Fox & Friends has long been considered the safest province for President Donald Trump supporters on cable news, but a segment today proved an exception to that rule.

In what seemed to be meant as a classic left vs right debate over the public statues of Confederate “heroes,” the segment turned into a remarkably emotional discussion in which both Democratic and Republican panelists expressed tear-stained sadness about the state of the nation following the deadly protests in Charlottesville last weekend.

Representing the left we met Wendy Osefo, who was identified by chyron as a “Democratic Political Analyst,” and quickly moved the conversation introduced by Abby Huntsman from Confederate Soldier monuments to “hatred and white supremacy to have killed Heather Heyer on U.S. soil by Nazis.”

Huntsman ostensibly ignores Osefo’s broader comments and tries to get the conversation back on track by echoing Trump with “there are good people on both sides of this debate,” before asking about “keeping statues up” and “how do we move forward and learn from those mistakes if we tear everything down?”

Enter a clearly emotional Gianno Caldwell, who was ID’d as a “Republican Political Analyst,” who refused to take the statue debate bait and opened with “I come today with a very heavy heart.” He then uttered critical words rarely heard on Fox News, saying “last night I couldn’t sleep at all because president Trump, our president is literally betrayed the conscience of our country.” He then went deep in his take down of Trump, saying:

The very moral fabric in which we have made progress when it comes to race relations in America. He has failed us. And it’s very unfortunate that our president would say things like he did in that press conference yesterday when he says there are good people on the side of the Nazis. They weren’t all Nazis and they weren’t all white supremacists. Mr. President, good people don’t pile around with Nazis and white supremacists. Maybe they don’t consider themselves white supremacists and Nazis, certainly they hold those views. This has become very troubling for anyone to come on any network and defend what President Trump did and said at that press conference yesterday is completely lost and the potential to be morally bankrupt. I’m sorry, no I believe that and I’m being very honest as one who has been talking about these issues for a very long time. I’m sorry that this is where we are right now. I hope the president learns a lesson from his press conference on yesterday. It’s disturbing

Huntsman seemed surprised that her guests were making the segment about race relations and not a safer political debate about the “sanctity” of public statues of Confederate memorials, and tried in vain to get back on track asking about “the debate of these statues whether they should stay up or go down….this argument that it’s a slippery slope, where does that end?” But her guests weren’t having it.

There were bigger issues to discuss, namely that President Trump defended the “innocent protests” of Nazis in Charlottesville and the blaming of the counter-protestors that did not have a permit.

Watch the stunning segment above, courtesy of Fox News.

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