As much as we’d all like to, it’s been impossible to avoid the biased mainstream media coverage of former President Donald Trump’s indictment, what with so-called “reporters” pitching fits over the Trump-appointed judge in the case, and ABC “This Week” host George Stephanopoulos having meltdowns after being challenged by a Trump lawyer and then later Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), the latter of who brought up the two-tier system of justice issue many conservatives have complained about for years.
And on the eve of Trump’s arraignment in Miami, it’s only getting worse.
Take, for instance, CNN political correspondent Sara Murray, who during a Monday segment on the indictment and allegations that the indictment was politically motivated actually used President Joe Biden’s denial as part of their “fact check” on the claim:
Here’s how the crack investigative team at CNN “fact-checks” Donald Trump’s claim, and the belief of many conservatives, that the WH and DOJ are targeting their chief political rival.
“Joe Biden says he isn’t” – @SaraMurray pic.twitter.com/CQWldtPDtR
— a newsman (@a_newsman) June 12, 2023
Fox News has not been any better. Mike Davis, a former Chief Counsel for nominations to then-Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley and a former law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, took to the Twitter machine to point to Biden’s words about Trump the day after Election Day in 2022 to suggest Biden was willing to use any means necessary to disqualify Trump from office.
Here’s the quote from Biden:
“Well, we just have to demonstrate that he will not take power by — if we — if he does run. I’m making sure he, under legitimate efforts of our Constitution, does not become the next President again.”
Biden discussing Trump on November 9, 2022: pic.twitter.com/uLcYUcBUfy
— 🇺🇸 Mike Davis 🇺🇸 (@mrddmia) June 12, 2023
That’s when Fox News White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich chimed in to provide “context,” as though her “context” negated Davis’ opinion on what he thought was going on. Note also her reliance on the “it was a grand jury” talking point that many on the left have used to argue there’s no way this could be politically motivated:
CONTEXT: this was the day after the midterms, responding to question on how to reassure world leaders Trump would not return to power.
The indictment was from a grand jury, a process that did not involve WH, and a conviction would not prevent Trump from winning the presidency. https://t.co/RzFCBqXhpy
— Jacqui Heinrich (@JacquiHeinrich) June 12, 2023
As to the “grand jury” part of her tweet, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) obliterated that point in response to Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) making the exact same claim last Thursday.
“Stalin didn’t ‘indict’ people either. His henchmen did. Just like Biden’s,” Cruz tweeted. “Dictatorships and banana republics try to imprison their predecessors and opponents.”
Back to Heinrich, even though others tried to argue that the context didn’t make Biden’s words “any less ominous,” Heinrich responded by saying, “Biden’s talking about winning elections. Not about jailing his opponent, which was the suggestion made in the post.”
But how did she know that’s what Biden was talking about? He didn’t say anything about beating Trump at the ballot box, as the quote shows.
When Heinrich was asked why she was putting words in Biden’s mouth that he did not speak, she shot back by noting that she was “literally there [at the press conference in question], that’s why” and included the link to the transcript, which discerning readers will notice was not an answer to question of why she put words in his mouth.
Let me provide that quote from Biden once again, this time with the question that was asked:
Reporter: So the entire genesis of that G7 conversation was tied to your predecessor, who is about to launch another campaign. So how do you reassure them, if that is the reason for their questioning, that the former President will not return or that his political movement, which is still very strong, will not once again take power in the United States?
Biden: Well, we just have to demonstrate that he will not take power by — if we — if he does run. I’m making sure he, under legitimate efforts of our Constitution, does not become the next President again.
What Heinrich likely thought was when Biden garbled something about “legitimate efforts of our Constitution,” that he was talking about defeating his potential opponent in a “legitimate” way at the ballot box. The problem with that deduction is that it ignores how Democrats including Biden have grossly distorted the Constitution over the years to mean whatever they think it should mean at any politically convenient point in time regardless of whether or not their interpretation was true.
Whatever the case may be, it is no more Fox News’ job to helpfully play translator for Joe Biden than it is for CNN to play apologist for him, and yet here we are.
While CNN continues swirling at the bottom of the toilet boil, Fox News is not far behind, thanks to their attempts at silencing Tucker Carlson, and also thanks to the fact that their viewers (and conservative guests) are growing increasingly frustrated by the news division telling them what to think instead of giving them the facts and allowing viewers to decide for themselves.
Joe Biden’s Justice Department pursued charges against the man who could be his opponent in the 2024 presidential election, and got them. Considering what happened in 2016 to Trump courtesy of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and the Obama-Biden FBI, and then later with the Biden campaign’s coordination on the squelching of the Hunter Biden laptop emails story in 2020, Fox News and CNN will just have to excuse people for understandably being more than a little bit skeptical of “Well, Joe Biden denied it so that’ll have to do.”
Not hardly.
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