If you only watched Fox News over the weekend, you didn’t hear about President Donald Trump’s widely condemned reaction to Robert Mueller’s death.
“Robert Mueller just died,” Trump posted to Truth Social shortly after the news of the former FBI director’s death became public on Saturday afternoon. “Good, I’m glad he’s dead. He can no longer hurt innocent people!”
Since then, Fox News has mentioned Mueller’s death at least six times on air without ever quoting Trump’s celebration or all the outrage the post provoked, according to TV transcript database searches.
Most of Fox’s mentions of Mueller’s death were short news updates, not full-fledged discussions. But that, too, was a curious choice for a network whose biggest stars spent years villainizing Mueller for leading the Russia probe during Trump’s first term.
One of the only extended conversations about Mueller was on Trey Gowdy’s Sunday evening show, in which he and Rep. Jim Jordan discussed “the political origins of the Russia collusion hoax.” Trump’s reaction did not come up.
Fox’s omission was a window into how the pro-Trump network selectively amplifies or sidesteps his rhetoric depending on the moment.
When its choice about Mueller gained attention on social media, Trump critics surmised that Fox’s producers were implicitly admitting the president’s comment was appalling by choosing to ignore it altogether.
Fox was certainly aware of the controversy, since its website featured a story about Mueller’s death that quoted Trump at the very top.
But on TV, “I’m glad he’s dead” was not deemed newsworthy at all.
Instead of quoting the current president, who did not express any condolences, Sunday morning’s “Fox & Friends” quoted former president George W. Bush, who nominated Mueller to be FBI director, praising Mueller’s service to the country.
A Fox News spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment Sunday night about the coverage choices.
On other networks, Trump’s decision to celebrate Mueller’s death sparked panel discussions and vocal criticism.
Trump’s comments “should be shocking for anyone to say, let alone a president. But it’s not… Trump’s refusal to show any grace to perceived foes, even after death, is a feature, not a bug. Not a surprise, but that doesn’t make it okay,” CNN anchor Dana Bash said on Sunday’s “State of the Union.”
One of Fox’s longest-serving analysts, former anchorman Brit Hume, was among those who chose to speak out about it — in a post on X.
“This is the kind of stuff Trump does that makes people not just oppose him but hate him,” Hume wrote. “There was no need to say anything.”
This was far from the first time Fox News has turned a blind eye to particularly difficult-to-defend conduct by Trump.
Last December, when another one of Trump’s political foes, Rob Reiner, was brutally murdered, Trump made disparaging remarks about the star director, calling him “deranged” and almost celebrating his death. Fox hosts went out of their way to avoid directly mentioning Trump’s comments.
And months before that, the network all but ignored a scoop by the Wall Street Journal, its corporate sibling, about a scandalous birthday note to Jeffrey Epstein bearing Trump’s name.
“Fox News turns blind eye to latest Epstein bombshell — even when talking to man in charge of investigation,” read a headline at the time from The Independent’s Justin Baragona.
Fox host Sean Hannity recently pointed to Trump insulting Reiner when he was asked on “The Katie Miller Podcast” about times when he has disagreed with the president.
Hannity said he sometimes thinks, “Did you have to say that? Did you really have to go there?” When Miller asked which moment stood out most, Hannity said, “Maybe after Rob Reiner, you know, John McCain wasn’t too good either.”
