Republican Shelley Moore Capito took a victory lap and curtain call on Fox News today after being elected West Virginia Senator last night. Host Neil Cavuto wasted little time asking her about the prospects for impeachment.
Cavuto set the lapdog tone in his introduction when he said, “A little more than a few weeks ago” there were “a lot of people” who said that her big win “wasn’t going to happen.” Considering that Capito had been up in the polls by double digits for months, you have to wonder who those people were.
They discussed President Obama’s news conference that had just ended. Capito said, “I think his policies were definitely on the ballot. …The energy policies in particular, and if you look across the country, you see states like West Virginia, Colorado, Montana, Alaska, Louisiana – all energy states – where the President and his party really struggled. And so I think that a little humble pie is always good. …His policies absolutely have been rejected here in West Virginia. It’s costing us jobs, it’s costing us confidence.”
Cavuto asked, “What do you make of what tone he’ll (President Obama) be exhibiting in the next two years?”
Capito seemed to lay blame on Sen. Harry Reid as well as the president (and none on the GOP). She said the gridlock was “particularly at the door of the United States Senate.” Capito said she believes Obama “wants to cooperate” with Republicans. “I’m hopeful that if we get these bills through the Senate, which I think we can, and get them to the President’s desk, he can make a decision and I think he’s going to surprise us.”
“Surprise you where?” Cavuto asked.
“I’d say Keystone Pipeline right off the bat. It’s a job creator, it’s a friendly country, it’s an energy policy,” Capito said.
According to the U.S. State Department, only 50 permanent jobs would be created, and only 35 of those would be full time. But Cavuto did not point that out.
Instead, Cavuto probed the subject of impeaching the president. He asked about Obama possibly issuing an executive order freezing deportations of undocumented immigrants - or “millions of illegals” as Cavuto put it – which he also said “many” Republicans would consider “an impeachable offense.” Cavuto added, “I know you’re just getting in, I don’t want to go through the details of this but if he does something like that, would that poison the well for you in terms of working with the President on immigration reform?”
Capito obviously did not want to go there She replied, “It definitely would have a negative effect.” But, she said, she wants to “find common ground without him going out on a limb with an executive order that would be extremely a hot button issue that would be very divisive.”
Cavuto closed by saying “Congratulations” and “I wish you well.”
This is probably the first of many chummy interviews for Capito on Fox News.