Fox News host Brian Kilmeade called out conspiracy theorists on Monday for suggesting that Saturday’s assassination attempt against President Donald Trump during the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner was “staged” as part of an attempt to boost his approval ratings.

“I love the fact the president started giving the facts out. It doesn’t stop the conspiracy theories, but hopefully it squelches them,” said Kilmeade during a discussion about the incident on Fox & Friends. “All of a sudden I’m hearing, ‘Well the whole thing is– Was it staged? Was it staged so the president’s approval ratings can go up?'”

Co-host Lawrence Jones protested, “It’s unbelievable.”

“It’s insane,” continued Kilmeade. “Nothing could possibly have been staged. FBI Director Kash Patel on that coming up.”

The New York Times reported on Sunday that conspiracy theorists had been claiming Saturday’s incident was “staged” as “part of an apparent plot by Mr. Trump or others to distract from bad polling numbers or the war with Iran.”

According to the Times, the term “staged” quickly became a trending topic on social media, with “more than 300,000 posts on X by midday Sunday.”

During Monday’s episode of Fox & Friends, the co-hosts also called for better security to protect the president, likening the situation to increased airport security following the September 11 terrorist attacks.

“The [White House] ballroom obviously needs to be built, but in the meantime, we’ve still got to secure the events outside of the ballroom,” said Jones. “Every single event that the president or cabinet members are gonna be [at] are not gonna be government events. Like for example, I’m not sure this Correspondents’ Association Dinner could have been held at the ballroom if it was built. It’s a private organization.”

He questioned, “Can we only protect federal buildings at this point? What a disgrace as a country. I mean, we just got to do better.”

Co-host Ainsley Earhardt went on to suggest, “I mean, you have these crazy people, and you have to protect our president against this. And like he said over the weekend, it is probably the most dangerous job, and is it gonna be an inconvenience? Yes. Look after 9/11 what we had to go through, what we still have to go through, at the airports. Ziploc bags, the X amount of ounces per, you know, all our hairspray.”

“All that stuff just to make sure we’re safe on the airplanes, and is it a pain in the rear end? Yes, but is it worth it? Yes,” she concluded.

Watch above via Fox News.

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