After President Donald Trump at the United Nations “vowed to ‘totally destroy North Korea’ if it threatened the United States,” both Fox & Friends and Morning Joe took former President Barack Obama out of context to suggest he had said the same thing. Obama, in fact, made the case against doing so, saying, “It's not something that lends itself to an easy solution. We could, obviously, destroy North Korea with our arsenals. But aside from the humanitarian costs of that, they are right next door to our vital ally, Republic of Korea."
Fox & Friends and Morning Joe echoed a tweet from White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who cited Obama’s quote and wrote, “Presidents have always been clear to deter threats.” But, as The Washington Post explained, “Trump was saying the United States might ‘have no choice’ but to do what Obama was merely saying the U.S. was capable of.” From the September 20 edition of Fox News’ Fox & Friends: