Greg Gutfeld argued we should all put aside concerns about convicted felon and sexual abuser Donald Trump’s character because he’s promising tax cuts to waitress’ tips.
As Media Matters reported, Gutfeld was the only Fox figure to cover Paul Ryan’s denouncement of Donald Trump as “unfit for office” on Fox News this week. As Brian reported, Ryan appeared on the Your World show where he said he would write in a Republican name rather than vote for Trump in November. He said that character and Trump putting himself above the Constitution made him unfit for office.
“Ryan’s remarks drew coverage from Fox’s cable news competitors CNN and MSNBC,” Media Matters said. “But if Ryan expected Fox to similarly spread his message to its right-wing viewers, then he misinterpreted the function of the outlet he oversees on the Fox Corp. board of directors.”
At least Gutfeld didn’t try to defend Trump’s character. To recap just some of the outstanding factors, Trump was recently convicted of 34 felonies for covering up a sexual escapade with a porn star with hush money he tried to pass off as legal fees to a lawyer so that it wouldn’t hurt his election chances in 2016, given that the story broke not long after a video was published showing him bragging about grabbing women by the p***y. Trump was also recently found liable for fraud to the tune of $355 million, plus interest, and liable for defaming E. Jean Carroll, after sexually abusing her, for another $91 million. That’s not counting the 54 more felony charges Trump faces for stealing classified documents and trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Oh, and in 2019, Trump was ordered to pay $2 million for misusing funds that were supposed to go to charities.
That doesn’t include Trump’s obvious cruelty, his smears of veterans or his malignant narcissism and compulsive lying.
I didn’t mention Trump’s racism because Gutfeld, who has advocated for a race-based civil war, probably thinks that’s an asset.
In any event, Gutfeld said concerns about character are a luxury that only elitists like Paul Ryan would or should care about. Here’s what “regular guy” Gutfeld said on The Five:
GUTFELD: This is the -- this is the benefit of Trump is that the Republican Party is now the working man's party and the Democrat is the woke party. But this -- it is a stark contrast between the fantasy of Democrat luxury beliefs and the practical positions of a reality-based Republican. The Democrats will scream “End of democracy!” “Trump's tweets!” “He's going to imprison all of us!” “The world is ending!” “Climate change!” A Republican candidate, Trump says your tips won't be taxed so you can take more money home to feed your family. So, that that actually resonates.
I was watching Cavuto yesterday before The Five. I was watching Paul Ryan. He says he has a problem with Trump's character and he's not -- he's going to waste his vote on a write-in. Well, your principal take on character is to be admired but it doesn't put a damn penny, a damn dime in a waitress' purse. Character in 2024 is a luxury belief. You can talk about character all you want. Low taxes is not a luxury belief. It's a belief that ensures your survival and gets food on the table.
We don't have time to talk about your feelings. We don't have time to praise men dressed as women reading books and libraries to kids. We want the basics. We want safety, security, affordable goods, a strong border. You can take all this other stuff that you can sit back in comfort and go I really want the perfect candidate. I really want a candidate that is honest and clean and he doesn't embarrass me.
Gutfeld is an ass***e but he’s not stupid. He has to know that Trump’s tax policies were skewed to the wealthy, like Gutfeld, and harm regular people who get health care via Obamacare, which Trump has said he'll try to do away with again. Trump has also shown an interest in cutting Social Security. Getting Social Security is undoubtedly worth a lot more than getting a tax cut for tips.
But hey, it’s understandable that Gutfeld wouldn’t want to mention any of that because he’s the one probably salivating over a fat cat tax cut for guys like his own selfish self.
Gutfeld continued his deceit on his “comedy” show Gutfeld! After falsely claiming that Trump did not undermine the Constitution, he sneered about Ryan, “Fine, prattle on about character. Some waitress at the Golden Corral and Sparks, Nevada, may go home with more money, but no thanks to your principled takes on character. Sorry, that's a luxury belief.”
You can watch Gutfeld pretend to care about working folks while propagandizing for a president who will only take care of the wealthy below, from the June 12, 2024 The Five and The June 12, 2024 Gutfeld!, via Media Matters.
But we can at least keep in mind that any Angry Right Winger who chooses to support a convicted felon for president has just completely forfeited any claim they will ever have to anything approaching morality. They have every right to want to elect a convicted felon, and we have every obligation to make sure they don’t succeed. But the Right Wingers never get to talk about “law and order” or how “character counts” or anything else ever again.
And just to be clear for anyone who might have forgotten things that literally only happened only five minutes ago, things were not so rosy at all under the Pence White House and its childish former spokesman. This country was not safe, nor secure, and prices were not under control at all. When the Pence White House was appropriately driven from office, the country and the world were in the midst of a deadly worldwide pandemic as a result of the Pence White House’s gutting of the professionals who could have headed it off. The country and the world were far from safe, and Pence’s childish spokesman was the laughingstock of the international community, having been literally laughed off the stage of the UN General Assembly and the US Congress. Prices were outrageously jumped higher during the hoarding and panics of the pandemic. And that was after the GOP inflicted the Tax Transfer of 2017 which skyrocketed the federal tax burdens of Middle Class Employees in Blue States by thousands of dollars per year. And that’s not even to get into the hundreds of ghastly and inappropriate idealogues that the GOP had rammed into our judiciary and onto our Supreme Court. One supposes that Gutfeld was happy with the situation at our southern border, which did have less people seeking asylum – because the Pence White House had made the border a toxic and dangerous place for refugees, where their children would be taken from them and hidden while the parents were tossed back into the desert.
It’s understandable that Angry Right Wingers would like everyone to forget these facts, but the rest of the country hopefully remembers them.
One is left to wonder why classic stories of our greatest leaders (the Devil tempting Jesus, Washington’s admitting to cutting down the cherry tree, Lincoln’s diligence in paying off his debts) centered on their characters. Could it be that those stories reflected THEIR greatest value? It takes leaders of character to uphold the rule of law, which—far from being a luxury—is fundamental to our security.
