On Fox News, Richard Fowler destroyed Mollie Hemingway's suggestion that Sen. Chris Murphy violated the Logan Act
Fowler: “Republican Senators and Democratic Senators and Democratic members of the House engage with foreign leaders all the time”
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From the February 18, 2020, edition of Fox News at Night
MIKE EMANUEL (GUEST ANCHOR): Mollie, congrats on the scoop. What more do you want to highlight from your reporting?
MOLLIE HEMINGWAY (FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR): Thank you. What I do think is interesting is what Chris Murphy said himself years ago, about such rogue foreign policy-type meetings. When Mike Flynn met with his counterpart, his Russian counterpart -- or had a phone call with his Russian counterpart, Chris Murphy said that was illegal possibly and definitely needed to be investigated. He supported that Logan Act use, remember the Sally Yates at the Department of Justice, James Comey, believed that the Logan Act was a reason to target Mike Flynn. So while it's true that it's rarely used, it was famously used against Trump affiliates to really gin up that entire Russia collusion hoax. But now Chris Murphy seems to have a different view when it comes to his own coordination with the Iranian foreign minister.
EMANUEL: Interesting. Richard, how would a President Sanders, Buttigieg, or a Biden react if it were Republican Senators engaging in these kind of meetings?
RICHARD FOWLER (FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR): Republican Senators and Democratic Senators and Democratic members of the House engage with foreign leaders all the time. I remember a couple of years ago, when there was sort of a beef going on with Bibi Netanyahu where John Boehner, the Speaker of the House, invited Bibi Netanyahu to address the House of Representatives. This happens all the time. What makes it different what Michael Flynn did versus what happened with Chris Murphy is that Michael Flynn was speaking on behalf of another administration, right, of the incoming administration. That's what made it different. That's the delineation here. But we see this all the time; they're called CODELs, right, congressional delegations to foreign nations. John McCain was famous for going on them, Lindsey Graham is famous for going on them, Nancy Pelosi is famous for going on them, where Congressional leaders go across the world and they have conversations with foreign leaders so they can do their jobs better. I see nothing wrong with this, and I think in his Medium post, the Senator is very clear, saying, I cannot conduct U.S. foreign policy, but I can definitely go and talk to individuals to get a better grasp of the situation because I'm a member of the Foreign Relations Committee and I have to legislate on these matters.
HEMINGWAY: Again, just one other thing to add about this, that Medium post had some transparency to it, but it didn't mention who else was involved in the meeting. And it is reported that former Sen. John Kerry, former Secretary of State was also participating in these meetings. He, of course, would not have that Senate cover that we're talking about here. And again, Chris Murphy did not appreciate it when Republicans wrote an open letter to Iranian leaders at the time that President Obama was trying to negotiate his --
FOWLER: Mollie, but not appreciating it and it being illegal are two different things.
HEMINGWAY: You know what? Your beef is with Chris Murphy here, who seems to have a different view of these things depending on whether he's doing it or whether his political opponents are doing it.