It’s one thing for Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard to go on Fox and quite another to promote its pro-Trump propaganda on the air, especially on the Hannity show.
Regular readers know I have no problem with Democrats going on Fox – so long as they can use their appearance to counter the disinformation and hate mongering.
Gabbard, however, used what was at least her third appearance on Fox News last week to assist in attacks on Democrats.
It started, of course, with the Hillary Clinton feud. “She's basically accusing you of being a traitor,” and “being groomed to be this agent of the Soviet Union,” Sean Hannity said, which is quite an exaggeration of what Clinton said.
Clinton actually said that Republicans are grooming Gabbard to run as a third-party candidate and that she’s “the favorite of the Russians” who are supporting her with “a bunch of sites and bots and other ways.” At most, Clinton suggested Gabbard is a Russian asset because she went on to compare Gabbard to 2016 third-party candidate Jill Stein whom Clinton described as "also a Russian asset." But Hannity played a clip of Clinton saying, “they’ve got their eye on somebody who is currently in the Democratic primary and are grooming her to be the third party candidate,” giving the false impression she was talking about Russians.
But in a typically shameless bout of Hannity dishonesty, he followed up by pretending to care about smears, saying, “Slander is a big deal to me. Your reaction.”
Gabbard once again did not deny any support from Russia (probably because she can’t), but OK, I get it that it’s in her interest to milk the Hillary feud, even though Clinton is neither in office or running for any office.
But allowing birtherism-promoting Hannity to claim to care about slander is unforgivable, in my book. We’re still waiting for Hannity’s apology to the Seth Rich family for slandering their murdered son as the leaker of stolen DNC emails to WikiLeaks.
Gabbard responded by talking up her military service, her “fight for peace” and by validating Hannity’s exaggeration that Clinton had called her a traitor.
GABBARD: So what is so concerning about what Hillary Clinton is doing here is, she is not only calling me a traitor, she is not only trying to smear my character, she's sending a warning out to every veteran every, single American anyone who stands up against the war mongering foreign policies that really are her legacy, that have been so destructive and costly to my brothers and sisters in uniform. Cost the American people trillions of dollars and caused such damage in the world. This is what's so dangerous.
Meanwhile, Hannity continued to lie, “I’m tired of politicizing war,” he claimed. “We send these kids, go fight, bleed, die and then it gets politicized.” I guess he forgot to mention that he does the politicizing. That’s not counting the war he wants to start.
After trying – and failing – to get Gabbard to attack the Russia investigation, Hannity hit pay dirt with the Trump impeachment inquiry:
HANNITY: Let me ask you this. You're watching Adam Schiff, for three years he's told the American people they have evidence of Trump-Russia collusion. Even the Mueller report said that's not true. Now he's behind closed doors and a secret impeachment hearing.”
Earlier that day, Fox’s own legal expert thoroughly debunked the “secrecy” talking point by noting that a) the House is following Republican-created rules and b) there will be public hearings once the investigation phase is completed. Slander-hating Hannity also conveniently ignored – again – the fact that all the Republicans on the three House committees involved in the impeachment inquiry are allowed to participate.
But Gabbard validated the BS, even as she said she supports the inquiry.
GABBARD: I think it needs to be a transparent process. I have long expressed my concern about going through impeachment proceedings in a very, very partisan way, because it'll only further tear apart an already divided country. My interest and concern is for the well-being of our country and our democracy as we move forward.
…
I don't know what's going on in those closed doors. We as members of Congress don't have access to the information that is being shared. And I think that the American people deserve to know exactly what the facts are, what the evidence is that's being presented as this inquiry goes on.
Hannity moved on to try to get Gabbard to attack Hunter Biden. When she sidestepped, he said, laughably, “You can be honest on this show.”
But Gabbard closed on a note that made Hannity happy.
GABBARD: I want to say that, you and I, I'm sure, disagree on a lot of things. But I think that you and I agree on one very important point and that is that the American people have had enough of Hillary Clinton and her war mongering policies.
HANNITY: Amen.
Gabbard has repeatedly denied she will run as a third-party candidate. But she has also recently declared she will not seek re-election to Congress in order to “best serve the people of Hawaiʻi & our country as President and Commander-in-Chief.”
Watch Gabbard do Trump’s Bedtime BFF Hannity a big solid below, from the October 24, 2019 Hannity.
No current position.
But, and this is a big but: She is an American citizen.
Would Joseph Murray be suggesting she be deprived of her rights to free speech?
Some people are too ambitious for their own good, to the point where they can easily be swayed by competent manipulators. Or talk themselves into running for any party that may have an empty slot. By carrying Hannity’s water for him, Ms Gabbard has shown herself to be ill-informed (on Fox! with Hannity!) and rather more suited to running as a Republican.
Sean doesn’t want to ‘politicize war’? So he lets Gabbard claim Hillary killed “millions” with her foreign policy. Seriously? Certainly Hillary’s foreign policy is open to scrutiny like in Libya but millions? 5 Pinocchios.
Finally, watching Gabbard kiss Sean’s ass (if only by silence) on all his crackpot impeachment talking points and awkwardly dodging his Hunter Biden question – to Sean’s delight – is vomit inducing.
Now we know why Russian bots are using Gabbard as a useful idiot. Time to end her 15 minutes of fame.