80’s sitcom star Scott Baio – and Fox Business’ latest terrorism “expert” - took Donald Trump’s “Obama's a secret Muslim” dog whistle one step further by announcing outright that President Obama is either a Muslim or "a Muslim sympathizer." On top of that, Baio "just asked" if Obama's end game is to "totally eliminate the United States as it was created and founded and the way it is now."

Baio joins “Joe The Plumber” as a voice of terror-fighting authority on the “business” network. Like Joe, Baio’s only credential seems to be his endorsement of Trump.

Now that Obama has already explained why he does not use the phrase “radical Islam,” FBN began complaining Obama won’t use the term “Islamic terror.”

Guest host Ashley Webster set up the “secret Muslim” narrative. First, he asked, “Here’s the question: Is President Obama reluctant to use the term ‘Islamic Terror’? Listen to these sound bites and you decide.” Then he played a montage of Obama clips designed to portray him as suspiciously fond of Muslims:

• 2009 in Turkey: The United States is not and will never be at war with Islam.
• 2009 in Cairo: and I’m also proud to carry with me the goodwill of the American people and a greeting of peace from Muslim communities in my country: As-salamu alaykum.
• Islam is not part of the problem in combatting violent extremism. It is an important part of promoting peace.
• 2010 in DC: Our enemies respect no religious freedom. Al-Qaeda’s cause is not Islam. It’s a gross distortion of Islam.
• 2012 at the UN: The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam.
• 2014 in DC: ISIL is not Islamic. No religion condones the killing of innocents and the vast majority of ISIL’s victims have been Muslim.
• 2015 at the UN: We have reaffirmed again and again that the United States is not and never will be at war with Islam. Islam teaches peace.

After introducing Baio – and playing him up as a Hollywood victim for supporting Trump, Webster prodded Baio to start attacking Obama. [Note: the host’s name is Ashley Webster but Baio repeatedly called him “Lester.”]

WEBSTER: We just rolled those series of sound bites, would you agree that it appears the president very reluctant to say Islamic Terror? Would you agree?

BAIO: Very reluctant? He’s absolutely reluctant. I can’t tell, Lester, if he’s dumb, he’s a Muslim or he’s a Muslim sympathizer and I don’t think he’s dumb.

Instead of challenging Baio’s bigoted attack, Webster, of course, prodded for more. “So why? Why is this? What’s the reason behind it?”

BAIO: I have no idea. Like I said, either he’s a sympathizer, a Muslim sympathizer or he’s a Muslim. To allow this to keep happening. Listen, these Muslim terrorists, radical Islamic terrorists, are saying they’re gonna kill us. They're saying they're gonna kill us and then they kill us and it’s still not enough for this president and Hillary Clinton to get serious about it and do something about it.

Then came Baio’s Trump fawning: “Donald Trump is the only guy, Lester, that wants to handle it and tackle it head on.”

Baio went on to speculate about Obama's and Clinton's “end game." "Is it to totally eliminate the United States as it was created and founded and the way it is now?" Baio theorized.

Webster offered no push back on that outrageousness but he did challenge the “all Muslims are terrorists” insinuation.

WEBSTER: They [Trump opponents] say that you cannot call an entire religion terrorists because it’s only a small faction who don't truly belong to that religion.

BAIO: Who’s saying that? This guy in Orlando called up and said he was with ISIS, praising Allahu Akbar. What is that? And the president says,“Well, the Christians have done this." When? When did Christians go out yelling, "Jesus Christ" and start killing people? When does that happen? Are we at war with a whole religion? No. But we’re at war with a faction of that religion that wants to decapitate us and kill us.

Ever since the Orlando terror attack, Fox has been echoing Trump’s attacks on Obama as overly sympathetic to Muslims or worse. This “Risk & Reward” show bills itself as a vehicle for viewers to find “new ways to make money and better ways to keep it.” But as you can see from the guest lineup, the show was little more than a Trump infomercial.

Besides the two identified on screen as Trump supporters (and Baio), so is Steve Moore, Ari Fleischer and Brigitte Gabriel. David Webb appears to be. So do Tucker Carlson and Kristin Tate. Emily Compagno has appeared on Fox as a Hillary-Clinton attacker. That left Jessica Tarlov as the lone Democrat out of 10 guests.

Watch Baio in his latest role as a national security expert above, from the June 15 Risk & Reward with Deirdre Bolton.

UPDATE: President Obama went to Orlando today to comfort the victims. That's hardly the behavior of someone who sympathizes with the terrorists.

Crossposted at News Hounds.
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