Fox News’ Gillian Turner mocked MSNBC host Joe Scarborough and others who blew off a recent inspector general’s report which concluded that former President Donald Trump did not order Lafayette Park cleared for a photo op.
The report said that the park police had been given authorization to clear the park long before Trump decided to walk into the area so that anti-scale fencing could be installed. Scarborough and cohost Mika Brzezinski argued on Thursday’s broadcast of “Morning Joe” that the report didn’t actually prove that Trump or his surrogates had not given the order, and Turner argued that they were simply ignoring news they didn’t like. (RELATED: ‘What Businesses Are Going To Be Left?’: Gillian Turner Rips Into LA’s Summer Lockdown)
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Turner shared video showing CNN’s Jim Acosta referring to the report as “a whitewash,” saying that it looked as though someone was “auditioning to be the Inspector General of Mar-a-Lago,” as well as Scarborough’s reaction.
“Is it appropriate or ethical for them to reject inspector generals’ reports because they disagree?” Turner asked her guest, Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen.
“You know it’s funny. We just talked about how the media dismissed the lab leak theory. They dismissed it because people like Tom Cotton and Donald Trump were pushing it and saying we need to look into it,” Thiessen said, arguing that the same knee-jerk response was in play with regard to Lafayette Square.
“A narrative emerged which is that he cleared the square in order to do this photo op with a bible in front of the church. It turns out that it wasn’t true,” Thiessen continued, going on to say that the authorization to clear the square for new fencing had come after park police had found weapons caches in the area and St. John’s Church had been set on fire.
“The media just — if Donald Trump says it, it must be wrong. If the virus came from a lab, Trump said it, it must be wrong. And now that he is gone, suddenly we can say these things,” Thiessen concluded. “We don’t want to take responsibility for the false reporting.”
“Maybe I will take a page from their book and stop reporting on things I don’t agree with,” Turner replied. “Wish me luck.”