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As the Iran war teeters on the brink, let's revisit the numerous “Mission Accomplished” moments from right-wing media in early March
MAGA media’s Iran war hawks promised a cakewalk. The conflict is about to enter its sixth month.
Written by John Knefel
Research contributions from Helena Hind, Isabella Corrao & Jane Lee
Published 07/21/26
Within days of President Donald Trump’s unprovoked attack on Iran in late February, right-wing media figures began predicting a short, easy conflict that would be over quickly. Major conservative pundits unilaterally declared in early March that the war was a “wrap-up mission at this point,” a “done deal,” and “winding down.” Instead, the war is about to enter its sixth month with no clear end in sight, with the potential for escalation seemingly everywhere.
Where right-wing media promised a cakewalk, the Trump administration has delivered a quagmire, as recent developments make clear.
The U.S. military resumed striking targets in Iran in the middle of July, following the breakdown of a largely illusory ceasefire. Iranian authorities told The Associated Press that the recent wave of strikes have killed 50 and injured over 500. Over the weekend, the Pentagon announced the deaths of three U.S. service members, and The Washington Post reported that the Trump administration is now on the verge of “all-out war with Iran after more troops are killed.” And according to The New York Times, the Defense Department has been withholding the full number of U.S. troops who have been wounded in the conflict.
CNBC reported that a maritime risk firm characterized the current state of the Strait of Hormuz as a “worse-case scenario,” with the key waterway nominally open but still a primary point of conflict between the two countries.
These grim assessments stand in stark contrast to the predictions Iran hawks made in the days after the U.S. and Israeli militaries began their joint campaign on February 28 — the pundits listed below may as well have unfurled a “Mission Accomplished” banner for all of their premature declarations of victory.
In early March, right-wing media figures predict imminent end to Iran war
Although some in right-wing media expressed early skepticism of the war, there was no shortage of hacks (and hawks) who got on board immediately.
On March 3, Fox News’ Laura Ingraham set a tone that others would soon match. “We've already knocked out so much of their capability,” Ingraham said. “It looks like this is just a wrap-up mission at this point.”
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From the March 3, 2026, edition of Fox News' The Ingraham Angle
Two days later, her colleague Greg Gutfeld speculated on The Five that “maybe there's just nobody who can declare surrender because they're dead. I don't know, but I don't see how this thing can continue much longer.”
The Five returned to the topic the next day. “Do not lie about the war,” host Jesse Watters shouted at his liberal colleague Jessica Tarlov. “You know the war is going well.”
Fox News contributor Tyrus Murdoch added: “I’m willing to say this is a done deal.”
Some prime-time hosts at right-wing network Newsmax took the same line.
“I think we're at the end of serious U.S. involvement in Iran,” said host Rob Finnerty on March 9.
The same night on the same network, Greg Kelly said, “This time next week, we may be able to declare victory and warn Iran, don't do it again. But it could be over.” Kelly’s comments were illustrated by a graphic that read “I Predict: War Over Soon.”
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From the March 9, 2026, edition of Newsmax's Greg Kelly Reports
Finnerty doubled down the next night. “The war in Iran appears to be winding down,” he said. “I think it is.”
Also on March 10, Fox News’ Sean Hannity weighed in during his Premiere Radio Networks radio show. “I am a firm believer that this is going to end very quickly,” Hannity said.
As the month drew to a close, Hannity again saw the conflict’s end in sight, telling his radio audience, “It's going to be on the verge of wrapping up no later than three weeks from today is my prediction.”
That was on March 30.
Conservative pundits claim in March that Trump had won the war
Sometimes right-wing talking heads went even further, not just claiming that the war would end soon but declaring that Trump was already the victor.
On March 5, Ingraham stated flatly: “Trump has already won in Iran.”
In response to a press briefing by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on March 13, Heritage Foundation senior counselor James Carafano said, “The reality is the U.S. has already won this war, period. Mic drop. End of statement.”
Although Kelly’s “War Over Soon” prediction hadn’t come to pass, on March 16 the Newsmax host tried to speak that reality into existence. “I think we kind of just won the war,” Kelly said, adding: “I think we got this.”
Carafano echoed Kelly on March 23, arguing that “it does make sense for the U.S. to say, ‘Hey let's wind this down.’ Look, from America's perspective, dude, we’ve already won."
It’s now been at least three and a half months since these pundits made their various rosy predictions. Contrary to their Pollyannish analysis, the war appears to be expanding, as Iran continues to bomb U.S. military bases in the region and the Houthi militants in Yemen impose a blockade on Saudi Arabia to mirror Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
In light of these developments, a recent Fox News guest offered a different timeline, drawing inspiration from operations the U.S. military conducted after the 1991 Gulf War.
“I do expect that we're going to be there a long time,” said Robert Spalding, a retired Air Force general. “You know Operation Northern and Southern Watch went on for, you know, almost 20 years, I think.”
“I think this is going to be something similar,” Spalding continued. “We're going to have to stay there.”
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Fox guest predicts the US will be in Iran “for a long time”
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...Others on the right have denied, excused, or downplayed Trump’s self-dealing
- Fox host Greg Gutfeld excused Trump's Qatari jet and crypto ventures, saying that Trump was “making billions before and he will make billions after.” Gutfeld said, “He didn't put a gun to anybody's head and took money from them” and questioned, “How much money did the Clintons and the Obamas make after they were president?” [Fox News, The Five, 7/1/26]
- After Fox anchor Bill Hemmer talked about the danger of “investigations” into the Trump family if they “lose control of Congress,” Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade said, “Both Eric and Don said they have nothing to do with that mining company.” Hemmer immediately clarified that they were discussing the mine in Kazakhstan. [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 7/1/26]
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'Psychopath’ Gutfeld destroyed for fantasizing assault upon a kid’s show host - Alternet.org
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'I refuse to care': Fox host says he 'can live with' Trump imprisoning innocent people}:
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In the past, Republicans and Democrats had some famous alliances: conservative President Ronald Reagan and liberal House Speaker Tip O'Neill (D-Massachusetts), conservative Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) and centrist Democrat Joe Biden. And veteran Democratic strategist James Carville is married to a famous conservative consultant: Mary Matalin, who left the GOP in 2016 and joined the Libertarian Party.
But President Donald Trump is known for vilifying both liberals and conservatives who disagree with him.
Comedian and Fox News host Greg Gutfeld, on the panel show "The Five," expressed disbelief that some liberals don't want to be friends with a Trump supporter like himself. And he made that argument on more than one broadcast.
Gutfeld told other panelists, "What does that mean to me if I'm your Republican friend who voted for Trump? That you would believe I would support a Nazi? We've been friends for years. ... How were we friends for ten, 20 years — and now, you found out I was a fascist? How did that happen? You knew I was a right-winger in the 1980s and 1990s — and now, all of a sudden, you're like, 'I can't be seen with him.'"
But liberal Fox News pundit Jessica Tarlov explained why liberals have a problem with Trump supporters, describing Trump as a "completely, morally bankrupt person."
Tarlov told Gutfeld, "Care leads to voting, and then voting leads to bad policies that make life harder. ... Because you like him, he's my president."
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April 20, 2026, edition of Fox News' The Five
GREG GUTFELD (CO-HOST): The reason why he gets a warm embrace there is because they don't know what he's done. The only way he can get any recognition is if they don't recognize him. Who is this guy? They don't like Trump, he doesn't like Trump, that's okay. Again, it's a Trump alignment problem. If Walz goes abroad to bash Trump, he's also bashing America because he's the agent for America and he's seeking out an audience that actually appreciates it. He is, in effect, a traitor. But we already knew that.
Now I will defend Democrats because they are the opposition party, and you really only have one role: opposition. This is why when we talk about how politically divided we are, it's true, but it's also kind of baked in the system. You can't expect the Dems to embrace the Republicans when the Dems aren't in power. That's how it works. However, you do expect fierce opposition with a measure of responsibility, you know? If there are two boxers in the ring, you don't -- there's an agreement one isn't going to enter the ring with a switch blade. But they have decided that Hitler -- or Trump is Hitler, therefore you can suspend the rules. You can unleash lawfare, you can create hoaxes, you can involve foreign actors and you can fly to other countries to trash the president because he's different. He's different. But this is still the same thing. It's still treason.
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The Majority Report w/ Sam Seder
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FUN HALF: https://youtube.com/live/MJip3WVxqDM?... 2/26/26 - Emma Vigeland welcomes Daniel Boguslaw, investigative reporter at the Intercept, and later DSA Co-chair Ashik Siddique (he/him) and DSA Co-chair Megan Romer (she/her). They are the two elected leaders of the organization for 2025-2027 Check out Daniel's work for the @TheInterceptFLM : https://theintercept.com/staff/daniel... Check out the DSA's website: https://www.dsausa.org/
Greg Gutfeld says Ilhan Omar has 'no right' to that level of rage in the US after SOTU outburst
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The Gateway Pundit
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com › 2026 › 02 › greg-gutfeld-rips-ilhan-omar-her-behavior-during
Greg Gutfeld Rips Ilhan Omar Over Her Behavior During Trump's SOTU ...
2 days agoScreencap of Twitter/X video. During The Five on FOX News today, host Greg Gutfeld tore into Rep. Ilhan Omar over her unhinged behavior during Trump's State of the Union address last night. He began the segment by talking about all of the disgusting behavior of Democrats but eventually zeroed in on Omar, saying 'She Repulses me.' Gutfeld pointed out that Omar is lucky to be in America at ...
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February 3, 2026, edition of Fox News' The Five
GREG GUTFELD (CO-HOST): You go back to the revolutions. The Bolsheviks, a radical minority, trying to impose their will and power on the majority, and they can only do that through fear, intimidation, organized violence, oppression, and the way they often do that is they use women and children. Why? Because children don't know any better and it's frightening to see it happen. And women can have their compassion and their emotions hijacked and they're often the most passionate revolutionaries. I mean, the Manson family, those murders were done by young women who believed in a cause. And when you talk to them, they don't know why.
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January 13, 2026, edition of Fox News' The Five
GREG GUTFELD (CO-HOST): You create the environment and then you complain about the consequences. When you kick over a beehive, don't complain when the bees come back at you. When you poke a bear, don't say, "I can't believe the bear is chasing me."
JESSICA TARLOV (CO-HOST): You have a right to stand there and yell at officers --
GUTFELD: That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about -- you guys are deliberately creating an environment so that there is chaos, and when there is chaos, you go, "Oh, my god, someone gets hurt." What do you expect in chaos?
TARLOV: You don't think that they're trying to create chaos?
GUTFELD: Yes.
TARLOV: No, the ICE officers.
GUTFELD: These organizations desire chaos. How naive are you?
DANA PERINO (CO-HOST): You wouldn't have this chaos if Minnesota police cooperated with the federal government.
TARLOV: There are Americans being pulled out of their cars. Americans.
JESSE WATTERS (CO-HOST): You know why, Jessica? Because they're getting in the way. Why do you think she got pulled out?
TARLOV: Yeah, that woman driving to her doctor's appointment --
GUTFELD: She was just a mom in the wrong place? You guys lie about all of this.
WATTERS: That's another hoax. You're going to find out tomorrow, she was not going to a doctor's appointment. She was obstructing an ICE operation. And these resignations, Jessica, that's another hoax. It's already been debunked. How can you look at these videos --
TARLOV: Debunked by who?
WATTERS: By everybody, hours ago that was debunked. They resigned in like October.
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January 9, 2025, edition of Fox News' The Five
GREG GUTFELD (CO-HOST): The real compassion comes from the people who've been pointing this out, who've been warning that this was going to happen. It doesn't matter to the people -- clearly, it's not going to change the mind of people on the left. You can show them any video they want. They're going to sit there and meticulously do all the stuff, "Oh, but did you see this? Oh, but did you see that?" Then you show them another video -- don't waste your breath.
They are selling you a lie. It's been around forever. This was all a set up. It may not have been her -- maybe they were hoping for a Black woman, probably. It would have been better -- believe me, they are not unhappy this mother is dead. She is being used. The goal was to get somebody killed, create a spectacle that explodes, so you have riots, so you have protests, and hopefully, in some minds, revolution. A lot of these people, they're not against ICE, they are against all law enforcement. They will not change their mind. They will continue to do this.
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...Select a sycophant
Jack Posobiec: “Not surprised Trump said what he said”
MAGA streamer Jack Posobiec — whose 2024 book describes leftists as “unhumans” and was blurbed by Vice President JD Vance — was among those on the right who initially sought to use the Reiners’ deaths to seize the moral high ground.
“You won’t see people on the right celebrating the horrific murder of Rob Reiner and his wife,” Posobiec bragged on Sunday night, as news of their deaths circulated. “Compare to the Left’s reaction to Charlie Kirk’s murder,” he said, referencing random people who had their lives turned upside down for their social media reactions to that tragedy.
But it’s dangerous to claim moral authority for your side when your standard-bearer is Trump. After the president weighed in, Posobiec pivoted, suggesting that it is appropriate to post mean things about someone if you had strong political differences.
“Rob Reiner called for Trump to be jailed over lies,” Posobiec wrote. “Not surprised Trump said what he said.”
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Posobiec subsequently mocked “people telling on themselves for crying over a mean Trump tweet,” finding Trump’s response acceptable because “the Left wants us all dead.”
Laura Loomer: “Trump is right.” Reiner is a “loser.”
Laura Loomer, a fanatically loyal Trumpist with deep ties to the administration who is trying to foment an anti-Muslim crackdown, responded to Trump’s post by claiming that “Trump is right” because “Rob Reiner had a level of TDS that likely exuded a level of craziness around those he spent time with.”
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She also cited a fake post from Reiner, whom she described as a “loser,” and declared, “I stand with President Trump.”
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And she lashed out at the “simps” and “fake grifters” who are “calling Trump out for speaking truth about Rob Reiner.”
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Kurt Schlicter: Critics are “little bitches”
Kurt Schlichter, the TownHall.com columnist and frequent guest host for Fox contributor Hugh Hewitt’s Salem Radio Network show, is perhaps best-known for his fantasies about a potential race war and other glorifications of political violence against the left. He repeatedly ranted on Monday about conservative pundits who criticized Trump over the Reiner remarks.
“This Trump tweet about the guy who spent a decade slandering him in the most despicable ways possible provides the perfect opportunity for that kind of weak, feminine pseudo-conservative to do what they love best - join the left in whining like little bitches about how actual conservatives are so...so...soo...oh well I never!” he commented.
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After conservative pundit Erick Erickson commented that “the whole point should be that we are not them,” Schlichter responded that the right shouldn’t try to act like “good people” because the movement’s ends justify being “a bad person in the eyes of those too weak to stand and fight.”
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“Every tyranny in history embraced this,” Erickson responded.
Greg Gutfeld: “We don’t have to like it. I just look at [Trump’s] deeds.”
When Democratic co-host Harold Ford Jr. mentioned Trump’s post on Monday’s edition of The Five and said that he hoped the president “corrects himself,” fellow co-host and notorious lacker-of-principles Greg Gutfeld rose to the challenge of explaining to viewers why what Trump says doesn’t matter.
“You don't have to like the things that he says all the time,” Gutfeld said. “It is why in my filter, Trump is always words versus deeds. I don't have to like what he says. In fact, I can hate what he says. But I can also think, in his brain, he is going, uh, this guy compared me to Hitler, he put a target on my back, I don't like him. And it’s like, well — if it were me I’d go, like, but I’m sorry he’s dead. But he can't let that go.”
“We don't have to like it,” he concluded. “I just look at the deeds.”
Greg Kelly: “President Trump levels with us. He is not a phony”
Newsmax host Greg Kelly, who has argued that Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) “should be in jail” and that Jeffrey Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell “just might be innocent,” justified Trump’s Reiner comments on his Monday night broadcast.
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September 26, 2025, edition of Fox News' The Five
GREG GUTFELD (CO-HOST): It's Comey's turn. And remember, you know, the Dems love due process, so let's due process the hell out of this guy. He may get away with it, but he's got to go through the process. I love the media saying that, you know, Trump has set a precedent. Have they forgotten Julie Honey, Bannon, Stone, Navarro, Papadopoulos, the Trump supporters, what, a thousand of them? They invented lawfare. So, they can call it revenge. It's not revenge if you have it coming and if it's justice.
Here is the issue. Here is the thing you've got to remember about mutually assured destruction. It doesn't work when you go first and we're still standing. That's what just happened. When you come for us, you've kind of got to finish the job. Because now we're in power, and it's payback, revenge, I don't care what you call it. I don't care what the media calls it.
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JESSE WATTERS (CO-HOST): They're just mad Trump is doing to them what they did to them. So, I don't care what you call it. I'm with Greg, revenge, retribution, accountability, who cares? It's happening. And I'm enjoying it because these people need to be punished. If someone declares war on you, what are you going to just turn the other cheek? You're right. It is an eye for an eye, and I hope we win.
They're asking like, "Oh, well, this is like the revenge tour?" Well, what would the revenge be for, Jessica? What would the revenge be for? No one really answers that question all right? It's because they arrested him, they arrested his campaign manager, his campaign advisor, his lawyers, his national security advisor. They arrested his trade advisor and put him in shackles. They arrested his CFO. They arrested his valet. And not only that, they spied on him, staged a coup, impeached him twice, tried to bankrupt his company, leaked his tax returns, and then couldn't protect him from a sniper. So, what are you supposed to do? They didn't think this was going to happen?
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One primetime Fox News host appeared to downplay one prominent recent instance of right-wing political violence while exclusively blaming the left for the rise in political violence across the United States.
During the Monday episode of Fox News' "The Five," co-host Greg Gutfeld was arguing that the increase in political violence was one-sided, when liberal co-panelist Jessica Tarlov asked him about the murder of former **Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman (D), who was murdered along with her husband Mark in June. The alleged murderer also shot Minnesota state senator Jon Hoffman (D) and his wife, Yvette — though they survived – and had a "hit list" of 45 other political leaders, all of whom were Democrats. Sen. Hoffman was shot nine times, while his wife was shot eight times.
"You want to talk about Melissa Hortman? Did you know her name before it happened? None of us did," he said. "None of us were spending every single day talking about Mrs. Hortman. I never heard of her until after she died!"
READ MORE:'You will live in exile': Vance and Stephen Miller threaten the left in call for 'unity'
"So she doesn't matter?" Tarlov asked.
"Don't play that bulls--- with me," Gutfeld said after a pause. "You know what I'm saying is, there was no demonization, amplification of that woman before she died. It was a specific crime against her by someone who knew her."
"The fact of the matter is, the 'both sides' argument, not only doesn't fly, we don't care," he added. "We don't care about your both sides argument. That s--- is dead. There is no cognitive dissonance on our side."
The conversation about political violence comes in the wake of last week's murder of far-right activist Charlie Kirk. While the alleged shooter was registered non-partisan, he was raised by Republican parents and his grandmother told the Daily Mail that she wasn't aware of a single Democrat in the shooter's family. Messages on bullets found in the alleged shooter's rifle have been linked to obscure memes and niche video game references. No ideological motive has yet been confirmed.
READ MORE:'He's not doing well': Psychologists say Trump showing telltale signs of 'early dementia'
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Greg Gutfeld once denounced Donald Trump’s “antiscience point of view” on vaccines and autism
The Fox host is now a strong supporter of antivax crusader and HHS secretary RFK Jr.
Written by Matt Gertz
Research contributions from Isabella Corrao
Published 09/09/25
When a Republican presidential candidate pushed the falsehood that childhood vaccines cause autism at a 2015 debate, Fox News host Greg Gutfeld denounced that candidate for adopting a “hysterical antiscience point of view.” He warned that the false narrative was “stupid,” “destructive,” “deadly,” and “dangerous,” and described its proponents as “bozos” who risked the lives of children.
That candidate was Donald J. Trump.
A decade later, President Trump has installed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — the anti-vax crusader who has long blamed increasing cases of autism on childhood vaccinations — at the helm of the Department of Health and Human Services, which Kennedy is using to undermine public confidence in and access to vaccines.
And Gutfeld, rather than vigorously standing up for the importance of vaccination against the “antiscience point of view,” has embraced Kennedy as “open-minded” and honest, and is running cover for the secretary against his purportedly “unglued” critics.
The collapse of Gutfeld’s moral clarity demonstrates how the right stopped worrying about the potential deaths of children and brought vaccine deniers into the fold during the COVID-19 pandemic — and how fealty to Trump has become the MAGA movement’s sole defining principle.
Gutfeld in 2015: Trump linking childhood vaccines to autism “is destructive and it's ignorant because it’s not science”
Republican presidential candidates argued over the fabricated link between vaccines and autism after CNN moderator Jake Tapper raised Trump’s past comments about it during the party’s September 16, 2015, presidential primary debate.
Trump defended his prior remarks, calling for “smaller doses” of vaccines “over a longer period of time,” citing the case of “a beautiful child [who] went to have the vaccine” and then, “a week later, got a tremendous fever, got very, very sick, now is autistic.” Fellow candidates Rand Paul and Ben Carson, both medical doctors, responded by defending vaccines, with Carson noting, “We have extremely well-documented proof that there’s no autism associated with vaccination.”
Gutfeld picked this portion of the debate to discuss the following day on Fox’s panel show The Five, calling it “a moment that I didn’t like.” After airing portions of comments from Trump, Paul, and Carson, the Fox host warned about potential disaster if the GOP adopted such lies.
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From the September 17, 2015, edition of Fox News' The Five
“This is a really bad thing to happen to the Republican Party, an anti — hysterical anti-science point of view about vaccines,” Gutfeld said. “And using the anecdote with a child is destructive and it’s ignorant because it’s not science.”
“It’s a false causal argument to say because vaccines and autism symptoms appear at the same time, ergo, the vaccines cause autism,” he continued. “That’s the same as saying, you know when you have ice cream and you get sunburns in the summertime, therefore ice cream causes sunburns. It’s stupid and it’s bad for Republicans.”
“And not only that, it’s deadly and it’s dangerous,” Gutfeld added. “We’re seeing outbreaks of measles all around the world. We’re seeing it in Australia, we’re seeing it in Africa where people are actually dying. Meanwhile, we’re having outbreaks in Disneyland.”
“Why is this happening? Because people are listening to bozos who are questioning the validity of what is really a wall,” he concluded, referencing Trump’s call to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. “Science built a wall against disease and it’s called vaccines.”
Gutfeld didn’t stop there — he went on to criticize Paul and Carson for not being explicit enough in their criticism of Trump and defence of vaccines.
“It was terrible,” Gutfeld said of their remarks. “They’re doctors. And I’m glad Ben Carson, feebly, came up and said something, but they are doctors and they have a responsibility to defend the profession because there are doctors like them everyday who have to confront this argument.”
“Whenever they go in there and have worried mothers or elderly people who don’t want vaccines, they are the ones in the frontlines,” he added. “And those doctors are on TV and they should have come out, they should have been forthright about it.”
“You know, hats off, that’s just so strong and so right, I’m so glad you said that,” liberal co-host Juan Williams replied.
Gutfeld in 2025: “Open-minded” RFK Jr. is defending “his vaccine policies” from “unglued” Democrats who “gave us Rachel Levine”
As Gutfeld warned, Trump’s 2015 vaccine comments were a harbinger of the GOP moving toward a “hysterical anti-science point of view about vaccines.” But it was his network that played an instrumental role in that shift, first helping supercharge anti-vaccine sentiment within the party, then propelling Kennedy into Republican prominence and then Trump’s cabinet.
And Gutfeld, who once righteously ranted against both anti-vax Republicans and those who fail to offer a sufficiently vehement response to their lies, has taken up the side of the liars. He has long since made peace with Trump’s domination of GOP politics and rebooted himself as a MAGA diehard, adopting a tone far more deferential to the “bozos” he once decried.
In late January, following Kennedy’s confirmation hearing, Gutfeld could have tried to hold the line and urge Republican Senators to vote against someone who espouses a view he had described as “dangerous” and “deadly.” He did not, instead presenting the nominee as a “glorious mixed bag” whom the senators should support.
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From the January 29, 2025, edition of Fox News' The Five
“On one hand, he's passionate, he's persuasive, he's open-minded, he's not woke, he's interested in the world around him, not himself,” Gutfeld explained to his co-hosts in The Five. “On the other hand, he has stuff on vaccines and autism that seems more reliant on his gut instinct than science, the correlation, the rise of childhood autism or autism and the use of vaccines, it's not cause and effect, it's a correlation.”
“If I were in the Senate — and who's to say I'm not? — I would vote for him,” he concluded. “All Republicans should say yes.”
Republican senators, even those who had questioned Kennedy’s vaccine views, ultimately agreed with Gutfeld and confirmed Kennedy to lead HHS. Every Democratic senator and a single Republican — Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who survived childhood polio — voted against him.
Since ascending to the top position in the U.S. health bureaucracy, Kennedy has proved correct the critics who warned that he would use that power to carry out his political project of sabotaging the nation’s vaccination regime. Kennedy has slashed funding that went to vaccinate vulnerable children and terminated grants that supported research into next-generation mRNA vaccines. Amid a pediatric measles outbreak in the American Southwest, he went out of his way to talk down the need for children to be vaccinated against the disease.
But perhaps most concerning of all, Kennedy has replaced the members of a vaccine advisory board with his own picks — some of whom were notorious vaccine critics — who plan to review the childhood vaccination schedule. According to former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Susana Monarez, she was asked to resign and then pushed out when she refused to preapprove that board’s recommendations; her removal last month triggered an exodus of top CDC scientists.
When Kennedy appeared before the Senate Finance Committee last Thursday, he drew rebukes not only from its Democratic members but also from three Republicans who sit on the committee and voted for his confirmation. Notably, Sen. Bill Cassidy, a gastroenterologist, said that under Kennedy’s leadership, “we’re denying people vaccine,” while Sen. John Barrasso, an orthopedic surgeon, said he had “grown deeply concerned” with the secretary’s oversight of vaccination efforts.
But Gutfeld, introducing a segment on the hearing later that day, simply disappeared all the critiques from Republicans.
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From the September 4, 2025, edition of Fox News' The Five
“RFK Jr. defending his vaccine policies against Democrats on Capitol Hill, furious over his ousting of the CDC director,” he said. “Junior says it's time for new blood at the health agency after they failed Americans during COVID.”
He alleged that “the Dems came unglued” at the hearing, and later mocked them on the grounds that “they don’t look like they’re in excellent health.”
Gutfeld had previously denounced Paul and Carson for not being strenuous enough in their criticism of Trump’s vaccine claims, arguing that as doctors, “they have a responsibility to defend the profession because there are doctors like them everyday who have to confront this argument.” But he never got around to addressing the Kennedy criticisms made by Republican senators who are also medical doctors — though he did argue that, in his opinion, babies don’t need the hepatitis B vaccine the CDC recommends they receive at birth.
Gutfeld returned to the subject of Kennedy’s hearing the following day, this time offering a firm defense of the HHS secretary.
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From the September 5, 2025, edition of Fox News' The Five
“I can disagree with RFK on a lot of things and I have and I've written about it actually,” Gutfeld said, without outlining the subjects on which they disagree. “But I will never call him a liar. And I have seen him debate people who actually seriously disagree with him. And he does something that Democrats don't do: He listens.”
Gutfeld then recited a litany of examples he suggested show that it is Kennedy’s critics who are untruthful, claiming they are “disqualified from this discussion” because they purportedly “lied about” former President Joe Biden’s health; his son Hunter Biden’s laptop; the existence of man-made climate change; and “10% for the big guy.”
“I honestly cannot be told that my side is anti-science when you gave us Rachel Levine,” Gutfeld concluded.
That’s Gutfeld in a nutshell. A decade ago, he warned that Republicans would become “antiscience” if they adopted a Trumpian stance against vaccines. Now that has come to pass — but he won’t accept it because trans people exist.
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08/28/25 12:31 PM EDT
- ### Fox News championed anti-vaxxer RFK Jr. Now he’s killing research into next-generation vaccines.
08/11/25 9:56 AM EDT
03/12/25
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Eight damning new revelations about Fox’s 2020 election lies from the Smartmatic filings
Written by Matt Gertz
Published 08/21/25
Newly available filings in the election technology company Smartmatic’s $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News provide fresh insights into the network’s egregious and irresponsible promotion of President Donald Trump’s 2020 election lies — four and a half years after Fox’s propaganda helped trigger a violent insurrection in which enraged Trumpists sacked the U.S. Capitol.
The documents, which support Smartmatic’s motion for summary judgment and were originally filed in April, were first reported by The Washington Post after a judicial hearing officer removed many of the redactions.
The documents feature numerous previously unseen text messages and internal communications between Fox hosts, executives, producers, and other employees as Trump attempted to use false claims about the 2020 election to subvert the results of the election he lost and remain in power.
Fox’s internal machinations during this period were previously made public through the lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems, another election technology company which accused the network of defamation over its post-election coverage. Fox ultimately settled that suit as it went to trial in 2023 for a record $787.5 million.
The contours of Smartmatic’s story are broadly similar to — if no less damning than — the one Dominion told: Fox hosts and executives knew that Trump lost the 2020 election and that the claims of widespread election fraud he and his supporters pushed were false, but they nonetheless pivoted in the days following the election to promote such conspiracy theories -– including falsehoods about the company — because they were taking heat from viewers overcalling Arizona for Joe Biden and feared losing market share to more aggressive competitors like Newsmax
But the Smartmatic filings provide new evidence that helps flesh out the tale of Fox’s cowardice and corruption.
Maria Bartiromo leveraged her status at Fox to try to overturn the election: “I am news”
Maria Bartiromo was once a respected business reporter, but reinvented herself as a hardcore MAGA propagandist during the first Trump administration. But even as she went further and further down the conspiracy theory rabbit hole, Bartiromo has retained her position on Fox’s “news” side, anchoring Fox Business’ three-hour weekday program Mornings with Maria as well as the weekend show Sunday Morning Futures,which is simulcast on Fox News.
Smartmatic’s filings show Bartiromo leveraged that position as she tried to get Sidney Powell, the MAGA attorney notorious for her far-fetched election claims, to come on her Fox Business show in mid-November 2020. (Bartiromo hosted Powell on her Fox News show earlier that month to push election lies after Powell sent her an email featuring fraud hypotheses from someone who also claimed that “the Wind tells me I’m a ghost, but I don’t believe it.”)
“Sidney we must keep you out there,” Bartiromo wrote in a November 17, 2020, Signal message.
She contrasted her own role at the network with that of then-Fox Business host Lou Dobbs, another avid promoter of election fraud lies, and suggested she could provide more helpful treatment, saying, “Dobbs is considered very opinionated. I am news. How about Friday?”
Bartiromo later suggested to Powell that her own goal was to reverse the election results and keep Trump in power. “I am very worried,” she wrote. “Please please please overturn this. Bring the evidence. I know you can.”
Bartiromo still has both of her “news” shows.
- ### Jeanine Pirro explicitly declared her loyalty to Trump and the GOP
The filings show then-Fox host Jeanine Pirro texted Ronna McDaniel, then the chair of the Republican National Committee, the following on September 21, 2020: “I work so hard for the party across the country… I’m the # 1 watched show on all news cable all weekend. I work so hard for the President and the party.”
It’s not precisely news that Pirro viewed her work at the network as an extension of Trump’s campaign — it would in fact have been difficult to come away with a different conclusion after watching her commentary over the years.
Nonetheless, it’s helpful to have that confirmed explicitly in writing.
- ### CEO Suzanne Scott ordered promotion of Fox prime-timers in “news” hours
In mid-November 2020, I reported that Fox appeared to be trying to stave off its competitors by heavily promoting its prime-time “opinion” stars during its purported “news” hours. This campaign included the “news” programs running ads hyping the hosts casting doubt on the election results, airing on-screen bugs promoting their shows, and playing lengthy clips from the “opinion” shows.
The Smartmatic filings reveal that Fox CEO Suzanne Scott apparently ordered this breach of the purported wall the network maintained existed between its “news” and opinion divisions. She emailed top Fox executives on November 9, 2020, demanding that the “news” hours increase its promotion of “opinion” talent like Pirro and the prime-time hosts. She wrote (emphasis added):
On the website – its 345p and I still dont see our opinion folks being promoted on .com – I’m seeing a ton of FOX nation – need that changed asap for the next few weeks. Same for FOX News channel – not seeing nearly enough promotion of primetime talent other than the little bug. And we should get a Pirro promo in as well. This is something I called around about first thing this morning. I’m traveling next four days and expect this to be handled well.
- ### Sean Hannity hosted Rudy Giuliani despite complaining he was “insane”: “I’m not redpill78”
Sean Hannity went from considering Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani an “insane” person he could not conceive of hosting to welcoming him back onto his program in 10 days.
The Fox host functioned as an extension of Trump’s White House and regularly hosted Giuliani to spin Ukraine conspiracy theories that Fox’s research team said were not credible. But the former New York City mayor turned Trump lawyer was apparently going too far for even Hannity in the early days of Trump’s campaign to delegitimize the 2020 election results.
The filings show Hannity texted associates on November 10, 2020, to say of Giuliani: “He is going nuts. We canceled the guy. Read what’s wrong…. He’s insane.” He told producers the following day that Giuliani is “acting like an insane person. I’m not redpill78.” (According to the Smartmatic filing, “Hannity testified that his reference to ‘redpill78’” — a streaming program associated with the QAnon conspiracy theory — “indicated that he was skeptical” of Giuliani.)
On November 19, 2020, Hannity interviewed Giuliani about his election fraud claims.
Hannity subsequently testified that he had hosted Giuliani because he was a “top newsmaker.”
He retains his Fox prime-time show.
- ### Jeanine Pirro’s path back into the Murdoch network’s good graces
The Dominion filings show that a Fox executive took Pirro off the air the weekend after Election Day, preempting her November 7, 2020, broadcast because he did not “trust her to be responsible.” They also reveal that after Pirro’s show returned the following weekend, her executive producer struggled in vain to prevent her from promoting what he termed her election “conspiracy theories.”
Those filings, however, do not fully explain why Pirro returned to the air in the first place. Smartmatic’s filings fill in that gap: They show that Pirro’s removal sparked a backlash from the MAGA faithful that Fox’s CEO, at Fox prime-time star Sean Hannity’s urging, sought to quell by increasing Pirro’s profile and allowing her to comment without “being censored.”
According to the filings, Hannity told Pirro via text message on November 10, 2020, that he had already reached out to Scott to talk about issues including Pirro’s treatment by the network. When Pirro vented to her colleague, “I’M TIRED OF THE CENSORSHIP AND I’M EMBARRASSED BY HOW THEY CALLED THIS ELECTION,” he further explained that he was “looking for changes” including “to leave u alone.”
Hannity may have already been getting results: Scott’s email the previous day ordering more promotion of Fox’s opinion hosts included Pirro along with the prime-time hosts. A few days later, promos for Pirro’s upcoming show were running and being distributed through right-wing channels.
A flurry of communications about Pirro’s show followed between Scott and Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch and between Scott and Fox executive vice president of primetime programming Meade Cooper the day before Pirro’s next broadcast.
“Has anyone spoken to Judge Jeanine before her show this weekend?” Murdoch asked Scott. “It would be good if she corrects the record and clears up the schedule change last week.”
Scott passed the request on to Cooper, who replied that they weren’t planning to make a statement about that and added, “David Clark is reviewing all scripts and working with her on her open. She is very into not being censored but he is working with her closely on it.”
“We don’t want to censor her,” Scott replied.
According to the filing, Scott “had a conversation with Pirro related to coverage of election fraud claims before Pirro’s November 14 show.” The same day, when Hannity texted her to crow about all the promos she was getting, Pirro replied, “I gave 3 demands. New producer. No censorship. 9 pretapes. Suzanne [Scott] promised me NOT overruled by Meade cooper.”
The newly unleashed Pirro used the opportunity the cowed Fox executive team gave her to promote election conspiracy theories that ultimately proved very expensive for Fox.
But it’s hard to get disciplined at Fox for being too supportive of Trump — she was subsequently promoted to the weekday panel show The Five and recently left Fox to become U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia.
- ### Fox exec: “It’s not the talents call” to cut away from White House press conference pushing election lies
Scott’s handling of Pirro shows how willing Fox was to bend over backward to provide editorial independence to its conspiratorial opinion hosts. But “news-side” personalities at the network who tried to shut down such claims weren’t so lucky.
The Smartmatic filings show top Fox executives expressing dismay after anchor Neil Cavuto cut away from a November 9, 2020, White House press conference featuring press secretary Kayleigh McEnany and told viewers, “She’s charging the other side is welcoming fraud and welcoming illegal voting. Unless she has more details to back that up, I can't in good countenance continue showing you this."
Tom Lowell, Fox’s vice president and managing editor of news, subsequently told other top Fox executives that anchors like Cavuto should not have the authority to cut away from live events, writing: “Needs to be a chain of command here considering the environment we are in. It’s not the talents call and [t]he EP [Executive Producer] needs approval from you [Mitchell] or Jay [Wallace] in the handling of pressers.”
- ### Fox’s CEO on airing election fraud “witnesses” live: “This is BUSINESS”
When GOP state legislators put on a series of sham election fraud “hearings” in late November and early December 2020, which featured Trump’s legal team and discredited “witnesses” with unverified or debunked claims, Trump praised Fox’s right-wing competitors for airing the hearings live — and criticized Fox for failing to do so.
Scott responded to the pressure by urging her network to start taking such hearings live in a December 2, 2020, email to Lowell. She suggested that the “witness testimony” at the events constituted the “evidence that the news division has been saying doesn’t exist,” and concluded, “This is BUSINESS. RIGHT NOW BAD BUSINESS.” From her email:
The entire impeachment was about one anonymous hearsay whistleblower. We ran the Schiff Nadler show wall to wall. If we wanted to send a strong message to the audience, run the witness testimony. That’s called evidence that the news division has been saying doesn’t exist. Now will the results ever change. Odds are next to zero. This is BUSINESS. RIGHT NOW BAD BUSINESS.
Lowell admitted that the network had featured witness testimony in stories about the hearings without fact-checking them but warned Scott that airing the events live was not a good news practice.
“It is one thing for us to give a platform to the Presidents Attorneys and surrogates, or people like this guy on with Sean [Hannity] right now who signed an affidavit, but we need to be skeptical of some of these supporters who just wander in to make statements about things they think they saw,” he wrote in an email to Scott.
- ### Jesse Watters was told not to push election fraud lies, did it anyway
The Smartmatic filings provide new details about what Fox’s Jesse Watters was told and what he did during this period, while he was the host of the weekend evening program Watters’ World.
Watters was explicitly warned not to promote election fraud claims immediately after the 2020 election, according to the filings.
“On November 6, Watters texted Fox host Pete Hegseth, ‘By the way, did you get the memo about not saying fraud?’” the filing states.
Watters testified that this was a reference to instructions relayed by his producer, Megan Albano. In a text message the same day, Albano told Watters, “If we call the race, you cannot, under any circumstances, cast doubt on” the election because “the powers that be are not having any of it.”
This message did not stick, the filing shows: “On November 21, 2020, an original television broadcast of Watters’ World aired at 8:00 p.m. on Fox News. Dobbs appeared as a guest, discussing a ‘cyber-attack’ using voting machines to steal the 2020 election, and Watters presented an ‘investigation’ into Dominion and Smartmatic.”
The filing further states that in a text to The Five co-host Greg Gutfeld, Watters wrote: “Think about how incredible our ratings would be if Fox went ALL in on STOP THE STEAL.”
Fox has since given Watters two promotions — he gained his own weekday evening show in January 2022, and that program took over the network’s “pivotal” 8 p.m. timeslot in June 2023.
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August 12, 2025, edition of Fox News' The Five
JOHNNY JOEY JONES (CO-HOST): Lastly to Clyburn, if it's Jim Crow 2.0, just so you know, Jim Crow was pretty bad, but Jim Crow 2.0 is kind of great. I mean, we have it in Georgia and we had more people of color turn out and vote in this last election than ever before. So the more they use that -- the more they try to use the racist attack, the more the results yield something completely the opposite.
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an 8 25
Fox News sees the cancellation of ‘Colbert’ as a dethroning by their own right-wing comedian Greg Gutfeld, but ‘Gutfeld!’ is not comedy, says Salon contributor writer and critic Sophia A. McClennen.
“If you haven’t, watch a clip of “Gutfeld!” You will immediately notice that his jokes often get nothing more than a cringey, forced laugh from his audience,” writes McClennen. “… live audience size aside, Gutfeld’s jokes don’t get laughs during tapings because, well, they just aren’t that funny.”
McClennen says Gutfeld paints himself as a right-wing satirist, “despite the fact that his comedy rarely meets the standards of actual satire, which depends on a creative use of irony.”
READ MORE: 'Even MAGA people smell it': Critic says Trump moves show he 'thinks his base is stupid'
“Right-wing audiences regularly confuse insult comedy with ironic satire but, as I’ve argued, saying something s————— and then laughing, isn’t comedy: It’s just being a jerk.”
Gutfeld tries to drop zingers on versions of reality that he has entirely fabricated, says McClennen. Take, for example, his line from the opening monologue of his debut episode, when Gutfeld claimed: “The only time Stephen Colbert ruffles feathers is in a pillow fight.”
That’s a hard reality to back up, says McClennen, considering Trump himself “has had his feathers ruffled plenty of times by Colbert, so much so that the president celebrated the idea that Colbert’s show would be cancelled.”
Unlike Gutfeld, Colbert actually does get under Trump’s skin because his satire redefines the president for the public, “making it easier to understand an autocrat who is at once absurd and ridiculous, but also terrifying and megalomaniacal,” said McClennen.
READ MORE: 'Gigantic red flag': Jen Psaki reveals how new Epstein lawsuit is 'huge problem for Trump'
In contrast, McClennen says Gutfeld’s most successful moments “have been marked by a crude, jarring style that reinforces the power elite, stokes right-wing populism and justifies social inequality.” Worse, she says his jabs are “ultimately, entirely forgettable.”
But then there’s Fox News claim of their show's comparatively bigger audience than Colbert. 'Gutfeld!' claims his Nielsen ratings were higher than Colbert’s—but Nielsen ratings only apply to viewers who watch political comedy on televisions, said McClennen. It’s a different story over on YouTube, which hands ‘The Late Show With Stephen Colbert’ 10.1 million subscribers, and his opening monologues clips regularly nab around 2.5 million views.
"Meanwhile, the entire Fox News network has just over 14 million subscribers on YouTube. Clips from ‘Gutfeld!’ tend to average about 500,000 views on a good day, a consistent five times less than those watching Colbert’s monologues," McClennen said.
READ MORE: This MAGA hero may be the one to bring Trump's reckoning
Read the full Salon report at this link.
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Fox News scoffed that Andry Hernandez was “just a gay barber” when Trump sent him to a torture prison. Now, Fox ignores reporting that he was sexually assaulted there.
Written by Matt Gertz
Published 08/04/25
Fox News regularly downplayed concerns that the Trump administration’s denial of due process had resulted in immigrants sent in error to a notorious foreign prison, with one host mocking interest in the plight of a man he described as “just a gay barber.” That man, Andry Hernández Romero, said last week that he was beaten by guards, one of whom forced him to perform oral sex, during his 125 days in captivity.
Fox personalities were elated in March when the Trump administration dubiously invoked a rarely utilized wartime authority to deport over 250 Venezuelan immigrants to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), a megaprison known for its brutal conditions. The network had spent 2024 concocting a bogus narrative about a “migrant crime wave,” and they quickly and uncritically adopted the administration’s justification that it had targeted violent Tren de Aragua gang members for this treatment.
While Fox’s stable of propagandists bleated that the deportees were “the worst of the worst,” CBS News reviewed the names and found that three-quarters had no criminal record in the United States. Indeed, the group included people like Hernández, a gay 32-year-old makeup artist who entered the U.S. legally and passed a preliminary asylum screening. He had no criminal record or removal order but was detained and ultimately shipped to El Salvador over concerns about his wrist tattoos — crowns with the words “Mom” and “Dad” next to them.
Rather than express concerns over the U.S. government using such slight evidence to send people to a foreign prison known for its brutal conditions, Fox hosts ran cover for the administration. They accused critics of sympathizing with “illegal alien gangbangers,” accused them of pushing “false sob stories,” denounced news outlets that “only focused on” the innocent people sent to the torture prison rather than the supposedly guilty ones, and denied the importance of providing due process to determine which group is which.
Fox’s Jesse Watters on Andry Hernández: “It’s just a gay barber”
Perhaps the most disturbing discussion came during the March 31 edition of The Five, when Jessica Tarlov, the panel show’s lone Democrat, drew derision from right-wing co-hosts Jesse Watters and Greg Gutfeld for repeatedly directing the show’s attention to Hernández’s plight.
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From the March 31, 2025, edition of Fox News' The Five
“Time magazine was there when the gay barber from Venezuela who had a crown tattoo that said ‘mom’ was being processed coming into the El Salvadoran — oh, am I boring you again?” Tarlov said at one point. “I'm sorry.”
“No,” Watters replied. “But you've been talking about this gay barber from El Salvador with some stupid tattoo for weeks. Weeks, Jessica.”
“It's just a gay barber,” Watters added.
“He’s not into you,” Gutfeld interjected.
“He's an innocent guy who got swept up in a deportation, and hopefully we get it figured out and straightened out,” Watters continued. “But a lot of people in this country, Jessica, get arrested for things that they didn't do, get falsely accused, falsely convicted.”
“That doesn't mean you stop arresting criminals because one guy was arrested who was innocent,” Watters concluded. “It just means you just try to do it better the next time.”
What we did to Andry Hernández
Four months after that segment, the Trump administration managed to have Hernández returned to Venezuela as part of a prisoner exchange. Unfortunately, the administration didn’t “get it figured out and straightened out” before he was brutalized by guards, one of whom forced his penis into Hernández’s mouth and made him perform oral sex, Hernández subsequently told interviewers.
“Hernandez says the prison was hot and quiet. Guards would drag inmates out of their cells and beat them if they made too much noise,” NPR’s Manuel Rueda reported on July 27. “He slept on a metal plank without a mattress and shared his cell with up to 19 people. There was a toilet in each cell but no walls to separate it from the rest of the room.”
Rueda further reported that, according to Hernández, he was punished with confinement in a smaller cell “after guards caught him bathing outside regulatory hours. He says he was beaten with batons by three wardens in the small room and forced to perform oral sex on one of the guards.”
“In that prison, human rights don't exist, and the guards take pleasure out of seeing others suffer.” Rueda translated Hernández saying.
NBC News likewise reported on July 28 that Hernández said that “one day during his imprisonment he was taken to solitary confinement, where prison staff ‘made me kneel, perform oral sex on one person, while the others groped me and touched my private parts’ and ‘stroked me with their batons.’”
Fox has not reported on Hernández’s account, according to a Media Matters review.
And while Watters had expressed his vague hope for Hernández that “we get it figured out,” The Five is instead focused on issues he apparently finds more important.
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July 23, 2025, edition of Fox News' The Five
JESSICA TARLOV (CO-HOST): This is such old news, it's beyond comprehension that we're talking about it. And I understand that this Epstein situation is very tricky for the administration, and day by day it gets worse and worse and worse, but they are pulling out all of the greatest hits to try to inflame the minds of their most, you know, conspiracy theory-addled base, so that they hear "Brennan, Clapper, Obama, Hillary," and they get activated, and suddenly they won't be mad at Trump anymore for not releasing the Epstein files, or whatever he had to do with any of it. It's preposterous that we're talking about Hillary Clinton's emails again in the year 2025 --
GREG GUTFELD (CO-HOST): We have no choice. We spent years on this story --
TARLOV: You know what your choice is?
GUTFELD: No, let me -- we had to take this story seriously for years, and it was false.
TARLOV: It wasn't false.
GUTFELD: For -- no, no. For people to understand what happened, all right, because the problem with this story is that nobody knows what you're talking about. When Trump won in 2016, the intel community concluded that Russia didn't have a hand in his victory. Instead of accepting the inclusion, Obama determined and wanted a new conclusion, so he sent Brennan running to come up with a new collusion, that there was some kind of trivial involvement that then they could feed out to the media, and coincidentally dozens of news organizations said that Trump was in bed with Putin and that somehow Brennan knew. Brennan knew. How did he know? There was no proof. There was no proof --
TARLOV: Why did John Durham do nothing? Okay. Why did Durham do nothing, then?
GUTFELD: Let me finish. They amplified a false conclusion that Trump colluded with Russia in 2016. We had to spend years dealing with that. And now we're actually getting investigation, and you're saying, "No, you know what? You guys should just move on. You guys should just move" -- you say the same effing thing about Biden's brain! You guys spent four years telling us that Joe Biden was fine. You covered up for an invalid. And then when we get the truth, it's like, "Oh, you know what? It's time -- we've got to look forward. We've got to start talking about what's there."
And you can bring up Epstein all you want. We, unlike Democrats, we can handle two things, three things, four things at once. We --
TARLOV: Doesn't seem like it.
GUTFELD: No -- have you been listening to the right lately? The right is more on top of Epstein than the Democrats are. The Democrats never cared about Epstein until they saw a political motivation. The right was into the Epstein story because -- women were being sex trafficked! We actually care! But now you're like, "Ooh, Epstein, a political angle, ooh, this is fantastic." Save me your selective outrage.
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Greg Gutfeld says women were more skilled before DEI because “they had to be better than everybody else”
07/22/25 6:39 PM EDT](https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/greg-gutfeld-says-women-were-more-skilled-dei-because-they-had-be-better-everybody-else)
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an 7 25
One of the nation’s most prominent civil rights attorneys is denouncing Fox News co-host Greg Gutfeld’s attempt to normalize the word “Nazi,” diminish its horrific meaning, and strip it of the weight it carries. And she’s asking why so few seem outraged by his remarks.
“This is why the criticism doesn’t matter to us when you call us Nazis. ‘Nazi this,’ and ‘Nazi that,’ Gutfeld declared on Tuesday (video below) during the cable network’s show, “The Five,” in a segment where the chyron read: “Dems Smear ICE With Nazi Comparisons.”
“You know what? I’ve said this before,” he continued. “We need to learn from the Blacks — the way they were able to remove the power from the N word by using it. So, from now on, it’s, ‘What up my Nazi?’ ‘Hey, hey, what up, my Nazi?’ ‘Hey, what’s hanging my Nazi?'”
Sherrilyn Ifill, the civil rights attorney, Professor of Law, and former president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, wondered where Americans’ outrage had gone.
READ MORE: ‘Popping Champagne’: Russia Scoffs, Snubs Trump’s 100% Tariff Ultimatum
“Just loathsome,” Ifill wrote. “I know it’s old school, but is there no demand that Fox fire him? Losing his microphone should be the minimum.”
Others also responded.
Progressive media outlet The Tennessee Holler called Gutfeld’s remarks “One of the most tone deaf and problematic 30 seconds of TV in our history right here. This will be tough to beat.”
The Lincoln Project responded, “So they’re just fully comfortable calling themselves Nazis now. Got it.”
The House Homeland Security Committee Democrats weighed in, writing: “Greg Gutfeld is an unwatchable racist clown.”
Mehdi Hasan, editor-in-chief and CEO of Zeteo News, wrote: “These quotes, even if said in jest, would destroy the careers of any other journalist on any other mainstream national media platform. But Fox doesn’t employ journalists and doesn’t have any journalistic (or decency) standards.”
READ MORE: ‘Divine Providence’: Johnson Paints Trump as ‘Miraculously’ Spared by God
Dr. Travis L. Stokes, Ed.D., as part of a lengthy response, wrote: “Let me get this straight: you’re comparing the Black community’s centuries-long, survival-forged, trauma-laden, complex reclamation of the n-word—a term born from slavery, lynching, Jim Crow, police brutality, redlining, mass incarceration, and generational trauma—to you and your little Fox News clowns tossing around ‘Nazi’ like it’s a TikTok trend?”
Philosopher, historian, and activist, Dr. Émile P. Torres called it, “The normalization of Nazism. Happening in realtime.”
This is not the first time Gutfeld has faced backlash for remarks invoking Nazism or the Holocaust. Two years ago, Gutfeld was rebuked for comments he made about Jews, the Holocaust, and Nazis.
“Officials at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum in Poland have criticized Fox News host Greg Gutfeld for saying on air that Jewish people survived Nazi concentration camps by being ‘useful’,” NBC News reported at the time.
Watch the video below or at this link.
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July 2, 2025, edition of Fox News' The Five
EMILY COMPAGNO (CO-HOST): I think the biggest case here is for impeding federal law enforcement. Because everything that ICE agents are in the course of doing is their official acts. I think obstructing law enforcement -- that's usually, or obstructing justice, is usually sort of more procedural. But go ahead and try. At the end of the day, I think it's important to send a message that behavior is not without accountability. And I'm not quite sure why all the proponents for this, including CNN, who defended itself by saying, "Well, we were just merely reporting it." But it was pretty clear it wasn't just reporting it. They were huge advocates for this.
GREG GUTFELD (CO-HOST): Breathless.
COMPAGNO: Yes. Why is it that for some reason they want people to have notice, and by people I mean the illegal immigrant that set the subway rider on fire, the illegal immigrant that raped the dead person on the subway, the illegal immigrant that killed Laken Riley or Jocelyn Nungaray -- her rapist and murderers. Why do you want to give those people notice when those victims have no notice. Laken Riley didn't get notice that there was an illegal immigrant lurking in the trees that was going to murder her. And the list goes on.
So I am sickened by this notion that not only is the app creator and the proponents and CNN calling for an additional vulnerability for these I.C.E. Agents that are already getting doxed and already getting attacked up 700%.
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Fox News’ Ben Domenech tells Ilhan Omar to buy a one-way ticket to Somalia
06/17/25
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Fox parroted DHS claim Padilla “lunged toward” Noem. Video debunks it.}:
06/13/25
After the Department of Homeland Security tried to justify Sen. Alex Padilla’s (D-CA) violent removal from a press conference by falsely claiming that he had “lunged toward” Secretary Krisi Noem, Fox News propagandists chimed in, alleging the senator “ran at” and tried to “bum-rush” the secretary. But video from the event shows Padilla standing calmly across the room from Noem, interrupting her event by asking her a question, as agents begin shoving him away.
Padilla was manhandled, forced to the ground, and ultimately handcuffed by federal agents after interrupting a Noem press conference at a Los Angeles federal building on Thursday. “I’m Sen. Alex Padilla. I have questions for the secretary,” Padilla, whose subcommittee oversees Noem’s department, said as the agents began forcing him from the room.
Democratic senators and political commentators responded with shock, anger, and revulsion as video of Padilla’s forcible removal circulated. But DHS, rather than apologize, issued a statement claiming Padilla “chose disrespectful political theatre and interrupted a live press conference without identifying himself or having his Senate security pin on as he lunged toward Secretary Noem.”
In fact, video from the scene shows Padilla did not “lunge” at Noem, instead standing and speaking in a level tone as he began asking his question and then saying, “I am Sen. Alex Padilla,” as federal agents pushed him out of the room.
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But Fox’s propagandists ran with DHS’ lies.
“Now Democrat senators are joining the riots,” Fox host Jesse Watters claimed on his prime-time show, as on-screen text read, “Senator cuffed after charging Noem.”
“Alex Padilla, the senator from California, got handcuffed inside a federal building this afternoon for lunging at a cabinet secretary,” he continued. “Kristi Noem was in Los Angeles giving a press conference about the riots when the senator barged in and ran at her, yelling and screaming.”
Watters added that Padilla was “lunging at” Noem and “screaming hysterically.”
The Five co-host Emily Compagno similarly said that “Padilla barged his way into DHS Secretary Kristi Noem's news conference on the LA riots, only to be forcefully removed and handcuffed while on the floor,” adding, “The DHS called it theater. They said he didn't identify himself. He had no senator pin. He forcefully lunged. Would you describe this as a stunt by the senator?”
Co-host Greg Gutfeld responded in part: “Padilla shows why you need order and grown-ups. This is a microcosm. Some guy bursts into a presser shouting, expects to be treated preferentially. He expected his invasion to be allowed. What does that sound like? Their policy with illegal criminals.”
Watters agreed with Gutfeld, claiming that Padilla had “bum-rushed a woman” and that he “seemed like a crazy man impersonating a senator.”
“If this is how this administration responds to a senator with a question, if this is how the Department of Homeland Security responds to a senator with a question, you can only imagine what they’re doing to farmworkers, to cooks, to day laborers, throughout the LA community and throughout California and throughout the country. We will hold this administration accountable,” Padilla told reporters following his release on Thursday.
To which one could add, if this is how DHS and Fox hosts lie about a senator when there’s video disproving their claims, you can only imagine how they’re lying about everyone else.
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mma
Fox attacks Scott Pelley for accurately describing Trump’s war on the press
Written by Matt Gertz
Research contributions from Alicia Sadowski
Published 05/29/25
Fox News and Fox Business hosts are lashing out at CBS News’ Scott Pelley for criticizing President Donald Trump’s attacks on free speech and civil society, even as his network’s parent company reportedly prepares to capitulate to the president’s assault.
“Journalism is under attack,” the 60 Minutes correspondent said in a May 19 commencement speech at Wake Forest University that went viral over the weekend. “Universities are under attack. Freedom of speech is under attack.”
While Pelley did not mention the president or the White House by name, no one missed the implication — including Fox’s stable of pro-Trump zealots.
- ### Fox on Pelley: “Trump-hating former anchorman” who is “full of rage” should be arrested
The mainstream press’s purported Democratic partisanship and untrustworthiness is one of the pillars of Fox’s programming. On Tuesday and Wednesday, it was Pelley’s turn as the networks’ media hate object of choice.
Sean Hannity, the Trump political operative who also hosts a prime-time Fox News show, denounced Pelley’s address as “full of rage and anti-Trump rhetoric,” adding that the 60 Minutes reporter is not a journalist but a “biased liberal radical talk show host” and “a phony liar.”
Former Trump economic adviser turned Fox Business host Larry Kudlow’s take was that Pelley had “the worst bout of Trump derangement syndrome,” while Harris Faulkner claimed he was “fighting for relevance.”
On The Five, Greg Gutfeld attempted to defuse Pelley's comments about authoritarian attacks on the press by pointing out that the CBS newsman hadn’t been arrested after his speech — only for his co-host, former Trump White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, to respond that “he should have been.”
And Laura Ingraham not only panned Pelley as a “Trump-hating former anchorman” — she used the opportunity to tout the Trump administration’s effort to punish his network.
“There's nothing worse than someone who pretends to be persecuted while ignoring real persecution, or pretends to be the keeper of the truths when associated with a network that did everything it could to protect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, even editing an interview with the VP to make her look smarter,” Ingraham said.
“So, it was bad timing for Scott's commencement sanctimony about truth and justice when 60 Minutes’ alleged corruption is being now cited as a potential sticking point in Paramount's $8 billion sale to Skydance Media,” she added. “Whoops. But the press has no one to blame but themselves.”
- ### Pelley is right — but his corporate bosses want to fold to Trump’s attacks
Pelley is correct about the Trump administration’s assault on the free press.
The president has long sought to discredit critical journalism. He decries reporting he doesn’t like as “fake news” and tries to chill it through a combination of personal lawsuits, threats of criminal investigations, and the weaponization of federal agencies against news outlets and their owners.
Pelley’s show and network, as Ingraham indicated, are among the biggest targets of this strategy. Trump and his allies claimed during the 2024 election that by airing two different portions of Harris’ response to an interview question — one on 60 Minutes and another in a preview of the interview shown on Face the Nation — CBS News had committed, in the president’s words, “the biggest scandal in broadcast history.” Trump called for CBS to lose its broadcast license and subsequently filed a $20 billion lawsuit against the network and its parent company, Paramount Global.
The only thing more insane than a legal attack over the editing of interview clips is Fox’s willingness to carry water for the argument. First Amendment attorneys told CNN that Trump’s suit was “ridiculous junk” and “a frivolous and dangerous attempt by a politician to control the news media.” And in January, then-Federal Communications Commission Chair Jessica Rosenworcel tossed a similar complaint filed by a right-wing group, arguing that it sought “to weaponize the licensing authority of the FCC in a way that is fundamentally at odds with the First Amendment” and turn the agency into “the president’s speech police.”
But while Rosenworcel warned against turning the FCC into “the president’s speech police,” her Trump-appointed replacement, Brendan Carr, apparently sees that as his mission. He said before taking the post that the complaint was “likely to arise” in the agency’s review of Paramount Global’s planned merger with Skydance Media, swiftly revived the probe afterward, and has slow-walked the merger ever since.
When the Trump administration tried a similar tactic in his first term, blocking Time Warner’s purchase by AT&T while the president railed against Time Warner subsidiary CNN, AT&T stood firm, fought it out in court, and won. Several law firms who fought back when Trump targeted them for retribution in his second term have also found success.
But Paramount and its chair, Shari Redstone, who reportedly “stands to clear billions of dollars on the sale of Paramount,” are apparently setting a different, more craven path. Reports have indicated for months that Paramount executives are eager to settle Trump’s lawsuit in hopes that his administration will then approve their deal. In April, 60 Minutes executive producer Bill Owens stepped down in light of what Pelley suggested was increasing, inappropriate Paramount scrutiny of CBS News reporting. CBS News President Wendy McMahon was forced out in May, saying, “It’s become clear the company and I do not agree on the path forward.”
Paramount’s capitulation appears to be coming to a head. The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that the company has offered Trump’s lawyers a $15 million settlement, but “Trump’s team wants more than $25 million and is also seeking an apology from CBS News.” The apology, the Journal reported, had been a sticking point for McMahon. Meanwhile, Trump’s legal team reportedly “threatened another lawsuit against CBS related to alleged bias of its news coverage,” while Trump himself responded to a different 60 Minutes broadcast by calling for the network to lose its license and directed Carr to “impose the maximum fines and punishment.”
If Paramount folds in the face of Trump’s extortion, Redstone may get her big merger payday. But the result will only encourage the president to make more attacks on CBS News and other news outlets. His aim is to quell negative reporting by any means necessary, and his appetite for humiliating and delegitimizing the press cannot be sated without news outlets becoming as servile as his Fox propagandists.
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MMA
05/15/25
CHRON tsd LIBS CRAZY BC TRUMP DEALS [PLAN?!]
May 15, 2025, edition of Fox News' The Five
GREG GUTFELD (CO-HOST): Trump has annexed the territory of common sense, and you have the Dems outside looking in, and they're convinced that it's just better to keep moving left then it is to just come join the fun, join the party, because they hate Trump so much. And by doing that, as you see with Springsteen, who is a pussy for doing that in another country and not doing it in America, he is a -- I already said it.
05/15/25
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mma daily bs
04/30/25 6:37 PM EDT
- ### Sean Hannity downplays the shrinking economy: “The GDP drop was actually supposed to be much worse”
04/30/25 5:18 PM EDT
04/30/25 4:41 PM EDT
- ### Fox anchor pleads with Gov. Andy Beshear to give Trump “a grace period” as tariffs rock the economy
04/30/25 4:11 PM EDT
- ### JB Pritzker called for mass protests. Right-wing media falsely accused him of calling for violence.
04/30/25
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mma
04/24/25
fox stars pass on defending Hegseth amid Pentagon “chaos”
Written by Matt Gertz
:{:{Published 04/25/25}:
Fox News’ biggest stars have stopped defending Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth amid the weeklong firestorm over their former colleague’s dysfunctional management of the Pentagon and his potentially illegal handling of classified information.
Three months after Vice President JD Vance broke a 50-50 Senate tie to install the historically underqualified Hegseth at the Pentagon, journalists routinely describe a department in “chaos.” Five top Hegseth aides have left the department since last Friday amid reports of “vicious rivalries,” and a “leadership vacuum.” Reporters further revealed that Hegseth had shared details about U.S. strikes in Yemen in a second unsecured Signal chat, potentially endangering U.S. service members, and had the app installed on his Pentagon computer.
Hegseth responded to his growing list of scandals with a combative Tuesday appearance on Fox & Friends, whose hosts defended his conduct.
But other Fox hosts have been silent, even after rallying to support Hegseth when his nomination came under fire and again following the first revelation of his use of Signal to share attack plans.
Fox’s evening lineup of The Ingraham Angle, Jesse Watters Primetime, Hannity, and Gutfeld!have ignored Hegseth’s struggles this week (a passing remark from guest Jimmy Failla to host Laura Ingraham was the only mention of the story on any of those shows).The Five, the Fox panel show which features Jesse Watters, Greg Gutfeld, Jeanine Pirro, and Dana Perino, also has not covered the subject.
Even Will Cain, who spent years sharing the couch with Hegseth as co-hosts of Fox & Friends’ weekend edition, hasn’t mentioned his former colleague’s name on his afternoon show this week. (He did not comment on Fox correspondent Kevin Corke’s report about the Signal story during Monday’s program.)
As Fox’s stars take a pass, full-throated defenses of Hegseth’s leadership are coming from the likes of MAGA stalwarts like Charlie Kirk, Benny Johnson, and Laura Loomer, while their corporate cousins at The Wall Street Journal editorial board savage his handling of the Pentagon.
Two explanations seem plausible for why Fox’s biggest stars have gone silent as their former colleague comes under fire:
- They’ve decided that the best way to help Hegseth is to keep pretending the Signal story is over, hide other damning reports about his leadership from their viewers, and hope the firestorm dies out.
- They think Hegseth’s performance is so bad and the stakes of his failure at the Defense Department are so high that they are unwilling to keep sticking their necks out for him.
Either way, this disaster was the predictable result of President Donald Trump putting a former Fox weekend host with little relevant experience in charge of the Pentagon. The secretary of defense oversees a massive budget and bureaucracy and has the authority under certain circumstances to launch nuclear weapons and end human civilization. The risks of handing the position over to someone because of their takes on TV are almost incalculably high.
Hegseth is currently struggling to manage the Pentagon when its biggest problem is a costly, ineffective, and apparently unending bombing campaign in Yemen. How will he respond if India and Pakistan start trading fire?
04/25/25
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04/23/2
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Greg Gutfeld gives panicked dismissal of tanking stock market
04/17/25
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mma 3 25
March 3, 2025, edition of Fox News' The Five
GREG GUTFELD (HOST): There are two funny things going on right now. One, it's like you're watching the media, walking in on a movie, at the third act, and they have no idea what happened before. And it's like, "Oh, my god, one man is beating up another man! This is terrible!" And then you rewind it and find out the guy that's getting beaten up had it coming, he's a criminal and he deserved it.
So, right now, I find it funny because to me this is a negotiation process. Anybody who has been in a negotiation knows there's always a walkout or a blow-up. I've done it, I don't know, 10 times. I get up -- whenever I'm in contract negotiations, I leave. It's the best tip for anybody. Get up and leave. You know what happens? It reset.
My prediction is, of course there's a deal. This was just a little step along the way, and anybody who freaks out about it has never -- this is the god of transparency, Donald Trump, just showed you how negotiations work. He might throw you out. He's turned this whole thing into Celebrity Apprentice. It's business. He realizes that if you want peace in the world, you don't spread democracy, you spread businesses because you create business relationships with people and then they don't want to kill you. It's as simple as that.
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MMA
The stars of Fox News have used their shows to defend President Donald Trump’s banning of Associated Press reporters from the Oval Office and Air Force One because the wire service refuses to adopt the administration’s renaming of the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America.” They’ve characterized the AP’s actions as “deadnaming” the Gulf and said that “the White House is right” to restrict its access in response.
But Fox has also reportedly signed on to a letter calling on the Trump White House to restore the AP’s access and characterizing the ban as “serious breach” of the First Amendment's protections for the press. So has Newsmax, whose on-air talent praised the White House response while attacking the “Fake News AP” as “Associated Propaganda.”
The disconnect demonstrates how Trumpist propaganda channels like Fox and Newsmax occasionally try to bolster their standing by play-acting as legitimate news channels which share the values of the free press, even as their on-air product plays to their right-wing viewership base.
Oliver Darcy reported Wednesday that “40 news organizations have signed onto a confidential letter circulated by the White House Correspondents’ Association supporting the AP,” including both legitimate news outlets and “the pro-Trump channels Fox News and Newsmax.”
Darcy published the letter, which said in part:
The First Amendment prohibits the government from asserting control over how news organizations make editorial decisions. Any attempt to punish journalists for those decisions is a serious breach of this Constitutional protection.
The decision to exclude The Associated Press from covering the president aboard Air Force One and in the Oval Office is an escalation of a dispute that does not serve the presidency or the public. News organizations must be free to make their own editorial decisions without fear of government intrusion.
...
We once again ask the White House to lift this ban on the AP immediately and to underscore its support for press freedom.
But that sort of defense of the First Amendment principles and repudiation of the Trump White House’s actions is a far cry from what the viewers of Fox and Newsmax have been hearing on those channels.
Indeed, the night before Darcy’s report, Fox star Jesse Watters said of the controversy on his prime-time show: “The Associated Press took Mexico's side. They're deadnaming the Gulf, so they got kicked out of the White House.”
Watters likewise said on his February 12 show, “The Associated Press is sticking with Mexico, and now they are banned from the Oval Office,” adding, “Kick them out. Kick them out, and kick some other people out while you're there. I have a list.”
Video
From the February 12, 2025, edition of Fox News' Jesse Watters Primetime
Watters’ colleagues were similarly blithe about the prospect of the federal government reducing access to reporters due to the editorial decisions of their outlet.
“So-called journalists in the media mob are ramping up their petty anti-Trump reporting,” Jason Chaffetz offered while guest-hosting the February 14 edition of Hannity. “For example, The Associated Press is still refusing to refer to the Gulf of America by its new name, despite recognition from Google, Apple, and other major outlets.”
After reading a quote from a White House official who said the AP’s decision is “not just divisive, but it also exposes The Associated Press' commitment to misinformation,” he commented, “The White House is right.”
Chaffetz later asked Fox contributor Joe Concha for his view of the White House’s restrictions on the AP. “It’s the best unintentional comedy of the week, Jason, hearing how The Associated Press, because they haven't been permitted onto Air Force One, into the Oval Office, that's somehow a threat to free press and a chilling attack on the First Amendment,” Concha said.
Other Fox hosts focused on mocking former CNN anchor Jim Acosta’s call for the press corps to take collective action and stop attending events from which the AP was barred. Greg Gutfeld said on the Wednesday edition of his show that the press would “love any excuse not to cover all of Trump's wins” and commented, “Your scam is up, media, and trust me, the hits are going to keep coming.” And guest-hosting Friday’s edition of The Ingraham Angle, Charles Hurt said of Acosta’s remarks, “I think that this derangement syndrome is in full swing, not just in celebrity la-la land, but also among our press brethren.”
Special Report, the flagship “news” show hosted by Bret Baier, has not addressed the controversy according to a review of its transcripts in the Nexis database.
Likewise, Newsmax hosts Rob Schmitt, Rick Leventhal, and Ed Henry teamed up to mock the AP and any concerns over whether the White House had breached the First Amendment during the February 13 edition of Schmitt’s show.
Video
Citation
From the February 13, 2025, edition of Newsmax's Rob Schmitt Tonight
On-screen text castigated the “fake news AP” and called the outlet “Associated Propaganda” as Schmitt introduced the segment, blaming The Associated Press for “refusing to accept Gulf of America” and said that “the media has no right to be” in the Oval Office.
Henry, a former president of the WHCA, began his response by saying that he would not be a “hypocrite” and “always stand up for the First Amendment.” But he went on to criticize the AP on the grounds that “it’s called the Gulf of America,” adding, “If you are not going to follow the actual name of the body of water, then I can understand why they don't want to give you access. You’re not playing with the basic facts.”
Leventhal also criticized the AP, saying that “they are supposed to be free of bias and opinion” and that by refusing to adopt the Gulf of America moniker, “you're saying you don't agree with the president, you don't like what the president did, and you're not going to play by his rules. That is completely opposite of what The Associated Press is supposed to be.” He added: “You can't make those kinds of unilateral decisions. You report the news, Associated Press.”
“That's exactly right,” Schmitt replied.
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MMA
Fox joins the Trump administration’s war on the veteran-heavy federal workforce
Veterans make up nearly a third of civilian federal workers, the vast majority of whom are employed to assist veterans and the military
Written by Zachary Pleat
Published 02/14/25
Many Fox News personalities have celebrated the Trump administration’s ongoing attacks on the federal workforce, which have ranged from offering questionable buyouts, purposefully demoralizing those who choose to remain in their jobs, and mass firings of recent hires.
But the federal workforce is the nation’s single largest employer of American military veterans, and the vast majority of civilian federal employees at Cabinet-level or otherwise major agencies work with veterans or the military.
The Trump administration has gone to war against the federal workforce
- President Donald Trump has signed multiple executive orders designed to slash the federal workforce. The New York Times reported that “on Inauguration Day, Mr. Trump signed an order that officially created the Department of Government Efficiency and gave the group the authority to install employees across federal agencies. He also signed another order empowering Mr. Musk’s team to work on a plan to slash the size of the federal work force through ‘efficiency improvements and attrition.’” More recently, Trump signed another executive order “directing agency officials to draw up plans for ‘large scale’ cuts to the federal work force and further empowered the billionaire Elon Musk and his team to approve which career officials are hired in the future.” The New York Times, [2/11/25]
- The Trump administration has offered millions of federal workers a “buyout offer” of questionable legality. NBC News reported that, as of February 7, at least 60,000 federal workers had accepted an offer of “deferred resignation.” But the article explained that the offer promises future pay that has not been authorized by Congress, and the agreement sent out to most agencies includes a waiver of all claims against the government. NBC News, [2/7/25]
- The Trump administration has drafted regulations to weaken federal worker protections. According to Politico, the drafted regulation “challenges former President Joe Biden’s rules designed to protect the federal workforce, established last April. Those measures gave workers the right to appeal if they were reclassified out of a role with civil service protections as well as the right to carry over those protections.” Politico, [2/11/25]
- Thousands of federal workers have been fired already, and potentially hundreds of thousands could follow. CNN reported that “the Trump administration broadened its effort to terminate thousands of probationary workers on Thursday, instructing agencies on a call to move forward with the layoffs.” The Trump administration is targeting these employees “because they have fewer job protections and lack the right to appeal.” According to CNN, “More than 200,000 employees have worked within the federal government for less than a year” and are at risk. The culling included employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs. CNN, [2/14/25]
- ## Fox News has gleefully joined in on the attack on the federal workforce
- Fox host Greg Gutfeld to federal workers: “You should be thankful you’re being fired.” Fox News, *The Five*, [1/29/25]
- Fox host Sean Hannity celebrated Trump’s purge of FBI agents: “It’s just fun to watch.” Premiere Radio Networks, *The Sean Hannity Show*, [2/3/25]
- Hannity responded to the Trump purge of the FBI by saying: “There are going to have to be hard questions for rank and file members in terms of their priority and whether or not they challenged some of the higher ups.” Premiere Radio Networks, *The Sean Hannity Show*, [2/5/25]
- Fox contributor Paul Mauro called for Attorney General Pam Bondi to criminally investigate USAID workers. Mauro said: “We just got Pam Bondi confirmed, right? Here's your first remit: Throw a squad, take a public corruption squad, and throw it at USAID. Go on the offensive. Don't be on the defensive because these people are ranting and raving. Go in there and let's find out how cognizantly it was done to subvert American policy. Because that’s criminal.” Fox host Harris Faulkner chimed in, “There you go.” Fox News, *Outnumbered*, [2/5/25]
- Fox Business anchor Gerri Willis argued that an “economic adviser” would encourage federal workers to resign from their jobs and “then go get a real job.” Fox News, *Outnumbered*, [2/6/25]
- Hannity told a desperate federal worker who called into his show to “make yourself as essential as possible” and said his wife should “show up in the office” even though she has a remote federal job. Hannity added: “I think working from home is going to be an issue, and maybe your wife should be a little proactive.” Premiere Radio Networks, *The Sean Hannity Show*, [2/6/25]
- Fox Business guest Stephen Moore excitedly predicted future government job losses after the January jobs report. Moore said: “I guarantee you that number is going to be down next month, because we’re already seeing the Trump administration really shred jobs in the government sector.” Fox Business, *Mornings with Maria Bartiromo*, [2/7/25]
- Fox anchor Dana Perino: “A new nemesis here that people need to think about … is government labor unions.” Perino continued: “These are labor unions that are formed for government employees and then they work against the American taxpayer who's paying their salary. So, a lot of these lawsuits and things where they're going to try to gum up the works and slow things down go back to government labor unions and people ought to pay attention to that.” Fox News, *The Five*, [2/11/25]
- Fox’sOutnumberedpanelists: Federal workers are “enjoying the American dream that they’ve destroyed for everyone else.” Fox News, *Outnumbered*, [2/13/25]
- ## The federal workforce is heavily oriented toward veterans and the military
- According to the Office of Personnel Management, “The Federal Government remains the Nation's leader in veterans' employment,” with veterans comprising “approximately 30 percent of the total Federal workforce” as of 2021.According to a 2021 OPM report, 53%, or more than 337,000 of the veterans employed by the federal government are disabled. U.S. Office of Personnel Management, [November 2023]
- University of Michigan public policy professor Don Moynihan told NPR: “The vast majority of the [federal] civilian nonuniform employees are either in Veterans Affairs, Homeland Security or the Department of Defense.” According to March 2024 data NPR presented from OPM, nearly 500,000 federal employees work for the Department of Veterans Affairs, and more than 750,000 work with the military. NPR, [1/31/25]
//
02/07/25
02/06/25 1:48 PM EST
02/11/25
mma
Trump is decimating the CFPB. Fox News isn't telling audiences what the agency does.
Written by Harrison Ray
Research contributions from Tyler Monroe & John Knefel
Published 02/14/25
Fox News mentioned key consumer protection measures from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau only once in its scant coverage of the bureau since Russell Vought, an architect of Project 2025, took over as acting director on February 7 and began gutting agency functions.
- President Donald Trump's recent appointment of Vought as acting director of the CFPB has sparked concerns as he has halted operations, hamstrung the agency’s efforts to protect consumers, and allegedly plans to fire 95% of the bureau's workforce.
Established in 2011 following the 2008 financial crisis, the CFPB has worked to safeguard Americans from predatory financial practices by implementing consumer protection measures, such as limiting overdraft fees at banks, a practice that often disproportionately affects low-income consumers; limiting credit card late fees; and removing medical debt from credit reports, helping millions of Americans struggling with financial burdens.
The CFPB's work has also included securing over $21 billion in compensation or other relief for consumers harmed by unfair financial practices, combating discriminatory lending, investigating mortgage servicing junk fees, protecting service members from unfair lending practices, tackling peer-to-peer payment fraud, and reforming the student loan servicing market.
- From February 7, when Russell Vought took over as acting director of the bureau, through 1 p.m. on February 14, Fox News mentioned the bureau’s key functions only once – and the mention came from one of the network's left-leaning contributors, Richard Fowler. His explanation of the bureau’s functions was met with scorn from Fox host Greg Gutfeld, who replied, “America voted for this. … Where were you on November 5?”
“Donald Trump did not go to the American people and says, ‘I want to raise your overdraft fees,’” answered Fowler.
- Video file
Video
From the February 11, 2025, edition of Fox News' The Five
- In total, the network has devoted a little more than 6 minutes of coverage to Vought's actions at the CFPB. Rather than informing its viewers about the consumer protection measures provided by the agency, Fox personalities at times mocked the idea that the CFPB protects consumers.
- Video file
Video
Citation
From the February 10, 2025, edition of Fox News' The Ingraham Angle
- The Trump administration’s attacks on the bureau have sparked concerns among consumer advocates who fear that without the CFPB's oversight, predatory financial practices may once again proliferate, leaving Americans vulnerable to financial exploitation. As National Association of Consumer Advocates senior policy director Christine Hines explained:
The horrific financial crisis proved that the financial services market needs a watchdog like the CFPB. Shutting the bureau down hurts the people the bureau protects from scams and predators, and it will hurt the companies that clearly need the agency’s fair rules, guidance, and law enforcement to deter potentially foolish behavior.
- ## Methodology...
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