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Fox News tosses softballs at Karoline Leavitt - right after Press Secretary bans sister outlet Wall Street Journal over Epstein bombshell
As has largely been the case since the president filed his $10 billion lawsuit against the WSJ , its parent company News Corp and its owner Rupert Murdoch over the story, Fox News – which is also owned by Murdoch – once again ignored the White House's vendetta against the right-wing network's 94-year-old founder.
Following Trump's concerted effort to dismiss the so-called Epstein files as a Democratic 'hoax' amid a MAGA uproar over his Justice Department concluding Epstein had no 'client list,' the WSJ published a much-anticipated report on Thursday evening detailing the president's once-close relationship with the dead sex offender.
The blockbuster story claimed Trump gave Epstein a 'bawdy' card for his 50th birthday that included a hand-drawn sketch of a naked woman with Trump's signature mimicking pubic hair. The report also claimed Trump wrote Epstein a personalized message that concluded: 'Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.'
Asserting that the sexually suggestive birthday card is a 'fake thing,' Trump – likely emboldened by CBS owner Paramount settling the 'meritless' 60 Minutes complaint – threatened legal action against the WSJ and his on-again/off-again friend Murdoch before filing a libel lawsuit on Friday afternoon.
The defendants 'failed to attach the letter, failed to attach the alleged drawing, failed to show proof that President Trump authored or signed any such letter, and failed to explain how this purported letter was obtained,' the president's lawsuit alleges. 'The reason for those failures is because no authentic letter or drawing exists,' the complaint adds.
Fox News – which enjoys a symbiotic relationship with the president and has helped staff his administration – has mostly steered clear of reporting on either the WSJ's scoop or the president's subsequent defamation lawsuit against the network's founder and owner.
So far, the WSJ's story has only been mentioned on a handful of Fox News programs – one of which is the Journal Editorial Report, a show co-produced by the WSJ. Fox News media host Howie Kurtz also devoted the opening segment of Sunday morning's MediaBuzz to the lawsuit and the eye-popping report.
On Monday afternoon, the White House followed up by removing reporters from the WSJ from the pool of journalists scheduled to cover the president's upcoming four-day trip to Scotland to tour his golf courses. Tarini Parti, a White House reporter for the WSJ, had been initially slated to serve as the print pooler for the final two days of the visit.
'As the appeals court confirmed, the Wall Street Journal or any other news outlet are not guaranteed special access to cover President Trump in the Oval Office, aboard Air Force One, and in his private workspaces,' Leavitt said in a statement. 'Due to the Wall Street Journal's fake and defamatory conduct, they will not be one of the [13] outlets on board. Every news organization in the entire world wishes to cover President Trump, and the White House has taken significant steps to include as many voices as possible.'
The latest action by the White House echoes its ban of Associated Press journalists from covering Oval Office events after the wire service said it would not refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the 'Gulf of America' following Trump's executive order renaming the body of water, citing editorial standards. Shortly after Trump took office, Leavitt took control of pool rotation assignments from the White House Correspondents' Association.
Appearing on Fox News' The Story moments after confirming that she had booted the WSJ from the travel pool, Leavitt didn't have to worry about being pressed by anchor Martha MacCallum to explain the latest move against the network's sister publication.
Despite the Trump administration going on the 'warpath' against Murdoch, MacCallum instead conducted a friendly and non-adversarial chat with the White House flack over the five-minute segment.
After devoting the first part of the conversation to the recent shooting of an off-duty Customs and Border Protection officer in New York City, which featured Leavitt blaming the incident on the former Biden administration, MacCallum then brought up New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani.
'You know, Karoline, we have not heard from Mamdani – who is running for mayor in New York,' the anchor stated, wondering if Trump would endorse another candidate in the race because 'he's a New Yorker and he wants to keep the city safe.' Leavitt, meanwhile, took the opportunity to accuse Mamdani – who has quickly become a leftist boogeyman for the right – of standing for 'allowing illegal criminals and criminals of all kinds to run free.'
MacCallum, meanwhile, took the opportunity to get Leavitt's 'quick reaction' to something that is 'getting a lot of attention.' But rather than the continued fallout over the Epstein saga, the president's lawsuit and the White House's continued retribution against the WSJ, MacCallum instead wanted Leavitt to respond to Hunter Biden profanely blasting Democrats in a recent podcast appearance.
'Clearly, they've learned nothing from President Trump's overwhelming victory on November 5th,' Leavitt responded, leaning heavily on her tried-and-true talking points. 'The American people want deportations. They want secure borders. That's why we had the most successful six months of any administration!'
Adding that it was clear the younger Biden 'wanted to tear down anybody' who veers to the middle on immigration, MacCallum thanked Leavitt for her time before letting viewers know that she would be covering more about Hunter Biden's recent comments later in the program.
It would appear the message is clear to Trump world – Fox News isn't going to defend their colleagues at the WSJ or even stand up for their boss right now. Instead, they will just avoid this entire story while focusing energy on the distractions the president prefers they cover – such as Tulsi Gabbard's reigniting MAGA's long-standing obsession with jailing Barack Obama over the Trump-Russia probe, which the administration served up to Fox as an exclusive.
In the end, Trump-boosting Fox News host Mark Levin perhaps said it best this past weekend. 'We can't waste our time on Epstein, and other stuff that are going on here that some people want us to focus on,' Levin exclaimed.
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