A Fox News segment on the irresponsible, even egregious actions of the Democratic mayor of Fort Lauderdale in response to what cops are now calling a “tragic accident” went flying off the rails when former Clinton adviser Richard Goodstein flipped the script to attack Republicans and former President Donald Trump.
Fellow panelist Mercedes Schlapp, a former Trump adviser, wasn’t going to sit by and allow him to get away with such political shenanigans.
There was a fatal accident at a Pride parade in Florida over the weekend. A man who was reportedly a member of a gay chorus volunteering at the event, who was flying a rainbow flag in the back of his truck, crashed into a group of people when the vehicle suddenly allegedly accelerated out of control.
Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis, who was on the scene, immediately claimed it was a “terrorist attack” against the LGBTQ community, having zero facts on what had just occurred while the police later deemed it to be merely a “tragic accident.”
Schlapp responded by denouncing the “knee jerk” reaction from Trantalis during FNC’s “The Faulkner Focus” segment, saying it was “really irresponsible of the mayor to make these comments.”
“When you say a terrorist attack that’s a major, major accusation and you better have those facts right,” she said, adding that the Democratic mayor “really did a disservice to the people of Fort Lauderdale.”
(Video: Fox News)
Like a good soldier, Goodstein ran interference for the mayor in saying he walked his comments back, before making a political attack by referencing Charlottesville, where a woman was killed in 2017 when a man drove into a crowd of protesters, and turning his attention to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, attacking him while conflating Saturday’s accident with left-wing protesters shutting down city streets.
“You can’t totally blame the mayor’s initial reaction,” he suggested. “We saw what happened in Charlottesville and we all saw the dozens of incidents of protestors getting mowed into after George Floyd and we saw Governor DeSantis sign a bill that basically gave immunity for drivers driving into protestors in the street.”
Fox News host Harris Faulkner made a weak attempt to stop Goodstein and set the record straight but then yielded the floor back to him without doing so.
Goodstein continued on about Republicans blocking the Equality Act in Congress as he tried to justify why the mayor should not be expected to apologize, before blasting Trump supporters.
“This mayor walked it back,” he said. “Unlike every supporter of Donald Trump who keeps insisting the election was stolen, or that on January 6th, there was hugging and kissing not killing and maiming.”
“It always goes back to Donald Trump with you, Richard,” Schlapp interjected.
She noted there is a sensitivity when it comes to hate crimes before turning back to Mayor Trantalis, insisting that he was sowing “an enormous amount of fear” in the community.
“We have to remember that part of the responsibility of our leaders is to ensure that we get the facts before jumping to conclusions. And so I think, for this mayor in particular, he should apologize and say I didn’t get it right,” she said.
And while Goodstein finally acknowledged that an apology was called for, he quickly returned to attacking Trump.
“I’m just waiting for everybody who is so huffy about this instance to say it’s shameful of Donald Trump, call it what you will, to say the election was stolen,” he said. “That was a threat to democracy, more than any accusation that mayor made of terrorism.”
Schlapp unloaded on him.
“This is the most typical expected type of interview with you, Richard,” she fired back. “Every time it is always about Donald Trump. We are talking about an incident that happened down in Florida regarding a terrorist attack that has nothing to do with Donald Trump.
“Your obsession and your Trump Derangement Syndrome continues, along with your fellow Democrats who can’t get over Donald Trump,” she added.
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The longest-tenured writer at BizPac Review, Tom grew up in Maryland before moving to Central Florida as a young teen. It is in the Sunshine State that he honed both his passion for politics and his writing skills.
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