In a bizarre incident back in the spring of 2024, Fox News Channel’s Jessica Tarlov emphatically refused to allow the network to cut to a commercial break so she could conclude a rebuttal that criticized former president Donald Trump. Tarlov is a dissenting liberal voice on FNC’s talk show “The Five,” who often makes headlines for her critiques of the former president. The subsequent back-and-forth with the conservative co-hosts can often become tense.
In the conversation at hand, the panel discussed incessant claims from Joe Biden and many other Democrats that former President Donald Trump is a “threat to Democracy.” During the conversation, co-host Jeanine Pirro suggested that Democrats have weaponized the Department of Justice to prosecute Donald Trump. She further claimed that Democrats are seeking to have Trump removed from state ballots over the J6 Capitol protests.
However, before Tarlov could offer a rebuttal, Jesse Watters chimed in, noting that they were coming up on a commercial break. “That was a very rich discussion. I’m going to try to address as many of the points as I possibly can…” Tarlov said before being cut off by Watters. “We have a commercial break in about 30 seconds,” he said.
Tarlov proceeded to deliver a monologue on why the current rhetoric from the Biden administration is not reaching voters as intended. She claimed that Americans want to hear about policies addressing real issues like the cost of healthcare and the economy, indicating voters could care less about Trump’s conduct surrounding the 2020 election if putting food on the table is difficult.
“No, no, no. Commercial break is when I am done with this. So, the “threat to democracy” point is not working. And all of the good pollsters have made that point very clear to the Biden administration that actually the messaging that works is about the mundane stuff that people want to hear about lowering prescription drug prices and things like the debt and the deficit and preserving Medicare and Social Security, those are all encompassed in the economy, right? Like how you’re doing and how your family’s going to survive, looking ahead to the future,” Tarlov said.
However, she rebuked the idea that Joe Biden is a threat to the Republic while insisting that Trump’s actions over the 2020 election were reprehensible. Tarlov further slammed Trump’s legal efforts which questioned the integrity of the election. She simultaneously claimed that the former president is afraid of the legal battles he faces, a remark that Pirro contested.
“So, that point is definitely out there. But to say that Joe Biden is the threat to democracy, considering what Donald Trump and his band of lawyers tried to pull off in 2020 is complete insanity. He dispatched lawyers all over the country to overturn a free and fair election. A lot of them have pled out to doing this. A lot of them are still to face trial, and he’s doing his darnedest to make sure that he doesn’t have to show up in any of these courtrooms, because he’s definitely afraid of what’s going to happen there,” she added.
Take a look at Tarlov’s meltdown here: