Indian Removal Act, because it was another president who forced the march that became infamous as the Trail of Tears. https://t.co/DMF9hMcqoy

— Bobby Lewis (@revrrlewis) June 23, 2020

“Martin van Buren used the plan that he thought that Jackson left for him and ended of up being a disaster for the Indian community and stain on our country,” Kilmeade said.

“But he also adopted an American Indian son,” he went on.  “And he also, yes, he fought Indians. But the American Indians were the tribes that fought with the British against us in the War of 1812. I don’t know if you were rooting for the British in the War of 1812, but I’m not.”

There was some instant reaction to Kilmeade’s comments.

While many individuals share blame when it comes to the Indian Removal Act and van Buren certainly shares a lot of it, Jackson was a prime force in some of the worst treatment of Native Americans in U.S. history.

Watch the video above, via Fox News.