Normally, I’d winnow down a mountain of Fox News outrageousness such as we had last week as Fox desperately spun Donald Trump’s family separations and child detentions. But taken as a whole, they make quite a statement about Fox News that might otherwise be missed.
Before you get to making the hard choices, let’s first have a round of raspberries for Sean Hannity. It feels like a year ago but his over-the-top praise for Trump’s summit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un won last week’s poll.
And now, without further ado, here are this week’s candidates:
Joel Pollak’s Happy Family Separations:
Well, the most amazing thing to me when I arrived there - and I arrived with an open mind, I felt I had to see it for myself - was the care of the staff who worked there. They have doctors, they have psychologists, they have trained social workers, administrators and all of them want to help these children. Often, the kids come there without any knowledge of basic hygiene. They come from some of the poorest places in Central America. The staff there give them toiletries, they give them new clothes. They sometimes have to teach them how to shower, how to use a flush toilet. They give them an education. This is a place where they really have the welfare of the kids at heart.
[…]
They receive some kind of shelter which is better than what they had on the long, arduous and often dangerous trek from Central America to the border.
Laura Ingraham’s Happy Family Separations:
So since more illegal immigrants are rushing the border, more kids are being separated from their parents and temporarily housed in what are essentially summer camps or as the San Diego Union Tribune described them today, is looking like, basically, boarding schools.
Corey Lewandowski, mocking concerns for a 10 year-old with Down Syndrome separated from her family at the border:
Womp, womp.
Ann Coulter, smearing the immigrant children crying when separated from their parents:
These child actors weeping and crying on all the other networks 24/7 right now - do not fall for it, Mr. President. I get very nervous about the president getting his news from TV because I also have a New Yorker article. New Yorker is not a conservative publication. They describe how these kids, these kids are being coached, they’re given scripts to read by liberals, according to the New Yorker. Don't fall for the actor children.
Pastor Robert Jeffress, making the border crisis about abortion:
I have to point out the hypocrisy here of Kirsten [Gillibrand], the senator, in saying that it’s evil to rip children out of their mothers’ arms. Well, what about the evil of ripping children out of their mothers’ wombs after dismembering them through abortion? Where is the outrage from the senator on that policy, which her Democrat Party supports?
Tucker Carlson, using the border crisis to undermine the Russia investigation:
You’ve heard a lot recently about the sinister influence of foreign countries on our government. Our enemies abroad, we are told, take advantage of our political system to hurt us and help themselves. Well, we’re right to be worried about that. It’s actually happening. The chief offender is not Russia, though, it’s Mexico.
[…]
They send their poorest people here because it’s cheaper than taking care of them there. America is now Mexico’s social safety net and that’s a very good deal for the Mexican ruling class.
Brian Kilmeade, suggesting we should stop being so sympathetic to immigrant children being separated from their families by Trump’s policy:
And these are not -- like it or not, these aren't our kids. Show ‘em compassion, but it's not like he is doing this to the people of Idaho or Texas. These are people from another country and now people are saying that they're more important than people in our country who are paying taxes and who have needs as well.
Rachel Campos-Duffy’s Happy Family Separations:
The detention centers are far safer than the journey that these little children just came on.
And I will say this, people aren’t stupid. I spoke to some African-Americans who say, gosh, the conditions of the detention center are better than some of the projects that I grew up in. People are looking at the sentencing, let’s not smear our border patrol. They are trying to do the best they can. These children were brought here under horrible, irresponsible circumstances.
David Bossie, debating an African American guest:
You’re out of your cotton-picking mind.
The poll will remain open until 11:50 PM ET on July 1, 2018.
Cast your vote below.
May the worst quote win!
Both are so typical of the current level of unabashed – and I would say, totally un-American – speak that PresidentTrump continues to foment. Lovers of America throughout the world are watching in dismay as the USA disintegrates steadily into a mean-spirited, me/us-only (selfish) discourse.
Whatever one may think of Reagan’s actions, he never failed to praise Americans for respecting the country’s traditional values. Even lip service is better than what’s happening now.