In a series of Twitter messages posted on Saturday, President Donald Trump slammed Fox News’ legal analyst Andrew Napolitano, while praising Alan Dershowitz.
Trump criticized Napolitano’s “very dumb” legal argument, thanking Dershowitz for “destroying” it.
“Thank you to brilliant and highly respected attorney Alan Dershowitz for destroying the very dumb legal argument of ‘Judge’ Andrew Napolitano,” the president tweeted .
In another Twitter message, Trump accused Napolitano of being “hostile” to him because he had refused to nominate him to the Supreme Court, and because he had refused to “pardon” a judge’s friend.
“Ever since Andrew came to my office to ask that I appoint him to the U.S. Supreme Court, and I said NO, he has been very hostile! Also asked for pardon for his friend. A good ‘pal’ of low ratings Shepard Smith.”
Trump usually doesn’t shy away from praising Fox News personalities, and often live-tweets the network’s coverage. The president is also known to be an avid watcher of the conservative cable channel. However, his criticism of Andrew Napolitano perhaps comes as no surprise given that Napolitano’s conclusions about the Mueller report greatly differ from what is the prevailing sentiment at Fox News.
As Yahoo News reported, in a recent op-ed, Napolitano argued that Trump had obstructed justice, pointing out that Mueller’s report shows that the president had instructed some of his aides and advisers to tamper with the investigation. This, according to Napolitano, qualifies as obstruction of justice, and Mueller should have charged the president with the crime.
Donald Trump has no “moral defense,” according to the legal analyst, and “ordering obstruction to save himself from the consequences of his own behavior is unlawful, defenseless and condemnable.”
Clearly, these comments were enough for President Trump to publicly accuse Napolitano of bias.
Fox News judicial analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano: “When the president asked Corey Lewandowski … to get Mueller fired, that’s obstruction of justice. When the president asked his then-White House counsel to get Mueller fired & then lie about it, that’s obstruction of justice.” pic.twitter.com/5k3dSpD76v
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) April 25, 2019
As previously reported by The Inquisitr , Special Counsel Robert Mueller cleared Trump and his confidants of conspiring with the Russian government during the 2016 presidential election but — without drawing any conclusions, or charging Trump with a crime — suggested that the president may have obstructed justice.
According to Mueller, Trump attempted to obstruct the investigation, but simply was not able to because his aides refused to follow orders. The obstruction chapter of the Mueller document has reportedly angered the president, who remains furious at some of his former aides. Media reports have also alleged that the president is growing increasingly worried that his current aides will “betray” him as well.
Trump slams Fox’s Napolitano: He asked me to pardon his friend, put him on Supreme Court https://t.co/Cytjo6sdNZ pic.twitter.com/AuXcbcSa2f
— The Hill (@thehill) April 28, 2019
Trump has recently been putting pressure on Fox News, and attempting to influence the network in various ways, according to Vanity Fair , which reported that Trump personally called Rupert Murdoch, pressuring the billionaire media mogul to keep Tucker Carlson and Jeanine Pirro on air.
