Listen up, Fox pundits: The network is A-OK with likening the FBI to the KGB, calling the bureau the “FBI crime family,” and suggesting it’s plotting a coup against Donald Trump. But the network will “address” a comment suggesting the FBI plotted to assassinate Trump.
In case you missed it, Jackson was the Outnumbered show’s #OneLuckyGuy two days ago when he was prodded into joining Fox’s war on the FBI. Cohost Harris Faulkner made a selective and misleading recap of Fox’s “Exhibit A” in its phony outrage: an FBI agent’s text about an “insurance policy” in case Trump won the election. A reporter at Fox’s sister outlet, The Wall Street Journal, has provided ample evidence that the text was more indicative of Trump’s guilt than the agent’s, but Faulkner conveniently ignored that.
Instead, Faulkner put forth some damning spin. As you can see in the video below, she began by noting that Senate Judiciary Chair Charles Grassley wants to replace FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. Then, she said, “We got to get to the bottom” of McCabe’s role in the agent’s text - as if there’s something big that needs to be investigated about the FBI. Finally, after an inflammatory clip of Rep. Trey Gowdy calling the text potentially “devastating” to the bureau, she turned to Jackson and asked, “What else do you want to know?”
Given Jackson’s long record inflammatory, race-baiting and outright dishonest comments on Fox, Faulkner and her producers clearly knew what they were setting him up for. It’s no wonder he thought he had a green light to say something outrageously incriminating about the FBI.
And let’s not forget that within the past two weeks, Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett called the FBI a " “secret police” “like the old KGB;” Fox News host Jesse Watters suggested the FBI had plotted a coup, with FNC’s evident blessing; host Jeanine Pirro said about the FBI, "The stench coming out of the Justice Department and the FBI is like that of a third world country … [I]t’s time to take them out in cuffs;" and FoxNews.com described the video of her rant as, “Outing the FBI crime family.”
This is the exchange that followed Faulkner's question:
JACKSON: Well, I think they’re going to say, is it—what was his intent, right? Because that’s exactly what FBI Director, former FBI Director [James] Comey said when he was letting Hillary Clinton off the hook. And his intent, regardless of whether it was an assassination attempt or whatever, it was definitely something—
FAULKNER: Whoa, whoa.
JACKSON: Well, I’m just saying, we don’t know what it was. When you say, “we’ve got to make sure that this guy doesn’t get in at all cost,” what does that mean? So I’m saying there’s a spectrum of what does it mean, but one thing that we know for sure, is that he was plotting in an election against a candidate, and there’s FBI fingerprints all over this.
At that point, Faulkner broke in. But her challenge was as mild as possible. There was no outrage over such an accusation, no hint that Jackson (a talk show host with no apparent credentials in law enforcement or national security) was anything but a credible analyst on the subject, merely concern that an unverified statement would go viral on social media:
FAULKNER: All right, because I know how things get clipped on social media, I just want to make sure that we press in on the fact that no one has floated any sort of an idea that it was an attempt…
JACKSON: Oh, it’s been floated. When I talk about this, I’m talking about social media stuff and, you know, that’s out there, I’m not talking about media sources.
SANDRA SMITH (CO-HOST): Nothing credible.
Well, sure enough, the comments did go viral. And NOW Fox News has drawn a line in its conspiracy-theory sand:
Fox News spox says that Kevin Jackson's comments yesterday on "Outnumbered," when he seemingly suggested a possible FBI assassination attempt on Trump, have been "addressed" with him.
— Jeremy Barr (@jeremymbarr) December 20, 2017
Yes, folks. Fox has “addressed” the issue. Probably just like it “addressed” Heather Childers’ 2012 tweet asking for “thoughts” on the following question: “Did Obama Campaign Threaten Chelsea Clinton’s Life 2 Keep Parents Silent?” Childers appears to have gotten a promotion since then. She recently went from co-host of Fox & Friends First to the solo anchor of its first hour.
So there’s every reason to believe that Jackson’s “address” came with the same kind of wink and a nod.
Watch the discussion that earned so much attention below, from the December 19, 2017 Outnumbered, via Media Matters.