Monday morning, the “news” anchors of Republican state television (aka Fox News) were merrily peddling their usual GOP-sponsored shtick, bemoaning the looming impeachment of the Criminal-In-Chief, Donald Trump, and warning of the dire consequences for “dozens” of Democrats.
Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade, who, prior to being hired as a performer in Rupert Murdoch’s bestiary had made a career as a sports reporter and stand up comedian, led the charge.
As faithfully recorded by The Daily Beast:
“There were 31 Democrats who voted for Republicans against Bill Clinton,” Kilmeade declared. “Now you have zero Republicans and you are looking at how many Democrats [switching]? Everyone is choosing to bury that part of this story—that’s how weak this impeachment case is!”
For the record, the number of Democrats who have formally declared they will not vote to impeach Donald Trump stands at “one,” with that individual in the process of switching parties. A few other likely defectors have simply declined to comment.
But it was hard for Kilmeade to avoid the latest Fox News poll, the results of which came out Sunday night.
“The Fox News poll came out, and I was stunned by this, it says 50 percent of the country want the president impeached,” he exclaimed, according to The Daily Beast. The site also points out that the survey says half of the responders want Trump to be impeached and removed.
“I was stunned to see that that’s the number,” Kilmeade continued, “because I thought that things were trending away, although the president’s approval rating did tick up in the same poll, so it’s almost like a split personality.”
It’s not clear why Kilmeade would be “stunned” at this, or why he would think that “things were trending away.” As pointed out by Business Insider, public support for Trump’s impeachment has been extremely stable since October, as measured in polls aggregated by 538.com.
But I suppose if your job, day in and day out, is to manufacture a phony narrative in a hermetically sealed echo chamber about this president’s performance in office, you might be stunned on those rare circumstances where reality intrudes.