Fox News Hosts Spar Over Trump's John Dingell Hell Remark: 'You Never Heard That Joke Before?'
Two Fox News hosts sparred Thursday over President Donald Trump's remark about the late Rep. John Dingell, who Trump implied was "looking up" from hell at a Michigan rally on Wednesday.
Discussing House impeachment proceedings, Juan Williams, co-host of Fox News' The Five program, said he doesn't always agree with the president's choices.
"The reality is that plenty of things Trump does I don't like, and you know that. But they're not impeachable," Williams said. "When he talks about, you know, John Dingell going to hell, I don't like it. Not impeachable—"
"You've never heard that joke before?" co-host Greg Gutfeld interjected.
"It's not a joke when you talk about a dead man. Going after dead people—John McCain, John Dingell—leave it alone," Williams added, presumably referring to the president.
"Trump doesn't see alive, dead, white, black, male, female. He insults everybody," Gutfeld replied. "We're in the fourth year of this, Juan."
In the same speech where the president accused Democrats of declaring "open war" on American democracy by pursuing impeachment, he also seemed to mock Rep. Debbie Dingell, a Democrat from the state where the rally was held.
"Debbie Dingell, that's a real beauty," Trump told supporters at Battle Creek, Michigan.
According to Trump, she called him a while back to say thank you for offering military support and memorial services to mark her husband's death in February—the "A+ treatment," as Trump described it.
What happened next ignited the short sparring on Fox News Thursday and even broader ripples throughout the GOP, one of many such moments spurred by Trump's tendency to ad-lib on sensitive matters.
"She calls me up. 'It's the nicest thing that ever happened, thank you so much. John would be so thrilled,'" the president said in a whispered impression of then-recently widowed Dingell. "'He's looking down. He'd be so thrilled.'"
"I said 'That's okay, don't worry about it.' Maybe he's looking up, I don't know," Trump added. The crowd erupted in laughter, whistles and boisterous yells.
Since then, many Democrats in Congress have reached out to Congresswoman Dingell in solidarity, along with a few Republicans including Cindy McCain, the widow of the late Arizona Senator John McCain.
"I'm terribly sorry. Please know I am thinking about you," McCain wrote to Dingell on Twitter late Thursday evening.
It was in response to an emotional but stern post Dingell directed at the president.
"My husband earned all his accolades after a lifetime of service. I'm preparing for the first holiday season without the man I love," she said. "You brought me down in a way you can never imagine and your hurtful words just made my healing much harder."
