Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Sean Hannity spent Tuesday evening bashing millennials in general, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez specifically, with the White House mouthpiece offering a unique counterproposal to the rookie congresswoman’s fight to save the planet. While the GOP spends as little time on efforts to save the planet as it can, it definitely feels like Fox News—and its roster of mouth-frothing screechers—spend most of their time on two tasks: raving about Donald Trump, and ranting about New York Democratic Rep. Ocasio-Cortez. This recent piece from The Onion was a little too on-point!
Some days, the amount of time the right-wing propaganda factory spends gushing about Individual 1 and his border wall actually seems to pale in comparison to their wild-eyed and critical coverage of America’s most popular member of Congress. Tuesday night’s episode of “Hannity’s Funtime Fearmongering Story Hour” was no different, with the Trump Whisperer inviting SHS on to talk about those silly millennials and their completely unnecessary desire to save the planet from this whole climate change thing.
For context, Hannity is referencing AOC’s conversation with Ta-Nehisi Coates on Monday, where she referenced (and admittedly oversimplified) an October report by the United Nations predicting dangerous outcomes by 2030 if we don’t slow down our race to destroy the planet.
Ignoring the rest of the discussion, Hannity served up this out-of-context clip for the Smoky-Eyed Wonder to devour, and she did not disappoint.
HANNITY: Is [sic] the President have any reaction to Ocasio-Cortez, the Congresswoman’s prediction, “Millennials think, like, we’re, like, the world is gonna end in twelve years if we don’t address climate change?” Any official White House position?
Hannity’s voice was dripping with sarcasm, of course, and Huckabee Sanders responded with a throaty grunt of dismissive laughter. She then issued a blanket dismissal of anything that might ever possibly be said by the youngest person ever elected to Congress, and revealed who the Trump administration is relying on for environmental guidance.
HUCKABEE SANDERS: Look, I don’t think we’re gonna listen to her on much of anything, particularly not on matters that we’re going to leave into the hands of a much, much higher authority, and certainly not listen to the freshman congresswoman on when the world might end.
Yes. You read that right. According to Huckabee Sanders, the White House is letting go and letting God when it comes to the environment.
That’s … reassuring for all the climate hawks out there, isn’t it?
After a quick diversion to lie about how Democrats won’t “engage” about the shutdown, despite Mitch McConnell’s refusing to hold a vote for most of its duration, Huckabee Sanders reiterated the administration’s continued reliance on the ol’ “thoughts and prayers” model when it comes to combatting climate change.
HUCKABEE SANDERS: We’re focused on what’s happening in the world right now … we wish that Democrats like herself would engage in that conversation, help us fix some of the current problems we know exist and work with us to get some things done, particularly on the border, fixing the national and humanitarian crisis. That’s the kind of stuff we’re focused on, not things that we’re gonna leave up to the hands of something and someone much more powerful than any of us.
Huckers and Han-man then continued to bash the left for rejecting Trump’s Saturday offer of “things that Democrats are supposed to like.”
HUCKABEE SANDERS: One thing I do know is that Republicans have been in lockstep with the president because we actually believe in getting something done.
[...]
(Democrats are) not looking to solve problems, but they’re simply looking to kick the can down the road and obstruct any progress being made, whether it’s on this issue and probably anything else.
She then smoothly transitioned into an “it’s a sad day” attack on Speaker Nancy Pelosi, before boasting of Donald Trump’s supposed concern and care for the country, even going so far as to claim that Individual 1 is a leader, while “Nancy Pelosi is nothing more than an obstructionist.”
It’s absolutely terrifying to see this administration and its unofficial mouthpieces at Fox News reframe a shutdown of Trump’s own making as the fault of Democrats. Sadly, it’s not surprising. One can only hope that wiser heads prevail, and we get these federal workers back to work sooner than later, and we get Trump’s stupid steel barrier never.