After some initial hesitation on how to defend Donald Trump from allegations of trying to collude with the Ukraine government to influence the 2020 campaign, when Trump himself had admitted to doing exactly that, Fox News and most of the right-wing echo chamber have rallied around White House talking points. Robotically defending Trump and pitching the unfolding impeachment proceedings as another so-called witch hunt, Fox News is leading the Trump media charge. (It's a "coup"!)
But will the caterwauling be enough this time?
Unlike the previous Russia investigation, which proceeded at a glacial pace and was conducted mostly in private by special counsel Robert Mueller and his team, the Ukraine story continues to unfold in public view and at a rapid clip. Stunning developments are being reported on a daily and sometimes hourly basis, and the White House has found it difficult to keep up with the bad, breaking news. "No matter how many administration officials try to spin an impeachment inquiry as somehow constituting good news for Trump, it’s not persuasive," The Atlantic reported. Meanwhile, Trump defenders in the press still face that original hurdle of Trump himself admitting, and even bragging, that he tried to enlist the help of a foreign power to investigate a domestic political rival, Joe Biden.
In other words, Trump is facing the greatest challenge of his presidency, as is Fox News. The network is trying to shift from its familiar "No collusion!" defense of Trump in the Russia scandal to "Collusion, sure, but it wasn't that bad" for the Ukraine story. There's no question that impeachment, like the Mueller investigation, will operate on a parallel track alongside a media messaging war, as people on both sides of the political aisle put their spin on the Ukraine story. And there's no question that the conservative movement has built a massive, well-funded echo chamber designed specifically to win key messaging wars, via repetition and misinformation. This one seems different, though.
"Pro-Trump media allies are doing their best to spin, deflect, and obfuscate, but at the end of the day this story is clear and easy to understand," tweeted CNN's Oliver Darcy. "Trump, using the office of the presidency, pushed a foreign power to investigate a political opponent." On that front, Fox News and the conservative media essentially concede that it happened and that it simply does not matter. It's a rather stunning turnaround from the Russia investigation, when Fox News went all-in insisting collusion never happened, under the assumption that that would have been a very bad thing.
Meanwhile, the Ukraine scandal has already sparked a nasty intramural on-air fight at Fox News. After Shepard Smith hosted former Judge Andrew Napolitano, who suggested that the contents of Trump's phone call with Ukraine’s leader were possibly criminal, Tucker Carlson that night hosted pro-Trump lawyer Joe diGenova, who mocked Napolitano as a fool for his Ukraine comments. The following day, Smith shot back: "Attacking our colleague, who is here to offer legal assessments, on our air in our work home is repugnant."
Also, on Fox's The Five, when Trump critic Juan Williams suggested that his colleagues were regurgitating White House spin on the Ukraine story, the others appearing on the show exploded in anger and began shouting him down.
For now though, most of the Fox News teams appears to be on board and loyally repeats White House talking points about the scandal. As Media Matters noted, Fox’s Tomi Lahren claimed that the Trump impeachment inquiry showed “radicals have taken over the Democratic Party.” Sean Hannity said that “the world is less safe and secure tonight” because of the Trump impeachment inquiry. And from Fox host Carlson, “The people who sold out your country to China are concerned that President Trump betrayed America somehow."
A key Fox News emphasis as been that there's no evidence of a quid pro quo when Trump spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in hopes of getting Biden dirt, and therefore the impeachment proceedings are unnecessary. Fox News chief White House correspondent John Roberts stressed, "Initially, people were breathless saying the president promised something to Zelensky … and none of that exists in this transcript."
But what's blatantly obvious from the phone call summary is that Trump, over and over, stressed what "favor" he wanted from Ukraine, as the country asked the United States for additional weapons support. Also, a Ukraine official told ABC News that there clearly was a quid pro quo: Trump would only agree to talk to Zelensky if investigating Biden was part of the agenda. "Ukrainian officials were asking for a meeting with Trump for a long time. As I remember, it was a clear fact that Trump wants to meet only if Biden case will be included,” said Serhiy Leshchenko, a former member of Ukraine's Parliament and one-time adviser to Zelensky. "This issue was raised many times. I know that Ukrainian officials understood."
Even conservative and former prosecutor David French conceded that Trump's ask was obvious and heavy-handed. "The Trump–Ukraine Transcript Contains Evidence of a Quid Pro Quo," read the headline of his National Review Online piece, where he wrote, "I’m honestly puzzled that Trump’s defenders online are claiming any kind of vindication over the contents of this transcript. It admits one profound abuse of power, and it implies another, even worse, violation of the public trust."
Added Philip Klein at the conservative Washington Examiner, "The release of the transcript of President Trump's call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was not the dud that Trump and his allies have been presenting it to be. It's very bad news for Trump."
Fox News disagrees, and remains committed to trying to save Trump from his biggest, most dangerous scandal yet.
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.