Fox News host calls out colleagues for fawning over Trump and loving him ‘like family’

While co-hosts claim former president is fighting for American people, Gillian Turner sees his big tech lawsuit as ‘personal beef’

A Fox News host called out her colleagues on air for their fawning praise of Donald Trump, saying that their love for him was “like family”.

Gillian Turner appeared to deflate the buoyant mood of her co-hosts on Wednesday’s edition of Outnumbered in her assessment of the former president filing a lawsuit against Google, Facebook and Twitter.

Former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany and presenter Jesse Watters were particularly upbeat about Mr Trump’s motivation for challenging the big tech companies.

The former president filed the lawsuit on Wednesday, and at a press conference he described his bans from Twitter and Facebook as “censorship”, calling it “unlawful, unconstitutional, and completely unAmerican”.

Mr Trump also called for Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act – which means tech companies are not held responsible for the material they host – to be ruled “an unconstitutional delegation of authority”.

Ms McEnany, one of Mr Trump’s most loyal acolytes, said that his motivation was that he was fighting on behalf of “everyday Americans”.

This sentiment was echoed by Mr Watters, who gushed that he saw Mr Trump as an “avenger” and presidential to the point that he forgot who was president.

Host Emily Compagno, who led the discussion, said that the American people were crying out for laws to be changed regarding social media company’s content restrictions.

Ms Turner on the other hand had a more sceptical take, throwing a little bit of shade towards her colleagues’ assessment of the ex-president’s motivation.

She first said that Mr Trump “kind of beat a dead horse a little bit today” when he spoke about Section 230 again, noting that when he was in power and his party had the majority in Congress, nothing happened and nothing had happened in the time he had left office either.

She added: “I think this lawsuit’s a little more self-serving than maybe Jesse and Kayleigh laid out for us a moment ago.”

“We know you love the guy, the former president, like family. I think this is more about his political prospects going into the next election.”

She continued: “He wants to keep this issue front and centre. He opens, by the way, not by saying it’s for the American people, but by saying, ‘I want to fight back because they banned me after January 6 when they unilaterally declared me a public safety threat.’ I think it’s about a personal beef with the companies, but some good things may come of it despite that.”

Mr Watters conceded that it was a personal issue for the former president, but reiterated his belief that Mr Trump had the American people in mind.