In this MSNBC segment from All In with Chris Hayes, the host breaks down how Fox News covered the breaking report that President Donald Trump had ordered White House Counsel Don McGahn to fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller in June 2017. Hayes highlights the rapid shifting of narratives across Fox programming, starting around 00:41 with a clip of Sean Hannity initially dismissing the story based on his own sources before abruptly pivoting to air footage of a car crash in Arizona. Hayes then cuts to Fox & Friends at 01:24, where the co-hosts hold up the physical newspaper headline on air, label it fake news, and encourage viewers to focus on immigration and the border wall instead.
Joining Hayes in studio is political commentator and former Breitbart News spokesman Kurt Bardella to analyze the network's messaging strategy. Around 04:49, Hayes plays archival Fox News clips from June 2017 showing Hannity and other hosts repeatedly arguing on air that Mueller had glaring conflicts of interest and needed to be shut down or removed immediately. Bardella and Hayes note the contradiction in the network's coverage, pointing out how opinion hosts who spent months demanding Mueller's removal suddenly scrambled to deny or minimize reports that the President had attempted to do just that.
This clip offers an engaging breakdown of cable news spin and political narrative management during a high-stakes news cycle. The side-by-side comparison between past commentary calling for Mueller's firing and the subsequent on-air denials creates a striking look at media maneuvering under pressure.