Fox News seems to wants to stop the right-wing’s violent rhetoric toward the FBI over the search of Mar-a-Lago and to turn it on Attorney General Merrick Garland and the DOJ instead.

Last week, Fox & Friends cohost Steve Doocy confronted House Minority Whip Steve Scalise over MAGA world’s attacks on the FBI.

“Whatever happened to the Republican Party backing the blue?” Doocy asked. “Why not wait a week or so until we know more about this search warrant than, you know, immediately, you know, rush to judgment and say, ‘Yeah, the FBI, they’re crazy?’”

Since then, there was an attempted attack on an FBI field office in Cincinnati. The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security have warned about increased threats to law enforcement. Earlier today, a Pennsylvania man was charged with threatening the FBI.

Maybe the DOJ managed to squeeze an ounce of decency from Fox management or they found a drop of it on their own. Or maybe the Murdochs decided violent rhetoric toward law enforcement wasn’t a good look for them as they try to stave off two billion-dollar defamation suits over the Big Lie, or maaybe someone at Fox decided attacking law enforcement was just bad GOP politics.

Whatever the reason, you can be sure that Doocy did not send his message to Trump without the consent and more likely the direction of management.

Clearly, Fox knows that their favorite p***y grabber could be in big trouble.

DOOCY: There’s so much we don’t know. We just – just think about it this way. Because Merrick Garland and the top people at the DOJ have staked their entire reputation. Because this is an extraordinary act for them … For them to have ordered the search warrant to be executed is such a gigantic step … Whatever it was [that prompted that action], it must be big and I bet we have no idea at this point. Those details have not been leaked out. … It must be really big, which would suggest there could be a heavy legal consequence.

Cohost Brian Kilmeade played devil’s advocate. You may recall that last week, Kilmeade smeared the death-threat-receiving judge with a photoshopped image of the judge’s face on Jeffrey Epstein’s body, and then ridiculously claimed it had been shown "in jest," which it clearly was not.

Kilmeade said the warrant could be “a fishing expedition because if you knew what you were getting, why would you need nine hours to get it?” He also cited the “Russia stuff” that got “debunked" and "gradually fade[d] away.”

“All of a sudden, this was about nuclear secrets,” Kilmeade said, sneering that that news had been leaked to The Washington Post, “the same people that won awards for the Russia investigation, which was nothing but a hoax.”

“I would just hold your powder on all these, on these unnamed sources that tell mainstream outlets about things that they evidently uncovered because most of it fell by the wayside,” Kilmeade added.

When Doocy spoke again, he brought up the threats to FBI agents.

DOOCY: We just know that right now, that given the fact that there’s a suggestion that there are a lot of online, very specific, apparently, very specific threats against very specific agents at the FBI and whatnot.

It would be great for everybody to tamp down the rhetoric against the FBI, ‘cause the FBI was doing simply what the DOJ asked them to do.

The attorney general is the boss of the guy at the FBI, of all the people at the FBI. So, with all of these threats going around, it would ultimately be great if the former president who has always been a great supporter of law enforcement … it would be great if he called for an end to the violent rhetoric against federal law enforcement and, in particular, the FBI that was just doing their job.

Never mind that plenty of that violent rhetoric occurred on the Fox News Channel.

Kilmeade piled on. He whined that Republicans have not been treated as well as Democrats “over the last few years.” “Not in the tank for anyone” Earhardt repeatedly voiced her agreement. In fact, she took it a step further by taking a gratuitous swipe at Democrats for now “being worried about protecting law enforcement when they weren’t years ago.”

“But no one is for the violence of FBI agents or any of these individuals that are in law enforcement,” Earhardt finally allowed.

Doocy closed the discussion by putting a target on Garland’s back.

DOOCY: If you want to personify that search, look at the attorney general of the United States. Merrick Garland is the one who has staked his entire reputation on it. If there’s not something really big there, he’s done.

You can watch Fox start to deal with the possibility that Trump is screwed below, from the August 15, 2022 Fox & Friends.

8/16/22 update: Reader John McKee sent this image. I'd say it's worth a thousand words. :)