Mueller Report Reveals That Trump Administration Asked Fox News To Edit Interview Footage
With the Mueller report released, the media and public continue to pick through the investigation’s results. Per Hill Reporter, reporter Laura Rozen discovered a section of the report that reveals that President Donald Trump’s team asked Fox News to cut out certain portions of an interview he did with Maria Bartiromo.
In the 2017 interview, Trump was pressed on whether it was too late for James Comey to step down. And while Trump answered no and said he still had confidence in Comey, the report claims that former Trump aide, Hope Hicks, thought that the question should be removed.
“After the interview, Hicks told the president she thought the president’s comment about Comey should be removed from the broadcast of the interview, but the president wanted to keep it in, which Hicks thought was unusual.”
According to PoliticusUSA, the discovery — if true — is evidence that Fox News isn’t a news network but a Trump administration-run television station. This designation would give the White House power over interview footage instead of its interview subjects. The publication also suggests that this is the reason that Trump relies so heavily on Fox News and claims that the network is a propaganda channel working alongside Trump to support him.
Fox News has received criticism from Democrats in the past for its support of Trump. Senator Bernie Sanders, who announced his 2020 presidential bid back in February, told HuffPost that he believes that the network is a propaganda arm for Trump and his administration.
But as The Inquisitr reported, Sanders also said that the network has “serious” and “fair” broadcasters that are “real journalists. And while the Vermont senator said that most of the station is “right-wing propaganda,” he cautioned against dismissing it, pointing to the millions of people that watch it.
“For better or for worse ? and it is for worse ? for whatever reason, you know, Fox has a huge viewing audience. And to simply say that we’re not going to talk to millions of people who watch that network I don’t think is smart.”
Sanders appeared on Fox News at a town hall event on April 15, and it was the highest-rated town hall on any network thus far in the 2020 election cycle. As The Inquisitr reported, other Democrats are considering their own town hall on the network following the positive response to Sanders’ event.
The Democratic National Committee previously announced that it would not allow Fox News Channel to host a presidential debate, but the announcement doesn’t seem to be phasing the party’s presidential contenders.