At a Greek Independence Day Celebration at the White House, Kimberly Guilfoyle, President Trump’s nominee for Ambassador to Greece, praised the President and offered a positive vision of the U.S.-Greece relationship.
She said that serving Greece, a country that is “near and dear to her heart” is the honor of a lifetime.”
But Greek citizens may not be quick to rally behind her upon her arrival in Athens to take over the position of America’s top diplomat in Athens.
In a 2015 segment of Fox News’ The Five, unearthed by Media Matters senior fellow Matt Gertz, Guilfoyle once described the Greeks as “freeloaders” who should be punished after rejecting a bailout offer from the European Union.
Following the Greek government debt crisis, a referendum was announced in June 2015 on whether the country should accept the bailout conditions proposed by the EU, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank. The following month, the Greek public overwhelmingly rejected the referendum, with 61 percent voting against the measure.
When the Greek public voted down a bailout offer from European creditors in a July 2015 referendum, Kimberly Guilfoyle called them “freeloaders” who need to “suck it up” and stop “retiring too early.” She also suggested they should be punished like a dog who pees on the rug.
Reacting to the results, which eventually led to the resignations of Greek party leaders and the country’s prime minister agreeing to an austerity plan with the EU, Guilfoyle — who was then a Fox News host — described Greeks as lazy and too dependent on the government.
“I mean, nobody likes freeloaders,” she declared. “It doesn’t matter if you made great yogurt. I don’t care.”
She wasn’t done going off on the country that she will now travel to as an American diplomat.
“Suck it up,” she exclaimed. “Get up in the morning. Go to work. You guys are retiring too early. And that’s part of the problem. You have, like, politicians making out-of-control promises, buying votes with entitlements that they can’t support.”
Comparing the Greek citizens to an untrained pet, Guilfoyle concluded by saying “nobody is punishing them” like when a “dog pees on the rug.”
