It is no secret that most Democrats abhor Fox News for its failure to immediately support the leftist agenda and its preferred narratives in their entirety, and can't stand the fact that the channel is hugely popular with millions of Americans, including many members of the U.S. military.

That's why it wasn't particularly surprising when Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) recently expressed his support for the idea of banning Fox News from being watched by U.S. troops deployed overseas, Not the Bee reported.

The Democratic California congressman specifically called out primetime network hosts Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham as purveyors of "disinformation" and insinuated that Fox News needed to "clean up" its act if it didn't want to face such restrictions.

Democrat-aligned group calls for Fox News to be banned by U.S. military

According to the Daily Wire, Rep. Swalwell launched his attack against Fox News during an appearance Saturday on MSNBC with host Katie Phang to discuss the lawsuit against her rival network by Dominion over its purportedly false accusations of widespread election fraud during the 2020 election.

As part of that discussion, the congressman made reference to a recent ad campaign launched by a decidedly left-leaning political action committee known as VoteVets which demands that Fox News no longer be permitted to be broadcast on U.S. military installations.

In a tweet last week, the Democrat-aligned organization said, "FOX hosts' election lies and disinformation splits the ranks, hurts unit cohesion, and weakens America's national defense. They must be removed from all TVs on military installations NOW."

Fox News needs to "clean up its evening hour" or face consequences

Mediaite reported that MSNBC host Phang, with regard to Fox News, asked Rep. Swalwell, "Has there been any discussions in Congress about maybe congressional oversight, regulations, maybe the FCC getting involved? I know we all respect the First Amendment, Congressman, but should there be some type of gatekeeping that happens so that this doesn’t happen again?"

The congressman replied, "Well, I think about our troops, and I have been all over the world and visited our troops in some of the harshest places and nothing makes them feel more like home than their access, you know, to American television programming, and a popular channel is Fox News."

"And, again, I don’t want to get in the business of telling troops what they can and cannot watch," Swalwell said prior to completely contradicting that statement.

"But if you have a news station that a court is going to rule is, in its evening hour, you know, perpetuating dis- and misinformation, I don’t know if I disagree with VoteVets, who was saying that we need to take a look at, you know, how this is being broadcast to our troops," he continued.

"And I hope that's incentive for Fox News to clean up its evening hour, uh, you know, starting with Tucker Carlson and going late into the evening with Laura Ingraham," Swalwell added. "They all spun and told these lies, so I don't think we are without complete recourse."

REP. SWALWELL: "We need to take a look at how [Fox News] is being broadcast to our troops. I hope that's an incentive for Fox...to clean up its evening hour...starting with @TuckerCarlson." pic.twitter.com/94WgIs9FMO

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) March 13, 2023

So much for the First Amendment

Mediaite highlighted how both Swalwell and Phang paid brief "lip service" to the constitutional protections of the First Amendment for free speech and a free press before then staking out decidedly unconstitutional positions in which the federal government would dictate to U.S. troops "what they can and cannot watch" on military installations.

Meanwhile, the Daily Wire noted how Democrats writ large -- as well as some Republicans -- have been furious at Tucker Carlson specifically and Fox News more broadly for airing previously unseen footage last week from the Jan. 6 Capitol riot of 2021 that substantially undermines the left's preferred narratives about that incident of unrest.