While much of the country has been celebrating the diversity of women and first-time politicians entering the national political fray following the results of the 2018 midterm elections, Fox News host Laura Ingraham spent more than 10 minutes on her show Tuesday criticizing what she called "the freshmen insurrection."
On "The Ingraham Angle," the Fox News star referred to Representatives-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the youngest woman ever elected to Congress; Ayanna Pressley, Massachusetts’ first black congresswoman; and Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, the first Muslim women elected to Congress, as the "four horsewomen of the apocalypse."
"They represent some of the most radical views in Congress," Ingraham said. "Free college for all, free health care for all, the abolishment of ICE, a Green New Deal where the U.S. depends entirely on renewable energy — have fun in those planes! And, on the foreign policy front, they're even wackier. The anti-Israeli bias of some of these junior congresswoman-elect is downright disturbing." (Ocasio-Cortez, Omar and Tlaid have expressed support for Palestinians.)
But Ingraham did not only mock this diverse roster of congresswomen for their Democratic politics, but also for praising each other on social media. "Now, one doubts that this is what women had in mind when they voted for these female candidates, but you never know," Ingraham added — a bizarre statement given that each of these women rode their articulated platforms to Election Day victory.
Moving on to Pressley, who Ingraham sarcastically dubbed as her "favorite," the Fox News host went on to describe her as "a leftist on the war path against white men." Ingraham further argued that, if her record on Boston's City Council aws any indicator for her tenure in Congress, "she's going to make Maxine Waters' approach seem more like Joe Manchin's." (In that statement, Ingraham's voice veered between laughter and fear.)
"Now you can be certain these far-left newbies is going to make governing all but impossible for the Democrats in leadership, especially considering that they're going to have progressive support though for one of their top agenda items: Trump's impeachment," Ingraham continued.
This has been a talking point from the right ever since the Democrats took back the House in the midterms. Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell wrote an op-ed for Fox News published on Tuesday with the headline: "Will Dems work with, or simply put partisan politics ahead of the country?" It is a stunningly ironic question when posed by a leader who blocked former President Barack Obama from his constitutionally-appointed duty to nominate a new Supreme Court justice. "Needless to say, the past two years of unified Republican government will be remembered as a period of historic productivity," McConnell wrote in the article, demonstrating his skill for selective memory.
As a diverse cohort of the Democrats' recently-elected officials headed to Capitol Hill for orientation day for new members of Congress on Tuesday, Ingraham warned on her show that there are "dark pink clouds gathering on the horizon." From Ingraham's 10-minute monologue to McConnell's accusatory op-ed, there is a clear anxiety on display following the midterms and the Republican's loss of power in one government body.
As Omar wrote on Twitter, "My sisters and I are busting through these doors and will hold them wide open!"
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