Fox & Friends Gets Tense After Steve Doocy Brings Up WSJ Column on Trump Being ‘Afraid’ to Debate

Things got momentarily tense on the consistently convivial curvy couch of Fox & Friends after Steve Doocy brought up a recent Wall Street Journal essay asking, “Why is Donald Trump Afraid to Debate?

The WSJ editorial board has long been a conservative beacon and a recent critic of former President Donald Trump. It is also a sister company to Fox News as it enjoys the same corporate overlord, Rupert Murdoch. The cross-promotion of the two media entities has long been symbiotic, and so Doocy mentioning an essay that calls out Trump for showing weakness by skipping debates would typically be standard fodder for the right-of-center opinion program.

But not on Thursday morning, perhaps illustrating an ongoing and tense relationship within a network still figuring out which Republican candidate it needs to get behind?

Doocy laid out the argument put forth by the WSJ Editorial Board matter of factly, saying:

It talks about how he’s got a big lead, but he’s acting as if it weren’t as if he won. The last line is Trump’s advisers may be telling him he should appear, lest he says something that hurts his legal defense. But that’s a sign of weakness, not strength. And it’ll have to answer those questions eventually. What is the former president afraid of? Because everywhere I go when I talk to people about the debates, they say they really like to see what he has to say. You know, I think Donald Trump, Donald Trump being afraid don’t don’t add up ever in anything, period, that that conversation started. And why doesn’t he? Because he’s up by 40 points, you’re saying, What’s the point? I think part of it has to do with he might say something that could imperil him.

Brian Kilmeade, whose always-revealing body language would surely cost him at the poker table, had none of it, and jumped in to dismiss the idea as any loyal Trump surrogate would.

“Donald Trump and ‘afraid’ don’t add up in anything, ever, period,” Kilmeade was quick to dismiss, which elicited laughter from newly named co-host, Lawrence Jones, who now sits in Doocy’s former far-right seat in the now more crowded curvy couch.

“I think part of it has to do with he might say something that could imperil him,” Doocy offered back, somewhat defeated, which led Jones to literally laugh at that idea, saying, “Donald Trump says something that imperils him!” in a mocking tone. “I think his attorneys have advised him not to say anything. Don’t tweet, dont’ go on Truth Social. And he continues to do it!”

“And it’s problematic when you are running for president,” Doocy noted, making the most reasonable and obvious point to his co-hosts, who seem unfamiliar with reason regarding all things Trump-related.

What’s going on at Fox & Friends? The top-rated cable news morning show has bucked its 25-year tradition of having three co-hosts by adding a fourth. What problem are they aiming to solve? That is a column for another day in the meantime…

Watch above via Fox News.

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