Fox News Reporter Says There Aren’t ‘Multiple References’ to Biden in Trump Transcript, Only ‘Three’

 

Fox News reporters put a shine on the just-released transcript of President Donald Trump’s controversial Ukraine call, including one reporter who insisted that there were not “multiple references” to Joe Biden and his son, explaining that there were only “three” such references.

Shortly after the release of the bombshell transcript, Fox News correspondent Catherine Herridge reported on the contents of the document, and posited a curious “key” takeaway.

“The key thing from the initial reading is that there are not multiple references as widely reported to the former vice president,” Herridge said, adding “By our count, there’s a key reference and some follow-on references, so a handful, approximately three.”

This is both false and accurate. Biden’s name was mentioned three times — which qualifies as multiple references — but the balance of the call heavily involved discussion of the Biden-related matter.

And Fox News White House correspondent John Roberts was more generous than most in interpreting the document. While he correctly noted that the transcript does not contain a direct “quid pro quo” tying aid to Ukraine with investigating the Bidens, Roberts went a step further in declaring, “even that suggestion exists nowhere in this document.”

That claim was quickly debunked by Bret Baier, although couched as something “Democrats will say.”

“What Democrats will say is, ‘This paragraph talking about the purchase of Javelin missiles, the aid that the US has provided, the fact that the Europeans are not stepping up,’ this is what Democrats will say, and the next line saying ‘I would like you to do us a favor,’ and saying there’s a lot of talk about Biden’s son ‘so whatever you can do with the attorney general would be great, they will say that is an implied, that that conversation that preceded it is implied,” Baier said.

Baier’s account, “Democrats will say” framing notwithstanding, is an accurate portrayal of the transcript’s contents.

Watch the clips above, via Fox News.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!

Tags: