On the Friday morning edition of Fox and Friends, the panel discussed, among other things, President Obama’s trip to Africa along with the continuing saga of Edward Snowden and the NSA leaks. At one point, they played a clip of the president at the joint news conference in Senegal where the president admitted that he did not personally contact the presidents of China or Russia because "number one, I shouldn't have to. This is something that routinely is dealt with between law enforcement officials and various countries." [Link to the audio]
However, host Steve Doocy and guest host Tucker Carlson were adept in pointing out that Obama has been more than ready to pick up his phone and call a number of people about far more trivial situations, albeit those that served to advance his liberal agenda. For example, President Obama personally called the plaintiffs in the Propostition 8 case to congratulate them after the Supreme Court ruling came out. Additionally, he found the time to call Jason Collins, the gay basketball player as well as the owner of the Philadelphia Eagles after he signed Michael Vick.
Clearly, the president should not have to personally intervene in a situation where a high-profile fugitive from justice is hiding in plain sight in a foreign country. There are systems that are in place that should operate smoothly when dealing with extradition and other foreign policy issues. However, when those systems break down, this is exactly what presidents are supposed to do in order to secure foreign policy, advance the country’s agenda, and protect our national security.
Interestingly, the broadcast networks and other cable news organizations neglected to cover this side of the story. They downplayed the president’s refusal to call Putin and hyped the president’s calls for marriage equality in Senegal. That's an idea, by the way, which President Sall of Senegal denounced for his country.
This is just another example of how the media edits and tailors the news to fit their liberal agenda while completely avoiding stories that might hurt it. As Carlson pointed out, this is the kind of platform that the president ran on in 2008. He said that he was not a president who would be too important to pick up the phone and call our adversaries, yet, now that the opportunity has presented itself, he is refusing his personal intervention in a matter of national security and justice.
For reference, the transcript of Carlson’s comments is provided below:
Fox and Friends
June 28, 2013
7:10 a.m. Eastern
Tucker: In 2008, his whole pitch was, remember in the debates with Hilary Clinton, he said, look, I'm not too busy or arrogant to call our enemies. Personal diplomacy works; it helps. And by the way, this president has been very quick to make tons of calls when he's actually interested in something. He called the plaintiffs in prop 8, as you remember in California. Sandra fluke when Rush Limbaugh said something mean about her, NBA player Jason Collins when he came out as gay. I'm not clear why. He called the owner of the Philadelphia Eagles after Michael Vick got rehired after spending time in prison for torturing dogs to death. The president was so excited that he called the owner of the Philadelphia Eagles. But he won't call on this?
