In a commentary yesterday, Varney ignored Trump’s long history of overt racism, including a 1973 federal lawsuit alleging anti-black bias in 39 Trump-managed buildings, and suggested criticisms of his disgusting remarks are just a Democratic campaign attack:
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 now applied to just about anybody. It no longer has bite.
Varney even quoted from Trump’s revolting tweets, in which he described Baltimore as a “disguting rat and rodent infested mess” where “no human being would want to live.” Never mind that Trump was smearing an American city he’s supposed to proudly represent. No, on Fox, it’s poor, picked-on Trump who’s the victim. Varney sneered sarcastically, “Oh, that caused outrage,” and complained that the media “from there on out branded the president as a bigot.”
“The president was describing reality,” Varney insisted.
Varney moved on to dishonestly liken Trump’s attacks to comments by Cummings and Bernie Sanders about Baltimore's severe problems. But if Varney had even glanced at the clips from those right-wing talking points, he would have immediately seen that those two lawmakers were discussing the problems in Baltimore from a posture of trying to help, whereas Trump was clearly weaponizing Baltimore’s plight in order to smear Cummings - who just happens to be chairman of the House Oversight Committee and conducting some real oversight into Trump World.
“This president, unlike any other president, is prepared to call it how he sees it, and damn the consequences,” Varney claimed. And why should Trump worry about any consequences? He’s got Fox News and Fox Business to cheer on every awful utterance.
