Fox & Friends trotted out D-list actor Antonio Sabato, Jr., the guy who once said President Barack Obama should be sent to Guantanamo Bay, as an expert on violence against Republicans in a discussion that completely ignored violence against Democrats or liberals.
Before turning to Fox’s latest sociological expert, cohost Ainsley Earhardt set the conservative victimhood and grievance. “We’ve been telling you about all the threats and the violence targeting Republicans across our country,” she said. But Super Duper Christian Earhardt never said a word about threats and violence against Democrats ginned up by Donald Trump and her own network.
All in on the martyrdom and the blindness to liberal targets was Pete Hegseth, ginning up a little more hostility while he was at it. “So, will the media ever acknowledge the problem?” he asked, proving that irony is dead to Fox World but eternal for the rest of us.
“Here to weigh in, actor and former GOP congressional candidate, Antonio Sabato, Jr.,” Hegseth said, to introduce the guest.
It’s not clear whether someone at Fox actually believed Sabato was a real expert on the subject or whether his divisive commentary, designed to fuel more hostility, was the attraction. Or maybe just being a Trump-loving Republican who thinks Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama belong in Guantanamo Bay was all the cred needed.
“Imagine all the scenarios where the shoe’s on the other foot,” Hegseth began. In fact, we don’t have to imagine. We have a known case of right-wing murder against anti-racism advocate Heather Heyer, the attempted mail-bomb murders of Democrats and liberals by a guy obsessed with Trump and Fox News, and the fact that right-wing violence is on the rise. Just two weeks ago, we reported on a man who blamed Fox News for inciting him to threaten to kill Rep. Adam Schiff.
Neither of these two “Christian values” hosts said a word about those threats.
Sabato’s first words suggested his supposed blacklist from Hollywood was akin to violence. “It’s been happening for a long time,” he said about assaults on conservatives. “I mean, listen, I was blacklisted from Hollywood.”
Nevertheless, Sabato continued with a message of positivity:
SABATO: Good morning America, good morning Mr. President … I want to talk about the fact that this year we have an election and the only thing we can do to fight against this [sic] horrible things that are happening to Republicans all over the country for wearing hats or whatever, supporting our president, is that we have to win in November. We have to show them that we have love, caring, we have God in our hearts. And we gotta keep going in a positive way.
I mean, these things are happening too often. And a lot of innocent people are being attacked for no possible reason. I mean, we live in the greatest country in the world and we have to support our flag, our military, our president and I’m gonna keep talking about the good things, not the bad stuff and I hope they come around and we can work together with the Democrats and help the American people. There’s a lot of issues in this country. We need to solve a lot of things and we need to work together.
That was just too much comity for Jesus’ BFF Earhardt. “Some of these people want to take God out of our schools, though, and God out of our lives,” she said, blatantly using Jesus to gin up more hostility. That was her introduction to videos showing a Republican table “smashed” at University of California, Santa Cruz and a man yelling at Arizona State University “Slash his throat, every f***ing Republican!”
“The anger, the vitriol, this is no longer Republicans and Democrats debating but they want to slash Republicans’ throats?” Earhardt “asked” Sabato. This from the woman who had no problem when White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham said, on Fox & Friends, that Never Trump Republicans deserve to be called “human scum.”
Sabato took the hint. He tossed aside thoughts of love, caring and working together quicker than you can say, “enemy of the people.”
SABATO: The ignorance and just the evil that I’ve seen from the left and what they’re supporting and the media supporting these people as well. We need to move on away from that. We need to start talking about God. You know, when you get rid of God, when you get rid of rules and when you get rid of how you’re supposed to live your life or just positive things in your life, you’re gonna attack the other side. And what are they really attacking? What are they afraid of? They’re afraid of the flag, they’re afraid of the fact that we’re patriots, they’re afraid of the flag that we love our [constitutional] amendments, especially our Second Amendment, and so many other things.
We’re proud Americans and they gotta get, they gotta get rid of this stuff and you know, the teachers in the schools, the liberal schools, they’re teaching these kids the wrong way and I’m afraid that the teacher of our children is in really big danger and we have to, we have to, we have to help ‘em as much as we can. And so I think we need to start talking about the good stuff and God is definitely one of them in my life.
Now, Sabato got the Fox seal of approval. “Amen,” Hegseth said, and ended the segment with enthusiastic thanks.
You can see how “unity” on Fox means pushing everyone to march in lockstep with their Trumpy conservatisim below, from the February 18, 2020 Fox & Friends.
At least you’re original, Melda.
Honestly, who will ever forget his performance as Handsome Guy #1 in the remake of The Three Stooges?
Kids should be taught that the virtues of behaving well, being industrious, co-operating and being kind to others are good for their own sake, NOT because Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha or whoever commands them to obey. As the effects of total immersion in religion dissipate with a young person maturing and becoming more independent, the ‘rules’ tend to slip away. Then what are they left with?