The arsonist who set the plastic Christmas tree outside of the Fox News headquarters in midtown Manhattan on fire was arrested and later released without bail under New York's bail-reform law.
New York's 2019 law is not overseen by President Joe Biden's administration.
But Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy was insistent on trying to blame Biden for releasing the suspect and overall being lax on criminals who are allegedly attacking America.
Police said last Wednesday morning's conflagration did not appear to be premeditated. The suspect was a 49-year-old homeless man who had a history of drug-related arrests and did not have an apparent political agenda.
Days after the arson attack, the far-right conservative news channel remained fixated on the incident, in which nobody was hurt.
FOX News Media CEO Suzanne Scott sent a company-wide email blasting the incident as a "malicious arson attack" and Fox News contributor Reverend Jacques DeGraff even compared it to the attack on Pearl Harbor.
At Monday's White House briefing, Doocy asked if big cities were dealing with an "increase in criminal activity" due to prosecutors being "soft on crime."
To which White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said the administration was focused on addressing the problem rather than citing a definitive reason.
"The President has proposed additional funding in the budget to make sure local police departments and cops have the funding they need," she said.
"We have also worked directly with police departments in areas where they are seeing the highest impact of the crime, the retail threft [sic] — theft, which we have great concern about."
Doocy was not impressed.
“But I guess what good does it do if you’re gonna give police departments extra money if they arrest bad guys, and they bring ’em to jail, and then they’re not prosecuted?"
"They’re just right back out on the streets."
Psaki answered:
“I think Peter, what our focus is on is making sure that the local leaders, the police officers and departments who know what they need for these communities have the assistance and the funding they need and that’s what we’re working around the clock on.”
Doocy, however, remained unsatisfied with her response, and pushed further:
“We’ve seen an arsonist burn down a half a million dollar Christmas tree in New York City. Back out on the streets."
He then asked if the President thought that was "good governing,” as if the federal government should be keeping tabs on every minor misdemeanor and low-level crime that is normally handled by the state.
Psaki, refusing to continue talking in circles with Doocy, referred him to the New York Police Department–which announced the arsonist's arrest last week.
"Again, I think I’ve spoken to the President’s concerns about retail theft. If you have specific — and the actions we’ve taken for specific cases, I would point to the local police departments or the Department of Justice."
Twitter roasted Doocy and Fox News by pointing out their misguided priorities with their "half-a-million-dollar Christmas tree in New York City."
According to a criminal complaint, the arsonist was charged with criminal mischief, reckless endangerment, arson, criminal nuisance, endangering others, criminal trespass, criminal tampering, and disorderly conduct. He was arraigned on supervised release.
When asked about a motive, he told police:
"I have been thinking about lighting the tree on fire all day."
A day after it was set ablaze, the Christmas tree was replaced and relit. Not that that would pacify the fear-mongering folks over at Fox News.
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