Fox News has not been enamoured of the FBI’s raid on Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence as the former president’s legal troubles rapidly mount.
Fox News hosts and other leading figures in the Republican Party and conservative movement have decried the FBI’s raid on Mr Trump’s residence as an politically motivated overreach of government power. But as a Daily Show video juxtaposing Fox News commentary on the FBI investigation of the Hillary Clinton’s email scandal with footage of Mr Trump shows, the network’s hosts have not always been so opposed to FBI intervention.
The video, which is roughly one minute long, intersperses footage of Fox News hosts’ commentary on the investigation into Ms Clinton with footage of the raid on Mar-a-Lago.
The result is that whlie viewers watch footage of the FBI executing the search warrant at Mr Trump’s residence, they hear people like former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly saying, “When you have a presidential candidate, the FBI has a duty to We The People to investigate any appearance of impropriety.”
“Patriotic FBI agents are pushing and trying to do something, but this requires a full, comprehensive investigation,” lawyer and Fox News personality Mark Levin says in another clip.
There has been considerably less talk about the patriotism of FBI agents coming from the right in recent days. Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene called for the bureau to be defunded in one tweet, while House Minorty Leader Kevin McCarthy told Attorney General Merrick Garland to “preserve your documents and clear your calendar” in a tweet promising that the Republicans will investigate the Department of Justice if they recapture the House of Representatives in November.
“Multiple felonies that we’re talking about here,” Sean Hannity says as Sen. Ted Cruz nods solemnly along in another clip in the video.
The irony of the situation has not been lost on Ms Clinton, who lost the 2016 presidential election to Mr Trump and has often used her Twitter account to air grievances about what she feels was unfair media treatment of the email scandal during that race.
On Tuesday, Ms Clinton’s political organisation Onward Together began selling a hat and t-shirts with the slogan “BUT HER EMAILS” to suggest that the scandal around her handling of classified information was not reason enough to elect Mr Trump instead. Ms Clinton has hawked the products on her Twitter feed.
Mr Trump on Wednesday invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination during a deposition in New York regarding a civil investigation by New York Attorney General Letitia James into his business practices.
