NEW YORK (AP) - Fox News said it has removed a video from its website that depicted cars plowing through demonstrators, saying it was “inappropriate.”
The development was part of another fast-moving day Tuesday for media keeping up with the fallout from a violent racial protest over the weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia, including a contentious late-afternoon news conference by President Donald Trump and a deleted presidential tweet.
The 90-second video had been picked up in January from The Daily Caller, a website co-founded by Fox personality Tucker Carlson. The Daily Caller’s video editor, Mike Raust, wrote when it was posted: “Here’s a compilation of liberal protesters getting pushed out of the way by cars and trucks. Study the technique; it may prove useful in the next four years.”
The video, its existence reported by Slate Tuesday, was reposted on the Fox Nation opinion website.
“The item was inappropriate and we’ve taken it down,” said Noah Kotch, Fox News Digital editor-in-chief. “We regret posting it in January.”
A car struck a group of counter-demonstrators to a white nationalist event in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer and injuring 19.
Representatives from The Daily Caller did not immediately return messages seeking comment.
Also Tuesday, the president retweeted and deleted a cartoon showing a train labeled “Trump” running over a man with “CNN” covering his face.
His news conference from Trump Tower featured the president answering several questions about his reaction to violence at the weekend demonstration, and appearing to equate the actions of demonstrators on both sides. Shortly after the session, broadcast live on television, a CNN onscreen headline said: “Trump News Conference Goes Off the Rails.”
MSNBC anchor Nicolle Wallace, once an aide to former President George W. Bush, emotionally waved a printed copy of a tweet from former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke praising Trump’s news conference and said of Trump’s staff, “who resigns over this? Which one of you is leaving your job?”
On CNN, analyst David Chalian said that “this is a president who has lost touch with the country that he represents.”
The news conference drew a mixed response by commentators on normally Trump-friendly Fox News Channel, although Trump had his supporters.
“I think he did a great job today,” said Madison Gesiotto, an analyst on the network. “He’s a leader.”
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Associated Press television writer Lynn Elber in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
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