Fox News hosts melted down after a Texas school district temporarily removed the Bible for review as part of a conservative book banning crusade.
The news was reported by former Trump White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, who now hosts the Fox News program Outnumbered. She and her co-hosts suggested book bans should be limited to materials with LGBTQ+ themes.
McEnany referred to the Bible as a "classic historical text," adding, with no sense of irony whatsoever, the historical context is being removed even if people don't believe in its "religious context."
You can hear what she and her co-hosts said in the video below.
McEnany said:
"The Bible, the most read book in human history. Over the last 50 years, nearly 4 billion copies have been sold. Compare that to Harry Potter, which is number three at 400 million."
"Not only that, foundation of the world's largest religion. A classic historical text. If you don't believe it in the religious context, at least it can be appreciated in that context."
"But that's the one we're removing!"
McEnany's co-host Emily Compagno agreed, saying it's "difficult to digest" the fact "the whim of a few has such an impact on the many," adding:
"This is literature that this school should be exposed to. And yet because someone else said we're going to review it again, all of the sudden it's back under review."
"The fact that because one person or three people put the Bible on the list [is] absolutely horrifying. And this is when the school administrators need to step up and say absolutely not."
"Because the default here as well is if someone subjected it to review, then it's automatically taken off the shelf while they decide. But every day without the Bible is a day lost!"
McEnany went on to suggest only "new" books should be banned, voicing her support for students' "need to see and understand the Holocaust, slavery, human atrocities and the world's history."
At this point, co-host Harris Faulkner weighed in with a conspiratorial point of view, suggesting taking the Bible "out of schools then furthers the political goal that we know already exists."
"They want to, on one side of the political aisle, remove things like, you know, the pledge of allegiance and things that have the word God and so on and so forth."
"And why remove it while you're talking about it?"
"Why can't you leave it up because you can't replace the learning -- whatever the book is -- you can't replace what was gone, except for the sex pictures, because those are not things kindergarteners through third grade should be practicing."
"But historic books, you can't replace that learning when it's on a back shelf."
The exchange quickly went viral.
It was called out as an example of Republican hypocrisy while backing efforts in other school districts to ban books that explore LGBTQ+ themes or speak candidly about the history of slavery or government sponsored genocide in the United States.
A pushback against literature deemed subversive has dominated the culture wars as of late, becoming a flashpoint among the far-right amid a campaign by Republicans to energize conservative voters, particularly in school board elections.
In recent months, the Republican Party has been gripped by an ongoing "groomer" hysteria accusing LGBTQ+ people of building relationships, trust and emotional connections with children so they can manipulate, exploit and abuse them.
This has resulted in a renewed pushback against the alleged "LGBTQ+ indoctrination" of children that has prompted at least one Republican to suggest parents and teachers who support LGBTQ+ children should be "executed for treason."
