Former Fox regular Joseph diGenova claims he was “just joking” when he said that Chris Krebs, recently fired from DHS after saying the 2020 election was legitimate, “should be drawn and quartered. Taken out at dawn and shot.” Many are not amused.
In case you missed it, diGenova called Krebs a “Class A moron” on Newsmax TV Monday before adding, "He should be drawn and quartered. Taken out at dawn and shot." There was nothing in diGenova’s tone that sounded like he was joking.
Today, The Washington Post reported that diGenova was forced to resign from Washington’s elite Gridiron Club. That’s in addition to other repercussions. More from The Post:
In a statement Tuesday, [diGenova] explained that his comments about Krebs “were sarcastic and made in jest. I, of course, wish Mr. Krebs no harm. This was hyperbole in a political discourse.” On Wednesday, he told The Washington Post that his comments had prompted a flurry of threatening phone calls, and that his law firm was hiring private security for him, his wife and their employees.
His comments have also caused alarm on Capitol Hill. On Wednesday, U.S. Reps. Kathleen Rice (D-N.Y.) and Ted W. Lieu (D-Ca.), both former prosecutors, called on the disciplinary arm of the D.C. bar to immediately open an investigation into diGenova’s statements as an incitement to violence and a violation of rules of professional conduct. “If a lawyer licensed in the District of Columbia can – while speaking in a representative capacity – publicly call for the death of his client’s perceived adversaries without consequences, the [bar] Counsel has abjectly failed in its duty,” the lawmakers wrote.
Tucker Carlson may have appreciated diGenova's “humor.” Carlson sided with diGenova over Fox News colleagues after diGenova called Fox senior judicial analyst Andrew Napolitano “a fool.” Carlson subsequently attacked anchor Shepard Smith’s honesty and integrity for defending Napolitano. Fox News sided with Carlson. That incident led to Smith’s abrupt resignation from the network. Carlson regularly uses the kind of incendiary rhetoric that seems designed to incite violence.
DiGenova has been absent from Fox for about a year, after he baselessly claimed that George Soros controls the State Department.
You can listen to diGenova’s “sarcasm” below, from Newsmax TV’s November 30, 2020 The Howie Carr Show, via Crooks and Liars.
(H/T reader Eric Jefferson)
(DiGenova image via screen grab)
Of course, anyone who takes their words seriously and breaks the law is just a silly boy who totally misunderstood the ‘just joking’ demagoguery.
