Fox News Struggles to Defend Trump’s Stormy Daniels Hush Money
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Trump is expecting to be charged in relation to his 2016 hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels sometime this week. While the specifics of the indictment have not yet been revealed, Fox News is already working overtime to brand the investigation a witch hunt, an abuse of prosecutorial power, and a political ploy to prevent Trump from securing the 2024 nomination. But aside from playing its Trump-defense greatest hits, Fox has also resorted to airing every absurd argument their writer’s room can think of to defend the former president’s actions.
On Monday night, Tucker Carlson made sure to remind his viewers that celebrities pay to bury salacious stories all the time. “Paying people not to talk about things, hush money is ordinary in modern America,” Carlson said.
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Tucker: In fact, settlements like this are common.. Paying people not to talk about things, hush money, is ordinary in modern America. pic.twitter.com/Nsx0rgYqAW
— Acyn (@Acyn) March 21, 2023
It’s worth noting that Carlson’s current 8 pm time slot at Fox News only became available after former Fox star Bill O’Reilly settled lawsuits with five women who accused him of sexual misconduct, in several cases with Fox’s backing.
Carlson was not the only Fox anchor to dismiss the payment on the grounds that its normal behavior amongst the rich and famous. On Fox’s The Five, host Jesse Watters argued that regardless of his presidential campaign, Trump would have paid off Daniels anyway in order to protect his reputation and family. In the same segment, Watters claimed that jailing Trump (he hasn’t even been charged) would be like “putting 74 million votes in prison.”
On his own show, Watters held up the fact that Daniels had not had Trump’s baby as evidence that no affair had ever taken place. The host also pointed to former U.S. Senator John Edwards, whose career was tanked after an affair resulted in a child through his mistress.
“There’s no proof Trump slept with Stormy, there’s no baby,” Watters told viewers.
Jesse Watters: "There's no proof Trump slept with Stormy, there's no baby." pic.twitter.com/Xf61mNY2ns
— nikki mccann ramírez (@NikkiMcR) March 20, 2023
Hosts have also emphasized that Trump is campaigning for the 2024 Republican nomination to argue that the indictment is yet another witch hunt aimed at crippling his political ambitions.
Carlson argued that if the charges were to move forward, and Trump convicted, it would be the end of democracy. “Voters will never again determine the outcome of a presidential election,” the Fox anchor said.
Tucker Carlson is now saying that if Trump is indicted, "voters will never again determine the outcome of a presidential election": pic.twitter.com/MWR0c9grGc
— Kat Abu (@abughazalehkat) March 21, 2023
The claim that the Manhattan DA is charging Trump in order to prevent his return to power has been tinged with anti-semitic, conspiratorial record. Host Rachel Campos-Duffy told viewers of Fox & Friends that Alvin Bragg was subservient to his “master” George Soros.
While the network is pulling out all the stops to arm a defense of Trump, what we are seeing now is little more than the warm-up lap for a network that is unlikely to ever truly abandon Trump. Regardless of the results of the pending indictment, the former president is facing a slew of potential criminal cases regarding his claims of election fraud, sexual assault, and the Mar-a-Lago documents probe. With so many legal battles on the horizon, the Daniels case is but another entry in the long list of excuses, both past and future, Fox has made on behalf of Trump.
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