Fox News struggles to find 'problems' with Michelle Obama's convention speech

Michelle Obama’s speech at the Democratic National Convention on Monday night received immediate and wide praise, but Fox News found “problems” with it.

In her keynote speech, she assailed Donald Trump’s presidency.

“Whenever we look to this White House for some leadership or consolation or any semblance of steadiness, what we get instead is chaos, division, and a total and utter lack of empathy,” she said.

She spoke of the poor example Trump has set for America’s children and the horrid behavior he has inspired that they are now witnessing.

“They watch in horror as children are torn from their families and thrown into cages, and pepper spray and rubber bullets are used on peaceful protestors for a photo-op,” she said, referring to Trump’s photo-op outside a church in June.

“Donald Trump is the wrong president for our country,” she said in an unusually stark tone. “He has had more than enough time to prove that he can do the job, but he is clearly in over his head. He cannot meet this moment. He simply cannot be who we need him to be for us.”

NBC News noted the speech had received “early praise,” highlighting comments from several political commentators.

But Fox News nonetheless tried to criticize the speech.

After acknowledging that it was a “powerful” speech, anchor Bret Baier said, “There were a couple of problems with it.”

Baier noted that Obama’s speech was recorded last week, before Biden announced his pick of Kamala Harris as his vice presidential running mate, “So there was no mention of Kamala Harris in there.”

The second problem, according to Baier?

“She mentions the COVID deaths and references 150,000. Obviously we’re up to 170,000 now.”

Baier didn’t explain how another 20,000 American deaths in the week since Obama recorded her speech is a problem for her, rather than a problem for Trump, whose failure to adequately address the pandemic was a central theme of Monday’s convention and of Obama’s speech.

Fox News itself has been one of the factors contributing to that response, echoing Trump’s early downplaying of the virus, then promoting myths and falsehoods related to the outbreak that often sounded the same notes as Trump.

Baier also acknowledged Obama’s massive popularity — Obama has for years been one of the most popular figures in America and the world and in 2019, was the “most admired” woman in the United States for the second year in a row, according to a Gallup poll.

But he still questioned the effectiveness of her address.

“While a powerful speech,” he said, “you wonder how it translates in this virtual situation that we’re in.”

After Obama’s speech, Google reported that searches for the “Vote Now” necklace Obama wore during her keynote became the top trending search across Google and that terms relating to the necklace became “breakout searches” for the millions tuned in to the event.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.