In the very same discussion in which Fox News host Eric Bolling complained that the media is being too soft on Hillary Clinton, Bolling insisted it was fine for Donald Trump to lie about having been against the Iraq war from the start. Watch Democrat Jessica Tarlov shoot him down.
Bolling, one of Fox’s staunchest Trump lovers, began what was supposed to be a discussion about Hillary Clinton’s press treatment.
Guest Mercedes Schlapp agreed with Bolling that Clinton is getting a “very easy pass” from the media. There’s “a very different set of standards for Donald Trump,” Schlapp complained. “They’re basically focused on the destruction of Donald Trump.”
But Jessica Tarlov, the lone Democrat on the four-person panel (not counting host Bolling), did a terrific job reframing the issue, taking the flak that came her way from Bolling, and giving it right back to him.
Tarlov began by citing Matt Lauer’s softballs to Trump in NBC’s Commander-in-Chief forum last week: “Matt Lauer didn’t even push back on Donald Trump’s big lie where he says he didn’t support the Iraq war in 2002, where we know that he did, and you can check the Esquire article now. It’s been updated for new details.”
Tarlov is correct about that.
Bolling didn’t want to hear it. “Jessica, Jessica,” he said. “Donald Trump was a private citizen. He didn’t have access to military intelligence to make an informed judgment.”
That, of course, has nothing to do with Trump lying about his support for the war. Tarlov called that out, too. “Because he’s a private citizen it’s OK for him to be a liar? I don’t care if he supported the war,” she said.
Bolling tried to deflect. He said, “Hillary Clinton was informed, she had access to all the information and she voted for the Iraq war.”
Tarlov was not deterred. “People do this all the time,” she said. “They say that because Donald Trump was a private citizen that excuses the fact that he tells lies. It doesn’t. It is a lie, he backed the war.”
“Let’s just be honest here,” Bolling said, without a trace of irony. “There’s a No Spin Zone at 8:00 every night during the week. Saturday morning, No Spin Zone.”
“Well I’ll be back, wait for me. I’m not spinning, it’s the truth,” Tarlov shot back.
Bolling could not handle the truth. “He [Trump] told Howard Stern, ‘Yeah, I guess I would go to war,’ and then immediately thereafter during the war and after, he said this was a bad idea. How is this a lie?”
It’s a lie because Trump announced during the forum that he was “totally against the war in Iraq” and “You can look at Esquire magazine from ‘04. You can look at before that.” As PolitiFact noted in its ruling of that claim as “false,” while it's true Trump publicly opposed the war in a 2004 Esquire article (the war started in 2003), the record before that "tells a different story.”
But Bolling refused to let Tarlov answer the question and moved on, instead, to Dr. Gina Loudon, a Trump lover on the panel.
“Because Gina will point out how it’s a lie, for sure,” Tarlov snarked.
Good for her.
Watch the exchange below, from the September 10 Cashin’ In.
So ignore all the bulls—t coming from The Donald’s mouth from now until the election because he doesn’t have the real insider scoop on the economy, national security, etc. but, naturally, accept all his boasts at face value?
Still for once a lib stands up on Fox and makes the real point here: A lie to cover up an uninformed decision is still a lie.
