The night was filled with mixed messages of support and contempt for the former president.
All the symptoms of the past week were that the US media was not in the middle of the country. The US possessed through Rupert Murdoch in a position to abandon Donald Trump en masse. The New York Post mocked Trump as Humpty Dumpty, the Wall Street Journal declared him “the biggest loser in the Republican Party. “and even Fox News presented only a weak defense of Trump’s depressing midterm elections.
However, watching Fox News on Tuesday night, when Trump announced he would run for president in 2024, it seemed that not everyone was in a position to let Trump go.
The right-wing network, once a staunch supporter of the twice-indicted president, presented mixed messages about the importance and caution of Trump’s re-election bid, as late-night broadcasts largely ignored Trump’s planned announcement, while later in the evening some Fox News stalwarts did their part to inflate Trump.
The signal was 6 p. m. The time had come for Fox News to move away from its old hroe.
Bret Baier, a less partisan Fox News personality than Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity, welcomed Mike Pence, the former vice president rumored to be making plans for a presidential bid.
Given that Trump hates Pence, after the latter refused to decertify the result of the 2020 election, the former president would have been very pleased to see Pence go on air hours before the Mar-a-Lago announcement.
Trump would have been less pleased with Pence’s reaction when asked about Trump’s arrival in office. “Well, it’s a laid-back country, Bret, and the president has the right to make whatever announcement he needs to make tonight,” Pence said, before adding a “but. “
“As I’ve traveled across the country for the past two years, what I hear over and over again, Bret, is that other people need to see us roll back to Trump-Pence administration policies.
“But I hear other people say they would like us to move forward with leadership that will unite our country around our highest ideal and reflect the kind of respect and civility that other Americans show on both days. “
Pence’s mind is part of the narrative that Murdoch’s press and Fox News’ website have been circling for days: that the country has left Trump and that it may be the turn of others.
After calling Trump the biggest loser last week, the Journal regained the lead on Tuesday, with an editorial noting, “Almost in last week’s competitive races, applicants approved through Mr. Trump have fallen into pyrotechnics.
Fox News had been more circumspect, but notably presented little defense of Trump in its election-night investigation, and the Fox News op-ed segment ran two other articles Wednesday and Thursday proclaiming that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis would be the long-term winner. Republican Party.
As the hours passed toward Trump’s announcement at nine o’clock in the evening, it seemed that Fox News would continue to slowly move away from Trump.
Jesse Watters, who hosts a daily one-hour exhibit at 7 p. m. He didn’t address Trump’s announcement until 7:45 p. m. Counsel, before concluding:
“These two guys, whether it’s Donald Trump or Ron DeSantis, they’re just going to have to take it to Biden, because you know, this country can’t do it for another 4 years. “
Will Cain, filling 8 p. m. hour for Carlson, who was reportedly on vacation, didn’t pay much attention to Trump either, mentioning the former president several more times about the border, crime and the FBI.
At nine o’clock in the evening, everything went back to the previous relationship. Fox News rarely airs Trump’s rallies in those days, but Hannity delivered most of his display to Trump’s speech, remaining silent as Trump spoke of perceived slights and “blood-soaked” cities.
When Hannity, a longtime Trump aide who in the past had been reprimanded by Fox News after appearing at a Trump rally, cut Trump’s speech twice: a sequence of Trump speaking and gesturing quietly continued to play on the right side of the screen: she was going to offer helpful thrills from carefully selected guests. Trump’s allies.
At Hannity’s first intercession, after Trump spoke for about 35 minutes, he turned to Pete Hegseth, a Trump fan, for analysis.
“It seems like Trump in as smart a way as he ever noticed,” Hegseth said duly.
Notably, Hannity himself did not intervene with his own reviews of Trump’s speech, or the concept of Trump running again, acting only as a sober moderator while his visitors, including Trumpist Congressman Jim Jordan, intervened with enthusiasm and praise.
Perhaps there was also a glimpse of the sterile chiroons that Fox News aired Trump’s speech, which began softly with “President Trump to Make a Primary Announcement” and continued with the prosaic “Donald Trump Announces 2024 Presidential Race. “
At 10 p. m. , Donald Trump was still on his way, meaning he moved into the schedule of Laura Ingraham, who, like Hannity, has been an ardent supporter.
Ingraham reproduced about a minute of Trump’s uninterrupted speech before announcing, “We will move on to former President Trump when the news warrants it. “That has been the case.
Like Hannity, Ingraham, unusually, didn’t have much to say about Trump’s speech. But notably, one of his visitors was Ben Domenech, a conservative who said Monday on Fox News that Trump had “served his purpose. “
Domenech didn’t get that far, but Ingraham didn’t spend much time on Trump’s speech.
But after about 10 minutes of back-and-forth about the former president, Fox News reminded us that Trump is no longer the only exhibit in town.
As Ingraham spoke, a Fox News alert banner appeared at the back of the screen.
The latest news?” DeSantis receives a welcome at the RGA [Republican Governors Association] meeting. “