Fox & Friends pretended Trump campaign operative and dirty trickster Roger Stone was a neutral “political strategist” when they trotted him out to defend Donald Trump’s outrageous comments about Senator John McCain’s war record.
Media Matters has the rundown on Stone. They noted that Trump paid $30,000 to Stone’s firm for “communications consulting” earlier this year. Also, Stone has said he worked as a lobbyist for Trump for 25 years and has been described by Fox's sister company, New York Post, as Trump’s “top political advisor.” Stone and Trump, along with other associates, also reportedly paid $250,000 in fines for secretly financing newspaper ads opposing Catskill casinos.
But Stone’s relationship to Trump was never revealed during the discussion.
Host Brian Kilmeade started off the discussion by asking Stone about the uproar surrounding Trump’s attack on McCain’s war-hero status, “Do you think this is blown out of proportion?”
Sure enough, Stone thought so. “Absolutely. Donald Trump didn’t say anything to denigrate John McCain’s military service,” Stone insisted. “He did, however, criticize his service in the Senate, where John McCain teamed up with Bernie Sanders to ensure that no one is held responsible in the Obama administration Veterans Administration scandal in which a thousand men and women died waiting for medical care. That is the scandal here. …This is a gang up because Trump is out front because he is speaking hard truths. …Many of the POW families believe that John McCain abandoned some of his brethren back there. So the idea that John McCain is a deity that you cannot criticize…”
Kilmeade interrupted, “But you don’t criticize that, Roger,” he admonished. But Kilmeade also took a swipe at McCain. “John McCain thrives off criticism. He loves to get his hands dirty. He loves to be a consequential senator,” Kilmeade added.
Stone wanted to keep making it about McCain. “Let’s speak to the Southern border. John McCain goes from being for a path to legalization, says nothing in 2016, now he’s for a wall, just like Trump,” he said.
”People are taking advantage of an opportunity to knock down the guy in front, “ Kilmeade chimed in helpfully.
Watch Fox throw its own “we report, you decide” motto out the window, below, from the July 20 Fox & Friends, via Media Matters.