Trump's most trusted news source, Fox and Friends, attacked multiple reports on Jared Kushner's attempt to set up secret meetings with Russia and then turned around and used one anonymous source to defend Kushner's actions and dispute the story.
And Trump retweeted it, so bonuses for Doocy and Co.
A persistent theme coming from Fox News' morning program is that you can't trust anonymous sources unless they unmask themselves. That is unless Fox News needs that anonymous source to defend a Republican.
After the Jared Kushner/secret Russian meeting story broke on the Washington Post, the White House was mum on it until they sent surrogates on TV Sunday morning to defend Kushner's actions - which implicitly confirms the WaPo story.
Then on Memorial Day, a Fox News report came out citing one source, (Sean Spicer?) that denounced the accuracy of the WaPo story.
So, like you, I was interested to see how Trump's BFF's would defend Trump.
As you might expect, it didn't disappoint.
Co-host Ainsley Earhardt set the table: "The mainstream media has been in a feeding frenzy over Jared Kushner's alleged back-channeling with Russia."
Co-host Brian Kilmeade chimed in on cue, "But now, a source tells Fox News they got it all wrong."
Pete Hegseth then kicked it back to Kristin Fisher.
Fisher opened up by saying, "Hey, guys. Good morning. Well a couple of new things over the last 24 hours. First, a source close to the matter is saying that it was the Russians who first proposed the idea of a secret communications channel with the Kremlin, not Kushner, and that it was only discussed to be used for a single call about Syria, and not as a permanent back channel, as some other reports have alleged."
Oh, it was the Russians. Of course.
And they wanted to set up this super secret back channel for only one phone call to discuss Syria?
Riiight.
And I have the Empire State Building to sell you.
Fisher then outlined the story, including Trump and Sec. Kelly's support of Kusher, as well as Sen. John McCain and Rep. Adam Schiff's disapproval.
Kilmeade then admitted that there was contact with the Russians and Kushner before they took office and said, "So there was contact, and the Russians did want a back channel contact and that's why he responded. A lot different than, "Hey, I have an idea. Meet you in the embassy. Let's make private phone calls from there before my father-in-law gets in office."
F&F really loves their one source.
Ainsley Earhardt was mad at the MSM, "...the mainstream media is making this such a big deal when we don't even know the details."
Umm, I think we do, Ainsley.
Even though the Post and Times have been correct on their huge breaking stories about the Trump administration, Fox and Friends has to try and turn them into fake news outlets.
It was Hegseth's turn to do just that.
He said, "Well yeah. You want to turn to the The Washington Post and the failing New York Times and say can I have my edition back? Can I have my news back? Because I'm having to read about this every single day. Headline today is "inquiries turn on why Kushner met a Putin ally."
"They want that headline, Kushner, Putin. That's where you get this idea of fake news from. What are you emphasizing? Why are you emphasizing this? Abby Huntsman was on this weekend with me on this couch and she made a great point. She said it almost feels like there's very little difference between the National Enquirer and The Washington Post these days. There's no sourcing. It's all innuendo. It's all rumor."
I believe he meant to say there's little difference between Fox and Friends, Sean Hannity and the National Enquirer.
Kilmeade replied, "Well they say three unnamed sources. Reuters started with a story."
Is it any wonder that Fox News' ratings have fallen into the toilet?