This week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) graces the cover of Time magazine.
The article on her delves deep into impeachment and the thinking behind her decision to delay sending articles of impeachment to the Senate until Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) provides its procedures for the trial. Time reveals, for the first time, that Pelosi got this idea on CNN.
“Pelosi, according to an aide, had been mulling the tactic since she heard former Nixon White House counsel John Dean float the idea on CNN on Dec. 5.”
Trump supporters have seized on this detail, gleefully trumpeting the idea of a politician getting strategy from cable news as evidence of Pelosi’s incompetence.
Trump campaign deputy director of communications Matt Wolking, a Fox News contributor, tweeted, “Oh man this is too good. ‘Master strategic’ Nancy Pelosi got her disastrous idea to withhold the articles of impeachment from the Senate from … WATCHING CABLE NEWS.” Others echoed the same.
Oh man this is too good.
— Matt Wolking (@MattWolking) January 9, 2020
“Master strategist” Nancy Pelosi got her disastrous idea to withhold the articles of impeachment from the Senate from … WATCHING CABLE NEWS. pic.twitter.com/X8pJK6wwRW
As Media Matters, a nonprofit that monitors and corrects conservative misinformation, has exhaustively detailed, Trump gets many, many of his ideas from cable news. Today, Media Matters’ Matt Gertz—not to be confused with Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) —wrote of Trump basing his presidential decisions on things he sees on Fox News, “In the past, that habit has influenced his decisions to shut down portions of the federal government, pardon war criminals, and fire national security officials.”
While Wolking and his MAGA cohorts might not appreciate the irony of criticizing a politician for getting an idea from cable news, astute Twitter users jumped on Wolking’s tweet to remind him. The eye rolls were practically audible.
“Imagine, a political leader getting his ideas from…WATCHING CABLE NEWS,” responded @NikkiWinds. “Wait till you hear where your boss gets his ideas from…” @EvaChanda added.
“How dare she? Only Trump can get his masterful ideas from Fox and Friends,” said another. “Donald Trump doesn’t breathe unless Sean Hannity tells him to,” opined @jonas_salt.
So, Nancy listens to John Dean (respected attorney, Watergate legend); Trump listens to … Sean Hannity. Did he graduate college?
— Turns out, I can’t yet look away… (@M26HIL) January 9, 2020
You have seen the side by side Fox and Friends segments and tweets from @realDonaldTrump right after the segment, right?
— SCAM (@SCAM518) January 9, 2020
https://twitter.com/PuffDomino/status/1215285924139098113?s=20
Some chimed in to point out the “epic level projection” of Wolking’s tweet.
https://twitter.com/DomAcconcia/status/1215275967217913856?s=20
So good, Matt! Really hard to imagine a politician watching inordinate amounts of CABLE NEWS! pic.twitter.com/6CUkKLfMAU
— Sax BlueCheck (@SaxBluecheck) January 9, 2020
To quote @Stonekettle, you’ve got about as much self-awareness as a dog licking its own ass.
— Halfway Decent White Shark (@StevenUpperCase) January 9, 2020
Some Democrats have reportedly broken with this strategy, however, and begun urging Pelosi to send the articles of impeachment to McConnell.
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