Eboni K. Williams said that she received over 150 “seething, scathing” emails after airing a segment berating President Donald Trump for failing to specify white nationalist groups in his condemnation of the violence that occurred in Charlottesville, Virginia, over the weekend.
The co-host of The Fox News Specialists addressed Trump on Monday during her “Eboni’s Docket” segment, reports Variety, which she writes herself. She said that normally she receives 10-15 emails after each segment, and that she had never received responses like these.
She gave Variety some examples of the emails: “I should meet my maker soon, I shouldn’t be allowed to walk the streets of New York,” and “They heard that I live in Harlem — Harlem needs to watch out.” Williams, a registered Independent, explained that the usual responses from Fox News viewers are positive, even if people disagree with her views, they “often praise her ability to formulate her arguments and present them on-air.”
Williams’ book publisher became so concerned for her safety that he asked Williams to request additional security from Fox News. She did, and she is now escorted to and from the building when she arrives to work.
She thinks the new level of vitriol directed at her is partly due to Trump’s “tacit compliance” of violent political rhetoric.
“When you don’t speak out and condemn, that’s tacit compliance in my book,” she said to Variety. “So whether President Trump approves of it actually, or actually wants it, I think is irrelevant because what we know is that these people think they are acting on behalf of the President of the United States.”
Williams believes that Trump’s supporters will never turn on him, and thinks because of that, he has the power to call out the behavior that resulted in Heather Heyer’s death. She thinks that he can speak down the actions of this weekend in an aggressive way and “they will still support him.”
Many of Williams’ critics are mad that she didn’t address the role of the counter-protesters in the violence that occurred in Charlottesville this weekend.
“I don’t think they were at fault because they didn’t drive a car into a crowd of people and kill Heather Heyer,” Williams, a registered Independent, said to Variety. “That was one individual that self-identified as a white nationalist and Nazi. To even have an analysis beyond that is irresponsible.”
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