On Tuesday evening's The Kelly File, Fox's Megyn Kelly held Newt Gingrich accountable for every one of his claims about the Republicans' position in the polls. And quite frankly, it's about time someone stood up to the misleading statements being pushed by Trump and his surrogates, because denying the problem at hand has become commonplace for the campaign.
During the interview, Gingrich proudly stated that Republicans are out-voting Democrats in Florida and in Pennsylvania, at which point Kelly interjected to remind him that Clinton is comfortably ahead in Pennsylvania."I know, I just told you, we have two alternative universes right now," Gingrich responded. Kelly fired back:
But I'm telling you that the Fox News Decision Desk just moved Iowa, that you just mentioned, Indiana, second congressional district in Maine — all of them moved left ... Every state they've moved, they've moved it towards the left, towards Hillary. And you tell me whether that's all made-up?
Gingrich again claimed that there are "two alternate universes," one of which is allegedly controlled by "biased media." And though Trump is certainly ahead in particular areas, those predicted victories seem to be outliers in the nationwide scheme of things. In short, the type of denial perpetuated by Gingrich is becoming a trend among both Trump and his surrogates.
Instead of realizing that perhaps he should refrain from offending minorities and women on a weekly basis, for example, Trump blamed his low polling numbers on "phony" polls. At a rally in New Hampshire during the first week of October, he said:
When we do badly, I don't know about polls, right? But when we're doing well, I know about polls ... What they do is, they show these phony polls. They look at Democrats. It's heavily weighted with Democrats.
And that's not the first time he's rejected the root of the problem for unsubstantiated, irrelevant claims. After firmly denying Jessica Leeds' claim that Trump allegedly groped her on an airplane, the GOP nominee didn't go on to denounce the prevalence of sexual assault. Instead, at a rally in North Carolina, he said:
Believe me, she would not be my first choice, that I can tell you. Man, you don't know. That would not be my first choice.
Does that mean sexual assault is warranted if a woman is exceptionally attractive? In an attempt to debunk Leeds' claim once and for all the day prior, Trump campaign spokeswoman Katrina Pierson actually told CNN's Don Lemon that first-class airplane seats had fixed armrests in the 1980s, to which Don Lemon and his co-panelist laughed. Her on-air claim was factually false, yet she continued to stand by it. Again, though she denied the allegations, she skirted the severity of sexual assault in America and attempted to draw attention elsewhere.
There was also the time when Trump denied ever calling global warming a hoax at the first presidential debate and caused viewers to second-guess their own sanity for the umpteenth time. For the record, Trump has called global warming "bullshit" on Twitter and has written that it's an "expensive hoax." What's worse is that Trump is rarely held accountable for his flagrant denials or unwillingness to confront issues head-on.
Kelly's response didn't come out of the blue. Her exasperation reflects that of a nation who's been gaslighted time and time again. Ultimately, the news anchor put her foot down and definitively ended the interview by telling Gingrich, "You can take your anger issues and spend some time working on them, Mr. Speaker." And with that, she ended an argument that should have been settled long ago.
