The Trump team arrived at Tuesday’s debate site too late to be tested by the Cleveland Clinic, so they submitted tests administered by the Trump campaign instead. Fox's Bill Hemmer said pointedly, “To me, that sounds like an honor system.”
October 3, 2020

Chris Wallace visited Fox News for at least the second time today to discuss the reckless behavior of Team Trump at Tuesday night’s debate. This morning, he told Fox & Friends that the Trump family refused to wear masks while in the audience. This afternoon he reported on more bad behavior:

WALLACE: It also turns out that Tuesday afternoon, when the president and his team came in for a walkthrough, up on the stage, with the president and all of his top people looking at the podium, looking at the lighting, what the arrangement was going to be, that none of them were wearing masks. I can tell you … members of the commission were not especially happy with the fact that the presidential party was not wearing a mask. There seems to have been a disregard for the risks of this virus.

Host Bill Hemmer, normally a pro-Trump propagandist, piled on:

HEMMER: You know, the clinic had a rule, right? You wear the mask inside. That was stated clearly.

But if you look at their statement that came out today – I’ll read one of the key lines for you: “Individuals traveling with both candidates, including the candidates themselves, had been tested and tested negative by their respective campaigns.”

They weren’t tested by the clinic, based on this statement, Chris. To me, that sounds like an honor system.

WALLACE: Well, they couldn’t be tested because … they didn’t arrive until Tuesday afternoon, so for them to get tested, there wouldn’t have been enough time to have the test and have the debate at nine o’clock that night. They didn’t show up until three, four, five o’clock in the afternoon. So, yeah, there was an honor system when it came to the people that came into the hall from the two campaigns.

I can’t say that Trump cheated on the COVID tests (though he cheats on just about everything). But I do know that it’s very, very unusual for Fox News to make such a point of highlighting Trump’s wrongs. It's especially unusual to do so repeatedly.

Clearly, the Murdochs are sending him a message of their displeasure. Whether they would actually throw him under the bus is an open question.

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