During an August 22 appearance on Fox & Friends, Fox contributor Tomi Lahren asserted that she has “never seen a first lady be attacked like” Melania Trump and asked, “Can you imagine if we would sit here on Fox News and attack Michelle Obama for something that she was trying to do to better the country?” Lahren’s comment came in response to criticism of the first lady, whose campaign against cyberbullying stands in laughable contrast to her husband’s frequent online screeds and insults.  

From the August 22 edition of Fox News’ Fox & Friends:

TOMI LAHREN (FOX CONTRIBUTOR): How could someone be so disgusting and so vile to tweet this about our first lady, who is advocating for anti-bullying? I have never seen a first lady be attacked like this, like Melania Trump has, for the good works and the good deeds that she’s done. Can you imagine if we would sit here on Fox News and attack Michelle Obama for something that she was trying to do to better the country? We’d be attacked for it up and down. But because it’s Melania, because her last name is Trump, people like Ana Navarro think it’s OK, that they’re entitled to do that.

In fact, Fox, and right-wing media in general, spent a decade obsessively ridiculing Obama, and their attacks on the former first lady continue even now. Right-wing personalities, including those on Fox, targeted Obama with an endless stream of racist and sexist jabs. They attacked her appearance, her clothing choices, and her accomplishments, often going to absurd lengths to find something new to mock. A particular source of outrage among right-wing media was Obama’s campaign against childhood obesity. Fox’s Sean Hannity derided the initiative as “taking the nanny state to a new level,” and the network reported that the first lady was “target[ing] freedom fries.”

Given Fox’s decade of insults, Lahren’s contention that it would be unimaginable for the network to attack Michelle Obama for “something that she was trying to do to better the country,” is clearly absurd. She isn’t the first Fox personality to attempt to re-write history, however. In 2017, Sean Hannity similarly claimed that “nobody picked” on Michelle Obama, even though he personally targeted her for years.

One of the few times that Fox & Friends liked Michelle Obama's words was when Melania Trump said them.