The Outnumbered show waited for the confirmation vote for Betsy DeVos as Education Secretary the Fox News way: by attacking Democrats. But cohost Meghan McCain took the obnoxious venom to a lower level by referring to Senator Elizabeth Warren as “Pocahontas.” Right after McCain attacked Democrats for being too negative.
The discussion began with lectures from the Foxies about how Democratic tactics are failing (which, as I’ve said before, is a sure sign they are working).
Noted political scientist and education expert Antonio Sabàto, Jr. (better known as a former model and D-list actor and Trump supporter who has repeatedly blown the "Obama's a secret Muslim" dog whistle on Fox) complained that the confirmation process took too long.
Cohost Abby Huntsman agreed and took a swipe at Democrats for being “frustrating.” Never mind that DeVos, a billionaire enemy of public education, is unqualified and conflicted and Republicans rammed through her nomination without providing adequate information.
Given that Huntsman recently made a splash by pushing a bogus statistic about food stamp fraud and then used it to “just ask” if that meant we should eliminate the program altogether, one can understand why she wouldn’t mind having someone like DeVos in charge of education.
Cohost Harris Faulkner scolded that Democrats are playing to their base by fighting and asked rhetorically, “Does losing play to your base, too?”
“It’s the only message they have right now is that, ‘We hate Donald Trump, we hate his entire cabinet, everyone he puts into place is evil and is Hitler,’” Cohost Meghan McCain said. “That is not a message that’s gonna inspire people.” This from the woman who said on a previous Outnumbered show that she loved then-vice presidential candidate Carly Fiorina because, “She rips out [Hillary Clinton’s] jugular and serves it to me on a platter, which is what I want coming up in the election.” Of course, nobody reminded McCain of that.
Cohost Sandra Smith reprimanded Democrats for being too anti-Trump and “not picking their fights.”
Faulkner attempted to delegitimize the opposition by “just wondering” why Democrats didn’t talk much about education at their convention. In fact, they did. I counted three speakers from the field of education, plus the daughter of the principal at Sandy Hook Elementary school. Hillary Clinton talked about the subject in her speech. I’m sure others included it within the broader confines of theirs, too.
Then, at about eight minutes in, Faulkner opened up the discussion for smearing Senator Elizabeth Warren. McCain picked up the opening and ran with it. Faulkner was shocked, shocked, I tell you.
FAULKNER: One thing this morning that we saw was Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren saying, you know, among the Democrats, she takes this personally. And so she might have been one who, if she were on the campaign trail for president –
MCCAIN: Why does Pocahontas take this personally?
FAULKNER: Oh, my goodness.
MCCAIN: I mean, that’s her nickname and I’m – our president calls her that and I’m going to call her that, too.
Let’s not forget that it was just moments ago that McCain was lecturing Democrats that hate is “the only message” they have. Memo to McCain: You’re not looking like you’ve anything else, yourself.
Watch it below, from the February 7, 2017 Outnumbered.
Now in power, the Republicans (and Fox their official news agency) who had endless tantrums Obama wouldn’t work with them, are ramming their radical agenda down America’s throats. Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!
Fun for Meghan McCain to recycle a childish insult from Rush Limbaugh’s show and then dignify it as okay because hey, Trump liked it too. (And we should remember that Donald Trump clearly follows the lead both of Rush Limbaugh and Fox News hosts like O’Reilly and Hannity)
If anything, McCain is unintentionally confirming what saner people in this country are quickly realizing – that there’s a bigger problem than Donald Trump’s childish public behavior and his attempts to bully anyone who doesn’t agree with him. The problem is that Trump’s rabid supporters, mostly angry white men but also some angry white women, are now thinking that they are free to let their inner bully fly. (Not to mention their inner bigot, inner racist and inner hater in general) Since they see Trump get away with this behavior, they figure now they can say the things they’ve always wanted to say and there will be no consequences. It’s the same mentality that led Rush Limbaugh to have one of his promo lines be “Well, SOMEBODY had to say it!” It’s the same mentality we discussed here a year ago, where Trump supporters actually said in public that they felt they couldn’t say what they really felt because they were afraid someone would call them a racist. Clearly, they’re not afraid of that anymore – and that’s going to have major ramifications for the rest of us.
We need to remember that for all the silliness like the anarchists disrupting a Berkeley talk by a vicious Breitbart hate-speech monger, there have been thousands of acts of hate documented by the Southern Poverty Law Center, perpetrated by angry Trump supporters against everyone else. Acts ranging from swastikas painted on synagogues or on people’s houses, other offensive graffiti being spray painted, cars being smashed and vandalized, to the more chilling spectacle of children in schools following the Tweeter-in-Chief’s example by attacking non-white children. The Right holds a serious responsibility for this conduct, and they do not get to claim any moral high ground when they happily indulge in it themselves, as McCain just did.
I also note that Mitch McConnell’s stunt in trying to shut Elizabeth Warren up yesterday is an interesting one, aside from the long-term backfire effect. First, everyone knew that Sessions and DeVos would be confirmed, as will all of the Pence White House’s cabinet picks, unless one of the picks chooses to step away, as the one lesser guy did this week. The GOP does not need a single Dem vote for this and they’re ramming these idiots through. So we can look forward to a gutted Education Dept along with a gutted Energy Dept and EPA – assuming these Depts even exist by 2020. (I’d keep an eye open for which one is completely dismantled first.) Second, Warren’s intention of raising awareness of the serious inappropriateness of these people to be put in charge of these departments has now been given an even louder platform than she thought she had before. But thirdly, it’s interesting to see McConnell try to shut things down with this selective enforcement of an obscure Senate rule about disparagement. I’m betting there’s one in there that applies to all the really vicious statements made by angry Right Wing GOP members of both houses about President Obama and his cabinet at every possible opportunity from 2009 through to January 19, 2016. But we didn’t hear McConnell jumping up and down about any of those, did we? Only when he thought he could score some kind of cheap point – and as he’s noted, it blew up in his face. This from the same man who said his proudest moment in the US Senate was when he churlishly refused to do his job for the past year and smugly announced that intention to the sitting President to his face.
And I was thinking about how we got into this situation. By our fellow countrymen being complacent enough to not give a damn about who runs the country. Conservatives aren’t the only ones who believe in a vengeful, wrathful God. I wonder if God looks down on one wealthy, arrogant, prideful and sinful country and thinks; Bird Flu.