The “Fox & Friends” studio was the scene of considerable acrimony this morning when Steve Doocy attempted to pour cold water on his colleagues’ outrage over reports the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) asked banks to search private transactions for alleged right-wing extremism.
As Mediaite reports:
Fox & Friends started Thursday covering documents obtained by Congressman Jim Jordan (R-OH) for the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. The documents suggest that after the events of January 6th, federal investigators looked for signs of extremism by asking banks to look through customer transactions by using search term filters like “MAGA” and “Trump,” but also more generic terms like “Small Arms,” “Cabela’s,” and “Dick’s Sporting Goods.”
Fox News has covered the story extensively since it broke.
As Brooke Singman told the Fox News morning show that there wasn’t an apparent end date for these data searches, Doocy noted the timing of the investigation, pointing out that “this all happened during the Trump administration.” Singman acknowledged that point, even as she focused on Jordan’s claims that the data surveillance continued after President Joe Biden’s inauguration.
As the Fox hosts took over the conversation, Ainsley Earhardt said, “Basically, we don’t have any privacy. This is such an invasion!” Doocy, who has established himself as a contrarian in recent months, countered by raising a possibility of why the feds were looking at hunting retailers after January 6th.
“You know what Bass Pro, Cabela’s, and Dick’s Sporting Goods all sell? Bear spray,” he said. “There were a number of police officers, federal officers who were attacked, allegedly and some people have been convicted since then because they used bear spray… You attack a federal officer, there’s gonna be a federal investigation obviously. I don’t know. I’m just suggesting, they all sell bear spray.”
Co-host Lawrence Jones responded, saying that the hoped the feds were monitoring “these little jihadis” who hold sympathetic views of Hamas. Doocy attempted to redirect the conversation, by remarking that everything comes down to whether what FinCEN did was legal.
Before the conversation ended, Doocy reiterated once more that the alleged surveillance began during the Trump administration.
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