Former MTV VJ and current Fox Business host Lisa Kennedy Montgomery sparked outrage online after she referred to Biden administration Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg as a "a cracker who only wants to racially divide the country further” after he released a plan to build racial equity into the nation's infrastructure.
Kennedy Montgomery's remark came in response to her co-host Julie Banderas' comments on a $662 million grant program for ports administered by the Department of Transportation (DOT).
Banderas said Buttigieg's efforts are "obviously the left politicizing" because the grant money is reserved for “projects that address equity and environmental justice, particularly for communities that have experienced decades of underinvestment and are most impacted by climate change, pollution, and environmental hazards.”
Things took an awkward turn from there once Kennedy Montgomery took the mic.
You can hear what she said in the video below.
In her comments to Kennedy Montgomery—known mononymously as "Kennedy" on air—Banderas called the plan little more than a "woke" exercise appealing only to Democrats and their left-wing constituents:
"This is obviously the left politicizing, Kennedy, and using once again another woke agenda to basically punish those that don't believe the same rhetoric they are spewing."
"What does it say to those who are going to retire if they don't believe in this woke agenda then they get hurt after working 60-plus years? I mean, it is a slap in the face of any working American."
Kennedy Montgomery replied:
"Well, it also doesn't address where problems specifically are. It is just this broad brush painted by a cracker who only wants to racially divide the country further. That is not necessary."
"He is not good at his job. He doesn't understand transportation. I don't think he understands infrastructure."
"He just speaks in slogans and they are empty, but he thinks they mean something. And he is doing a great disservice not only to communities of color but to the administration which he serves with empty, bland propaganda."
Kennedy Montgomery's remarks soon went viral and sparked backlash online.
\u201cAnother lame \u2066@FoxNews\u2069 \u201canchor\u201d Tries to spin a program to embrace all races into a racist rant. Just shows what out-loud and proud racists everybody at Fox is. https://t.co/muMo0n0Ubo\u201d— Christine O (@Christine O) 1676118310
\u201c@realTuckFrumper Fox News is so good at keeping the dregs of pop culture employed\u201d— #TuckFrump (@#TuckFrump) 1676103003
\u201c@realTuckFrumper On any other station this would be News. On Fox it is expected.\u201d— #TuckFrump (@#TuckFrump) 1676103003
\u201c@HuffPost Just because a person has a mouth doesn't mean they also have a brain.\u201d— HuffPost (@HuffPost) 1676139934
\u201cThe Fake Republican Propaganda News Network speaks. https://t.co/5hz2Ki9DYG\u201d— The Coach (@The Coach) 1676114803
\u201cRead "Fox News' Kennedy Calls Pete Buttigieg A Racially Divisive 'Cracker'' on SmartNews:\n\nGotta love conservatives and their race baiting. #RacistRight https://t.co/HSfluRnxat\u201d— Coaltiger211 (@Coaltiger211) 1676145468
\u201cI used to like Kennedy on MTV. Was she always this terrible a person? https://t.co/uYvlyMYJnu\u201d— Left of Center (@Left of Center) 1676217393
\u201cAgain, the ignorance and uneducated shows - a "cracker" is to white as n****er is to blacks. Eliminating black history (under the guise of CRT), banning books, dividing cities by race, that's @GOP action. @FoxNews Kennedy projecting. @KennedyNation \n\nhttps://t.co/OcCtpBN9w1\u201d— PatriciaWickham (@PatriciaWickham) 1676131889
Shortly after Kennedy Montgomery's remarks, Banderas turned to co-host Emily Compagno while questioning "what qualified [Buttigieg] to become a Transportation Secretary."
Compagno decried the plan as an example of the "inefficiency of government," arguing Buttigieg and his staff at the DOT are putting unnecessary "red tape" and "regulations" around "those underserved communities that deserve so much more."
Compagno did not counter Buttigieg's plan with a solution of her own, only opining the "inefficiency" and "red tape" she's against is exactly "what [the Biden] administration is about."
