Harris Faulkner Congratulates Condoleezza Rice On Becoming a Minority Owner of the Denver Broncos

Following news that former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is now a minority owner of the NFL’s Denver Broncos, Fox News’ Harris Faulkner congratulated her on the move.

In a tweet where she shared a Daily Caller story on the announcement, Faulkner declared, “CONGRATULATIONS to the NFL’s newest owner Secretary Condi Rice!”

Faulkner added, “‘We’re pleased to welcome former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to our ownership group’, Walton-Penner Ownership Group of @Broncos.”

CONGRATULATIONS to the NFL's newest owner Secretary Condi Rice!
"We're pleased to welcome former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to our ownership group", Walton-Penner Ownership Group of @Broncos https://t.co/tLI3YavDXr pic.twitter.com/Y3eZxUhwg6

— HARRISFAULKNER (@HARRISFAULKNER) July 11, 2022

In a statement from Rob Walton on behalf of the Walton-Penner Ownership Group, he called Rice “A highly respected public servant, accomplished academic and corporate leader.”

“Secretary Rice is well known as a passionate and knowledgeable football fan who has worked to make the sport stronger and better.”

“She is the daughter of a football coach and served on the inaugural College Football Playoff Committee.”

“She moved to Denver with her family when she was 12 years old and went on to attend the University of Denver for both college and graduate school.”

“Her unique experience and extraordinary judgment will be a great benefit to our group and the Broncos organization.”

As we reported in June 2021, Rice, who had not always been the biggest supporter of former President Donald Trump in the past, offered supportive words for him and suggested that she may have voted for him, surprising the host of the show she appeared on.

On the Carlos Watson Show, Rice was asked, “What did you make of former President Trump? Had you known him well over the years or did you just get to know him as he became a serious contender for the presidency?”

Rice responded that she had only met him a couple of times but not in politics. She said that she believed it would be an “interesting experiment” since he had not been in politics previously.

“What really struck me, and maybe because I’m a political scientist, is the conditions that produced a populist leader who had never been in government before was something I think that a lot of us had not paid much attention to, frankly,” Rice began. 

Rice continued, “He touched the nerve of people who felt left out by globalization, who felt diminished by elites. He touched the hearts of people by saying, ‘You know, you contribute too, and they’ve forgotten you. They look down on you.’ And that’s something that we need to still pay attention to. So as a political scientist I was more interested in what produced this in our society.”

Later on, Rice added, “Some of the Trump policy was better than it sounded. There was an extraordinary ability to get people back to work who had not been working for years if you look at historic low unemployment rates before the pandemic. So, we shouldn’t just kind of try to toss this out because he was an unusual personality.”

“Secretary Rice, you are surprising me a little bit, because I’m actually hearing someone who is supportive of former President Trump,” Watson responded with a grin.

Rice explained that “What I want to be is analytical about it. I don’t want to be emotional about it because… look I have never said who I voted for, who I didn’t vote for, that’s why we have a secret ballot.”

In an apparent attempt to offer some criticism as well, Rice then described herself as an “institutionalist” and went into the events that occurred on Jan. 6, which she said “frightened” her.

Rice called the events “affirming,” however, and the fact that President Joe Biden’s election was still certified proved “the system worked.”

In October 2021, Rice told ABC’s “The View,” “I know what happened on Jan. 6 was wrong, but I also know as a government and as a country we got to be concerned about the things that are making life hard for Americans and for American families.”

“I’m one who believes that the American people are now concerned about what we call ‘kitchen table issues’ – the price of gasoline, inflation, what’s happening to kids in school,” Rice explained at the time.