Audiences have seen a number of examples lately where television hosts and journalists have strongly confronted interviewees. Tulsi Gabbard took on George Santos earlier in the week, and last night, Tantrum Caucus member Lauren Boebert (Q-Colo.) was grilled by both MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle and Fox’s in-house Trump advisor Sean Hannity.
This is something different. When Fox host–and one of the few somewhat legit journalists on the network–Bret Baier bought up a talking point making its way in right-wing echo chambers: the Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg violated federal law by taking his husband “on a military aircraft to a sporting event in the Netherlands.” What Baier doesn’t mention is what Secretary Pete jumps on: that the trip was a Presidential delegation; that the principal’s spouse is an official emissary in the delegation; and that no one questioned when the Secretary of the Army and his wife led the delegation last year, or when Melania Trump did it before that.
Baier literally cowers under the weight of Buttigieg’s counterattack, seemingly raising a hand to protect himself from the barbs coming from the Secretary. Good for Buttigieg for going on Fox and for standing up to the bigots, and shame on Baier and Fox. That behavior needs an on-air apology.