Fox News pundit Gina Loudon thinks Donald Trump has already made great progress with North Korea – because he rolled back some of President Obama’s Cuba policy. But that didn't stop her and fellow chickenhawk Eric Bolling from favoring a military attack on North Korea anyway.
Nothing sums up Fox News’ degradation of journalism like having a business show host argue for military action against North Korea with a panel of four politicos and not a single genuine expert.
Host Bolling opened up Saturday’s Cashin’ In, supposedly a show about finances, by asking this loaded question in his introduction: “Is it time to take more drastic action to stop North Korea’s aggressive behavior?” He whined, “The Washington Post accusing me of war mongering for saying maybe the U.S. should consider a pre-emptive strike on North Korea.”
Bolling turned first to psychologist and former Trump surrogate Gina Loudon. You may recall that Loudon is the genius who “defended” Trump’s boast about grabbing women by the p***y by saying they were merely "words."
Loudon never spent a minute serving her country either in the military or in any kind of foreign service or international policy. Neither has Bolling. But he asked Loudon the first question: “Wouldn’t taking out their missile sites before they launch missiles at the U.S. help to protect America?”
Apparently, hating Obama is all the cred you need to qualify as an expert on North Korea for Fox News. “Oh come on, Eric, stop using common sense,” Loudon sneered. “We should just draw artificial lines all over the sand, right, like Obama did, that have absolutely zero effect and that only embolden our enemies and its horrible human tragedies like the ones that occur in North Korea.”
She further suggested that a military strike would be the humanitarian thing to do: “If Americans want to talk about being humanitarian, this is the place to start,” she said.
Panelist and Republican pundit Lisa Boothe was more cautious. She noted that former CIA Director Michael Hayden had called North Korea the most difficult intelligence target “because there’s so much we don’t know about what their nuclear capabilities are.” She added that current Secretary of Defense “Mad Dog" Mattis had warned that a war with North Korea would be catastrophic.
Bolling insisted he didn’t want to start a nuclear war. “My point was, ‘Hey, why don’t we take out some of these missile-launching capabilities of North Korea before they send one over our way?’”
Panelist and Republican pundit Mercedes Schlapp was another voice of caution. “It’s very complicated,” she said, before adding that “all options are on the table” with the Trump administration. She called the North Korea situation “a very difficult challenge.”
David Mercer, the lone Democrat on the panel, said military action should be “a course of last resort.” He pointed out that striking North Korea would put millions of civilian lives at risk in South Korea.
Bolling gave the last question to Loudon (after getting the first one, too). He asked, “What are the sanctions we need to get in place and how are we gonna get them in place and by whom?”
Loudon’s answer proved just how uninformed she is on the subject – and just how little Bolling cared. Instead of having the integrity to say this was not her field of expertise, Loudon also revealed that her only real concern about this dangerous and volatile situation lay in promoting Dear Leader Trump.
LOUDON: I think President Trump has taken some great steps in that direction, first of all demonstrating that he was willing, of course, to speak with China and to have a sort of a different relationship with China than President Obama had ever had. Then President Trump tweets about this, saying kinda hey, we had this conversation – China we need you to be tougher. But also, and I think criticially, are the steps that the president took just this week or last week with Cuba – Cuba being one of the biggest trading partners with North Korea. This is the beginning of a stranglehold on them in ways they’re not going to like.
Loudon’s claim that Trump’s reversal of some of Obama’s Cuba travel and trade relaxations is a “critical” step toward putting a “stranglehold” on North Korea is ridiculous on the face of it. Furthermore, Loudon didn’t even seem to know that Trump left in place most of Obama’s measures.
I’m no fan of Mercedes Schlapp but I have to give her credit for not allowing this claptrap to go unchallenged. She quickly jumped in to smack down Loudon’s “solution” by saying that sanctions have to be put on China.
Why didn’t Democrat Mercer speak out even louder and call out not just Loudon’s complete ignorance but the journalistic malpractice that Fox was engaging in right under his nose?
Watch this pathetic excuse for “business news” below, from the June 24, 2017 Cashin’ In.
President Trump doesn’t seem capable of seeing anything beyond that head of hair and his attitude towards science is rejection. I guess he just hates the idea that others may be smarter than himself.