If ever you needed proof there’s almost nothing Donald Trump can do or say that his loyal Fox News supporters won’t defend, watch The Five turn him into a victim over his refusal to disavow the support of David Duke and the Ku Klux Klan.
Significantly, the show did not play the clip of Trump repeatedly refusing, on CNN’s State of the Union, to disavow Duke to an astounded Jake Tapper. Instead, cohost Eric Bolling began the Fox News discussion by saying Trump “tried to clear up a racially charged controversy involving unsolicited support from former KKK leader David Duke.” Bolling noted that Trump disavowed Duke’s endorsement on Friday but faced criticism for not repeating his repudiation again on the Sunday show.
Fox did play a clip of Trump laughably blaming “a lousy earpiece” and claiming he had not properly heard Tapper. But if you watch the CNN video (below), it’s pretty clear that Trump had no trouble hearing anything.
Cohost Jesse Watters went along with Trump’s excuse. “I think the earpiece must have been made in China, it was a lousy earpiece. Bad earpiece.” Then Watters deflected to attacking Democrats on race. “Hillary Clinton actively sought out the endorsement of Democratic KKK Senator Robert Byrd. Trump didn’t seek out any endorsement, he disavowed it.”
Watters’ next lame deflection: “Barack Obama sat in racist Reverend Wright’s church pews for 20 years. Never even disavowed it and then all of a sudden Trump, I don’t think he sat in David Duke’s pews.”
More lame deflection: “I remember when the New Black Panther Party endorsed Obama in 2008 but I don’t remember Meet The Press saying, ‘Do you disavow this?’”
Lastly, Watters complained there’s a double standard: “Whenever it’s a wackjob, racist Republican being endorsed or doing the endorsing, the media wants to smear them but they bury it on the left.”
Next up, Bolling made excuses for Trump. “CNN, they kept going after it. The guy said, ‘Look I disavowed it already, can we move on?’ Did CNN hold anyone else to that standard?” Bolling must have been watching a different CNN interview because Trump never said in this interview that he had disavowed Duke.
Cohost Kimberly Guilfoyle ridiculously argued that CNN engaged in some conspiracy against Trump to boost their ratings: “You know what? Struggling, struggling. This is CNN trying to be in the top spot. They’re not gonna get there. They’re trying to make something out of nothing. It’s like tag this along in the news cycle so there’s more focus on them. It’s very transparent. It’s very obvious to me what they are doing. It’s not working either.”
Actually, she’s wrong. The ratings released for February show that CNN won the 25-54 demo in prime time.
Cohost Dana Perino offered up only the mildest of Trump criticism, saying that someone like Trump has the "awesome responsibility and opportunity" to ridicule and "snuff out the hate."
That left Juan Williams, who went last, as the only person to rebut.
Watch it above, from the February 29 The Five.
Crossposted at News Hounds.
We watch Fox so you don't have to!
