In light of Independence Day 2016, Fox Business Network’s Stuart Varney shared with The Daily Caller what it means to be an American by choice and how that shapes his view of the anti-Donald Trump protesters who wave the Mexican flag in America.
Varney was born in Britain and became an American citizen last November. He said, “It’s a very special day—this July the Fourth—because it will be the first July the Fourth that I have been a fully-fledged, bonafide American citizen.”
“I’ve been in America a long time, but just recently became a citizen. And I have to tell you that, when I, on the day that I swore allegiance to the Constitution to the United States of America it was a very special day.”
“In my swearing-in ceremony, there were 80 people from 33 different countries, and there wasn’t a dry eye in the place,” Varney recalled fondly. “Everybody wanted to be there. We all wanted to be Americans, and it was a fine feeling.”
“I realized at that point, I’m a member of the club. I am an American,” Varney said. Being an American “makes you feel different. It just does. I’ve loved America since day one, and now I’ve joined the club. I’m in, and I’m a very happy guy.”
Elaborating on his choice to become an American, Varney told TheDC, “I have pretty much a free choice as to where I want to live and work in the world. And I deliberately chose America because this is the place that I know and like and came to love.”
Varney said he chose America because “it offered opportunity—and nobody cared what my mom and dad did for a living. You know, that’s an astonishing thing to say when you’re a European because your birthright, your background means a lot. In America, I never got that impression. Can you do the job? Have you got any brains, drive, talent, and ability? And if you do well, you can climb the tree. And that’s what happened to me. I liked it immediately, fit right in, felt myself to be very American, and took it from there.”
“It’s a feeling of belonging, being part of it,” Varney said.
When asked about the anti-Trump protesters who have shown up in California and New Mexico at the presumptive Republican nominee’s rallies, Varney said, “That’s like a red rag to a bull. Outrageous. You do not fly any foreign flag when you’re demonstrating against an American presidential candidate… You just don’t do it. Period. And on American soil, in California, to wave the Mexican flag is extremely provocative. And, I think, wildly counter-productive for the demonstrators. Nothing will move voters toward Donald Trump quite like a Mexican flag…. That’s provocative and counterproductive and utterly wrong.”
For Varney, becoming an American has “solidified” his views on immigration. “This thing of choice is very important to me. All immigrants are making that choice. They’re all saying. ‘I want to be here’—for whatever reason. They’re saying. ‘I want to be here,’ and America is a place which opens its arms to foreigners,” Varney said. “I mean, after all, where else in the world could I go, with a very foreign accent, and tell you Americans, the locals, what’s going on in your society. And if you think that an American could go to Germany and, with a pronounced American accent, read the news in German and have them—I mean, would you be accepted? Course you wouldn’t! But in America you can. America offers a warm embrace to foreigners, and I’ve always felt that and always felt at home.”
The Fox host told TheDC that he plans to celebrate his first Fourth as an American citizen on Cape Cod with his family. They will spend time, Varney said, at the annual Fourth of July parade with “my fellow Americans, all of whom want to be there and are celebrating our independence.”