Fox News surely knows that MAGA stunts calling for President Biden to be removed via the 25th Amendment will go nowhere.
First of all, let me say that Fox is gloating over President Joe Biden’s dismal and depressing debate performance last night just as much as you would expect. Frankly, I don’t have the stomach to delve into the worst of it. But I am always interested in the ways that Fox “journalists” work MAGA propaganda into their reporting.
This particular episode started with Fox’s “ultimate journalist” and propagandist, Martha MacCallum. She began the segment with a cheery set up for Trump’s upcoming rally in Virginia. As the camera showed the crowd, she remarked what a beautiful day it was. “The flags are waving and we are waiting to hear from former President Trump,” MacCallum said. Then she mentioned that while Biden had won the state by 10 points in 2020, it’s a dead heat now. “So, Virginia is getting very interesting,” she added.
MacCallum continued, saying that Biden is “said to come face to face with Democratic donors at a fundraiser here in New York after the dismal debate performance that triggered a turning point, some say, in this whole race.”
“We'll see if that's true,” MacCallum said. Then she began an effort to make it true. First, she played clips from The View hosts calling on Biden to step aside.
Next, it was time for correspondent Chad Pergram to do his part. He (probably correctly) suggested that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is wavering in his support of Biden. Pergram reported that “Jeffries said President Biden should remain in the race, but Jeffries later said he would, quote, reserve comment about where things stand.”
After clips of Democratic Congressmen Meeks and Clyburn in support of Biden, Pergram reported that Republican Speaker Mike Johnson “says the cabinet should consider using the 25th Amendment to sidetrack the president.” He provided a clip of Johnson saying, “I would be panicking, too, if I were a Democrat today and that was my nominee because we have a president who, by all appearances, is not up to the task and these are very dangerous times,” Johnson said.
Right, because what we really need is the sexual predator, convicted felon and wife-cheater-with-a-porn-star whom super duper Christian and 2020 coup plotter Johnson has endorsed for president. Not that Pergram mentioned any of that. He followed up by saying, “GOP Texas representative Chip Roy introduced a resolution calling on Vice President Harris to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Biden. One senior House Democratic source says the current path is quote, not sustainable.”
First, we have no idea what the anonymous Democrat meant. Did he or she actually mean that Biden should step aside? Or that he needs a course correction?
More importantly, there’s no way Vice President Kamala Harris is going to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Biden. But even if she did, it would then be voted on by Biden’s cabinet, which just as certainly would not go along. But if it did, and Biden disputed the decision, which he surely would, the matter would then go to Congress where a two-thirds vote of both the House and Senate would be required to give the vice president the powers of acting president.
That information came from The Hill which put it into its article about Johnson’s comments. The Hill also noted that Roy acknowledged his resolution “would not have the full force of law,” as The Hill put it.
None of that context was given by Pergram. “Ultimate journalist” MacCallum could easily have done so after he finished. Instead, she merely said, “Chad, thank you.”
You can watch it below, from the June 28, 2024 The Story with Martha MacCallum.
- Except in the context of Christmas.
Oh, and I still love Bemused :)
The post-debate coverage I’ve seen says little if anything to the fact that Trump lied and lied and lied throughout the 90 minutes. CNN’s fact-checker counted over 30 inaccuracies and outright lies by Trump: that works out to practically every time Trump’s mike was on.
An even worse excuse for a debate would have been any attempt by Biden to fact-check Trump who was spouting off such total nonsense.
In any case, the USA is faced with a face-off between two elderly white men, one of whom is a decent sort while the other is a delusional narcissist. .
They dress up people McCallum as responsible journalists. But the public knows better. She is, like Hannity, Ingraham and the rest, just a carnival barker.
Let’s be clear that the whole 25th Amendment idea has nothing to do with President Biden giving a bad performance at the debate and everything to do with Angry Right Wingers wanting revenge for 2020. They’re hoping that everyone forgets that multiple people, even in the Pence White House, were actively discussing invoking the 25th Amendment to deal with Little Trump after his attempted insurrection of January 6, 2021. So trying this little ploy now is just more of the “See, we threw it at you too!” game.
This doesn’t change that President Biden was terrible at the debate. Nor does it change that Little Trump was equally terrible there – if anything, his ranting has become even more unhinged than we’ve seen before.
But the gloating and game-playing that we’re seeing from Angry Right Wingers, such as nonsensically invoking an Amendment they clearly don’t understand, is both sadly typical and as usual, despicable.
