President Donald Trump sent out a tweet Tuesday morning describing the House impeachment investigation against him as a “lynching.”
On the front page of FoxNews.com, the top headline read: “Trump Lashes Out — Angry president invokes loaded language to blast Democrat-controlled impeachment process,” positioning the tweet as part of Trump’s political fight against Democrats and trivializing real atrocities against marginalized people in U.S. history.
The article itself carried a more direct headline: “Trump calls impeachment inquiry 'lynching,' claims process puts future presidents at risk.”
But Fox News sidestepped the historical significance of Trump’s comment itself, saying it was specifically evocative of something that wasn’t an actual lynching: “The language recalled the famous charge by now-Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who is black, that his 1991 confirmation process was akin to a ‘high-tech lynching,’ as he denied allegations at the time of sexual harassment against Anita Hill.”
The article noted that “Trump was swiftly condemned by Democrats for using such racially charged language on Tuesday,” citing tweets by political figures such as Rep. Bobby Rush (D-IL) and Democratic presidential candidate Julián Castro.
