Fox News Cuts Away From Donald Trump To Fact-Check Economic Claim: ‘It Was Not A Disaster Under Barack Obama’
Fox News gave viewers a real-time fact-check of Donald Trump as he spoke on Thursday, cutting away from the president’s remarks to correct a claim he made about the economy under Barack Obama being a “disaster.”
As Mediaite reported, host Neil Cavuto cut in to give a message to viewers while Trump was speaking about deregulation efforts. During the remarks, Trump pointed to what he called “job-destroying regulations” put in place by Obama, prompting Cavuto to remind viewers that this took place during the nationwide financial crisis.
The Fox News host pointed out that Obama’s efforts were aimed at creating more protections for consumers.
“You might recall we had this little thing called the financial meltdown, and much of those regulations were geared to preventing banks from ever investing in things like risky mortgage securities, pooling them, selling them off,” he noted.
Cavuto went on to correct assertions from Trump that the U.S. economy was a “disaster” under Obama, noting that unemployment fell from a high of close to 10 percent at the height of the financial crisis to 4.7 percent by the end of his presidency. He also pushed back against Trump’s premise that it was financial regulations that caused the nation’s difficult economic conditions.
“It was not a disaster under Barack Obama,” Cavuto said. “Not only did the Dow essentially triple during his tenure, but whether you want to call the increase regulations and other things that police financial companies, as a bane to our existence, those companies did very well. Americans did very, very well. So I just want to put that in some context here.”
The correct was seen as rare for Fox News, though The Daily Beast noted that Cavuto has regularly drawn the ire of the president for fact-checking his claims. Cavuto has pushed back as well, saying last year that it was not the network’s job to work for his interests.
Trump, once a very vocal fan of Fox News, is known to take to Twitter to promote shows and segments that are flattering to him. However, he has been more critical of the network in recent weeks as some of its coverage and polling has grown more critical. The Inquisitr reported in May that some close to the president believe that he wants to “take down” Fox News for what he sees as disloyalty to him personally. The report cited Vanity Fair which claimed that the president’s loyalties appear to be shifting to the smaller One America News Network (OANN), noting that an equity firm linked to Donald Trump Jr. has purchased a stake in the network.
