From left: Fox hosts Stuart Varney (Photo: Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images); Laura Ingraham (Photo: Michael Brochstein/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images); and Neil Cavuto (Photo: Monica Schipper/Getty Images)
President Trump took heat from many Fox News anchors and reporters Monday after his performance in Helsinki next to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Our thought bubble: Fox News defendants will likely point to today's condemnations as an example of Fox's journalistic credibility for months to come.
- Fox Business host Neil Cavuto: Trump’s failure to denounce Putin made his performance “disgusting.” The presser “set us back a lot.”
- Fox Business anchor Stuart Varney: "It was not a very forceful presentation from President Trump with Putin standing right next to him."
- Fox News anchor Abby Huntsman: "No negotiation is worth throwing your own people and country under the bus."
- Fox News chief White House correspondent John Roberts: “There's a growing consensus that the President threw the United States under the bus."
- Fox News host Laura Ingraham: "Don’t use 'strong and powerful' to describe Putin’s denial re. election meddling. Use words 'predictable and damaging to US-Russian relations' to describe Russian meddling."
- Fox Business host Trish Regan: "This was clearly not [President Trump's] best performance. He's done a whole lot better than this. He should have defended us. He should have defended his own intelligence community."
The other side: Some Fox hosts, though, still made excuses. Tucker Carlson, who has an interview with Trump tonight, said from Finland: "The idea that where you are on Russia is the defining question, like, that's kind of demented, actually."
- Sean Hannity praised Trump during a post-summit interview in Helsinki: "You were very strong."