If you’re like me you wondered why Fox kept inviting Pete Buttigieg to come on to talk about issues. He always wound up with them feeling like mouthy kids in Catholic schools in days past. Nuns would give a sharp rap across the knuckles and if that didn’t work it was a trip to the priest/principal’s office for a serious paddling. Many of us have wanted more Democrats to have the guts to do what Buttigieg regularly did. Not enough have, but Senator Chris Murphy just went on Fox News and did a pretty good imitation of Mayor Pete!
As Raw Story tells us Murphy sat down across the table for a chat with Fox News’ Shannon Bream. If she was betting Senator Murphy would tremble in the ‘Lion’s Den’ of Fox News she lost the bet. The topic was Tom Homan taking over ICE operations in Minneapolis and Bream slung typical Fox b.s. and lies about who was being detained. She then noted Homan’s proposal to ramp down immigration agents enforcement activities in Minneapolis in exchange for local and state cooperation. Then she asked Murphy “Does that sound like a reasonable step to you?” She continued:
“People who are in jail [that] are going to be released by a state or locality, ICE has said we’ve got a detainer on this person, we think they’re removable, let one agent go into the jail versus what we’re seeing on the streets of Minneapolis?”
Clearly Murphy anticipated how the discussion would go and he clapped back:
Visibly taken aback, Murphy scoffed at Bream’s use of the word “reasonable,” and argued the Trump administration immigration enforcement operations to be anything but.
“C’mon, are we still pretending that ICE is going after dangerous people? They aren’t! Right now, 70% of the people that they’re detaining have absolutely no criminal record,” Murphy fired back.
The linked article noted of the 328,000 that have been arrested in Trump’s immigration crackdown 73% have no criminal record. Bream tried to sell the administration LIE that 70% of those people do have criminal records. Murphy had to have known Bream would try to lie to his face, that the administration’s claims had been completely debunked. However, with the actual facts to back him up Murphy gave his Fox host a rhetorical smack in the face with a cold fish. Here’s part of their exchange:
Chris Murphy on Fox News Sunday: "I mean — c'mon. We're still pretending that ICE is going after dangerous people? They aren't. What is happening in Minnesota right now is a dystopia. ICE is teargassing elementary schools, it is disappearing legal residents into cars, it is… pic.twitter.com/xOILxL4YWy
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 1, 2026
THIS is what we need to see more of. Democrats willing to go on Fox (and with their own aide recording on a cell phone to prove if, or more likely when Fox tries to creatively edit out getting shown up) like Buttigieg so often did. Like Trump, they never learned and I’ betting they never will. I’d LOVE to see Senator Sheldon Whitehouse on Fox! I can’t imagine he would refuse an invitation, which means Fox is afraid of him! Let’s face it. Buttigieg projected calm competence and a mastery of both facts and of those Fox asshats that kept trying and failing to show him up. Even Fox viewers had to admit he at least came across as credible. Whitehouse would come across with that too, but something even more powerful – Gravitas. It’s an elusive thing, one of those ‘you know it when you see it’ type qualities but Whitehouse has it in spades.
I can easily imagine Rupert issuing a “Don’t ever, EVER invite Whitehouse into a Fox studio” directive. However, Murphy has proven he can handle himself. There are other Democrats that could do so, and who can think on their feet when the curveballs and even beanballs (pitches at the head for non baseball fans) come. The Party would do well to have a list of them AND a prep team to make sure they are as up-to-date as possible, and they should regularly offer to drop in to Fox News for a chat on issues of the day.
Fox hosts seem to enjoy hitting themselves in the forehead with a ballpeen hammer. Democrats should oblige them and be those hammers.
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bream? like the fish? (pronounced “brim”).