Fox News went all out against Senator-elect John Fetterman. According to Media Matters for America, the usual gang of fascists on Fox prime time hammered Fetterman more often than the Democratic nominees in six other key Senate races. This wasn’t a brilliant strategy, considering that Fetterman defeated smarmy loser Dr. Mehmet Oz by almost five points.
Now Fox News has moved on to Fetterman’s wife, Gisele Barreto Fetterman, because these aren’t classy people. During an October segment of his crappy show, Jesse Watters called Gisele Fetterman “calculating” and suggested that Fetterman’s stroke was somehow part of her master plan to seize power for herself. He said, “Not sure if she hatched it during the yoga retreat in Brazil or in John’s parents’ basement, but there’s something quite calculating about Gisele, which would make her the perfect senator, and the media is reading from the same script. They’re admitting Pennsylvanians aren’t just voting for John Fetterman. It’s actually a package deal by voting for Gisele too.”
Watters was 14 in 1992 when Republicans fell in love with spreading similar misogynistic rubbish about Hillary Clinton. It cropped up again in 2008 with Michelle Obama, whom assorted writers at the National Review called Barack Obama’s “bitter half” and “strikingly ungracious” — presumably because she refused to tap dance with a smile.
PREVIOUSLY: Looks Like John Fetterman Is Now One Of Oprah’s Favorite Things
The absurd conspiracy theory is that Gisele Fetterman would prefer that she be senator and will soon put her incapacitated husband out to pasture and fill his seat herself. Rightwingers even have shocking proof, such as poorly cropped iPhone photos.
Last Tuesday, Fox News host Harris Faulkner objected to a photo Gisele Fetterman tweeted of herself with her husband at his new office. Fetterman, who’s a big guy, is partially cropped out of the photo. (It’s actually a pretty adorable running joke between the two of them, where Gisele crops John out so she can get her shoes or outfits in the frame.) Impeach …. her?
From the New Republic:
“First day for Senator-elect Gisele Fetterman,” said Townhall’s Mia Cathell. “Why is she even there?” asked someone called Bonchie on RedState. Both remarks were quickly aggregated with other jabs against Gisele into a digital story on Fox News’s website, which was followed by a graphics package of mean tweets about the Fettermans that Faulkner gleefully read on air.
Watters claimed Gisele Fetterman was “touring her new DC digs.” She accompanied her husband for Senate orientation. Sharing major life achievements is a thing functioning couples do.
The second lady of Pennsylvania (until January 3 at least) spoke out this week in an interview with the New Republic. She didn’t mince words: “The right-wing hates women,” she said. “They especially hate strong women, and I think that’s what you’re seeing … The fact that a spouse of a senator-elect has been attacked nonstop for the past 24 hours and everyone’s OK with it, and everyone thinks it’s normal .… It’s not normal.”
Gisele Fetterman, who was born in Brazil, added that “since entering the Capitol for training, my inbox has been completely filled with threats and horrible things. And that’s because I’ve been a nonstop loop on Fox News. Hopefully it’s not like this forever … and hopefully it’s not like this for the next young Latina or person of color or spouse who enters this space.”
We wish it wasn’t forever, but Fox News has an endless supply of grossness. Watters has already declared Gisele Fetterman an honorary member of the Squad, those outspoken liberal women of color resented by frightened men across the political spectrum.
“She’s a big fan of fashion,” Watters said last night, “and she’s even got the talking points down.” Then the asshole played a clip of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez discussing how she often feels like her life is in danger, thanks to violent rightwingers.
As Ordell Robbie said in Jackie Brown, “It’s like they’re proud of that shit.” However, these tiny people haven’t silenced Ocasio-Cortez and they won’t silence Gisele Fetterman.
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