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President Donald Trump on Thursday listed a slew of Fox News hosts as his main sources of information for the Department of Justice's Russia investigation into his 2016 campaign.
During the White House press briefing this afternoon, the president launched into a rebuke of the Russia probe and Steele dossier, which he referred to as the "dirty dossier." Trump then name-dropped a range of his favorite Fox News personalities and credited them for keeping him informed.
"I watch some of the shows," he told reporters. "I watch Liz McDonald. She's fantastic. I watch Fox Business. I watched Lou Dobbs last night. Sean Hannity last night. Tucker [Carlson] last night. Laura [Ingraham]. I watched Fox & Friends in the morning. You watch these shows. You don't have to go too far into the details, they cover things that are—it's really an amazing thing."
"You watch these shows, you don't have to go too far into the details... It's really any amazing thing, they got caught in the biggest political scandal in the history of our country," the president added, referring to the Russia probe.
The Trump-Russia scandal dominated newspapers and media reports for nearly two years during the inquiry, led by former FBI director Robert Mueller.
The probe explored allegations of collusion between the president's 2016 campaign team and Russia. While a redacted version of the 448-page report, released April 18, 2019, found no evidence of a conspiracy, it did detail at least 10 instances of possible obstruction of justice committed by Trump.
Newsweek reached out to Fox News for comment.
Later in the briefing, Trump defended himself from reporters who accused him of lying to the American public and downplaying the covid threat in the early stages of the pandemic. The allegations stem from remarks made by the president to journalist Bob Woodward in a slew of interviews this year that were made public on Wednesday.
"I wanted to always play [coronavirus] down. I still like playing it down, because I don't want to create a panic," the president admitted to Woodward on March 19 in an interview that was taped.
Trump defended the remarks on Thursday, saying he was merely attempting to "show a level of confidence" and "strength as a leader." He maintained "there was no lie here."
"What we're doing here is leading and we're leading in the proper way," he added. "I don't want to jump up and down and shout 'death, death.'"
