Jeffery Epstein? Fox Has a Big Fake Scandal About Obama to Obsess About

A condensed overview of 15 hours of Fox News for the week ending 7/27/25

Last week on Fox News the network weaved together the greatest hits from past rightwing conspiracies to create a new tapestry of lies meant to distract its viewers from a growing scandal involving President Trump and an underage sex trafficking ring led by his one-time close associate Jeffrey Epstein.

The new fake Obama Russiagate scandal has a bit of everything - a director of national intelligence who is desperate to keep her job, the deep state, Barack Hussein Obama, Hillary Clinton, FISA warrants, declassified memos, dirty dossiers, Hunter Biden’s laptop, Jim Comey, election interference, the complicit mainstream Marxist media and a slew of intelligence community officials who were hellbent on stopping Donald J. Trump’s presidency.

The only thing the latest invented scandal lacks is any basis in reality.

Fox News was so desperate to distract its audience it even played up Coca-Cola’s decision to add a cane sugar version of its signature beverage to its product lineup. The network has also dedicated three weeks to Paramount’s decision to cancel “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”

It was a week full of stupid.

Meanwhile the rest of the world was focused on the ever-worsening humanitarian and hunger crisis in Gaza, massive heat waves across the globe and Trump’s attempts to distance himself from Jeffrey Epstein.

I’m working an overview of past segments about Epstein that have appeared on Fox News since I started Decoding Fox News in February 2022. I’m about halfway through looking through 151 episodes. That newsletter/podcast should be published sometime this week.

Shows I covered last week:

• Fox & Friends

• The Five

• Hannity

The Fake Obama Russiagate Scandal

I could diagram this insane new conspiracy, but I fear I would bore my readers and hurt my soul while doing it.

Tulsi Gabbard is desperate to keep her job.

A short timeline of Gabbard’s recent hiccups with Trump:

• March 25 - Tulsi Gabbard told the House Intelligence Committee that Iran was NOT building a nuclear weapon.

• June 10 - After a trip to Japan Gabbard also made a strange video where she warned of global “elites” who were pushing superpowers closer to nuclear war. She never clarified who she was referring to.

• June 20 - Trump openly disagreed with her regarding her statements to the House Committee about Iran’s nuclear weapons program. Trump told members of the press,

  • “I don’t care what she said,” Trump said. In his view, Iran was “very close” to having a nuclear bomb.

• Gabbard said the media was misinterpreting here testimony to the House Intelligence Committee hearing, she told the press,

  • “President Trump was saying the same thing that I said.”

• July 8 - During the last televised cabinet meeting Tulsi Gabbard was never addressed by Trump. She did not say a single word during the nearly two hour meeting.

• July 18 - Tulsi Gabbard revealed newly declassified documents that she claimed “revealed overwhelming evidence that demonstrates how, after President Trump won the 2016 election against Hillary Clinton, President Obama and his national security cabinet members manufactured and politicized intelligence to lay the groundwork for what was essentially a years-long coup against President Trump.”

What is Gabbard Accusing Obama of:

Gabbard, is trying to create a conspiracy based on a few documents that state Russia was not able to hack into voting machines and change any votes in the 2016 presidential election.

Gabbard is attempting to build the case that these memos and emails are proof that Russia did not try to influence the 2016 election and that a scheme was hatched by then President Obama and other leaders in the intelligence community to undermine Trump’s presidency.

The Director of National Intelligence even went so far as to accuse Obama of treasonous actions. There’s a mountain of evidence that would refute her outlandish theories.

Gabbard’s claims are in direct conflict with four exhaustive investigations into possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign. If her accusations were true multiple high-ranking members of the intelligence community during the Trump administration would be part of the conspiracy against him.

• The Mueller Report

• The Department of Justice Inspector General Report

• A bipartisan report by the Senate Intelligence Committee led by then Senator Marco Rubio

  • Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA)

    • “Moscow’s intent was to harm the Clinton Campaign, tarnish an expected Clinton presidential administration, help the Trump Campaign after Trump became the presumptive Republican nominee, and undermine the U.S. democratic process,” volume 5 of the report said.

    • According to Gabbard’s theories Marco Rubio would have been a co-conspirator.

• The Durham Report

  • Even though this report was sympathetic to the Trump administration it did not refute basic tenets of the previous investigations.

Last week Sean Hannity dedicated most of the airtime on “Hannity” to this non-existent scandal. His long rambling monologues didn’t make much sense. I can reduce it down to a handful of buzz words.

• Dirty dossier - Hannity has falsely claimed for years that the Steele Dossier was the crux of the investigation into possible Russian collusion with the Trump campaign.

  • The real reason Trump was investigated:

    • George Papadopoulos, foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign, got drunk in a London bar and told an Australian diplomat that Putin had dirt on Hillary Clinton.

    • A brief timeline of what happened.

      • April 2016 - Joseph Mifsud, a Maltese professor with contacts with the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs told Papadopoulos that the Russians had dirt on Hillary Clinton in the form of thousands of emails.

      • May 2016 - Papadopoulos gets drunk at a London bar and tells an Australian diplomat the story he heard from Mifsud.

      • July 2016 - Wikileaks publishes thousands of emails from the DNC

        • The Australian intelligence community reaches out to their American counterparts to tell them what Papadopoulos told their diplomat.

        • The American Intelligence community starts an investigation into Russian interference into the 2016 election.

        • Papadopoulos eventually pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.

• The Deep State - a mysterious cabal of bureaucrats who somehow secretly run the government.

• Hunter Biden’s laptop - not sure how Obama works into this one as the FBI got it in 2020. Obama’s last day as president was Jan. 20, 2017. Hannity brought up the laptop several times during his long-winded rants about this fake scandal.

• Hillary Clinton’s emails - Hannity has said for years that former FBI director Jim Comey favored Hillary to win the election - many would say the exact opposite is true.

• A list of nefarious characters who are involved with this fake conspiracy:

  • James Comey, former director of the FBI

  • President Joe Biden

  • James Clapper, former director of national intelligence

  • John Brennan, former CIA director

  • Susan Rice, former U.S. national security adviser

A Fox News Favorite Debunks the Fake Obama Russiagate Scandal

On Thursday Andy McCarthy, a former Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and a frequent legal expert for Fox News appeared on “Fox & Friends” to discuss Gabbard’s wild claims. Brian Kilmeade led the interview.

Kilmeade: But yet the former president was involved in trying to find out the role that Russia played and suddenly was interested in the role of possible collusion with the Trump campaign.

McCarthy: Yeah. Well, Brian, I don't think that's a new disclosure or a new revelation. I wrote a book about this eight years ago called ‘Ball of Collusion’, which laid this out. There's no doubt that Obama was complicit up to his neck in what I think was the worst political dirty trick in American history. The issue narrowly is whether there's any crime that comes out of that under circumstances where, you know, even President Trump spent all of 2024 telling people that presidents have to have complete immunity from prosecution and this all happened nine years ago.

Later in the segment Kilmeade played a clip of Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) backing up many of Gabbard’s accusations about Obama’s role in the investigation into Trump.

McCarthy: Well, I respectfully disagree with Senator Cruz's interpretation of that, because I think what he's referring to is they were concerned about Russian attacks on election infrastructure. And what they were talking about after the election was Russian hacking of the DNC and the messaging that was anti-Clinton that they put out. Even the Trump CIA agrees that that happened. So, I think that, you know, the scandal here is they had a legitimate reason to investigate Russia's meddling in the election. And what they did was they use that as a pretext to basically investigate Trump to spy on his presidency and to try to make him an ineffective president.

Trump is Unpopular - Hannity and Gutfeld Pretend He’s Not

On Tuesday on “Hannity” Sean Hannity and Newt Gingrich, a former speaker of the House, praised Donald J. Trump at length.

“While President Trump is racking up win after win after win. Newsweek did an AI analysis ranking the first six months of Donald Trump's presidency as the most productive since FDR. I would argue more. That's my opinion. More transformational. Your thoughts?” said Hannity.

Gingrich seemed to imply that Trump could run for president again in 2028 despite a Constitutional amendment that limits him to two terms.

“Well, there's no question this is the most transformational presidency since FDR. And frankly, if he can sustain the momentum win the 2026 election and then win the 2028 election, he will have replaced the FDR majority, which has basically governed this country for over 90 years. And he will be I think, at that point, you are right below a Washington and Lincoln as one of the most consequential presidents in American history, I have to say. And, you know, you know me very well. This is at least 30% greater change in the first six months than I would have thought possible. And I'm an optimist,” said Gingrich.

On Thursday on “The Five,” Greg Gutfled compared Trump to a gardener.

“You know, he's posting a win every day the same way a gardener plants 100 flowers. So they bloom one after the other. And the Democrats are like going, how did this happen? How did this oh, wait, he has a new thing. It's a new thing. That's what's called preparation. The Democrats don't understand that,” said Gutfeld.

Fox & Friends Includes Bad Numbers for Trump

On Friday “Fox & Friends” opened with a segment about bad poll numbers for Trump.

“President Trump will be visiting two of his golf sites in Turnberry and Aberdeen. He will also be meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to find the trade deal between the U.S. and the U.K.. The president continues to have mixed reviews on that front, per a Wall Street Journal poll. Disapproval of his tariffs agenda outweighs approval by 17 points. That poll also shows more voters disapprove than approve of his handling of the economy and inflation,” said Madeline Rivera a Fox News correspondent.

Jessica Tarlov Cites the Latest Fox News Poll

Later that night on “The Five,” Jessica Tarlov also brought up the latest Fox News Poll.

“I would also like to talk to the cattle people. But what about the coffee people? Have they been in touch or the fresh fruit and vegetable people? It's the other really good thing Trump's doing for the economy or global warming was okay. Coca-Cola his favorite product also up and Shannon already referenced today the new Fox News poll. I would also like to dive in there and look at the approval rating for Donald Trump on inflation, 36%.”

Tarlov was rudely interrupted by Greg Gutfeld who insisted the polling wasn’t accurate. Gutfeld was criticizing his own network, Fox News, that conducted the poll.

Tarlov also mentioned the price of coffee and Coca-Cola. According to FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) the price of coffee has increased 19.9% since December 2024 and soft drinks have increased in price by 17.8%.

Someone Finally Mentioned Epstein

On Friday Jonathan Turley, a law professor and legal contributor for Fox News, was the only person on the network to discuss the controversy surrounding the Epstein list.

Turley discussed Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general’s, decision to interview Epstein’s accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell. Maxwell is currently serving 20 years in federal prison for child sex trafficking and other related crimes.

“So, all of those are possibilities. For Maxwell. The question is what she has. I was surprised, and speaking with a member of the legal defense team a couple of days ago when they said the reports that she had been previously interviewed by federal and state, prosecutors, investigators was not true. She has never been interviewed . . . and despite all of these, past investigations in this scandal, I was really taken aback by that. So if that's true, she could be an untapped source of new information. The question is, what is that information? Is it just salacious, or is it something more that would reveal criminal conduct?”

Lawrence Jones seemed shocked.

“Jonathan, this is new information for me so forgive me, but how do you prosecute someone without doing an interview? I mean, that's like investigative procedure 101,” said Jones.

“Well, they're saying that she had interaction, no doubt, in her own prosecution. But when I asked whether she had sat down with investigators and all. There are so many investigations on state and federal level. And I said, are you saying that she was never called forth to give information either in the state or federal, systems? And they said, no, that she has largely been left untouched by these past investigations. So, the question is, what does she still have? And also, why didn't she reveal it before? She had every motivation in the world if she could trade something to do so before she was sentenced to 20 years,” said Turley.

Stories Fox News Ignored

Every week I compare the hours I’ve watched on Fox News to five hours of the PBS News Hour. The following list are stories that PBS covered that Fox News did not. Source - PBS News Transcripts.

• Updates in the Israel-Hamas War

  • On Monday in Gaza, Israel expanded its ground operations into a Central Gaza City where several aid groups are based. Airstrikes and tank shelling hit houses and mosques in Deir al Balah, where Israel believes some of the last remaining hostages are being held. Across the territory, such strikes killed at least 18 people. (PBS News Hour)

  • All told, Gaza's Health Ministry said 59,000 people have died during the war. At least 80 Palestinians were killed as they were seeking aid on Sunday. In response, foreign ministers from the U.K., France and more than 20 other countries issued a joint statement calling for Israel to end what it called the inhumane killing of civilians in Gaza. (PBS News Hour)

  • On Tuesday, Gaza health officials reported at least 25 deaths from Israeli strikes. That includes 12 people who were killed when Israeli forces hit tents sheltering displaced people in Gaza City. The Israeli military says it's not aware of any such strike. (PBS News Hour)

  • The U.N. Human Rights Office says that Israeli forces have killed more than 1,000 Gazans seeking aid since May. Most deaths have occurred near distribution sites run by an American contractor. Desperation is mounting amid Israel's near-total blockade of the territory. Israel accuses Hamas of diverting aid. Gaza's Hamas-run Health Ministry says 101 people have died in recent days from starvation, including 80 children, some of them infants. (PBS News Hour)

  • On Wednesday more than 108 human rights organizations said in an open letter that Israel's restrictions, delays, and fragmentation under its total siege have created chaos, starvation, and death. Experts have warned that Gaza is on the brink of famine for months now. Israeli officials dismissed the letter, accusing the groups of"echoing Hamas' propaganda." Meantime, local health officials say Israeli strikes killed 21 people, including women and children. (PBS News Hour)

• Texas lawmakers convened for a special session and one agenda item was added at the request of President Trump. He's pushing the Republican-controlled legislature to redraw congressional district lines in their favor ahead of the 2026 midterms. PBS spoke to Beto O’Rourke, a former Democratic congressman from El Paso, about the plan to fight back against the gerrymandering. (PBS News Hour)

• The Trump administration is citing an alleged anti-Israel bias in its decision to once again withdraw the U.S. from the U.N.'s main cultural agency called UNESCO. The U.S. withdrew from UNESCO under Trump in 2017 for similar reasons, then rejoined during the Biden administration. The decision takes effect in December of next year. (PBS News Hour)

• The Labor Department is proposing sweeping rollbacks to more than 60 workplace regulations. They include eliminating minimum wage requirements for home health care workers, protections for migrant farmworkers, and safety protocols for a range of working conditions, including construction sites and mines. The rules must go through several stages of approval before they can take effect. (PBS News Hour)

• General Motors posted a 35% drop in quarterly profit dragged down by the impact of President Trump's tariffs. The automaker said the levies resulted in a $1.1 billion dent in its earnings. Jeep maker Stellantis warned of a loss of $2.7 billion in the first half of the year, due at least in part to tariffs. (PBS News Hour)

• Attorney General Pam Bondi told President Trump earlier this year that his name appeared in files related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. That's according to The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. The disclosure reportedly came as part of a broader briefing of the case for the president, and his name was one of many cited in the files. (PBS News Hour)

• In Florida, video was released of a 22-year-old Black man, William McNeil, being dragged from his car and punched by officers. The incident occurred in February. Officers said McNeil was pulled over for not having his headlights on, even though the traffic stop happened during daylight hours. The local sheriff says the video lacks context. An investigation by the Florida state attorney's office determined that the officers involved did not violate any criminal laws. (PBS News Hour)

• Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced a plan to move most of the agency's staff out of Washington, D.C. She said an estimated 2,600 workers would relocate to five regional hubs around the country. A union representing federal workers immediately criticized the plan. (PBS News Hour)

• Changes could also be coming to FEMA. A bipartisan bill announced in the U.S. House would make the head of the agency report directly to the president, instead of the homeland security secretary. The bill comes at a pivotal time for FEMA, with President Trump saying he'd like to shut it down completely. (PBS News Hour)

• On Thursday a major escalation in clashes between Thailand and Cambodia killed at least 27 people over two days, mostly civilians. Thai officials say fighting broke out near an ancient temple in a disputed border area and has since spread. The countries have a long history of disputes along their shared 500-mile border, though the recent violence was much more severe than most. (PBS News Hour)

• Chuck Mangione a jazz musician has died. The trumpet player and composer enjoyed widespread success with his 1977 classic "Feels So Good." He won a Grammy that year and then a second over a career that saw him release more than 30 albums. Mangione also enjoyed success as a voice actor, appearing in the animated TV show "King of the Hill." In 2009, he donated his memorabilia to the Smithsonian and then retired a few years later. Chuck Mangione was 84 years old. (PBS News Hour)

By the Numbers