Fox News contributor Rachel Campos-Duffy, the wife of Republican Congressman Sean Duffy, apparently thinks it’s just fine for fellow Republican Greg Gianforte to physically assault a reporter.
Campos-Duffy’s shocking remark – which none of the three other Fox pundits in the segment challenged – came during a discussion about then-candidate Gianforte’s assault on Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs on the eve of a special election. Gianforte subsequently won that election.
Host Eric Bolling kicked off the discussion by complaining about pundits blaming Donald Trump’s violent, anti-media rhetoric as having set the stage for Gianforte’s assault. Ignoring the point, Bolling whined, “The man was 5000 miles away in Europe.”
Then, as if Fox has not blamed President Obama for events he was nowhere near, Bolling had the audacity to say, “Stop treating Trump differently. He’s the Commander-in-Chief. Respect the man or the very least muster up the character to respect the office. Now is a good time to start.”
That’s even more ironic, given what Bolling has said about President Obama while he was in office:
BOLLING: So what's with all the hoods in the hizzy? A month after the White House hosted the rapper Common, who glorifies violence on cops, the president opened his doors to one of Africa's most evil dictators.
Not surprisingly, not one of the other pundits pointed out the hypocrisy.
Instead, the two guests gleefully attacked Jacobs.
Fox News contributor Rob O’Neill, a former Navy SEAL, mocked Jacobs and called the assault “kinda funny”:
O’NEILL: Apparently, this snowflake reporter invaded Gianforte’s safe space and we have a saying up there. You mess around, you mess around, you might not be around.
[…]
I’m not condoning the body slam. I think it’s kinda funny, based on my history. You try to mess with it, sometimes you get the bull’s horns in Montana.
Even worse, Fox News contributor Rachel Campos-Duffy, married to Republican Congressman Sean Duffy - suggested Jacobs deserved the assault.
CAMPOS-DUFFY: This guy was not a reporter looking for a fair story. He was obviously doing a takedown on him and so this guy’s got his back up, he got a little bit of Montana justice.
Fox's own Alicia Acuna witnessed the incident and reported about it on FoxNews.com. She wrote, "To be clear, at no point did any of us who witnessed this assault see Jacobs show any form of physical aggression toward Gianforte."
Nobody brought that up.
Bolling seemed to want to distance himself when he noted that his “whole issue” is Trump should not get blamed for the assault.
But when it comes to attacking the media and/or anyone who is perceived as hostile to Republicans, the Fox contributors went above and beyond the call of duty.
And nobody uttered a peep of objection.
Watch the pundits justify assault above, from the May 25, 2017 The Fox News Specialists.
Originally published at Newshounds.us
