Fox News host Neil Cavuto ripped into U.S. President Donald Trump for making false and contradictory statements in a fiery monologue for “Common Sense,” the closing commentary segment of his program, Your World With Neil Cavuto.
Cavuto cited Trump’s statements on an array of topics, ranging from the Stormy Daniels scandal to the Republican tax bill and Russian election meddling, to lambast Trump and point to what he said was a worrying pattern of the president appearing to twist the facts to suit his agenda.
“Let me be clear, Mr. President. How can you drain the swamp if you’re the one who keeps muddying the waters?” Cavuto asked in his opening remarks.
“You didn’t know about that $130,000 payment to a porn star — until you did. You said you know nothing about how your former lawyer Michael Cohen handled this until acknowledging today you were the guy behind the retainer payment that took care of this.
“You insist that money from the campaign, or campaign contributions, played no role in this transaction. Of that you are sure. Thing is, not even 24 hours ago sir, you couldn’t recall any of this. And you seemed very sure.”
READ MORE: Donald Trump changes story on Stormy Daniels payment, denies using campaign money
Cavuto then proceeded to list a number of issues on which Trump’s statements may have featured alternative facts rather than real ones — “like the time you said the Russians didn’t interfere in the 2016 election until a lot of Republicans had to remind you that they did… like when you claimed your tax plan was the biggest in U.S. history, when it wasn’t…. or that your job approval numbers really aren’t that bad relative to other presidents at this stage, when they’re actually worse than most presidents at this stage.”
Trump’s numerous firings and run-ins with staff — often preceded by presidential denials on the same — were also on Cavuto’s mind.
“Like the time that you said rumours of Rex Tillerson’s departure at the State Department were false, until they weren’t…. when you swore by Jeff Sessions until you started swearing at Jeff Sessions…”
Cavuto also said he wasn’t accusing Trump of lying, but just wanted to point out the consistent twisting of facts by the president
The monologue ended with Cavuto suggesting that Trump wasn’t in a position to accuse the press of propagating fake news.
“You are right to say some of them are out to get you, but oftentimes they’re using your own words to bash you. Your base probably might not care, but you should,” he said.
“I guess you’re too busy draining the swamp to ever stop and smell the stink you’re creating. That’s your doing, that’s your stink. Mr. President, that’s your swamp.”
This isn’t the first time Cavuto has taken Trump to task.
In a “Common Sense” segment from July 2017, Cavuto criticized Trump for being unable to accept criticism and constantly resorting to scapegoating others for his own failings.