Fox News TV || Republican National Committee chair Michael Whatley joins 'MediaBuzz' to discuss former FBI director James Comey posting a photo to social media suggesting the assassination of President Donald Trump and media backlash over Qatar's jet gift offer. #trump #foxnews #us #politics #news
00:00In an utterly bizarre move, former FBI director James Comey, who was famously fired by President
00:05Trump, posted seashells arranged to say 86-47. 86 can mean get rid of and 47 is the 47th president
00:15of the United States. A child knows what that meant. If you're the FBI director and you don't
00:23know what that meant, that meant assassination. And it says it loud and clear. Now, he wasn't
00:31very competent, but he was competent enough to know what that meant.
00:37National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard says Comey should be in jail.
00:42Any other person with a position of influence that he has, people who take very seriously
00:49what a guy of his stature, his experience, and what the propaganda media has built him
00:55up to be, I'm very concerned for the president's life.
00:59This is the same man, James Comey, who implicitly, explicitly said that Donald Trump and his tactics
01:09are threats to democracy, threats to the future stability of America, threats to our norms.
01:16This is not criminal. This is not a criminally chargeable threat against the president.
01:21It's political speech. It's way too broad. It's stupid. It's reckless. It's not criminal.
01:28Joining us now from Charlotte, Michael Watley, chairman of the Republican National Committee.
01:33What do you make of James Comey, who's been interviewed by the Secret Service,
01:37using 86 against President Trump?
01:39Well, it's just the latest example that we have seen from him in terms of trying to incite,
01:44you know, violence from the left. We've seen it in terms of him going after the president since
01:51the Russia hoax that he instigated weaponization of the federal system to go after President Trump
01:56and his allies. You know, the violent left always has a singular response. They will not accept
02:03the outcome of the election. They're firebombing NC or New Mexico GOP headquarters. They're firebombing
02:11Tesla vehicles and stores right now. We've got members of Congress that are trying to storm
02:17violently a ICE detention center. And across the political spectrum, the Democrats are fighting
02:23harder for violent criminal illegal aliens than they are for their own constituents.
02:27It's really appalling that Comey would step out and take this kind of an action.
02:33Well, I'm sure you don't mean to imply that everybody on the left is violent, but
02:36Comey says he took this down from Instagram because I didn't realize some folks associate
02:42those numbers with violence. Do you agree with Tulsi Gabbard that he should be in jail?
02:48What I agree is that this should be investigated. There is no way that this is unintentional.
02:53James Comey knew exactly what he was putting up. He thought it was funny.
02:57It's not funny. You know, there were two different attempts on President Trump's life
03:02during the course of that campaign. And we really need people to step back from
03:07the political rhetorical violence that the Democrats on the left have been pushing for
03:11the last several years. I think we can certainly agree that it is not funny in any way. Now,
03:16the House Republican tax bill, which has been blocked by a handful of conservatives who say it doesn't
03:21go far enough to cut spending, would increase the debt by many estimates by as much as two and a half
03:28to three billion dollars. So are the Republicans now the party of big government?
03:34Republicans are trying to cut government. Republicans are trying to cut taxes. The fact is
03:38over 80% of all Americans, including 81% of independents and 72% of Democrats support extending
03:47the Trump tax cuts. We need to make sure that those tax cuts become permanent. We need to see no tax on
03:53tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security. The Democrats right now are fighting tooth and nail
03:59for the largest tax increase in American history. The public is not behind them.
04:06And I should mention that inflation is down for the first time in four years.
04:12What do you make, as we discussed earlier on the program, Michael, prominent Democrats and
04:18journalists now coming out and saying, you know, Joe Biden shouldn't have run for the second term.
04:22We had no idea how badly his mental acuity had declined.
04:26Joe Biden's team knew exactly how bad Joe Biden's mental decline was. They are gaslighting the
04:33American people now, just like they were gaslighting the American people throughout the course
04:37of that campaign. Joe Biden's family knew, Joe Biden's inner circle knew, and the media had a great
04:45idea. The American people saw it every single time that Joe Biden went out on the campaign trail,
04:50couldn't get off stage, couldn't get through a sentence. They knew that he was not sharp enough
04:55for four more years. Frankly, what we see with the Ben-Hur tape, you know, Watergate tapes 2.0,
05:02is basically that his inner circle knew he was not even capable of being president,
05:09let alone running for four more years.
05:11Yeah, that tape, although we've seen the transcript, certainly was alarming in terms of Biden not even
05:18remembering when his own son, Beau, which year he had died. Now, I have to ask you about the
05:24president accepting the 747 jet from Qatar because now you have some Republican lawmakers and not to
05:30mention media conservatives. People on your side, Ben Shapiro, Eric Erickson, Laura Loomer saying this
05:36is a really bad idea. Well, look, this is a gift that is Qatar is trying to make to the American
05:43people. And certainly it is a jet that could be put into service for the American people. It's not a personal gift to
05:51the president. And I think it's very similar to us accepting the Statue of Liberty from France.
05:59Donald Trump says 97 percent of the stories about him are negative. I don't know the exact percentage, but I would not argue with that
06:07for a second. How much of an obstacle is that in this second Trump term?
06:12Well, what President Trump has done is figured out how to work through, around and over the media.
06:17He is always going to host the media at the White House. This is the most transparent administration in the history of this country.
06:25He is holding press events every single day. He will take any question, any interview, any time.
06:30But he also is talking directly to the American people. And that is the key. And he'll do it through social media.
06:38He'll do it through press. He'll do it through interviews. He will always talk directly to the American people.
06:43He's candid. He is straightforward. He is direct. You know, the fact is that the media has not been fair to Donald Trump.
06:50They will never be fair to Donald Trump. And that's OK, because he is talking directly to the American people every single day.
06:57Yeah. When he has these constant availabilities in the Oval Office on Air Force One, whatever.
07:03I mean, it's a sharp contrast with the previous president. And, you know, even some of the journalists he doesn't like, he'll take those questions.
07:12And I can't argue with that. It's kind of a situation where almost, I mean, he does. He answers the questions.
07:22That's the amazing thing. Once in a while, he says, I'm not going to comment on that.
07:24It does. And considering what we saw from the last administration, where they were hiding him, you know, from the press at every single step, they hit him on the campaign trail in 2020.
07:33They certainly hit him throughout his term in the Oval Office. We were gaslighting everybody, saying that he was just so busy he didn't have time to talk to the press.
07:42The fact is that he was not capable of going out there, putting two senses together and talking directly to the American people the way President Trump is.
07:51All right. Michael Watley, very much appreciate your time. Thanks for joining us.
