Watch Fox News Personalities Attempt To Explain Away Bill Taylor’s Testimony

NEW YORK, NY - MARCH 13: Traffic on Sixth Avenue passes by advertisements featuring Fox News personalities, including Bret Baier, Martha MacCallum, Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham, and Sean Hannity, adorn the front of... NEW YORK, NY - MARCH 13: Traffic on Sixth Avenue passes by advertisements featuring Fox News personalities, including Bret Baier, Martha MacCallum, Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham, and Sean Hannity, adorn the front of the News Corporation building, March 13, 2019 in New York City. On Wednesday the network's sales executives are hosting an event for advertisers to promote Fox News. Fox News personalities Tucker Carlson and Jeanine Pirro have come under criticism in recent weeks for controversial comments and multiple advertisers have pulled away from their shows. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images) MORE LESS
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

It seems Bill O’Reilly took the “No Spin Zone” with him when he departed Fox News.

After the bombshell news that emerged from U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Bill Taylor’s testimony, the network’s hosts and personalities took their spin to a new level, peddling absurd conspiracies about the diplomat and declaring reports on his testimony to be fake news.

As leaks of  Taylor’s prepared testimony further confirmed that Trump linked military aid for Ukraine with a demand that the country investigate the Biden family, Fox News reported that Taylor told lawmakers he had no firsthand knowledge that Ukraine knew about the military funds being withheld.

Taylor’s testimony revealed a number of conversations between top officials in which a quid pro quo was discussed in relation to Ukraine announcing an investigation of the Bidens. Yet instead of discussing the contents of Taylor’s testimony during an interview with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), Fox’s Laura Ingraham attacked Taylor as a “global elitist” who doesn’t like Trump’s style, rather than the career diplomat who attempted to push back on Trump’s pressure campaign.

Ingraham again raised the notion of the global elite running the impeachment inquiry during her interview with former acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker a few minutes later. Whitaker notably claimed during this interview that abuse of power was not a crime.

During a discussion with Lou Dobbs on Fox Business Network later Tuesday, Sidney Powell, who represents Michael Flynn in the case brought by special counsel Robert Mueller, said she doesn’t think its a “big deal” that the White House had “two channels” for working with Ukraine. She also claimed it’s fine for Trump to use whatever tool is at his disposal to deal with a corrupt government.

“The president has every right to use whatever means he can to get things accomplished in Ukraine as long as it’s lawful, and there’s nothing that requires him to follow traditional practices in going through corrupt government agencies to do it,” she said.

Fox News host and Trump-hype man Sean Hannity decided to distract from the revelations with cries of fake news. On Tuesday evening, he claimed he has “many sources” telling him that witnesses aren’t actually cooperating with what he calls Rep. Adam Schiff’s (D-CA) “phony witch hunt.” He appeared to argue that any leaks to the media coming from the room — which would include written opening testimony — are made up.

Latest News
Comments
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Associate Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: