Last night in Bizarroworld
by digbyBen Mathis-Lilley of Slate watched a little FoxNews:
The biggest political story of the hour is that Republican gubernatorial candidate Ed Gillespie went down big in Virginia after running a Trump-esque campaign fixated on inflammatory culture-war issues, losing to Democrat Ralph Northam by what looks like it will end up as a nine-point margin. It's the biggest story of the hour, that is, unless you're watching Fox News: As observed by political writer Chris Hooks, Donald Trump's favorite network spent more than 90 minutes in prime time on Tuesday—Election Night!—between discussions of election results.
Just before 9 p.m., Tucker Carlson read an update about the loss in Virginia and another Democratic gubernatorial win in New Jersey. At 9, Sean Hannity took over and slipped in a comment about why said Republican losses don't really count:
Those results in New Jersey and Virginia—not states Donald Trump won.
For what it's worth, Northam appears to have exceeded Hillary Clinton's margin of victory in Virginia by four points; Hannity, in any case, spent the entire hour of his show previewing and broadcasting a Trump speech in South Korea. (Hannity described the president's habit of referring derisively to Kim Jong-un as "Rocket Man" as an example of "strength.")
Laura Ingraham's show began at 10, and Ingraham used the majority of her hour on segments about the armed civilian who attempted to intervene during this weekend's Texas shooting, the question of why liberals are "so offended and bothered by prayer," disgraced O.J Simpson detective Mark Fuhrman's opinions about gun control, and Trump's achievements in "confronting evil." She finally made it to Virginia at 10:50, whereupon viewers learned that Gillespie lost because he actually didn't imitate Trump enough:
Gillespie never jumped on board the Trump train. He's an old Bush hand. I think he gave it his best shot. He is who he is—not a populist conservative.
Later in the segment, Ingraham noted that Democrats will overreact to Northam's win because "they need something to be excited about," adding that, and I quote, "Hillary's emails!"