Conservative news organizations have hailed yesterday’s release of the Durham Report as proof that any reports regarding the Trump campaign colluding with Russia to win the 2016 presidential election were false, while criticized by liberal outlets as “a big fat nothing”. However, Fox & Friends host Brian Kilmeade gave kudos to CNN anchor Jake Tapper for his encapsulation of the findings.
While discussing the investigation’s conclusion Tuesday morning, Fox & Friends co-host Steve Doocy initially brought up Tapper’s reaction to the story, before the program aired a clip of Tapper saying the findings were “devastating to the FBI and to a degree, it does exonerate Donald Trump”.
“Did you ever think you’d hear that on CNN?” Kilmeade marveled after the clip ended. “It does exonerate Donald Trump! Sure. The last person you’d think to do that!”
Later in the morning show, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) joined the show and lamented that the media had been “willfully blind” to the facts presented in the investigation when Kilmeade gave Tapper props once more.
In response, Lee said, “to Jake Tapper’s credit, I think he should be applauded for acknowledging that”.
During Tapper’s report on the release of Durham’s investigation, he did note that the report likely did not produce the results many conservative voices had hoped for. Many prominent Republicans had claimed the Durham Report would lead to indictments and jail time for those found to perpetuate the alleged Russian hoax. However, only one low-level FBI attorney was convicted of any wrongdoing, and avoided jail time.
