MARK ELLIS – PJ Media
This week on Newsmax TV, conservative commentator Michael Savage said something conservative cable news consumers may never have expected to hear: praise for President Joe Biden’s restraint with regard to dealing with Putin and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. On the Prime News show with Jen Pellegrino, Savage affirmed that in his opinion Biden’s restraint thus far is preventing what could easily become a wider conflict. Of specific issue on the topic were the MiG jets that Poland offered to Ukraine. While acknowledging the intent of the offer, Savage was dismissive of the ramifications, suggesting that the jets were antiquated old fighters that the Russians would likely shoot out of the sky and that the jets were moot because the Russians have already or will soon bomb Ukrainian airstrips into cratered and useless fields. Further stated by Savage—to paraphrase—was that any no-fly zones enforced by U.S. or NATO aircraft could lead to a shoot-down that might precipitate a devastatingly larger war. The segment stood out because any praise or even grudging respect for anything Biden and his administration have done since taking office has been for the most part utterly absent from conservative programming. So transgressive was the Savage opinion that co-host Mercedes Schlapp hastened to interject before going to commercial that, “Reagan and Trump were the presidents who controlled Putin.” At Newsmax, a staunchly pro-Trump cable channel, any positive commentary about Biden must immediately be countered by its opposite, reminders about his abject failure. And for good reason. Everything Joe Biden and his minions have touched have turned into the opposite of gold—as in “crap.” The economy, energy, crime, the border, Afghanistan, the full gamut of policymaking generally, have all been grievously mishandled since Biden’s ascension to the Oval Office and/or intentionally manufactured to produce anti-American results. For Trump supporters, who flocked to Newsmax in the wake of Fox News’ coverage of the election, any slight intimation that Biden has done a good job on anything is perceived as vomitous claptrap. The egregiousness of the Russian hoax and widespread suspicions about the integrity of the 2020 election created a mindset that electoral payback and zero credit are the order of the day for both the midterm and general cycles that loom.
