A very damning article by Reuters reports that foreign officials from Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and Asia have expressed alarm about Donald Trump’s inflammatory, bigoted and nativist rhetoric. So what’s GOPTV to do? Why trot out one of its partisan contributors to make a fact-free declaration that it isn’t so.
Fox News contributor Ric Grenell insisted he has “no dog in this fight” but he “forgot” to mention that he’s about as partisan as they come.
Grenell got right to denouncing the article without offering a scintilla of information about what foreign diplomats might have actually said.
GRENELL: The idea that foreign diplomats are just now voicing their opinions about the U.S. presidential election is a farce. Reuters news agency should know better. They didn’t quote a single person, it was all anonymous sources.
No, it was not just anonymous sources. From the article (with my emphases):
Senior leaders in several countries -- including Britain, Mexico, France, and Canada -- have already made public comments criticizing Trump's positions. German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel branded him a threat to peace and prosperity in an interview published on Sunday.
…On Tuesday, General Philip Breedlove, the United States' top military commander in Europe, said that the U.S. elections were stirring concerns among America's allies.
“I get a lot of questions from our European counterparts on our election process this time in general," said Breedlove, who did not mention Trump by name. "And I think they see a very different sort of public discussion than they have in the past.”
… A British official noted that in January, Prime Minister David Cameron said: "What Donald Trump says is, in my view, not only wrong, but actually it makes the work we need to do to confront and defeat the extremists more difficult."
Not surprisingly, “fair and balanced” host Jon Scott didn’t point that out.
Grenell went on to suggest that Reuters was using old news in order to promote some sort of liberal agenda:
GRENELL: So to somehow suggest that foreign diplomats are critiquing or complaining about Donald Trump – that is nothing new.
…Let me tell you, international diplomats love to talk American politics. They handicap it all the time. They want to know whose up, whose down.
…These Reuters reporters should know better. This is their agenda…
Scott did his part for the cause by suggesting that if there is any concern abroad, it's an over-reaction: “Well, how much do we know about Donald Trump’s foreign policy?” he asked. He played a clip of Fox debate moderator Bret Baier trying, and failing, to pin Trump down.
Oh, and as for that “liberal agenda” thing? Here’s a former Bush national security advisor who was willing to talk to Reuters on the record:
“All foreign diplomats I’ve talked to are amazed at the Trump phenomenon and worried about it, especially in the Middle East and Europe,” said Elliott Abrams, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations think tank who handled Middle East affairs at the National Security Council from 2001 to 2009 under then-President George W. Bush.
Watch the spin below, from the March 7, Happening Now.
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