“Straight news” anchor Bill Hemmer could not have been more disingenuous than in his charade with Karl Rove suggesting that former President Obama only reluctantly endorsed Joe Biden. And surprise! It turns out that perfectly meshes with the Trump campaign’s messaging.
After Obama’s video endorsement of Biden was released yesterday, Hemmer spent several minutes of his supposedly “straight news” Fox show suggesting to viewers that Obama didn’t really mean it.
“He stayed neutral during the primaries,” Hemmer said suggestively. His first question to Rove was also suggestive: “A lot of folks might have been sayin’ 'what took you so long?' He made a point of saying, ‘I’m staying out of this primary battle.’ Why do you think he took that approach during this, Karl?”
It speaks volumes that Hemmer’s only guest for the discussion was GOP strategist Rove. The chances of anyone in Camp Obama confiding in Rove are about the same as anyone confiding in Trump. But Hemmer didn’t need to ask Rove. We already know why Obama waited: He deliberately stayed out of the primary so that he could play unifier once there was a nominee.
Rove, however, took the not-so-subtle cue to baselessly suggest Obama didn’t want to endorse Biden.
Hello, we’re in the middle of a pandemic that has left thousands of Americans dead! Obama was expressing sympathy and compassion for suffering Americans, his appreciation for medical and other workers “taking risks every day to keep our economy running” and for everyday Americans making sacrifices at home. In short, he was acting presidential. Maybe Trumpers just can’t understand putting humanity over politics for a few minutes.
Rove’s final comment, suggesting that Obama only praised Biden as a person, i.e. not as a future president, is just plain dishonest. In fact, Hemmer played a clip of Obama explicitly endorsing Biden’s presidential capabilities at the beginning of the discussion.
Joe has the character and the experience to guide us through one of our darkest times and heal us through a long recovery.
Not shown in the Fox clip was Obama saying, “Joe was there as we rebuilt from the Great Recession and rescued the American auto industry. He was the one asking what every policy would do for the middle class and everyone striving to get into the middle class. That is why I asked him to implement the Recovery Act, which saved millions of jobs and got people back on their feet, because Joe gets stuff done.”
Rather than correct the record, Hemmer furthered the false narrative. After Rove argued that Obama’s comments about the recovery would be more helpful to Trump than Biden, Hemmer weighed back in. First, he quoted Trump’s campaign manager, then he amplified it.
Rove must have run out of attack lines. He said, “I think it was probably wise ‘cause he had to be the figure who unifies. There had to be somebody who was standing apart from this who had stature who could say let’s all come together.”
Nah, that was just a temporary lapse for Rove. He concluded by claiming that Obama had “surrendered” to Bernie Sanders and was “dismissive” of “the more moderate approach” Obama, himself, had governed under. Apparently, Rove forgot that Obama was a “socialist” handing out “free stuff,” according to Fox, back when he was in the White House.
As I predicted last week, Sanders may have left the race, but Fox News fear mongering about socialism lives on.
Posted with permission of NewsHounds.us
