Fox News Anchor Lowers The Bar, Says Trump “Gets Credit For Just Being On The Stage”
As expected, after a horrendous presidential debate performance that likely ranks as the worst in modern history, Fox News was hard at work doing Donald Trump’s bidding and spinning. Starting with Fox & Friends, segment after segment was devoted to pushing the narrative that moderator Lester Holt was biased, Trump had a bad microphone and, despite all that, he still came out ahead.
As morning turned to afternoon, we also got another angle — Trump won by just showing up. Yep. Turning to the pre-debate playbook of lowered expectations for Trump, Fox News anchor Bret Baier pushed just that canard while appearing on Outnumbered.
HARRIS FAULKNER (CO-HOST): Bret, one last question before we move on and talk deeper about the economic part of the discussion last night. Do you think that Mr. Trump gets any credit for this being his first time and then looking at it through that prism, or not?
BRET BAIER: I do think he gets credit for just being on the stage. It legitimized him for being at this moment. However, I think you’re right. He was drawn into questions that he didn’t have to be drawn into. That is Trump in that he is authentic, and one of his Achilles’ heels is that he answers every question because he doesn’t do the traditional politician where you answer a little bit and you pivot. Or how about Hillary, when on the email question where she says, where Secretary Clinton said, you know what, it was a mistake, period. And there was no follow-up, and they just moved on.
Mmmm-hmmmm. Credit just for being on stage. It made him legitimate. And, really, Hillary lost because her buddy Holt was so obvious with his partisanship (he’s a Republican) that he let her slide on the email question. Nobody could expect Trump to press the issue, what with him being such a neophyte and working so hard to just find the podium and stand up on the stage for the whole 90 minutes.
Anyway, if this is what we’re getting in the early afternoon, I can’t wait to see the spin in primetime.
We already know that FOX does not report news – it’s nothing more than a propaganda machine.