Fox News reporter brings up 'half-million-dollar Christmas-tree' fire in White House briefing, asks Psaki whether suspect's release is 'good governing'
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Fox News reporter brings up 'half-million-dollar Christmas-tree' fire in White House briefing, asks Psaki whether suspect's release is 'good governing'
The Fox News White House reporter Peter Doocy and White House press secretary Jen Psaki. Fox News
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The Fox News Christmas-tree fire came up during Monday's White House press briefing.
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Peter Doocy sought to link it to New York's bail-reform law and nationwide crime.
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He also said the fire caused "half-million-dollar" damages.
The Fox News reporter Peter Doocy brought up the network's highly publicized Christmas-tree fire during Monday's White House press briefing.
Doocy asked whether the Biden administration considered it "good governing" for the man accused of setting fire to the network's "all-American Christmas tree on Fox Square" along Manhattan's Sixth Avenue to be released without bail.
The network's morning show "Fox & Friends" covered the fire last week, saying it showed " no city is safe, no person is safe, from the subway on down ." The next day, a new tree was set up outside Fox News headquarters.
Since the suspect was charged with several misdemeanors — including arson, criminal mischief, reckless endangerment, and criminal trespass — but not a violent felony, he was able to be released without bail under New York's bail-reform law. Third-degree felony arson requires a defendant to post bond under New York's 2019 law.
The exchange between Doocy and White House press secretary Jen Psaki was part of a broader question about crime.
Doocy described a nationwide "increase in criminal activity because some prosecutors are too soft on crime," a complicated subject involving a record spike in murders from 2020 but far fewer nationwide than the peak reached in the early 1990s , as well as a continuation of the overall crime rate lowering nationwide since 1994 .
"So the final one would be, just in the last week, we saw a New York Post item about a pickpocket with more than 30 arrests back out on the street," Doocy said.
"We've seen an arsonist burn down a half-million-dollar Christmas tree in New York City back out on the streets," he added. "Does the president think that's good governing?"
Psaki showed little patience for Doocy's third question, referring him to the New York Police Department, which announced the arrest of the suspect shortly after the early-morning blaze last week.
"Again, I think I've spoken to the president's concern about retail theft," Psaki said. "If you have specific — and any actions we've taken, for specific cases, I would point you to the local police departments or the Department of Justice."
Psaki has dismissed questions from Fox News in the past. Last month, she brushed off Doocy's question on whether President Joe Biden should apologize to Kyle Rittenhouse, the teenager who was recently acquitted of all charges, including counts of homicide, related to the killing of two men during civil unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last year. Rittenhouse accused Biden of "defaming" him by including an image of him alongside white supremacists and militia groups in a 2020 campaign video.
"The president believes in condemning hatred, division, and violence. That's exactly what was done in that video," Psaki said at the time.
Despite the occasional tense exchange in the briefing room, Doocy told The New York Times in September that it "never feels like I'm getting smacked down or vice versa."
"I understand why it looks like that, some of the ways that stuff gets clipped, but it doesn't feel like that in the room," he said.
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Since the suspect was charged with several misdemeanors — including arson, criminal mischief, reckless endangerment, and criminal trespass — but not a violent felony, he was able to be released without bail under New York's bail-reform law. Third-degree felony arson requires a defendant to post bond under New York's 2019 law.
The exchange between Doocy and White House press secretary Jen Psaki was part of a broader question about crime.
Doocy described a nationwide "increase in criminal activity because some prosecutors are too soft on crime," a complicated subject involving a record spike in murders from 2020 but far fewer nationwide than the peak reached in the early 1990s , as well as a continuation of the overall crime rate lowering nationwide since 1994 .
"So the final one would be, just in the last week, we saw a New York Post item about a pickpocket with more than 30 arrests back out on the street," Doocy said.
"We've seen an arsonist burn down a half-million-dollar Christmas tree in New York City back out on the streets," he added. "Does the president think that's good governing?"
Psaki showed little patience for Doocy's third question, referring him to the New York Police Department, which announced the arrest of the suspect shortly after the early-morning blaze last week.
"Again, I think I've spoken to the president's concern about retail theft," Psaki said. "If you have specific — and any actions we've taken, for specific cases, I would point you to the local police departments or the Department of Justice."
he's a fucking douchebag magatard just like his dad...
I never put those together - Duh. The douche doesn't fall far from the douchebag.
if it wasn't for his dad, he'd be doing cat/tree rescue stories at some local goober TV station.
Ohhhhh....I didn't know there was another Peter Doocey.
Half-million dollar tree my ass Peter Douchey
That's a damn expensive ugly tree
Never was said. Fact check is your friend.
And before you attack the source..........
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Fox News Contributor Compares Christmas Tree Fire to Pearl Harbor
A day after Fox News’ artificial Christmas tree was set on fire, allegedly by a mentally ill homeless man, one of the network’s contributors on Thursday likened the torched holiday decoration to the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
Following the arson attack on Fox News’ “All-American Christmas Tree” in the early hours of Wednesday morning, the network’s hosts have seemingly tried to outdo each other in describing the property damage in ever more dire terms.
While police have said the tree torching doesn’t appear to be politically motivated, that hasn’t stopped Fox personalities from labeling the fire a “hate crime,”—as well as an attack on Fox News, “America’s tree,” and Christianity.
But during the lighting ceremony for the rebuilt tree, which was carried live on Fox News’ highly rated late-afternoon show The Five, Fox News contributor Rev. Jacques DeGraff managed to outshine all of his network colleagues.
“Somebody asked me why are you here,” DeGraff bellowed. “I’m here because these colors do not run! Eighty years ago this week, they tried to extinguish the darkness in a place called Pearl Harbor. We didn’t fold then, and we will not fold now because we have come this far by faith!”
The attack on Pearl Harbor—which occurred on Dec. 7, 1941, and pushed America into World War II—killed 2,403 U.S. military personnel and an additional 68 civilians. There were no injuries, let alone deaths, involved in the tree at Fox News Square being set on fire.
Also, yes, DeGraff did say “extinguish the darkness.”
“In our tradition, we say, ‘This little light of mine,’” he added. “‘I’m going to let it shine!’ The red, the white, and the blue, and the light of America, we are going to let it shine.”
Continuing his prayer, DeGraff loudly declared that those gathered “have a faith that the fire cannot incinerate” and “bullies cannot frighten away.”
Drawing a loud roar of applause from the crowd, DeGraff ended his remarks by calling on God to “bless the greatest country on the planet,” prompting a stunned Cardinal Timothy Dolan—who also delivered a speech—to exclaim: “Way to go!”
Bunch of freaks!
This gets more ridiculous by the day. LOL
The humanity!
Faux outrage is all they got!
Fox News host suggests Christmas tree fire could have been 'a hate crime' against network
Thu, December 9, 2021, 11:03 AM
Brian Kilmeade, a top Fox News personality, suggested on Thursday that an attack on the Christmas tree outside the network's world headquarters in New York City earlier this week could have been a hate crime.
Fourty-nine year old Craig Tamanaha was arrested early Wednesday morning and charged with arson, criminal mischief, reckless endangerment and criminal trespass after allegedly climbing the 50-foot "All-American" tree located in Fox Square in midtown Manhattan and lighting it on fire, the network reported.
The incident was widely photographed and recorded by eye witnesses and broadcast live on Fox. Tamanaha, who was arrested on the scene, has reportedly been released on bail.
"The judge could have found a way to keep him locked up if he felt he was a threat to society," Kilmeade commented during the network's morning show on Thursday. "Note to judge: He's a threat to society."
Police have said Tamanaha had a pervious criminal record but have not indicated a motive for the alleged attack.
Under New York City's new bail reform laws, co-host Steve Doocy noted, a person can only be charged with a felony in an arson case if the suspect tries to harm another person or is suspected of committing a hate crime.
"Apparently lighting a Christmas tree on fire is not a hate crime," Doocy added.
"But it is," Kilmeade interjected. "Who says it's not a hate crime against us, against Fox News?"
Kilmeade added the judge in Tamanaha's case "could have asked him and under suspicion kept him locked up."
Several hosts, pundits and guests on Fox throughout the day Wednesday decried the attack on the Fox Christmas tree, comparing it to other instances of vandalism in the country and tying it to rising crime rates over the last year.
"This is part of a bigger problem," Kilmeade said on "Fox & Friends" on Wednesday morning, just hours after the blaze had been put out.
"It's the crime surge in this country. ... There is so much crime in places that were always safe, including 48th and 6th here. This is emblematic of these cities out of control, defame and defund the police and this bail reform that has these men and women, these assailants, these suspects out before they can even finish the paperwork. This is what you get when you have these left-wing DAs ... running these cities, you get chaos."
The man is mentally ill. They don't what his intent was when he set fire to that tree. Maybe he thought it was too gaudy. Maybe he didn't think it was bright enough. Maybe he was having a hallucination that it was a UFO. Who knows?
Raging wildfire burns dozens of 4,000 year old redwoods.
"Should have raked the forest."
Guy burns 1 fake xmas tree.
"We want blood!!!"
Fox News personalities don't have their priorities in order