Apparently unable to defend Donald Trump’s anti-American behavior after Congress was told Russia favors him in the 2020 election, Fox & Friends resorted to what John Amato aptly called the Pee-Wee Herman defense (“I know you are, but what am I?).

As you probably know, after a senior U.S. intelligence official briefed Congress that Russia favors Trump in the 2020 election, he got mad at the intelligence community, not Russia. He fired acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire, installed unqualified flunky Ric Grenell and attacked the intelligence. As bad as that is, it’s only part of Trump’s ongoing efforts to destroy the U.S. government.

But on Fox News, Dear Leader is still awesomely awesome and to the extent that anything might be wrong, the fault rests only with Democrats and the rest of the media.

Media Matters has a good roundup of the Fox News reaction to the events they'd be demanding impeachment 24/7 if a Democrat was behind them. Under Trump, Fox is all denial and anger. First, the talking heads denied Trump was angry at Maguire. Then, when that obviously wouldn’t work any longer, they went to the all-purpose tactic of blaming Democrats. After suggesting the DNI was somehow in cahoots with Democrats to undermine Trump, the sycophants more explicitly accused Democrats of being Russia's handmaids.

On Special Report, Fox’s supposedly “straight news” show, contributor Marc Thiessen blamed the Russia investigation. He said that Democrats “chasing this conspiracy theory that Donald Trump had colluded with Russia” worked so well for Russia that they’ll try to do it again. Yes, if only Democrats had left any investigation into Russia’s behavior in Trump’s hands, we wouldn’t have this problem – and Trump would probably call Putin “my new best friend.” With Fox's enthusiastic endorsement, no doubt.

On Fox & Friends, the adulterous “traditional values” guy instrumental behind Trump’s pardon of war criminals, Pete Hegseth, outright accused Democrats and the media of being the colluders. “They hate Trump so much, they’re willing to parrot what the Kremlin is saying. They are the agents of Russia — not Donald Trump, not this White House,” Hegseth said.

Far from pushing back on this outlandishness, Trump-worshiper and cohost Lisa Boothe “asked,” “But did they fall for it or is it intentional?”

“It’s both,” Hegseth assured her and, probably, the Fan in Chief. A little later, Hegseth laughably said, “There’s no evidence at all [Trump’s] more friendly to the Russians than the Democrats.

You can watch the propaganda below, from the February 21, 2020 Fox & Friends, via Crooks and Liars.

(Correction: Hegseth was originally referred to as "cohost." While he often cohosts Fox & Friends, in this case he was a guest of the show.)