Fox & Friends should just hire Trump
That way, the pretense of journalism can just evaporate
It was, of course, inevitable that Fox News would open its doorway to Donald J. Trump, a guaranteed ratings bump and always good for something outrageous. If you watch this kind of thing on Fox, you might not understand my point.
This time it was an “exclusive” Trump response to President Biden’s farewell speech from the Oval office.
Not surprisingly, Trump said it was an awful speech, that Joe Biden had clearly lost it, and that it had been apparent to Trump that Biden had lost it a long time ago, maybe even way back when he ran for the Senate.
That and that Kamala Harris is evil.
I think Fox should just drop the pretense and invite Trump to just sit with them on the couch and be an anointed member of the morning team. That way Fox can abandon any pretense of being journalism and just sit at the man’s feet in awe, which is obviously where it wants to be.
They could hold hands and have their own Kumbaya moment, whatever that might be on the far-right wing of American politics. (Hmmm…”Tomorrow Belongs to Me”, from Cabaret?) That could work.
In this episode, Trump is given a podium to transform into a Columbia Journalism Review of the right with a strong criticism of everything he disagrees with on any network that isn’t Fox. Of course, he makes his point then slips into his standard name calling about Biden, and now “Crazy” Kamala.
Can you imagine how tedious this stunt is going to get over the next couple of months?
This is what it has come to for the Republicans, a pudgy (I’m being kind here) 78 year old pretending he is a clever wordsmith instead of a pathetic liar and convicted felon.
Meanwhile, the Fox peanut gallery makes certain that everyone knows that Kamala Harris is a “liberal”, and maybe the most liberal Democrat of all. (Begging the question, ‘What did you think she would be?’)
Long and short of it, Game On!
Very soon former president Obama will join the army of other Democrats who have already endorsed Kamala Harris, making the endorsement picture just about complete.
Perhaps the Pope will join in!
August approaches and with it the Democratic convention in Chicago. Harris has already collected the delegates she needs to be nominated so that won’t be a problem. What Trump is looking at is the obverse of what he tried to create with his coronation in Milwaukee a couple of weeks ago.
Except the Democratic candidate will not deliver an acceptance speech that has people shaking the heads in despair, say, 70 minutes into it.
Charlie Madigan was a reporter and editor at United Press International and The Chicago Tribune for 40 years. He was writer in residence at Roosevelt University for a decade. His books and background are at charlesmadigan.com.
Lightning the way, as usual. Liked “Tomorrow belongs to me,” too. Well done, Charlie.
Even for Trump -- and that's quite a statement -- his North Carolina speech was totally wretched. I would hope his fans reacted to it the way Biden supporters reacted to the president's debate performance -- in horror and needing one more cocktail before bed. Next time I spot a Trump fan, I'll . . . no, I won't.