17 Million Tuned In To Fox News Thursday Night To Watch The GOP Commit Suicide
If Republicans were hoping that maybe, just maybe, debate ‘fatigue’ had set in with the American public and perhaps Thursday night’s debacle didn’t draw a huge audience, Friday morning brought them more disappointment. A day after the presumptive GOP Presidential nominee told a debate audience that he had a big cock, which coincidentally followed a speech where he implied Mitt Romney would have given him a beej in 2012, Nielsen reported that Fox News drew an 11.6 household rating for the debate. That equates to about 17 million viewers.
While the debate itself ran for two or so hours, and one should give credit to Fox News for attempting to hold Donald Trump and the rest of the candidates’ feet to the fire with tough questions and real-time fact-checking, the whole thing was pretty much over ten minutes in. That was when Trump decided to let everyone watching know that not only were his hands not small, but neither was his penis, in case anyone was wondering.
No matter what happened in the next two hours, this was what was going to stick with the viewers. That moment will be replayed over and over and over throughout the rest of this election season. It is a moment that truly typified the dumbed-down, reality TV show of a presidential race that the American public has been subjected to (and likely deserves). It was a moment when the rest of the world collectively said, “What the fuck?!?!”
Sure, just like other debates, there were other embarrassing and low moments, mostly centered on Trump. In round two of Megyn Kelly Vs. The Donald, the Fox News host absolutely waylaid the celebrity billionaire on both the fraud that is Trump University and his tendency to contradict himself on important issues and topics. But it has already faded away. Nope. The thing that will be remembered will be the dick joke.
17 million people saw that live. Millions more heard or read about it the next morning. Democratic ads against not only Trump, but the whole of the Republican Party, were just written for themselves. Democrats will tie Trump’s cartoonish buffoonery to every GOPer running for the House, Senate or statewide office. Trump, by taking the GOP’s obstructionist, racist, anti-intellectual, xenophobic ‘platform’ to its logical conclusion, is merely looking to put the party out of its misery.
And, based on the candidates’ actions on that stage Thursday night, they’re all willing to slit their wrists and call it a day. At the end of the debate, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and John Kasich were all asked if they would support Trump if he were the nominee. Despite the fact that Rubio and Cruz spent the entire debate railing on Trump, calling him immature, a “con artist,” unfit for the White House and every other thing imaginable, all three men confirmed that they’d support and vote for him.
Jamie Johnson, a former aide to Rick Perry during his latest failed White House run, noted that the party had effectively committed suicide on Thursday night.
My party is committing suicide on national television. #GOPDebate
— Jamie Johnson (@JamieJohnsonUSA) March 4, 2016
.@HillaryClinton is the BIG winner tonight. This is embarrassing. #GOPDebate
— Jamie Johnson (@JamieJohnsonUSA) March 4, 2016
Meanwhile, Reince Priebus and the rest of the Republican National Committee were in complete denial about the self-immolation that everyone clearly witnessed because of course.
Republican candidates are the only ones offering the course correction voters overwhelmingly want & our country desperately needs #GOPDebate
— Reince Priebus (@Reince) March 4, 2016
In other words, while he is seeing Trump torch the place to the ground, Reince is all like this:
