Fox host Neil Cavuto and guest Larry Sabato spent nearly six minutes shredding Donald Trump’s weekend tweetstorm while the rest of the country was still mourning the school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
The segment was the first discussion of the hour. It occurred three minutes into the show, after a report from Fox News correspondent Kevin Corke. So Cavuto clearly wanted to give these comments a lot of significance.
He began by acknowledging his audience’s leanings, saying, “I know I’m going to tick off a lot of people right from the get go saying this.” Then he continued, “But whatever you think about the Russia investigation, the timing of that, the indictment, all of that, this particular weekend, near this particular locale [of the Florida shooting] was not the time to do it, not the time at all.”
Sabato, director of the UVA Center for Politics, agreed. The two proceeded for an extended riff on the subject:
SABATO: You’re 100% correct, Neil. Look, they should’ve gotten him out to the golf course sooner on Sunday. That would be my suggestion, and I’ll bet most of the staff aides agree with me privately. They wouldn’t say it publicly. These tweets for the most part were not helpful to his cause, and were not helpful to the country. He shouldn’t have dwelled on subjects other than the tragic situation in Parkland. He should’ve focused on that.
[…]
CAVUTO: I think you’re quite right. He started off very well on Friday with this and all, but I thought anything else, whether it was legitimately expressed or not, whether the rage he feels at the FBI and whether it’s distracted and that produced this or not, just keep it to yourself. Now is not the time to do that, or feed this anxiety. It makes it look like you are making this all about you.”
SABATO: That’s exactly what he did. Those tweets were all about him for the most part, a few exceptions but that’s the way he often does things and this was exactly the wrong moment to make it all about him.
[…]
He is banging on the FBI entirely too much. Every president needs the FBI and the CIA and the NSA. … He needs to lay off some of this… He needs to get off this track and he keeps returning to it and it doesn’t help him.
[…]
You can’t simply do an event or two on one day and then move along or twist the tragedy to benefit you and whatever your current political disputes and conflicts are now.
This is not the first time Cavuto has shredded Trump over his tweets and un-presidential behavior.
Watch the kind of commentary rarely heard on Fox below, from the February 19, 2018 Your World.
