Media Matters for America - Clips

Fox guest on possible troop withdrawal from Afghanistan: "The solution is more blood, sweat, and tears"

Media Matters for America

JOHN HANNAH (FORMER VP CHENEY NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER): The president, you know, is signaling that he wants done with this. There may be some kind of remnant of counter-terror mission here, but I think the danger is that once we withdraw our support for the Afghan government on the basis of a very phony promise from the Taliban that they are not going to try and reestablish their jihadist tyranny -- and in very much in cooperation still with Al Qaeda, that once that Afghan government is brought down, Taliban, Al Qaeda come back. It's going to be infinitely hard for the United States to conduct an effective counter-terrorism mission without an Afghan government there.

BILL HEMMER (CO-ANCHOR): I apologize for the interruption there. Do you have a better solution then, John?

HANNAH: No, I mean, listen, the solution is more blood, sweat, and tears. I think the mission in Afghanistan, as frustrating and as long as it's been, Bill, with those several thousand troops there supporting an Afghan government -- we're not in the front lines doing the fighting -- I still think it's a sustainable mission if you believe that things can actually get much, much worse. But it needs a president who actually believes that avoiding a Taliban/Al Qaeda resurgence in the place that spawned 9/11 is important enough to continue this kind of sacrifice.

Previously:

Fox & Friends guest says a war against Iran would be "pretty quick and easy"

The Trump-Fox feedback loop could cause a war with Iran

Tomi Lahren: "If the plan were to send a huge surge of land and war power to wipe out Iran and turn it into glass ... that might actually solve the problem."

Fox host defends Trump: "Just because you use harsh language doesn't mean your intent is to denigrate another race"

Media Matters for America

STUART VARNEY (HOST): Are you a racist if you criticize an African-American politician? The left says, oh, yes you are. The charge, Trump is a racist, is now an established theme in the Democrats' 2020 campaign. I object. Just because you use harsh language doesn't mean your intent is to denigrate another race. Throwing that word around, racist, shuts down the debate. You can't solve problems if you can't speak freely. The word racist is applied to just about anybody. It no longer has bite.

Baltimore has brought the racist charge to a boil. In a series of tweets, the president has criticized Congressman Elijah Cummings. He is a Democrat who has represent a major -- majority Black district for over 20 years. The president described Cummings' district as quote, "A disgusting rat and rodent-infested mess where no human being would want to live." Oh, that caused outrage. The media jumped on it, and from there on out, branded the president a racist and a bigot. Again, I object. The president was describing reality. Bernie Sanders has said exactly the same thing, but he wasn't called a racist. Oh, no, he's a socialist. Now we find that Congressman Cummings himself had used similar language. He said Baltimore was quote, "drug-infested, and the residents walked around like zombies." He was saying same thing as the president. Nobody criticized him for telling it the way it is, but Trump is a racist.

This smearing, this name calling is a deliberate political tactic, and I think it's going to fail. The weak performance of Democrats running big cities can no longer be covered up. This president, unlike any other president, is prepared to call it how he sees it, and damn the consequences. The president wants the votes of African-Americans. He's courting them. Instead of pandering with offers of money, he is asking what happened to the billions already spent? Baltimore got 1.8 billion just from the stimulus package. What happened to it? Where did the money go? The Democrats have opened Pandora's Box without realizing it. They thought that calling him a racist would silence him. Wrong. They've given him a campaign theme. And that theme is, the Democrats failing their own supporters.

Previously:

Fox host defends Trump's racist tweets: He was just saying Democrats and liberal policies have destroyed Baltimore

Fox's Brian Kilmeade on Baltimore: "I don't think anyone passed statewide tests in some of these inner-city schools"

Fox host makes bizarre defense of Trump’s racism: Trump “probably never watched The Wire ”

Fox & Friends touts Trump's "connections to Ohio" without noting they involve housing discrimination

Media Matters for America

STEVE DOOCY (CO-HOST): The president of the United States was in Cincinnati last night. You saw the rally right here on Fox News Channel. There were 17,500 people there at the U.S. Bank Arena in Cincinnati. The president has connections to Ohio, he’s talked about it in the past. Fifty years ago his father actually owned the Swifton Village housing complex in the Bond Hill area. So he’s got a connection, not only through his family, but also, he won Ohio last time. He needs to win Ohio again this time.

…

AINSLEY EARHARDT (CO-HOST): He’s familiar with Skyline Chili and Graeter’s ice cream because he said to that entire audience, he said, “I worked for my dad in the Swifton Village.” He said, “Does anyone know where the Swifton Village is?” And some people, you know, clapped and got excited about it. It’s always nice when someone famous comes into your town and they can relate to the people, and that’s what he does there.

Fox's Newt Gingrich complains about Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren: "I don't remember us electing an angry president literally in my lifetime"

Media Matters for America

BILL HEMMER (CO-ANCHOR): Go ahead and frame the argument that the president is making there from last night, sir.

NEWT GINGRICH (FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR): Look, I think Kim Strassel did a great job with the column where she said the choice is between the left and the crazy left, and the crazy left is winning. I watched the first night. It was amazing the level of anger that you got out of Bernie Sanders and Senator [Elizabeth] Warren. I mean, these are really angry people, and it was kind of amazing to watch them. It's the opposite of how people normally win the presidency. You go back and you watch Barack Obama with a big smile. You watch Ronald Reagan with a big smile. I don't remember us electing an angry president literally in my lifetime. And yet you have these people who were almost in a rage. You also had the fact that they're all drifting towards cloud cuckoo land. I mean, when you have a number of moderate Democrats on the stage -- and they'll all be gone soon because they're not getting enough support to survive. But they're on the stage and they're saying -- one of them said if we go down this road of taking away everybody's health insurance we'll be lucky to carry two states. Now that was a Democrat in the debate warning his follow Democrats that they could be throwing away the presidency. And I think we have to take that seriously.

And of course, the president is watching all this and he's exactly right, and he wants to stoke the fire a little bit about Obama. What's turned out is that President Obama is no longer radical enough for the left wing of the Democratic Party. So you're going to end up with Biden defending Obama while the rest of the party attacks him. The truth is, on things like deportation, President Obama deported more illegal immigrants than any other president in American history. In terms of the Affordable Care Act, which was not affordable, but it didn't cover everybody that left-wingers want to cover. And so you can go down a list and you realize there's a real fault line in the Democratic Party, and we're watching it play out in these debates.

Previously:

After Democratic debate, Fox's Newt Gingrich calls Democrats "an anti-American party"

Fox's Jason Chaffetz on Democratic debates: "They were doing everything they could to take away your freedoms"

Fox & Friends complains that "the thing that was lacking" in Democratic debates over immigration "was the word illegal"

Fox's Stuart Varney: Electing a Democrat as president will lead to an economic contraction

Media Matters for America

AINSLEY EARHARDT (CO-HOST): The president was touting the economy last night.

STUART VARNEY (FOX BUSINESS HOST): No wonder the Democrats failed to mention the strong economy in their two debates this week, because they don't have a growth plan, and obviously, President Trump does. The Democrats seem to me to have a contraction plan. No fossil fuels, no private health insurance. That's a contraction of the economy, rather than the expansion that President Trump's got.

...

EARHARDT: Stuart, you mentioned jobs reports, they're coming out this morning. What can we expect?

VARNEY: I think you'll see the unemployment rate stay around 3.7%.

EARHARDT: It's amazing.

VARNEY: Do you realize how low that is? I mean, I have lived in America for 40 odd years, I haven't seen 3.7% before. Maybe [3.6%] under Trump, I don't know, but that's near historic level.

EARHARDT: The president said 7 million Americans are off food stamps. Think about that. That's wonderful.

VARNEY: That's right. That's right. That's right. And what is it, 125,000 extra employed people in the state of Ohio?

STEVE DOOCY (CO-HOST): And the job number today is expected to be about 164,000 new jobs.

VARNEY: About that. That's still pretty strong. It might be stronger than that. But here's something that was buried by the media.

DOOCY: Shocking.

VARNEY: Right. In the first two years of the Trump presidency, wages and salaries increased 42% more than in the last two years of the Obama administration.

EARHARDT: That's great.

VARNEY: Forty-two percent more.

EARHARDT: So people can ask themselves are you better off today?

VARNEY: How about that? Yes.

EARHARDT: Are you better off today and the answer for most people is yes.

VARNEY: Well, it shows you -- it's the Trump presidency which turned the economy around. Don't give me this, that Obama started the recovery. Well, maybe the recovery started in the Obama years, but the expansion, that started with President Donald J. Trump.

Previously:

Fox Business host Stuart Varney says repealing Trump's tax cuts for the rich and corporations "would ruin the economy"

After first Democratic debate, Fox's Stuart Varney lashes out at candidates for promising to tax the wealthy: "They attacked the rich"

Fox Business host blames stock market decline on House Speaker Pelosi's press conference

Sean Hannity says one of his main criticisms of Republicans is that they aren't more like Rush Limbaugh

Media Matters for America

SEAN HANNITY (HOST): I actually see similarities between you and Trump. Let me tell you what two of them are. Number one, you've got to be able to take a punch. You paved the way for a lot of us that are conservatives in the media. You've taken more than your fair share. And then, you've got to fight for what you believe.

My biggest criticism of Republicans is they are weak, a lot of them, and timid and afraid to do what you do every day. To do what Trump is doing. You're right, showing them the way. Just fight for what you say you were going fight for.

...

RUSH LIMBAUGH: This fear of the media, this fear of being called a racist, everyone needs to get over that now because all of us are racists. Everybody's racist, they can't talk about anybody now without labeling them racist.

Previously:

Rush Limbaugh has ramped up his Fox News appearances in 2019

On Fox News, Rush Limbaugh says that "climate change is what allows them to poison the minds of young kids”

On Fox, Rush Limbaugh complains about efforts to address the climate crisis: "There is no man-made climate change"

Media Matters for America

SEAN HANNITY (HOST): Three words I want to throw at you -- Green New Deal.

RUSH LIMBAUGH: Well, it's -- it is a trick, the Green New Deal. Even Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, her chief of staff, sackrat -- sakreet -- sakrot -- whatever, Chakrabarti, admitted that it's not even about the climate. It's not even about the weather. It's an economic plan, and it is. It's designed to get massive federal power, grow the federal government, under the pretense that average Americans cannot be left to live their lives without ruining things, especially for the Democrat Party. It's unaffordable, it will never happen, and the premise behind it is bogus.

There is no man-made climate change. There is nothing we can do to stop whatever the weather is going to do. We can't make it warmer, we can't make it colder. We can't change hurricanes' directions, we can't dissipate them. We can't create them. And yet, they are campaigning and trying to convince people.

I mean, look at millennials. It's really sad, there's a lot of young people that really think this planet is not going to be habitable by the time they hit 65. These people are ruining people's lives, they're ruining their futures all in the pursuit of power for themselves. It's disgusting on one level to me, and I think that they need to be called out and I think they need -- this stuff needs to be said point blank to them, because the media it is not -- the media's their best buddies, the media is their support group, and so forth. It's a big battle. I'm just -- I'm just optimistic, I'm confident that these people can be beat back.

Previously:

In Hannity segment attacking Green New Deal, climate denier Joe Bastardi says “people are ungrateful” for fossil fuels

Hannity invites climate denier Joe Bastardi on his show to deny link between climate change and extreme weather -- again

Rush Limbaugh on Hurricane Florence: "The forecast and the destruction potential doom and gloom is all to heighten the belief in climate change"

On Fox News, Rush Limbaugh says that "climate change is what allows them to poison the minds of young kids”

Media Matters for America

RUSH LIMBAUGH: Climate change is what allows them to poison the minds of young kids. To blame people for causing a problem and then offer them redemption, make them feel like they have meaning in their lives by saving the planet.

Previously:

Rush Limbaugh has dramatically ramped up his Fox News appearances in 2019

Less than 10% of questions were about climate change at CNN's two-night debate in Detroit

Rush Limbaugh shares fake story that sharks are flying around in Hurricane Florence

Lou Dobbs says Donald Trump can’t be racist because Mexico is helping the United States

Media Matters for America

LOU DOBBS (HOST): This fellow can't be too much of a quote-unquote "racist," in point of fact embracing Mexico, its president, its government, because of all of the help they are providing America, acknowledging it, and doing so warmly.

Previously:

Lou Dobbs laughs at Fox’s effort to restrain anti-Semitism on his show

Lou Dobbs guest: "We've seen this in Europe, we're seeing it here, and they are attempting to replace us"

Lou Dobbs Says People Should Credit Obama's Race For His Election

Lou Dobbs attacks the media for reporting on DeSantis' racist comments

Lou Dobbs asks if it's "time for the Trump administration to outright defy the activist" Supreme Court over census ruling

Tucker Carlson: Cory Booker was "trying to sound like a Nation of Islam recruiter"

Media Matters for America

TUCKER CARLSON (HOST): Cory Booker meanwhile is in the process of transitioning to a brand-new identity, he spent most of the evening trying to sound like a Nation of Islam recruiter rather than the deeply privileged son of two IBM executives which is what he is.

Previously:

Tucker Carlson's descent into white supremacy: A timeline

Tucker Carlson touts hardline approach of far-right ethnonationalists to immigration

Tucker Carlson and guest mock the term "person of color," call it a racist term because "everyone has a color"

Fox hosts shout down colleague Juan Williams when he notes that Trump's racism is a fact

Media Matters for America

JUAN WILLIAMS (CO-HOST): Let me tell you, it's a fact, it's a fact, it is a fact.

GREG GUTFELD (CO-HOST): No, Juan, it's an opinion, it's an opinion.

...

That's called an opinion Juan, it's not a fact. I could keep saying it, he won't listen.

Previously:

Fox & Friends guest attacks news outlets noting Trump's racism: It is "an opinion, not a fact"

Tomi Lahren previously pushed the same sexist smear about Kamala Harris on Fox Nation

Fox host makes bizarre defense of Trump’s racism: Trump “probably never watched The Wire”

Media Matters for America

GREG GUTFELD (CO-HOST): That was 20 years ago when Cummings accurately pointed out the true devastation of that city. Other than pump in billions of dollars, what has anybody done about it since then?

Well, I know what I did. I watched The Wire, just like a bunch of other white people did. This fantastic show depicted the horrors of Baltimore's drug problem back before drugs became a lifestyle choice.

Like drugs and Al Sharpton, it was a big favorite among white educated people, especially liberals who felt by watching The Wire and talking about it, it solved Baltimore's problems -- sort of the way Game of Thrones solved the nation's dragon problem. So, art can eliminate a problem, but it can also pretend to be a solution.

Everyone watches the show and feels better about themselves. It's virtue signaling with popcorn and a remote. You never have to leave your couch, but at least you've done something, which is more than Trump can say. He probably never watched The Wire.

So, The Wire won tons of awards and is considered a classic -- and for two decades, the city it depicts declines even more. I applaud Cummings for his frankness, but wonder how, despite all of the money shoveled into that district, none of the problems depicted so starkly in The Wire -- the drugs, the death, the corruption -- weren't fixed. Meanwhile, Cummings is a millionaire. Another in a long line of liberal Democrats who have worked hard and become rich people. Maybe HBO can do a TV series about that, too.

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JUAN WILLIAMS (CO-HOST): I don't get this. I mean, it's like saying, you know, "I'm a big fan of The Sopranos." Do I think that New Jersey is filled with mafiosi? I don't get it.

Previously:

Fox’s Pete Hegseth defends Trump’s racist Baltimore tweet: It’s bringing attention to “forgotten men and women”

Fox host downplays potential war with Iran as “just a video game. … drones are now replacing bones”

Fox's Gutfeld defends Trump's racist tweets: "How many racists say 'Leave, then please come back and help us?'"

Fox host: Trump's tweets weren't racist -- they were "about patriotism"

Fox & Friends guest attacks news outlets noting Trump's racism: It is "an opinion, not a fact"

Media Matters for America

STEVE DOOCY (CO-HOST):Good morning to you, Larry. You're chuckling. Why?

LARRY ELDER (CONSERVATIVE RADIO COMMENTATOR): My goodness. Water is wet, sky is blue, Donald Trump is racist. It's a fact -- it's not an opinion. It's amazing to me that they keep calling this man a racist.

...

BRIAN KILMEADE (CO-HOST): In one case, though, it's the moderator. I mean, one thing about Rachel Maddow, you know she has an opinion, you watch her every night. She played it fair and balanced out there, plus it's all Democrats she's talking to. You had assumptive questions from a moderator. I am not used to that.

ELDER: Well, Don Lemon is not a reporter. He is a commentator, and they ought to bill him as such. He has routinely called the president a racist as, by the way, has Jake Tapper. Neither one of them should have been there. Once you call the president of the United States a racist, that's a problem. As much as anybody dislikes President Trump, you have to admit whether or not he is a racist is an opinion, not a fact. And when you have reporters saying Donald Trump is a racist, Don Lemon saying what do you say about Trump supporters who put the economy above Trump bigotry, you have invalidated yourself as journalist. And it's just appalling to me.

Previously:

Laura Ingraham questions CNN’s decision to have Don Lemon moderate a debate after he called out Trump’s racism

Rush Limbaugh assures Fox & Friends that Trump is not a racist

White supremacists and right-wing media defend Trump’s racist attack on four members of Congress

Fox host defends private health insurance system: “Only 27 million Americans do not have health insurance”

Media Matters for America

JESSE WATTERS (CO-HOST): I couldn't even understand half of their plans. They don't make any sense at all. [Rep.] Tim Ryan made the best point, I think, of everybody. These unions have negotiated these amazing health care plans, Cadillac plans -- they're so good they have their own name. Why would you rip those away, and not only that -- and then give them to illegal immigrants? It makes no sense politically and as a policy, and Warren, totally out of touch.

I don't know about you guys, but I like my healthcare. I go to the doctor, I check in, I give a $5 copay, he tells me I'm fine, I leave, I do no paperwork. It's great -- and 180 million Americans feel that way. Only 27 million Americans do not have health insurance right now. Let's focus on them instead of tearing the whole system down.

And Bernie, he thinks making a profit is evil. I don't know what he's talking about.

So many great things have been done through Aetna, Blue Cross and Blue Shield. I don't think these are evil companies. I think these are good companies that need to bring costs down, and there's ways to do that without destroying a great system.

Trump can exploit this divide within the Democratic Party, and it's a gift because the Republicans -- I'm not really sure what their health care plan is, but the Democrats are making it so easy to exploit by offering up this socialist utopia that makes no sense and does remove health care from a lot of people

Previously:

Fox & Friends hosts Trump's Medicare director to smear Sen. Bernie Sanders' "Medicare for All" plan

Fox guest claims "Medicare for All" could cause a recession and "will encourage people to overconsume health care"

Fox & Friends fearmongers that "Medicare for All" could result in surgery rationing

Trump’s lie-filled Medicare for All op-ed

Fox's Howard Kurtz criticizes Don Lemon for asking questions during Democratic debate about gun violence and Trump’s racism

Media Matters for America

HOWARD KURTZ (FOX NEWS HOST): Don Lemon, the liberal opinion host on the panel, asked questions that were blatantly from the left, promoting gun control and referring to President Trump as a racially divisive bigot.

Previously:

Fox News' media analyst says other networks showed "lack of class" by not airing Trump's campaign rally

Fox's Howard Kurtz thinks Trump's "shithole" controversy is about "bad language" instead of racism

Fox News media analyst Howard Kurtz complains about media labeling Trump's tweets as "racist"

Fox's Howard Kurtz: Women in media criticize Ivanka Trump because they feel "a personal resentment" toward her