Fox News liberal commentator Jessica Tarlov (YouTube Screenshot)
An MS NOW panel had to warily admit that President Donald Trump has sandblasted his Republican Party so hard against the wall that even Fox News can’t seem to repair the damage.
Polls suggest Trump’s popularity is at a career low, and he’s dragging his Republican Party into the pit with him. But there’s more than just polling, said John Heilemann with Puck News. The enthusiasm gap between Democrats and Republicans is also apparent in recent elections.
“[D]emocrats are overwhelmingly enthusiastic about voting for non-Republican candidates this November and we have seen this not once, not twice, not in an outlier way, but in a consistent way,” Heilemann told MS NOW anchor Nicole Wallace. “Democrats are showing up and they're showing up in large numbers by the standards of off-year elections and the standards of special elections, and they're not just exceeding [Trump’s margins from 2024] but blowing them out of the water.”
“That's not a poll. That is not a focus group. Those are points on the board right where you're saying ‘here's a team that's winning.’” Heilemann insisted, adding that “we're seeing a deflated Republican electorate that’s not excited about its options [and] … doesn't believe that Donald Trump or the … Republican party around Donald Trump has done right by them.”
Wallace said she could even see the enthusiasm gap creeping into the markedly more somber atmosphere of the non-stop Trump cheerleading squad at Fox News.
“One of my indicators is Jessica Tarlov from [Fox’s] ‘The Five.’ In the early months of Trump's second term, she was always exquisitely prepared, but I almost was nervous for her. But now she like runs the table,” Wallace told the panel. “… I don't know if they're capable of embarrassment, but the whole power structure of the table has changed. She's just one [liberal] person, but I think she called Jesse Waters a guy who shills for an idiot and everyone was just stone silent afterward.”
“I mean it's not just vibes,” Wallace asserted. “If you trust your eyes, if you trust your ears. Donald Trump is a political loser right now. That is undeniable.”
Angelo Carusone, with Media Matters for America, quickly agreed to the network’s muted shift in tone.
“Fox News has been the firmest out there trying to carry water for the story that Trump is telling, and they just can't do it anymore,” said Carusone. “When you start to even expose it a little bit like the Tarlov example it's impossible. And they're his firmest allies.”
“They are the strongest [support structure] Trump has, Fox and the Fox audience — and even they are having a lot of difficulty carrying water for Trump right now.”