Fox News’ Ed Henry and Karl Rove “honored” Martin Luther King Day by attacking black Democrats for being – well, too black for their white, conservative taste. For good measure, the conservatives weaponized the holiday against Sen. Bernie Sanders, too.
The Blacks Behaving Badly this year, according to Henry and Rove, are Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA). In the past Fox has attacked Black Lives Matter, John Lewis and, of course, President Barack Obama on MLK Day.
Henry, guest hosting The Story with Martha MacCallum, pretended to be the one honoring King’s legacy of “compassion and love” as he wasted no time accusing Democrats of “turning that message a little upside down” by attempting “to brandish the president of the United States a racist.”
In fact, I can’t think of a better to day to consider the state of race relations in our country than today. Of course, Henry couldn’t be bothered to consider Trump’s very disturbing record on race. No, Henry was too busy attacking (mostly black) Democrats in the name of King.
We saw a clip of Jeffries saying, “We have a hater in the White House, the birther in chief, the grand wizard of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. … While Jim Crow may be dead, he’s still got some nieces and nephews that are alive and well.” That was followed by a clip of Sanders saying, “It gives me no pleasure to tell you that we now have a president of the United States who is a racist.” Harris' “sin” was in declaring her presidential candidacy on MLK Day.
“This ought to be a day where politics is momentarily set aside,” Rove said accusingly. Apparently, he only meant that Democrats should set aside politics. He had no problem with his own politicization. He complained that Jeffries’ comments were “so over the top and so reprehensible” and that Sanders “took a cheap shot” at Trump “in front of the NAACP.” Rove likened Harris’ announcement to “a bad promo for a Marvel movie.”
Fortunately, Marie Harf was the other guest. “I have no idea why anyone would find Kamala Harris announcing for president today offensive,” she said. She went on to note that Mike Pence “most politicized” Martin Luther King Jr. Day by offensively comparing Trump to MLK. She said that while she doesn’t know what’s in Trump’s heart, there are plenty of racists and bigots who think Trump agrees with them. “He has not done enough, after Charlottesville and so many situations, to disabuse them of that notion.”
As for Harris’ announcement, Harf said, “I didn’t know there were rules for Martin Luther King Day. Did I miss them? Were they published somewhere?”
“Why not just respect the man and his legacy?” Henry said.
“I think the first black woman running for president in the modern era who’s an actual, legitimate contender is honoring Martin Luther King Jr. in a way most other people couldn’t,” Harf shot back.
“Let’s not politicize today” Rove answered by “asking” whether anyone who supports the women’s march should be tarred as an anti-Semite because, he claimed, the march has “a lot of anti-Semites.”
“Karl, the whataboutism isn’t going to work here,” Harf said. Then, going on offense, which is what I think all Democrats on Fox should do as much as possible, Harf suggested that the Republican party “should take on this issue.”
That got Rove defensive and, of course, Henry was there for him.
Watch how Fox "honors" King's legacy of compassion and love below, from the January 21, 2019 The Story with Martha MacCallum.
Don’t the supporters of Putin’s fake president ever get tired of washing the poop from the Poopstorm In Chief off their faces and out of their mouths?