Fox’s Peter Doocy went beyond the call of duty for a newsman on Friday when he bizarrely started negotiating an arms deal between the United States and Ukraine at an afternoon press conference.
In front of reporters from around the world, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky proposed an arms trade between the U.S. and Ukraine. Zelensky suggested that America could exchange Tomahawk missiles for Ukrainian drones.
In a surreal moment, Fox News’ Senior White House Correspondent asked Trump about the potential exchange, asking whether it was in the United States’ best interest to give out such a powerful weapon.
“If you okay Tomahawks to Ukraine, what’s going to happen if the U.S. is in a conflict and we need the Tomahawks?” asked Doocy.
Trump and Zelensky then both began discussing the particulars of the potential exchange directly to Doocy.
“We need Tomahawks and a lot of other things that we’ve been sending over for the last 4 years to Ukraine,” said Trump. ”Hopefully they won’t need it. Hopefully we can get the war over without thinking about Tomahawks.”
Zelensky then chimed in, “The U.S. has Tomahawks and other missiles, very strong missiles. But they can have our thousands of drones. We can work together and strengthen American production.”
Doocy had the floor again, and said, “Just so I understand, you’re suggesting kind of a trade: if President Trump OKs Tomahawk missiles to help you launch into Russia, then you would authorize some kind of exchange where the U.S. gets Ukranian drones.”
“Yes, of course,” Zelensky replied.
Perhaps stunned by what he was doing, Doocy then said, “Mr. President, I don’t mean to be brokering an arms deal here, but is that something you’d be interested in?”
“We are, yeah,” replied Trump before praising Ukrainian drones and rambling about how great American jets are, unprompted.
The Daily Beast reached out to Fox News for comment.
Doocy had an outsized presence at the press conference between Trump and Zelensky. Prior to the arms deal negotiation, Doocy tried to get Zelensky to praise Trump and insult Joe Biden, asking him “What do you see as the biggest difference in diplomacy between Trump and Biden?”
Zelensky didn’t take the bait, replying, “President Trump has a big chance now to finish this war. President Biden now is not the president so he doesn’t have a chance to finish this war.”
Trump, not one to let an opportunity to insult his predecessor go by, said, “I would say the biggest difference is one is extremely competence and the other is grossly incompetent.”
The DAily Beast reached out to Fox News for comment.
