May 15th 2020

By News Corpse (of the Daily Kos community)

Daily Kos

Donald Trump's fear of being interviewed by anyone but Fox News is still driving his media schedule. On Thursday he got another tongue bath by Fox's Maria Bartiromo, who has become one of the network's most glassy-eyed disciples of the Trump Cult. Her questions were such sycophantic pablum that they would have embarrassed a North Korean State TV shill.

The entire interview was nothing but pure propaganda, as Bartiromo failed to challenge Trump on any issue, and her follow-ups mostly consisted of obediently nodding her head in agreement. But perhaps the most preposterous and troubling exchange occurred as she was wrapping up the interview and slipped into her best impersonation of a butt-kissing supplicant (video below):

Bartiromo: This is toward the end of your first term as president and this entire term has been dominated by resistance. You've gotten so much done: Tax legislation, international things, so much done. And yet the FBI take-down effort, pushback on all of your Supreme Judges, a complete drama around Brett Kavanaugh, the Democrats in Congress attacking your call with the Ukraine leader, then an impeachment trial.

Trump: Over nothing. Over absolutely nothing.

Bartiromo: And you keep...I've never seen anybody that can take a punch and get right back up and keep punching. Where does this resilience come from that you keep getting things done in the face of all of this?

Bartiromo makes groupies look respectable. She led off with a stream of unbridled praise for Trump's alleged achievements, but could only list one, his tax cuts for the rich. Then she rattled off what she regarded as Trump's obstacles, beginning with the inane conspiracy theory that Trump is calling "Obamagate." Trump told Bartiromo that it was "the biggest political scandal of all time." And Bartiromo giddily agreed. But when she asked Trump to explain what it is, he wandered off into an incoherent and unrelated rant about Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, never returning to actually answer the question. And Bartiromo failed to press him on it.

Following that, Bartiromo complained on Trump's behalf about "pushback" he received on his Supreme Court nominations, as if that never happened to any other president. She didn't bother to mention how Mitch McConnell single-handedly denied President Obama's nominee, Merrick Garland, even the courtesy of a hearing. That was followed by Bartiromo's insipid references to Trump's impeachment, characterizing it as an annoyance and not the historic event that only two other presidents have been subject to.

Finally, Bartiromo mustered up all her courage, batted her eyes, and confessed her adoration for Dear Leader's divine strength and endurance in the face of an onslaught of evil. In her eyes he is just so powerful and dreamy. She could hardly get all of her tributes out due to the drool flowing from her quivering, orange-stained lips.

And that was just from the last couple of minutes of the interview. The rest of this fawning romance video was equally as crammed with adulation and hero-worship. On Trump's part, he predictably peppered the hour with his trademark bullying, boasting, and bullshit. For instance...

• Trump lied about coronavirus fatality estimates, saying that 100,000 (which is up from his previous estimate of 60,000) should be regarded as a victory because it wasn't 2,000,000.

• Trump threatened to prosecute and jail President Obama and Joe Biden for crimes that he couldn't name.

• Trump tried to rewrite history by claiming that Putin wanted Hillary to win in 2016, even though Putin himself - and all of the U.S. intelligence community - said that Putin wanted Trump to win and helped him to do so.

• Trump Lied about having built "new" wall along the southern border, which Bartiromo agreed with, despite the fact that not a single mile of new wall has been built.

• Trump repeated his oft told lie that the U.S. was "taking in billions of dollars" in tariffs from China.

Trump closed by making a bizarre and callously insensitive comment about what he considered to be the positive side of a deadly pandemic. "The one thing about the Plague," Trump bragged, "is that it said Trump was right." WTHF is wrong with this so-called man? He is utterly devoid of any human-like attributes of sympathy. He is like the creature from Alien that is wholly focused on his own survival and will destroy anything that gets in his way. Except the movie is far more entertaining than watching Trump on Fox News. If you have the stomach for it, here's the full tongue bathing ...er... interview on Fox.

Posted with permission