Even Fox's Karl Rove Is Calling Out The Dangers Of Trump's Inaccurate Boeing Tweet
Rove: Trump “Destabled The Stock Of A Major American Company” By Tweeting “Something That Was Not Accurate”
Written by Media Matters Staff
Published
From the December 7 edition of Fox News' America's Newsroom:
KARL ROVE: Well look, it's part of the world in which we live, so he's going to keep tweeting. But, and look, the impulse, we want to save the taxpayers money, that's admirable. But this was fire, ready, aim in my opinion. First of all, there's not a contract for $4 billion, there's a contract for $170 million. It's not to build one plane, actually the goal will ultimately be to build 3 planes. But the contract that exists is to drop the technical designs and specifications for all that the Air Force and the Secret Service and the other elements of the government want in the new fleet of Air Force Ones. And third, look, Boeing -- whatever the price ends up being, if it is a 747, Boeing lost money on the two planes that it sold the government 29 years ago, and in all likelihood, Boeing will not make money or much money on the new fleet of three Air Force Ones that is contemplated. Boeing views this as a lost leader, this is their responsibility to serve the country.
BILL HEMMER (CO-HOST): I got you. 30,000 feet right now, I mean literally with Boeing here. I think what the company says that, “Look, we're just building the plane that the government asked us to build.” I think Trump's point is just cut it down. Look at all the cost overruns here. I remember 2009, I mean the depths of the recession we were going through, President Obama canceled a big order too for Marines helicopters, remember that?
ROVE: Sure. Yeah, yeah, look, these airplanes have a life cycle and the planes that the president will fly, that President-elect Trump will fly in, are 29 years old and the threats that have emerged in the last nearly three decades have made the survivability of the next fleet of planes to be important. But here is the point: there is no $4 billion-dollar contract. Inside the White House every statement of the president is generally staffed out. That is to say it's reviewed by all of the appropriate officials inside the White House and checked for accuracy. If this were staffed out, the first thing that would have happened is people would say, “Mr. President, there is no $4 billion contract with Boeing to build these planes, we are not anywhere near signing a contract to build three aircraft.”
[...]
HEMMER: But this is a new age, it's his way of going around the media. I mean, you can see his argument.
ROVE: Yeah and that's fine, I understand that. And that's why he's going to continue to do it. But when he does so there's one elemental thing that a president ought to keep in mind, which is the power of his words and therefore the accuracy of his words. And it's fine for President Trump to say, “I'm going to go around the media and say things directly to the American people,” and the press will be forced to cover it, and fine. But make sure those words are accurate. What he did yesterday was he destabled the stock of a major American company. Now it's not just a bunch of executives sitting in Chicago or a bunch of management types sitting in Charleston, South Carolina, or in Seattle, Washington, where they have their main facilities. That stock is held by millions of Americans, by pension funds, by university endowments, by charity endowments, by ordinary people who've invested in Boeing and he said something that was not accurate that had a negative impact on that stock.
HEMMER: I hear your point.
ROVE: Namely that there was a $4 billion dollar contract. So you got to be careful about using it. Yeah, it's a powerful tool and he's going to continue to use it. But the question is, is he going to use it with accuracy and honesty? And yesterday, he said something that was not accurate -- there's a $4 billion dollar contract and Boeing is out to rape the taxpayers -- not true.
Related:
PolitiFact: Fact-Checking Donald Trump's Tweet On Air Force One, Boeing
Previously:
Washington Post Corrects “Inaccuracies” In Trump's Air Force One Tweet
Mainstream Outlets Rush To Give Trump Credit For Vague Tweets About His Business