Fox News host Trace Gallagher is trying to justify the killing of a Houston father by immigration agents—the latest example of the network’s central role in propping up the Trump administration’s most atrocious actions.
Just a week after the July 7 shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo during a traffic stop, Gallagher said on “Fox News @ Night” that the killing was justified because authorities “found three bags of methamphetamine in this car.”
To emphasize his point, Gallagher instructed producers to show a photo of a box found in Salgado Araujo’s car.
“There probably is a reason that they were trying to get away from ICE agents,” he said before praising Immigration and Customs Enforcement for doing “such a good job in eradicating these drugs.”
Gallagher also gave President Donald Trump credit for a purported decrease in methamphetamine-related deaths since the start of his second term.
But, unsurprisingly, Gallagher is full of shit.
When he made his unequivocal declaration, Araujo’s family said that the box found in his car was an electrolyte mix used by outdoor workers in Texas during extreme heat. And the FBI’s affidavit only said that there was the “appearance” of a controlled substance that was “consistent with methamphetamine.”
Related | ICE killings prompted pledge to wear body cameras. Where are they?
It is now known that the box did not contain any illicit drugs.
A test from the Harris County district attorney’s office released on July 24 confirmed that the substance “tested negative for narcotics/illicit drugs.”
“We can now confirm that the substance found in Lorenzo Salgado’s van was not a narcotic or any other illicit substance. As his family has said all along, this was an electrolyte powder to stay hydrated working outside in the hot Texas summer,” Democratic Rep. Sylvia Garcia of Texas said that same day. “The attempt to cast a shadow over Lorenzo Salgado’s name has failed.”
Fox News plays a vital role in providing propaganda for the Trump administration, consistently bolstering its rhetoric and actions as the death toll from ICE operations continues to rise.
Over the decades, Fox has firmly secured its spot as the right’s quasi-official propaganda arm, broadcasting a steady stream of disinformation, bigotry, and political attacks in service of the GOP.
The network even helped push Trump’s 2020 election lie, promoting fake stories about how the election was purportedly stolen from him. Fox has so far had to fork out nearly $800 million in legal settlements as punishment for these lies, and other cases are still pending.
As public sentiment has turned against ICE as it continues to torment immigrants and citizens alike, Trump has claimed that they’re doing a “GREAT job.”
This lie might fly at Fox News, but it will never be the truth.
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