Fox & Friends weekend host Jedediah Bila made a rare admission for someone who works over on Trump-TV, but of course she had to hedge it with a bunch of both-siderist nonsense.
The crew on Trump's favorite morning show started things off discussing Trump's attacks on Attorney General Keith Ellison and other Democratic officials in Minnesota who, heaven forbid, asked the Trump campaign for a COVID Preparedness Plan if they're going to continue to risk the health of their constituents at these super-spreader MAGA rallies in their state, with Trump whining about "cancel culture" and their "freedoms" being taken away.
And there was a little bit of controversy yesterday with respect to the Trump rally that was planned. We saw that the venue had changed a couple of times. It was first supposed to be at the airport. Then the Dodge Center, then back at the airport.
And the controversy was around the number of people in attendance. At one point it was reported that you could have up to 2500 people. We know these rallies feature a lot of Trump supporters really eager to get in there and see to the president.
Well, the Mayor and the Attorney General had asked for a COVID preparedness plan. Some calling that a political request. Trying to make this a political duel in these last few days. Others saying that they were simply concerned about the well-being of people in Minnesota because of some COVID spikes.
Well president Trump weighed in on that attempt to cancel or restrict the rally that was in Rochester, Minnesota. Take a listen to what he had to say on the matter.
TRUMP: Your far left Democrat Attorney General Keith Ellison and your Democrat governor tried to shut down our rally, silence the people of Minnesota, and take away your freedom and your rights. They thought he would cancel, a word they are very familiar with... cancel... cancel culture, but I said no way. I will never abandon the people of Minnesota. […]
I want to thank the thousands of people outside who were barred from entry by radical Democrats. You are American patriots.
Trump's attacks obviously concerned Bila, who may be taking the coronavirus pandemic a little more seriously than some of her cohosts due to the fact that she contracted the virus along with her husband earlier this year.
Despite that fact, Bila still hedged her criticism of Trump by playing the false equivalency game with Democrats, as though there's something wrong with anyone trying to control the spread of this deadly virus and painting "both sides" as just playing politics with the pandemic, but we did get something we rarely see on Fox, which is even mild criticism of anything Trump has done, and an admission that maybe he shouldn't be arguing with the medical community on the size of these super-spreader MAGA rallies he's been holding across the country.
My only concern when I read this story... you know, because you try to push the politics aside, right, when you are looking at public health matter. My only concern when I read it was that I had seen that the Mayo Clinic had weighed in. And they said listen, we really agree with capping these things at 250 people because this is an area—first of all a lot of healthcare workers go there—we all know the Mayo Clinic is non-partisan—people flying in from all over the world. It's an amazing clinic. Those are all front-line workers that we deeply respect.
So when they had come in and said that, I always just take a pause and just say... is it... you know, maybe, maybe president Trump should have just had a 250 person rally. You know, it's televised across everywhere. People can see it. They can be passionate, obviously crowds gathered outside.
And I just worry about a conflict between any administration and the medical community on this issue. With that being said, do I think that there were some political talking points trying to be made by the Attorney General and the Mayor? Absolutely. Everyone has made this deeply political. But it's just that was just a pause of concern for me on this issue.
Of course, her fellow host Will Cain went right on the attack and threw cold water on the notion that anyone ought to be trying to contain the pandemic.
Whether it's been protests, championship parades, or gatherings in Los Angeles, the hypocrisy of these kind of decisions is inescapable. What more, the word I keep coming back to is control. Mainstream media blackouts on very important stories a week before an election. Tech suppression of stories. Limitations of rallies. Thanksgiving being canceled.
We are under such strict control in America right now and when you tie that to hypocritical decisions, I can't accept these kind of things on their face anymore.
As long as Fox and Trump's enablers on the right continue with this sort of rhetoric, we're going to see cases continue to rise exponentially in the United States. The question is how many more hospitals we're going to have overflowing before it's finally enough to Trump's death cult to decide we should do something to try to contain it.
