Dana Perino, Bill Hemmer and Kayleigh McEnany were either shockingly ignorant about the objections to Ronna McDaniel at NBC and MSNBC or they were lying. I doubt they were ignorant.
We know that Outnumbered cohost Kayleigh McEnany is a compulsive liar. But even worse were FNC anchors Bill Hemmer and Dana Perino validating her falsehoods about the open rebellion at NBC over the hiring of Ronna McDaniel. It all happened today on what Fox hypes as a “news” show, America’s Newsroom.
First, the three promoted lies about Trump’s New York fraud judgment
Before getting to McDaniel and NBC, Hemmer played a clip of children’s charity rip-off and co-defendant Eric Trump accusing New York’s attorney general of being “crooked” because she obtained a $453.5 fraud judgment against Donald Trump and a lesser judgment against Eric Trump – who, by the way, I have yet to hear say that Trump properties were not falsely valued, which was the heart of New York’s fraud case. (This discussion aired before Trump’s bond requirement to appeal the case was lowered to $175 million)
Still, you could almost hear Eric Trump’s wife, Lara, shoveling money out of the RNC coffers and into the family’s legal bills as he spoke.
Lying McEnany – who has a Harvard Law degree – suggested that the fraud judgment is not justified because it’s “unprecedented.” She said, “When voters look at this and say there’s no precedence for this, it just kind of plays into Trump’s argument about the system being stacked against him.”
McEnany had regurgitated a Trump lie that was debunked by Fox’s own Eric Shawn just yesterday. But Hemmer and Perino let the lie go unchalenged.
Furthermore, neither Hemmer nor Perino pointed out that it’s a matter of law and fact, not precedence, as to how much money Trump should have to pay as a penalty.
McEnany, Perino and Hemmer falsely portray objections to McDaniel as political
About halfway into the discussion, Hemmer changed the subject in order to sneer about NBC.
With a smirk, Hemmer said NBC heads “were blowing off” yesterday over the hiring of McDaniel. He played a clip of Chuck Todd condemning McDaniel’s hire on Meet the Press yesterday, and Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski objecting on Morning Joe this morning. Brzezinski also said she hopes NBC will reconsider its decision and that McDaniel will not be a guest on Morning Joe “in her capacity as a paid contributor.”
“If somebody said this at Fox News, they’d be walked out the door,” Hemmer began, signaling that it was time for the three to start the hostilities against NBC. Of course, Fox would never have hired a comparable Democrat. But Hemmer was trying to make the ridiculously false suggestion that Fox is more respectful of opposing viewpoints. (Shepard Smith, Kristin Fisher, and Marie Harf all prove otherwise.)
Sure enough, McEnany took the hint and got the untruths going.
MCENANY: You would expect something like this from Joe Scarborough. He's a far-left opinion commentator, but I was really disappointed to hear Chuck Todd, someone who is a journalist, comment on this in that fashion.
Here is what I would ask him, as a journalist. Look, you're a journalist, Chuck Todd, who at your network at NBC or MSNBC represents the 46.7% of the country that tells RealClearPolitics average, when you look at all the polls, we support Trump. I couldn't find - and I looked today - a single person on their roster that represents that really half of the country.
Ronna McDaniel, I saw her hiring and I was like, good for them. She does represent that wing of the party. But if you can't accept her, who would you accept? Who would you accept?
Let’s pause there. Todd’s comments made abundantly clear that his objections to McDaniel’s hire were not about her politics but her “credibility issues.” He said that their professional dealings with the RNC under her tenure “have been met with gaslighting” and “character assassination.” He noted that she rejected numerous attempts to book her on Meet the Press (he is the show's former host) when she was still chairing the RNC. So it’s not clear whether the now ousted-chair McDaniel has changed her view for the sake of an NBC contract or whether she was lying when she represented the RNC, he argued.
Furthermore, later in the show, the transcript shows that Todd said, “Look, it is important for this network and for always to have a wide aperture, okay, and covering voters that have disparate beliefs. Having ideological diversity on this panel is something I prided myself on.” He added that he understands the motivation to hire McDaniel, “but this execution, I think, was poor.”
Another panelist, conservative Stephen Hayes, a former Fox News contributor criticized NBC for not having enough Republican voices or conservative arguments. But he agreed that McDaniel “has huge credibility problems, not because she's been a partisan spinner on behalf of the Republican Party, but because she not only presided but directed, drove, the QAnonization of the Republican Party during her tenure.” He said she “did a tremendous disservice to the country” by promoting Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 election and enabling his false elector schemes.
Instead of mentioning any of McDaniel’s credibility problems or even NBC panelists’ concerns about them, anchor Perino agreed with McEnany’s false claim that it was all about McDaniel’s politics. “I also, I was thinking the same thing,” Perino said after McEnany spoke.
Hemmer obviously knew the whole truth about the objections. Rather than tell viewers, he did his part for the propaganda by suggesting that McDaniel’s promotion of the 2020 election lies, her complicity in helping overturn the election were no different from what Democrats did. “There was, in 2017, there were seven House Democrats who objected to Trump's electoral win. There were 67 Democratic members who did not attend the inauguration,” he sneered. He went on to claim that Hillary Clinton, Stacey Abrams and Katie Porter did, too.
But Hemmer almost certainly knows that McDaniel didn’t just opine that the election was stolen once or twice. She used her position of power to help Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election and she supported a resolution to censor Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for being part of the January 6th commission.
“I thought it was a very candid interview,” Hemmer said about McDaniel’s appearance on Meet the Press yesterday. “But, apparently if you're of a certain viewpoint, your viewpoint is just not welcome at NBC a major news network on a major Sunday show.”
FACT CHECK: Fox hosts tried to get their own colleagues fired for telling the truth about the 2020 election. Politics editor Chris Stirwalt was fired in a purge after the network correctly called the 2020 election.
Hemmer, Perino and McEnany may have hoped we'd have forgotten about that, but we have not.
Oh, and by the way? Why hasn't McDaniel been hired at Fox, her natural home? It's probably because Dear Leader Donald Trump and his fans wouldn't like it.
You can watch so-called news anchors promote a load of falsehoods below, from the March 25, 2024 America’s Newsroom.