Fox News had to acknowledge that the special election in Kansas last night – in which Democrat James Thompson came within striking distance of winning a deep red Congressional seat – was not good news for Republicans. But the “fair and balanced” network handled it with typical aplomb – by using it as an excuse to attack Democrats.

On today’s Outnumbered, Geraldo Rivera minced no words as he called the race a “referendum on Donald Trump.” Rivera argued that if Trump had not bombed Syria, Thompson would have done even better.

But rather than dwell on why a “Berniecrat,” as cohost Meghan McCain called Thompson, lost by only about five points in a district Trump won by 27 points, Rivera quickly moved on to attacking the Democratic Party.

RIVERA: I have nothing but contempt for the Democratic Party. They are dysfunctional, they can’t get their act together, they don’t know who they are, they’re barely a political party at all, it seems.

As he spoke, Fox producers helped drive the anti-Democratic message home: “KS DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE APPEARS TO BLAME HIS OWN PARTY FOR HIS LOSS” and “WHETHER DEMOCRATS FAILED THEIR FIRST BIG TEST SINCE HILLARY CLINTON’S ELECTION LOSS” blared across the lower third.

In case folks only watched this online, FoxNews.com called this video: “Geraldo: Special elections are a referendum on Trump” with the subtitle, “Whether Democrats failed their first big test since Hillary Clinton’s election loss.”

Don’t get me wrong. I think it was terrible that the Democrats gave such little support to Thompson, whatever their excuse. But there was plenty more to the picture of Thompson’s success, such as the combined unpopularity of Trump and that of Sam Brownback, the Republican governor of Kansas.

Not surprisingly, Fox chose to highlight the Democrats’ failings instead.

Watch it below, from the April 12, 2017 Outnumbered.