This is what happens when you come on Fox, and your arguments are so ridiculous that even their Trump-friendly hosts are scratching their heads trying to make sense of your spin.
That's exactly what what the viewers were treated to on this Saturday's America's Newsroom. The chair of the Trump-supporting Great America PAC, Eric Beach, used the scandal over Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam's racist yearbook page as an excuse to accuse Democrats of playing "identity politics." Ridiculously, he tried to claim that no Democrat or anyone in the media has the right to accuse Trump or any Republican of racism now.
Host Arthel Neville was genuinely confused and told the other guest, former Clinton advisor Antjuan Seawright, that she was having trouble "connecting the dots" laid out by Beach just before she cut the segment off for Northam's bizarre press conference.
SEAWRIGHT: This serves as a distraction for us as Democrats, and that's unfortunate because these things happen on the Republican side and we call them out for it. I think we have to hold ourselves as Democrats to the same standard and lead by example.
NEVILLE: Eric, how do you see it?
BEACH: I can't remember a Republican member. I can remember Robert Byrd who served in the Senate and the Democratic House for over 50 years who was in the KKK, but I can't recall a Republican that had a picture, or who allegedly had a picture taken in a KKK outfit or with blackface.
SEAWRIGHT: You just had a secretary of state resign in Florida.
BEACH: This isn't about, this isn't about a governor of Virginia, this is about a party who continues to take part in race baiting and identity politics ---
NEVILLE: How is this race baiting? (crosstalk) Excuse me. Hold on. Stop. Okay. One second. One at a time, please. So Antoine, --
BEACH: The Democratic party and the media --
NEVILLE: Hang on, guys. I really want to hear what you have to say. It's very important. So Eric, continue your thought and then Antoine, you react to it, please.
BEACH: Yes, again, it's a larger – I agree with Antoine, it's larger than the governor of Virginia. I mean, this is about a party that continues to practice in identity politics, you know, for someone that's wearing a make America great again hat, calling them racists without any concrete proof.
Again, how are they going to respond when a Democrat lawmaker who is head of a state is, you know, allegedly under attack? So, I think this is going to highlight some of the, you know, inaccuracies of the Democrats and many in the media have portrayed to Republicans, especially Trump and his supporters over the last two years.
SEAWRIGHT: Now you just sound absolutely ridiculous. You just had the Republican secretary of state in Florida resign just days ago because of his blackface. You had a president of the United States who tweets and on a regular basis panders to a certain wing of your party, like the Steve Kings of the world, so don't tell me this is a larger problem for Democrats because it's not.
At the end of the day you see Democrats calling out one of our own for his actions unlike what happened in Charlottesville where Republicans were playing dodge ball and did not want to call the Republican out for this issue. So you sound very hypocritical quite frankly and talking about of both sides of your mouth.
NEVILLE: So guys, right now we are still waiting, I want to remind everybody what we're seeing here and for those of you listening on radio or satellite, we're waiting for Governor Ralph Northam there in Virginia to come out and address the media about those controversial statements, photos that he allegedly took while in medical school in 1984. So, Antoine, back to you. Listen, he was the lieutenant governor for four years. He won the primary election in June 2017, then he won the general election in May 2017 in a race with the highest voter turnout in Virginia in 20 years. Clearly, Northam has had the support of majority of Virginians. Will he retain that support after this?
SEAWRIGHT: I do not. I mean, you see plain as day, you see groups from national groups to local groups calling for his resignation and I don't know how we prove that it was not him in the photo. If it's not, why would he be on the page with the photo, if it's not him? If you look at, I think his nickname that was in the yearbook, it was coon-something.
This is a larger problem all by itself, but I'm so thankful you see Democrats calling this out for what it is and addressing the issue from NAACP to elected officials, to members of Congress, to even the former governor of Virginia Terry McAuliffe, who served with Ralph, and so I think that is the big picture item. I hope the governor steps up to the plate and does what's right for the party and for our country, because we have to set the standards.
NEVILLE: So Eric, you do understand it's been very clear that Democratic leaders, supporters who were, used to be supporters of Northam I should say, they're saying this is not right, you should step down. So if governor Northam does not resign, how can he make this right, Eric?
BEACH: Well, I don't know how he can make it right. Look, I think for the betterment of not just his party but the country, he should step down, but I don't expect him to, right. I think when you attain that kind of power, people forget, those same Democrats who are calling for him to step down now, were behind his negative campaign against Ed Gillespie, again, because it was a Republican. It was identity politics at the finest, and ---
SEAWRIGHT: That's not true!
BEACH: Democrats participated. Absolutely. Go back and look at it. He actually owed Ed Gillespie an apology. He called him Ed Gillespie a racist. (crosstalk)
NEVILLE: One at a time.
BEACH: That was a decisive issue and how he won and he's not alone in that as a Democrat, so look, it's going to be interesting again, what's going to happen with him. But again, it's not just the Democratic party. It's a lot of those in the media, how they've been covering this president and his supporters without any concrete proof when you use the word racism, and it's very clear by this picture in his past that he at least -- it's not very clear, but allegedly, participated in this. And so, he should step down, but more importantly, how will the Democrats and many or those in the media who have been very hypocritical without any proof, how will they respond here in the next several weeks?
NEVILLE: Antoine, I'm trying to connect those dots that Eric just laid out there and I'm having trouble. Can you help me?
SEAWRIGHT: Well, I'm lost for words, and I think Eric may be lost in thought. I'm trying to figure out how can he not -- Democrats and Republicans agree --
NEVILLE: All right, guys, here is governor Northam right now. Let's listen.
