In the world of cable news television, no show is more slavishly pro-President Trump than Fox News’ “Fox and Friends.”
So when even its hosts start sounding doubtful about something the president has done, it suggests the commander in chief may have really stepped in it. When the spin doctors struggle to get any torque on a story, you know it’s a bad story.
Mainstream media has a meltdown over President Trump congratulating Putin pic.twitter.com/MXxW1Z31tm
— FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) March 22, 2018
Trump and his team embraced cowardice this week with their response to the 2018 Russian presidential elections, which grant another six years to an anti-democratic strongman who got his chief rival and most trenchant critic barred from the ballot. The U.S. president kicked things off by putting in a congratulatory phone call to Putin, despite reportedly being told by basically everyone on his staff that he was not to congratulate the Russian dictator.
On Thursday, the “Fox and Friends” crew tried to find some sort of silver lining to the news that the president had just congratulated a foreign dictator on winning an election that was almost certainly rigged. They didn’t exactly sound sure of themselves.
“Here’s the thing about the president,” said host Brian Kilmeade. “He actually is significantly tougher than the other prior president on Russia.”
“He’s armed the Ukrainians, he has actually hit the oligarchs list, he went along with sanctions, three days ago, he condemned them for the poison attacks in Britain,” he continued. “So look at his actions, not past his words.”
And then came the part that screamed really confidence: “Hopefully there’s a grand plan.”
Because no Fox segment is complete without a healthy dosage of whataboutism, co-host Steve Doocy jumped in to note former President Barack Obama congratulated Putin after his similarly unseemly 2012 win.
“If the mainstream media is going to call President Trump on ‘hey I can’t believe you picked up the phone to say congratulations you won,’ look at the things that the president of the United States by the name of Barack Obama did back in 2012,” Doocy added. “He congratulated Vladimir Putin.”
This is true. Obama called Russia’s president six years ago and congratulated him on “winning” his re-election. It’s also true that conservatives, and many Fox News hosts, raked the Obama administration over the coals for this particularly weak-kneed moment of gutlessness.
Unsurprisingly, many of these same critics from 2012 have changed their tune. Imagine that. And don’t expect the White House to change course any time soon.
On Tuesday, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders revealed the administration has every intention of hiding its head in the sand: “We don’t get to dictate how other countries operate. What we do know is that Putin has been elected in their country and that’s not something we can dictate how they operate.”
