Even though he was told not to by his national security team, Donald Trump simply couldn’t resist calling Russian President Vladimir Putin to congratulate him for winning re-election in a completely undemocratic vote.
After members of his own party began criticizing him for the call to his boyfriend Vlad, Trump tried to defend his actions with a tweet he fired off Wednesday afternoon:
I called President Putin of Russia to congratulate him on his election victory (in past, Obama called him also). The Fake News Media is crazed because they wanted me to excoriate him. They are wrong! Getting along with Russia (and others) is a good thing, not a bad thing…….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 21, 2018
And now we have the prime purveyors of fake news, Fox, once again defending Trump and trying to shift the debate to his predecessor, Barack Obama.
On Trump’s favorite TV show, Fox & Friends, co-host Brian Kilmeade declared:
“The thing about the president he actually is a significantly tougher than the other prior president on Russia. Look, he he has armed the Ukrainians and hit the oligarch list, he went along with sanctions. Three days ago he condemned them for the poison attacks in Britain. Look at his actions, not past his words. Hopefully there is a grand plan.”
Oh, there’s a grand plan, all right: And it goes by the name “Putin is Trump’s daddy.”
Fellow brain-dead co-host Steve Doocy then began trying to spin Trump’s call as no worse than what former President Obama had done:
“He did exactly the same thing. He also, if the mainstream media is going to call President Trump and say, ‘Hey, I can’t believe you picked up the phone to say, congratulations you won.’ Look at the things that the president of the United States by the name of Barack Obama did in 2012 — he congratulated him.”
As if that wasn’t more than enough bullshit for one segment, Ainsley Earhardt then went for the Trump Trifecta and played the Muslim card:
“[Obama] congratulated also the Islamic Brotherhood candidate when he won Egypt’s presidential election in 2012. He broke three decades of precedent in 2013 when he congratulated the winner of the Iranian presidential election, and then congratulated Turkey’s President Erdogan in 2014 — the guy who said there is no such thing as moderate Islam.”
Would that be the same President Erdogan that Donald Trump has heaped praise upon? In September of last year, Trump stood next to Erdogan at the United Nations and said:
“We have a great friendship, as countries and I think we’re right now as close as we’ve ever been.
“[Erdogan is] running a very difficult part of the world. He has evolved very strongly, and frankly he’s getting very high marks.”
When in doubt, always blame Obama. It’s all Fox (and Trump) ever do unless they also happen to mention Hillary.