Fox News Contributor Claims Man Who Burned Down Christmas Tree Was 'Targeting The Country' Despite Police Saying Otherwise

A Fox News contributor is crusading against criminals who are targeting America.

Or, at least, he thinks he is.

Fox News contributor Lawrence Jones made a statement on the air about the man who burned down the Fox Christmas tree.

In the early hours on the morning on Wednesday December 8, the Christmas tree set up outside of the Fox News headquarters in Manhattan was set ablaze.

The culprit was 49 year-old Brooklyn man Craig Tamanaha. Tamanaha allegedly snuck into the restricted tree area and set the tree alight. He was subsequently taken into custody just after midnight.

According to the New York Times, “police said they believed that he was homeless and were investigating whether drugs or mental illness had played a factor.”

After investigating the incident, police officers stated the arson attack was most likely a random, isolated incident and thus did not seem to be premeditated or be the result of any political agenda.

In fact, Tamanaha, when questioned by police, reportedly said he had "been thinking about lighting the tree on fire all day long."

Jones, however, disregarded the facts and made his own statement on the air at Fox, claiming the attack—a local crime most people would never know about without media amplification—was intended to "instill fear" and "target the country."

Watch the video here:

He then said:

"We're going to rebuild it. We're gonna because it's not just a Fox News tree. This was America's tree."

"A lot of our audience come across from all across the country and even in our international audience that couldn't see that. It was a moment of unity."

Despite what Jones said, "America's tree" is actually the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree, and has been since it was first erected in 1931.

Although Jones did admit the culprit "appears to be a guy that was a repeat offender" that "had a criminal record," and "just wanted to set something on fire," he still went on to say "although (Tamanaha) wasn't specifically targeting Fox's" tree, "he was targeting the country."

Jones then went on to blow the incident even further out of proportion, arguing criminals around the country were trying to take America down.

He said:

"All these criminals are targeting. It invokes fear in the public when these sorts of things happen."

Twitter users are snickering over Jones' overreaction to the arson attack.

Even after being told the tree would be replaced and re-lit on Thursday, Jones didn't budge from his misplaced righteous fury.

He said:

"We can't be deterred."

"I hope with this lightning, that the criminals watch that and say, 'there are a lot of Americans that are standing up and saying they're just not going to take this anymore.'"