Even the so-called liberal on this Fox News panel made snide comments about President Barack Obama and his campaign efforts for Democrats. Not a word was said about Donald Trump’s weaknesses.
As a banner blared, “OBAMA BREAKS TRADITION: FORMER PRESIDENT CRITICIZES CURRENT PRESIDENT,” supposedly liberal Judith Miller called it “unusual” and also “a little early” for Obama to be campaigning against Trump, even though we’re less than two months away from the election.
Cohost Bill Hemmer explicitly suggested Obama’s efforts will be counterproductive. “Does this drive more Republicans out?” he asked.
Guest Liz Harrington, of the Washington Free Beacon, seemed delighted as she responded, “It certainly could.” She pointed to Obama’s own losses in the midterms and added, “He didn’t help Hillary Clinton all that much in 2016.” She somehow "forgot" that Obama is more popular since leaving office and he has always been more popular than historically unpopular Trump.
Then Harrington told a whopper: “And what is the message exactly? Back then, he was saying President Trump would need a magic wand to get to 4% growth. What’s he gonna say now, that Trump found it?”
There was hearty laughter of appreciation.
It so happens that Trump tweeted this same claim this morning, though I’m not sure who put out the falsehood first. Regardless, there’s no excuse for either of them to have done it. FACT CHECK: Obama never said that. As Think Progress explained, Obama’s “magic wand” comment referred to Trump’s promise to bring back manufacturing jobs. Also, GDP growth exceeded 4.2 percent on three different occasions during Obama's presidency.
You’d think that someone with a business background, as Smith has, would remember the GDP growth under Obama. But when Harrington wondered what kind of economic message Obama can deliver when “the economy’s booming,” Smith said, “It’s such a great point.”
Miller argued that Obama’s message is “about the future of democracy and the fact that it’s endangered, so he argues, by the Trump presidency and by President Trump himself. That’s his message.” Which deliberately dodged acknowledgment of Trump's actual authoritarian behavior. Not to mention the unhinged behavior and unfitness for office.
Sadly, Miller’s wimpy remark served as a launchpad for Harrington to claim that Obama was the real threat to democracy. She accused him of avoiding Congress by “unilaterally rewriting immigration law,” “throwing out Obamacare mandates” and committing to the Iran nuclear deal.
However, Trump’s threats to democracy have little or nothing to do with executive orders as this crew must surely know. Obama spoke of Trump’s “cozying up to the former head of the KGB, actively blocking legislation that would defend our elections from Russian attack,” his calling on the attorney general not to prosecute Republicans because the midterm elections are coming up and threatening freedom of the press, e.g.
Nobody mentioned those far more serious anti-democratic efforts.
Instead, Miller took another swipe at Obama, this time suggesting that his efforts are doomed because they look like sour grapes: "The problem right now for Barack Obama is that I think a lot of this is so personal," she said. "He still is ... irritated by the birther conspiracy. ... What you see is not only a party position but I think a personal reaction."
In closing, Hemmer all but acknowledged that Obama is a contender: “Well, I think the big news is that the battle’s been joined and you’re gonna see these two heavyweights go at it for 60, 50 some odd days now.”
And you can rest assured Fox News will be doing its part to work the refs for Dear Leader.
Watch an entire panel ignore what's wrong with Trump below, from the September 10, 2018 America's Newsroom.
Judith Miller is not a liberal by any means. Her false articles in the New York Times helped propel the US into the ill-fated invasion of Iraq in 2003, and she has never apologized for that, or for the deaths she helped cause in doing so. I would not make the mistake of trusting her. It’s not a surprise that she can’t come up with anything better in terms of actually stating facts in this matter.
President Obama is not “breaking tradition”. He is responding politely and correctly to the viciousness being inflicted by the Pence White House and the lies they keep repeating as though the number of utterances would make them somehow true. In the recent past, multiple presidents have criticized their predecessors, including George HW Bush going after Bill Clinton for his policies. It was only when Clinton left office that we were told that past presidents weren’t to say anything about the current president. So when Jimmy Carter noted the vicious things that W and Cheney were doing in the 2000s, various Republicans tried to tut-tut him, to no avail. When W left office in disgrace in 2009, nobody expected him to raise his head in public for years, which satisfied this new GOP “tradition” – but they had no problem trotting out Dick Cheney and having him say openly nasty and false things about the Obama White House whenever he could. John Sununu acted in a similar manner, usually couching his open hatred of President Obama in the most racist language he possibly could use. And for the past two years, we’ve heard nothing from the Pence White House but a stream of vicious lies about President Obama, ranging from untruths about the economic health of the country when Trump was sworn in to the nature of international treaties negotiated by the Obama Administration. And the GOP would have President Obama be quiet and face the wall while these guys play these games. So it’s a no-brainer that they’re angry that he has the temerity to open his mouth and call them out.
President Obama isn’t concerned about sour grapes – that’s something more in line with the Pence White House’s spokesman, who regularly nurses grudges and is known to have hated President Obama with an even greater fury after some mocking comments were said about Trump at the White House Correspondents Dinner a few years ago. If Judith Miller is interested in talking about sour grapes, she might want to check in with the Pence White House – they’ve been masterful in growing them. And President Obama is correct to note that the behavior of the Pence White House has primarily been anti-democratic, whether or not most GOP members want to acknowledge it. I find it interesting that more and more rank and file GOP politicians are starting to make comments about their unease with the habits of this White House, even while they continue to attack every Democrat they can.
That said, I would not interpret the current scenario as proof that Fox News or the Right Wing is in any way worried too much about this year’s midterms or about President Obama’s potential impact. These guys have been in gloating mode for nearly two years now, and they’ve gotten used to it. They believe they’re about to win big time in November. Their numbers show them that they will keep the Senate and have a strong chance thanks to their gerrymandering to keep the House. Their comments about President Obama are not borne from fear of him – they’re based on their hatred of President Obama and their enjoyment in taunting and bullying his supporters. And I would not assume for a moment that a “Blue Wave” is going to be enough to over-run the massive gerrymandering the GOP did across the country in 2010. We will need to wait until 2020 to have a chance to deal with that – provided that Democrats run and win in enough local races this year. I certainly hope that the Dems win the Senate, and that they get a small majority in the House, but I haven’t seen an indication yet that the anger of Democratic voters is hot enough to overwhelm the simple math of so many gerrymandered districts where the Democrats would need to massively turn out and hope that the GOP voters stay home. Right Wing pundits are aware of this, and are standing by for another round of vicious gloating come Election Night and the rest of the year. Let’s hope the Dems who stayed home in 2016 and allowed this situation to happen in the first place have learned their lesson and will actually show up this November and in 2020 so we can begin undoing the massive damage that has been done here.