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catbyte

(34,412 posts)
Mon Dec 10, 2018, 02:10 PM Dec 2018

Fox & Friends defending Trump payments to mistresses: "Obama did the exact same thing."

The lying never ends over at TRUMPRAVDA, Trump State Television. Utterly despicable.
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Fox & Friends falls all over itself defending Trump payments to mistresses: ‘Obama did the exact same thing’

David Edwards

10 DEC 2018 AT 10:42 ET

A Fox & Friends segment on Monday insisted that President Donald Trump does not deserve jail time for illegally paying off two women during the 2016 campaign because former President Barack Obama “did the exact same thing.”

During a segment about Trump’s payments to two former mistresses during the 2016 campaign, conservative commentator Dan Bongino complained that federal prosecutors would be wrong to “throw the president in jail” for violating campaign finance laws.
“Explain to me how this isn’t police state tactics,” Bongino told the hosts of Fox & Friends. “For what? For civil violations?”

snip...

“That’s an election law violation,” Kilmeade explained. “According to everybody’s stats, Barack Obama’s campaign spent nearly $2 million in violations of election law. They got a fine of $300,000. But you want to throw this president in jail about payments to women that they may or may not have known about!”

“What you just said is factually correct,” Bongino replied. “The Barack Obama team was guilty of the exact same thing and was given a civil fine… But because its Barack Obama — you know, the anointed one — nothing happened.”

snip...

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/12/fox-friends-falls-defending-trump-payments-mistresses-obama-exact-thing/

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Maeve

(42,285 posts)
5. Here's the bottom line from that Snopes link
Mon Dec 10, 2018, 02:20 PM
Dec 2018
The infractions committed by the 2008 Obama campaign were not alleged to be intentional, and the FEC did not consider the campaign’s documentation lapses as rising to the level of a “serious” offense prosecutable by the Department of Justice.

“There are always reporting violations in campaigns. Many of them minor, many of them substantive,” Ravel told us. “But in this case … what was admitted to by Cohen was that there was a clear intent to use campaign money for the purpose of keeping the individuals quiet right before the election for campaign purposes.”

Trump’s assertion that Cohen broke no law is in conflict with his own Justice Department, who secured multiple guilty pleas related to the commission of violations of federal election laws. Specifically, Cohen admitted to intentionally violating portions of the following federal election laws on behalf of Donald Trump:

52 U.S. Code § 30116 – Limitations on contributions and expenditures
52 U.S. Code § 30118 – Contributions or expenditures by national banks, corporations, or labor organizations

Obama’s civil FEC infractions, while they resulted in a large fine, are legally distinct from what Cohen pled guilty to, which is the intentional commission of felonies intended to affect the outcome of a federal election.

spanone

(135,854 posts)
7. Faux viewers are the least informed people on the face of the earth.
Mon Dec 10, 2018, 02:26 PM
Dec 2018

do faux viewers really think the republican house and senate wouldn't have gone after President Obama if they could have?

the dumbest mofo's in America

bearsfootball516

(6,377 posts)
9. Statistically speaking, you're correct.
Mon Dec 10, 2018, 02:27 PM
Dec 2018
https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2016/07/21/a-rigorous-scientific-look-into-the-fox-news-effect/#2b0f2b8812ab

"In 2012, a Fairleigh Dickinson University survey reported that Fox News viewers were less informed about current events than people who didn't follow the news at all."

Kaleva

(36,315 posts)
10. Didn't Trump used to say there were no payments to mistresses?
Mon Dec 10, 2018, 02:28 PM
Dec 2018

And now Fox and Friends are saying there were?

Kablooie

(18,636 posts)
12. The Obama campaign infraction was that they were a little late in reporting some donations.
Mon Dec 10, 2018, 02:28 PM
Dec 2018

They didn't try to hide them but reported them after the outlined deadline so they were fined.

A bit different from paying someone off to prevent voters from learning about the candidate's past.

DFW

(54,415 posts)
14. If one were to take the headline literally....................
Mon Dec 10, 2018, 02:34 PM
Dec 2018

"Fox & Friends falls all over itself defending Trump payments to mistresses: ‘Obama did the exact same thing’"

Fox and Frauds is saying that Obama also made payments to Trump's mistresses?

Seems like kind of a stretch, even for them...........

JaneQPublic

(7,113 posts)
15. Bongino is infamous in Maryland
Mon Dec 10, 2018, 02:39 PM
Dec 2018

He ran for the Senate against Ben Cardin and lost.

He ran for a House seat against against John Delaney (MD-06) and lost.

He spouted his extreme RW views on local radio talk shows and any community news & views website that would have him.

Luckily for us Marylanders, he finally moved to Florida, where he continues to run for office and get beat.

njhoneybadger

(3,910 posts)
17. I don't think it's a big deal.
Mon Dec 10, 2018, 03:17 PM
Dec 2018

If I was his lawyer I would argue that most people even democrats believed he could shoot someone on Fifth Ave. and his supporters would not abandon him.
It would matter more if Malania found out than his supporters found out.

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