Fox News anchor Shepard Smith read President Trump’s tweet, in which he threatened to “go after” Stormy Daniels or “Horseface” as he called her, in full on his Tuesday afternoon broadcast. His only real commentary on it was a curt “Hm.”
Smith noted that it “did not take long” for Daniels to respond, but instead of putting her tweet on screen, he turned the story over to reporter Trace Gallagher, who explained he would not be reading it aloud.
“In her rapid-fire response to the president, Stormy Daniels certainly didn’t pull any punches,” Gallagher reported. “Her tweet was 38 words, we’re not going to show you all of it because it was filled with sexual innuendo to criticize the president’s body and also accused him of depraved and inhumane behavior though she didn’t specify what she meant.”
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Daniels’ full tweet read: “Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present your president. In addition to his...umm...shortcomings, he has demonstrated his incompetence, hatred of women and lack of self control on Twitter AGAIN! And perhaps a penchant for bestiality. Game on, Tiny.”
The “depraved and inhumane behavior” seemed to refer to her allegation of “bestialty,” a joking reference to the president’s alleged affair with the woman he now refers to as “Horseface.”
As Media Matters’ Lis Power put it on Twitter: “I still find it odd how Fox will air all of Trump’s insulting tweets but whenever someone replies to his attacks it’s unsuitable for TV.”
Meanwhile, during its primetime hours Fox News had no problem keeping the words “Creepy Porn Lawyer” on the screen throughout much of Tucker Carlson’s interview with Daniels’ lawyer Michael Avenatti.
Earlier in the day, CNN’s Brooke Baldwin suggested that Trump’s “misogyny”-laden tweet appeared to be a “calculated move” to get the media to talk about anything but his administration’s response to the suspected murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. But as her colleague Brian Stelter pointed out, it doesn’t seem to be working. Overall, the Saudi situation has gotten much more play on cable news Tuesday than “Horseface”-gate.
