I’ve had similar experiences with Fox News. All I can say is that their boomer (age cohort or mindset) audience may get these terms more readily than others. For one article I think the headline had something like “100 grand” instead of “$100,000”
Bed-wetting is pretty much only used for the dems.
I never heard "losing to the couch". It might be the phrasing of a particular aide who was anonymous but wanted people "in the know" to know they said it.