When faced with the mildest of challenges to his smears of Hillary Clinton’s health, Rudy Giuliani could only come up with, essentially, “Google it.”
On Fox News Sunday yesterday, Giuliani reiterated his accusation that it’s the media’s fault Trump is losing in the polls and added a new twist: the media is covering up “several signs of illness” in Clinton
In this excerpt, via the FoxNews.com transcript, Giuliani first suggested to host Shannon Bream that Clinton’s absence from the campaign trail was due to some health condition, then he more explicitly smeared her:
GIULIANI: What they’re trying to do—the Clinton campaign has no campaign. She hardly appeared this week. I don’t know where she was.
BREAM: Why is she doing so well in the polls?
GIULIANI: Why? Because—
BREAM: It’s working for her.
GIULIANI: [...] She doesn’t have to campaign. She has The New York Times. She has The Daily News. She has ABC. She has CBS. She has NBC.
She has an entire media empire that constantly demonizes Donald Trump and fails to point out that she hasn’t had a press conference in 300 days, 200 days, 100 days, I don’t know how long. Fails to point out several signs of illness by her. What you’ve got to do is go online. All you have to do—
(CROSSTALK)
BREAM: Which her campaign and other people defending her saying there’s nothing factual to the claims about her health and that that’s speculation at best.
GIULIANI: So, go online and put down Hillary Clinton illness, take a look at the videos for yourself.
At that point, Bream changed the subject.
Instead of actually challenging Giuliani - and noting that Clinton has released her medical records, that Donald Trump is the one with the suspicious report and that selectively edited video of Clinton that Sean Hannity hyped as a possible “mini seizure” has been debunked - Bream helped give Giuliani credibility by not outright slapping down his slimy accusation with truth and facts. Instead, she gave herself cover with a weasely, “But the other side says…”
It was a nice threefer of Fox bias. Bream suggested that Giuliani’s accusation was quite possibly true, she abdicated any responsibility for making sure viewers don’t get played and she did it all while feigning impartiality.
In a great piece for Right Wing Watch, Ari Rabin-Havt connected the dots from birtherism to health trutherism:
Just as racism drove birtherism, heath [sic] trutherism is undoubtedly driven by misogyny. There is an extensive history of demeaning women by calling them “crazy,” not to mention undercutting their ability to serve in positions of prominence and power.
So it’s no surprise that Giuliani, the guy who accused President Obama of not loving America, should now be suggesting that Clinton is crazy. That just happens to be in service to the birther-in-chief, Donald Trump.
And it’s even less of a surprise that the network that promoted Trump’s “questions” about President Obama’s birth certificate, should now raise “questions” about Clinton’s health. All the while ignoring the answers staring them in the face.
Watch this disgraceful excuse for journalism below, from the August 21 Fox News Sunday.
Well, that’s a step up from Dr. Bill Frist’s diagnosis-by-video of Terri Schiavo, I guess.
Or maybe a step down . . .
.
Giuliani discovered that he had prostate cancer and needed treatment; his extramarital relationship with Judith Nathan became public and the subject of a media frenzy; he announced a separation from his wife Donna Hanover; and, after much indecision, on May 19, 2000 he announced his withdrawal from the Senate race.
I won’t ruin the moment for Fox by pointing out some of those videos are known to be doctored so they loop to distort Hillary’s health.
Oh wait! I think I will.
Google Trump’s Mob ties.
Then, let’s see those tax returns.
