Fox & Friends weekend cohost Jedediah Bila nicely smacked down Donald Trump’s juvenile attack on Chris Wallace yesterday.
First, the tweet showing Trump's priorities on Easter Sunday in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic:
Just watched Mike Wallace wannabe, Chris Wallace, on @FoxNews. I am now convinced that he is even worse than Sleepy Eyes Chuck Todd of Meet the Press(please!), or the people over at Deface the Nation. What the hell is happening to @FoxNews. It’s a whole new ballgame over there!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 12, 2020
Probably what set Trump off was Wallace’s interview with Dr. Tom Inglesby, director of the Center for Health Security at John Hopkins University. Wallace asked Inglesby about a bombshell New York Times investigation into Trump’s failed response to the coronavirus pandemic.
INGLESBY: So, Chris, I can't say who in the administration knew what and when, but I would say that that article reinforces what we've heard along the way, which is that many in the administration were very worried about this as early as January and February. And that seems pretty clear now. And I'd also say that if we had acted on some of those warnings earlier, we would be in a much better position in terms of diagnostics and possibly masks and personal protective equipment and getting our hospitals ready.
Inglesby also opined that May will probably be too soon to re-open the country, that the level of testing is inadequate and that the U.S. needs the World Health Organization. Those are all positions counter to Trump’s and which he would likely expect every show on Fox to back, not just most of them.
USA Today noted that Brit Hume, Bret Baier and Guy Benson defended Wallace. However, Trump allies such as Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Jeanine Pirro, Pete Hegseth, Brian Kilmeade and Super Duper Christian Ainsley Earhardt seem conspicuously silent on the subject. Fox & Friends cohost Steve Doocy hasn’t posted publicly on Twitter since November 2018.
But Bila, currently recovering from COVID-19, seems to be the only one rebuking Trump:
Enough with the 3rd grade name-calling. Chris is doing his job. The news should not be any president’s friend, ally, or buddy. If it bothered you when Obama complained about Fox News, but you’re silent on this complete nonsense, then just stop. Seriously. Enough. https://t.co/uW1Dw275Or
— Jedediah Bila (@JedediahBila) April 12, 2020
Good for her. However, we also remember Bila praising Trump for “making an important point” in his hideous tweets urging American Congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib to “go back” to the “totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.”
You can watch the interview that probably set Trump’s tiny Twitter fingers a-twitching below, from the April 12, 2020 Fox News Sunday.
(Bila image via screen grab)
Jeb-edyah is like an 8, but when she talks fake news she’s like only a 6, but a 6 is still pretty good but what the hell is going on at Fox? Hannity, polish my shoes! Rudy get out of that coffin!
Well — I tried …
That’s Bila’s context here as well but I have to admit a while back she also pushed back a little against her Fox & Friends co-hosts who were giggling over Trump calling Buttigieg “Alfred E. Neuman”.
Still, this is pretty weak tea given all of Trump’s corruption, serial lying, narcisstic raging, blame shifting, firing anyone who’s not a total ass kisser, etc. So how much credit does she earn really?
It’s an interesting question because we’d all like to think we’d be outspoken purveyors of truth if we worked for Fox News but the reality is the leash is short. Who would risk their career?
Not to worry, Jeddy: this is only a passing side-effect of the disease. You will have lots of time to make up for it as a survivor who can, from experience, claim that it was not that bad, after all.
