Fox Business appeared determined to distract from coverage of Donald Trump's third indictment by prominently displaying a graphic accusing President Joe Biden of creating his own distractions from scandals involving his son Hunter Biden.
In the graphic that almost filled screens, “Biden's Scandal Distractions” was written in bold red next to Mr Trump's image followed by a timeline of the former president's past indictments juxtaposed with what is alleged of Mr Biden and his family.
Mr Trump was indicted on Tuesday 1 August for his attempts to overturn the 2020 election, the third time in four months that the former president has been criminally charged.
The Biden administration insists that the Department of Justice investigation into Mr Trump is independent, as demonstrated by the appointment of Special Counsel Jack Smith, and the White House’s refusal to comment on it.
Nevertheless, a narrative has developed on the political right among Trump allies that the investigation is to distract from allegations against the president and his son.
So far, there is no evidence to show that to be the case, but an almost uniform response emerged from Republicans after news broke of the indictment on Tuesday. There were some notable exceptions, including former Vice President Mike Pence.
The four-count, 45-page indictment charges Mr Trump with conspiring to defraud the US by preventing Congress from certifying Joe Biden's victory and depriving voters of their right to a fair election.
Mr Trump was ordered to make an initial appearance in federal court in Washington on Thursday.
Meanwhile, on Fox Business’s sister channel Fox News, minutes after the former president announced on Truth Social that he was to be indicted, host Jesse Watters compared the criminal charges against Mr Trump to “15 dozen” atomic bombs.
“This is legal warfare, if it was political, it would have been political war crime. This is overkill. It is an atrocity. It is like not just dropping one atomic bomb, you drop 15 dozen,” he said.
"This is the establishment terrified at Donald Trump's re-election."
Fox News last month expressed regret for showing an onscreen message that called President Biden a “wannabe dictator” who had his political rival arrested.
The chyron appeared beneath split-screen video boxes that showed Mr Trump addressing supporters live in New Jersey, and Mr Biden speaking at the White House earlier in the day.
The message read, “Wannabe dictator speaks at the White House after having his political rival arrested.”
Fox News said in a statement the “chyron was taken down immediately and was addressed.”
Mediaite reported that the message was onscreen for 27 seconds and was not removed when the telecast was rerun late at night.
