A panelist on Fox News was shouted down by the hosts on Wednesday night for suggesting that former president Donald Trump must have been in the wrong to warrant a search by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) at his Mar-a-Lago residence.
On Monday, FBI agents conducted searches at Mr Trump’s Palm Beach, Florida, residence apparently in connection with presidential records, some highly classified, that Mr Trump improperly removed from the White House before his term expired in January 2021.
Hosts on Fox News’ The Five yelled down Jessica Tarlov, the panel’s left-of-centre co-host, for suggesting that Mr Trump may have been in the wrong.
One of the co-hosts, former judge Jeanine Pirro, suggested that the FBI could have planted evidence at Mr Trump’s house during the raids.
“Let me tell you a little bit about this warrant. They could put anything they want in this warrant. It is the execution of the warrant that is filed with the court that contains what they got. Now how did they take those boxes in? ‘Judiciously’ is the word that was used. That means they took boxes, they did no inventory.”
“We don’t know what was in the box,” Ms Pirro added.
“They set it up so that they can say anything was in that box. And to go through Melania Trump’s clothes? It’s an outrage. This is their effort to intimidate the Trumps and make sure the Trumps are not in a position where they can deny anything.”
Ms Tarlov said that following the raids, mistruths are being laid out in the public domain including the oft-repeated claim that evidence may have been planted during the raids.
“Our heads are spinning over the number of mistruths and assumptions being projected all over television. From the idea there was evidence that was planted. Donald Trump is now amplifying that,” Ms Tarlov said.
“Eric Trump went on TV and said Biden definitely signed off on this. I don’t know if he is tattle telling on how his father used to do things, but the Biden administration has said that they found out..”
Ms Tarlov was then interrupted by cohost Jesse Watters, who deflected to the president’s son Hunter Biden and said: “Because Biden always tells the truth?”
“Do you believe him?” he continued. “Biden did not know anything that his son Hunter was doing.”
As all the hosts started talking at once, trying to interrupt Ms Tarlov.
Co-host Greg Gutfeld added: “Shouldn’t he [Mr Biden] know?”
Ms Tarlov claimed that if the Trump group believes that there was evidence planted they should “prove it”, which led to another round of shouting.
“Couldn’t it be that he actually just did something really bad and he shouldn’t have done it?” Ms Tarlov said.
Ms Pirro piped in with: “He cooperated with them.”
“No he didn’t,” said Ms Tarlov.
“He cooperated with them!” Ms Pirro shouted.
“Yelling it doesn’t make it true,” Ms Tarlov said.
While Mr Trump had earlier claimed that he was cooperating with the government’s efforts, in days following the raid he has claimed that the search at Mar-a-Lago was an attempt to weaponise federal law and to potentially stop him from running for president in 2024.
Mr Trump has condemned the raids as “prosecutorial misconduct” and “the weaponisation of the justice system”.
