
Donald Trump attacked a black CEO after he quit in protest of Trump's unwillingness to criticize murderous white supremacists. Now Fox News is doing the same.

Fox host Stuart Varney bashed Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier, who is black, after Frazier resigned from Donald Trump's "American Manufacturing Council." Frazier left the group after Trump refused to take a strong stand on white supremacists who rioted and killed a woman in Charlottesville, Virginia.

This comes a day after Trump personally attacked Frazier on Twitter within 54 minutes of his announcement.

In his statement about his departure, Frazier noted, "America’s leaders must honor our fundamental values by clearly rejecting expressions of hatred, bigotry and group supremacy, which run counter to the American ideal that all people are created equal."


That apparently upset Trump — and his propagandists at Fox.

Appearing on "Fox & Friends," which is Trump's favorite show and the disreputable source he relies on for many of his tweets, Varney complained that Frazier is "putting his own political views ahead of his responsibility as the CEO of a huge drug company."

Varney, reflecting the view of many at Fox and in the conservative movement of Trump as a leader beyond question, thundered that Frazier had "incurred the anger of his president."

VARNEY: What is this manufacturing advisory council all about? Well, it's 28 CEOs and union leaders, brought together by the president, to advise him on bringing jobs back to America. Mr. Frazier has resigned, as he says, as a matter of personal conscience. In other words, he's putting his own political views ahead of his responsibility as the CEO of a huge drug company. He's walked away from the table, and he's incurred the anger of his president. Now that's a very difficult situation that he has walked into quite willingly. He put politics ahead of economics, business, and his role on that council.

Frazier is not the only CEO to quit Trump's council. The CEOs of Under Armour and Intel both also announced that they are leaving Trump councils, as did Scott Paul, head of The Alliance for American Manufacturing.

The difference, however, is that Frazier is the only black man to quit — and the only one attacked by Trump and Fox.

Varney is officially the host of business programming on Fox News and Fox Business, but he has done far more work at the networks attacking poor people for their economic conditions and complaining about "gay days" at Walt Disney World.

Fox amplified Trump's racially charged push back, clipping, highlighting, and singling out Varney's comments on its Twitter account.

Specifically, "Fox & Friends" has been a standout in praising Trump for his equivocating on racism. One host on the program insisted that Trump "nailed it" when he said "many sides" were responsible for the violence and death.

He did not nail it, no matter what the propaganda network claims. And its willingness to help Trump accomplish his racist dirty work again reinforces the malignant role Fox News plays in the national conversation.