Fox’s Andrea Tantaros didn’t just defend Donald Trump’s “schlonged” attack on Hillary Clinton and calling her trip to the bathroom “disgusting” – no, Tantaros argued that Trump’s crudeness made him a more manly winner.
In a discussion on Fox Business, host Stuart Varney played a clip of Trump saying Clinton got “schlonged” by Barack Obama in 2008. Trump also said about Clinton’s trip to the restroom that caused her to be late getting back to the debate Saturday night, “I know where she went. It’s disgusting. I don’t want to talk about it. It’s too disgusting. Don’t say it, it’s disgusting.” But that got left out of the discussion.
It’s not too surprising that a woman like Tantaros, who once urged her radio show listeners to “do me a favor” and punch an Obama supporter “in the face,” would swoon over Trump’s crassness. But, taking a page from the Dick Morris playbook, she also insisted that Trump’s smear made Clinton look bad.
TANTAROS: You know what? I think this is really bad for her. I’m not going to take the bait on this one because I don’t think people care about rhetoric this time around. That old dated playbook of let’s change the discussion and let’s get Stuart Varney and Andrea Tantaros to talk about a word that could possibly be offensive and hurt women’s feelings — I’m not going to do that.
Tantaros’ argument was that “Trump is winning the back and forth” over Clinton’s comment that there are ISIS recruiting videos featuring Donald Trump. Except that she never said there were, which nobody on the show pointed out.
Tantaros continued, “Hillary is majorly on the ropes, Stuart, this morning and in a big way.”
Varney replied with disbelief, “Trump’s language doesn’t count. In fact, it might be a plus for him, that’s what you’re saying?”
That’s when Tantaros began channeling Dick Morris.
TANTAROS: You know why? Because look at the numbers. Look at the other story that’s out today with blue collar voters. The left has culturally tried to feminize this country in a way that is disgusting. And you see blue collar voters — men — this is like their last vestige, their last hope is Donald Trump to get their masculinity back. I think you’re gonna see women potentially break with Hillary Clinton even though Wall Street Journal reports that the numbers aren’t there with millennial women in support of Hillary Clinton and I think the big headline today is blue collar voters are moving to Donald Trump… They are petrified and they should be.
Varney however, was unpersuaded. He cited a Quinnipiac poll that said 50% of voters would be embarrassed if Trump is elected president.
But “Punch” rejected the finding, saying, “People don’t vote based on whether or not they’re embarrassed. They vote, either by fear or someone who shares their values and is gonna protect them. This election, right now, if it were held today, it is who is going to protect them.”
Varney disagreed. “No,” he said, “they vote on whether they like that person, comfortable with that person, does that person adequately represent them?”
Tantaros argued that while that may have “traditionally” been true, “This is a different game, a different era, it’s a different campaign season. …Men are sick and tired of being feminized, people are sick and tired of having to apologize, they’re sick and tired of hurt feelings, they’re tired of it all and the political correctness is not going to win. That playbook the Democrats have? They’d better toss it.”
Then she smiled, like she had just punched somebody.
Later, on The O’Reilly Factor, Tantaros told a different story. Despite having dismissed likability as passé, Tantaros now endorsed it as part of her “wussified men” theory:
Tantaros: That’s not why people go to the voting booth and pull the lever for someone, whether or not they embarrass them or not. They do it out of, sometimes fear, but also, who do they like the most and who represents their values? And I think you see something very interesting with this poll, Eric. People and especially in other polls, blue-collar voters, which is why President Obama attacked Trump head on in that NPR interview, seem to be gravitating towards Trump.
Now this is a demographic, Eric, the Democrats have said they’ve owned, they claim this. But he, Trump, is giving a voice to blue-collar male voters. And when you look at a Hillary Clinton, she’s not galvanizing women the way that she should be. Men in this country, Eric, and you talk about this all the time on The Five, the wussification of America. Men have been emasculated, they have been feminized by the left that has pushed this on a culture. And they do see Donald Trump as someone who speaks for them.
Instead of calling out the vileness of Tantaros’ remark, “Democratic strategist” Jessica Ehrlich pussyfooted with this mealy-mouthful:
EHRLICH: Well, I think it will make a difference actually because what you’re looking at there is the independent voters who are saying that they would be embarrassed to have Donald Trump as their president. They’re gonna make the difference in this. We already know Republicans like Donald Trump and Democrats like Hillary. The concern is, what will independents say? …If they’re saying that they actually would be embarrassed to have Trump but Hillary doesn’t really embarrass them, that’s an interesting question that’s posed.
So of course, Tantaros responded with another bit of brazen hate mongering: “Who’s more embarrassing than President Obama?”
Watch “Punch” Tantaros slobber over coarseness and vulgarity below, first on Fox Business’ Varney & Co. (via Raw Story), then on The O’Reilly Factor (via Media Matters), both on December 22.
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