'Fox & Friends' welcomes Joseph Saladino on Bethpage diner show

Politicians and police officers breakfasted on national television Tuesday as Gus Tsiorvas, owner of the Embassy Diner in Bethpage, welcomed “Fox & Friends” co-host Lawrence Jones for one of the Fox News morning show’s remote shoots from diners nationwide.

“The sheriffs from Suffolk County were here,” Tsiorvas, 44, of Wantagh, told Newsday Tuesday morning, “the deputy commissioner of Nassau County, the trustees from Suffolk County, Brendon Gallagher,” the Suffolk County police officer hospitalized for 10 days following a stabbing attack by a mentally ill man in Medford in December 2022, who also survived critical injuries from a car crash during a high-speed chase this January.

Town of Oyster Bay Supervisor Joseph S. Saladino and Town of Islip Supervisor Angie Carpenter also attended, Tsiorvas said. The Nassau County Police Emerald Society Pipe Band performed “America the Beautiful” in the parking lot.

Also on hand were Maegan and Andy Fox, founders of the Merrick-based nonprofit organization Project Thank a Cop, which collaborated with “Fox & Friends” on the event. Nassau police First Deputy Commissioner Kevin P. Smith lauded the group, telling Jones on air, “You never know what a cop’s been through — what he [or she] just came off of or what kind of tragedy he [or she] might have just seen. These guys come up, they say thank you. … You’ve got to love the fact that someone has taken the time to reach out — kind of calms you down, too.”

“There were so many cops there,” marveled Jones, 32, speaking with Newsday after the event. “I think this may be the most cops we've had at a diner. I mean, we've had law enforcement come to our diners all the time” in this regular segment of the show. “We have veterans that come to our diners all the time. But this massive volume was different.”

Tsiorvas’ siblings, all active police officers, attended in uniform. And while Tsiorvas himself was there at 3:30 a.m., preparing for the 4 a.m. arrival of producers and camera crew, he joked that his wife and children found that “a little too early for them!”