CNN hosts' hyper-fixation on the "imagery" of Special Counsel Jack Smith's Subway trip was roundly mocked, particularly after correspondent John King branded the move as a "message to Donald Trump."
"Jack Smith going to Subway today is a message to Donald Trump. Donald Trump tries to intimidate people, he bullies people, he tries to scare you away. That was Jack Smith with no words and a simple $5 sub in his hand saying ‘I'm not going anywhere,’" he said during "CNN News Central" Tuesday afternoon.
Colleague Dana Bash agreed, calling the imagery "intentional" and adding that it "speaks volumes."
CNN OBSESSES OVER ‘IMAGERY’ OF SPECIAL COUNSEL GETTING SUBWAY SANDWICH: ‘A MESSAGE TO DONALD TRUMP’
"Fox & Friends" hosts Ainsley Earhardt, Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade marveled Wednesday morning at the bizarre analysis.
"Is the imagery that he likes fast food?" Kilmeade asked.
Doocy joked, "Can you imagine what CNN would have said had Jack Smith used a coupon?" adding, "If he would have gone to Taco Bell yesterday, on Taco Tuesday, what would that mean?"
Earhardt quoted a tweet from Eric Columbus, a lawyer for former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who wrote, "Sometimes a sandwich is just a sandwich" and another from Twitter user Julian Sanchez who chimed in with, "Pretty sure the message is that he wanted a sandwich."
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Fox News contributor Joe Concha mocked the Subway coverage, blasting the topic as poor journalism.
"This is the old CNN. Not the old, old CNN with Bernard Shaw and the Gulf War and doing actual journalism. It's the new CNN, post-Chris Licht who was the president who was ousted by an internal mutiny that happened at that network because they had the audacity to put Donald Trump on their air for a town hall and the inmates relisted and basically overthrew the prison warden," he told "Fox & Friends First" anchors Todd Piro and Carley Shimkus.
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"It's all about Donald Trump and the guy who's taking down Donald Trump and what he eats for lunch. That's where CNN is at this point and that's why they can't even draw 500,000 or 600,000 people at primetime," he continued.
Even Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., roasted the network's analysis of Smith's sandwich on "Fox & Friends" Wednesday, saying he didn't believe it was "particularly newsworthy."
"I mean, if they had some film of him eating Cheerios off the floor with his dog, I would find that interesting," he joked. "But just walking out of a Subway… I don't get the deeper meaning. Maybe it was a slow news day."
