Fox & Friends viewers were likely taken aback Wednesday morning when they learned from Brian Kilmeade that Vice Presidents DO, in fact, have the power to declassify documents.
The Fox News host informed viewers of a 2009 bill signed into law by former President Barack Obama that gave vice presidents the power to declassify, which appears to have only been discovered by Fox News pundits after news broke that former Vice President Mike Pence himself was in possession of classified documents.
“Since 2009, the vice president can declassify,” Kilmeade said at the top of his commentary on the story. “Vice President Biden could declassify. Vice President Pence could declassify. You just can’t take it.”
Of course, this flies in the face of what many Fox News viewers have been told over the past two weeks since news broke that multiple batches of classified documents were found in the offices, homes, and garages that belong to President Joe Biden.
In fact, this was a very point made by Ainsley Earhardt, for example, just last Thursday when she said “It’s interesting they say they are upset because of the comparison to Donald Trump. They are saying this was worse. He, as the former president, is allowed to declassify. This guy that you are seeing on the screen, Joe Biden, our current president, was not able to declassify back then because he was the Vice President.”
There are dozens of examples of the same sentiment being said. I considered making a supercut of the dozens of examples but ultimately decided the juice of watching the same thing being said repeatedly was not worth the squeeze.
A cursory search of television transcripts on Fox News revealed dozens of times when an on-air talent defended former President Donald Trump’s classified documents in Mar-a-Lago. The narrative was clear: as president, Trump had the power to declassify documents, but then-VP Biden did not. That was the Fox News narrative, and to be fair, the same sentiment was shared on other cable outlets but far fewer times.
So Fox News pundits have spent over two weeks falsely informing their viewers about this story. Kilmeade deserves credit for correct reporting. However, most reputable news outlets in similar circumstances would publicly issue a correction or note that they got something wrong. Mediaite has reached out to Fox News for comment and will update this post if and when they reply.
Look, mistakes happen. “Pobody’s nerfect,” said Ziggy before he got too preachy.
I’m not going to say this is “worse than Watergate,” as that’s a phrase fraught with peril. But Fox News should explain how they got such an important part of the story so wrong and so often.
Watch above via Fox News.
This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.
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