Joseph Neese, Salon

Howard Schultz illustrated to "The View" co-host Meghan McCain how the ongoing Republican culture wars, chief among them the divisive issue of abortion, are actually the weaponization of wedge issues to distract Americans from the most important problems they face.

This article was originally published at Salon

Fox News' biggest Trump booster was busy Tuesday night spinning to defend a pair of former Trump allies who were both found guilty of multiple criminal counts hours earlier. After a jury of his peers convicted Paul Manafort of multiple financial crimes and Michael Cohen admitted his own criminal deeds to federal prosecutors, Fox News host Sean Hannity staunchly defended the newly-minted felons and former members of Trump's inner circle.

After more than 300 newspapers across the country united to denounce President Donald Trump's claim that the media is "the enemy of the people," the commander-in-chief unsurprisingly could not help but bite back at an industry that has long been considered to be the cornerstone of American democracy. Now his minions in the media, namely Fox News figures, are following suit.

President Donald Trump's controversial summit with Vladimir Putin, in which he stood by the Russian tyrant over the U.S. intelligence community, has been met with such swift and widespread backlash that Trump's even lost the support of the lone conservative voice on "The View."