Yet even they were forced to disavow his latest lie.
"Trump doesn't just watch the channel, he peddles information he hears from it, citing Fox in his defense while standing alongside the leader of one of America's most important allies. Trump tweets about stories he sees on Fox. He uses Fox graphics to advance his agenda. And he gives his TV interviews to Fox — five of the seven he's sat down for since moving into the White House.
Trump hires former Fox staffers. He promotes Fox as "fair" and attacks its rivals as "fake." And now he's dealing with an international incident provoked by a Fox commentator. On Day 58 of the Trump presidency, none of it is surprising anymore. But it still is extraordinary...
While the channel's highly-rated opinion shows feature both liberal and conservative guests, the shows are a rather consistent source of support for the president's agenda -- a morale booster of sorts amid skeptical coverage on other channels.
Detractors say that Trump and his aides, by relying too heavily on the conservative media echo chamber, are closing themselves off to the kind of debate and flow of information that governing requires. With Napolitano, however, the lines were blurred. He brought up the claim about British intelligence both on a newscast and on opinion shows. And he cited Fox News "sources," suggesting the network's news division had confirmed his information. But on Friday, the news division said no.
"We love" Napolitano, Bret Baier said on the air, but "the Fox News division was never able to back up those claims."
And as for the president? When he was asked about Spicer's invocation of Napolitano's claims at a press conference, Trump told the questioner to call his favorite cable news channel.
"All we did was quote a certain very talented legal mind," Trump said, adding, "That was a statement made by a very talented lawyer on Fox... You shouldn't be talking to me, you should be talking to Fox. Ok?"
[video]http://money.cnn.com/2017/03/19/media/fox-news-donald-trump/index.html[/video]
"Trump doesn't just watch the channel, he peddles information he hears from it, citing Fox in his defense while standing alongside the leader of one of America's most important allies. Trump tweets about stories he sees on Fox. He uses Fox graphics to advance his agenda. And he gives his TV interviews to Fox — five of the seven he's sat down for since moving into the White House.
Trump hires former Fox staffers. He promotes Fox as "fair" and attacks its rivals as "fake." And now he's dealing with an international incident provoked by a Fox commentator. On Day 58 of the Trump presidency, none of it is surprising anymore. But it still is extraordinary...
While the channel's highly-rated opinion shows feature both liberal and conservative guests, the shows are a rather consistent source of support for the president's agenda -- a morale booster of sorts amid skeptical coverage on other channels.
Detractors say that Trump and his aides, by relying too heavily on the conservative media echo chamber, are closing themselves off to the kind of debate and flow of information that governing requires. With Napolitano, however, the lines were blurred. He brought up the claim about British intelligence both on a newscast and on opinion shows. And he cited Fox News "sources," suggesting the network's news division had confirmed his information. But on Friday, the news division said no.
"We love" Napolitano, Bret Baier said on the air, but "the Fox News division was never able to back up those claims."
And as for the president? When he was asked about Spicer's invocation of Napolitano's claims at a press conference, Trump told the questioner to call his favorite cable news channel.
"All we did was quote a certain very talented legal mind," Trump said, adding, "That was a statement made by a very talented lawyer on Fox... You shouldn't be talking to me, you should be talking to Fox. Ok?"
[video]http://money.cnn.com/2017/03/19/media/fox-news-donald-trump/index.html[/video]
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