This past week, the troubles multiplied when Sondland changed his story. A major Trump donor-turned-diplomat, Sondland had given Trump and his defenders a thin layer of political cover by claiming, both in texts and to Congress, that Trump had claimed there was “no quid pro quo” offered to Ukraine to prompt the probes. But when others inside the administration contradicted Sondland, raising the specter that he had lied to Congress, the ambassador quickly returned to Capitol Hill, refreshed his memory, and changed his story, conceding that foreign aide to Ukraine was contingent on the government helping out Trump. That kicked down the doors to the White House's defense, and intensified the Fox News attacks on key witnesses and players. Sen. Graham soon showed up on Fox News claiming Sondland was in cahoots with Democrats.
Meanwhile, after initially being the target of right-wing media wrath in late September when the Ukraine scandal first broke, the whistleblower has since returned as a constant target of Fox News attacks, particularly as GOP partisans scurry around working to unmask his or her identity.
"We are now looking down the barrel of yet another national crisis, clearly orchestrated by the deep state” Sean Hannity recently warned. "The conspiracy theory was also elevated across multiple other Fox personalities in the last two days, including Greg Gutfeld and Mark Levin," Media Matters noted.
Late last month, U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bill Taylor also gave damning testimony to Congress, detailing the White House's efforts to withhold military aid in exchange for Ukraine investigating Trump’s political rivals. On Fox Business, host Lou Dobbs asked, “What’s the big deal?” about Taylor's testimony, while guest Sidney Powell agreed that Democrats “keep trying to make things up as they go” and claimed they are “absolutely grasping for straws.”
According to Media Matters, Fox contributor Dan Bongino dismissed Taylor’s testimony and falsely claimed that it revealed there was no quid pro quo, while Fox contributor Newt Gingrich said that he presumes “Taylor doesn’t like Trump’s style and ... Taylor disagreed with Trump’s policies,” but “that doesn’t make it impeachable."
Then last month we saw ugly attacks to smear Vindman, who testified that he objected to Trump’s shadow policy toward Ukraine. He also testified that the transcript to the infamous phone call Trump placed with the Ukraine leader wasn't accurate, and that efforts to correct the transcript were ignored by the White House. "I did not think it was proper to demand that a foreign government investigate a U.S. citizen, and I was worried about the implications for the U.S. government’s support of Ukraine," Vindman said in his statement.
Fox News and others quickly focused on the fact that Vindman was born in Russia and migrated to America from Ukraine to raise doubts about his loyalty to the United States, with Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade stressing that Vindman “has an affinity to the Ukrainian people," and that Vindman "tends to feel simpatico with the Ukraine."
Character assassination is what Fox News does. The problem for Trump when it comes to the impeachment scandal is that Fox News has too many characters it needs to assassinate.
Eric Boehlert is a veteran progressive writer and media analyst, formerly with Media Matters and Salon. He is the author of Lapdogs: How the Press Rolled Over for Bush and Bloggers on the Bus. You can follow him on Twitter @EricBoehlert.
This post was written and reported through our Daily Kos freelance program.
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