Reprinted with permission from Shareblue.com
Fox News’ smear campaign against special counsel Robert Mueller just hit a major stumbling block thanks to information unearthed by the Wall Street Journal. Ironically, the conservative Journal is owned by Rupert Murdoch, who also owns Fox.
The Journal reports that FBI agent Peter Strzok, who was removed from the investigation for texts that were critical of Trump, also privately insulted Chelsea Clinton, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and former Attorney General Eric Holder.
Strzok called Sanders, who campaigned for the Democratic presidential nomination, an “idiot,” and used the same name for Sanders’ supporters. In another text, he referred to Chelsea Clinton as “self-entitled.”
When Eric Holder spoke at the Democratic Convention, Strzok texted, “Oh God, Holder! Turn it off turn if off!!!”
The new revelations crush the narrative that has been spun by Fox News and their Republican allies in the House and Senate, who have tried to distract from the probe into Trump and Russia with allegations of bias.
What the new information shows is that the FBI agent in question — who was removed by Mueller as soon as his texts were discovered — aimed his rhetoric at both sides of the aisle. That is a far cry from the outlandish claims of Trump’s media allies, who have alleged that the FBI is a hotbed of Democratic Party sympathy.
Frequent Fox News guest and head of the conservative pressure group Judicial Watch, Tom Fitton, made the absurd claim on Wednesday night that “the FBI’s been compromised” and was turned into “a KGB-type operation by the Obama administration.”
It was clear that this hyperbolic and dangerous argument was wrong before, but the new revelations lay bare just how ridiculous it is.
Mueller has put fear into the Trump team and Republicans with his pursuit of justice. There are already two guilty pleas from Trump campaign officials on the record, while indictments have been handed down against others in his inner circle.
The probe clearly reaches the White House and goes straight into the Oval Office in a manner that worries Trump, his fellow Republicans, and their allies at outlets like Fox. Their reaction, per usual, is to deny reality and cherry pick information in the hopes of confusing the public.
But even those on the same ideological path as Fox and the Republican Party are reporting on real information — not selectively edited propaganda — that shows that their latest “bombshell” is nothing but a smokescreen.
