Fox News Is Basically the 45th President of the United States

On Thursday, news broke late that former national security adviser Michael Flynn was seeking an immunity deal in exchange for some juicy bits about Donald Trumpโ€™s campaign and Russia. On Friday, President Tiny Twitter Fingers was back at it, tweeting: Suggested Reading Three Friends Were Headed To A Beyoncรฉ Concert, But One Dies On the…

On Thursday, news broke late that former national security adviser Michael Flynn was seeking an immunity deal in exchange for some juicy bits about Donald Trumpโ€™s campaign and Russia. On Friday, President Tiny Twitter Fingers was back at it, tweeting:

Video will return here when scrolled back into view
Trump’s Tariffs Might Stick Around. What Should We Buy Now?
Trump’s Tariffs Might Stick Around. What Should We Buy Now?
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/847766558520856578

It wouldโ€™ve been nice if this were an independent thought, but that would require a few things that President Vladimir TrumPutin doesnโ€™t seem to possess: independence from his overbearing father, Steve Bannon,ย and thought.

As Raw Story notes, TrumPutinโ€™s tweet came shortly after a Fox & Friends segment in which โ€œFox analyst Tony Shaffer said that Flynn would be wise to seek immunity to prevent getting charged with a crime as part of Washington, D.C., โ€˜blood sport.โ€™โ€

โ€œIn this town, going after people is a blood sport,โ€ Shaffer said during the segment. โ€œMike Flynn would be stupid to not figure out a path forward regarding the circumstance of who he talks to ... regarding the issue.โ€

Trump is a mouthpiece for a station that is so right-leaning, if my television accidentally turns to Fox, it falls off to the right side of the TV stand.

Hiyoooooooo!

Itโ€™s bizarre, as are most things with this administration, to know that the highest-ranking person in the land gets his information from a right-wing, conspiracy-filled, propaganda-laced talk news broadcast, instead of, say, actual government officials he could ask directly.

In fact, many could argue that President Vladimir TrumPutin finds himself embroiled in this whole mess around President Barack Obamaโ€™s supposed wiretapping of Trump Tower after a tweet that Fox News has worked tirelessly to support.

On March 4, the president randomly tweeted that heโ€™d โ€œjust found outโ€ that the Obama administration โ€œwiretappedโ€ Trump Tower. He compared the act to McCarthyism. Since the accusations, and despite claims from everyone, including FBI Director James Comey, that this didnโ€™t happen, several Fox analysts have taken to the airwaves with wild claims of how this happened.

The wildest assertion came from former New Jersey Superior Court judge-turned-Fox News senior judicial analyst Andrew Napolitano, who claimed that the Obama administration used British intelligence to avoid American fingerprints and โ€œmost likelyโ€ provided Obama with transcripts of Trumpโ€™s recorded calls. It was so outlandish that even Fox News quietly put Napolitano on pause from the network for a few weeks and tried to back away from his ridiculous claims.

But that didnโ€™t stop the White House from latching onto the news and using it as a platform on which to stand. TrumPutin even claimed that he and German Chancellor Angela Merkel had โ€œsomething in commonโ€ when questioned about the claims:

Except they didnโ€™t because the entire accusation was false from the beginning, and if the president and his minions werenโ€™t in bed with the news station, it would never have reached the levels it did.

Sean โ€œSpicy Factsโ€ Spicer walked out to a press briefing shortly after Napolitanoโ€™s claims and chastised the White House press corps for missing the real story. He not only quoted the news clip but also used it as a centerpiece to prove that the White House had been right all along.

According to the Washington Post, Spicy Facts smugly said the following:

Last night on Fox News, on March 14, Judge Andrew Napolitano made the following statement, quote, โ€œThree intelligence sources have informed Fox News that President Obama went outside the chain of command. He didnโ€™t use the NSA, he didnโ€™t use the CIA, he didnโ€™t use the FBI and he didnโ€™t use the Department of Justice. He used GCHQ. What is that? Itโ€™s the initials for the British intelligence finding agency. So, simply by having two people saying to them president needs transcripts of conversations involving candidate Trumpโ€™s conversations, involving president-elect Trump, heโ€™s able to get it and thereโ€™s no American fingerprints on this. Putting the published accounts and common-sense together, this leads to a lot.โ€

The Washington Postโ€™s Chris Cillizza was all over it, noting:

That little riff got Spicer into a lot of trouble. The British government categorically denied that it was involved in any way, shape or form in the wiretapping of Trump Tower by the U.S. government. The British national security agency called the claim โ€œutterly ridiculousโ€ overnight Thursday and British media reported that the White House apologized for it.

That little riff couldโ€™ve caused an international incident with one of Americaโ€™s closest allies, but that hasnโ€™t stopped anyone in the administration from slowing down or stopping to actually confirm these hair-brained schemes coming out of this ACME administration.

In fact, Fox News is so tightly connected to the presidency, TrumPutin actually uses the network as both his explanation for pursuing ridiculousness and his excuse if the ridiculousness proves to be false. After it became clear that the accusations werenโ€™t true, during the same joint press conference with Merkel, Trump added:

And just to finish your question, we said nothing. All we did was quote a certain very talented legal mind who was the one responsible for saying that on television. I didnโ€™t make an opinion on it. That was a statement made by a very talented lawyer on Fox. And so you shouldnโ€™t be talking to me, you should be talking to Fox.

Or maybe the president of the United States should stop listening to Fox News. The saddest part of this TrumPutin administration is that the whole thing is sad. There doesnโ€™t appear to be a silver lining, and if you really want to know what TrumPutin is thinking, just watch Fox News, since it seems to be speaking to and for him.

Straight From The Root

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