Fox News continues to cover for Trump’s broken promises on tax returns
Fox News political editor: “He’s not running on high ethical standards”
Written by Eric Kleefeld
Published
Fox News figures are still covering up a key point in reporting the ongoing fight over President Donald Trump’s tax returns: that he had promised he would release them, only to back off completely. And besides, they say, the voting public doesn’t care about it — and it’s only another Democratic attempt “to use this as a bludgeon against the president.”
In a set of Supreme Court rulings on Thursday in the continued fights over investigations involving Trump’s returns, the court rejected Trump’s broad claims of total immunity from subpoenas, while setting up further battles in the lower courts over the subpoenas from both the Manhattan district attorney’s office and the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives.
Starting in 2014 and throughout the 2016 campaign, Trump promised on multiple occasions that he would release his tax returns, only to keep waffling on his position and ultimately break those promises.
In so doing, he became the first major-party presidential nominee since the days of Richard Nixon to not release any tax documents, and now he has taken his fight all the way to the Supreme Court to keep them under wraps.
In a discussion on Fox’s America’s Newsroom, during the sort of pre-game commentary while the decisions were still being awaited, Fox News politics editor Chris Stirewalt suggested that the issue is unimportant because Trump didn’t present himself to voters as having “high ethical standards” in the first place.
Citation From the July 9, 2020, edition of Fox News’ America’s Newsroom
CHRIS STIREWALT (FOX NEWS POLITICAL EDITOR): I do think that for Trump, a lot of this stuff is baked in the cake. He’s not running for reelection as a good guy, he’s not running on high ethical standards. He’s running as a rough-and-tumble guy who is from the mean streets of New York real estate, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
So I don't know that there's anybody right now who supports Trump that would find out something through this that would say, “Well, this ruins my idea of him as a man of pristine character, da, da, da.”
On the other hand, it is just one more hassle, it’s one more bit of bad luck, bad timing, for a campaign that seems pretty choppy.
During an appearance by The Daily Briefing anchor Dana Perino later in the program, after the rulings had come down, she asserted that Democrats were only using the issue as a “bludgeon against the president” and that it had been Trump’s “choice” to be “the first person of both major parties to refuse to release his tax returns” — with no acknowledgment that he had previously promised to do so.
Citation From the July 9, 2020, edition of Fox News’ America’s Newsroom
DANA PERINO (ANCHOR, THE DAILY BRIEFING): So again, from an election standpoint, I think the Democrats realized they did not get a home run at the Supreme Court this morning. They might be able to get their tax returns, but it will be way after the election, and at that point, I don't know if any Democrat is actually going to care at that point.
They wanted to use this as a bludgeon against the president —as they have been, since he is the first person of both major parties to refuse to release his tax returns. That was his choice, it invited this derision from the Democrats, but also this decision from the Supreme Court.
So, I think that what the Democrats are saying is that, “Yeah, OK, we knew that we were going to be able to get his tax returns, but we also know we’re not going to get them before the election.” So they are moving on, they’re not going to waste a moment on this, at least from Nancy Pelosi’s perspective.
Meanwhile, on the Fox Business show Varney & Co., Fox host Pete Hegseth spoke of a heroic struggle by Trump against the “deep state” of the Manhattan district attorney and Democrats, saying, “These are people attempting to go after him because they can't beat him at the ballot box.” Hegseth added that Trump’s supporters “knew who they were voting for” — to which guest host Ashley Webster agreed. Neither mentioned that Trump himself had promised to release his tax returns for years.
Citation From the July 9, 2020, edition of Fox Business’ Varney & Co.
PETE HEGSETH (CO-HOST, FOX & FRIENDS WEEKEND): Well, first of all, grand jury secrecy rules in New York should shield these records from the public — certainly until the election — and indefinitely, if rules are followed. Now, we’ve seen what the deep state — and that includes the D.A., that includes what Democrats want to do — what they’re willing to leak, and how quickly they’re willing to leak it. So, letting it loose, even though it is going back to the court, does have potential implications for the president.
But you've got to step back for a second. I mean, this is — this has been a targeting of a man in search of a crime from the beginning, and this is just an extension of that. The voters who voted for President Trump knew who they were voting for, that he was a disruptor, that he had been a businessman in New York, that he had been involved in politics, and that he decided to run because he loved the country and was going to put it first. And he wasn’t going to allow things like his tax returns to be a distraction. And so, he’s fought this all the way, and he should continue to fight it.
But this — the president tweeted an hour ago, “Presidential harassment,” and he's entirely correct. People see that. These are people attempting to go after him because they can't beat him at the ballot box. And they’re going to get another chance in November — they've got Joe Biden on the ticket, which does not bode well for them and they know it. So they’re still trying to find every avenue they can -- in this case, court challenges. The president has lawyers, too. He gets to challenge things, too, has a lot of prerogative.
There’ll be a lot of heat about these headlines, but not a lot of light, and certainly no — very little insight you’re going to learn. I don't anticipate seeing any tax returns. And even if we did, I don't think the people that support the president are concerned about his business dealings. They’re concerned about the president that they have right now.
ASHLEY WEBSTER (GUEST HOST): Right, couldn't agree more. And you know, in his tweets this morning, he got a lot off his chest, and he talked about the Comey deal, the Mueller investigation, the previous administration spying on him before he’d even moved into Pennsylvania Avenue. You know, listen, he's got a point. And what was the outcome of all of that? Zero, zippo, nothing.
The really interesting thing here is that while Fox’s opinion hosts such as Hegseth and Webster might be making their points to defend Trump’s stonewalling over his tax returns in a more bombastic and exuberant manner, the substance of their political apologia here was not really much different than what was said by the network’s purported “news”-side personalities like Stirewalt and Perino.