Fox News seems to be the only propaganda outlet getting access to one-on-one style interviews with Donald Trump. This is most likely because Fox News is the propaganda wing of this current administration and many of its least impressive television personalities are virtual White House advisers. And while speaking with right-wing sycophants like Sean Hannity and Lou Dobbs would seem like the safest bet for a blunderbuss of a mind like Trump, he cannot help but reveal what a petty and cruel little dictator of a man he is no matter the handling.
On Saturday, Donald Trump sat down, outside the White house somewhere, to speak with one of the Fox News team’s stable of Renfields, Jeanine Pirro, to discuss everything he would normally yell at a rally. First, Trump addressed the Woodward audio tapes where Donald Trump admits to purposefully misleading the American public about the true nature of the oncoming coronavirus pandemic. It turns out that the new spin now is that Trump was doing “a good thing” when, in February, having been briefed on the COVID-19 virus’ ability to spread through the air, Trump denied it was a problem publicly and even called it “the new Democratic hoax.” He also says it’s Woodward’s fault. This was the first minute of the interview with Pirro. Trump only got more dangerous from there.
When Pirro isn’t hosting her Fox News show spewing lies and acting out bizarre hypocritical performance art pieces, she’s frequently pushing pro-racist, authoritarian takes on our country. So she is right at home asking Trump what he will do if Americans revolt on Election Day—if Trump wins.
TRUMP: We’ll put them down very quickly. It’s called “Insurrection.” We just send in and we do it very easy.
Trump proceeds to boast about sending the National Guard into Minneapolis to quell Black Lives Matter protests. Trump then explains how law enforcement across the country supports him. In fact, he has seen “15 or 20” police chiefs resign.* He then goes on to explain that “before China sent us the plague we had the best crime numbers in history.”
Trump and Pirro, like two old gremlins, then begin commiserating about protesters stealing steaks from elderly couples—yes, that’s a literal thing they talk about—before Pirro begins pushing for Trump to implement Martial law before the elections, saying “Right now you are waiting to be asked [to send federal troops into American cities].” In fact, no one is asking Trump, they, in fact, have been telling him not to send troops into their localities.
But Pirro isn’t done. She wants the Reich now. “When does that change? When do you cross the Rubicon?” This is an extraordinary thing to say. In all honesty, I don’t think Pirro is smart enough to realize how on the nose she is. I think she knows the term “crossing the Rubicon,” the way most people do: a general term meaning point of no return—crossing the proverbial “line in the sand.” Of course, the term is based on the moment Julius Caesar brought his army across the river Rubicon and in essence, began a civil war that ended in him becoming the dictator of Rome.
But maybe she does. Like most Fox News personalities, Pirro is a corrupt and wretched person. Trump moves onto discussing the death of Michael Reinoehl, who was shot to death by police in Lacey, Washington. Reinoehl was wanted for the death of Aaron Danielson—a member of the far-right group Patriot Prayer. Reinoehl had admitted to shooting Danielson, saying it was in self-defense. Video of the shooting did not contradict Reinoehl’s assertions but it was a court and jury that was supposed to decide that. Instead, Reinoehl was shot and killed by multiple officers firing multiple rounds at him during their “apprehension” of him as a suspect.
Witnesses have offered conflicting accounts of what happened between law enforcement and Reinoehl, some saying Reinoehl fired shots, while others saying he wasn’t even holding a gun at the time and that police in unmarked vehicles opened fire on him without announcing their presence. Police have not confirmed much of their initial story. But these facts don’t seem to matter to Trump, as he told Pirro and the Fox audience that it wasn’t until the Donald pushed for action that U.S. Marshalls finally went to “get” Reinoehl and that Reinoehl was a “violent criminal” who engaged the officers in a “gunfight.”
TRUMP: I will tell you something. That’s the way it has to be. There has to be retribution when you have crime like this.
Still waiting on those Jade Helm conspiracy theorists with their guns and their pretend Constitutions to chime in on our very anti-Democracy and civil rights president.
*The number is around 17, and includes police chiefs being forced to resign or fired.
