During the January 6 hearing on Fox News yesterday, after each break from the proceedings, Fox News pundits tried to claim over and over again that the Select Committee was illegitimate because Republicans weren't on the committee at all.
That's a lie straight off, since Rep.Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney, both lifelong Republicans, are on the committee.
Marie Harf, the lone truthful voice out of the six Fox News yakkers used for their panel, explained that fact, but it fell on deaf ears.
Instead of discussing the evidence put forth by the panel, Fox legal analyst Andy McCarthy kvetched that the Select Committee should have put Jim Jordan on the committee because Bill Barr's testimony was too solid for him to dismiss it.
"This underscored what a blunder it was for Speaker Pelosi to make this a one-sided hearing," Andy McCarthy said, as if it was Pelosi's sole decision to bar Republicans from the committee.
Republicans never wanted to participate.
It was Republican House leader Kevin McCarthy that refused to send any other Republican members over after Pelosi refused Jordan and Banks' participation since they were linked to the Trump team, voted against certifying the election, and were likely to be called as witnesses in the proceedings.
In fact, Speaker Pelosi approved five others to be part of the investigation.
Pelosi said she would approve the appointments of Reps. Rodney Davis of Illinois, Kelly Armstrong of North Dakota and Troy Nehls of Texas. Banks, Jordan and Nehls all objected to the certification of the 2020 presidential election.
McCarthy wanted no part of the investigation, so he pulled his people out.
Senate Republicans then blocked any effort to put together a bipartisan commission, so Pelosi finally put together the Select Committee.
Andy McCarthy claimed it was a big missed opportunity to not put Jordan on the Committee.
"What a blunder this was for Speaker Pelosi to make this a one-sided hearing," Andy said. "Why would they be afraid to have Jim Jordan sitting there on the panel?"
"I think they really dis-served an important mission that had to have a credible proceeding to get to the bottom of this," McCarthy droned on.
A few minutes later, Marie Harf struck.
"The Republicans tried to put people like Jim Jordan on the committee, and Jim Jordan is involved in January 6," Harf countered. "He's involved in the story. You cannot put someone on a jury or as a defense prosecutor, to use Andy's language, that is involved in the possible crime. Or the cover-up."
Exactly.
How quickly Fox News forgets that Jordan was called to testify before the committee, but refused to honor the subpoena.
"Even if I had information to share with the Select Committee, the actions and statements of Democrats in the House of Representatives show that you are not conducting a fair-minded and objective inquiry," Jordan wrote.
Instead of Fox News blacking out the coverage like they did Thursday evening, they put on five of their paid analysts and hosts to refuse to address any of the testimony presented in any discernible fashion.
Instead, they used all their time to trash Bill Barr's testimony by claiming Democrats never liked him, or to insist the committee is a sham because Jordan wasn't included.
In other words, Fox News did its best to confuse their viewers to what they were seeing with their own eyes,
