Fox Hires David Bossie As A Fox News Contributor

Fox Hires Bossie As A Fox News Contributor. Politico reported on February 28 that Fox News has hired Citizens United President David Bossie as a contributor. According to the report, “He will offer political analysis across Fox News and Fox Business Network's daytime and primetime programming effective immediately.” From Politico:

Fox News Channel has signed Citizens United president and President Donald Trump's former deputy campaign manager David Bossie as a contributor. He will offer political analysis across Fox News and Fox Business Network's daytime and primetime programming effective immediately. [Politico, 2/28/17]

Bossie Made His Career Out Of “Filthy Campaign Tactics” And Smears

Since 2000, Bossie Has Been The President Of Citizens United, Which Spurred An Infamous Supreme Court Case That Allowed Nearly Unlimited Election Campaign Spending. A film created by Citizens United spurred the Supreme Court case Citizens United v. FEC, which led to a 5-4 decision that “opened the campaign spending floodgates” and allowed corporations and unions to “spend unlimited amounts of money on political activities, as long as it was done independently of a party or candidate,” according to U.S. News & World Report. The decision also resulted in corporate legal protections that allow “dark money” spent on political activities to remain undisclosed. [The Washington Post, 1/22/10; U.S. News & World Report, 1/21/15]

In 1998, Bossie Was Forced To Resign From Role As Top Investigator On House Government And Reform Committee For Allegedly Releasing Selectively Edited Transcripts. Bossie resigned from his position as top investigator on the House Government and Reform Committee for his alleged role in releasing selectively edited transcripts and video of prison conversations by Clinton confidant Webster Hubbell. The transcripts and video, whose editing was overseen by Bossie, removed exculpatory statements from Hubbell that downplayed alleged wrongdoing by Hillary Clinton at their former law firm. Then-Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich responded to Bossie’s actions by telling then-House Government and Oversight Committee chair Dan Burton, “I'm embarrassed for you, I'm embarrassed for myself, and I'm embarrassed for the conference at the circus that went on at your committee.” [Media Matters, 6/10/14]

George H.W. Bush Condemned Bossie For “Filthy Campaign Tactics” Used During The 1992 Presidential Campaign. In a 2004 Salon piece written by Eric Boehlert, then-President George H.W. Bush condemned Bossie and Citizens United for what he called “filthy campaign tactics” against Bill Clinton during the 1992 presidential campaign. Bush eventually “filed an FEC complaint against Bossie’s group after it produced a TV ad inviting voters to call a hotline to hear (almost certainly doctored) tape-recorded conversations between Clinton and Gennifer Flowers.” From the 2004 article:

Bossie joined Citizens United in 1992 as its director of political affairs, which he quickly transformed into a full-time job of hounding the Clintons. The group was essentially a two-man operation. Four years earlier Citizens United had produced the infamous race-baiting Willie Horton ad. “That spot was, is, will ever after be a nightmare,” GOP strategist Mary Matalin once told the Chicago Tribune.

In fact, in 1992, Bush’s father condemned Bossie and Brown’s gutter practices, telling reporters: “We will do whatever we can to stop any filthy campaign tactics.” During that same campaign, George W. Bush, on his father’s behalf, even sent out a letter to 85,000 Republican contributors encouraging them not to contribute to Brown and Bossie’s effort.

[...]

Also in 1992, President George H.W. Bush, repudiating Bossie’s tactics, filed an FEC complaint against Bossie’s group after it produced a TV ad inviting voters to call a hot line to hear (almost certainly doctored) tape-recorded conversations between Clinton and Gennifer Flowers. [Salon, 7/20/04]

Bossie “Relentlessly” Harassed The Mother Of A Pregnant Woman Who Committed Suicide In An Attempt To Baselessly Tie Her Death To Bill Clinton. In 1992, Bossie “set out to prove that a young pregnant woman named Susan Coleman had committed suicide in 1977 after having an affair with Clinton.” According to Salon, “Coleman’s mother told CBS that Bossie hounded her relentlessly with his false story, even following her to an Army hospital in Georgia, where she was visiting her husband, in recovery from a stroke. Bossie and another man ‘burst into the sick man’s room and began questioning the shaken mother about her daughter’s suicide.’” [Salon, 7/20/04]

In 2011, Bossie Demanded That The Media Ask For Obama’s Birth Certificate, Joining In Trump’s Birther Conspiracy. In an op-ed written for conservative news outlet The Cagle Post, Bossie defended Trump’s call for President Obama’s birth certificate while castigating the media for not demanding it: “ Why did the mainstream media not demand Obama’s birth certificate in 2008, just like they demanded records from Bill Clinton and George W. Bush in 1992 and 2000, respectively?” Bossie accused the media of being “sympathetic” to Obama and giving him a “free pass” on the “politically inconvenient” issue of his birth. From the April 28, 2011, post:

Why did the mainstream media not demand Obama’s birth certificate in 2008, just like they demanded records from Bill Clinton and George W. Bush in 1992 and 2000, respectively? There is a lesson to be learned here for members of the press corps who are sympathetic to Mr. Obama to a fault. Giving him a free pass on politically inconvenient issues does not help him in the long run politically. In fact, this issue has demonstrated it is quite the opposite. In U.S. presidential elections before 2008, there was something referred to as a “vetting” process.

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So, nearly two and half years into his presidency, why are we only now vetting President Obama? Donald Trump is clearly wondering the same thing. Mr. Trump, of all people, has stepped up to the plate in asking the basic questions and demanding the elementary records the mainstream media should have investigated in 2008. Trump’s ability to force both Mr. Obama and the media’s hands has been something to behold. Next up for The Donald are the President’s college records. Once again, an issue that could have and should have been resolved long ago. [The Cagle Post, 4/28/11]

Bossie Attempted To Discredit NBC And CNN, Saying They’re Engaged In “Liberal Hypocrisy Of The Worst Kind.” In a 2013 Breitbart column, Bossie attempted to discredit NBC and CNN, calling them “liberally-biased networks” that are “corporations ... a few billion dollars richer” than Citizen’s United. He concluded that both of these networks are engaged in “liberal hypocrisy of the worst kind.” From Breitbart News:

From President Obama on down, liberals screamed that corporate money in politics would take over America and drown out the voices of the little guy. Despite what the First Amendment clearly states, liberals are free to take this faulty position. However, when you turn around and start to benefit from corporate money, you become a hypocrite.

Fast forward to today. NBC and CNN are corporations, as is Citizens United, albeit they are a few billion dollars richer. Where are the liberal shrieks about corporate money now? Shouldn’t Hillary Clinton say “thanks but no thanks people, I don’t support corporate money in politics”?

And how about NBC and CNN? How many negatively slanted pieces have they run about our Supreme Court victory? Is their position that they get to use corporate money to speak about elected officials and the rest of us don’t? The silence from the left on this issue has been deafening, and I don’t expect an honorable response any time soon.

I believe in a robust First Amendment, and I think our laws should welcome participation in our political system by anyone who wants to play – including corporations like CNN and NBC. But let’s call it what it is: liberal hypocrisy of the worst kind. [Breitbart, 8/10/13]

Bossie Defended Trump Against Allegations Of Sexual Assault: “There Is No Evidence That Any Of That Is True, OK?” In a November 2016 interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, Bossie attempted to defend Trump against allegations of sexual assault, saying, “Jake, Jake, there is no evidence that any of that is true, OK?” Bossie also claimed that the accusers and witnesses were “put up by Gloria Allred and the DNC and the Clinton campaign,” so the Trump team “dismiss[es] all of it.” From The Lead with Jake Tapper:

JAKE TAPPER (HOST): There are now a dozen women who have come forward and said, "Yes, what you heard Donald Trump say on that Access Hollywood video, he actually did that. Take his word for it. Fact-check: true.”

DAVID BOSSIE: Jake, we're -- Jake, Jake, there is no evidence that any of that is true, OK? What you're doing is rehashing --

TAPPER: Well, there's the women's accounts, and contemporaneous accounts from them telling their friends and family.

BOSSIE: There's none -- no, there is not one shred of -- not one shred of evidence, not one shred of evidence. Mr. Trump has said it's not true, and it's as simple as that.

TAPPER: I don't understand. When not true, not one shred of evidence --

BOSSIE: Not one shred, has anyone --

TAPPER: Somebody's firsthand on the record named account and contemporaneous accounts of their friends and family, that's not evidence?

BOSSIE: No one has -- Jake, not one person has come forward as a witness to anything other than people who are put up by Gloria Allred and the DNC and the Clinton campaign, so we dismiss all of it. [CNN, The Lead with Jake Tapper, 11/3/16]