If Donald Trump gets back into the White House, we know he’s planning a second term of authoritarian revenge on his enemies. Probably less well know is how Fox News is helping set the table for that to happen.

This morning, Fox & Friends discussed the latest charges against President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, as well as Trump’s New York fraud case, with the clear purpose of making MAGA hay out of them. On hand to help the effort was former Whitewater deputy counsel Sol Wisenberg.

First up, the trio of Fox hosts teed up the suggestion that Hunter Biden is getting preferential treatment from the (Biden) Department of Justice. “What took so  long?” cohost Lawrence Jones asked about the new charges. “Why did it take five years to get to this point? Wisenberg, of course, called it a ‘devastating” indictment. He claimed there was “no reason” it couldn’t have been brought a year or two ago. He failed to mention that the special prosecutor was appointed by Trump as U.S. attorney, in 2019, left in place by Biden, who took office in 2021, and was appointed special prosecutor this year. Not that any of the three cohosts reminded Wisenberg or the viewers. That might have interfered in the insinuation that Biden tried to delay or interfere!

Jones was very interested to know why there isn’t more “curiosity” about Hunter Biden’s finances. But, funny, Jones seemed very uninterested in Donald Trump’s finances in the fraud trial.

Wisenberg complained the prosecutors “were not interested in looking at anything that really was a connection to Joe Biden.

Message delivered: Joe and Hunter Biden are gaming a corrupt system. Implication: There's nothing wrong with Trump taking a wrecking ball to it.

Next message: Trump is being unfairly targeted by the system.

Earhardt, her dress hiked halfway up her thigh, “asked” Wisenberg, “Do you think it's politically motivated on both sides?"

Surprise! Wisenberg thinks the Trump charges are politically motivated but Hunter is getting preferential treatment. “I don't think there's any question that the New York civil fraud charges are politically motivated,” Wisenberg said. “You have an attorney general who campaigned on going after Donald Trump, and I think that Hunter's lawyers have said that the prosecution of Hunter is politically motivated but I would say the opposite. The sweetheart plea deal that blew up was politically motivated."

When cohost Brian Kilmeade asked Wisenberg how the New York trial is going for Trump, Wisenberg didn’t bring up the pesky fact that Trump was already found to have defrauded banks and insurers and it’s just a matter of how much money he’ll have to pay, most likely millions of dollars.

"I'm not licensed in New York, and I'm not a New York civil attorney,” Wisenberg continued, “but I do think he got a break from the Appellate Division yesterday or the day before when they said, ‘wait a minute, we're not dissolving his businesses yet,’ which is what the trial Judge there, Engoron, I think wanted to do." He called that “very good” for Trump.

But then Wisenberg argued that Trump did nothing wrong in the first place. "Even assuming that there were falsehoods on his financial statements, they do not appear to have been material to the people who were lending him the money."

“Of course not,” Kilmeade responded.

FACT CHECK: According to the BBC, the legal issue is whether or not Trump committed fraud, not whether there were victims. But a banking expert testifying on behalf of the prosecution said that Trump cost banks $168 million in lost interest by inflating his net worth.

And how did the supposedly Very Devout Christian and “tough journalist” Earhardt respond? By falsely suggesting a Trump defense witness was impartial. "I was watching CNN, they said for the first time someone took the stand who's an investigator who said Donald Trump did nothing wrong," she chirped. She did not mention that the “investigator” was a witness for Trump, paid $877,500, more than double the state’s expert witness. A highly-paid expert witness is not necessarily an unreliable or untruthful one but context of the testimony should have been provided.

Cohost Lawrence Jones did his part for the propaganda cause. "It’s clear that this judge doesn't know real estate, and he doesn't know basic business as well." Actually, a judge is supposed to be an expert in law, not real estate.

Message delivered: Trump is a victim of an out-of-control justice system.

Sure, it’s nice for Trump and his team to have a whole network defending their favorite p***y grabber (now that Roger Ailes is dead) for free. But make no mistake, it’s more than that. Just as Fox started the Big Lie that seeded the Jan. 6 insurrection, it’s seeding fascism and an attack on our democratic rule of law.

You can watch it below, from the December 8, 2023 Fox & Friends.