In an appearance on the Wednesday edition of the Fox News Channel’s The Ingraham Angle, the Media Research Center’s Tim Graham called out the liberal media for being “angry and frustrated” that their anti-Trump smears weren’t swaying his base of support.
Graham was on to discuss a recently published and condescending report by the Associated Press, in which author Claire Galofaro bemoaned how:
Despite the president’s dismal approval ratings and lethargic legislative achievements, he remains profoundly popular here in these mountains, a region so badly battered by the collapse of the coal industry it became the symbolic heart of Trump’s white working-class base.
The frenetic churn of the national news, the ceaseless Twitter taunts, the daily declarations of outrage scroll soundlessly across the bottom of the diner’s television screen, rarely registering. When they do, Trump doesn’t shoulder the blame — because the allegiance of those here is as emotional as it is economic.
It means God, guns, patriotism, saying “Merry Christmas” and not Happy Holidays. It means validation of their indignation about a changing nation: gay marriage and immigration and factories moving overseas.
“Why can they not resist impugning the very people who sent this man to the White House,” asked fill-in host Pete Hegseth to Graham.
“They think this is truth-telling,” Graham explained. “But when it comes down to it, you send these people to Kentucky and the whole method here is to say: ‘Why haven't you people changed our minds yet? We've been working on this man since 2015 and you are still standing with him.’ It makes them angry and frustrated and you end up with a story like this.”
Hegseth recalled how he visited the author’s Twitter page to see what she was about and found even more open discontent for the President. “Why do reporters still think they can hide behind a veil of being unbiased, behind AP and then present something like this with such bias and think that people will just buy it,” he wondered.
“And the Twitter pages make this more obvious than ever. It's really easy to say: ‘This is an obnoxious story by this AP reporter. I bet if I go to her Twitter page you will find more of the same,’” Graham stated.
Graham also slammed the liberal media for willfully ignoring why voters in Middle-America continued to support the President:
And they actually understand what's going on here. They understand that coal state voters want coal to come back. If they understand that people in rural Kentucky are not fond of let's make sure there are seven different forms of transgender public bathrooms in every school. They know why these people don't stand with the Democrats, but they are just going to ignore it all.
The relevant portion of the transcript below:
FNC
The Ingraham Angle
December 27, 2017
10:37:12 PM Eastern(…)
PETE HEGSETH: So, when I looked at this article in the heart of Trump country, you get nine paragraphs in and you’re already talking about “nostalgia,” “dismal approval rating,” “lethargic legislative achievements,” “Trump's white base,” “ceaseless Twitter taunts.” Why can they not resist impugning the very people who sent this man to the White House?
TIM GRAHAM: They think this is truth telling. They think that when they say that Trump basically has no legislative achievements and you failed to repeal Obamacare, they’re going to ignore the tax cut somehow. They’re going to ignore the stock market somehow. She mentions it around the edges. They are going to somehow suggest that ObamaCare wasn't repealed, although they got rid of the individual mandate, which is the most offensive part of ObamaCare. But when it comes down to it, you send these people to Kentucky and the whole method here is to say: “Why haven't you people changed our minds yet? We've been working on this man since 2015 and you are still standing with him.” It makes them angry and frustrated and you end up with a story like this.
(…)
HEGSETH: Why do reporters still think they can hide behind a veil of being unbiased, behind AP and then present something like this with such bias and think that people will just buy it?
GRAHAM: And the Twitter pages make this more obvious than ever. It's really easy to say: “This is an obnoxious story by this AP reporter. I bet if I go to her Twitter page you will find more of the same.”
HEGSETH: I know! It never fails. Every time I go to that Twitter feed and I say: “May I’m going to find a lock, stock, and barrel conservative here.” And every time it's usually an east coast liberal living in a bubble, takes a flight to Kentucky, goes to the zoo and meets some Trump supporters, writes up something condescending and then wonders: “Why? How in the world is this guy going to get elected again?”
GRAHAM: And they actually understand what's going on here. They understand that coal state voters want coal to come back. If they understand that people in rural Kentucky are not fond of let's make sure there are seven different forms of transgender public bathrooms in every school. They know why these people don't stand with the Democrats, but they are just going to ignore it all.
HEGSETH: Ignore the policies and go to the personal politics of destruction, no doubt.
(…)
