A Fox News guest proved to be just slightly too into the party spirit for Donald Trump’s birthday parade—and was ushered off air after calling him “Donarl Jane Tramp.”
Rebekah Koffler, a frequent guest on the network who is married to one of its former executives, was supposed to offer commentary on the rain-sodden, poorly attended parade.
But her planning apparently went downhill with her time slot being delayed for the president’s speech—so she tweeted that she was pouting herself another glass of “champagne,” with a picture of a half-empty bottle of $13.99 sparkling French wine.
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Then when Koffler, a Russian-born former defense analyst appeared on air, what appeared to be the effects of the wine kicked in.
Within seconds, she was swaying in front of the camera, audibly slurring her words while referring to network host Lawrence Jones by the name of his colleague, Lucas Tomlinson, who was not on screen.
“I’m so excited! Lucas Tomlinson! ANd everybody!” she exclaimed. “This is incredible … finally, the United States is ... is back! I want to really thank all of our Army, Navy, and Air Force officers who have been sacrificing their … lives! Literally! Their families have been contributing to the mission.”
The ex-official did not clarify on what mission, or in what capacity, or by whom, the families of active service members had been deployed. She did, however, add that “most of the time, for the past quarter of a century,” they have been “fighting foreign wars” as a result of the “mismanagement of the … uh … the administrative states.”
Koffler’s command of language quickly abandoned her. When she dubbed the president “our new commander-in-chief, Donarl Jane Tramp,” the network promptly ended her interview by cutting to an advertising break.
On Sunday morning, she deleted the tweet of her cheap sparkling wine and claimed that her “audio and video were corrupted”—and of course, blamed her haters.
In a lengthy statement to the Daily Beast—which did not address whether she had been drinking—she said, “I’ve just been made aware of these personal attacks. My audio and video were corrupted due to slow and intermittent internet connection at my home.
“But I’m not surprised that ill-wishers took this opportunity to attack me. I’m frequently attacked for because I speak the truth on various issues. Since the ill-wishers cannot beat me in a candid debate on merit, on specific issues. - they started making stuff up, aiming to destroy your reputation. Typical political warfare deployed against those with whom the other side disagrees. I’m not the first one and not the last one.”
On X she claimed, “Allegations against me related to my @FoxNews appearance #TrumpParade are FALSE,” claimed that “neocons and leftists” were attacking her and added, “Yes, I did post #champagne photo - this was a joke, intended to boost viewership.”
Her attempt to boost viewership may have worked, although not exactly how she planned, with the clip of her slurring performance achieving virality on Sunday.
One anti-Trump X wit, Robin Messing, posted, “Hey, if showing up for work drunk can land Pete Hegseth the job of Defense Secretary, then Rebekah Koffler is justified in trying to use his strategy for success.”
