Moments after painting a phony picture of Donald Trump as a hard worker, Fox host Ainsley Earhardt pretended there was nothing wrong with Trump’s shocking willingness to take “dirt” on a rival candidate from foreign countries. Her two Fox & Friends cohosts were there to help.
Never mind that it’s unquestionably illegal to do what Trump told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos he’d willingly do, i.e. accept opposition research from foreign sources and not tell the FBI. Jesus’ BFF and self-proclaimed “tough journalist” “not in the tank” for Trump, Earhardt gave a thumbs up to Trump’s dishonest justification for committing such a crime. As dd her fellow lickspittles.
Fox & Friends tried to turn Trump’s treasonous criminality into partisan victimhood
With even Republicans aghast at Trump’s comments, cohost Steve Doocy got the “victim” rehab rolling:
DOOCY: [O]ne of the sound bites that they ran over the last 48 hours is essentially you'd say there -- there is nothing wrong, in your estimation, with accepting dirt from Russia or any foreign country.
You've taken a lot of heat from the Democrats regarding that since then.
TRUMP: Well, I don't…that. I think it was accurately stated and I've had a lot of support in this and –
Instead of pointing out the criminality that Trump was continuing to endorse, Doocy asked Trump to “clarify.”
Trump pretended he’s such a super-duper patriot, no foreign operative would present him with dirt on an opponent
TRUMP: First of all, I don't think anybody would present me with anything bad because they know how much I love this country. Nobody's going to present me with anything bad.
Never mind that the Russians already did so in 2016 and Donald Trump Jr. responded by saying, “I love it” (though it has yet to be proven that Daddy knew in advance of the meeting). Also, Trump’s then-campaign manager Paul Manafort, a seasoned lobbyist and a (now disbarred) lawyer, was in attendance at that meeting and he surely knew it was against the law.
Plus, we all remember that in a recent 90-minute phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin Trump didn’t even bring up the subject of Russian interference, other than to try to delegitimize the Mueller investigation as a “hoax.”
Even worse. Trump, in his own comments to ABC, had just suggested he'd welcome such material. And only a Trump stooge would forget Trump’s infamous, “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails [of Hillary Clinton] that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.” Trump made that statement during a 2016 news conference.
Predictably, none of the Trump Friends mentioned any of that inconvenient truth.
Trump pretended he needs to see foreign “dirt” in order to know “if it’s bad"
TRUMP: Number two, if I was -- and, of course, you have to look at it, because if you don't look at it you're not going to know if it's bad. How are you going to know if it's bad? But, of course, you give it to the FBI or report it to the attorney general or somebody like that. But, of course, you do that. You wouldn't -- you couldn't have that happen with our country. And everybody understands that. And I thought it was made clear. In fact, I actually said at the beginning, I think I said I'd do both.
How did Doocy respond? By agreeing with Trump. “Right,” he said.
Earhardt did her part – and not for journalism or truth. “That’s right,” she agreed. “How do you know it's bad if you don't listen to it?”
But wait, there’s more.
Trump claimed he’s entitled to break the law and take foreign dirt on his opponent
TRUMP: One thing that's different with the president, I had dinner with the queen. I had -- I met with the prime minister of the U.K. I was with the head of France. I was with the head of all these nations and I constantly am, constantly talking to them. And, you know, that puts us in a different -- we -- we have many, many conversations. And I'm just thinking, gee, if they say, we don't like your opponent, am I supposed to put -- you know, the president of France, am I supposed to report him to the FBI?
You know, I'm in a little bit of a different position than a lot of other people.
There’s a huge difference between a foreign dignitary voicing an opinion and offering intelligence or other material that might assist or harm a campaign.
Yet flunky cohost Brian Kilmeade called that “a good point.” Then, demonstrating that he knew otherwise, he gently tried to nudge Trump into walking back his criminality.
KILMEADE: If a leader leaned over and just said, listen, I -- x -- this candidate that you're running against, he did some dicey things in x, y, z country and I got some proof of it. What do you do in that scenario? Do you back off? Do you say, I don't need it? Do you say, show it to me?
TRUMP: Like I said, Brian, the president of the United States, no matter who it is, whether it's me or anybody else, is in a much different position because I hear things that, frankly, good, bad or indifferent that other people don't hear, just in normal conversation.
“Right,” said Doocy. “Right,” said Earhardt.
But wait, there’s still more.
Doocy and Earhardt weaponized Trump's lawlessness against Democrats
DOOCY: If you did call the FBI with dirt on a political opponent, though, Mr. President, wouldn't the Democrats accuse you of using the FBI to investigate political opponents?
[…]
EARHARDT: It's actually a double standard. It's such a double standard because they actually did it. If you trace that dirty dossier, it goes back to the DNC and Hillary Clinton's campaign. But, still, Nancy Pelosi's out there saying, you participated in criminal behavior or what you said was criminal. Listen to this.
As far as I'm concerned, these Trump friends are complicit in this treason.
You can watch it below, from Fox & Friends' June 14, 2019 birthday interview with Trump.
(Transcript excerpts via RealClear Politics)
Viewers who haven’t been completely brainwashed yet may be open to learning the truth.
Certainly not any heat from Fox News as witnessed here. Certainly not any heat from the sycophantic Republican pols like McConnel who’s blocking all election reform bills.
Reminds me of the old software joke: Is it a bug or a feature? Apparently, in painting any criticism of Trump embracing criminality as partisan, Doocy views Trump’s corruption as a feature.