Former Fox News host calls out the network's double standard on the deficit

Alisyn Camerota: “I will never forget the drumbeat that Fox News pounded every single day, where people's hair was on fire about the deficit” 

Written by Media Matters Staff

Published

During President Barack Obama's administration, Fox News and right-wing media consistently pushed misleading hysteria about the deficit. As the deficit has continued to rise during the Trump administration, that concern has been revealed as meaningless noise. Conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh even admitted that for conservatives, “all this talk about concern for the deficit and the budget has been bogus.” Recently, Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade called on “the next president” to cut federal spending.  

From the July 23 edition of CNN's New Day:

JOHN AVLON (SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST): [Donald Trump] is now Deficit Don. He does not -- Republicans are just making it clear that this has all been a con, that deficits only matter when a Democrat's in the White House. They are increasing spending dramatically by $300 billion, not taking it down, and the tax cuts have added dramatically to the debt, around 1.5 trillion in his first two years alone. So what you've got is, in a time of a massive economic expansion, deficits and debt increasing. That's a dangerous combo, people, and we're going to pay the piper down the road. 

ALISYN CAMEROTA (CO-ANCHOR): If it's all been a con, Daniel, I want those eight years back of the Obama administration because I will never forget the drumbeat that Fox News pounded every single day, where people's hair was on fire about the deficit and about Democrats' profligate spending, and between Roger Ailes and Sean Hannity and everybody who would talk about how we are bankrupting our children, and where were -- listen, a bipartisan deal is great, of course we can celebrate that. The reason there was a bipartisan deal is because Republicans have given up talking about the deficit and things like that.