Many decent people have been aghast at the Trump associates calling for the murder and/or imprisonment of Hillary Clinton during the Republican convention. But Fox News’ Meghan McCain seems to think there’s no such thing as too incendiary.
As The New York Times noted, the venom against Hillary Clinton at the RNC convention has taken a “strikingly sinister tone that makes the days of Swift-boating and Bush-bashing at past conventions seem tame.”
“There have been aerial signs reading 'Hillary for Prison,' rallying cries of 'lock her up,' misogynistic souvenir swag mocking her body parts and, in a violent turn, a public call for Hillary Clinton to be executed.”
The Times also pointed out that Dr. Ben Carson tried to tie Clinton to Lucifer.
And yet the only question the hiked-skirt brigade, also known as Fox News’ Outnumbered show, raised about the attacks on Mrs. Clinton were whether they were pro-Donald Trump enough. Or in McCain’s case, whether they were harsh enough.
Cohost Harris Faulkner neatly avoided the chants of “lock her up” that even Fox’s own Chris Wallace and Charles Krauthammer have criticized.
Faulkner somehow “forgot” about the comments of Trump advisor and “favorite veteran” Al Baldasaro who called for Clinton to be “put in the firing line and shot for treason.” Also "forgotten" was the Republican delegate who said Clinton should be "hung on the Mall in Washington, D.C."
Instead, Faulkner played clips of Wisconsin governor Scott Walker saying about Clinton, “If she were any more on the inside, she’d be in prison” to big cheers. Then we saw Trump’s running mate, Mike Pence, accusing Clinton of helping to undo “all the gain of the troop surge” in Iraq, attacking her “staggering failure of judgment that set ISIS on the loose” and saying she “instigated the president’s disastrous agreement with the radical mullahs in Iran.” And, of course, he brought up Benghazi.
Just last week, Faulkner seemed to think it perfectly reasonable to accuse President Obama of having “blood on his hands” that “will not be able to come washed off” merely because he spoke sympathetically about Black Lives Matter concerns after the police killing of African American Alton Sterling.
But now, Faulkner only seemed to care that the GOP rhetoric “left some wondering” if that would be “enough.” Meaning, enough to get Trump elected, of course. In fact, Faulkner defended the attacks on Clinton by saying, “Nothing got personal last night against her.”
Cohost Monica Crowley predicted “Reaganesque kind of themes” in Trump’s speech tonight to provide a “positive, compelling reason” to vote for him and balance the “excellent surrogates” who had attacked Clinton.
Then came cohost McCain. “I loved it,” she said about the attacks. Then, as guest Mike Huckabee smiled broadly next to her, she continued.
MCCAIN: I think we’re actually a little light on her. Like, am I the only who’s, like, we can go after her even harder? She should be sitting in jail!
[…]
We may have in-party fighting but our nominee isn’t a felon and isn’t responsible for people’s deaths.
Fact check: Clinton has not been charged with, much less convicted of, any crime. But, predictably, nobody corrected McCain. She continued.
MCCAIN: I can’t even imagine the kind of things that are going to be said about Donald Trump and Republicans next week. I actually think all things considered, they could’ve hit ‘em harder, as far as I’m concerned.
As if this same crew wouldn’t be howling with poutrage for days if Democrats should behave the same way during their convention next week.
Watch the hypocrisy above, from the July 21 Outnumbered.
Crossposted at News Hounds.
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