Fox & Friends host Pete Hegseth and Trump pal Gen. Jack Keane defended Donald Trump from reporting that he has scorned fallen troops as “suckers” and “losers,” despite the fact that it matches Trump’s public behavior.

As you probably know by now, The Atlantic dropped the first bombshell last night. It was confirmed by AP and expanded upon by The Washington Post.

This morning, Hegseth began the chat with Keane by calling the reporting “catnip for haters of the president” and then sneering “anonymously sourced.” 

Since then, Fox News has confirmed the reporting.

But this morning, Hegseth prompted Keane with the “question,” “You’ve spent a lot of time with the president. What do you make of this attempt to frame him this way?” 

You may recall that Keane was awarded a Medal of Freedom from Trump about six months ago. So it was no surprise he went along with the messaging.

Interestingly, Keane began by saying, “Certainly, I was not present when these comments were made, so I can’t comment on the veracity of ‘em.” He didn’t say “allegedly made.”

Keane went on to say that “every time” he interacted with Trump on foreign policy and national security, “I came away from the – from those discussions with the president displaying respect for the military and, frankly, a degree of reverence for the military, which have always been consistent with his public comments.”

But the reporting is not about the military, it’s about Trump’s comments about the troops. Not surprisingly, Hegseth did not point that out.

Media Matters notes Trump's pattern of disrespecting veterans:

What Fox & Friends’ coverage of this story left out is Trump’s extensive history of making disparaging remarks about veterans. One of the first controversies of his 2016 campaign came when he insulted prisoners of war by saying then-Sen. John McCain “is not a war hero ...  because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.” Trump also publicly feuded with the parents of a U.S. Army captain who was killed in action in Iraq. Trump lied about sending condolence letters to families of service members killed in combat, and he made one such widow cry when he told her that her husband “knew what he signed up for” and forgot his name during the call.

Keane continued by saying he’s “suspicious of anonymous sources and I find it odd that comments made a number of years ago are now collected up 60 days prior to an election and thrown out for the American people’s consumption. Given the inflammatory nature of it, if they were going to be leaked, you’d think they would have been leaked at the time. So I think you’ve got to bring into question the credibility of the story, itself.”

Well, now it’s Fox vs. Fox:

Fox News’ national security correspondent has confirmed The Atlantic’s story, but this article disputingit is still up on its homepage 🤷🏽‍♂‍ pic.twitter.com/BejnaisgkL

— Salvador Hernandez (@SalHernandez) September 4, 2020

You can watch Hegseth and Keane below, from the September 4, 2020 Fox & Friends, via Media Matters.