Ainsley Earhardt is Emerging as Trump’s Most Devout and Shameless Sycophant on Fox & Friends

Unfortunately for Fox News’ Ainsley Earhardt, you cannot call yourself an American journalist if you’re afraid of critiquing the president.

Earhardt was seemingly the only person on her show this morning who was able (or willing) to defend President Donald Trump’s bizarre and patently false comments made at a Thursday event focusing on tax reform in West Virginia, where he claimed female migrants in a caravan near the U.S.-Mexico border were being “raped at levels that nobody has ever seen before” and voter fraud was rampant across states like California.

When her co-hosts, as well as guest Geraldo Rivera, all agreed Trump “swamped” a potentially positive message about lowering taxes with his divisive and unscripted remarks, Earhardt quickly deflected by deriding House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and praising Trump for throwing away his prepared statements.

“You might not have liked the fact that he talked about other things,” she said, “but a lot of people do want to hear him explain all of these different issues.”

This is a classic, go-to move for the conservative co-host of Fox & Friends. When her colleagues offer their rare rebuttals of Trump’s most controversial moments in office, Earhardt provides a consistent wall of defense for the president, at times putting aside her own objections and catering to an audience of one — who regularly watches her show almost every morning.

The problem is, the 41-year-old television personality considers herself to be a journalist — and wants others to do the same.

Earhardt, who majored in journalism at college, slammed “other networks” for telling one-sided news stories in a Business Insider profile last year. “We are inflicting opinion in our newscasts like never before,” she said, unironically not talking about her own program. “That was never done and never taught in our journalism classes.”

“I do not want to come across as being in the tank for them or kissing their tails,” she added, referring to the Trump administration. “I mean, I want to be a journalist, I want to ask tough questions.”

And yet, despite being provided every opportunity by Trump to do just that, Earhardt cowers, supporting, rationalizing and excusing the commander-in-chief and his administration even when her own colleagues are simply unable to do so.

The president invited Earhardt to the White House for an exclusive interview shortly after firing former FBI Director James Comey. Instead of grilling him on the decision to oust Comey while he was investigating Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, the Fox News host praised him for misleading the public about having recorded conversations with the head of the federal agency.

“It was a smart way to make sure he stayed honest in those hearings,” she told Trump, to which he responded: “Well, uh, it wasn’t very stupid, I can tell you that.”

Throughout his presidency, there only appears to be a handful of occasions in which Earhardt didn’t provide a full-throated defense for Trump — and even during many of those moments, she still managed to give him a pass for his controversies.

Earhardt provided meek support for Trump in September last year, as his series of comments regarding the NFL and athletes taking a knee during the National Anthem were dominating the news cycle. Her defense arrived only after her co-host Brian Kilmeade said Trump was “galvanizing the wrong direction” and suggested he should move on from attacking athletes on Twitter.

“Well, Brian, he is the voice for a lot of people out there,” she said. “A lot of people agree with him and are scared to give their opinions … there a handful of people out there, Brian, that really feel like he’s their voice.”

Perhaps Earhardt’s most problematic (and hollow) argument in her defense for Trump is her belief that it is “anti-American” to criticize the president of the United States. In many of her comments deriding news outlets for their coverage of the Trump administration, there appears the constant specter of anti-patriotism on the part of the “mainstream media.”

This was her main objection to explosive reports from the New York Times in January that Trump attempted to fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller in June of last year. First, Fox & Friends falsely claimed the Times story was part of a larger trend in media, timing bombshell reports with positive stories surrounding the president. Earhardt took it a step further, accusing the publication of defying national interests in order to undermine Trump.

“It’s just so anti-American,” she said. “I mean, it’s just — where’s the unity?”

Earhardt has interviewed Trump on multiple occasions, as well as Vice President Mike Pence, First Lady Melania Trump, House Speaker Paul Ryan; the list goes on. She says it’s a “great honor” to know the president watches her on television, and doesn’t take her job lightly.

That’s all good and fine, but Earhardt can’t have it both ways. Plenty of journalists have been chummy with presidents past, going back to former President John F. Kennedy and Washington columnist Joseph Alsop, and beyond. But hell, even Trump’s favorite media personality Sean Hannity has offered criticisms of the president, describing him as “a little too sensitive at times.” (For the record, Hannity did not consider himself to be anything remotely close to a journalist until last year, when he started describing himself as an “opinion journalist.”)

One of the core tenets of journalistic standards is to never get so close to a subject of your reporting, that you are suddenly unable to provide an accurate and even somewhat unbiased interpretation of their motives, policies and actions. Earhardt’s affection for the Trump family has provided access to the West Wing most reporters could only dream of, and interviews some journalists would kill for. Still, none of that makes her a journalist, no matter how badly she wants to be one.

Earhardt can certainly describe herself as a hard-working television personality, or a host of an undoubtedly popular show, or a sycophant, or a tool for propaganda, or an ardent supporter of Trump. Her willingness to combat reality in defense of the president is commendable for someone who prides themselves on supporting his agenda, no matter the cost.

But these days it’s simply inaccurate, inappropriate and damaging to the entire Fourth Estate for Earhardt to describe herself as anything other than what she truly is.

Just because Fox News’ opinion programming considers much of real journalism to be “fake news” nowadays, does not change someone like Earhardt’s status in media. She is a defender — not a questioner. An entertainer — not a journalist.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.