Here’s How Fox News Reacted to the “Trump Tried to Fire Mueller” Story
Screencap via Twitter Politics Features Donald Trump
Last night, news broke that Donald Trump tried to have special prosecutor Robert Mueller fired in June—about a month after he took over the Russia investigation. Trump cited three conflicts of interest, including an alleged dispute over membership fees at one of his golf courses. He actually issued the order, but White House counsel Donald F. McGahn II refused and threatened to quit. McGahn made his case to White House officials, and Trump backed down. Mueller has known about this episode for months, and it may end up being a critical part of his investigation.
Obviously, this is a huge story, and many have called it a clear case of obstruction. On the cable news networks, it was the lead story.
Well, most of the cable news networks. Here’s what ran on Fox News at the critical moment:
CNN: Trump tried to fire Mueller
MSNBC: Trump tried to fire Mueller
Fox News: Here’s a photo of Obama and Farrakhan from 2005 pic.twitter.com/gvZGx8cZad— Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) January 26, 2018
Yup—while CNN and MSNBC were getting to the bottom of the Mueller case, Fox News was doing some weird race baiting thing about Obama…a man who is not president anymore.
But the most amazing clip came from Hannity a little while later. You have to see this to believe it—the clip in the tweet below contains two excerpts that came minutes apart, and it’s high, high comedy:
Sean Hannity: The New York Times is trying to distract you. They say Trump tried to fire Mueller, but our sources aren’t confirming that!
Sean Hannity, minutes later: Alright, yeah, maybe our sources confirm Trump wanted to fire Mueller. But so what? That’s his right. Anywho… pic.twitter.com/yUIt7Un56d
— Matt Fuller (@MEPFuller) January 26, 2018
The car crash transition at the end = chef kissing fingers:
Live feed: pic.twitter.com/48ErlBcY6Z
— Kim Sherrell (@kim) January 26, 2018
Then, Hannity delivered this unintentionally hilarious response:
Also liberal sheep think I should run wild with @nytimes anonymous sources and not confirm myself. Sure, I trust @nytimes that put this picture on the cover of their magazine (I added the green) pic.twitter.com/Z5C5UuFebY
— Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) January 26, 2018
Why on earth would he add the green? Why?
The fun continued this morning on Fox & Friends—Trump’s favorite show—when they desperately pushed a “look at the economy!” piece, and even brought on a black Republican radio host to puff up Trump’s “accomplishments”:
.@larryelder: “Obama walked around for 8 years and talked about how he rescued the economy when in fact he gave us the worst economic recovery since 1949… We did not have a single year of 3% GDP growth.” pic.twitter.com/ZgaMt9s2vv
— Fox News (@FoxNews) January 26, 2018
At this point, of course, Fox News has begun to cover the fact that Trump tried have Mueller fired. Even state television can’t avoid something this big for long. But the initial reaction tells you everything you need to know about the rightward ideological bent of the network. (As if you needed telling.)
But they’ve taken special care to make sure they’re on the same page about the idea of Trump talking to Mueller. So much so, in fact, that they’re all using the same term: “Perjury trap.”
Fox News is saying that Mueller’s interview with Trump will be a…. “perjury trap” https://t.co/NQr9jxVlHlpic.twitter.com/gApVdSvSrL
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) January 26, 2018
What that means, at its core, is that they’re afraid Trump will say or do something incriminating if he talks to Mueller, and they’re laying the groundwork to try to cover his rear with the American people when it happens. It’s “protect the president” 101. Nothing to see here, folks!
Finally, this tweet has nothing to do with Fox News, but it’s a great tweet anyway, and hits at what is sure to be a core argument for Team Trump and their media lackeys in the coming week:
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) January 26, 2018