Right after Fox’s supposedly “straight news” host Ed Henry thanked Democratic presidential candidate Rep. Eric Swalwell for providing commentary on today’s statement by Robert Mueller, Henry prodded the next guest, Rudy Giuliani for smears.

In the first interview below, Henry pretended to play it straight with Swalwell, even though you can see at the beginning that Giuliani was already in studio, then kept on hand for the obvious purpose of countering anything Swalwell might say against Dear Leader Donald Trump.

Henry’s title at Fox News is “chief national correspondent,” but he often moonlights as a Fox & Friends cohost. Nevertheless, Henry feigned a lack of bias when he began the Swalwell interview by asking, “What new information did we learn today?”

But Swalwell had barely finished replying, saying we learned that any other American would have been charged with a crime, before Henry jumped in to argue in a condescending voice. He remained antagonistic throughout as Swalwell explained why he believes Congress is on the road to impeachment and what steps he thinks should be taken.

Nevertheless, Henry closed by saying, “Congressman, appreciate you coming in.”

The moment Swalwell was off the air, Henry began using him as a punching bag.

Trump attorney Giuliani was quickly brought back. Henry made it clear he wanted Giuliani to go after Swalwell by saying, as an opening, “You were laughing throughout parts of [Swalwell’s] answer."

Giuliani sneered, “That can’t be a serious candidate for president.”

Henry wanted to hear more. “Why?” he asked.

“It’s pathetic,” Giuliani said.

“Which part?” Henry asked, still prodding for more attacks.

“The whole thing. First of all, he's obviously going through a serious identity crisis, so I excuse him.” Giuliani smirked contemptuously.

Henry piled on. “He tweeted about how he feels guilty that he's a white male.”

FACT CHECK: That’s a gross distortion of what Swalwell said. Swalwell held himself up as a woke white guy. It is, however, how Infowars spun his comment.

Giuliani went on to falsely argue that Trump has been exonerated and that Swalwell is “a phony.”

Think Henry was the same kind of challenging with Giuliani as he was with Swalwell? Think again! Henry “asked” if impeachment will “boomerang on the Democrats.”

After another swipe at Swalwell (“Usually, he makes things up”), Giuliani claimed, “Their whole collusion investigation is probably gonna become an investigation against them.”

“Mmhmm,” Henry said, with a look of rapt attention on his face.

“Because that whole collusion thing was manufactured,” Giuliani claimed.

Henry nodded, as if in great thought.

Yesterday, Trey Gowdy mocked Swalwell on the same show.

I am not opposed to Democrats appearing on Fox. But they should insist on being treated with respect before, during and after any appearance. As I’ve previously noted, (H/T John Neffinger and Vice News), Fox needs Democrats to appear on the network in order to maintain its claims of legitimacy. That gives Democrats power they can leverage.

Swalwell is an excellent guest on Fox and he did very well with Henry. The fact that Fox rigged the system to delegitimize Swalwell attests to his acumen. But Swalwell should refuse to allow that to ever happen again.

Watch “straight news” Henry double cross Swalwell, first with the candidate, then with Giuliani below, from The Story with Martha MacCallum.

(H/T Media Matters)

Correction: The wrong video was originally embedded in the top spot.