Remember when Fox News accused President Barack Obama and Black Lives Matter of endangering lives by criticizing the police? What a difference a white, Republican like Donald Trump makes in Fox News’ calculation about criticizing law enforcers!
Recently, Fox News has been going all out on a mission to destroy the credibility (if not the outright existence) of the FBI, which just happens to be deeply involved in the Russia investigation, now closing in on Donald Trump. The worst of the worst in that regard has been Sean Hannity. Last night, he agreed with Fox News analyst Gregg Jarrett that the FBI is like the KGB.
But when President Barack Obama was in office, Fox News insisted that his criticism, as well as that of the Black Lives Matter movement, endangered police officers.
Let’s take a walk down Hypocrisy Memory Lane, shall we?
On July 8, 2016 Fox News contributor David Webb blamed Obama and Black Lives Matters supporters for the shooting deaths of five Dallas police officers:
WEBB: What’s played out here is not just a tragedy, what happened last night, but what has fostered this environment. And we don’t know the exact motivations of these shooters right now …but we do know that an environment of anti-cop, hate cops, kill cops has been fostered by political leaders, by many in the media in positions of influence, supported by things like President Obama, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, the Black Lives Matter, the CBC, the “hands up, don’t shoot” meme that has gone on since Ferguson.
On December 20, 2014, host Jeanine Pirro took part in a discussion with guest Bernard Kerik (the felon with whom Pirro once discussed wiretapping her husband) in which they blamed Obama, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Al Sharpton for the shooting deaths of two New York police officers:
KERIK: In this circumstance, I believe, I personally feel that Mayor de Blasio, Sharpton and others like them, they actually have blood on their hands. They encouraged this behavior. They encouraged protests. These so-called peaceful protests that – where people are standing out there saying, “Kill the cops.” Well, I hope they’re happy. Because they got what they wanted.
[…]
PIRRO: Let’s talk about the president as well. De Blasio and, I think, the President of the United States need to understand that their actions in failing to defend police and criticizing police – saying African American young men are having problems with law enforcement. Well, right now, law enforcement – two officers, executed, are having problems with young African American men. I don’t know who’s talking about this but I’m going to talk about it.
On August 29, 2015, Pirro “asked” about the slaying of a white deputy sheriff after a black suspect had been charged, “Is this something that is almost predictable?” She meant that it was “almost predictable” because of Black Lives Matter protests.
But now with Donald Trump coming into the crosshairs of the FBI and the Russia investigation, Pirro is suddenly not so worried about the supposed danger that criticizing police puts them in. On December 4, 2017, Pirro called James Comey, the former head of the FBI a “political whore”:
PIRRO: There are are good, decent people in the FBI. […] Most of them. But the management, and the dirt started really bad with Jim Comey. Jim Comey changed the whole color. […] And let me tell you, he ran his office very well, and then he turned into a political whore, and he changed the nature of the FBI.
On July 8, 2016, Fox News contributor Allen West blamed Hillary Clinton and Black Lives Matter for the deaths of the five Dallas officers:
WEST: Hillary Clinton yesterday putting out #BlackLivesMatter. All lives matter and we should not say that one group is more important than another group and, horrifically, they have set the conditions, they have set an atmosphere for the ambush of police officers yesterday.
On April 29, 2015, Hannity suggested that Obama’s questioning of police behavior was responsible for protests that turned violent in Baltimore in the wake of the Freddie Gray killing by police:
HANNITY: When you put all these cases together: Cambridge and Trayvon and Ferguson, ‘Hands up, don’t shoot’ and now this case. Do you think his [Obama’s] words are creating an atmosphere that is empowering people to act this way?
On May 20, 2015, Hannity “just asked” how big a problem it was for Obama to criticize police over the shooting deaths of African Americans:
HANNITY: The president of the United States, the first lady – they keep advancing this narrative even though – especially on “hands up, don’t shoot” – even though it was proven to be false. How big a problem is THAT, when the president does this?
On March 4, 2014, Hannity blamed violence in Ferguson on criticism of the police by Obama, Sharpton and then-Attorney General Eric Holder:
HANNITY: Everybody that rushed to judgment in this case, I would say are guilty of creating an atmosphere in Ferguson that led to a disaster. And people’s businesses gone forever. When are they gonna be held accountable? The president, Eric Holder, Al Sharpton: When are they gonna be held accountable?
Yet Obama never said anything as hostile nor as inflammatory as Hannity’s recent attacks on the FBI.
On December 6, 2017, Hannity and Fox legal analyst Gregg Jarrett likened the FBI to the KGB:
JARRETT: I think we now know that the Mueller investigation is illegitimate and corrupt. And Mueller has been using the FBI as a political weapon. And the FBI has become America’s secret police. Secret surveillance, wiretapping, intimidation, harassment and threats. It’s like the old KGB that comes for you in the dark of the night banging through your door.
SEAN HANNITY: By the way, this is not a game, this is not hyperbole you are using here.
On December 4, 2017, Hannity agreed with Donald Trump that the FBI reputation is “in tatters” during a rant in which he also said, “Our constitution hangs in the balance” because the so-called “Deep State” (which includes the FBI) is “creating now a clear and present danger to this country.”
HANNITY: We’re going to lay out the case tonight about how the American justice system, your system is literally hanging by a thread. Our constitution hangs in the balance tonight, and we will explain all of this to you, but it’s going to take the entire hour. Please stay with us.
[…]
But first, the politics, the corruption, the malfeasance at play to unseat a duly elected president by you is far worse than anybody could have thought or could have ever even imagined. This is rotten to the core, it is creating now a clear and present danger to this country.
[…]
Now, President Trump is … tweeting out. “After years of Comey with the phony and dishonest Clinton investigation and more running the FBI, its reputation is in tatters. Worst in history. But fear not, we will bring it back to greatness.”
The president is 100 percent right about James Comey and about Hillary Clinton...
So to recap, if you’re a black person and/or Democrat sympathizing with black people upset with police misconduct, you’re endangering lives by speaking out. But if you’re white, Republican Donald Trump, under investigation for collusion with Russia’s interference in our 2016 election – you’re saving America by painting the FBI as the bigger danger to this country.
Watch Fox blame Obama, de Blasio and Sharpton for the deaths of two NYPD officers below, from the December 20, 2014 Justice with Judge Jeanine.
Crossposted at News Hounds.
We watch Fox so you don't have to!
