In a July Washington Post profile, Howard Kurtz wrote that Fox “straight news” anchor Bill Hemmer “sees himself as the straightest of straight arrows when it comes to news” and quoted the anchor as claiming “opinion” isn't his “comfort zone.”
“The opinion-makers on our channel have enormous talent,” Hemmer was quoted as stating. “I deal in facts. I deal in evidence. And opinion, frankly, is not my comfort zone. Opinion news is something I'm not good at. It is in the DNA of certain individuals. I'm not one of them.”
You wouldn't have guessed that “opinion” isn't in Hemmer's “comfort zone” today when he unloaded on California for electing Democrats like Jerry Brown. Appearing on Fox News Radio's Kilmeade & Friends, Hemmer admonished California voters, stating, “I can't understand California. I can't figure it out. I mean you're tens of billions of dollars in debt and you're electing not just the same people, but people who helped get you into the mess 25 years ago.” (Brown previously served as governor from 1975-1983.) Hemmer added, “It defies me and I don't - you know, become your own country.”
Hemmer's America's Newsroom co-host Martha MacCallum responded to Hemmer by opining, “We need to say [to California] you're on your own, like we should have said to the car companies and we should have said to the insurance - I mean, that mentality is part of what was driving these 63 House seats last night.”
Hemmer himself noted that he probably shouldn't be offering such opinions, prefacing his remarks by stating, “I probably shouldn't say this, but since we're on the radio, I will.”
From the November 3 edition of Fox News Radio's Kilmeade & Friends:
HEMMER: Man, I want to know, I tell you -- I probably shouldn't say this, but since we're on the radio, I will. I can't understand California. I can't figure it out.
MACCALLUM: Go figure.
HEMMER: I mean you're tens of billions of dollars in debt and you're electing not just the same people, but people who helped get you into the mess 25 years ago.
MACCALLUM: I feel like I've known Jerry Brown my whole life. He's been in office our whole lives.
HEMMER: It defies me and I don't -- you know, become your own country. Because California is not going to bail California out.
KILMEADE: I guess we are.
HEMMER: Yeah, you're damn right we are!
KILMEADE: The government is going to do that. And how wrong is that? How can we afford to write a check to a state that's not even trying to get its house in order?
HEMMER: We can't. We can't.
MACCALLUM: We need to say you're on your own, like we should have said to the car companies and we should have said to the insurance - I mean, that mentality is part of what was driving these 63 House seats last night. You know, 'no more.'
During the conversation, Brian Kilmeade and MacCallum held up Republican Gov. Chris Christie (NJ) as someone with fiscal discipline. Kilmeade called Christie an “MVP for Republicans” and MacCallum said he had “stick-to-it-tiveness”
Hemmer joins other conservatives who have attacked California voters over their votes for Brown and Sen. Barbara Boxer. Despite his opposition to Jerry Brown, Hemmer has repeatedly discussed the race on his America's Newsroom program.
While Hemmer has repeatedly held himself out as a straight news anchor, he was also one of Fox News' biggest cheerleaders for the Tea Party movement in 2009.