Fox & Friends Sunday ​defends Trump's ​use​ of the​ Florida ​school ​shooting to attack the FBI​'s Russia investigation

Rachel Campos Duffy: “You have the leadership of the FBI distracted, trying to go follow this trail of Russia collusion​.​​ ... This is why the president's frustrated. We've wasted a year on this.​​”​

From the February 18 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends Sunday:

Video file

TODD PIRO (CO-HOST): The president tweeting on some major issues, obviously the shooting in Florida, but also the information that came out from Rod Rosenstein and the Justice Department on the Russia case. Let's go to Florida first, and he tweeted, "Very sad that the FBI missed all of the many signals sent out by the Florida school shooter. This is not acceptable. They are spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign - there is no collusion. Get back to the basics and make us all proud. And, again, President Trump has this uncanny way of saying exactly what the American people are thinking. We have a situation where the top levels of the FBI have been distracted for a number of months, maybe even a number of years. I'm not going to make the exact connection because there is a lot of layers involved. But, the fact of the matter is, the FBI missed a lot of signs that could have saved 17 lives.

RACHEL CAMPOS-DUFFY (CO-HOST): Right. Leadership matters. You have the leadership of the FBI distracted, trying to go follow this trail of Russia collusion which, by the way, the indictment now says no Russia collusion. This is why the president's frustrated. We've wasted a year on this. And a lot of people are at home going, “why is the lead investigator at the FBI texting with his girlfriend about how to get an insurance policy to disrupt the election of a duly-elected president when we have clear problems in the systems of the FBI?” We had a clear, credible tip to the FBI from somebody who knew [the Parkland shooter] and it was not passed on and, boy, there were tragic, tragic reactions. If yo're a parent, you and I are both parents, can you imagine how angry you are about that?

GRIFF JENKINS (CO-HOST): Well, multiple tips missed. Todd has a good point, the president's uncanny ability to talk about what the Americans care about. This tweet basically points to an agency in crisis. The FBI -- and every American's thinking, the FBI -- whether it's missing tips that could have saved lives or whether it is a political bias at the highest level of leadership within the organization meddling in our election, if you will, if you look at Agent [Peter] Strzok and [Lisa] Page -- the [unintelligible] I've covered a lot during the week, at the end of the day, a lot of Americans trust in law enforcement and the FBI in their ability to do their fundamental job of protecting us has been eroded, and the president's pointing to it's time to begin to get that back. 

Previously:

Fox & Friends blames prescription drugs, virtual reality, and the “human condition” for the Florida school shooting

Right-wing media figures are blaming everything but guns for the Parkland shooting

Student survivors of Florida school shooting call out NRA and legislators pushing more guns in schools