Fox & Friends got right to work inoculating fanboy Donald Trump from the humiliating defeat of his candidate, Roy Moore, to Democrat Doug Jones in the Alabama senate election last night.
FoxNews.com called Jones’ victory a “major upset” and noted that he’s the first Alabama Democrat to win a U.S. Senate seat in 25 years.
But Trump’s Fox Friends seemed more eager to assuage Moore-backing Trump’s ego than in reflecting on the loss of Trump's political capital in a state where he has backed two losers in the senate race.
Cohost Todd Piro even called the upset “not that much of a win.”
It just so happened that the downplaying of Jones’ win fit right in with Trump’s messaging, too:
The reason I originally endorsed Luther Strange (and his numbers went up mightily), is that I said Roy Moore will not be able to win the General Election. I was right! Roy worked hard but the deck was stacked against him!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 13, 2017
Congratulations to Doug Jones on a hard fought victory. The write-in votes played a very big factor, but a win is a win. The people of Alabama are great, and the Republicans will have another shot at this seat in a very short period of time. It never ends!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 13, 2017
Transcript below via Media Matters (my emphases added):
EARHARDT: “All of these sexual allegations all of these sexual allegation—allegations against Roy Moore, a lot of women that were going to the polls, you said yesterday, people were holding their nose as they go to the polls. It’s really hard, as a female, to go to the polls and vote for someone, even though those allegations were so long ago, even though they are just allegations. After Harvey Weinstein, it’s just hard. I think this is a referendum on Harvey Weinstein, not on President Trump.
PIRO: And even that said, it is not that much of a win. Less than two points, as it stands now.
Funny, I don’t recall anyone on Fox & Friends saying that Trump’s loss of the popular vote – by nearly 3 million votes, the biggest popular vote loss of an electoral-college winner in history – was “not that much of a win.” And never mind that one year ago, Trump won Alabama by 28 points.
However, Piro went on to say there’s now “a premium of getting tax reform officially done before the end of the year.” He meant that with the already slim 52-seat majority for Republicans about to narrow to 51, it’s time to ram the unpopular bill through before Jones takes office.
Watch “not in the tank for Trump” Earhardt do her best to prevent anyone from thinking that Moore’s loss was a resounding defeat for Trump. It’s below, from the December 13, 2017 Fox & Friends, via Media Matters.
