Fox News opinion hosts offered up, without hesitation, a full-throated, wall-to-wall defense of twice-indicted Trump
- Fox News' coverage of the historic federal indictment of Donald Trump leaned hard into his defense.
- On Fox News, hosts and guests questioned the documents found in Joe Biden's office and garage.
Fox News, without hesitation, leaned into defending former President Donald Trump, following the news that the former president was indicted on seven counts related to an investigation into mishandling government documents.
This was all despite tension earlier this year between the GOP frontrunner and the conservative network. Trump's relationship with Fox News took a big blow when text messages sent by hosts, now-former hosts, and executives mocking Trump and pro-Trump conspiracy theories were uncovered in Dominion Voting System's defamation suit against the network.
In April, Fox News ultimately settled the suit with Dominion for a record $787.5 million dollars, regarding Trump's false claims of election interference in 2020, echoed by guests and hosts on the network and Fox Business. The network said the settlement "reflects FOX's continued commitment to the highest journalistic standards."
Yet, like most of his GOP challengers in 2024, rather than move on from the now twice-indicted former president, Fox News followed Trump's own tactics: Deflect, attack your accuser, and say you are the target of political opponents.
"Hannity" was initially going to host Trump's former Vice President Mike Pence, who just entered the 2024 race. However, the candidate, per what a Pence spokesperson called a mutual agreement, did not appear.
Instead, the host and guests went from asking about Hillary Clinton's emails and documents found in President Joe Biden's possession — the probe for which is still ongoing — and pivoted to a new alleged Biden bribery story, reported by Fox News.
But nothing competed with a nearly nine-minute rant from Mark Levin claiming without evidence that this was a political hit job by the US attorney general.
The catch? The charges have yet to be unsealed. Everyone is presumed innocent until proven guilty, including former presidents, and in terms of the facts, there's just not a lot that we know thus far. What we do find out will be in the hands of a jury.
What we do know now is that Trump said he has been ordered to appear in federal court in Miami on Tuesday at 3 p.m. ET, where he will be arraigned and appear before a judge.