Despite Donald Trump’s threats to shut down the government if he doesn’t get funding for the border wall, Fox News doesn’t want its viewers to recall that Trump promised he’d get Mexico to pay for it.
Trump promised again and again he’d get Mexico to pay for the wall. But two years after his election, he has not only forgotten the promise, he threatened to hold the entire government hostage if Democrats don’t agree to have the U.S. pay for it. It was part of his temper tantrum in today's meeting with Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer.
Trump made a series of irrational and untruthful claims about the border during that meeting. But on Fox’s Outnumbered show, which immediately followed, three of the four panelists made a continuing effort to blame the Democrats and pretend that Trump has behaved presidentially.
“The president has been crystal clear,” Republican Jason Chaffetz, the show’s “one lucky guy” guest, said. “He wants a wall. I think the Democrats have failed to define what is security. If it’s not a wall, and you keep saying, ‘it’s security,’ then what is it?”
Democratic cohost Marie Harf, who had previously put Chaffetz in his place when he tried to argue that Democrats don’t want any border security, now reminded everyone that, “What Trump voters voted for though, was actually Mexico paying for the wall, not U.S. taxpayers.”
Oops! That campaign promise was so not welcome!
Cohost Melissa Francis quickly interrupted Harf to change the subject. “Answer his question, though, what is a wall?” Francis sharply commanded.
Harf replied that border security involves a combination of technology, drones, and “fencing in some parts of it but not an entire wall.”
Francis exclaimed, “That’s exactly what the president’s talking about.”
FACT CHECK: Francis is incorrect. Trump specifically demanded a wall.
So cohost Lisa Boothe did her part by claiming that Trump used the word “wall” “because it sounds better on the campaign trail” but that he didn’t really mean it.
Unlike the Mexico-will-pay promise, Boothe's claim was welcome. “Yeah, he did say ‘border wall system,’” Francis agreed.
Watch the Foxies try to erase history below, from the December 11, 2018 Outnumbered.
Fox News apologists can’t claim Trump meant a comprehensive security system when he said “wall” on the campaign trail because it makes no sense in the context of his claims Mexico was going to pay for it. Forgetting how ludicrous the notion of Mexico paying one time for a wall, imagine asking for an open check to pay for more border agents year after year.
Trump thought he could bully Mexico into paying for his albatross of a physical wall and when they kept laughing in his face he quit to give up further humiliation.
I will have to hand it to Trump. In the news conference in the White House he held with Pelosi and Schumer he told his lies with bluster. The guy’s such a practiced liar I think he believes his own bulls—t. Pelosi, not wanting to embarrass the President, came across as hesitant. If I didn’t already know many of Trump’s ‘facts’ like they’ve built extensive bits of his wall already was him mouthing a complete fantasy I would have thought him the winner of the ‘debate’.
Pelosi and Schumer post-meeting have publicly spanked our man-child President and the latest news according to MSNBC is he and Pelosi finally had a productive phone conversation. We’ll see how long our man-child President behaves. Or is he stupid enough to shutdown the government – don’t answer that! 🤣