In a bogus attempt to paint liberals as a violent “mob,” Fox News has made ample use of former Attorney-General Eric Holder’s comment that when the GOP goes low, Democrats should “kick ‘em.” Of course, Fox cuts the Holder video before the part which cuts against Fox’s message.
On Thursday’s Fox & Friends, the curvy couch crew tossed the propaganda ball to their special friend, Donald Trump, who ran with it. Cohost Steve Doocy falsely summarized Holder’s comments after showing the clipped video: “After he [Holder] said “we’ll kick them,” the whole room started clapping and cheering.” Doocy said. He asked Trump, “What does this say to you about the tenor of politics?” Naturally, Trump was only too eager to dis the Democrats.
Thursday night, in keeping with the Fox script, Martha MacCallum and Laura Ingraham complained about Holder's “kick” comment.
Aiding and abetting the official Fox message, Tucker Carlson contributed his brand of snarky, sneering agitprop. He claimed that Holder “has given Democrats permission to get physical” and added, “Don’t be surprised when the mob obeys.”
On the Fox News website, Judson Berger wrote that Holder made a “call to ‘kick’ Republicans and spurn civility.”
The problem is that in all of the above instances, nobody bothered to include the rest of Holder’s quote:
"When I say we kick them, I don't mean we do anything inappropriate, we don't do anything illegal, but we gotta be tough and we gotta fight for the very things that John Lewis, Martin Luther King, Whitney Young – all those folks gave to us.”
All that whining about a mythical Democratic “mob” and Eric Holder’s supposed call to violence – yet none of them seemed to have any problem with their beloved Donald Trump consistently inciting violence at his rallies. Hmmm….
Addendum: The GOP candidate for the governorship of Pennsylvania, Scott Wagner, threatened to "stomp" all over his opponent's face with golf spikes." Wonder if the Fox folks will be upset about that bit of incivility!
(MacCallum/Ingraham image via screen grab)