The Outnumbered cohosts just couldn’t stop talking about Hillary Clinton during a discussion that was ostensibly about the millions of dollars that have been funneled to Trump attorney and fixer Michael Cohen in an apparent pay-to-play scheme.
Right in her introduction, cohost Melissa Francis revealed the game of deflection: She began by rightly summing up where the story is now by saying, it’s about “who was doing what for money.” But she wanted to talk about Clinton at least as much. “I want to get to the bottom of it because to me, this is as smelly as The Clinton Foundation and I hated that. I don’t like pay-for-play in any corner. We didn’t want Hillary Clinton doing it. We don’t want anyone else doing it either.”
Guest Zac Petkanas did a great job of describing the seriousness of the situation which includes half a million dollars paid to Cohen, within weeks of the election, from a business tied to a Russian oligarch under sanctions for interfering with the 2016 election. But just as importantly, Petkanas called out Fox’s tactics, something every Democrat should do who appears on the network.
As soon as he finished, Francis turned to her cohost and said, “Absolutely, Kennedy, and that sounds like so many of the allegations that went with Hillary Clinton, too.”
Cohost Lisa “Kennedy” Montgomery took the hint. She “asked” what the “most outrageous” part of the Cohen story is “because the exact same thing happened with Bill Clinton when he got that half a million dollar payday to speak [she made air quotes] to a Kremlin-backed Russian bank. How is that any different?”
Petkanas said the difference is there’s an investigation into whether there was “illegal coordination” between the Trump team and the Kremlin. As he again tried to explain why the Russian payment was suspicious, cohost Harris Faulkner interrupted.
“No, no, no, we get the facts,” she snapped. Because God forbid her viewers’ tender ears heard anything too damning of Dear Leader Trump. “What Kennedy is saying that when it happened on the other side of the political aisle with Bill Clinton”
Petkanas shot back, “I’m wondering why every time that you guys can’t defend Donald Trump, you bring in Hillary Clinton.”
Not surprisingly, the couch erupted with cries of innocence. When Petkanas didn’t buy it, Faulkner changed deflections. This time, she was oh, so concerned about the leaking of Cohen’s financial information to Michael Avenatti, Stormy Daniels attorney.
There’s no defending the leak. But it pales in comparison to a possible pay-to-play scheme involving the Russians and Donald Trump. If only Petkanas had hammered Fox a little harder for its deflections of a very important story. The squawking he engendered from the pushback he did make indicates these people can’t take the kind of questioning they dish out.
Enjoy watching the propagandists get put on defense below, from the May 10, 2018 Outnumbered. Underneath is Rachel Maddow’s terrific exploration of the dubious payments to Cohen, from the May 9, 2018 The Rachel Maddow Show.
I call chicken nuggets.
So far, most of the leaks considered legitimate by the silly foxies have turned out to be groundless, totally made up, bogus. I expect the same adverse outcome to occur with regard to leaks they consider bogus.
He must have received this information under the normal function of ‘discovery’ and there cannot have been any suppression order on that particular evidence. Absolutely guaranteed.
It’s telling in this environment that Trump TV – which has asserted all along there’s nothing to see regarding Russia so let’s move along – is now running out of wallpaper to mask the corruption of the colorful cast of characters Trump surrounds himself with. So Fox diverts attention to Hillary fantasizing that the next investigation into her, unlike all which proceeded it, will find her guilty has hell. Just like #Benghazi!, eh, Fox?
