Former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer came up with a ridiculous defense of Donald Trump's habitual lying by citing Benghazi. But just as bad was Fox News host Howard Kurtz’ failure to challenge the deflection.
During Spicer’s visit to the MediaBuzz show today, Kurtz brought up a contentious discussion Spicer had had with Megyn Kelly. But Kurtz seemed more interested in offering Spicer a chance at rehab than in drawing out the truth for viewers:
KURTZ: You got into it the other day with Megyn Kelly and she said, “Why can’t you just admit that Donald Trump sometimes struggles with the truth?” and you would not.
Now, do you dispute the fact the president sometimes makes statements that turn out to be false or do you think Megyn was just trying to give you a hard time?
SPICER: No, no, here’s what I think. You, me and probably everybody have made mistakes, have said things that [we] either regret or turned out to be false or we just misspeak. It happens. I think that with this president, the desire to constantly go after him – I don’t remember any of those questions coming up – and we talked about this with Megyn – after Benghazi. There was no questioning of going after does President Obama owe us an apology, is he a liar, is Hillary Clinton a liar? They didn’t treat those same statements with the same veracity as though they’re treating some of the statements –
Kurtz interrupted to say Benghazi was “a huge story.”
Spicer agreed but said, “None of them were held to account the same way we were.”
In the first place, even if you assume that Obama, Clinton, et al. lied about Benghazi, which is very debatable, their “lies” about that incident, as tragic as it was, pale in comparison to the daily whoppers told by Trump. Furthermore, nothing Obama or Clinton did exonerates Trump from not telling the truth now, especially when he’s the guy currently in the Oval Office.
However, Spicer is a flack most remembered for falsely claiming Trump drew “the largest audience ever to witness an inauguration, period.” He’s hardly a poster child for truth and veracity.
But what’s Kurtz’s excuse for whitewashing Trump’s dishonesty as “sometimes struggles with the truth” or “sometimes makes statements that turn out to be false?” At the very least, why didn’t Kurtz challenge Spicer’s ridiculous effort to distract from Trump’s deceit? Spoiler: Kurtz works for Fox News.
Watch Spicer’s Benghazi whataboutism get a pass below, from the July 22, 2018 MediaBuzz.