Hurricane Michael was one of the strongest hurricanes ever to hit the U.S. but Donald Trump not only couldn’t be bothered to cancel his fundraiser and campaign rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, he found an extra 22 minutes to chitchat with Fox News host Shannon Bream and then another 47 minutes on Fox & Friends the following morning.
Not surprisingly, Trump got a pass from the sycophantic hosts on Fox & Friends. But Bream’s Fox News @ Night show is supposed to be a news show.
As he had earlier, Trump ridiculously claimed to Bream that it was selfless consideration for his fans that had kept from canceling Wednesday night's campaign rally in Pennsylvania. That did not account for the fundraiser he also attended. Nor did it account for the time he spent on Fox News.
Bream did not challenge Trump's obviously bogus justification. Nor did she point out how he had once attacked Obama for campaigning “while NY & NY are still decimated” by Hurricane Sandy. That, however, was more than a week after the storm ended. Hurricane Michael, on the other hand, was still raging during Bream’s lengthy chat.
Instead, Bream went through the motion of asking Trump about his behavior by offering him “a chance to respond to your critics” without the bother of any follow-up questions – even as Trump spent more time in his response playing the victim and bragging about his popularity.
BREAM: You were criticized tonight by some for going to the rally in Pennsylvania. I want to give you a chance to respond to your critics who said it was political, you shouldn’t have gone during the storm..
TRUMP: Well, if I didn’t go, they would also criticize. The problem I had, Shannon, is this was set up a long time ago. We had thousands of people lined up from yesterday. I mean, literally, they stayed 24 hours and sometimes more than that to go to these rallies. They like ‘em. You probably saw the pictures on television tonight. Thousands and thousands of people outside, after, the arena. It was a big arena but it was full. And we had to have 15 or beyond that thousand people outside. And so you have these people waiting for hours, many hours. And if I didn’t go, that would have been the wrong thing too.
And more importantly than anything, we have people in Florida, people in the White House, I had everything set up on Air Force One. I was in total communication. I spoke with the governors of Alabama, the governor of, as you know, of Georgia. I spoke with Rick Scott. We were in constant communication.
Did the rally and people had a fantastic time. It was a very important rally tonight but it would’ve been very unfair to have people waiting for 10 and 12 and more than that hours and then say, “By the way, I’m not going to be there tonight.” Would have been pretty tough.
What Trump forgot to mention was that it would have been tough on the campaign of Pennsylvania’s Republican Senate candidate Lou Barletta. It was Barletta’s campaign that reportedly urged Trump not to cancel the fundraiser and rally because there would probably not be time to reschedule before the election.
Not surprisingly, Bream didn’t bring that up. Instead, she “followed up” by chirping that Trump likes to go to rallies as much as his fans, then moving on to ask if he is “confident they will show up in the midterms.”
Watch it above, from the October 10, 2018 Fox News @ Night.
Crossposted at News Hounds.
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