Some Fox News Commentators Speak Out in Defense of Colleagues Against Escalating Trump Attacks
Fox News’ Brit Hume and Guy Benson both came to their colleagues’ defense on Wednesday after White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt and President Donald Trump himself attacked them.
At Wednesday’s press briefing, Fox’s Jacqui Heinrich noted that Andy McCarthy, a contributor to the right-leaning cable news network, had expressed his doubts over the legality of the Trump administration’s deportation of migrants under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, and Leavitt responded by suggesting that “the individual that you mentioned” was “trying to defend” terrorists.
Less than two hours later, Trump was railing against Heinrich over a segment from Sunday in which she asked a Republican senator about the consequences of his trade policy and free advertising for Elon Musk’s Tesla.
“I watched Jacqui Heinrich from Fox over the weekend and I thought she was absolutely terrible. She should be working for CNN, not Fox,” wrote Trump on Truth Social. “Not surprisingly, I later found out that she’s a fan of the White House Correspondents Association!”
Hume came to Heinrich’s defense, while Benson vouched for McCarthy.
“I watched her too. She plays it straight, covering both sides of a story and has certainly played fair with you,” argued Hume. “You may have a case against some White House reporters, but not
@JacquiHeinrich.”
“So @AndrewCMcCarthy is more than capable of defending himself & his legal analysis—I’ll just note that Andy spent much of his career putting terrorists in prison & has been frequently/positively cited by Trump himself,” submitted Benson. “He’s farrrr from a hysterical, terrorist-defending leftist.”
Charles C.W. Cooke, McCarthy’s colleague at National Review, had a little more fun with Leavitt’s insinuation.
“It’s true. @AndrewCMcCarthy loves terrorists. That’s his main thing: loving terrorists. When you think of Andy, you think of a terrorist-lover. And not just now, and in the future, but in the past, too. Andy’s story is one of loving terrorists. Just one big unbroken line,” remarked Cooke facetiously.
“Sometimes I call Andy, and I ask whether he thinks the Mets will win the World Series this year. And Andy says ‘Enough of that American sports CRAP, I want to talk about my favorite person of all time, Omar Abdel-Rahman. I love that man, and everyone like him.’ It’s jarring,” he continued. “‘Andy,’ I say. ‘Andy. Andy! Could we just—for one moment—talk about something other than your love of terrorists? The NFL? Music? The wine of Italy, perhaps?’ But he won’t do it. ‘I love terrorists and want more of them in America,’ he says. I take no pleasure in reporting this.”
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