The Media Research Center may have all but abandoned Robert Kennedy Jr. when he stopped being a Democratic presidential candidate, but it has found a new Democratic candidate it can ironically support in the hope of hurting President Biden’s re-election hopes. Nicholas Fondacaro kicked off the ironic defense in an Oct. 27 post:
On Friday, Minnesota Democratic Congressman Dean Phillips threw his hat into the presidential race to challenge President Biden in the Democratic Party primary. And despite their broadcast competitors finding some time for it on their morning and evening newscasts, ABC’s Good Morning America and World News Tonight refused to give Phillips’ campaign any oxygen. Likely hoping it would suffocate before the caucuses and primaries kicked off next year.
World News Tonight didn’t want to give their viewers an opportunity to think about voting for Phillips over Biden, but they did find time to hype how you could vote to name a baby emperor penguin at Sea World! They spent 1 minute and 31 seconds on that story. They also allocated 15 seconds for rivers on Mars and 17 seconds for Taylor Swift becoming a billionaire.
Over on CBS Mornings, they spent 3 minutes and 39 seconds on Phillips’ challenge to Biden but Democratic donor and co-host Gayle King scoffed at him and even insinuated he had no campaign staff. “[H]e showed us that he’s got at least two friends. I’m sure he has more than that. Does he have a campaign staff? Does he have a following?” she jabbed.By the time CBS Evening News rolled around, they were tired of Phillips and chose to dedicate 24 seconds to local weather reports.
Fondacaro unsurprisingly gave a cookie to Fox News for adhering to the narrative:
Fox News Channel’s Special Report gave Phillip’s campaign launch a solid 2 minutes and noted that he had a habit of pushing for younger blood in Democratic Party leadership positions. “The 54-year-old Phillips called on former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to step aside last year. This presidential quixotic quest mirrors that,” reported senior congressional correspondent Chad Pergram.
Pergram also highlighted the internal struggle Democrats were having over who they wanted to be their nominee. “An early October Fox News poll of registered voters found 53 percent wanting someone other than President Biden as the nominee,” he noted. “Phillips runs because he believes another Biden candidacy could inadvertently elect former President Trump.”
After noting the “shadow campaign” of California Democrat Gavin Newsom, Pergram concluded: “The entry by Phillips into the presidential sweepstakes reflects Democratic fractures. The Democrat’s left-wing coalition is splinting over support for Israel.”
Fondacaro didn’t explain why Fox News’ coverage of Phillips was worth his praise since it, like he,only care about Phillips as a potential spoiler and do not actually want him to be president.
Fondacaro brought his ironic support for Phillips to his daily hate-watch of “The View” in an Oct. 30 post:
Since last Friday, ABC News has avoided mentioning President Biden’s new primary challenger Congressman Dean Phillips (D-MN) on their flagship newscasts (Good Morning America and World News Tonight). They relegated all mentions of Phillips’ campaign to side programming like America This Morning (at 5 a.m.), This Week (their Sunday show), and The View, which spent part of their Monday episode railing against Phillips for having “a lot” of “arrogance” for thinking he could challenge Joe Biden, “the GOAT” of presidents.
After playing a sound bit of Phillips’ interview with CBS News, racist and anti-Semitic co-host Sunny Hostin shouted: “Who is that?!” She then proceeded to ridiculously suggest that Phillips shouldn’t have jumped into the race without first turning out the entire Democratic Party base ahead of time and how dare he run against the savior of the country:
[…]Fake conservative Ana Navarro, who once bragged about introducing her “wealth clients” to allegedly corrupt Democratic Senator Bob Menendez (NJ), discounted Phillips as just a “wealthy guy in his 50s having a midlife crisis and I guess instead of buying a convertible corvette or a building a yacht, he decided to run for president.”
“I think it takes a lot of…arrogance to in November – practically, we’re in November tomorrow – think that you can all of a sudden do this,” she squealed. “Look, the primary in New Hampshire is less than three months away. The caucuses in Iowa are less than three months away. You don’t just drop, like, manna from heaven and think, here I am right now, your savior warrior.” She failed to mention Biden was not on the New Hampshire ballot.
It’s ironic Navarro would mention that buying a convertible Corvette was a sign of a midlife crisis when that’s exactly what Biden did, but then again she was a Biden sycophant. “Mother Teresa could resuscitate and I would still support Joe Biden…Frankly, I’m going to support Joe Biden until Joe Biden tells me he’s not running. Until then, I’m not entertaining this,” she proclaimed last month.
Fondacaro didn’t dispute any of the points the hosts made about Phillips. And, again, it’s worth noting that he thinks Hostin is a “racist” because he doesn’t understand how metaphors work, and the only example he provided of her being “anti-Semitic” a criticism of Israel, which does not equate to anti-Semitism.
Fondacaro got mad that it was pointed out that Phillips has virtually no chance of winning in a Nov. 13 post:
While trying to downplay Minnesota Congressman Dean Phillips’s chances against President Biden in the Democratic primary as “a long shot,” CNN This Morning engaged in attacks fit for a serious challenger. In the first hour of the show, they hinted that Phillips might be a racist because he didn’t go around to kiss the rings of the racial special interest groups that supposedly represented the Democratic Party base. And in the third hour, that narrative gave way to openly worrying about him harming Biden’s brand with attack ads.
CNN anchor and chief national affairs analyst Kasie Hunt did a sit-down interview with Phillips. But before she played any soundbite, she wanted it known that “the White House doesn’t view Phillips’ challenge as a serious one that’s going to ultimately result in him winning the nomination. Neither do most Democrats in Washington.”
This was followed up with a clip of Hunt sparing [sic] with Phillips because he dared to compare Biden’s low approval rating with that of former President Jimmie Carter [sic].
[…]Following a clip of Phillips defending himself, Hunt boasted that she asked him if he kissing the rings of Democratic Party power brokers and race hustlers: “I asked him specifically: did you reach out to the Congressional Black Caucus, to the NAACP, to the Urban League ahead of your bid or since you announced your running and the answer was ‘No.’”
CNN political commentator Errol Louis huffed that Phillips wasn’t just ignoring the racial radicals of the Democratic Party, he was ignoring the other radical elements. “What is it he’s trying to do? There are other parts of the Democratic base, which is ultimately a cluster of coalitions that could also see they feel disrespected. Did he reach out to the environmentalists? Did he reach out to the women’s movement? Did he reach out to the labor movement?” he huffed.
Louis went on to suggest Phillips was only trying “to raise his profile to maybe end up with some kind of consulting gig or something like that when the smoke clears.”
In the third hour of the show, co-host Phil Mattingly scoffed at Phillips associating his campaign with the word “courage.” “Well, Phil, never be surprised by how someone who thinks that they should be president can believe that they can be president,” Hunt jabbed.
Hey Kasie, you should tell that to Hillary Clinton.
In none of these post did Fondacaro explain why he cares so much about a Democratic presidential candidate even though, as a right-wing activist, he will never vote for him and will viciously attack him if by some miracle Phillips actually does get the Democratic nomination because his loyalty is to Donald Trump.