Fox Business anchor Cheryl Casone on Tuesday hyperbolically claimed that Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) was “assaulted” when a fellow passenger asked the senator about her support for DACA during a flight this week.
Casone claimed she was “shocked by that video,” wondering aloud why flight attendants or even the Federal Aviation Administration didn’t step in to prevent the senator from being calmly approached and questioned by a fellow traveler.
As one of two Democratic senators refusing to fully support President Joe Biden’s ambitious Build Back Better agenda, Sinema has recently been confronted by activists and constituents for her opposition to the spending bill. In a video posted on Sunday, for instance, youth organizers filmed themselves following Sinema into a public restroom, sparking backlash and mild condemnation from Biden himself.
ADVERTISEMENT
During a flight this week, meanwhile, a DACA recipient from Arizona walked up to Sinema and asked the lawmaker if she would make a commitment to support a “pathway to citizenship” for DREAMers such as herself. “This is my life and the life of millions,” the woman said as Sinema refused to engage or respond.
On Tuesday’s broadcast of the Fox News midday roundtable show Outnumbered, the all-conservative panel was united in outrage over the public confrontations that Sinema has experienced, griping about supposed liberal hypocrisy on harassment and protests.
At one point, referencing Saturday Night Live’s portrayal of Sinema, anchor Harris Faulkner called it “homophobic” because “they were targeting her because she’s a lesbian.” (The senator is, in fact, bisexual—as the SNL skit noted.)
Eventually, after co-host Kayleigh McEnany called the anti-Sinema protesters “totally ignorant,” Casone expressed disgust over the questioning the senator had to endure from a constituent on the plane.
“Where was the FAA when Kyrsten Sinema was getting assaulted on that airplane?” Casone exclaimed. “Where were the flight attendants, guys? I’m shocked by that video.”
The Fox Business host said that as a former flight attendant she would have “immediately stepped in there,” prompting Faulkner to—in extremely Fox News fashion—make the situation about COVID-19 restrictions.
“Well, if she’d taken off her mask they would have been there,” the Fox host snarked.
“I know, if a two-year-old can’t keep their mask on, oh, they show up and you’re thrown off the plane, Casone responded. “But that DACA recipient, who was obviously harassing her in the middle of the aisle—that’s what we’ve come down to. The skies are already a war zone, but that’s OK to harass a United States senator.”
The Fox personality added: “As far as civil discord, this goes above and beyond what should be acceptable in this country. And if they want to attack her and attack Joe Manchin, go right ahead. And go right ahead and blow up your stupid $3.5 trillion disaster of a social spending package. Be my guest!”
Ironically, at the top of Tuesday’s broadcast, Casone and the other panelists railed against the Department of Justice addressing the “disturbing spike” in violent threats made against educators over critical race theory and mask mandates in schools.
Casone, in fact, defended people who have recently made school board meetings hostile battlegrounds in the latest politically heated culture war.
“Deal with the root cause, which is angry parents who have every right to be furious that their children are being absolutely misled or ignored and the parents are being gaslighted,” she seethed. “I don’t blame them one bit.”
