The hosts of 'Fox and Friends' blasted Trump's performance at the Putin press conference, telling him to correct the record

Advertisement
The hosts of 'Fox and Friends' blasted Trump's performance at the Putin press conference, telling him to correct the record

Advertisement
The hosts of

Screenshot/Fox News

The hosts of "Fox & Friends" speak directly to President Donald Trump on Tuesday morning.

  • President Donald Trump's favorite cable news hosts spoke directly to the president on the morning after his widely condemned press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
  • The "Fox and Friends" hosts argued that the president missed an opportunity to stand with the US intelligence community and rebuke Putin's meddling in the 2016 US presidential election.
  • "That moment is the one that's going to stand out unless he comes out and corrects it," co-host Brian Kilmeade said. 

President Donald Trump's favorite cable news hosts spoke directly to him on the morning after his widely condemned press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin, urging him to publicly criticize Russian meddling in the 2016 US election after failing to do so on Monday.

Co-host Abby Huntsman - whose father, Jon Huntsman, is Trump's ambassador to Russia - delivered the harshest critique of the president's performance, arguing that Putin's "ultimate goal in life is to undermine our democracy" and that Trump missed the "one moment that you had to stand up for your own country, stand up for your intelligence community."

On Monday afternoon, Huntsman accused Trump of "throwing [his] own people and country under the bus" by refusing to challenge Putin's claim that Russia was not involved in election meddling.

Brian Kilmeade, who very rarely issues any critique of the president, told the president to correct the record. 

"When Newt Gingrich, when Gen. Jack Keane, when Matt Schlapp say the president fell short and made our intelligence apparatus look bad, I think it's time to pay attention and it's easily correctable from the president's perspective," Kilmeade said.

He went on, "Nobody's perfect, especially [after] 10 intensive days of summits, private meetings, and everything on his plate. But that moment is the one that's going to stand out unless he comes out and corrects it."

The third host, Steve Doocy, called Trump's behavior "puzzling" and said "a lot of people are criticizing him for not being bold." 

"Pretty much everyone and their brother - except for Vladimir Putin - knows that there was meddling," Doocy said.  

But "Fox and Friends" mixed their gently-worded criticism of the president with some strong defenses of his behavior, inviting Jeanine Pirro, a staunch Trump supporter and Fox anchor, on the show to minimize the criticism and speak for Trump. 

"I mean, come on, snap out of it everybody, I mean the guy is doing what he's supposed to be doing and that's protecting us," Pirro said. "What was he supposed to do, take out a gun and shoot Putin?"

Huntsman pushed back on Pirro and asked whether the president should stand by his own intelligence community, which has determined that Russia interfered in the election.

Pirro shrugged that question off.

"The same intelligence community that said there were weapons of mass destruction that got us into a war?" Pirro said, adding that Russian meddling in the election was "nothing new."

 

{{}}