Fox News host Jesse Watters’ coverage of Donald Trump’s criminal hush money trial is raising eyebrows for the praise he lavishes upon the former president and the basic facts about courtroom proceedings he seems not to understand, a new analysis shows.
Among his confused viewers is Vanity Fair’s political correspondent Bess Levin, who targeted Watters Tuesday with a quick fact check and a joking prediction for Fox News.
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“How long till the network likens the ex-president to Jesus Christ—and the trial to a crucifixion?” Levin asked. “Probably not that long!”
Levin argued Watters — who on Monday called the trial “cruel and unusual punishment” because it prevented Trump from golfing — seems to expect the justice system should work differently for the former president.
“Most people understand that these very basic rules are standard for anyone on trial for allegedly committing a bunch of crimes,” she wrote. “And that they’re really just…not a big deal.”
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Levin also expressed some discomfort at issuing a Fox News a fact check.
“It feels pretty silly to fact-check anything that anyone on Fox News ever says,” Levin wrote, “but just a few things of note.”
Those “things” include a challenge to the argument Trump has been denied freedom of speech via a limited gag order, that requiring him to appear in court is taking away his “freedom of movement” and that the treatment he’s receving his similar to those at Gitmo.
“That is,” Levin noted, “unless Gitmo prisoners are allowed to fly home to their Palm Beach resorts on the weekends.”
