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Fox News Hosts Confused About Whether to Call Gay Man Mr. or Ms.
Fox News Hosts Confused About Whether to Call Gay Man Mr. or Ms.
Right-wing extremists and Republican politicians have been obsessed with pronouns for so long that their media darlings have forgotten how to speak.
In a bizarre moment on national television, Fox News hosts who have been obsessed with stories about pronouns on Wednesday had difficulty articulating what honorific to call a mysterious man the network had been promoting as “Mr. X.”
On the Fox & Friends morning program, hosts Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade and a contributor struggled to understand that a gay man is a man.
While setting up a segment on what the right-wing network framed as a highly-anticipated hearing by the House Oversight Committee to discuss testimony from an unknown whistleblower from the Internal Revenue Service who would, according to Republicans, lay bare departmental corruption as it pertained to the handling of information surrounding President Joe Biden’s only surviving son, Hunter.
Republicans have waged a relentless campaign against the younger Biden to smear his father for some of the actions and personal shortcomings Hunter has experienced.
“We begin this first hour with a look at today’s plan testimony from IRS whistleblowers and the Hunter Biden probe,” co-host Ainsley Earhardt said.
“That’s right,” Doocy replied. “Also, we will learn the identity of “Whistleblower X” who we now know is a veteran special agent.”
At this point, the camera panned to a video wall with a graphic titled “Who is Mr. X?” underneath, which listed known facts about the unnamed witness Republicans were frothing with excitement over.
“13-year special agent,” the screen read. Also, the mysterious witness “Works within the IRS’ criminal investigations division” and “identifies as gay Democrat married to a man,” the graphic stated.
“[He’s] been with the agency for 13 years, and he’s a Democrat, and he actually — I should say he or she — says the president’s son, Hunter, should be facing felony tax charges, not misdemeanors.”
Seemingly not done with the pronoun-related confusion wrapped in a joke but presented as a disaster, Doocy doubled down as he tossed to a reporter.
“Meanwhile, Lucas Tomlinson is live in Washington. I should say he — that’s the pronoun we’re going with. Right, Lucas?”
The Twitter account @BadFoxGraphics, which tracks and comments on the plethora of embarrassing content the far-right network produces, called attention to the ridiculous interaction.
“The giant video wall graphic says ‘Mr. X’, so pretty sure @FoxNews is going with “he,” @SteveDoocy,” the account tweeted.
During the hearing Wednesday afternoon, IRS Special Agent Joseph Ziegler revealed his identity.
At the Oversight Committee hearing, Ziegler claimed prosecutors failed to follow the normal investigation process. Gary Shapley, another whistleblower, said IRS investigators recommended charging Hunter Biden with more severe crimes than he confessed to, and other U.S. attorneys would not indict him.
The whistleblowers claimed Justice Department officials stopped investigators from investigating Hunter Biden’s financial troubles after finding evidence linking them to the president and his grandchildren. While investigating Hunter Biden’s finances, he says his team came across Joe Biden’s name.
However, he claimed they were forbidden from following those leads.
