NewsBusters Managing Editor Curtis Houck made his latest Fox News appearance late Friday on Fox News @ Night and partnered with host Trace Gallagher and The Federalist’s Evita Duffy to ridicule the liberal media’s deranged and overly excited reactions to Thursday’s criminal conviction of former President Trump by a Manhattan jury.
Gallagher first had correspondent Matt Finn set the table with a mash-up of clips, including ABC’s The View co-host Joy Behar admitting she lost control of her bladder upon hearing the verdict, The View’s Sunny Hostin claiming she has sources inside the Manhattan D.A.’s office hoping for jail time, and Chris Matthews predicting “violence” by Trump supporters.
Houck reacted by saying it “remind[ed]” him “of the Judge Alito controversy” in that he came away with the same concern for all these hyper-partisan lefties, which is concern for whether they have anything else to occupy their minds besides melting down about Trump.
“[D]o these people have hobbies? Like, do they do things for fun? Like, do they have kids or a spouse or a dog? Like do they like sports? I really wonder what do they do with their free time because it’s so apocalyptic and it’s so like faux doomsday nonsense,” Houck explained to a chuckling Gallagher.
Houck added the clips fall into two trains of thought: “Because you have that, and then, you also have the more ebullient kind of talk on The View where they are very excited about this. Too much information, Joy Behar. It’s — it’s bizarre. They don’t really know quite what they want to do in reacting to this verdict.”
Later, Houck sounded off on the split decision by the liberal networks to carry vs. not carry Trump’s Friday morning remarks at Trump Tower.
After noting “ABC and CBS...didn’t even carry network special reports on it” and instead aired regular episodes of The View and Price Is Right, respectively, Houck worked in last week’s big study he co-wrote with Rich Noyes about the obsessive network coverage of the trial as a way of showing their disconnect with letting Trump speak:
I mean, that’s interesting, because as I noted in a piece that ran at FoxNews.com and in NewsBusters, there were 640 minutes on this trial during the broadcast networks, and then, through this morning, it went up to 780 minutes. So, you spend all this time on the trial, but to let the man at the center of it being charged, speak? Ehh, no thanks.
Reacting to The View ladies, Duffy noted “there is no diversity of opinions on The View” and are disconnected from younger voters and minorities with the former so focused on Gaza to focus elsewhere and the latter seeing “what’s happening to Trump, and they’re getting flashbacks of Venezuela, of Cuba, of the totalitarian regimes that they left.”
Gallagher also had Duffy react to a viral piece from CNN legal analyst Elie Honig in New York Magazine admitting the charges brought by far-left Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg were “obscure, and nearly entirely unprecedented” and “contorted...in an unprecedented manner in their quest to snare their prey.”
Duffy said this wasn’t surprising given much of the general public knows “this is unprecedented” and Trump’s someone “who represents anti globalism and all of the things that the state, that — that the elites and media” hate.
To see the relevant FNC transcript from May 31, click “expand.”
FNC’s Fox News @ Night with Trace Gallagher
May 31, 2024
11:14 p.m. Eastern[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Mainstream Media Celebrates Trump Conviction]
TRACE GALLAGHER: Meantime, to the media’s mainstream — or mainstream media’s wall-to-wall coverage of the trial culminating in what became a celebration of sorts after the guilty verdicts were read. Matt Finn is live with that part of the story, Matt, good evening.
MATT FINN: Trace, some members of the media have not been able to contain their excitement over former President Trump’s conviction, and here are some of the ladies of The View.
JOY BEHAR [on ABC’s The View, 05/31/24]: I was at Costco buying, you know, 10 boxes of Keurig coffee and my watch started to buzz, and I got so excited, I started leaking a little bit.
HOSTIN [on ABC’s The View, 05/31/24]: I felt like America won.
BEHAR [on ABC’s The View, 05/31/24]: Yep.
HOSTIN [on ABC’s The View, 05/31/24]: I felt like New York won. I felt like the Manhattan D.A.’s Office won. I felt like I won.
FINN: And here is Trump opponent, Adam Schiff, and host of Morning Joe on MSNBC.
CONGRESSMAN ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA) [on MSNBC’s Ana Cabrera Reports, 05/31/24]: Trump and his MAGA followers are, you know, digging in — [SCREEN WIPE] — trying to tear down the system.
CHRIS MATTHEWS [on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, 05/31/24]: There is going to be violence, there is going to be trouble. [SCREEN WIPE] This is wrong. There is going to be some problems here, maybe some violence. And this President — former President should not have done what he did.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI [on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, 05/31/24]: I don’t think he has a problem with the concept of violence.
FINN: And The View and CNN discussing the prospect of former President Trump going to jail.
WHOOPI GOLDBERG [on ABC’s The View, 05/31/24]: If we are going to treat this man, who used to be president, like everybody else, you are convicted of felonies, you got to juice a little bit of time.
HOSTIN [on ABC’s The View, 05/31/24]: I spent this morning speaking to someone from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. He believes that they will recommend a one-year term in prison. When you spend a year in prison in New York or under, you serve in Rikers Island. Okay?
NORM EISEN [on CNN’s Erin Burnett OutFront, 05/30/24]: I think Alvin Bragg is going to ask for a sentence of incarceration, and I think Judge Merchan will very seriously weigh that.
FINN: Former President Trump’s sentencing is scheduled for July 11, Trace.
GALLAGHER: We’ll be there, Matt.
FINN: Yeah.
GALLAGHER: Matt, good to see you. Let’s bring in NewsBusters’s managing editor, Curtis Houck, and the Federalist staff contributor, Evita Duffy. Thank you both for coming on. I have to play it one more time just because it’s worth watching. This is the ladies of The View with their embarrassing take on this. Watch.
ANA NAVARRO [on ABC’s The View, 05/31/24]: I was schizophrenic because part of me was like, yay. And part of me was like, you know what? This is really serious. Yay. This is really serious.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: ‘The View’ Celebrates Donald Trump’s Conviction]
HOSTIN [on ABC’s The View, 05/31/24]: I didn’t feel somber. I felt like the Knicks won the tournament.
BEHAR [on ABC’s The View, 05/31/24]: My watch started to buzz and I got so excited, I started leaking a little bit.
ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN [on ABC’s The View, 05/31/24]: He is going to do and say absolutely anything that he can to get elected. So, buckle up because that’s rage and retribution.
GALLAGHER: I mean, the last woman, Alyssa, she used to work for him, Evita Duffy. That’s the whole thing. It’s amazing, they could not care less about the facts of this case. This was all about get Trump, I don’t care what the cost.
EVITA DUFFY: Well, exact — that’s exactly right. And, of course, it’s The View, which is supposed to be a diversity of opinions. And there is no diversity of opinions on The View, there never is, but here’s the deal, Trace. You have young people and minorities turning away from Democrats in droves. And this, this rhetoric, from The View and from other Democrats in the corporate media is not helping. For his — for minorities, specifically, Hispanics, they are looking at what’s happening — what’s happening to Trump, and they’re getting flashbacks of Venezuela, of Cuba, of the totalitarian regimes that they left. Young people, on the other hand, they are really animated by Gaza. But they can’t even tell you where Gaza is on a map. They are really, I think, showing that they are disillusioned with the system, that the — that their futures are being destroyed by them —
GALLAGHER: Yeah.
DUFFY: — by — by this system that’s created by — by Biden and Democrats in general. And so, this rhetoric from the people on The View is not resonating with the people that Democrats need to win over —
GALLAGHER: Right.
DUFFY: — if they have a chance at winning in November.
GALLAGHER: I think it’s worth playing Morning Joe crew again. Because the only people who top The View are the people on Morning Joe. Watch, Curtis.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Scarborough: “It Hurts to See People Hate America”]
JOE SCARBOROUGH [on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, 05/31/24]: They degrade themselves. And they slander America. [SCREEN WIPE] It hurts to see people hate America.
MIKE BARNICLE [on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, 05/31/24]: This is a reason to stop and think and maybe even get depressed over the reaction on the other side. The anti-Americanism that filled the air last night.
EUGENE ROBINSON,[on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, 05/31/24]: Trashing this — this incredible institution is just appalling, and shame on them.
GALLAGHER: I mean, Curtis, you got to love the drama coming out of there, right? Because now, dissent and disagreement in America is just — it’s anti American. It’s an assault on democracy.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Media Reaction to Donald Trump’s Guilty Verdict]
CURTIS HOUCK,: Yes. I mean, Trace, this coverage kind of reminds me of the Judge Alito controversy, where I watch all these clips. And I’m like, do these people have hobbies? Like, do they do things for fun? [GALLAGHER LAUGHS] Like, do they have kids or a spouse or a dog? Like do they like sports? I really wonder what do they do with their free time —
GALLAGHER: Yeah.
HOUCK: — because it’s so apocalyptic and it’s so like faux doomsday nonsense. Because you have that, and then, you also have the more ebullient kind of talk on The View where they are very excited about this. Too much information, Joy Behar.
GALLAGHER: Yeah.
HOUCK: It’s — it’s bizarre. They don’t really know quite what they want to do in reacting to this verdict.
GALLAGHER: Yeah, I want to read this and I need quick answers, because I’ve only got a couple of minutes left. But the this is from New York Magazine. This is the lead legal guy at CNN. He writes: “The charges against Trump are obscure, and nearly entirely unprecedented. In fact, no state prosecutor in New York, Wyoming, anywhere has ever charged federal election laws as a director of predicate state crime, against anyone, for anything. None, ever. Prosecutors get their man, for now at least, but they also contorted the law in an unprecedented manner in their quest to snare their prey.” He might not be invited back on CNN, Evita.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: CNN Analyst: Prosecutors “Contorted the Law”]
DUFFY: Yeah, I think that people know that this is unprecedented. I think that they are viewing this as a — as a political persecution against them, in the same way that it is against Trump. This is a man who represents anti globalism and all of the things that the state, that — that the elites and media and in our — in our other institutions believe in, and they are realizing that this is the same persecution against them, as [inaudible].
GALLAGHER: Meantime today, The New York Times writes, “Several major networks cut away from former President Donald J. Trump on Friday during an appearance that had been promoted as a news conference.” I mean, Biden told 15 lies in 18 minutes, Curtis, on CBS. Oh, yes, totally fine. Trump? Oh, cut away. Cut away, don’t let him talk.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Networks Cut Away From Donald Trump’s Speech]
HOUCK: ABC and CBS, Trace, didn’t even carry network special reports on it. You know?
GALLAGHER: Mmhmm.
HOUCK: I mean, they carried The Price Is Right and they carried that nonsense we are playing on The View, instead. I mean, that’s interesting, because as I noted in a piece that ran at FoxNews.com and in NewsBusters, there were 640 minutes on this trial during the broadcast networks, and then, through this morning, it went up to 780 minutes. So, you spend all this time on the trial, but to let the man at the center of it being charged, speak? Ehh, no thanks.
GALLAGHER: Again, assaulting democracy, Curtis Houck, Evita Duffy, thank you both.
HOUCK: Thanks, Trace.
