While the Twitterverse laughs at #ChickenTrump tweets mocking Donald Trump for backing out of a debate with Bernie Sanders, a Trump cheerleader at Fox News got his back with a ridiculous excuse.
On today’s America’s News HQ, host Uma Pemmaraju discussed Trump’s flip-flops with Trump “senior advisor” (and Mike Huckabee’s daughter), Sarah Huckabee Sanders. “Lots of folks are buzzing about this original idea to have this debate between Sanders and Trump,” Pemmaraju said. “Mr. Trump originally said he would be open to the idea, Bernie Sanders jumped on board and now we’re hearing that Donald Trump is saying, ‘Thanks but no thanks.’ What’s going on right now?”
What’s going on right now is that the Twitterverse is hilariously mocking Trump with #ChickenTrump and #MakeAmericaCluckAgain. Raw Story has a good roundup of some of the funny ones. My favorite is this:
What’s even funnier is that this supposedly objective host didn’t mention it.
Huckabee Sanders said, “This is real simple. Donald Trump was interested in the idea but ultimately decided that it wasn’t appropriate because the Democrat system is so rigged, Bernie Sanders will not be the Democrat nominee and Hillary Clinton will. …And so Donald Trump didn’t feel it was appropriate to debate somebody other than the eventual nominee and Bernie Sanders isn’t going to be that person.” She added that Trump needs to focus on defeating Clinton.
Apparently, that wasn’t a good enough explanation so Pemmaraju came up with one of her own, one that suggested it was talk show host Jimmy Kimmel’s fault for proposing the idea on the air and putting Trump on the spot. “Well, do you think he kind of got caught up in the moment when the idea was first proposed on live television, you know, with a talk show host talking there about, you know, the idea of putting those two together?” Pemmaraju “asked.”
Huckabee Sanders didn’t want to go there. She reiterated that Trump found the possibility “interesting” but, “I think he feels the same way the rest of us do – is, we can’t take Bernie Sanders and put him on the debate stage when the real target has to be Hillary Clinton.”
Fortunately, somebody at Fox thought the viewers deserved to know just how badly Trump had flip-flopped. A series of graphics appeared on the screen, saying:
May 25: Trump agrees to debate Sanders if a television network would be willing to donate “millions” to women’s health charities.
May 26: Trump says it would take a $10-15 million donation to get him to debate Sanders.
RPT: Both ABC and CBS offered charitable donations to host Trump/Sanders debate.
May 27: Trump backs out of debate with Sanders, saying it would be “inappropriate.”
But it’s telling that Pemmaraju left out those details.
Pemmaraju was probably just too busy thinking of ways to elicit pro-Trump propaganda and make it look like news. Her next question was, “The woes within the Democratic party are signaling good news, good news for the Trump camp right now. …It gives Mr. Trump an opportunity to gain momentum, does it not?” and “We’re hearing more and more about reports behind the scenes of folks who are considered establishment GOP types now moving towards Donald Trump. …Give us some insights into the process about how that’s going and how that has come together...”
It’s no wonder Huckabee Sanders was smiling during that last question. She continued smiling during Pemmaraju’s next one. Noting that some Bernie Sanders may not vote for Hillary Clinton, Pemmaraju asked if Trump will “make an actual outreach to those voters who have been supporting Bernie Sanders to join his team?”
You can probably guess the answer.
Watch Pemmaraju propagandize, above, from the May 28 America’s News HQ.
Crossposted at News Hounds.
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