A Fox News segment went off the rails when several co-hosts got into a heated debate over former President Donald Trump’s arraignment.
During a segment on “The Five,” the table discussed Trump’s appearance in Miami for his arraignment in the case brought against him by Special Counsel Jack Smith, who was appointed by Biden’s Department of Justice. Trump pleaded “not guilty” through his attorneys in federal court.
The federal judge granted Trump a pretrial release with no special conditions except no contact with witnesses. Smith has charged Trump with 37 counts related to his handling of classified documents. If he is found guilty on all counts, Trump — who is President Joe Biden’s chief rival in next year’s presidential election — could face decades in prison.
The conversation on “The Five” heated up almost immediately when Tarlov, a known liberal, cited Hillary Clinton’s claim that the Republican Party has become a “cult.”
“I don’t think it’s a cult but I think that Donald Trump holds an almost mystical level of power and control over a large swath of the Republican base and they are immune to taking in new information, new negative information, new dangerous information, new potentially criminal information about him,” Tarlov said.
Tarlov continued: “The Presidential Records Act, and Andy McCarthy was talking about this earlier, it doesn’t apply to agency documents. So the way that people are using this to say — I think you said it yesterday, Jesse — ‘Oh, you know, he’s allowed to do this’… He’s not allowed to do it.”
“Good argument,” Watters sarcastically said while smirking.
Tarlov shot back, “Yeah, it is a good argument that he’s not allowed to have those documents. He can’t decide when he declassifies them. He admitted that on tape, which is going to be a huge piece of evidence in this, so stop using the Presidential Records Act.”
Things got heated quickly and led to Watters declaring, “I will use that act whenever I damn well please!” to which Tarlov replied, “Well, continue to do it inaccurately.”
Watters remarked, “I am glad I printed it out! Thank God I printed it out ’cause I’m about to smack you with the act in a second.”
Jesse Watters [laughing]: "Now you care about Chinese nationals!"
Jessica Tarlov: "The amount of deflection that goes on — when I say something about China, you go 'Fang Fang!' Or I say something about this, and you just throw out 'Hunter Biden is a crack addict!' Who cares?!" pic.twitter.com/vyIYc6tl1C
Advertisement— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) June 13, 2023
Tarlov shot back: “When everyone says this is unprecedented, the problem is that Donald Trump is doing things that are unprecedented, and we don’t know that these documents weren’t compromised. We heard about that there were two intruders, two Chinese national intruders. We know that he waved around a classified document…”
Watters began laughing and asked: “Now you care about Chinese nationals?”
That led to Tarlov and Watters going after one another even more:
TARLOV: The amount deflection that goes on… I say something about China and you go ‘Fang Fang’, or I say something about this and then you just throw out, ‘Hunter Biden is a crack addict.’ Who cares! Talk about what happened today, talk about the indictment, and don’t make up things.
WATTERS: Before I get into the act, which I have here, you said something that the Trump voters are immune from taking in new information? That’s such B.S. Jessica because we’re actually learning about the Presidential Records Act, we’re learning about the Espionage Act, and we’re actually making legal arguments and using precedent and comparisons to how the Justice Department has treated Democrats.
Watters concluded, “You’re the ones that don’t want to take in any new information.”
