Serious commentary, or just a bad case of ratings envy rearing its ugly head? On CNN's New Day this morning, former Bill Clinton spokesman Joe Lockhart, now a CNN political commentator, took some ugly shots at two of the Fox & Friends crew.
Reacting to President Trump's decision not to agree to a government funding bill that would not have included money for the border wall, Lockhart said that Trump was going to sign the bill, but:
"when the great powerhouses like Brian Kilmeade and Steve Doocy weighed in, and then Ann Coulter weighed in, Trump folded, and folded quickly. And that's why we're at this point. You have this juxtaposition: I'm not going to listen to General Mattis, I'm going to listen to Steve Doocy. That is scary."
Lockhart mentioned that New Day host Alisyn Camerota, formerly of Fox News, had been monitoring Fox & Friends yesterday. Camerota sarcastically said that Fox & Friends is: "where I get a lot of my wisdom."
Speaking of ratings, Fox & Friends continues to clobber New Day, outpacing the CNN show in viewers by a ratio of about 3:1. Enough to drive a show to take shots at its much more successful competitor, perhaps.
A partial transcript is below:
New Day
December 21, 2018
6: 27 am ET
JOE LOCKHART: I think the most interesting thing this week, though, and we were talking about this yesterday morning. Yesterday morning was, this [the government funding bill that excluded money for border wall] is going to sail through, and the great television anchor Alisyn Camerota was looking at Fox & Friends while we were talking about it.ALISYN CAMEROTA: I said it. Where I get a lot of my wisdom.
LOCKHART: And that is, Trump Monday through Wednesday, was going to sign this, and was going to say I'll get it down the road, and we don't really need this and that. And when the great powerhouses like Brian Kilmeade and Steve Doocy weighed in, and then Ann Coulter weighed in, Trump folded, and folded quickly. And that's why we're at this point. You have this juxtaposition: I'm not going to listen to General Mattis, I'm going to listen to Steve Doocy. That is scary.
