Donald Trump’s latest Twitter attack on Omarosa Manigault Newman, in which he called her a “dog” and a “lowlife” was so offensive that several Fox News pundits were shocked and stunned. So in today’s discussion about Omarosa on Outnumbered, the producers thoughtfully left it out. Maybe worse, Democrat Jessica Tarlov helped further the messaging by disparaging Manigault Newman and missing the significance of the feud.
Perhaps even bigger than Trump’s tweet was the news that Manigault Newman had released a recording of Trump campaign aides discussing how to handle a tape in which then-candidate Trump supposedly used the n-word.
But the Fox News Alert at the beginning of the Outnumbered discussion merely announced that the Trump campaign is taking legal action against Manigault Newman for violating a nondisclosure agreement.
Cohost Lisa Boothe did not even mention the released recording in her introduction. But she did read Trump’s tweet from yesterday saying there are “NO TAPES” of him saying “such a terrible and disgusting word as attributed by Wacky and Deranged Omarosa.”
Curiously missing was today's Trump’s tweet:
Fox News’ Geraldo Rivera heard the dog whistle (pun intended) behind Trump’s latest denigration of the intelligence and humanity of an African American:
Over on Fox Business, the tweet did not go down well, either.
Much as I’m sure Fox News would love to avoid talking about Omarosa altogether, I’m just as sure that the network made a calculation that not talking about her would be worse. So, Outnumbered did the next best thing. It downplayed the story by burying it in the middle of the show, then made the news hook the Trump campaign’s legal complaint against her.
Unfortunately for Trump, the cohosts were not on board with the Omarosa spin. Guest Andrew McCarthy, a reliable on-message conservative, said similar lawsuits are usually “ineffective” and all but called it a waste of time.
Trumper cohost Melissa Francis was explicitly critical of Trump: “He is not helping the case with the tweets, though,” she said. She called the word “dog” “a terrible idea.”
“This is something that might just go away, based on her lack of credibility,” Francis continued. “Why use that kind of language?”
Once again, Democrat Jessica Tarlov, the lone liberal cohost, was a disappointment. Trump's attack on Omarosa highlights his poor judgment in hiring her, despite having promised to hire the “best people.” In fact, Omarosa is just one in a long line of corrupt, immoral and incompetent hires.
Instead of calling any of that out, Tarlov helped promote the pro-Trump message by doing her best to diminish Manigault Newman. First, Tarlov said Omarosa is not credible (which she isn’t but her recordings and documents are). Tarlov went on to argue that the reason there’s so much attention on Omarosa is because her accusations are “click bait,” “salacious” and “dirty.” “People who don’t want to like Trump love to hear that he used that word,” Tarlov said. Then, to further diminish Omarosa’s significance, Tarlov claimed that the use of the n-word has already been “baked in” to Trump’s image and won’t change anyone’s opinion of him. She also accused Manigault Newman of damaging the institution of the presidency.
In fact, Tarlov was probably the most harshly critical of Omarosa than anyone else on the panel. Which is not to say that she didn't deserve all that and more, but there’s a bigger significance to the situation that Tarlov either missed or deliberately ignored.
As the segment ended, McCarthy even blasted Trump’s tweeted attacks on special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. “There’s gonna come a day when Mueller is going to write a report, and if it were me and I had been listening to that about me for eight months, it would be the report to end all reports,” McCarthy said.
Watch the Fox News Democrat put forth the Trump-friendliest message above, from the August 14, 2018 Outnumbered.
Crossposted at News Hounds.
