There comes a point when you start to wonder if the political pundits we see on the news every day actually believe what they’re saying or if they’re role-playing for the camera and a paycheck. A case in point is the ridiculous back and forth on Fox News’ “America’s News Headquarters” on Sunday.
Right-wing attorney and political analyst Gayle Trotter appeared on the show with the task of defending President Trump’s attempts to pressure Georgia’s secretary of state to “find” enough votes to give him a victory in the state.
Trump’s behavior was borderline treasonous and an affront to the basic principles of American democracy. However, Trotter took her best shot and defended him with a straight face.
Trotter’s attempts to spin Trump’s antics into acceptable presidential behavior was so off the mark that the other two pundits, A.B. Stoddard of the conservative news site RealClearPolitics and Democratic strategist Jessica Tarlov, laughed right in her face.
Laughing in someone’s face on television is rude, but Trotter is helping to enable the president to commit illegal acts to overturn a presidential election. Has she no shame?
The conversation began with Stoddard saying the recorded conversation of Trump pressuring Georgia’s secretary of state is “incredibly politically damaging to the president” after a “free and fair” election.
Tarlov added to Stoddard’s comments by saying Trump’s efforts to overturn the election are “terrible for America” and that Republicans should “atone and make amends for what they’ve done.”
But Trotter wasn’t having it. She took the angle that Trump’s seditious efforts were just another example of how he fights for his constituents. She conveniently left out the part where he threatened an election official to commit fraud.
“A.B. and Jessica just don’t get it,” Trotter said. “The voters who wanted President Trump to have a second term voted for him because he’s a fighter. He’s a man who fights.”
Stoddard wasn’t having it. All she could do was shake her head and laugh.
Then Trotter got right on to her talking points about how Joe Biden is pushing a “radical leftist agenda.” The idea that Joe Biden, a lifelong middle-of-the-road Democrat, is a radical had Storrard in stitches again, this time she was joined by Tarlov.
Trotter’s cynical defense of the president as he attempts to undermine the very foundations of American democracy is a gross display of loyalty. But one has to also criticize Fox News for putting panelists like Trotter on its airwaves in the first place.
Trotter recently tweeted out an article questioning whether people should take the COVID-19 vaccine at a time when thousands of Americans are dying of the disease every day. She also once signaled support for the Q Anon conspiracy by using hashtag #WWG1WGA in a tweet supporting disgraced national security advisor Michael Flynn. She later deleted the tweet.
The hashtag stands for “‘Where We Go One, We Go All,” a slogan for the disproven and discredited far-right conspiracy theory alleging that a cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles is running a global child sex-trafficking ring and plotting against US President Donald Trump.
So although Trotter was the target of Stoddard and Tarlov’s laughter, the real butt of the joke should be the news organization that feels the need to give her a platform.
