Donald Trump and Rupert Murdoch,
the conservative media ban are apparently going through something of a breakup.
The latest sign of political divorce came on.
Rupert Murdoch's Fox News, specifically the Fox and Friends program.
The hosts were discussing some polling involving younger
conservatives at the weekends Turning Point USA conference.
>> Who would you vote for?
And look the majority said Trump.
Almost 79% said Trump and only 19% said Ron DeSantis.
>> Yeah, that's interesting.
Keep in mind Turning Point,
a group of young Republican conservative activists from all across the country.
So you've got people from all across the country convening in Tampa.
I'm thinking about that is a little different than a couple
of other polls that we've seen over the last couple of weeks.
Two weeks ago in Florida, Blueprint Polling did a poll,
DeSantis leads the former president in all age group.
>> On social media at 8:19 Eastern Time.
Donald trump thundered Fox and Friends just really botched my poll numbers,
no doubt on purpose.
That show has been terrible, gone to the dark side.
They quickly quote the big Turning Point Poll victory of almost 70 points over
the number two Republican and then hammer me with outliers.
Over the weekend,
Donald trump got hammered on Rupert Murdoch's Fox News Sunday.
The show had Liz Cheney on as a guest.
She is the vice co-chair and
the senior ranking Republican on the January 6th congressional committee.
>> We had a president who sent a mob that he knew was armed to the Capital to
attack and invade while we were counting electoral votes,
delayed the count of those votes.
And while the attack was underway,
it is unquestionable that he did not tell them to go home for hours.
And investigating that attack and what led to it and what we need to do legislatively
to make sure it never happens again is our fundamental responsibility.
>> The pitchforks for Donald Trump and Fox News Sunday followed a remarkable Friday
night, when Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal and New York Post both published
scathing critiques in their editorials of Donald Trump.
The New York Post wrote, quote, as his followers stormed the Capital, calling for
the Vice President to be hanged,
President Donald Trump sat in his private dining room, watching TV, doing nothing.
For three hours, seven minutes.
As a matter of principle, as a matter of character,
Trump has proven himself unworthy to be this country's chief executive again.
Here's the Rupert Murdoch Wall Street Journal editorial.
Mr Trump has shown not an iota of regret, character is revealed in a crisis and
Mr Pence passed his January 6 trial, Mr Trump utterly failed his.
The editorials prompted headlines in several publications including
The Guardian which headline, is Murdoch tiring of Trump?
Moguls print titles dump the ex-president.
And the body of the story, quote, observers believe Murdoch, 91,
may be tiring of Trump's lie that the 2020 election was stolen,
which has both kept Trump in the spotlight and
denied him the ceremonial status usually extended to ex-presidents.
Murdoch outlets have faced legal repercussions for repeating Trump's lie.
A judge in Delaware County recently said Fox Corp could be sued by
Dominion Voting Systems for
broadcasting conspiracy theories related to the 2020 election.
Rupert Murdoch and his son Lachlan are named in a $1 billion suit,
for allegedly acting with actual malice and
allowing Fox News to broadcast claims the election was rigged.
Against the Rupert Murdoch divorce with Donald Trump.
Donald Trump told the Turning Points USA audience that he, Trump,
did such a great job as president that he deserved one of our nation's most
esteemed and crucial honors, watch.
>> I wanted to give myself the Congressional Medal of Honor but
they wouldn't let me do it.
They wouldn't let me do it, I said I'm gonna give myself that.
I've always wanted that.
>> Again, the Congressional Medal of Honor is one of our nation's highest
military honors.
It is America's most prestigious military decoration that may be awarded to
recognized American soldiers, sailors and guardians, and coast guardsmen,
who have distinguished themselves by acts of valor.
That's right, military acts of valor.
But maybe Donald Trump somehow thought, it's something just like an Emmy.
In any case, Donald Trump will certainly need some sort of,
certainly deserve some sort of honor.
If in fact he's able to beat back what's coming to him right now from
Rupert Murdoch and Fox News empire and
somehow still win the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
Adrienne Lawrence,
how does Donald trump think that he deserves the Congressional Medal of Honor?
>> Yeah, I think that's really special to think that this honor that is given for
conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity and
the fact that you risked your life going beyond the call of duty.
How Donald Trump could ever see himself in his bones scores to be included
among that class is beyond me.
But it does seem pretty on par for
this man who lives in this fanciful world in his mind about how great he is.
I really do appreciate that Murdoch is finally pushing back since he has been
leading this propaganda mill for several years, particularly in advancing Trump.
It would be good to actually maybe do some possible journalism at some point in time.
But I think that that might be too much of a big ask for Fox News, but
at least some of this pushback is something I'm willing to go with.
I just hope it goes a bit further and
maybe decides to hopefully what tell the truth.
>> Yeah, I mean, there are some people say, my goodness,
look at the great stuff that Fox and Friends are Bear did on Fox News Sunday.
And in my view, it's not exactly a profile in courage when this follows
both the New York Post and the Wall Street Journal editorial pages delivering their
scathing critiques of Donald trump.
It seems to me that the folks at Fox News are simply putting their finger in the air
and say, aha, Rupert Murdoch doesn't like Donald Trump.
So we'll get on the bandwagon.
But I gotta ask you Adrienne,
the question in terms of these lawsuits that Fox News is facing.
Does it help mitigate at all what Fox News may have to pay out if suddenly they can
say, well, look, look at all the terrible things we've been saying lately
about Donald Trump and we believe that the election was not stolen.
Does that change the lawsuit or the way the lawsuit might be perceived?
>> See that probably would have been somewhat helpful in
terms of an argument at some point in time before these lawsuits were filed.
But given that they have already been filed,
that they are already several stages of the process in deep, I understand that
when it comes to Dominion Voting, they are knee deep in discovery at this point.
It really doesn't do anything not at all because I think,
even if you were to present this before a jury.
And say that x years later, Fox News decided to finally share some facts as it
concerns Donald Trump, that that's not something that any juror or
even judge would find to be in any way mitigating.
In part because Fox News has been again leading this propaganda mill for
some time, getting us in this situation in this position and
the harm has already been done.
It's just a matter of, are they gonna exacerbate it if I continue along with
the narrative and story lines have been pushing or
are they going to actually maybe be somewhat socially responsible members of
society when it comes to media and dissemination of information.
>> I sort of wonder if the Fox News has chosen perhaps the latter
that they wanna be, perhaps at least welcome back into the media world and just
leave it to the Newsmax and the AON, what American news to sort of go full Trump.
The irony in all of this is that we started seeing when we go out and
interview, Donald Trump supporters in some of his rallies and some of his events.
They started criticizing Fox News literally months ago, saying that the only
people at Fox News who are still worth watching are Sean Hannity and
Tucker Carlson.
That Fox news can't be trusted and when you ask them why, well,
they'll say well, because Fox News is part of the establishment as well and
they're part of the fix.
So it seems like Trump supporters have already sort of migrated away from
Fox News towards some of these more far right outlets,
even though Fox News continues to get a huge, huge numbers.
And so I wonder if Donald Trump, has sort of bake that into the cake in a sense
that for him there's no, there's no harm at this point now in criticizing Fox News.
Whether it's Fox and Friends, the New York Post, or the Wall Street Journal,
or any of other Rupert Murdoch assets.
Because he knows his audience already doesn't trust them and
Trump has already put the Republican Party in something of a bind because in order
to really appeal now.
If you're Ron DeSantis or anybody else, if you wanna appeal to the Maga crowd,
you have to buy into the 2020 election line.
>> Yeah, I definitely think that that is the case without a doubt.
I also think that Trump is willing to bite the hand that feeds him at any point in
time, just because he does have this omnipotent sense in view of himself and
it doesn't seem like he's ever faced actual consequences in life.
So to see him lash out at the news outlet that has primarily made him
when it comes to this Maga whole identity.
It wouldn't seem smart, especially given how you can see Rupert Murdoch can respond
across several platforms at the same time.
We've never known Trump to be anybody smart.
So, I just really do enjoy this GOP infighting and
I hope it means the destruction of the entire party, but that's just me.
>> Adrienne, there are a lot of people out there who are,
when we talk about Donald Trump possibly running for president in 2024.
And there is some suggestions that have been made that Donald Trump believes that
if he can just win the presidential nomination, win the White House.
He gets to install his own attorney general and
he puts an immediate halt to whatever Department of Justice investigations of
him have been underway for January 6th.
I know that the Department of Justice does have a slightly different standard in
terms of prosecuting somebody who's running for
office as opposed to somebody who's no longer in office.
But can you explain to people exactly sort of where that line is in terms of.
Does it really help Donald Trump with his criminal defense, if that's what he's
facing, if he is an active presidential candidate as opposed to, if he is not
a presidential candidate, decides to sort of ride out into retirement?
>> Okay, so generally,
there's a lot of concern at DOJ in terms of prosecuting a former president.
And also prosecuting someone who is potentially running for office unless you
have something airtight and especially given how divisive our nation is.
But the thing is is that DOJ also, they also swore to uphold the constitution and
the law.
So as far as I'm concerned, that should be your guiding light,
you should not in any way interject politics or
fear of all sorts of ramifications if you were to actually do your job.
The point is that it gets done because that's how our system is supposed to work.
And so, it's really upsetting that there is to some extent this unspoken fear/rule.
The thought that they don't want the United States, doesn't wanna be in
a position where it is prosecuting former presidents because we've been involved
with so many other nations that have done that with their former world leaders.
But when you have someone who has actually committed a crime and
it is egregious and it is factual and well supported.
You are supposed to prosecute to show that no one is above the law.
So as much as the US may see itself in a catch 22 as far as I'm concerned,
DOJ needs to catch some courage and actually just do its damn job.
>> I agree and I think the damn job would also include handing it to a grand jury
and letting a grand jury look at all of this.
I was struck, can we play those Liz Cheney's sound byte.
There couple of people who have suggested Republican supporters of Donald Trump and
the legal world who say look ,the fact that Donald Trump did not do what he
should have done morally on January 6.
That's still not necessarily a crime that inaction can't be considered a crime.
But there's also the argument that wait a second, there's so
many other steps that he did take in terms of calling for the January 6 rally for
suggesting that maybe the secret service should let people in with their weapons.
That you can still make the argument that perhaps he
was part of a criminal conspiracy to block the activities of the US Congress.
How do you analyze this?
>> Without a doubt.
The thing is if he weren't former president then he would be prosecuted
already without a doubt for conspiracy.
Because there seems to be enough evidence to show that they took an active step
forward into engaging in this coup like behavior and
that there is plenty evidence such thereof.
And so that would show that they are all involved.
All you need is one.
All you need is more than one person to knock someone for conspiracy.
And there's clearly a web of people involved here,
who knew exactly what would go down on January 6, the president included.