After Donald Trump committed a federal crime by intimidating impeachment witness and former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, even Fox News is having a hard time concealing its embarrassment.
On Trump’s favorite propaganda network, Fox Business host Lisa Kennedy crushed the president’s behavior during Yovanovitch’s testimony.
“Should the president be tweeting at [Yovanovitch] mid-hearing, no,” Kennedy said. “It makes him look like a big dumb baby.”
Kennedy: “Should the president be tweeting at her mid-hearing, no. *It makes him look like a big dumb baby.*” pic.twitter.com/DEvnsolG8i
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— Lis Power (@LisPower1) November 15, 2019
Of course, Trump’s Twitter tantrums are more than childish. In the case of Yovanovitch, in particular, it constitutes witness intimidation – a crime.
MSNBC’s Joy Reid described Trump’s attacks on the career public servant as “thuggish” and “unprecedented.”
“Instead of helping himself by, I don’t know, staying quiet and doing the job of being president, Donald Trump just keeps digging himself in deeper,” Reid said. “Trump offered a fresh, real-time threat via tweet during her testimony – a thuggish, unprecedented display by an American president.”
Video:
MSNBC’s Joy Reid calls Trump’s attacks on Marie Yovanovitch “thuggish” and “unprecedented.” #ctl #p2 #amjoy pic.twitter.com/WLNyIDKyU1
— PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) November 16, 2019
Trump is creating cracks at Fox News
There is no question that Donald Trump will never lose the Fox News primetime lineup of Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham. These folks are dedicated to covering Trump in the same way that North Korea’s state TV covers Kim Jong Un.
But that doesn’t mean the president hasn’t created cracks at the network, particularly as his behavior becomes increasingly unhinged during the ongoing impeachment inquiry.
As PoliticusUSA’s Jason Easley noted on Friday, even Fox News host Brett Baier had to admit that Trump committed an impeachable offense in real-time when he attacked Marie Yovanovitch.
To make matters worse for Trump, Fox News polling shows that he is losing support ahead of the 2020 presidential election. In a pair of recent surveys, the president is crumbling in two key swing states.
The Fox News bubble is still intact, to be sure, but it should terrify Donald Trump that some holes are starting to emerge.
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Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
