Despite pushback Wednesday night from at least two members of Zuckerville, FNC host Bret Baier and the Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway torched the liberal media narrative during Special Report that Russian-backed Facebook ads threw the 2016 election to Donald Trump while, in reality, Michael Bloomberg’s hundreds of millions of dollars didn’t buy him the 2020 Democratic nomination.
The show’s “All Star Panel” were discussing former Vice President Joe Biden’s resurgence and upsets on Super Tuesday over socialist Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) when Hemingway said it was “interesting that Bloomberg is out.”
Then she dropped the hammer on this four-year argument that’s both explicitly and implicitly made in all mediums, which has been that Trump was an illegitimate president:
You know, we had years where people were saying a couple hundred thousand dollars in barely literate Facebook ads from Russians caused Donald Trump to win. Here you had a guy spend nearly a billion dollars and he went nowhere. It's a humiliating defeat for Bloomberg.
Instead of pressing on, Baier paused to “just rewind for a second” because Hemingway made such “a great point.” Baier then boiled down his own thoughts on that: “So Russia influenced the election with $200,000, $300,000 in Facebook ads and Mike Bloomberg couldn't get more than 50 delegates with $5 — $600 million?”
Somewhere, CNN and MSNBC analysts, commentators, contributors, hosts, reporters, and like-minded Deep State sycophants had chills spent down their spines.
While there were the Wikileaks dumps, the refusal to accept the fact that tens of millions of Americans made their voting choices on their own speaks to the liberal media’s heinous disdain and disregard for the basic intelligence of anyone and everyone outside their bubble. In other words, Russian mind-control and random Facebook pages didn’t cause Hillary Clinton to lose.
Hemingway continued along the lines of 2020, noting the irony of how the thesis of Sanders’s “message” has been “that billionaires control everything” when, in reality, “clearly Bloomberg having all this money didn't do as much for him as Biden having the media and establishment behind him.”
“I would pick media and establishment over billions any day,” she correctly concluded.
Earlier in the segment, she acknowledged the swiftness of the liberal establishment so dramatically (and rapidly) circling the wagons for Biden against Sanders (click “expand”):
HEMINGWAY: I agree that he needs to get over this in a sense, but he also needs to fight. The establishment really did make a decision they were going to get behind Biden and they did it — and I just want to give them kudos. Coming out of Nevada, I think people thought they were in a bad place. They needed to do something big and they did it. It wasn’t just that Biden had to win South Carolina. He had to win big. Clyburn coming out and saying we really need to have as much as the vote as possible was huge. Having Pete Buttigieg get out, having Amy Klobuchar get out, all these things mattered and contributed to this epic victory and I'm not saying it’s over or anything like that, but it —
HAROLD FORD JR.: But wasn’t the establishment. This was — this is basically those of us in the party who are capitalists. I believe that we ought to have a vigorous debate in the fall about a democratic form of capitalism which is reconstituted capitalism, going — trying to help people who — where it doesn’t work equally and a different — and a capitalism on the other side. Socialism versus capitalism doesn’t win.
To see the relevant transcript from FNC’s Special Report with Bret Baier on March 4, click “expand.”
FNC’s Special Report with Bret Baier
March 4, 2020
6:45 p.m. EasternBRET BAIER: You know [Bernie Sanders’s] going the distance when he has the Obama ad. He’s — he’s staying in for the long haul.
MOLLIE HEMINGWAY: I think he's not ready to give up yet, but I do think it’s — I agree that he needs to get over this in a sense, but he also needs to fight. The establishment really did make a decision they were going to get behind Biden and they did it — and I just want to give them kudos. Coming out of Nevada, I think people thought they were in a bad place. They needed to do something big and they did it. It wasn’t just that Biden had to win South Carolina. He had to win big. Clyburn coming out and saying we really need to have as much as the vote as possible was huge. Having Pete Buttigieg get out, having Amy Klobuchar get out, all these things mattered and contributed to this epic victory and I'm not saying it’s over or anything like that, but it —
HAROLD FORD JR.: But wasn’t the establishment. This was — this is basically those of us in the party who are capitalists. I believe that we ought to have a vigorous debate in the fall about a democratic form of capitalism which is reconstituted capitalism, going — trying to help people who — where it doesn’t work equally and a different — and a capitalism on the other side. Socialism versus capitalism doesn’t win.
BAIER: So it was more of a scared of down ballot socialism on the ticket?
FORD: Well, no, I’m a capital — I think Buttigieg —
HEMINGWAY: It wouldn’t — it wouldn’t have worked if the people didn’t think that, but I also think it’s interesting that Bloomberg is out. You know, we had years where people were saying a couple hundred thousand dollars in barely literate Facebook ads from Russians caused Donald Trump to win. Here you had a guy spend nearly a billion dollars and he went nowhere. It's a humiliating defeat for Bloomberg.
BAIER: Just rewind a second. That is a great point. So Russia influenced the election with $200,000, $300,000 in Facebook ads
HEMINGWAY: If that.
BAIER: — and Mike Bloomberg couldn't get more than 50 delegates with $5 — $600 million?
HEMINGWAY: And — and that hurts Bernie Sanders’s message too cause he likes to say that billionaires control everything. Well, here, clearly Bloomberg having all this money didn't do as much for him as Biden having the media and establishment behind him. I would pick media and establishment over billions any day.
BAIER: But what he’s getting upset about is the — is the rigging talk about, like, the establishment rigging it against Bernie. This is just an election. It’s happening and they’re making decisions.
FORD: Exactly and if you have better ideas you will prevail. Look, with Bloomberg and I like mayor Bloomberg and was, frankly, in support of him. His challenge was how he performed in the debates. I think people saw these ads and they were looking for something different and for whatever set of reasons he did a great job with you the other night down in Virginia — you and Martha. He was fantastic. If he had done that in the debates, we might be having a different conversation. Heck, five days ago, Joe Biden's campaign was not only on life support. I mean, we were all just — you know, ready to go to church and say it’s going to be over here very soon. Now, he's a front runner, but we’ve got a ways to go. If you’re — if you’re Bernie Sanders, don't be a crybaby. Lay out what you want to do for the country and the Democrats see fit to support you, they will. But I don’t disagree with you. I hadn’t thought about the Russia thing[.]
