The Black Lives Matter leader who threatened “bloodshed” if there wasn’t police reform in New York City stormed out of an interview with Fox News’ Dan Bongino Saturday night after being called a “coward” for refusing to condemn riots.
New York BLM co-founder Hawk Newsome clashed with the conservative commentator during a heated exchange about rioting and vandalism in the Big Apple linked to his group in the wake of police use-of-force incidents.
Bongino, who is a former NYPD cop, asked the BLM leader if he condemned the “riots and burning down buildings” that have taken place after police-involved incidents, which escalated in New York last year.
“No. What I’ll say is, I understand when a police officer unjustifiably kills someone, why people lash out. I understand that completely,” Newsome said, adding: “I’m not going to condemn, nor am I going to condone it.”
Bongino hit back accusing him of being “cowardly” and not being able to answer questions when put on the spot — despite talking a “lot of junk.”
“Do you condone violence or you condemn violence? You’re all over the place. Just condemn violence and burning of buildings down. How hard is it?” the Fox host said.
After complaining that Bongino wasn’t giving him a chance to answer, Newsome compared BLM protests to the response from US authorities after 9/11.
“OK, so when Osama bin Laden attacked the World Trade Center, did you say America should deal with it peacefully?” Newsome said, prompting Bongino to argue the terrorist attacks had nothing to do with rioting in NYC.
Newsome responded: “OK, I’ll give you this. I don’t condone it, I don’t promote it, but I will not condemn it.”
He then cut the interview short, telling Bongino: “You’re trying to bait me.”
The fiery exchange came in the wake of Newsome’s comments last week in which he vowed there’ll be “riots,” “fire” and “bloodshed” if Mayor-elect Eric Adams follows through with his promise to bring back plainclothes anti-crime cops to battle the surge in violent crimes.
“If they think they are going back to the old ways of policing then we’re going to take to the streets again,” Newsome had said. “There will be riots. There will be fire, and there will be bloodshed.”