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‘Get off Trump!’: Tensions flare on Fox News panel when Biden called ‘authoritarian’ and predecessor’s name comes up

November 24, 2021 | | Print Article

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A Fox News guest attempted on Tuesday to draw attention to President Joe Biden’s demonstrably authoritarian ways but was cut short by a Washington Post editorial writer who couldn’t resist making the discussion about former President Donald Trump.

The discussion on Fox News’ “Special Report” initially centered on the exorbitant gas prices across America.

Former Reagan administration official Bill Bennett made the case that the Biden administration’s abject refusal to be honest about gas prices, inflation and a whole host of other issues is another glaring sign of creeping authoritarianism.

“There’s a problem with the Biden administration right now that’s getting acute, and that is [they] keep saying things are getting better, things are OK,” he said.

“You think things are bad? Don’t believe your own eyes. Don’t believe what you see at the gas pump. Believe me. This is what happens in authoritarian countries, and it’s a very dangerous road to take.”

Offered a chance to respond, editorial writer Charles Lane of The Washington Post rushed to deflect attention away from the current president’s policies.

“Well, I think that we did have a president in the previous four years who did quite often what Bill just said, and that was, as he says, a symptom authoritarianism,” he said.

This provoked Bennett into blurting out, “Get off Trump!”

Indeed, unlike the current president, former President Trump never instituted mask mandates, never instituted vaccine mandates, never demanded people be fired for not doing as he wishes, never attacked religious freedom and never promoted racial essentialism — all trademarks of real authoritarians.

Lane ignored Bennett’s remark and continued by claiming that the current president bears no responsibility for America’s spiking gas prices, and that his only mistake was ostensibly trying to solve it by releasing emergency oil reserves.

“As for the gas prices thing, I’m shaking my head over this issue. The vast majority of the cause of gas prices is the global price of oil. This petroleum release won’t affect it any. But I wouldn’t say this is Joe Biden’s fault either, even if he ended the gas/oil leases and so on that had a trivial, marginal effect,” he said.

“Probably the worst thing for Biden is to create the implication that he does have some control over the price of gasoline by taking this measure.”

But according to experts, while the current president isn’t entirely to blame, he does bear responsibility because of his anti-oil/gas policies.

According to The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board, by “reducing U.S. production” of gas/oil, the president has provided “more pricing leverage for OPEC,” the organization that Biden was forced to beg for more oil.

OPEC responded by essentially telling the president to go pound sound.

“OPEC and its oil-producing partners have rebuffed President Joe Biden’s calls for increased production amidst rising fuel prices, retorting that if the United States believes the world’s economy needs more energy, then it has the capability to increase production itself,” Forbes reported around the start of the month.

Note that none of this was an issue during Trump’s presidency, which is why Lane’s constant deflections started getting to Bennett.

“The instinct here to go back to Trump is just so telling to me. You know, this guy is creating a disaster, and he is reversing all the policies of Trump. Whatever one thinks of Trump, he wasn’t destroying the country in the way that this administration is,” the fired-up former Reagan administration official said.

“Whether you’re talking about the border, whether you’re talking about China, whether you’re talking about the price of oil, I mean, it’s really quite extraordinary what’s going on.”

Lane again dismissed his point and once more tried to deflect.

“Bill, you said this is authoritarianism, and the last president inspired a mob, a mob to attack the Capitol, Bill!” he exclaimed.

Based on that logic, one could conceivably argue that the entire Democrat Party, including President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris,  had inspired mobs to attack U.S. cities across the nation during the 2020 riots.

Bennett responded to Lane’s continued deflection by dismissively saying, “We will have our Jan. 6th. I know you guys are putting a lot into that, Jan. 6th,” he said.

It appears he was referencing the Jan. 6th commission and Democrats’ reported goal to use the commission’s findings as a talking point going into the 2020 election.

“But when you look at the policies of the previous administration compared to these policies, the country was in a lot better shape. A lot better shape,” Bennett added.

Fact-check: TRUE.

Even with the vaccine now widely prevalent thanks to the Trump administration’s quick efforts, this year’s economic performance – and even its COVID performance — has reportedly been worse than last year, when the pandemic first hit.

And this, according to conservatives like Bennett, is no coincidence.

Meanwhile, for months the administration downplayed or outright denied that inflation and rising gas prices were a problem. Not til recently did they start to start to acknowledge the existence of both issues, though now their tactic  has become to direct the blame at everybody else but themselves.

The lies have become so brazen that even PolitiFact, a demonstrably left-wing “fact-checker,” was compelled to step in to offer the public the real truth this week.

Vivek Saxena
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