Fox & Friends Criticize Obama For Doing Too Little On The Islamic State While Saying He's Asking For Too Much

Written by Olivia Marshall

Published

Fox & Friends took issue with President Obama's $5 billion counterterrorism fund request to Congress to fight the Islamic State while almost simultaneously criticizing Obama for doing too little to address the threat.

On the September 9 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends, co-hosts Steve Doocy, Anna Kooiman, and Brian Kilmeade discussed President Obama's push for Congress to approve a $5 billion fund he proposed in May as part of a strategy to fight the Islamic State. According to The Hill, the fund “would bolster efforts against ISIS” and “could be expanded to help fund U.S. bombing against ISIS targets”:

The United States has launched more than 140 airstrikes against ISIS in Iraq, and it's possible Obama will announce strikes against the group in Syria on Wednesday.

When the administration first requested the $5 billion fund earlier this summer, it asked for $2.5 billion to train and equip international partners and $1.5 billion for Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq to help with the influx of refugees fleeing the civil war in Syria. While both amounts would bolster efforts against ISIS, they would not cover additional U.S. military strikes.

The request also included $500 million “to address unforeseen contingencies related to counterterrorism or regional instability,” the White House says, and that amount could be expanded to help fund U.S. bombing against ISIS targets in Iraq or Syria.

During the discussion, Doocy claimed that “When you hear the president talk, he still kind of minimizes the threat.” The segment ran a clip of Brit Hume accusing Obama of downplaying the Islamic State threat, and Kilmeade criticized the president of not being “definitive” enough:

Later in the program, Kilmeade complained that the fund is “an exorbitant number that nobody agrees on.” The segment's chyron read “Blank Check?” and Doocy highlighted criticisms from lawmakers calling the fund “way too much money” and a “slush fund.”

But despite their criticisms of Obama for asking for too much, the hosts continued accusing the president of not doing enough to address the Islamic State. Kooiman suggested Obama is “trying to downplay the threat of ISIS so that somebody else will possibly do something about it so it's not the president's problem”:

Fox & Friends has repeatedly claimed Obama is not doing enough to act on the Islamic State despite numerous actions taken by the administration, including its request for a counterterrorism fund and air strikes.