How Fox News set House GOP up for failure in Biden impeachment 'debacle': analysis

22 March 2024

Right-wing Fox News host Dana Perrino recently expressed her frustration with House Republicans' dysfunctional campaign to impeach President Joe Biden.

Perrino, who served as White House press secretary in the George W. Bush Administration, told her colleague Bill Hemmer that "it just feels like" House Republicans "keep doing the same hearing over and over again" — adding, "And people are starting to wonder: At some point, do you fish or cut bait and do something about a vote or not, and move on to the general election?"

But Perrino's comments are a major departure from all the Fox News segments that have been hyping a possible Biden impeachment and promoting the investigations of House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Kentucky) and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).

In a biting op-ed published by MSNBC on March 22, Media Matters' Matt Gertz calls out the Fox News hosts who have encouraged an impeachment campaign that went nowhere — especially Sean Hannity.

"It’s time to call it: The House GOP's shambolic inquiry into the impeachment of President Joe Biden expired on Wednesday night at 9:01 p.m.," Gertz argues. "That’s when Sean Hannity opened his Fox News show by promising 'highlights' from the day's 'explosive' hearing with Hunter Biden's former business partners — and then immediately pivoted to a monologue not about its revelations, but about the president's poll numbers."

Gertz adds, "Hannity did more than perhaps any other single figure to will the impeachment probe into existence. Since 2018, he has led a Fox propaganda campaign aimed at using lies about the younger Biden's foreign business interests to damage his father's political standing."

For months, Comer and Jordan — with Fox News' blessing — hyped former FBI informant Alexander Smirnov as the impeachment star witness who would bring down Biden's presidency. But their impeachment campaign suffered a major blow when Smirnov was arrested for allegedly lying to the FBI — and yet another blow over reporting that Smirnov was getting bogus "information" from Russian government intelligence.

Gertz notes that House Republicans' baseless impeachment probe "has utterly failed to produce evidence of wrongdoing by the president that would convince anyone other than the network's most fervent fans."

"If even Hannity can no longer feign enthusiasm about the impeachment effort," the Media Matters senior fellow writes, "it is truly toast — and Fox itself deserves a big share of the blame for leading Republicans into this debacle."

Matt Gertz's full MSNBC op-ed is available at this link.

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