After receiving a lot of backlash for declaring white supremacy in America to be a "hoax," Fox News' Tucker Carlson announced last night that he will be taking a vacation.
How convenient...
CNN contacted Fox News spokesperson about the trip and was told it had been in the works before Carlson had made his incendiary remarks.
According to the spokesperson, Carlson will return to his show on August 19.
But, as CNN points out, there is a long history of Fox hosts going on vacation amid controversy:
• Laura Ingraham was suddenly absent in March 2018 after mocking Parkland survivor and gun control activist David Hogg.
• Sean Hannity conveniently took personal time in May 2017 after losing advertisers for promoting the Seth Rich conspiracy theory.
• Jesse Watters made for the hills in April 2017 after making a comment widely criticized as lewd about Ivanka Trump.
• And who can forget Bill O'Reilly, who left and never returned from vacay in April 2017 after the New York Times reported he had settled five sexual harassment allegations for millions of dollars?
Openly gay Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg had an impressive showing Sunday night as he answered questions at a Fox News town hall event hosted by anchor Chris Wallace.
While most Democratic candidates aren’t heading over to the conservative cable news outlet for coverage, Buttigieg defended the appearance. “If we don’t show up, the conservative media will tell our side of the story for us,” he told Wallace.
The 37-year-old mayor is the third Democratic contender to show up to a Fox News event. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) participated in a Q&A for the conservative cable news outlet in April, and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn) appeared at a network town hall earlier in May.
Last week, however, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass) declined an invitation from Fox News to appear at a similar event.
“A lot of folks in my party were critical of me even doing this with Fox News,” Buttigieg told Wallace. “And I get where that’s coming from, especially when you see what goes on with some of the opinion hosts on this network.”
“I mean, when you got Tucker Carlson saying that immigrants make American dirty; when you got Laura Ingraham comparing detention centers with children in cages to summer camps—summer camps—then, there is a reason why anyone has to swallow hard and think twice before participating in this media ecosystem,” he continued.
“But, I also believe that even though some of those hosts are not always there in good faith, I think a lot of people tune into this network who do it in good faith,” he concluded.
Even though some of these hosts are not always there in good faith, I think a lot of people tune into this network in good faith.
Whether it’s going on Fox or going into places where Democrats haven’t been seen much, we have to find people where they are–not change our values. pic.twitter.com/xNHoD0uzE4
Across a wide variety of topics, Buttigieg answered questions without pause or having to qualify his responses.
In the aftermath of Alabama’s newly-passed ban on abortion, Wallace asked Buttigieg his thoughts on the legislation. Buttigieg answered that he trusts “women to draw the line.”
“I trust women to draw the line when it is their own body,” he said. “I believe that the right of a woman to make her own decisions about her own reproductive health and her own body is a national right, I believe it is an American freedom.”
The decision to have an abortion “is not going to be made any better, medically or morally, because the government is dictating how that decision should be made,” he added.
I believe that the right of a woman to make her own decisions about her reproductive health and about her body is a national right. I believe it is an American freedom that should be enjoyed by women in every state. The next president needs to be ready to protect those rights. pic.twitter.com/NM5IJkO9GO
Asked how he felt he would handle attacks and tweets from Donald Trump in a general election, Buttigieg replied, “The tweets are…I don’t care.”
The answer spurred a big round of applause from the audience attending the event in Claremont, New Hampshire.
Buttigieg did note that it was “hard for anyone to look away” when the Trumpster tweets, but qualified that saying “it is the nature of grotesque things that you can’t look away.”
We have to make it less about him and more about what matters. That's the best way to defeat him. pic.twitter.com/2PxuncQ6bW
At the end of the hour-long town hall, Buttigieg was given a chance to address the audience directly. His appeal was met with a standing ovation, surprising Wallace.
The Hill reports the town hall event drew 1.1 million viewers.
The appearance clearly got under the president’s skin as Trump criticized his favorite network via Twitter.
Hard to believe that @FoxNews is wasting airtime on Mayor Pete, as Chris Wallace likes to call him. Fox is moving more and more to the losing (wrong) side in covering the Dems. They got dumped from the Democrats boring debates, and they just want in. They forgot the people.....
....who got them there. Chris Wallace said, “I actually think, whether you like his opinions or not, that Mayor Pete has a lot of substance...fascinating biography.” Gee, he never speaks well of me - I like Mike Wallace better...and Alfred E. Newman will never be President!
As I suspected yesterday, Donald Trump is accusing Fox News of "stuffing" the audience at the televised Town Hall with Sen. Bernie Sanders this past weekend with Bernie supporters.
The Trumpster simply can't believe that Sanders would get the positive reaction he did at the event.
Trump also believes Sanders personally owes the Donald for income he's made the past few years. Why? I don't have a clue.
Many Trump Fans & Signs were outside of the @FoxNews Studio last night in the now thriving (Thank you President Trump) Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, for the interview with Crazy Bernie Sanders. Big complaints about not being let in-stuffed with Bernie supporters. What’s with @FoxNews?
Bernie Sanders and wife should pay the Pre-Trump Taxes on their almost $600,000 in income. He is always complaining about these big TAX CUTS, except when it benefits him. They made a fortune off of Trump, but so did everyone else - and that’s a good thing, not a bad thing!
Donald Trump ranted on Twitter about Fox News giving Sen. Bernie Sanders prime time exposure in a town hall last night with anchor Bret Baier.
He wrote, "So weird to watch Crazy Bernie on @FoxNews. Not surprisingly, @BretBaier and the “audience” was so smiley and nice. Very strange, and now we have @donnabrazile?"
Notice that he puts the word audience in quotations...? Is the Donald calling the folks in attendance 'fake?'
So weird to watch Crazy Bernie on @FoxNews. Not surprisingly, @BretBaier and the “audience” was so smiley and nice. Very strange, and now we have @donnabrazile?
Perhaps what really riled the Donald up was Sanders' pitch for 'Medicare for all' without any interruption by the Fox folks.
Bernie Sanders spent more than 2 minutes of his Fox News town hall to defend Medicare for All and attack Trump’s Medicare plans — uninterrupted. Not sure I’ve seen that happen on Fox News before. pic.twitter.com/kuONJdbcB3
Saturday afternoon, the Trump administration announced the end of hundreds of millions in annual aid to the Central American countries of Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.
"We were paying them tremendous amounts of money. And we're not paying them anymore. Because they haven't done a thing for us. They set up these caravans," said Trump.
"At the Secretary's instruction, we are carrying out the President's direction and ending FY 2017 and FY 2018 foreign assistance programs for the Northern Triangle," a State Department spokesperson said. "We will be engaging Congress as part of this process."
Folks in the political sphere called out the move as as deliberate calculation to make the migrant crisis in those nations and at the Mexican border worse for political gain.
Fox & Friends discussed the issue Sunday morning, but check that headline above.
"Trump Cuts U.S. Aid To 3 Mexican Countries"
This is an actual banner from "Fox & Friends Weekend." 6:03am today. I double checked because I didn't believe it at first. Hat tip @BadFoxGraphicspic.twitter.com/tTNH0Y7a25
People at my work place didn’t know Puerto Rico is a US territory, that we are US citizens too or where it is located. 🤦🏻♂️ Can’t wait to go to work tomorrow and hear about Mexico’s 3 countries.
CNN is reporting that Fox News has suspended TV host Jeanine Pirro after she questioned the patriotism of a member of Congress.
Pirro, whose show did not air on Saturday night, was suspended by Fox News after her widely criticized commentary doubting Congresswoman Ilhan Omar's patriotism.
Last Saturday night Pirro questioned whether Congresswoman Ilhan Omar's Islamic religious beliefs stand in opposition to the US Constitution, prompting Fox to say "we strongly condemn Jeanine Pirro's comments."
Pirro targeted Omar — one of the few Muslim members of Congress — by noting Omar's religious head-covering called a hijab.
"Think about it: Omar wears a hijab," Pirro said. "Is her adherence to this Islamic doctrine indicative of her adherence to Sharia law, which in itself is antithetical to the United States Constitution?"
Advertisers have since distanced themselves from Pirro's weekly show.
The show did not appear on this weekend's cable schedule guide. The network aired a documentary in its place.
Jeanine Pirro was *suspended* by Fox News after her widely criticized commentary about @IlhanMN, according a source familiar with the matter. It's unclear how long the suspension will last. Fox declined to confirm or deny this. https://t.co/pp2Rn3QYb5
Pirro is a staunch defender of Donald Trump, so it's no surprise he took to Twitter to order his state television network to return her to the airwaves.
Bring back @JudgeJeanine Pirro. The Radical Left Democrats, working closely with their beloved partner, the Fake News Media, is using every trick in the book to SILENCE a majority of our Country. They have all out campaigns against @FoxNews hosts who are doing too well. Fox .....
....must stay strong and fight back with vigor. Stop working soooo hard on being politically correct, which will only bring you down, and continue to fight for our Country. The losers all want what you have, don’t give it to them. Be strong & prosper, be weak & die! Stay true....
....to the people that got you there. Keep fighting for Tucker, and fight hard for @JudgeJeanine. Your competitors are jealous - they all want what you’ve got - NUMBER ONE. Don’t hand it to them on a silver platter. They can’t beat you, you can only beat yourselves!
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders found out today what it's like to be interviewed by a journalist who's done his homework.
In an interview with Fox News' Chris Wallace, Sanders attempted to push the false claim about terrorists being caught at the southern border on Fox News Sunday, but Chris Wallace just happened to have the facts at hand.
“I know the statistic, I didn’t know if you were going to use it, but I studied up on this,” Wallace said. “Do you know what those 4,000 people come where they are captured? Airports.”
“Not always,” Sanders tried.
“Airports. The state department says there hasn’t been any terrorists found coming across the southern border,” continued Wallace. “But they’re not coming across the southern border, Sarah, they’re coming and they’re being stopped at airports.”
“They’re coming a number of ways, they’re certainly, I’m not disagreeing with you that they’re coming through airports,” lamely offered Sanders.
You have to wonder how different would the state of the nation be if every journalist was prepared with facts when interviewing politicians?
Watch below.
Chris Wallace “I know the statistic, I didn’t know if you were going to use it, but I studied up on this. Do you know where those 4,000 people come, where they are captured? Airports.” Sarah Sanders didn't see that coming! pic.twitter.com/OTHlck84xY
Sarah Sanders attempted to push the false claim about terrorists being caught at the southern border on Fox News Sunday and Chris Wallace was having none of it.https://t.co/qGBS6V8PR2pic.twitter.com/cdDynlvxwA
.@PressSec didn’t get grilled, she got eviscerated for the flat-out fabrications and pathetic factual distortions she, @realDonaldTrump and @SecNielsen keep pushing out there.
—
Chris Wallace Grills Sarah Sanders on Bogus Border Terror Threat Claims https://t.co/zix7LVtvCF
“You know what it is? Trump was radicalized by something. OK? Because he was a Democrat for a long time. He was fairly – he was pro-choice, liberal and many things. He was radicalized. What was he radicalized by? Us. Fox News. Fox News.
"When Fox News happened, the world starts to make sense to him. So all he’s doing is what we do. Which is, we bash the media. So he has turned the White House into a kind of like an alternative Fox show, where he sits there, and he rips the media.”
• Happy birthday to Spanish InstaHunk, Frandullon86! #woof
• Chelsea Handler will guest star on Will & Grace this fall as a "high-powered lesbian" who begins to date Grace's sister.
• Former Apprentice star and White House Office of Public Liaison official Omarosa is releasing a tell-all titled “UNHINGED: An Insider’s Account of the Trump White House.” I'm guessing it will not be flattering for the president or his allies.
• A new Republican bill in Congress would ban any U.S. embassy from flying the rainbow Pride flag - ever.
• Gay men were egged outside a gay bar in Florida.
• The Roseanne spinoff, The Connors, will debut on ABC on October 16.
• Fox News anchor Shep Smith is not having the Trumpster calling journalists "fake news."
"Over 22 years at this network, it’s been my experience that the journalists of Fox News and Fox Business and those of our colleagues at competitors at CNN and MSNBC, NBC, ABC and CBS, Bloomberg and PBS, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Post, The Washington Post – all of them operate in the public interests. We work to discern what is truth. Then to present it to you in context and with perspective. As your representatives in the people’s halls, we report to you without fear or favor while striving to hold those in power to the same standards. This is the foundation of what we do."
Watch one of the few sane voices at Fox News below.
CNN's Brian Stelter breaks down the very unusual relationship between Fox News and Donald Trump.
From Trump's regular appearances going back to 2011 to consulting with Fox News host Sean Hannity on a regular basis, Stelter goes into how odd it is.
Stelter sees the conservative network’s support for Trump as a sort of “merger between a culture-war TV station and a culture-war president.”
Many are beginning to call Fox News the 'state-run news organization.'
Watch below.
"No TV host has ever had this kind of relationship with a US president before ... Sure, Obama had big fans on MSNBC, but ... no one ever thought Keith Olbermann was Obama's 'shadow Chief of Staff'": @BrianStelter on the relationship between Trump and Fox's Hannity pic.twitter.com/C46vYLryA8
— Reliable Sources (@ReliableSources) July 8, 2018
In the ongoing issue of separating children from migrant parents at the U.S. southern border, Fox News Senior Judicial Analyst Andrew Napolitano told Fox News' Dana Perino the Trump administration's policy is "abusive."
While the White House has been getting a lot of heat for the policy, Donald Trump says they have to follow the law. In fact, there is no law which dictates this practice must be followed.
“I think the administration is motivated by the president’s skills at negotiating. And I think he’s trying to use children to turn up the heat on the negotiators. In my opinion, it is child abuse to separate children from their parents unless it’s necessary to save a human life. That’s not the case here. There’s a federal statute that says you can’t separate them more than 72 hours. They know all of this. They’re picking and choosing which rules they want to follow rigidly and which rules they wish weren’t there."
As Perino points out, the Trump administration recently announced it would not defend the Affordable Care Act in any legal proceeding saying they have "legal discretion" to ignore the law.
See? Picking and choosing.
Trump has shifted the blame to Congressional Democrats for the policy his Attorney General Jeff Sessions implemented. Trump says Democrats have refused to come to negotiate on a broader immigration law.
• Jimmy Kimmel has apologized for using gay jokes in his ongoing online feud with Sean Hannity.
• Even conservative pollster Frank Luntz says the GOP is in "deep trouble" and could very well lose both the House and the Senate in the 2018 fall mid-term elections.
• A dad's request to see his son's "boy toy" boyfriend went viral for all the right reasons.
• That hilarious time that Fox News accidentally posted a graphic with poll results showing them to be the "least-trusted" news network on the air. “That’s the not the graphic we’re looking for. Hold off. Take that down, please.” #oops
Ralph Peters is a retired Army officer, a former enlisted man and former strategic analyst for Fox News with deep experience in Russian studies.
Last week, he resigned his position from Fox, and today he goes into detail regarding why in a blistering op-ed for The Washington Post.
You could measure the decline of Fox News by the drop in the quality of guests waiting in the green room.
A year and a half ago, you might have heard George Will discussing policy with a senator while a former Cabinet member listened in. Today, you would meet a Republican commissar with a steakhouse waistline and an eager young woman wearing too little fabric and too much makeup, immersed in memorizing her talking points.
This wasn’t a case of the rats leaving a sinking ship. The best sailors were driven overboard by the rodents.
As early as the fall of 2016, and especially as doubts mounted about the new Trump administration’s national security vulnerabilities, I increasingly was blocked from speaking on the issues about which I could offer real expertise: Russian affairs and our intelligence community.
I did not hide my views at Fox and, as word spread that I would not unswervingly support President Trump and, worse, that I believed an investigation into Russian interference was essential to our national security, I was excluded from segments that touched on Vladimir Putin’s possible influence on an American president, his campaign or his administration.
I was the one person on the Fox payroll who, trained in Russian studies and the Russian language, had been face to face with Russian intelligence officers in the Kremlin and in far-flung provinces. I have traveled widely in and written extensively about the region.
Yet I could only rarely and briefly comment on the paramount security question of our time: whether Putin and his security services ensnared the man who would become our president. Trump’s behavior patterns and evident weaknesses (financial entanglements, lack of self-control and sense of sexual entitlement) would have made him an ideal blackmail target — and the Russian security apparatus plays a long game.
Listening to political hacks with no knowledge of things Russian tell the vast Fox audience that the special counsel’s investigation was a “witch hunt,” while I could not respond, became too much to bear.
There is indeed a witch hunt, and it’s led by Fox against Robert Mueller.
Head over to The Washington Post for more of what someone who's actually trained in Russian studies has to say about Fox News' handling of the investigation.
A new survey by Fox News finds - by a wide 13-point margin - voters place a higher priority on protecting citizens from gun violence than protecting the rights of gun owners with 53% support and 40% opposing.
The poll also found strong support for specific measures to reduce gun violence, including:
• 91% support requiring criminal background checks on all gun buyers
• 84% support requiring mental health checks on all gun buyers
• 72% support raising the age to buy all guns to 21
• 69% support putting armed guards in schools
• 69% support banning assault rifles and semi-automatic weapons
So, a poll that "leans conservative" finds 91% support FOR background checks on all gun buyers - why wouldn't lawmakers at the very least do that?
Oh, right. The NRA will take their money from their congressional pawns if that happens.
Now, how does Donald Trump spin this as "fake news" since it's a poll done by his favorite TV network?
• First, it was Superman star Henry Cavill going all clean-shaven. Now, one of my favorite InstaHunks, Alex Abramov, (above) is teasing his followers writing, "Trim your scruff!" #KeepTheFur
• LGBT series EastSiderswas nominated for 6 Daytime Emmy Awards including Outstanding Daytime Digital Drama Series, Outstanding Writing & Directing for creator and star Kit Williamson and Outstanding Actor in a Digital Daytime Drama Series for Van Hansis.
• CNN president Jeff Zucker went THERE calling out competitor Fox News as "state-run TV." He added, "It is a pure propaganda machine, and I think does incredible disservice to this country."
• Two separate research teams believe they're found links between genetics and being transgender.
• Emmy Award-winner Lena Waithe covers the latest Vanity Fair in style - her own style. Hit the link because if you don't know her yet, you will love the uber-talented out writer actress after.
At the recent Black Women in Hollywood Awards, she told the crowd, "Being born gay, black and female is not a revolutionary act. Being proud to be a gay black female is.” Now, how you not gonna love that?
In a scathing, scorched-earth email, retired United States Army Lt. Colonel Ralph Peters resigned his position as a Fox News strategic analyst denouncing the "propaganda" network and President Donald Trump.
Along the way, Peters also had choice words for the network's primetime hosts - Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham.
Here's a portion of the resignation letter via Buzzfeed:
In my view, Fox has degenerated from providing a legitimate and much-needed outlet for conservative voices to a mere propaganda machine for a destructive and ethically ruinous administration.
When prime-time hosts -- who have never served our country in any capacity -- dismiss facts and empirical reality to launch profoundly dishonest assaults on the FBI, the Justice Department, the courts, the intelligence community (in which I served) and, not least, a model public servant and genuine war hero such as Robert Mueller -- all the while scaremongering with lurid warnings of "deep-state" machinations -- I cannot be part of the same organization, even at a remove.
To me, Fox News is now wittingly harming our system of government for profit.
As a Russia analyst for many years, it also has appalled me that hosts who made their reputations as super-patriots and who, justifiably, savaged President Obama for his duplicitous folly with Putin, now advance Putin's agenda by making light of Russian penetration of our elections and the Trump campaign.
Despite increasingly pathetic denials, it turns out that the "nothing-burger" has been covered with Russian dressing all along.
And by the way: As an intelligence professional, I can tell you that the Steele dossier rings true -- that's how the Russians do things.. The result is that we have an American president who is terrified of his counterpart in Moscow.
Fox is so far off the deep end that contributor Ralph Peters who once called Obama "such a total pussy" on air, bashed Muslims, and said Christians are the only "real refugees" has had enough https://t.co/FuqWFIUiNipic.twitter.com/smtvTbAsBh
Retired Lt. Col. Ralph Peters is leaving his post as a Fox News analyst because the network has become a “propaganda machine” that is "wittingly harming our system of government for profit.” Fox News is the fake news you seek. It’s the propaganda arm of the Republican party
Fox News anchor Shepard Smith says opinion programming on his network doesn't "really have rules" and exists "strictly to be entertaining," in an interview published Thursday.
"Some of our opinion programming is there strictly to be entertaining," Smith told Time Magazine's Daniel D'Addario in a piece titled, "Shep Smith Has the Hardest Job on Fox News."
“We serve different masters," Smith, 54, added when discussing the difference between the opinion side of Fox News, including shows such as "The Sean Hannity Show," and the network's news division. "We work for different reporting chains, we have different rules. They don’t really have rules on the opinion side. They can say whatever they want. If it’s their opinion."
The interview comes as the network announced today it is re-signing the veteran anchor to a multiyear contract as Fox's chief news anchor and managing editor of breaking news.
And then Sean Hannity slapped back on Twitter:
While Shep is a friend with political views I do not share, and great at breaking news, he is clueless about what we do every day. Hannity breaks news daily-Warrant on a Trump assoc, the unmasking scandal, leaking intel, Fisa abuse, HRC lawbreaking, dossier and more REAL NEWS! 9p https://t.co/zJpnnyFTtP
However, Hannity has pointedly said many times in the past that he is NOT a journalist, he's a pundit. So - which is it, Sean?
Nutjob Fox News pundit Laura Ingraham also chimed in:
Always liked Shep, but his comments were inconsiderate & inaccurate. The hard working team at the Ingraham Angle does real reporting, develops impt sources and scores big interviews. Very proud of them. https://t.co/3aR1EHAK3Z
NowThis Politics demonstrates with ease the hypocrisy over at Fox News.
Back when President Obama considered meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un, it was the WORST idea in the world according to the geniuses at Fox News.
Now that Donald Trump has proposed doing the exact same thing, he's brilliant.
Watch below as the video editors flip back and forth from the coverage of Obama then Trump.
• Republican senators have reintroduced the First Amendment Defense Act which would give the federal government’s blessing to discriminate against LGBT people and others in the name of religious beliefs.
• Fox News invited a comedian cowboy on air to proclaim "The worst thing you can be today in America is a white, heterosexual, Christian Male." #OhReally
• Whitney, Kevin Macdonald’s documentary about the life and career of Whitney Houston, will be released July 6 in the United States.
