FNC's MacCallum Slams 'Unpatriotic' and 'Inhumane' Media Rooting for a Recession

August 16th, 2019 5:42 PM

During Thursday’s The Story, FNC host Martha MacCallum reported that “fears of a recession seem to be running high and some in the media seem almost giddy that an economic downturn would hinder President Trump’s chances in 2020.” After playing a “sampling” of media figures weighing in on the effect of a recession on President Trump’s re-election bid, MacCallum slammed the “unpatriotic” and “inhumane” media for rooting for a recession in the hopes that an economic downturn will cause him to lose re-election.

MacCallum told The Hoover Institution's Victor Davis Hanson that “I was listening to a lot of different news networks this morning, as I often do...getting a read on what everybody’s saying about what’s going on and, you know, I couldn’t help but feel that there was a bit of sort of enthusiasm for the possibility that maybe the economy might tank.”

 

 

According to MacCallum, “I think that that’s, you know, just sort of a generally...unpatriotic, I think, and it’s also sort of...inhumane to hope that people will suffer a bad economy so that you can get rid of a President that you don’t like.”

Hanson agreed with MacCallum’s analysis that “very wealthy people who were pretty comfortable to say that they want a radical downturn in the economic lives of millions is pretty callous and hypocritical.” He added that the fear of a recession fit into the “periodic hysterics” the  liberalmedia obsess over, including the “25th Amendment, Emoluments Clause, Logan Act, Robert Mueller, (and) obstruction-collusion.” Hanson noted that the aforementioned examples of left-wing hysteria occupy “each news cycle of about two or three weeks.”

Hanson also pointed out that the media and the Democrats have basically practiced bias by omission when it comes to the economy when they felt “it was doing pretty well.” According to Hanson, “they didn’t want to talk about it” until they got “one little barometer of a yield curve” and now all of a sudden, “they want to talk about the economy until the next cycle drama and the next cycle.”

While the talk of a recession has resurfaced in the wake of the Dow’s 800-point tumble on Wednesday, the left and their media allies hoping for a recession is hardly a new concept. Real Time host Bill Maher explained last year that“one way you get rid of Trump is to crash the economy” and pleaded: “Please, bring on the recession. Sorry if that hurts people but it’s either root for a recession or you lose your democracy.”

As MacCallum pointed out, the media hype about a potential recession was particularly strong on Thursday, but as per MRC Business’s Joseph Vazquez, the liberal media hyped the possibility of an impending recession in June and July. When there are members of the liberal media all but lobbying for a recesion, it serves as another example of just how advanced their Trump Derangement Syndrome cases have advanced.

A transcript of the relevant portion of Thursday’s The Story is below. Click “expand” to read more.

FNC's The Story With Martha MacCallum

08/16/19

07:21 p.m. Eastern

MARTHA MACCALLUM: The stock market recovered slightly today; one day after the worst day of the year on Wall Street. Fears of recession seem to be running high and some in the media seem to be almost giddy that an economic downturn would hinder President Trump’s chances in 2020. Here’s a sampling.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

WILLIE GEIST: If the global economy, including the United States, is taking a step toward recession, what does that mean for this presidency?

ELISE JORDAN: Ooh, it’s political suicide.

SARAH WESTWOOD: There’s fears that a recession could really jeopardize the President’s chances of winning a second term in office.

JONATHAN LEMIRE: There’s a recognition that if the economy really does slow here, if there is a real signs that a recession is coming, that that undermines what is his…his belief, the best argument for his reelection.

HARRY ENTEN: At this point, if I were looking at these numbers, I’d say the President is a slight underdog for reelection but if all of a sudden, the economy went south, he’d be a major underdog for re-election.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

MACCALLUM: Major, major underdog. Here now, Victor Davis Hanson, Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institute and author of The Case for Trump. You know, it’s just interesting…you know, I was listening to a lot of different news networks this morning as I often do, just kind of getting a…a read on what everybody’s saying about what’s going on. And, you know, I couldn’t help but feel that there was a bit of sort of enthusiasm for the possibility that maybe the economy might tank. And I…I think that that’s, you know, just sort of a generally un…un, what’s the word? It’s…it’s unpatriotic, I think, and it’s also sort of, you know, inhumane to hope that people will suffer a bad economy so that you can get rid of a President that you don’t like. Victor?

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Yeah, I…I agree with you. We have six million new jobs, that’s not an abstract number, Martha, that means that six million lives and people have directly affected with them were radically changed. When you have 3.7 percent peacetime unemployment, we haven’t had that in 70 years. And here in Fresno County, we had 16 percent unemployment in 19…2015 and ’16 and now it’s six. You can see people’s lives are radically changed so I don’t mind people saying I hope Trump fails on this issue or that issue but this is something different. This is about the country. And so, it’s really, for very wealthy people who were pretty comfortable to say that they want a radical downturn in the economic lives of millions of Americans is pretty callous and hypocritical. And then it fits this narrative, Martha, where we had…remember, it’s…we have this periodic hysterics; we go 25th Amendment, emoluments clause, Logan Act, Robert Mueller, obstruction-collusion, and then it was white supremacist, white nationalist racism, and then each news cycle of about two or three weeks, now it’s recession, recession. And it’s in that hysterics where people just don’t step back and say this is the Trump position, this is the Democratic position on all these issues, let’s have an election about it. And finally, you know, what is really strange, they didn’t want to talk about the economy. You couldn’t get anybody on the Democratic stage in those debates to say much about at all about the economy because they felt, apparently, it was doing pretty well in a way that Larry Summers said you would…you know, it was a fantasy ever to achieve annualized 3 percent growth or…or Barack Obama said you would need a magic wand to bring these jobs back. So, they didn’t want to talk about it. And then suddenly, they get one little barometer of a yield curve and they want to talk about the economy until the next cycle drama and the next cycle.