It has gotta be someone and they keep burning through possibilities. Even Ivanka has been sort of ruled out as too invested in being, well, Ivanka, “First Daughter.”

The Daily Beast says that Fox News has spent the entire weekend trying to telegraph to Trump that the party is over.  We don’t have to go over again (and again, and again) how we think Trump might fight back. It would be a plan that actually could win, but only if they could convince enough legislators that this was needed, and warranted – on that part, they might well be failing. But the real players in the Republican party haven’t given up.

Have you heard McConnell reach out and say it’s over? Call Joe Biden (a long-time acquaintance, one might dare say ‘friend’ and say congratulations?) We know that Lindsey Graham is saying the exact opposite even though Lindsey was a dear friend. Lindsey is saying they must fight, though, we’re not sure Lindsey has a choice to say anything else. The real Lindsey disappeared over two years ago after one golf game.

While stridently pro-Trump outlets such as Newsmax TV—which is making a concerted effort to appeal to disgruntled MAGA supporters upset with Fox—refused to call the election for Biden while peddling Giuliani’s claims, Fox News hosts and commentators drove home the message on Saturday—perhaps in an attempt to reach one of their most loyal viewers—that the president’s lawsuits are futile as there is no evidence of massive election fraud.

Fox isn’t doing this out of some sort of deep commitment to news integrity. Hardly.

They just sense that it is almost for sure likely over and they damned well don’t want to be screaming “Fake!” when it all comes crashing down. Joe may be sworn in by Chief Justice Roberts in a private ceremony in the Chief’s Office, to avoid possible violence because Trump’s called upon his supporters to fight and he’s not leaving the White House. (This is worst-case scenario, obviously, not a prediction). Fox doesn’t want to be on the other end of that. Fox needs to move on, too.

Moments after the network called the race—they waited until most other networks and outlets had announced their projections—Fox News anchor Chris Wallace noted on-air that the president was refusing to accept the results and would continue to move forward with the campaign’s legal and recount efforts. The veteran anchor, meanwhile, pointed out that this was ultimately a pointless endeavor.

“Trump has every right to pursue legal challenges, other failing candidates have in the past,” he said. “So far we didn’t see anything to rise to the level of serious fraud and certainly not a serious fraud that would change the results of elections.”

Chris Wallace: "I think it's going to be increasingly untenable [for Trump] because I think you're going to start to see a lot of the Republican leaders, who realize their fortunes and futures are no longer tied to Donald Trump, are going to begin to pull back." pic.twitter.com/uxEtXInqOG

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 7, 2020

Again, this is less a profile in courage and far more “good business sense.” Fox News plans on remaining the primary news voice on the right, but they have to be believed, unlike OAN or Newsmax.

But it does still have the effect of getting the message across to Trump. “It is over and you need to start thinking about what you’re going to look like post-presidency and what you plan on doing.”

Our prediction – assuming someone gets his ass out of the White House – is that Trump simply starts campaigning again for 2024, acting like he’s a viable candidate (whether he is or not, because he’s not a young man).

Think about it, he loved three things about being president. He loved soaking in the adulation of his cult. Thus, he will continue to do rallies to talk about what should be happening and what he would be doing and talk about the MAGA movement’s greatness. He loved making easy money. He can do that by saying he’s running for president, or even just saying he is setting up a MAGA PAC (PACs are watched more closely but when has he ever cared? He will probably avoid it and just say he is running) So he continues to milk people dumb enough to donate. And he loved the pageantry, the White House, Hail to the Chief, Air Force One – he’ll miss that, but that can be part of the motivation. So he gets two out of the three by simply moving on.

But he’s got to move on just the right way. He has to look like he’ll fight every reasonable fight. And then he’ll say he quits, that he really did win but it’s all too rigged and somewhere in mid-December he’ll hand it over to Mike Pence, to give Pence some glory – and Trump can feel safer with his pardon if he doesn’t have to pardon himself. America didn’t fire him. America didn’t deserve him, he quits! This is actually the best-case scenario from our point of view because he could do a lot of damage otherwise.

Fox is just trying to get him, their audience, and themselves, ready for all the above.

****

Peace, y’all
Jason
[email protected] and on Twitter @JasonMiciak