The Donald Trump cheerleading squad known as Fox News’ Outnumbered show resorted to false statistics when justifying his delayed press conference about how he’ll handle his business interests while in the White House.
Trumpster and cohost Harris Faulkner, who also serves as a supposedly objective anchor of Fox Report Weekend, either had not bothered to check her facts or else deliberately spread falsehoods.
FAULKNER: More than half the country decided, you know, either through the electoral process or when you look at the actual votes, more than 59 million people decided that they were comfortable with it. They understood who they were getting. They knew he was a political outsider. He’d have to be getting his income from some place so they understood, kind of, you know, what was going on.
There was a call for his taxes but he released a lot of different types of financials. So on the other side, those 60 or so million who didn’t vote for him, they’re always going to point, “But if we had his taxes,” when, in actuality, as I understand it, probably wouldn’t know any more about his business dealings than what he’s already released. But they’re never going to be comfortable, no matter what you say to them, they don’t get the idea of having that other side.
Faulkner’s claim that “more than half the country decided” that “they were comfortable” with Trump’s business situation is completely false. First of all, As The Independent notes, Trump lost the popular vote by a whopping 2.8 million votes (so far). That’s a loss “more than five times bigger than the 544,000 by which George W. Bush lost to Al Gore in 2000 - the second biggest popular vote deficit in history for a candidate who has still gone on to become President.”
The lack of support for Trump is even more significant when you consider that only 55% of eligible voters actually voted.
In short, Faulkner provided absolutely no reason to believe her suggestion that only a disgruntled minority, unwilling to accept the will of the majority, care about Trump’s conflicts of interest.
But cohost Meghan McCain, who has previously declared herself as “Never Trump,” took it a step further by claiming that polling backs up Faulkner’s argument.
MCCAIN: The polling done on this shows that the vast majority of the American public actually don’t have a problem with him still continuing business dealings. Again, people 100% knew who Donald Trump was when he was getting elected. Knew he was a businessman with hotels all over the world. Again, if they wanted something different, they could have voted differently.
In addition to her misleading claim about how Americans voted, she’s even more wrong about the polling.
A recent Bloomberg poll found that 67% of Americans think Trump should “choose between being president and being a businessman, to avoid the appearance of a conflict.” A recent Pew Research Center poll found similarly:
A majority of the public says they are concerned that Trump has relationships with organizations, businesses or foreign governments that conflict with his ability to serve the country’s best interests.
Overall, 65% say they are either very (45%) or somewhat (20%) concerned that Trump’s ties to groups conflict with his ability to serve the country’s best interests; 34% say they are not too (14%) or not at all (20%) concerned about this.
None of the three other Outnumbered cohosts corrected either Faulkner or McCain.
Watch the misinformation below, from the December 13, 2016 Outnumbered.