Fox News anchor responds to allegations that he colluded with DOJ to 'entrap' Donald Trump



Fox News anchor Bret Baier is denying that he communicated with the Justice Department before interviewing Donald Trump.

What happened in the interview?

Baier's sit-down interview with the former president was notable for several reasons, but most prominently because, as lawyers pointed out, Trump appeared to have admitted to obstructing justice.

During the interview, Baier asked Trump why he didn't return the boxes of documents requested by the National Archives and Records Administration, which then obtained a subpoena for the documents. Trump replied that he was busy.

"But according to the indictment, you then tell this aide to move to other locations after telling your lawyers to say you'd fully complied with the subpoena, when you hadn't," Baier followed up.

"But before I send boxes over, I have to take all of my things out. These boxes were interspersed with all sorts of things — golf shirts, clothing, pants, shoes. There were many things," Trump responded.

Trump, then, essentially allowed Baier to cross-examine him by simply reading from the indictment. Special counsel Jack Smith will likely attempt to use Trump's own words to strengthen his case that Trump willfully and knowingly conspired to obstruct justice and withheld documents from a federal grand jury (count 32 and 33 of the indictment). Better yet for Smith, he didn't even have to cross-examine Trump himself.

— (@)

How did Baier respond?

The interview led Trump supporters to accuse Fox News of being in cahoots with the Justice Department to entrap Trump.

The Fox News anchor directly responded to an accusation on Wednesday that claimed, "The big question is did @BretBaier have any contact with the DOJ to try and entrap @realDonaldTrump into incriminating himself. Who wrote his questions. The DOJ will be using his interview against him."

According to Baier, it is unequivocally false to suggest he was recruited to help investigators.

"I’ll answer that. No. I wrote my own questions," he said. "And frankly I didn’t know that I would get much on the indictment questions assuming he might say he couldn’t talk about it. Thanks for watching."

— (@)

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Sen. Joe Manchin says VP Kamala Harris is 'dead wrong' to claim that the border is secure



Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia told Fox News anchor Bret Baier that Vice President Kamala Harris was "dead wrong" to claim that America's border is secure.

While massive numbers of migrants have been pouring across the southern border month after month, Harris told "Meet the Press" moderator Chuck Todd that the U.S. border is secure.

"The border is secure. But we also have a broken immigration system, in particular over the last four years before we came in, and it needs to be fixed," the vice president said.

\u201cWATCH: The U.S. will have 2 million people cross its border for the first time. #MTP\n\n@VP: \u201cWe have a secure border in that that is a priority. \u2026 But there are still a lot of problems that we are trying to fix given the deterioration that happened over the last four years.\u201d\u201d
— Meet the Press (@Meet the Press) 1662933125

U.S. Customs and Border Protection data indicates that from October 2021 through July 2022 there have been nearly 2 million southwest land border encounters.

Todd pressed the issue, asking the vice president whether she is "confident" that the border is secure.

"We have a secure border, in that that is a priority for any nation including ours," Harris said, indicating that it represents a priority for the administration.

But Manchin described the claim that the border is secure as "not accurate," adding, "I've been there. It's wrong."

\u201c.@BretBaier: "Vice President Harris said this weekend the southern border is 'secure.'"\n\nManchin: "It's wrong. She's dead wrong on that."\u201d
— Townhall.com (@Townhall.com) 1663108207

CBP press releases regularly highlight the apprehension of previously deported criminals who committed heinous crimes.

For example, authorities recently caught an individual who in 2019 had been "convicted of lewd and lascivious acts with a minor in South Carolina and sentenced to five years in prison," according to a CBP press release. That individual, who had been deported in May of this year, was just arrested on September 2.

Similarly, on September 7, Border Patrol agents caught a person who had been deported in June of this year after getting "convicted, in December 2021 in California, of lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 years of age," according to another CBP press release.

Cases in which previously deported criminals illegally reenter the U.S. clearly illustrate the critical importance of border security as a matter of public safety.

While US confines its evacuations to the airport, British, German, and French forces are reportedly rescuing their citizens in Kabul



The U.S. Department of Defense has restricted its evacuation of American personnel and Afghan civilians who worked for U.S. forces to Kabul's Hamid Karzai International Airport. There is a report that the U.S. government is "counting on the Taliban to help Americans and Afghans get access to the airport." At the same time, British, German, and French special forces are going into the city of Kabul to rescue their citizens.

There have been some chaotic scenes at the Hamid Karzai International Airport ever since the Taliban captured Kabul. The U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan has instructed American citizens to go to the Kabul airport to evacuate the country. However, the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan has also warned that the "United States government cannot ensure safe passage to the Hamid Karzai International Airport."

A Fox News report stated the 6,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan are "under strict orders" not to leave the Kabul airport to rescue Americans in the city.

"The U.S. government is counting on the Taliban to help Americans and Afghans get access to the airport," the report added.

Fox News host Brett Baier asked Pentagon spokesman John Kirby if there was a deal with the Taliban that restricts U.S. forces from extracting Americans from the city of Kabul.

"No. There's no deal that restricts forces to the airport but Bret, that's where the mission is," Kirby responded. "The troops are there for really two things. One, to keep that airport safe and secure for people and for flight operations and two, to make sure that those flight operations can go as unimpeded as possible with few delays."

Baier pointed out that other nations, such as the U.K., reportedly used their forces to rescue their citizens.

"We have not seen any great impediments to the safe passage that the Taliban have agreed to facilitate," Kirby replied. "Americans are getting through those checkpoints, and they are getting onto the base on the airfield, and they are being flown out of Kabul. I won't speak to potential, future operations that may or may not be conducted. What I can tell you is that the operation that we're conducting now, and that is to keep that airfield open and running and Americans are getting through the lines and they are getting onto planes."


.@BretBaier: "Is there a deal with the Taliban that restricts US forces to the airport?"@PentagonPresSec: "No..."… https://t.co/QenWnv9q7n

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) 1629412256.0

However, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said during a Wednesday news conference that the U.S. does not have "the capability to go out and collect large numbers of people."

During his news conference Friday, President Biden was asked about sending U.S. troops into Kabul to evacuate Americans who couldn't get to the airport.

"We have no indication that they haven't been able to get in Kabul through the airport," Biden replied. "We've made an agreement with the Taliban thus far, they've allowed them to go through and they're interested in them to go through. So we know of no circumstance where American citizens are carrying an American passport are trying to get through to the airport, but we will do whatever needs to be done to see to that they get to the airport."

Another reporter questioned Biden about the "chaos and violence" around the airport, and asked, "Are you saying unequivocally that any American who wants to get to the airport is getting there and getting past the security barrier and to the planes where they want to go?"

Biden responded, "And the answer is to the best of our knowledge, the Taliban checkpoints, they are letting through people showing American passports. Now, that's a different question when they get into the rush and crowd of all the folks just outside the wall, near the airport."

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said, "My office has received numerous reports of American citizens and Afghan allies being harassed, beaten, and abused by Taliban thugs. These reports are in addition to the televised scenes of chaos at the airport perimeter."

There are reports that Afghans who worked for the U.S. are fearful of Taliban checkpoints because their previous work with Westerners makes them a prime target for retribution.

While the U.S. says it can't or doesn't need to go into Kabul to rescue Americans, other countries have purportedly accomplished successful missions to extract their citizens.

The Daily Telegraph reported that the U.K. government deployed paratroopers to the streets of Kabul to rescue 200 British nationals.

Germany announced it will send two light helicopters with special forces to Kabul to evacuate Germans at risk or situated in remote regions, according to the Jerusalem Post.

France 24 reported that its military helped more than 200 French nationals, foreign nationals, and Afghans get to the airport.

French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted, "To our armies, police and diplomatic teams who organize these sensitive operations, thank you. We continue."

Près de 200 Afghans qui ont travaillé pour la France ou qui sont menacés viennent d’être évacués de Kaboul. Ainsi q… https://t.co/vSdyVBPACU

— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) 1629274300.0

CBS News reported, "U.S. military transport planes have air-lifted around 5,000 people, mostly U.S. citizens and Afghans who once worked for the U.S., out of the country. But there are around 60 to 80,000 left to get out, by President Biden's count, and that includes more than 10,000 Americans."

The Biden administration has made Aug. 31 the deadline to evacuate Americans out of Afghanistan, but on Wednesday, President Biden said the deadline could be extended to "get them all out."

Biden spokesman flips out when asked if presidential nominee used teleprompter for interviews



The National Press Secretary for the campaign of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden flipped his lid on Thursday when he was asked whether his boss ever used a teleprompter during interviews with reporters.

Despite being asked several times, the spokesman never answered the question.

What are the details?

Fox News' Bret Baier asked Biden spokesman TJ Ducklo, "Has Joe Biden ever used a teleprompter during local interviews or to answer Q&A with reporters?"

"Bret, we're not gonna — this is straight from the Trump campaign talking points," Ducklo responded, leaving Baier to say, "Well yeah, they're using it."

Ducklo insisted, "What it does, Bret, is it's trying to distract the American people."

"They're using it. They talk about it every day," Baier said, pressing, "Can you say yes or no?"

The two engaged in a back-and-forth with Baier asking Ducklo multiple times to answer the question, before the anchor signed off with his guest.

Ducklo's refusal to answer the question raised eyebrows on social media.

Caleb Hull, senior editor at the Independent Journal Review noted, "TJ Ducklo refused to answer and instead had a meltdown. Disaster of an interview for the Biden campaign."

Bret Baier just asked Biden's National Press Sec a simple yes or no question:Has Joe Biden ever used a teleprompt… https://t.co/8xVuTsubXW
— Kelb Hull (@Kelb Hull)1599778897.0

Other reporters chimed in, too. The Hill's Joe Concha tweeted, "Biden spox asked by Bret Baier if Biden uses a teleprompter in interviews. Spokesman accuses Baier — one of the most respected journalists in the business — of pushing Trump talking points while refusing to answer yes or no. Attacking the messenger means you've lost the argument."

But the teleprompter question was not the only contentious part of the Baier's interview with Ducklo.

Newsbusters editor Curtis Houck shared a clip from earlier in the interview when Biden's spokesman lost his cool and failed to answer the Fox News host's question about what the Democrat would have done differently than President Donald Trump in handling COVID-19.

Instead of answering, Ducklo insisted Biden was not against Trump's travel ban.

"Let me just clarify," Baier said. "You're saying Joe Biden was for closing down travel from China when the president did it?"

The Biden for President spokesman then attacked Fox News, saying, "I know you all like to cite the travel ban."

"No, no, no, the president does," Baier responded, explaining, "That's why I'm bringing it up. Obviously it's going to be in the debate."

Ducklo also refused to answer that question directly but offered to send Baier "fact checks" saying "this has been fact-checked into oblivion."

Video: Here's just a sample of the back-and-forth between Fox News Channel's @BretBaier and TJ Ducklo from the Bide… https://t.co/EzrJXGeULw
— Curtis Houck (@Curtis Houck)1599776751.0

Josh Holmes, the former chief of staff and campaign manager for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell wrote on Twitter after the interview, "TJ Ducklo is likely not going on television again. Yikes."