President Donald Trump held an event in the Rose Garden on Thursday afternoon to praise his administration's lifting of hundreds of environmental, technological, and commercial regulations.
Similar to his bizarre press conference in the Rose Garden on Tuesday, Trump spent a significant portion of the event lambasting former President Barack Obama and 2020 presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
Trump credited himself with a low pre-pandemic unemployment rate and claimed the economic and banking regulations instituted by President Barack Obama had catastrophic effects.
That's when Neil Cavuto of Fox News cut into the President's speech to give the network's viewers something they may not be used to: a fact check.
Watch below.
Fox News cuts coverage of the President's speech and Cavuto fact checks the President's speech pic.twitter.com/pjzETXWJtx
— Acyn Torabi (@Acyn) July 16, 2020
Cavuto reminded viewers that Obama's banking regulations were in response to the economic crisis of 2008, in which reckless investments by banks led to an abysmal financial market, widespread unemployment, and ubiquitous home foreclosures. The U.S. housing market took years to recover and, were it not for government bailouts, numerous financial institutions would have collapsed.
Cavuto pointed to this context when fact checking Trump, saying Obama's regulations
"were geared to preventing banks from ever investing in things like risky mortgage securities, pooling and selling them all. That tended to be really the scourge of that entire period. So more than half the regulations the Obama administration added were of that bent, post-the meltdown."
He then corrected Trump on the results of the regulations.
"When the President referred to the...disappointing results of the prior administration for adding of those regulations, be that as it may, the unemployment rate did—under Barack Obama—go down from a high of 10 percent to around 4.7 percent. President Trump of course sent that even lower, eventually getting us down to a three and a half percent unemployment rate."
He brought it around to a broader point about Trump's characterization of the Obama era.
"I didn't want to leave you with the impression that during those eight years when Obama first came into office and we were bleeding about a million jobs a month, that that was a standard there and that characterized the whole eight years...Both presidents can certainly crow about the growth that they saw, but it was not a disaster under Barack Obama."
People were stunned to see one of the most conservative media outlets in the United States fact check Trump in defense of Obama.
@Acyn Cavuto's ratings must be very powerful. Acknowledging facts like these is tantamount to instigating an outrig… https://t.co/n9awHH8Iz4— Numb dumb (@Numb dumb) 1594933874.0
@Acyn I'm curious as to how Fox's geriatric audience reacts to moments like these. Is Cavuto just part of the Deep… https://t.co/HBx5AM1kDq— E.Hatt-Swank (@E.Hatt-Swank) 1594933017.0
@Acyn They should start cutting away to Cavuto in the middle of Hannity, Carlson, and Ingraham.— Frank Wells (@Frank Wells) 1594932754.0
@Acyn @gtconway3d Exactly what should be done......I’m just surprised that Fox did it— Barbe Levitan (@Barbe Levitan) 1594934501.0
@Acyn @gtconway3d Well that was refreshing to have Fox fact check the President. 👏— Melinda (@Melinda) 1594937147.0
@Acyn @gtconway3d And to defend Obama’s record. I’m shocked.— Mary Nickless (@Mary Nickless) 1594936494.0
Cavuto's fact check came just days after Trump issued a tweet criticizing the network—something he's made a habit of doing when it doesn't cover him as favorably as he likes.
So hard to watch @FoxNews anymore. They are working so hard against the people (viewers) that got them there. Their… https://t.co/N1PnPnm088— Donald J. Trump (@Donald J. Trump) 1594647042.0
People may not have taken Fox's side in the matter, but they certainly didn't take Trump's either.
@realDonaldTrump @FoxNews If you weren't a lazy TV junkie it wouldn't matter what's on TV, you Carrot Colored Clown.— JRehling (@JRehling) 1594654940.0
@realDonaldTrump @FoxNews The fascist is displeased that his propaganda network is faltering. RESIGN!— A Worried Citizen (@A Worried Citizen) 1594647349.0
@realDonaldTrump @FoxNews Aw that’s terrible. Really feel bad for you. I guess maybe since it’s so hard to watch t… https://t.co/0HusqLkyvM— Thinknoodles ✊🏿 (@Thinknoodles ✊🏿) 1594651299.0
The President has yet to tweet about Neil Cavuto.