On Tuesday night, hours after former President Donald Trump was indicted on charges relating to his improper removal of government documents from the White House to his Mar-a-Lago estate, Fox News ran a chyron at the bottom of its screen calling current President Joe Biden a “wannabe dictator” who used his powers in office to have his “political rival arrested.”
The chyron, which appeared below side-by-side live video feeds of both men, has no basis in facts, there being no evidence that Biden played any role whatsoever in the decision to prosecute Trump. Indeed, the decision to do so came after the Department of Justice (DOJ), presenting evidence of Trump’s malfeasance in the case, convinced a federal grand jury based in Florida to charge Trump with 37 criminal counts.
Despite the lack of evidence to back its claim, however, Fox News aired the words at the bottom of its screen as if they were true, during prime time viewing hours, giving their impressionable audience the false and unfounded idea that it was indisputable.
“WANNABE DICTATOR SPEAKS AT WHITE HOUSE AFTER HAVING HIS POLITICAL RIVAL ARRESTED,” the chyron read in full.
Biden has gone on record to say that he hasn’t had any role in the decision-making process to pursue charges against Trump. Special counsel Jack Smith, who was selected to lead the investigation because Trump announced himself as a candidate for president in 2024, has a tremendous amount of experience investigating and prosecuting high-level figures, including prominent politicians, at the International Criminal Court at The Hague, and has prosecuted members of both major political parties in the United States as well.
Critics harangued Fox News over its editorial decision to call Biden a dictator.
“For a network with ‘News’ in its title to broadcast an outright lie is appalling,” wrote Mother Jones news writer Abigail Weinberg. “But even more concerning is the hint of the type of tactics right-wing media are likely to deploy as the presidential race continues. Why dive into the complexities of a complicated indictment when you can paint it as a politically motivated hit and call it a day?”
The wording of the chyron matches the baseless accusations that Trump’s allies and Trump himself have leveled against Biden, Smith and the DOJ throughout the inquiry and especially in recent days.
In his speech on Wednesday night, which he made at his property in Bedminster, New Jersey, before a crowd of adoring supporters, Trump lashed out at the investigation, calling it the most “evil and heinous abuse of power in the history of our country,” and describing Smith as a “thug” as well as a “raging and uncontrolled Trump hater.”
In a Truth Social post last night, Trump also attacked Biden, claiming he would “forever be remembered as not only the most corrupt president in the history of our Country, but perhaps, even more importantly, the president who, together with a band of his closest thugs, misfits, and Marxists, tried to destroy American Democracy!”
Trump made the comment without realizing the irony behind it, as it was his actions after the 2020 presidential election that sought to undermine democracy through his attempts to overturn the results of his loss to Biden. The DOJ is also investigating Trump relating to that matter.
In spite of overwhelming evidence against him, showcasing he did indeed store highly classified records at his Mar-a-Lago estate after leaving office and stymied efforts by government agencies to retrieve them, Republicans in Congress, including GOP leadership, have come to Trump’s defense, parroting his unfounded talking points that he’s being targeted politically by investigators for being Biden’s opponent in the next presidential election.
Last week, for example, Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-California) promised to “hold this brazen weaponization of power accountable.” House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-Louisiana) also called the indictment a “sham” and claimed that “Joe Biden is weaponizing his Department of Justice against his own political rival.”
As Republicans have come to his defense, however, Trump has put his own hypocrisy on display, promising to “go after” Biden if he wins the 2024 presidential election.
If elected, “I will appoint a real special ‘prosecutor’ to go after the most corrupt president in the history of the USA, Joe Biden, the entire Biden crime family, & all others involved with the destruction of our elections, borders, & country itself!” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post this week.
Since his first presidential election run in 2016, Trump has promised to use the presidency in similar blatantly abusive ways. He promised, for example, to prosecute former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, making it a talking point in both the 2016 and 2020 races, even after inquiries into her conduct found no legal wrongdoing had occurred. While he was in office, Trump was rebuffed many times by his legal aides who told him in no uncertain terms that he couldn’t use his office to spearhead inquiries into his opponents.
Trump did so anyway, beyond using the legal apparatus at his disposal. In 2019, Trump infamously requested Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy find him political dirt on Biden, then the presumed likely Democratic presidential nominee, before he would agree to send aid to that country, which was dealing with an escalating Russian military presence on its borders. That demand led to the first of Trump’s two impeachments.
In spite of claims that he’s being unfairly targeted, many legal experts say the charges levied against Trump are sound, based on the available evidence at hand, with some even going so far as to say that the former president will indeed someday be convicted based on the charges.
Norm Eisen, a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution, noted earlier this month that he and other legal experts compiled a model prosecution memo detailing “a powerful case exists for charging Trump.” In a tweet he made late last week, after the indictment filing was unsealed, Eisen doubled down on that statement.
“Now that I have seen the indictment, I feel that way even more strongly,” Eisen said. “Trump will very likely be convicted.”
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