Mitch McConnell’s Fox News Interview Shows Why Fox Viewers Are Ignorant and Uninformed

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Mitch McConnell’s Fox News Sunday interview was a perfect example of why Fox News viewers are ignorant, uninformed, and filled with misinformation.

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McConnell claimed that the Iran deal is going to be a hard sell for the White House, “So this is going to be a very hard sell for the White House. They’re going to have to get 34 votes. Assuming a resolution of disapproval passes, the President vetos it, he’ll have to get at least 34 senators to go forward.”

Majority Leader McConnell said that Democrats are going to have the same concerns that Republicans do, “I think they are going to have the same concerns that I just outlined. I know they’ll be a strong pull not to go against the President on something as important as this is to him, but I hope there will be enough Democrats willing to look at this objectively. Look at the facts. Is this a good deal? Is this likely to achieve the outcome we hope for? If they can bring themselves to do that, and make an objective evaluation of it, I think it is going to be a very hard sell for the administration.”

Later when, guest host Bret Baier said that it was likely that Obama was going to win on Iran and Cuba, McConnell said, “I wouldn’t count on that. He can win on Iran with 34 Democrats because that’s the way the approval process is structured.” McConnell then spun the question on to trade.

Here’s the problem. Obama already has all the Democratic support that he needs to win on Iran. Politico reported days ago that there is nothing that Republicans can do to stop Obama on the Iran deal, “The law that Congress passed in May allowing lawmakers to weigh in on a nuclear agreement will do just that — give them a say. But it also makes it impossible to block an agreement absent a full-on Democratic rebellion against the president. If opponents could somehow manage to get a resolution expressing their disapproval and blocking the lifting of congressional sanctions through both houses of Congress — a big if, given the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster threshold — they’d run straight into Obama’s veto pen. And even some of the fiercest opponents of an Iran pact concede the president could probably cobble together 34 votes in the Senate to sustain his veto.”

National Journal reported that most Republicans know that they won’t be able to stop the deal, “If the president presents a plan to Congress after Thursday, members will have 60 days to review it before voting. Even then, the Senate needs 67 votes and the House 290 to override a presidential veto. With the bar so high, most recognize it’s unlikely that Republicans could halt the deal through that process, barring significant Democratic defections.”

McConnell’s interview during which the Senate Majority Leader and the network refused to acknowledge reality is a textbook example of how Fox News misinforms their viewers. Even conservative outlets like National Journal and the very non-liberal Politico acknowledge the reality of the situation, that Fox News and McConnell would not.

President Obama has the votes to overcome the Congressional resolution. Obama had the votes since the resolution process was set up. President Obama is going to win, but Fox News is intentionally misleading their viewers into believing that there is a chance that Obama will fail. Facts were not acknowledged.

The interview was so deep in delusion and misinformation that Mitch McConnell told Fox News viewers that fast track is a six-year deal which means that “the next Republican president” is going to get to use it. McConnell and Fox were already building up expectations that Republicans are going to win in 2016. The structure of the electoral map shows that Democrats will begin 2016 with a huge advantage and are heavily favored to keep the White House.

Fox News deceives and misleads their viewers on a daily basis, and the McConnell interview demonstrated why watching Fox causes viewers to be less informed

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association