CNN and MSNBC fact-checked Trump's complaints about his guilty verdicts. Fox News repeated them.

Steve Bannon pushed for Congressional Republicans to intervene on Trump's behalf

Written by John Whitehouse & Lis Power

Published

On May 31, convicted former President Donald Trump spoke to the press the morning after a jury found him guilty on all 34 felony counts in his New York trial relating to falsified records covering up his 2016 hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels. CNN and MSNBC covered the speech for a while before cutting to fact-check some of Trump's claims. By contrast, Fox News had chief political anchor Bret Baier repeat some of Trump's claims. MAGA figure Steve Bannon pushed for Congressional Republicans to intervene on Trump's behalf

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  • CNN reporter fact-checks the remarks by the convicted former president

    CNN cut away to anchors Wolf Blitzer and Erin Burnett opining on Trump's remarks briefly, before senior reporter Daniel Dale fact-checked some of the convicted former president's claims.

    From the May 31, 2024, edition of CNN Newsroom with Wolf Blitzer

    DANIEL DALE (REPORTER): A whole bunch of lies here, Wolf. So he repeated the one I think he's repeated most frequently throughout the course of the trial, and now after, saying this was all done by Biden and his people, the case was in conjunction with a White House and DOJ. Not a shred of evidence of that. This case was brought by a locally elected, yes, Democratic prosecutor. No evidence whatsoever of any communication with Joe Biden or his aides about it. He also repeated his claim from earlier this week that he said the judge wouldn't let them use an election expert under any circumstances, the judge knocked him out. Now, he did sort of clarify this after but here's the real clarification: the judge did not bar the testimony of this expert, Brad Smith, Trump's defense was permitted to call him, but didn't. The judge did limit the scope of the testimony, saying he couldn't opine on whether Trump broke the law or not, couldn't analyze federal election law, but did not say the expert cannot be used.

  • On MSNBC, Tim Miller calls out MAGA's “foundational lie” about D.A. Alvin Bragg and Joe Biden

    MSNBC also cut away after a while to fact-check the convicted former president. Panelist Tim Miller made a point to underline the “foundational lie” that Trump and his MAGA media allies are spreading about Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and President Joe Biden.

    From the May 31, 2024, edition of MSNBC's José Díaz-Balart Reports

    TIM MILLER (GUEST): Look, I mean, he also is pretty incoherent, let us just say. I mean, he's rambling. Then what would be the point of this? You want to summarize this speech? It'd be pretty hard to do at this point.

    Imagine another politician going out there and, like, talking for 5 or 6 minutes about the friend of theirs and their financial crimes and how it was unfair. I mean, if Joe Biden did that, I think people would be like, we might be talking about the 25th Amendment right now, you know, just because that's not what a politician does. Just rambles about other cases. So I think that that presentation part is notable.

    I also think we should just focus on the one lie. You fact-checked a bunch of lies, but the one about how the DOJ and Biden was colluding with Bragg to do this. Because that is the foundational lie that now is being advanced, not just by Trump, but by everybody. And I saw Congresswoman Nancy Mace who's supposedly one of the more moderate congressmen —

    ...

    MILLER: She was out there saying that this is like Putin and Navalny. Like, Putin had Navalny killed. You know, Putin had with Navalny put into jail in Siberia, and she's comparing Trump's treatment to that. And so the Republicans writ large are pretending like this is some, you know, orchestrated thing by Biden, which is a total lie, totally false, and it's not just Trump that's doing it.

  • Fox News stays through the speech, just repeats Trump's claims

    Fox News stayed through Trump's speech and then anchors Harris Faulkner and Bret Baier repeated many of Trump's claims regarding the convictions, though the two did note that they had expected Trump to take questions and he had not.

    From the May 31, 2024, edition of Fox News' The Faulkner Focus

    BRET BAIER (CHIEF POLITICAL ANCHOR): As you said, he went into detail about that case and how he believed it was rigged, and the scam calling it an unconstitutional gag order, saying the judge — at one point calling him a tyrant and making decisions that put his finger on the scale.

    During Trump's speech, Fox News chyrons also amplified Trump's disputed claims.

    Fox News chyron Trump: I would have loved to testify

    Fox News

    Fox News chyron Trump: I am under a nasty gag order

    Fox News

     
    Fox News chyron Trump: We were not allowed to call election expert

    Fox News

     
    Fox News chyron Trump: It was a rigged trial

    Fox News

     

  • Steve Bannon rants about Trump's campaign and calls for Republicans in Congress to intervene

    Meanwhile, leading MAGA voice Steve Bannon jumped off Trump's rally by ranting about the state of Trump's campaign and urging Congressional Republicans to intervene on Trump's behalf.

    From the May 31, 2024, edition of Real America's Voice's War Room

    STEVE BANNON (HOST): You shouldn't just be picking people you know and come from other states. People from those states running those states. This is paint by numbers. We need urgency, urgency, urgency, urgency, urgency. There's time — there's no — we're burning daylight, to quote Jack London.

    In addition, we must go on offense. Jim Jordan, it's not enough to compete you know, to put out a little tweet. I'm demanding this. No. Where are the subpoenas? Where's the vote? Mike Johnson, why are you not calling him back this weekend? Where's the vote on Merrick Garland? If you don't have the guts and you don't have the stones to have the votes, let's have the conversation. Let's see who the people are.

    ...

    Yes. I understand. You raised tremendous amount of money on small donors and that's fine. But there's something more important than that and that is engagement and that is human engagement. Something that money can't buy and that the left doesn't have.