Farron Cousins, host with "Ring Of Fire," appeared in a recent video hosted with The Young Turks, where he spoke about a tweet from President Donald Trump last Tuesday claiming that "122 vicious prisoners" released from Guantanamo Bay by former President Barack Obama had "returned to the battlefield." Cousins refuted the Trump tweet, and stated that 113 of the 122 prisoners Trump referred to were actually released by former President George W. Bush. Further, the host cited a lack of intelligence pointing to the entire group returning to battle operations.
The editor of Trial Lawyer magazine explained his view of why the Trump Gitmo tweet is "so important:" the source of the president's information appears to have been Fox News, specifically Fox and Friends, early on Tuesday. Seemingly finding absurdity with the situation, Cousins stated: the United States has a president who is "literally getting his foreign policy and current event news from Fox News." The host called Fox the "king of fake news," and elaborated that the organization has "been for two decades now." He continued, describing Fox News as the "least reliable" source of news in the nation, and cited "study after study" concluding that those who rely on Fox "are the least informed out of all cable news viewers."
'Ring of Fire' host describes 'deadly' situation
Farron Cousins stated, somewhat bleakly, that such a situation is "dangerous" when the public receives erroneous information, but "deadly" when the president does.
The "Ring of Fire" host cited the "last night in Sweden incident," where a statement by Trump was interpreted to convey a belief that a terrorist attack had occurred in the northern European nation, when none actually had. The statement caused an official response by the Swedish government. Cousins compared the incident with Trump's latest tweet.
122 vicious prisoners, released by the Obama Administration from Gitmo, have returned to the battlefield. Just another terrible decision!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 7, 2017
The host described the viewership base of Fox News being "built on fear," and that such programming drives ratings, keeping viewers "entertained," and perceiving a "perpetual state of fear." Cousins expressed the view that if President Trump getting his information from Fox News "doesn't scare you" that Ring of Fire viewers need to begin paying more attention to the state of the nation.
He said that the conservative news network has "always been dangerous," and the fact that President Trump "blindly" accepts what he sees reported there is "putting us all in danger."
Cousins compares Trump's reliance on 'fake news' to Iraq WMD
Farron Cousins asked, if the president can be fooled into believing faulty intelligence, what is to prevent him from launching an "airstrike" based on faulty intelligence. He suggested that reliance on "fake" information has the potential to result in a "disastrous" outcome. The host and ordained minister asked his viewers to remember the history of CNN, and its reliance on information that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, prior to the Iraq War.
