This Fox Host Thinks People Should Distrust Obama On Ebola Because Of Benghazi
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Fox News host Mike Huckabee is claiming the American public should distrust statements made by President Obama and the federal government about the spread of Ebola because they have purportedly lied about the September 11, 2012, attacks in Benghazi, Libya.
During the October 4 broadcast of Huckabee, the former Arkansas Republican governor and potential 2016 presidential candidate said that “the Ebola scare goes to the heart of a simple question: do you trust the government. Audience, do you trust the government?” After Huckabee's audience responded no, Huckabee replied: “And why would you? I mean remember these?” He then played clips of Obama talking about health care, the IRS, and then-U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice's Sunday show comments about Benghazi. Huckabee contrasted the remarks with Obama's September 16 statement it was unlikely someone with Ebola would reach America but “we've taken new measures so that we're prepared here at home.”
Huckabee concluded his Fox commentary by claiming he's “feeling a little sick myself. But it's not Ebola. I'm just sick of a government that I'm paying for telling me not to worry and just trust them. I wish I could, but if they repeatedly lie to me I just don't believe them anymore.”
Huckabee made similar remarks during his Huckabee Report radio commentary this morning. He said that “if people don't trust our leaders, the people aren't to blame. We were told we could keep our doctors and insurance and pay $2,500 less. That Benghazi was caused by a YouTube video ... trust is something you gotta earn and once squandered, it's hard to get back.”
The October 6 Cumulus Media Networks segment:
Fox News has been obsessed with Benghazi, as the network aired over 1,000 weekday evening segments in the first 20 months after the attacks. The Fox obsession has caused its personalities to repeatedly link Benghazi to unrelated matters like the NFL's domestic violence problems, a White House security breach, and missing Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370, among others.
The conservative media have also rushed to politicize the presence of the Ebola virus in the United States with attacks on Obama.
UPDATE: Another Fox host has pointed to Benghazi as a reason to be distrustful of the government's handling of Ebola. During the October 6 edition of The Real Story with Gretchen Carlson, Carlson wondered if we can “trust the government to keep us all safe from Ebola” when its “track record” includes Benghazi:
CARLSON: Time now for my take. So, should we trust the government to keep us all safe from Ebola? With the government's recent track record not being so hot, well, we learned we couldn't trust the IRS, after the targeting of conservative groups. The Secret Service, after an armed man made his way into the White House. The VA, after reports men and women who served this country died waiting to get health care. We couldn't trust the promise that Obamacare that we could keep our doctors that we wanted. And do we trust that we know all the answers yet about Benghazi? What more and more people seem to be asking about Ebola now isn't that they're necessarily scared about actually getting the disease, but that they're scared the government agencies responsible with helping us if we do get sick might not be up to the task. So if Ebola becomes a bigger issue the question still remains, will we be safe?