Oh noes…. a bunch of legal analysts and never-Trumpers who appear regularly on some other networks are having weekly Zoom meetings! It’s a “legal conspiracy.” I find it pretty rich that the network that’s been coordinating its talking points with Republicans since its inception is angry that anyone who doesn’t like Trump, and appears on television somewhere else, is speaking with each other when they’re not on the air.
Here’s Fox & Friends First hosts Carley Shimkus and Todd Piro talking to guest Joe Concha about a recent article in Politico’s article on the meetings, which have been going on for years and are nothing new, on this Wednesday morning’s show. About the only thing I agree with Concha on is the fact that CNN allowed Jeffery Toobin back on the air after what he did.
PIRO: A new Politico report claiming that anti-Trump legal pundits hold off-the-record calls about Donald Trump’s legal sagas. “The group’s gathering was not a one-time event but in fact an installment in an exclusive weekly digital salon… Every Friday they meet on Zoom to hash out the latest twist and turns in the Trump legal saga – and intellectually stress test the arguments facing Trump on his journey through the American legal system.”
Because that’s their job, right? The calls include several pundits make appearances on several major cable networks, that are not this one.
Actually, it is their job Todd, but go on…
SHIMKUS: Yeah, Jeffrey Toobin also on those phone calls apparently Joe Concha is a Fox news contributor, and he joins us now. Joe, what do you think about this? Is there a problem that you see here?
CONCHA: A huge problem, Carley, because Donald Trump has said repeatedly that there is a legal conspiracy against him, and to hear all these pundits who appear, what feels like on an hourly basis on those other cable news networks, getting together for a weekly meeting to discuss how they’re going to push the narrative that Donald Trump is absolutely guilty until proven innocent, boy, that’s really telling.
So the next time you watch any of these people on those networks, whether it’s Bill Kristol, whether it’s Father of the Year, George Conway, whether it’s Lawrence Tribe or Jennifer Rubin, do know that their analysis is all rehearsed and all an effort to try to take out Donald Trump.
And by the way, the fact that Jeffrey Toobin is one of the legal analysts that appears on these regular Zoom calls should be, you know, hands down potentially disturbing for anyone who has eyesight and is attending, because remember, he got the shaft over at CNN for doing what he did in front of female coworkers on a Zoom call a few years ago. Yet now CNN invites him back to be their star analyst when it comes to these Trump trials. Go figure.
PIRO: I caught two puns there. I’m not going to list them, but don’t want to think you put them over on me, Joe. Look, it’s always felt too coordinated, and when I speak with people, I’m sure you get the same thing, people always ask you, Joe, does the media coordinate their narratives? I think we now have an answer.
Which of course was followed by their coordinated talking points about how Trump has supposedly done nothing wrong, there was no crime, and oh, look how terrible Joe Biden is and listen to us lie about the economy and fear monger over immigrants coming into the country.
PIRRO: Clearly, there is coordination here, but with all that coordination and all that strategizing, this is the best they could come up with? A case where even the prosecution, if they prove every single fact to be true, there’s still no crime because the prosecution can’t come up with a crime.
CONCHA: Yeah, Todd, I love the Jonathan Turley analogy where he says, this is a Frankenstein case, right? Where they took a dead misdemeanor and then bootstrapped it to a dead felony and then zapped it back to life.
Yeah, we still, you know, haven’t heard what the crime here is exactly. And I think many Americans, those who live in places like Pennsylvania or Wisconsin, Michigan, Georgia, Arizona, who are struggling with food prices that continue to climb and crime out of control in American cities, and obviously, the border immigration, they see these wars going on overseas, they see what’s going on in American campuses, and they say, boy, we got bigger fish to fry than. Donald Trump allegedly paying a porn star eight years ago as a hush money situation, so he could interfere with the 2016 election? Yeah. No. I think most sane and sober people say this is obviously a witch-hunt and a politicization and weaponization of the justice system, guys.
PIRO: Yeah, quickly Turley’s best line on this is “The prosecution’s whole case is we are going to prove Donald Trump drove 55 miles an hour. Well, yeah, you can prove that, but it’s not a crime. You’re allowed to drive 55 miles per hour.”
SHIMKUS: Yeah, well also it’s just very interesting that people who are legal analysts on competing networks are coming together to sort of form one solid singular opinion, when the goal should be to offer the audience their own unique thoughts and different perspectives.
PIRO: Great point.
So there’s not enough covering for Trump and both-siding every issue on the other networks to suit Shimkus. The “goal” of anyone that wants to call themselves “news” should be to actually inform their viewers what the truth is, not worry about different “perspectives” when one of those “perspectives” is someone telling lies.
Of course the entire segment was also nothing but pure projection when you’ve got Trump sitting in the election interference trial, and his buddy David Pecker is testifying about how they colluded to get Trump elected.
