The bombshell revelation that Russia directly interfered with the presidential election is still simmering. But that hasn’t stopped right-wing apologists for Donald Trump from cooking up absurd defenses. One of the most unhinged so far came Sunday night from Fox News host, Judge Jeanine Pirro. She’s well known for her overblown editorializing, but this one could earn her a Wingnut Hall of Shame award.

Pirro leaped feet first into her program’s “Opening Statement” with an all out onslaught against President Obama and other Democrats. Note: The all-caps quotes were cut-and-pasted directly from the Fox News website. The entire article is in caps. Which makes the sentiments in these first paragraphs seem even more deranged:

“LOOK IT’S TIME TO TAKE SIDES… THE ELECTION IS OVER – YOU’RE EITHER WITH US OR AGAINST US. THAT IS… WITH THE UNITED STATES OR AGAINST THE UNITED STATES.

“WE HAVE A NEW PRESIDENT ELECT…. HIS NAME IS DONALD J TRUMP. SO MOVE OVER BARACK,

“MOVE OVER HILLARY, HARRY, JILL AND ALL YOU NAMBY PAMBY PATHETIC LOSERS STILL CRYING IN YOUR GRANDE DOUBLE SHOT SKINNY LATTES.”

This is typical of the fascist right-wing tendency to demonize anything with which they disagree. They are utterly contemptuous of dissent, unless they are engaging in it themselves. To them the Tea Party was a patriotic movement, but civil rights activists are subversive commies. And to make sure that she wasn’t misunderstood, Pirro elaborated:

“THERE WAS A TIME IN THIS COUNTRY WHEN WE UNITED BEHIND THE FLAG IN CELEBRATION OF AMERICA’S NEW PRESIDENT, OUR NEW LEADER, WE ALL DID SO IN 2008 WHEN BARACK OBAMA WAS ELECTED. WE HAD HIGH HOPES FOR A UNITED COUNTRY, IRRESPECTIVE OF OUR POLITICS. AND IT’S TIME FOR THE LEFT, ASSUMING THEY ARE CAPABLE, TO SHOW THE SAME DIGNITY AND CLASS TO THE 45TH PRESIDENT-ELECT.”

Is she friggin’ NUTZ! Wait, don’t answer that. On Obama’s inauguration day Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said that his top priority was to make him a one-term president. Fox’s Chris Wallace speculated that the flubbed oath of office (due to Chief Justice Roberts mangling the text) might mean that Obama isn’t really president. Rush Limbaugh said of the President-Elect that “I hope he fails.” A few weeks later Glenn Beck called Obama a racist with “a deep-seated hatred for white people.” And of course there was an army of crackpots insisting that Obama was a Muslim from Kenyan and ineligible to be president.

At what point did Pirro et al unite behind Obama? It didn’t happen after the election, nor at any time in the following eight years. She is exhibiting signs of acute dementia. Which might explain her outrage over Obama announcing an investigation into the hacking by Russia. This should be a bipartisan effort and supported by anyone who values our democracy. But along with Trump, his defenders at Fox News would rather suppress the truth than preserve our nation.

Among the nonsense that has irked Pirro is why this investigation should occur now. The answer, of course, is that until now we didn’t have the disclosures from the intelligence community to justify it. It could have been investigated earlier, but then the right would have complained that it was all speculative. And if the investigation were delayed for a year or two, they would say it’s old news, let it go.

Pirro also said that the Obama administration could have blocked the hacking if they wanted to. Butt, she didn’t say what body orifice she pulled that out of. She also maligned the CIA’s conclusions saying that they were the same people who got us into Iraq. Which isn’t true. That was sixteen years ago and those people are long gone. What’s more, it wasn’t the CIA pushing the WMD fallacies, it was the Bush White House. And Pirro joined Trump’s cheering squad with the lie that he had an “OVERWHELMING ELECTORAL COLLEGE WIN.” It wasn’t even in the top ten over the last sixty years.

Pirro concluded with praise for Vladimir Putin as “A RUSSIAN WHO AT LEAST IS A CHRISTIAN.” So that’s all it takes for an arch-conservative mouthpiece to embrace a brutal dictator. Murder your adversaries, invade foreign countries, and bomb hospitals full of children. So long as you’re a Christian it’s all good. Can you imagine the reaction from the right if Obama ever did such a thing? They pounced on him for honoring the Pope, for God’s sake.

For good measure Pirro took a closing swipe at retiring Senator Harry Reid, calling him “MR ONE EYE.” Reid is blind in one eye as a result of an accident. Would Pirro also call war hero, and Senator-Elect Tammy Duckworth “MISS NO LEGS?” Would she make up derogatory nicknames for every disabled person she doesn’t happen to like? This tells you something about her character, or lack thereof. As if having an unnatural and unpatriotic affinity for foreign dictators who disrupt our elections weren’t enough.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.