In between indictments, Newsmax continued to serve up its usual Donald Trump sycophancy. It generated a plethora of articles out of a June 26 appearance by Trump on Eric Bolling’s Newsmax TV show:
- Trump to Newsmax: US ‘Going to Hell’ Under Biden Admin
- Donald Trump to Newsmax: GOP Primary Debate Isn’t Worth It
- Trump Blasts Fox News: ‘Nasty’ and ‘Prejudiced’
- Donald Trump to Newsmax: Dems Won’t Let Biden ‘Debate Anybody’
- Trump to Newsmax: RFK Jr. Has Important Points to Make in ’24 Race
- Trump to Newsmax: Christie Couldn’t Get Elected Dog Catcher
In an instance of reciprocal sycophancy, another article highlighted that Trump “praised Newsmax for its coverage of the scandals surrounding President Joe Biden and his son Hunter”:
“Newsmax is doing a great job,” Trump said. “I watch Newsmax, a lot of Newsmax lately, and they are doing a great job.”
Trump said that while people are turning off other networks because they see what is going on, they are going to Newsmax to get information.
Before Newsmax had to start delving into defending Donald Trump from his third indictment, however, it had to continue to defend him from new issues rising from his second one. CNN obtained the audio from a previously reported incident in which Trump touted having secret classified documents, and Newsmax rushed to claim the apparently incriminating audio proved nothing. First up was an article by Sandy Fitzgerald dedicated to Trump ranting about it:
“The Deranged Special Prosecutor, Jack Smith, working in conjunction with the DOJ & FBI, illegally leaked and ‘spun’ a tape and transcript of me which is actually an exoneration, rather than what they would have you believe,” Trump said on his Truth Social page Monday night after the audio aired on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360.”
“This continuing Witch Hunt is another ELECTION INTERFERENCE Scam. They are cheaters and thugs!” he wrote.
Fitzgerald then tried to change the subject: “The audio release comes as the information continues to grow concerning President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.”
Next, though, was Alan Dershowitz, who actually admitted that Trump may have screwed up:
Dershowitz said on “John Bachman Now” that based on the audio that’s been released, “I don’t think that he can plausibly claim that what he was showing them was newspapers and magazines. It seems clear from the context he was showing them something that he believed was probably still classified.”
Dershowitz noted that Trump “may have been wrong about that, there are several ways in which documents become declassified. One is the president can do it, he says he didn’t do that. But there is another way and I think that’s the way the Trump defense team is going to be pushing this. They can say that the content of this material, the Milley plan relating to Iran had already been made public.”
After that, it was the usual Trump defense sycophancy mode:
- Devin Nunes played the out-of-context card: “”My guess is this is a 30-minute to an hour interview, and this is what the left and the media and now, sadly, the Department of Justice and the FBI, love to do is to selectively leak. It is to take something possibly out of context. … What I heard right there, it’s a nothing burger. There’s nothing there. It appears like he’s maybe referring to some article, some story maybe that had just come out.”
- Eric Mack devoted an article to noting that the classified document discussed in the audio “is not one of the documents included in his federal indictment.”
- Another article touted that “Francey Hakes, a former assistant United States attorney, told Newsmax that a CNN report that includes key leaked tapes of former President Donald Trump is ‘trial by ambush.'”
Newsmax’s chief Trump sycophant, Dick Morris, labored to spin the tape in a June 29 column:
Anderson Cooper, one of the last survivors at CNN, played a tape last night on the air that had been introduced into evidence to justify one of the key counts in the indictment of Donald Trump.
The special prosecutor says that Trump revealed classified information about war plans to invade Iran to a writer and two of his own staff members, none of whom had security clearance.
But that is not true.
When you listen to the tape, Trump is criticizing Gen. Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, for accusing him of wanting to invade Iran while making his own plans to do so.
Trump is saying, in effect, “Milley says I wanted to attack Iran but he was the one who drew up the plans for an attack.” Then Trump references a pile of papers on his desk, not showing them to anyone, as evidence of Milley’s real views.
[…]Indicting a former president and the leading opponent to Biden is outrageous in and of itself.
But to indict him based on his referring to a document that he did not show to anyone and that he mentioned to prove an ancillary point is even worse.
So sycophantic was Morris that Newsmax felt the need to attach this editor’s note to the top of his column: “The following article has been authored by a non-lawyer, and does not constitute an endorsement for any political party or candidate on the part of Newsmax.” Never mind, of course, that Newsmax has made being the Trump Channel a key part of its current identity.