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Fox & Friends co-host Lawrence Jones talks with Outer Banks resident Wanda Bridgeman at a live broadcast of the popular morning show from Sandtrap Tavern in Kitty Hawk. Summer Stevens photo

Robert Healy and Andy Szakos were among the few people at Sandtrap Tavern who were not planning on voting for Donald Trump for president. Summer Stevens photo

Frankie Griffin and Lory Patrick attended the live broadcast of Fox & Friends Friday morning. Summer Stevens photo

Fox & Friends co-host Lawrence Jones with producer Tim Lauer at Sandtrap Tavern Friday, September 6. Segments of the show were broadcasted live from Kitty Hawk. Summer Stevens photo

Bob Weeks and his son Chad Weeks attended the live event at Sandtrap Tavern in Kitty Hawk to show their support for their favorite morning show and for presidential candidate Donald Trump. Summer Stevens photo

Crowds of people showed up Friday for the live broadcast of Fox & Friends from Sandtrap Tavern in Kitty Hawk. Early risers dine outside and watch clips from the show on the TV screens that were being filmed inside the restaurant. Summer Stevens photo

Crowds of people showed up Friday for the live broadcast of Fox & Friends from Sandtrap Tavern in Kitty Hawk. Summer Stevens photo

Fox & Friends co-host Lawrence Jones came to Sandtrap Tavern in Kitty Hawk on Friday, September 6, 2024 to talk to voters about critical issues in the upcoming presidential election.

Jones broadcasted interviews with restaurant patrons live from Kitty Hawk to Fox & Friends, the most watched morning program on cable news. Co-hosts Steve Doocy, Ainsley Earhardt, Brian Kilmeade and Jones join an estimated 1.3 million viewers every weekday morning live from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m.

In Fox & Friends’ signature “Breakfast with Friends” series, co-hosts travel to different parts of the country to hear directly from citizens on a variety of topics. Through a personal connection of the show’s producer, Tim Lauer, Sandtrap Tavern was chosen as a filming destination.

The invite to attend the event went out on Sandtrap’s social media accounts last Monday evening. The first 120 people to respond were put on a reservation list to be seated inside the restaurant, while dozens more waited outside for a table to come available.

It was a lively and packed house, with Jones moving throughout the room and outside on the deck and the lawn conducting in-person interviews and group polling.

Jones asked the crowd by show of hands who was doing early voting, and who was voting on November 5, with the majority opting to cast their ballots in person. Jones then asked which candidate citizens were voting for. The room was quiet for RFK; Kamala Harris drew a few hands and also some booing from the crowd; and with the mention of Donald Trump, the room erupted into cheers.

{Summer Stevens video} 

It was an overwhelming pro-Trump crowd, with many restaurant patrons donning Trump t-shirts, hats, and even a life-size cardboard cutout of Donald Trump.

North Carolina is one of the most critical states in the election with 16 electoral college votes. It is considered a “toss-up” state, meaning it could go red or blue, along with Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Arizona and Georgia.

With absentee mail-in ballots going out in North Carolina soon, Jones interviewed Outer Banks voters in attendance Friday to find out how they were feeling about the country and the presidential candidates. Present in the room were Dare County commissioner Ervin Bateman, Currituck commissioner Owen Etheridge, and District Attorney Jeff Cruden, along with more than a hundred others.

When asked in a spontaneous interview about her concerns for the country, Wanda Bridgeman said her top issues are the economy and immigration.

“She told it like it was,” said Bridgeman’s daughter, Nancy Dod.

Jones asked 96-year-old Violet Kennedy, in a clip posted to Fox & Friends’ Facebook page, what she wanted to hear on the debate stage from the presidential candidates. Kennedy’s concerns were primarily economic:

“The national debt is out of sight. These kids coming out today are going to have to make that up somehow. And another thing, they’re spending more money on people coming across the border than on their own people,” Kennedy said, citing poor communities in Chicago.

For Bob Weeks, 79, of Kitty Hawk, a daily viewer of Fox & Friends, he came to the event “to be in the crowd” and to show his support.

“We’ve just got to do something to get Trump in there, that’s all. We’ve got to do something,” he said to The Coastland Times.

His son, Chad Weeks of Kill Devil Hills, said that it was a big deal to his father, a Vietnam vet, when President Biden pulled out of Afghanistan. “That really crushed him. He felt like that wouldn’t have happened if Trump was in there. We wouldn’t have gone through that embarrassment.”

Not everyone in the room was a Trump supporter. “I’m infiltrated!” said Robert Healy of Kitty Hawk good-naturedly. He and Andy Szakos attended the event to participate and see what the format would be. Healy said he’s open to what the other side has to say.

Regardless of what circle will be filled in on the ballot November 5, Outer Banks residents in attendance were enthusiastic about having breakfast with Fox & Friends’ Lawrence Jones and being highlighted on national cable news.

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