“Straight news” Bret Baier’s coverage of last night’s Democratic debate legitimized Donald Trump’s illegitimate attacks on the Biden family, swiped at CNN’s Anderson Cooper for not joining the hoodwinking and overlooked Biden’s comments about Trump’s corruption.
According to Baier, the “big moment” of the debate was moderator Cooper’s question about Joe Biden's son. Baier disingenuously said that “obviously is a story today because of the interview Hunter Biden gives to ABC this morning.”
It’s also “obviously” a story because Fox is harping on it, along with Trump. That coincidentally helps legitimize Dear Leader's efforts to extort the president of Ukraine to get dirt on the Bidens - which just happens to be the subject of the impeachment inquiry. Not that either Baier nor reporter Shannon Bream mentioned any of that.
At the ready was a clip of that “big moment.” It left out everything Biden said about Trump’s corruption, along with his comments about George Washington’s concerns about foreign influence. Below is the full transcript of the exchange. In italics are the excerpts Fox played for its viewers. In bold is some of what Fox left out:
COOPER: My question is, if it's not okay for a president's family to be involved in foreign businesses, why was it okay for your son when you were vice president? Vice President Biden?
BIDEN: Look, my son did nothing wrong. I did nothing wrong. I carried out the policy of the United States government in rooting out corruption in Ukraine. And that's what we should be focusing on.
And what I wanted to make a point about — and my son's statement speaks for itself. He spoke about it today. My son's statement speaks for itself. What I think is important is we focus on why it's so important to remove this man from office.
On the — look, the fact that George Washington worried on the first time he spoke after being elected president that what we had to worry about is foreign interference in our elections, it was the greatest threat to America. This president on three occasions — three occasions — has invited foreign governments and heads of government to get engaged in trying to alter our elections. The fact is that it is outrageous.
Rudy Giuliani, the president, and his thugs have already proven that they, in fact, are flat lying. What we have to do now is focus on Donald Trump. He doesn't want me to be the candidate. He's going after me because he knows, if I get the nomination, I will beat him like a drum.
(UNKNOWN): Anderson — Anderson …
COOPER: Hold on, sorry, just to follow up. Mr. Vice President, as you said, your son, Hunter, today gave an interview, admitted that he made a mistake and showed poor judgment by serving on that board in Ukraine. Did you make a mistake by letting him? You were the point person on Ukraine at the time. You can answer.
BIDEN: Look, my son's statement speaks for itself. I did my job. I never discussed a single thing with my son about anything having do with Ukraine. No one has indicated I have. We've always kept everything separate. Even when my son was the attorney general of the state of Delaware, we never discussed anything, so there would be no potential conflict.
My son made a judgment. I'm proud of the judgment he made. I'm proud of what he had to say. And let's focus on this. The fact of the matter is that this is about Trump's corruption. That's what we should be focusing on.
“’I’m proud of the judgment he made,’” Baier sneered. “Interesting in the phrasing of the question. Anderson Cooper said twice you did nothing wrong. You could argue that there was nothing illegal but as far as wrong, whether it was OK for him to be at that board while his Dad was overseeing policy, that’s a different kind of phrasing of that question.”
“Yeah,” host Shannon Bream agreed, “and so even if Hunter’s out there saying maybe I had poor judgment and then the vice president is saying I respect his judgment – um, there’s a lot there to unpack.”
Actually, there’s only “a lot there to unpack” if you’re walking around with a loaded suitcase. The fact is that unlike Trump, who is a walking conflict of interest, using his office to cash in along with his family, on the public dime, all Baier and Bream came up with on Joe Biden was that Hunter Biden’s behavior looked bad in a situation that ended nearly three years ago, after Joe Biden left office.
Trump, on the other hand, has baselessly accused the Bidens of breaking the law. I consider that an interesting omission.
Watch Baier and Bream work to legitimize and promote Trump’s bogus attacks on Biden below.
(For the record, I’m not a registered Democrat, I’m not backing any of the candidates at this point and plan to support and vote for whichever Democrat gets the nomination.)
Published with permission of NewsHounds.us
