Fox News highlighted a Republican senator's dismissal of a deal with Iran that stalls the country's nuclear enrichment capabilities to frame the agreement as nothing but a distraction from problems with the Affordable Care Act.
As The Washington Post reported, Iran and six major countries reached a “historic deal that freezes key parts of Iran's nuclear program in exchange for temporary relief on some economic sanctions.” Conservative media have already compared the negotiations with Iran to British appeasement of Nazi aggression in the 1930s. Now, after Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) tweeted in reaction to the deal's announcement "[a]mazing what WH will do to distract attention from O-care," Fox News is promoting Cornyn's take.
On Fox News' Fox & Friends First, co-host Heather Childers said “the nuke deal has dominated political talk, which means focus has shifted away from Obamacare. This now sparking many to believe that it is yet another attempt to distract from the disastrous rollout and the looming deadline to get the site up and running at full speed.” Reporter Peter Doocy highlighted Cornyn's tweet, saying he “looks at the whole announcement very suspiciously.”
Later on Fox & Friends, co-host Steve Doocy also parroted the argument during an interview with White House deputy national security advisor Tony Blinken, saying that “some” were critical of the proposal and had suggested that the White House was “trying to change the subject,” and shift the conversation away from health care. From Fox & Friends (emphasis added):
DOOCY: Right, Tony, some people are skeptical, a little critical. They're going, why now? Oh, maybe because so they're trying to change the subject, Obamacare not working out. President's approval at 38 percent. What do you say?
BLINKEN: Well, I don't do health care, but I think we can probably figure out a way to insure tens of millions of Americans and prevent Iran from getting the bomb at the same time. The fact of the matter is, this was growing urgent. Iran was advancing down all three lines of activity. We wanted to stop that. We wanted to stop the program, and we wanted to see if we could get a comprehensive deal that resolves this once and for all. That's exactly what we now have the opportunity to do.
Such a claim ignores the facts behind the deal. As the Los Angeles Times reported, Obama promised years ago to engage with Iran about its nuclear program, and months of meetings were conducted to pave the way for the deal, beginning in March -- well before HealthCare.gov launched on October 1. And the deal with Iran is not the first action by the administration or Congress that Fox has called a distraction from Obamacare.
About a month ago, Fox hosts and correspondents also followed a Republican's lead to claim that an immigration speech by the president was intended to distract from the rollout of the health care reform law. After Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus suggested on Twitter that the president was trying to distract from the Obamacare rollout, Fox Business' Lou Dobbs said that the speech was a “diversionary tactic[].” White House correspondent Ed Henry said that the immigration speech was an attempt at “some counter-programming” over growing criticism of the problems with HealthCare.gov. Steve Doocy said Obama “was trying desperately to change the subject” from the HealthCare.gov rollout.
And just a few days ago, Fox echoed Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell who said that filibuster reform was an attempt to “change the subject” away from Obamacare. The next morning, Doocy said filibuster reform appears to be “a distraction from the Affordable Care Act debacle,” and co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck agreed that it's a distraction.