Neither uttered a peep of concern about Donald Trump’s deliberate endangerment of New York Judge Juan Merchan’s daughter.
My colleague Conover Kennard at Crooks and Liars has posted extensively about Trump’s attacks on Judge Merchan’s daughter. For example, Trump posted this on his social media platform:
She works for Crooked Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Adam “Shifty” Schiff, and other Radical Leftists who Campaign on “Getting Trump,” and fundraise off the “Biden Indictments” - including this Witch Hunt, which her father “presides” over, a TOTAL Conflict - and attacking Biden’s Political Opponent through the Courts. Former D.A. Cy Vance refused to bring this case, as did all Federal Agencies, including “Elections.”
That's just one of many attacks that prompted the judge to issue a gag order to prevent Trump from attacking his family - which prompted Fox host Brian Kilmeade to do the attacking for him, followed by reposts of Kilmeade's comments from Trump on Tuesday.
Dana Perino and Fox legal expert Jonathan Turley discussed Trump’s efforts to have Judge Merchan removed from the case based on the fact that his grown daughter works for a political consulting firm with Democratic clients, as Perino put it.
I am certain that Turley is no Trump fan but he knows his Fox hits and paychecks depend on “representing” them, so to speak. The fact that Trump is causing real danger to our legal system and our democracy? Not Turley’s problem or concern, apparently. So Turley had such mild criticism of Trump’s social media attacks, you could have easily missed it. He said the issue should be argued in a court of law and “shouldn’t be hashed out in social media.”
As if Trump was engaged in some kind of real discussion and not deliberately inciting his followers to threaten the judge and his family.
Nonetheless, even Turley thought “the odds are against” Trump prevailing in having the judge removed. Although he said it’s possible the Trump team may have some as-yet-unknown strong evidence, “generally the activities of an adult child do not prove determinative for these types of motions,” Turley said.
Ruh-roh, that might ruffle the feathers of Fox’s MAGA cult that seems to demand 100% fealty to Trump, 100% of the time.
So Perino, under guise of “bothsidesism” immediately segued to attacking Clarence Thomas critics: “The left has been furious about Clarence Thomas and they say his wife was agitating on the right and even tried to make some sort of connection on January 6th,” she quickly said.
There is so much wrong with that statement...
FACT CHECK: First of all, presuming Merchan’s daughter does not live with him, a judge’s spouse is a whole lot different from an adult daughter. Second, the left is not “saying” Ginni Thomas was agitating on the right. She has quite a long record of doing so. Her “sort of connection” to Jan. 6 is the fact that she attended the demonstration that preceded the attack on the Capitol (which Ginna Thomas did not participate in, as far as we know). There are also her public statements demonizing Democrats and endorsing the protest demanding that Congress overturn the election. She also sent a series of text messages to Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows after the election urging him to continue trying to overturn the election.
Not that Turley, a law professor off camera, pointed out the difference. So Perino went on to ask if Thomas’ refusal to recuse himself is “a model” for Merchan to say he has nothing to do with his daughter’s business?
Turley took the cue to go after the Thomas critics. “Well, those attacks on Thomas and his wife preceded January 6th,” he said. “They’ve been attacking him over her political involvement for years.” As if it's all just politics. Then, without noting any difference between Thomas and Merchan, Turley said, “I don’t think he [Merchan] has to cite that. The fact it is an adult child is usually enough.”
So Perino went another route designed to cheer her MAGA viewers: suggesting Trump has already won in the court of public opinion. “Because President Trump [notice how he’s not “former president” on Fox] has to wage part of his presidential campaign from the courtroom, there may be ways to get earned media on that,” she helpfully offered.
Turley, ignoring the peril Trump is creating in our legal system said, “the optics are horrendous.” He called the New York case “weak” and a “weaponization of the system, in my view. … It could not be worse for our country.”
What about the fact that if Trump wins he plans to gut the U.S. Department of Justice, use the DOJ for revenge against his enemies and coincidentally wriggle out of all those federal felonies he’s currently facing?
That seems like more than one something worse for our country than trying Trump for his part in a crime that Michael Cohen already went to prison for. Not to mention the prospect of a man in the White House who is obviously beholden to foreign money, who has previously snitched classified documents, and apparently shared them with people without clearance?
Don’t hold your breath for Perino or Turley or just about anyone else on Fox to bring any of that up.
You can watch Perino and Turley enable Trump’s wrecking ball on our legal system below, from the April 3, 2024 America’s Newsroom.
While most of Fox content is there to feed the MAGA base, Fox’s pseudo-moderate, “so people can get both sides” personalities enact a different role, namely, inoculating those not fully in the base— those who should know better—modelling how to hold their noses while continuing to favor Trump. As Ellen notes, they omit key relevant facts, including the lack of parallel between Clarence Thomas’ personal corruption and Judge Merchand’s background story.