Defense of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s “formal deprogramming” remark had Fox News’ Jessica Tarlov straining whataboutism to its limits.

“…spare me the faux outrage and the pearl-clutching…”

(Video: Fox News)

The self-assured co-host of “The Five” engaged in some syntactical sleight of hand Friday as she endeavored to pad her defense of Clinton’s totalitarian worldview. This included a conflation of former President Donald Trump’s legal challenges, skirting the line on allegations and convictions in support of the former secretary’s take on “extremism.”

“Alright, Jessica. You hear words like ‘deplatforming,’ ‘deprogramming,’ ‘cult’…in countries like the Soviet Union, China, North Korea. Isn’t that in itself a threat to democracy?” asked co-host Jeanine Pirro.

“Hillary Clinton giving an interview? No,” Tarlov at first responded before Pirro clarified, “Saying what she said in the interview.”

“No, it’s not a threat to democracy. Does it land in a bunch of GOP ads heading into an election? Sure. That’s what happened with the ‘basket of deplorables’ comment. But I really need everyone to spare me the faux outrage and the pearl-clutching about this,” asserted the panel’s token leftist.

She then introduced the support for her claim by first readily identifying some of the players under the umbrella of the Democratic Party. “Little collection of things that Donald Trump and high-ranking Republicans call liberals on a daily basis: anarchists, anti-American, deranged, communists, corrupt, compromised, groomers and perverts, thugs and traitors.”

“If the leader of the Democratic Party, that would be [President] Joe Biden, was facing four indictments with 91 felony counts,” the political analyst’s smear of Trump began in earnest, “he had been found liable of sexually assaulting a woman and defaming her, that’s E. Jean Carroll; guilty of fraud; sharing the nation’s secrets – not only in the Mar-a-Lago indictment but there was a report yesterday from ABC News that he had shared information about our nuclear submarine capacities with an Australian billionaire who’s a member of Mar-a-Lago – who had then gone on and shared that with dozens of other people — they’re not making a purchase, I think it’s three subs — and included specifics up to how many nuclear warheads they carry and how close they can get to Russian subs without being detected.”

“And then I told you so that all of that is happening and he’s shooting up in the polls,” Tarlov tacked on as a sleight against supporters whom she also criticized for perceiving the lawfare against the former President as a political persecution. “And when you see those interviews of Trump supporters outside of the rallies, they’re like, ‘none of this is true. It’s the big lie. He won the election,’ etc. And you wouldn’t say to me, you guys are in a cult. It’s actually tame what Hillary Clinton was saying.”

Clinton’s remarks on “MAGA extremists” had come during a recent interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour where she had said, “[Trump’s] now defending himself in civil actions and criminal actions, and when do they break with him? You know, because at some point, you know, maybe there needs to be a formal deprogramming of the cult members. But something needs to happen.”

Hillary Clinton just called for ‘formal deprogramming’ of MAGA cult members on national TV https://t.co/G1lKdwIWBL via @BIZPACReview

— BPR based (@DumpstrFireNews) October 6, 2023

Tarlov had used a similar angle as an avenue to attack Trump the week prior when she defended Biden’s questionable mental acuity with slams on the GOP frontrunner’s “latest cognitive beauties from the last ten days. He said, you need an ID to buy bread. Has anyone shown ID to get Wonder Bread lately? He said that he ran against Obama in 2016. He ran against Hillary Clinton. He warned that Biden will get us into World War II, which I’m pretty sure we already fought and won.”

Behaving as a Democrat shill rather than attempting anything resembling a legitimate argument landed Tarlov backlash with some added blows to the network for continuing to put her on.

How does @foxnews continue to put Jessica Tarlov on ‘The Five’ when in my opinion 90 percent of the public viewers cannot stand her. It is torture listening to her!

— DJ (@dantelpowers) October 6, 2023

Jessica Tarlov is a WOKE JOKE and liberal propagandist who is everything that is wrong with FemiNazis. Her and Geraldo Rivera combined have the IQ of a burnt pop tart crumb and are why so many of us stopped watching #TheFive. Fox News really went to shit after that election!

— The Trumpertarian (@Libertarians4DT) October 6, 2023

Jessica Tarlov makes #TheFive hard to watch. Between her squeaky, obnoxious voice and her lib talking points, the show is frustrating. And no matter what any libs does, she will not be honest enough and say what they did or say was wrong. @FoxNews hire an honest person.

— Kathy Parsons (@KathrynMParsons) October 6, 2023

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Kevin Haggerty

Staff Writer

Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.

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