Kilmeade kicked things off by claiming that he was in the arena and that the response was actually “pretty mixed,” with Trump having the support of “about half the stadium in New York City, which is pretty amazing.” He added that the president “did make history there” by supposedly getting that level of approval from the New York City crowd. He added that Trump “had a great time” at the game and “loved every minute of it.”
After all three co-hosts offered or amplified testimonials to Trump’s love of sports in general and the Knicks in particular — suggesting that it was unfair for fans to boo him for coming to the game — Jones acknowledged that the New York City fans were likely overwhelmingly Democratic.
“You don't expect anything different from the same crowd that voted for” New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, Jones said. “Did you expect there to be welcoming crowd?”
Jones then suggested that the booing fans were unpatriotic, saying, “The fact that they did it during the anthem, though, is what really shocked me.” Of course, trying to forestall such a reaction is probably why Trump was shown on the jumbotron during the anthem.
But Kilmeade took issue with Jones conceding that the crowd was overwhelmingly against the president.
“The thing is, though, I would say it was mixed, Lawrence. There were people cheering,” he said. “I’ll challenge anybody on that — I was sitting right there.”
“But that doesn’t bother the president,” Kilmeade added. “He legitimately is there to watch the game. “
The co-host then offered some excuses for why people might have booed the president unrelated to the possibility that they are among the national majority that hates his guts.
“The other thing is, the amount of security to get in,” he said. “It was unbelievable. I mean, it took me 90 minutes to go two blocks. That's everybody. You just sat there in a herd through four magnetometers. So people were kind of worn out by the time they got there. So there were people that just maybe might have been upset about how long it took just to get into the game.”
“Once the game started, it was great,” he concluded. “It was just a fantastic atmosphere.”
Kilmeade hit many of the same points later in the program.