On Tuesday, Fox News’ attempt to paint Joe Biden as a monster for taking home government documents — while trying to ignore Donald Trump doing the same thing at a higher level — ran into a snag. It was revealed Mike Pence, Trump’s erstwhile veep, had done the same thing, too. The news upended the news network’s plan to make Biden look bad. If that sounds like some unkind reading into how they operate, you can hear them say as much on live TV.
Watters: I mean Pence, seriously. We have this great thing going with Joe. Come on man! pic.twitter.com/EyLZsGq6iL
— Acyn (@Acyn) January 24, 2023
On that day’s episode of The Five, co-hosts Jesse Watters, Greg Gutfeld, and Jeanine Pirro joked-but-not-really about how Pence chucked a wrench into their plans:
WATTERS: I mean, Pence, seriously. We have this great thing going with Joe–
GUTFELD: Yeah, and he just ruined it!
PIRRO He did!
WATTERS: Come on, man!
GUTFELD: Now what are we gonna do?
WATTERS: And he confessed to it. I mean, he could’ve just destroyed it. We never would’ve known.
GUTFELD: And we have to be fair and balanced and show both sides.
WATTERS: I know. Now we have to show both sides! And you know Pence is so clean. Squeaky clean. It’s nothing like the real bad documents that Joe Biden was squirreling away.
GUTFELD: Do you think he just wanted to be included?
WATTERS: He’s like, “Hey I’m running for president too. Investigate me! I looked at secret stuff!”
Before the Pence news, it had been major news that both Trump and Biden (after his vice presidency) had both taken government documents back to their respective homes. There were many differences between the cases. For one thing, Trump took hundreds of documents, painted the feds as villains, tried to obstruct their investigation, and even claimed he could declassify things with his mind. (He couldn’t.) Yet Fox News has tried to paint Biden, who took less and has played ball with investigators, as the bad guy.
Now that Pence has joined the mix, even they have to admit they can’t in good conscience make such bad faith arguments. Then again, surely Tucker and Hannity and Ingraham can find a way to spin it.
(Via Mediaite)