Fox’s Kilmeade: CNN “went unhinged" after Trump tweeted an anti-CNN video
Fox correspondent Geraldo Rivera: CNN has “this unremitting hostility to Donald Trump” and has “got to get past” the “spite thing happening here"
Written by Media Matters Staff
Published
From the July 7 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends:
BRIAN KILMEADE (CO-HOST): Not even 24 hours into his foreign trip, President Trump already hit with a fake controversy. Journalists posting this video of what looks like the Polish first lady refusing to shake the hand of the president. The problem --
STEVE DOOCY (CO-HOST): That’s what it looks like from that little clip, but when you actually play the video out, you see that they do shake hands just a couple seconds after the first lady's. So why does the media continue to make stuff up in some cases?
[…]
EARHARDT: Geraldo, if you watch the video though, this -- Brian is the president, and I am Melania -- we’re are making eye contact, and so then they shake hands. And then the president -- then she turns to the president and shakes hands. It’s not like she looked at the president, said, “No, no, no, no, no,” and then shook hands with Melania.
GERALDO RIVERA: Speaking only for myself, and I know that this is very retro, but if I made eye contact with Melania, I definitely would not see President Trump. That is the fact. I mean, Agata is the name -- the first name -- of the first lady of Poland. President Duda, President and Mrs. Duda. It is very clear that she does not have Doland Trump in her line of sight. She is focused on Melania - and for good reason. And then she sees the president, and then does the right thing. But what is interesting, you know, this is like when you have a real enemy, and what you do is you exalt, you thrill in every, every bad thing that happens to your enemy. He could have toilet paper on his shoe coming out of men's room or his fly open or something on his face, and that would become like a news segment. That’s a story, “Oh look at him, he has dandruff.” I mean, there is just so much inbred hatred of this man in people who should be objective. When -- Chris Cillizza is his name -- a pretty good political analyst over at CNN, when he saw that video, he tweeted in a way that was as if he had won the lottery, “Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god,” -- like all in caps. It was the whole 140 characters. And I just thought to myself, even if it had been a snub, I mean, at least analyze it, not with this boyish glee that clearly shows that you have an agenda, and your agenda is to denigrate, demean, to insult, to shrink the president of the United States. I think that is really unfortunate.
KILMEADE: It’s the whole network though. That whole network that went unhinged after the wrestling video.
RIVERA: I can no longer disagree with that assessment. CNN, in my regard, has always has been trying to do things right down the middle, with MSNBC and Fox on either flank. It does not appear to be that to me anymore. Just seems that they have this unremitting hostility to Donald Trump. This is a man who can do no good in the eyes of that network. I think it is very unfortunate. They have got to get past it. There is a kind of a spite thing happening here, it is too much of a gotcha [inaudible].
KILMEADE: You know what, the thing is, they’re not getting him. They’re getting themselves.
Previously:
Fox & Friends Sunday praises Trump’s tweet showing him “body-slamming” CNN
Fox host: Trump tweeting anti-CNN GIF shows he's “the kind of guy” to take on North Korea and Putin
At a press conference in Poland, Trump complains that CNN and NBC are not nice enough to him