While Fox News’ opinion hosts and commentators push the narrative that this week’s dramatic impeachment hearings and its damning revelations are somehow good news for President Donald Trump, the network’s news division continues to concede to Fox viewers that the testimony has been, in fact, quite damaging.
Following the conclusion of Thursday’s hearing featuring diplomat David Holmes and former White House Russia expert Fiona Hill, Fox News anchor Bret Baier said Hill was such a compelling witness that many Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee simply avoided asking her questions altogether.
“David Holmes was there to testify about his phone call, what he heard about Ambassador Sondland talking to President Trump,” Baier noted. “He was very confident in what he says he heard and made sure his feelings were clear in a big opening statement. Hill was really a powerful witness for the Democrats.”
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Adding that GOP counsel Steve Castor struggled in his questioning of Hill, including a notable exchange in which she said Trump involved Sondland in a “domestic political errand,” the Fox anchor further praised Hill.
“She was a very impressive witness to the point where a number of GOP lawmakers just gave speeches,” he stated. “They didn’t ask her questions.”
Baier concluded by noting that the few times Republicans did ask questions, they did get one answer that helped strengthen the GOP narrative.
“The Steele dossier, she said, was a rabbit hole,” Baier declared. “She also said that Christopher Steele, behind the dossier, got played. That was an interesting point that may be explained down the road.”
Baier hasn’t been the only Fox “hard news” personality to stray from the MAGA line when it comes to analyzing the impeachment hearings.
Fox News anchor Chris Wallace confronted Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) on Sunday for badly mischaracterizing the testimony of impeachment witnesses, prompting President Trump to attack him on Twitter. Wallace also pointed out that Sondland essentially ran the bus over Trumpworld during his Wednesday testimony.
