mark levin 2 radio bak
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see main RW radio guy (ntbcw marc atty)
NO MERRI
fox show Life, Liberty, and Levin,
big booster iran war 3 26
HYPE DEMoNIZATION DESTROY AM GRT
SEE FOX HANNITY
see GAI peter s
freq mma: https://www.mediamatters.org/mark-levin TAG some neglect
hateful toad
talk radio
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MMA CRASH OUT?
After Democratic midterm blowout, Iran war propagandist Mark Levin rewrites history
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MMA
Trump’s Fox Cabinet urges escalation as he ponders a return to war in Iran
05/18/26
Trump’s Fox Cabinet urges escalation as he ponders a return to war in Iran
Written by Matt Gertz
Published 05/18/26
As President Donald Trump prepares to meet with top aides to discuss next steps in the Iran war, his Fox News Cabinet is advising him to escalate.
Influential pundits on the MAGA propaganda channel are telling the president that he currently holds “the cards” and are urging him to use U.S. military might to seize Iran’s uranium stockpile, force open the Strait of Hormuz, assassinate the country’s leaders, and overturn its regime.
Fox has played a key role in getting the U.S. into the quagmire in Iran, with the network’s hosts (who often double as off-the-books presidential advisers) counseling him to launch the campaign in February. They continued to cheer him on over the following weeks, even as Iran’s regime remained intact and in control of its nuclear stockpile, its seizure of the Strait of Hormuz sent fuel prices soaring, public support for the war cratered, and analysts issued dire warnings of U.S. strategic defeat.
With Trump’s ceasefire with Iran failing to produce a more permanent agreement to end the conflict, the president has returned to saber-rattling and reportedly plans to meet with “his top national security team in the Situation Room on Tuesday to discuss military options.” And Fox, which often plays an influential role in shaping Trump’s worldview through its coverage, is already banging the drums for a return to war, telling its viewers — which on any given day can include the president — that the war is a success and that Trump is in control of the situation and can easily escalate without risk.
Brian Kilmeade, one of the network’s most prominent hawks and a co-host of the president’s favorite morning show, Fox & Friends, on Monday morning proposed a series of simultaneous U.S. strikes against Iranian targets.
He called for the U.S. military to “open up the strait,” “grab the uranium,” and “target these bad actors that have been insincerely negotiating with our group,” an apparent reference to assassinating Iran’s diplomatic team. Kilmeade added that “the best chance for no casualties is you open up four different fronts immediately, simultaneously.”
:{Video
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From the May 18, 2026, edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends
Fox correspondent Trey Yingst stressed on the same broadcast that Trump’s strategy has put him in control of the situation and left Iranian leaders desperate for a deal to avoid further U.S. strikes.
“President Trump holds the cards here, according to regional officials, who say that his strategic patience has given him not only the upper hand on the battlefield but also at the negotiating table,” Yingst said. “Now the Iranians … are grasping at straws. They are trying to find some path forward that would give them an agreement at least temporarily to enter into deeper negotiations to avoid such a bombing campaign.”
He added that Iran’s economic situation is “truly dire” and its officials “are having to try to sell a reality to the people that doesn’t exist. They were defeated militarily during Operation Epic Fury.”
:{Video
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From the May 18, 2026, edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends
And KT McFarland — a former Fox personality turned Trump national security adviser — even suggested during her Fox & Friends appearance that China would hesitate to engage the U.S. militarily because the U.S. success in Iran has shown them to be “no match for America militarily.”
“If you are the Chinese leader, you’ve got to look at what the United States is just pulling off in Iran,” she said. “The unbelievable precision, the capability, how everything seems to work together. We seem to have done the miraculous.”
:{Video :
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From the May 18, 2026, edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends
Likewise, Mark Levin, the nasal-voiced Middle East hawk who Trump has urged supporters to watch for his Iran commentary, spent the weekend urging the president to push for regime change in Iran.
On Saturday night, Levin hosted retired Gen. Keith Kellogg, a former Fox contributor Trump named as a special envoy in 2024 who has called for “putting boots on the ground” in Iran and for the U.S. to seize its territory “like the Romans did” in Carthage.
After Levin called Trump “the only president that's put his foot down firmly and said no,” Kellogg added that “there's been eight presidents since the revolution in Iran, and only one, Donald Trump, has done something about it.” He then called for Trump to seize Iran’s Kharg Island and Qeshm Island to force open the strait.
“I would just say, go full in, get rid of this regime, whatever it’s going to take out there, because as long as you’ve got the theocratic leaders, as long you’ve got mullahs running that government, you’re going to have this problem, not just today, tomorrow, a month from now, but five or 10 years for the next presidency or our grandchildren, or children as well,” Kellogg added.
“All right, I appreciate that,” Levin replied. “I agree with that. And we’re there. Let’s get it over with already. And what do I mean by that? Destroy the regime, help the people, so they can help themselves.”
:{Video
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From the May 16, 2026, edition of Fox News' Life, Liberty, and Levin
After a similar segment on Sunday night’s show featuring right-wing commentator Josh Hammer, Levin again said the U.S. needs to “eliminate that regime, because it’s the only way to prevent them once and for all from getting a nuclear weapon, tomorrow, 10 years from now, 20 years from now.”
:{Video :
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From the May 17, 2026, edition of Fox News' Life, Liberty, and Levin
Levin followed that up by interviewing right-wing commentator Jim Hanson, who served in the U.S. Army special forces, about how the U.S. could, as Hanson put it, “slow roll an internal unrest” in Iran “until the regime finally gets overthrown from within.” Levin suggested that this would be necessary because the Iranian regime could not be trusted to follow through on any deal Trump made.
“We have a deal, whatever the deal is, let's say it's the greatest deal since sliced bread,” Levin pontificated. “Are future presidents, future Congresses, the American people in the future, do you think we're going to be willing to enforce a deal if they break the deal, which I think they obviously will when the president leaves?”
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03/02/26 1:12 PM EST
05/13/26 1:23 PM EDT
03/12/26
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As Trump accuses news outlets of “TREASON,” Fox models MAGA Iran coverage
Written by Matt Gertz
:{Published 05/13/26
While President Donald Trump accuses news outlets of committing “virtual TREASON” by producing reporting that suggests the United States is losing his war against Iran, the president’s loyal Fox News propagandists keep telling him that he’s doing a great job, saying he’s on the verge of victory, and suggesting he can fail only by backing down.
Ten weeks after U.S. and Israeli forces attacked Iran — and nine weeks after Trump demanded “unconditional surrender” of its leaders — Iran’s regime remains intact and in control of both its nuclear stockpile and the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial route for global trade whose closure has spiked domestic fuel prices. In The Atlantic, Brookings Institution senior fellow Robert Kagan wrote Sunday that Trump’s decisions have put the country on the brink of a “total defeat” whose consequences “can neither be repaired nor ignored,” and he noted that “any resolution other than America’s effective surrender holds enormous risks.”
With his war at a standstill and the Iranians rejecting his demands for a negotiated settlement, the president has repeatedly lashed out at the press for undermining the effort by producing “treasonous” reporting — an attack he resumed on Tuesday afternoon.
“When the Fake News says that the Iranian enemy is doing well, Militarily, against us, it’s virtual TREASON in that it is such a false, and even preposterous, statement,” he wrote on Truth Social. “They are aiding and abetting the enemy! All it does is give Iran false hope when none should exist. These are American cowards that are rooting against our Country."
Recent reporting suggests that Trump and his allies have been lying about how successful the war has been.
Minutes after he posted that remark, The New York Times published a report revealing that contrary to the Trump administration’s claims, classified intelligence analyses reveal that “Iran has regained access to most of its missile sites, launchers and underground facilities."
Earlier this month, The Washington Post determined that satellite imagery shows that “Iranian airstrikes have damaged or destroyed at least 228 structures or pieces of equipment at U.S. military sites across the Middle East,” far more destruction than the administration has publicly acknowledged, while Reuters reported that U.S. intelligence indicates the war has not impacted Iran’s ability to develop a nuclear weapon, one of Trump’s putative rationales for starting it. NOT COUNTED IN COST?
Meanwhile, NBC News reported that Trump abruptly canceled his “Project Freedom” plan to force the reopening of the Strait after Persian Gulf allies objected.
But on Fox this week, the hawkish sycophants who encouraged Trump to launch the war in the first place are still telling him he’s doing everything right.
Mark Levin: Trump’s war prevented a second holocaust and a nuclear attack on America
Mark Levin, the nasal-voiced Fox host and sometime presidential adviser whose program Trump has urged the public to watch, devoted a lengthy and increasingly loud monologue on Sunday’s broadcast to lavishing the president with praise for launching the war and averting a second holocaust.
Levin denounced the Iranian regime and the war’s critics, claiming the latter “hate America and Israel so much they'd rather tens of thousands more Iranians die horrible deaths than see our country defeat this homicidal regime” and “care not at all, not one whit, that they are not only giving aid and comfort to this horrific enemy, but they are encouraging this enemy to slaughter, to execute, to rape, to torture, and to do what homicidal regimes do, because they know the enemy, that these people are in the bag.”
After urging the U.S. to arm and organize a Kurdish resistance to the regime, Levin praised the president, saying that while “humanity allowed the Holocaust to occur,” Trump and his administration had put “this Iranian Nazi regime … on its back."
:{Video
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From the May 10, 2026, edition of Fox News' Life, Liberty, and Levin
“The only president with the courage, the wisdom, the fortitude to confront this Nazi-like regime, this mass-murdering, nuclear-obsessed Islamist enemy, the world’s enemy, is Donald Trump,” he said. “And unlike other such circumstances around the world where genocide is taking place — and as a practical matter, we can’t get involved in all of them — in Iran, we have the opportunity to do something about it,” he continued, calling Iran “the biggest concentration camp in human history right now.”
Levin went on to host Fox contributor Newt Gingrich, who said the Iranian regime was “fully as evil as Adolf Hitler was or Joseph Stalin was” and the war was necessary to prevent Iran from deploying a nuclear weapon “in your neighborhood,” and Fox senior strategic analyst and retired Gen. Jack Keane, who urged the president to revive Project Freedom, “return to combat operations,” “put Kharg Island on the table,” and implement an intelligence operation to overturn the Iranian regime.
Sean Hannity: Iran’s leaders should “get out while they can”
Sean Hannity, the president’s chief mouthpiece at Fox, said on Monday’s show that Iran’s leaders are on the verge of fleeing the country.
:{Video
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From the May 11, 2026, edition of Fox News' Hannity
After parroting Trump’s statement earlier that day that the U.S.-Iranian ceasefire is “on life support,” Hannity cited unspecified “reports tonight that Iran's very fractured fourth-tier leadership, they may be planning an exit to Russia and Vladimir Putin.”
“Now, if you recall, on this program before Epic Fury, there were reports the supreme leader, other leaders were planning a move, that they had planes with cash and currency on a tarmac ready to go,” he continued. “I said multiple times, my advice to all of them is to get out while they can. The supreme leader, all his top leadership, and then the next tier and pretty much the third tier, they're all dead. They should have listened to me then. My same advice applies here.”
Hannity then brought on Fox correspondent Kevin Corke for a report on the war, telling him, “I think they're just lashing out in utter complete paranoia, but this report that they might be planning an exit is intriguing to me.”
“Yeah, intriguing indeed,” Corke replied. “And I salute you. You are spot-on. You gave him great advice. Of course, they didn't listen and it could cost all of them.”
Hannity was off the air on Tuesday night as he traveled with the president on his state visit to China.
Fox & Friends: “Are we on the 5-yard line? Of course, but the president had to take this action.”
The co-hosts of Fox & Friends, Trump’s favorite morning show, have spent the week alternating between assuring their viewers that victory is at hand and pushing for risky escalations to the war.
Ainsley Earhart on Monday floated a military effort to seize Iran’s nuclear stockpile. “The question is do we go in and get the enriched uranium? … Do the Israelis do it? Do the Americans do it?” she asked.
Lawrence Jones casually responded that such a mission — which experts say would constitute an immensely complex and risky endeavor — could be a “joint operation,” before pivoting back to how successful the war has been.
He criticized retired Adm. William McRaven’s declaration the previous day that the U.S. is “not really that much better off” than it was before starting war with Iran. “There is no doubt in my mind, taking out the ayatollah, a lot of their leadership, has put us in a better position,” said Jones. “Are we on the 5-yard line? Of course, but the president had to take this action.” (If the metaphorical language seems confusing, consider that Jones is operating within a worldview where it’s unfathomable that we’re farther from the war’s endzone than 5 yards.)
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From the May 11, 2026, edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends
On Tuesday, the trio stressed how important launching the war had been and praised Trump for carrying it out.
In one segment, Jones said that “we’ve been dealing with this threat for 47 years,” criticized news coverage in the face of the “phenomenal” military operation, and concluded, “I'm glad that the president has the will to deal with this."
“Don't forget the purpose of this,” Earhardt chimed in. “It is to get the enriched uranium away from them because they are planning a nuclear -- they want to have a nuclear weapon. What would they do with that? Well, they yell in the streets, publicly, death to America and wipe Israel off the face of the map. That's their ideology. That's how they think."
“They are not thinking clearly like Americans do,” she added. “They hate us with a passion, with a vengeance. And they have the capability, possibly, of building this nuclear weapon. So the president — that was why the president decided to begin this conflict.”
Brian Kilmeade added that Iran causes “chaos in the region” before adding, “For those people who think the president is boxed in and frustrated, I’m telling you, he gets coolest under pressure. He does not feel it at all.”
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megyn says levin wants her killed?
MMA
President Trump told his followers to “Watch Mark Levin.” The Fox host called for U.S. troops to seize Iran’s uranium.
Under Levin’s plan, U.S. troops would try to extract nearly 1,000 pounds of buried nuclear material while under fire
Written by Matt Gertz
Published 03/30/26
Fox News host Mark Levin suggested the U.S. military should seize Iran’s uranium — a risky escalation experts say would place troops under fire on Iranian soil for days — during a Saturday night program that President Donald Trump had urged his supporters to watch for its discussion of “the importance of hitting Iran, HARD!!!"
Under normal circumstances, the nasal-voiced screeds a sycophantic Fox news host yells on his taped weekend program wouldn’t matter for much. But Trump is often persuaded by what the network’s MAGA propagandists tell him through his television, he’s previously leaned on council from Levin with regard to Iran in particular, and earlier on Saturday, the president urged his supporters to tune in to Levin’s show that evening.
“Watch Mark Levin interview of Brilliant Marc Thiessen tonight at 8:00 P.M., on FoxNews,” Trump posted to Truth Social. “Will discuss the importance of hitting Iran, HARD!!!”
Trump’s instruction for supporters to watch Fox discourse on the prospect of further escalations in Iran comes as the war approaches a flashpoint. Iran’s regime is intact and it has successfully closed the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic victory that threatens global trade. With Trump’s initial prediction of a four-to-five-week war in doubt, U.S. troops are streaming toward the region and preparing for weeks of ground operations. The Pentagon has reportedly prepared a list of purported “final blow” options that include seizing Iran’s Kharg Island oil terminal and extracting Iran’s uranium, even as Trump himself is reportedly “getting a little bored” and “wants to move on” from Iran, as a senior White House official told MS NOW.
Fox’s pro-Trump hosts are trying to influence the president’s next move. Laura Ingraham warned last week that further escalation could trigger “cascading problems for the region” and “political problems for the president,” while Sean Hannity suggested that the war is all but over and Jesse Watters said any further action would amount to a “knockout.”
Saturday’s broadcast illuminates Levin’s position among the network’s biggest hawks. And he appears to be showering Trump with praise in an effort to get the president on board with his latest escalation scheme. Levin touted Trump’s “enormous intelligence,” claimed his “victory” against Iran is “absolutely incredible,” and portrayed the war’s critics as merely Trump-haters.
The Fox-Trump feedback loop has in recent months played a role in the president’s decisions to send White House border czar Tom Homan to oversee immigration enforcement in Minnesota; prioritize the SAVE Act over all other legislation; order the deployment of ICE agents to airports; and start the war against Iran. Will it now help trigger an incredibly risky military operation?
Levin: We need ground troops in Iran because “we’ve got to get the uranium”
After spending the bulk of Saturday’s monologue praising Trump’s war and denouncing its critics (described below), Levin came to the point: He wants the president to deploy ground troops in Iran to seize Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile.
“Why would we need troops on the ground?” he explained. “Well, there's a lot of reasons, and we wouldn't need 300,000 of them.”
“We've got to get the uranium — if it cannot be destroyed, if it cannot be altered, we've got to get it,” Levin said. “That's why I am reading in the paper, we are talking about the 82nd Airborne, we're talking about these various special forces and the various military services and so forth.”
“He's not talking about sending regular Army and infantry in by the hundreds of thousands — the men he's talking about, the units he is talking about, they are specialized,” Levin continued. “And you know what else? I remember from my days in the Reagan administration, many of them are trained for a moment like this to try and secure enriched uranium. Many have been trained for moments like this.”
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From the March 28, 2026, edition of Fox News' Life, Liberty, and Levin
Thiessen, the Washington Post columnist and Fox contributor whom Trump described as “Brilliant,” likewise argued that “if we don't get that enriched uranium, and they want to get back at us for what we've done, the easiest way to do it would be to get it to al-Qaida and let them use it for a dirty bomb.”
“So we have got to get what Donald Trump correctly calls the nuclear dust before this operation is done,” Thiessen concluded.
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From the March 28, 2026, edition of Fox News' Life, Liberty, and Levin
The Wall Street Journal’s description of an operation to extract nearly 1,000 pounds of nuclear material buried in the middle of a hostile country during a shooting war does not sound as easy as Levin and Thiessen made it out to be. The paper reported:
Teams of U.S. forces would need to fly to the sites, likely under fire from Iranian surface-to-air missiles and drones. Once on site, combat troops would need to secure perimeters so that engineers with excavating equipment could search through debris and check for mines and booby traps.
The extraction of the material would likely need to be conducted by an elite special operations team specially trained to remove radioactive material from a conflict zone. The highly enriched uranium is likely contained in 40 to 50 special cylinders that resemble scuba tanks. They would need to be put into transportation casks to protect against accidents. That could fill several trucks, said Richard Nephew, a senior research scholar at Columbia University and a former nuclear negotiator with Iran.
Unless an airfield was available, a makeshift one would need to be set up to bring equipment in and take the nuclear material out. The entire operation would take days or even a week to complete, experts said.
Trump “hasn’t made a decision on whether to give the order” and is “considering the danger to U.S. troops,” but “remains generally open to the idea,” the Journal reports.
More open, perhaps, after hearing the pitch from Levin and Thiessen.
Levin: Trump has “enormous intelligence,” his Iran “victory” is “absolutely incredible”
Before urging Trump to send U.S. ground troops to invade Iran, Levin began his Saturday monologue by offering fulsome praise for the war of choice he had urged the president to start.
“I've been thinking about the war with Iran,” he began. “I like to call it a military operation. I actually like to call it a peace mission, because that's what it is, and how incredible it is, and the magnitude of this victory. It's not a final victory, but this victory up to this point is incredible, absolutely incredible.”
Levin meandered through his justification for the war, denouncing President Barack Obama’s 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, which he described as “an agreement that would ensure they get a nuclear weapon,” and comparing U.S. military deaths during the Iran war with those during other U.S. conflicts dating back to the Korean War as well as fatalities from murder and fentanyl overdoses.
He ultimately claimed that Iran could have turned its enriched uranium for a “dirty bomb” and then employed terrorists to detonate it in a U.S. city. “So what the president is doing is monumental in terms of protecting the American people,” Levin explained.
The host concluded that “we're in good hands” with Trump “because he's a man with enormous intelligence, enormous common sense. He's not an ideologue. He doesn't run around with slogans. He is prudential. He looks at the facts, he looks at the challenge, and he's dealing with it.”
Thiessen likewise gushed over the president’s war.
“We're about halfway through this thing,” Thiessen claimed, “and when this is all over, this is going to go down in history as possibly the greatest military campaign the United States has waged since the American Revolution.”
Levin: War critics “aren’t serious people,” they “are people who just oppose Trump”
Levin finds his own arguments so compelling that he can’t imagine why anyone would disagree with them.
Pointing to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and recently resigned former Trump intelligence official Joe Kent, Levin commented, “These aren't serious people with serious disagreements. These aren't serious people with substantive knowledge that's different than it was before. No, no, no. These are people who just oppose Donald Trump. That's the truth.”
He later complained that Schumer, “the conga line of Democrats,” and “the woke Reich neofascist isolationists” were giving Iran “the benefit of the doubt.”
“Why would you give a terrorist regime that slaughtered Americans and is the biggest promoter of terrorism the benefit of the doubt?” he whined.
Thiessen likewise told Levin that the Democrats are “rooting for defeat,” adding, “There are people in this country who hate Donald Trump more than they hate the Iranian regime that just massacred 32,000 people in their streets.”
That’s what Trump wanted his followers to tune-in for: A totally one-sided dismissal of the Iran war’s critics in favor of continued escalation in an aimless conflict that's already spiraled out of control.
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02/19/26 1:58 PM EST
03/02/26 1:12 PM EST
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In Iran, the most consequential test of the Fox-Trump feedback loop yet
Written by Matt Gertz
Published 03/02/26
President Donald Trump, across both of his terms, has regularly shaped federal policy in response to the propaganda he hears from his sycophants at Fox News. But his decision over the weekend to launch a war of choice against Iran without a clear goal may prove to be the most consequential example of this feedback loop to date.
Trump is deeply immersed in the Fox universe. He famously consumes the network’s content; highlights particular segments that strike his fancy on social media; hires its employees to run his administration; consults its personalities for advice on domestic and foreign policy; and doles out contracts and pardons alike based on what he sees on its airwaves.
And for decades, the Fox stars Trump trusts most have consistently called for military strikes and regime change in Iran.
That campaign took on new urgency when Trump returned to the White House.
Last June, Fox personalities — particularly Trump loyalists Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, and Brian Kilmeade — used their programs to urge Trump to follow up on Israeli attacks on Iran by launching strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. They warned that Iran is, as Kilmeade put it, “our enemy,” that it posed an imminent threat to American citizens and that, in Levin’s words, “force” is the “only thing to stop” Iran.
Other MAGA media figures from non-Fox outlets opposed U.S. involvement in the conflict. But the overwhelmingly pro-war Fox coverage — and a White House meeting Levin had with the president — were apparently dispositive.
And after Trump ordered the U.S. military to attack three Iranian nuclear sites, Fox’s war hawks rewarded the president by showering him with praise for what Hannity said would “go down in history as one of the greatest military victories.”
The same pattern appears to be playing out eight months later, albeit on a much larger scale.
A Fox-fueled push for war with Iran
Over the past weeks, as U.S. military forces converged in the Middle East, the same Fox figures again urged Trump to attack. Notably, their argument was noticeably light on defining a goal for U.S. military operations after the bombs began to fall.
Instead, they argued that because Iran could, at some point in the future, pose a threat, Trump should act now while he is empowered to do so — and that the result would be an easy U.S. victory. “I cannot think of any reason not to take this regime out,” Levin argued. The U.S. would “lose credibility forever” without a strike, Kilmeade claimed. For Hannity, “The world is going to be better and safer.”
While some on the network seemed to shy away from the topic, criticism of potential strikes largely took place elsewhere in the MAGA media — outside of the Fox programming the president himself watches.
On Friday, hours before the attack began, the trio made their final pitch.
“I hope the president chooses to go at it,” Kilmeade said Friday morning. “We have been looking at these headlines for 47 years, and we have an opportunity to end it. And this president likes to make history.”
“This president knows right from wrong,” Levin told Hannity that night. “He knows good from evil. He knows that this regime is a death cult. And he knows that there's only really two countries that are prepared and willing to put an end to this.”
“We don't need to put up with their crap,” he concluded, as Hannity nodded along. “It's time to put it to an end.”
They got what they wanted: The U.S. and Israeli militaries began attacking Iranian targets that night. Since then, hundreds of Iranians have reportedly been killed, including Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and the Pentagon has reported the first U.S. casualties in the conflict. There is no end currently in sight — the Iranian government remains defiant, while the U.S. is sending more troops to the region.
The propaganda war has an aim. The real one doesn’t.
Trump, meanwhile, has had trouble articulating what he’s trying to accomplish.
He first suggested his aim was regime change when he urged the Iranian people to “take over” the government in his first public statement after the attack, but in interviews since then, he just seems to be riffing. He told The Washington Post he is seeking “freedom for the people” of Iran, but he bemoaned to ABC News that regime figures he expected to take over the country had also been killed in the initial strikes. Trump also stressed to The New York Times that his model was the U.S. attack on Venezuela, where the dictatorial regime remained in place after U.S. forces seized its leader. But he also suggested that the Iranian military could turn over its arms to its public. “They would really surrender to the people, if you think about it,” he explained.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, a former Fox & Friends host, added to the incoherence of the administration’s message when he said at a Monday morning press conference, “This is not a so-called 'regime change war,' but the regime sure did change.” But the Iranian regime currently remains in place, and according to at least some of his statements, Trump may prefer it that way.
Perhaps the reason there doesn’t seem to be a clear goal for the U.S. bombing of Iran is because the goal, as laid out by Trump’s Fox propagandists, was for the U.S. to bomb Iran. That is the aim the likes of Kilmeade, Hannity, and Levin had in mind, and now that they’ve goaded Trump into following through, they are cheering him on.
“Donald Trump did what nobody else could do for half a century,” Levin marveled on Saturday. “How do you like that? And you know why he did it? Because he loves his country.”
So what happens next in Iran? That’s beyond the remit of Trump’s Fox Cabinet. Instead, they are gearing up for a propaganda war in which they declare Trump a world-historic victor and paint his critics as terrorists and traitors. For them, the details of what happens to the Iranians is for someone else to handle.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like anyone within the official Trump administration has answers either.
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10/29/25 11:29 AM EDT
omfg
news allegedly
Oct 13, 2025jduffusNews From GAI. News About GAIAntifa, Arabella Advisors, George Soros, Neville Roy Singham, Peter Schweizer, Riot Inc., Tides Foundation
GAI President Peter Schweizer joined Mark Levin on Oct. 12, 2025 to expose deep links between radical ideologies, terrorism, and political movements inside the United States.
Appearing on the Fox News show “Life, Liberty, and Levin,” Schweizer detailed how New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani has financial and ideological ties to Qatar’s royal family, which once harbored 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
Schweizer warned of foreign influence and Islamist infiltration in American politics. In the second half, Schweizer and Levin uncover how billionaire Roy Singham funds Marxist and pro-CCP movements like Antifa through U.S.-based nonprofits. Together, they connect Islamist and Marxist networks working to destabilize America — both financially and ideologically.
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Peter Schweizer EXPOSES the Islamist–Marxist Alliance Threatening America
Oct 13, 2025 #thedrilldown #drilldown #gai
:{@Govt_Acct_Inst President Peter Schweizer joins Mark Levin (Oct. 12, 2025) to expose deep links between radical ideologies, terrorism, and political movements inside the United States. Schweizer details how New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani has financial and ideological ties to Qatar’s royal family, which once harbored 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. He warns of foreign influence and Islamist infiltration in American politics. In the second half, Schweizer and Levin uncover how billionaire Roy Singham funds Marxist and pro-CCP movements like Antifa through U.S.-based nonprofits. Together, they connect Islamist and Marxist networks working to destabilize America — both financially and ideologically. Chap:{ters /maxresdefault.jpg)) Levin Introduces Schweizer’s Explosive Findings /maxresdefault.jpg)) Qatar’s Royal Family and the 9/11 Connection /maxresdefault.jpg)) Mamdani’s Foreign Backers Revealed /maxresdefault.jpg)) Hezbollah, Iran, and Islamist Cheerleaders /maxresdefault.jpg)) Terror Ties Hidden by U.S. Media /maxresdefault.jpg)) Why Islamist Power Grabs Threaten All Americans /maxresdefault.jpg)) Inside the Antifa Roundtable at the White House /maxresdefault.jpg)) Dark Money, Marxism, and the Arabella Network /maxresdefault.jpg)) The Billionaire Roy Singham’s Pro-China Machine /maxresdefault.jpg)) Foreign Funding and Domestic Terrorism Links /maxresdefault.jpg)) Federal Task Force Needed to Stop the Flow /maxresdefault.jpg)) Levin Calls for Action Against Enemy Within /maxresdefault.jpg)) Trump Administration’s Pushback on Radical Networks maxresdefault.jpg)) Schweizer’s Final Warning: The Enemy Within}:
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transcript
Levin Introduces Schweizer’s Explosive Findings
0:00
Welcome back, America. We're here with
0:01
our dear friend Peter Schweitzer. He
0:03
really is a great investigative
0:05
reporter. He's president of the
0:07
Government Accountability Institute, a
0:09
fantastic group, GI,
0:12
uh you write great books, you write
0:14
great pieces over at Breitbart. Just
0:16
fantastic. Peter, I wanted to get into
0:18
this. You have put out new information,
0:21
you and your group, about who he is,
0:24
what he's doing, who is funding him. And
0:26
before people finish voting in New York,
0:29
and people around the country, you need
0:31
to know exactly who this man is, his
Qatar’s Royal Family and the 9/11 Connection
0:34
family, who's funding him, what he's all
0:36
about. It is pure evil. Peter
0:39
Schweitzer, go. Yeah, Mark, what people
0:42
have to understand is that this election
0:44
for mayor in New York is really a dark
0:47
echo of the 911 terrorist attack. Uh,
0:50
and you wonder what do I mean by that?
0:52
Well, look at the family itself, the
0:55
Mondami family itself. They are joined
0:57
at the hip with the royal family of
1:00
Qatar, the Althani family. Um, they have
1:03
sent them millions of dollars. They have
1:05
funded their projects. So, why does this
1:08
family matter? It matters because uh
1:11
back in 1996, Khaled Shik Muhammad who
1:15
was the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks
1:18
was granted sanctuary by this very royal
1:22
family. He was given a no-show job at
1:25
the Ministry of Water in Qatar. And it
1:28
was there that he started planning the
1:30
911 attacks. The FBI was looking for
1:33
him, Mark, because he had been involved
1:35
in in the 1993 World Trade Center
1:39
attack, uh, as well as other terrorist
1:41
attacks. So, the FBI went to the royal
1:44
family and said, "We want this man for
1:46
his involvement in terrorism." What did
1:49
the family do? They hid him and helped
1:51
him to escape. They tipped him off. And
1:54
I would encourage a lot of people to go
1:56
back and look at the statements that
1:57
Louisie Free made back in the day saying
2:00
had they gotten uh Khaled Shake Muhammad
2:04
uh that would have pre prevented future
2:06
terrorist attacks like 911. So this is
2:10
the royal family of Qatar. Why do we
2:13
care about them in the context of
Mamdani’s Foreign Backers Revealed
2:15
Mandami? Well, first of all, there's the
2:17
financial connection that we talked
2:19
about. Millions of dollars bankrolling
2:22
the Mandani family. Second of all, this
2:25
same family is now on social media
2:27
around the world. And what are they
2:29
doing, Mark? They're pushing Mandami's
2:31
campaign. They're pushing his policy
2:34
positions. They're pushing his poll
2:35
numbers. They're encouraging people to
2:37
vote for him to financially support him.
2:40
So, they're cheerleading for him. And
2:42
what did Mumani do in September? Just a
2:45
few weeks ago, he was on Qatari TV. Now,
2:49
what American uh politician running to
2:52
be a mayor of a city goes on Qatari TV?
2:56
Mumani goes on Qatari TV and what does
2:58
he do? He talks about the jihad, the
3:02
verbal jihad as it were. He talks about
3:04
the fact that the United States is under
3:07
uh writing genocide in Israel. This is
3:10
the same family, the Mumamis, by the
3:12
way, who say that Darfur, where 400,000
3:16
Christians were slaughtered by
3:17
Islamists, that was not jihad. This is
3:20
the same family that says that terrorism
3:22
is a western invention. It's not an
3:24
Islamist invention. So you have this
3:27
bizarre situation where a political
3:30
candidate in New York speaks the
3:32
language of jihad uh is financially
3:36
connected to the family that helped the
3:39
911 plotters get away so they could
3:41
bring down the Twin Towers. And it would
Hezbollah, Iran, and Islamist Cheerleaders
3:44
be a tragedy if the Qataris would see a
3:48
occupant of city hall um when they were
3:51
the same people that were involved in
3:53
what happened in 9/11 and bringing down
3:55
the twin towers.
3:56
1993 World Trade Center bombing.
4:00
What's that connection?
4:01
Yeah. So um Kaid Shake Muhammad was one
4:05
of the people that plotted and was
4:06
involved in that. It's when he was on
4:08
the run from that attack that he ended
4:11
up in Qatar. And so the Qatar
4:13
relationship uh has been long with
4:16
terrorism. You've talked about of course
4:18
their ties to Hamas, their ties to
4:20
Hezbollah. I should point out, Mark,
4:22
that in addition to the Qatari
4:24
connection, there are also a lot of
4:26
other uh uh international enemies of the
4:29
United States that are cheering on
4:30
Mandani. Uh for example, the
4:33
international Quran news agency uh which
4:36
is based out of Iran has run glowing
4:39
profiles on Mandami talking about the
4:41
fact that he can win in New York, that
4:44
his policy positions and that his values
4:47
are Islamic in their words. They talk
4:50
about how his strategy is to cultivate
4:52
Muslim votes. So the Iranian news
4:55
agencies are cheering them on. In
4:57
addition to that, there's a news
4:59
publication in Lebanon linked to
5:01
Hezbollah, uh, the terrorist
5:03
organization. They ran a story talking
5:06
about Mumani's rise after he won the
5:08
Democratic nomination in New York. And
5:11
they were thrilled. And it's very
5:13
interesting, Mark, to point out in that
5:15
article, they said if Mandami wins in
5:18
New York and becomes mayor of New York,
5:20
he has a future political career on the
5:22
national stage. among the positions they
Terror Ties Hidden by U.S. Media
5:25
mention he might get to assume is head
5:29
of homeland security. Now, why would a
5:32
terrorist organization like Hezbollah
5:34
want Mani to be head of the Department
5:36
of Homeland Security? Uh I I think the
5:39
evidence is pretty clear.
5:41
You're putting this information out.
5:42
You're now putting it out to millions of
5:44
people nationally. What do you want to
5:45
bet? It's ignored by the New York Times
5:47
in New York, by the New York Daily News
5:50
in New York, by the Associated Press, by
5:53
Reuters and all the rest. You do all the
5:55
footwork, you pull all the the
5:56
investigative data together. What do you
5:59
want to bet this is ignored because they
6:01
want this guy elected?
6:02
Yeah, I think it is going to be ignored.
6:04
And look, there are other financial
6:06
connections. Uh there's an imam wah that
6:09
we talk about. This imam, by the way,
6:11
has three children that last year were
6:15
sentenced to life in prison for their
6:17
involvement in a terrorist attack. He is
6:19
supporting Mum Donnie's campaign in New
6:22
York. Uh, and in 2021, in a interview,
6:25
he actually predicted the rise of a
6:28
Muslim candidate in New York and said
6:30
the time was ready and the time was
6:32
ready for Muslims to seize political
6:34
power in New York. So, uh, they are
6:36
ignoring this. Um the the stakes could
6:39
not be higher. Uh it's not just an issue
Why Islamist Power Grabs Threaten All Americans
6:41
for New Yorkers. It should be an issue
6:43
for all Americans that are concerned
6:45
about our security. We have a candidate
6:47
who speaks the language of jihad and we
6:50
have a candidate whose family is tied to
6:53
individuals or or a family in Qatar uh
6:56
that has been linked to international
6:58
terrorist networks. You know, I get very
7:01
frustrated by hearing people
7:03
in the media, conservatives,
7:06
Republicans, what have you, say things
7:07
like, "Okay, he'll win in New York and
7:10
then they'll never win anywhere else in
7:11
the United States because we'll see how
7:13
he destroys New York." They don't
7:15
understand the thinking of these
7:17
Islamists. That's not the plan. The plan
7:20
is to run people for city council, to
7:22
run people for mayors, to pick off one
7:24
area after another after another. They
7:27
changed the voting system in order to
7:28
get him nominated as a Democrat, even
7:30
though he's a democratic socialist, aka
7:33
Marxist Islamist who hates America and
7:35
hates Jews. This is a dire threat to the
7:38
country and we better wake the hell up
7:40
to this. Welcome back, America. We're
7:42
here with Peter Schwitzer, the president
7:44
of the Government Accountability
7:45
Institute, really a national treasure.
7:48
Uh Peter, your folks were at the round
7:51
table on Antifa and the Antifa movement
7:54
uh that the president held at the White
7:56
House. So important what he's doing
7:58
trying to get to the bottom of these
Inside the Antifa Roundtable at the White House
8:00
radical organizations because they are
8:02
nefarious. They're evil. They're funded
8:04
by dark money, by billionaires, by
8:06
foreign governments.
8:08
And here's Antifa. I talk about the
8:10
fusion of Marxism and Islamism. You just
8:14
spoke about Islamism. Now let's move to
8:16
Marxism. And that would be Antifa. What
8:19
do you know about Antifa?
8:21
Yeah. So, I mean, Antifa, there's not an
8:23
organization per se named Antifa. It's a
8:26
network of radical organizations um that
Dark Money, Marxism, and the Arabella Network
8:30
as you pointed out are Marxist. They're
8:33
often times sympathetic to Islamist
8:35
causes. Uh and as we uh demonstrated in
8:38
our research that we presented to the
8:40
president, uh they are heavily funded.
8:43
Um, some of that funding comes from
8:45
sources in the United States. You have
8:47
advisory firms like Arabella that are
8:49
advising groups like the Tides
8:51
Foundation uh that we point out um have
8:54
sent money to organizations that are
8:57
involved in violent protests. Uh there
8:59
were violent protests down in in
9:02
Atlanta, Georgia around something called
9:04
Cop City uh where the police were trying
9:06
to create a training facility for uh law
9:09
enforcements. Uh the radicals didn't
9:12
want that. So they violently protested.
9:14
They threw Molotov cocktails. Uh they
9:16
engaged in other violent acts. Members
The Billionaire Roy Singham’s Pro-China Machine
9:19
of those organizations um were charged
9:22
uh uh under law for domestic terrorism
9:25
or domestic terrorism related charges.
9:28
Well, those organizations, some of those
9:30
organizations were funded by the Tides
9:32
Foundation. So you have these radical
9:36
progressive groups in the United States
9:38
that are funding in some instances
9:40
violent organizations. And to be clear
9:43
here, Mark, I'm not talking about groups
9:45
that just talk about radical things. I'm
9:47
talking about groups that are actually
9:49
involved in violence in our streets. So
9:52
you have the domestic side. You also
9:54
have the foreign side. Uh Mark, um
9:57
there's a uh American billionaire uh
9:59
named Roy Singum uh who sold his
10:02
business, it was called Thought Works
10:04
for about a billion dollars, moved to
10:07
Beijing, China, which is where he lives
10:09
now. He's very close to the CCP. He
10:13
counts them amongst his friends. He goes
10:15
to Chinese Communist Party events. He's
Foreign Funding and Domestic Terrorism Links
10:18
friends with their propagandists. uh and
10:20
he funds groups in the United States um
10:24
through the so-called people's forum in
10:26
New York. Uh and these are groups like
10:28
the Freedom Road Socialist Organization,
10:30
the Party for Socialism and Liberation.
10:33
And these are pro-Chinese,
10:36
anti-American, and they lead violent
10:38
protests. Uh it could be over Black
10:40
Lives Matter, it could be over uh the
10:43
issues in the Middle East, it could be
10:45
over law enforcement issues, it doesn't
10:47
matter. And so you have these
10:50
organizations that are not organic per
10:52
se. They are funded and they are
10:54
organized. Uh and we think it's
10:57
important not only for the
10:58
administration to know, but to
11:00
investigate them for possible criminal
11:02
conduct because you're an attorney
11:05
better than I am. I'm not an attorney.
11:07
Uh you if you are involved in funding
11:10
entities that you know are engaged in
11:12
criminal conduct, you could potentially
11:15
be charged with a crime for doing that.
Federal Task Force Needed to Stop the Flow
11:17
I don't know if there is, probably is,
11:19
but there ought to be a task force
11:21
looking at all this with Treasury,
11:22
state, the FBI, the IRS, among others.
11:27
Uh, pulling together uh all the uh
11:30
possible legal issues, pulling together
11:33
all the investigative issues, trying to
11:36
attack it from every angle. It's a big
11:38
federal government. It's been used
11:40
against us. It's been used against
11:42
conservative groups. It's been used
11:43
against our president. It's been used
11:45
against Republican members of the
11:46
Senate. How about we put it to good use?
11:49
Um, if we have foreign countries along
11:52
with these billionaires and others who
11:53
are pouring money into this country to
11:55
overthrow us, if we have people dark
11:58
money in the shadows in our country
11:59
doing the same thing and we have uh and
12:02
we know this is going on, we better put
12:04
an end to it or we will cease to exist.
Levin Calls for Action Against Enemy Within
12:06
There's no reason for this. There's
12:07
absolutely no reason. Which is why I'm
12:09
so proud that the president obviously is
12:12
on the ball. what he's saying. He pulls
12:13
it together. He had your group there and
12:15
many others. And you had independent
12:17
journalists who were beaten to a pulp by
12:18
Antifa and so forth. And the mainstream
12:21
media, which isn't mainstream, it's
12:23
leftwing. It's Democrat. It's hostile to
12:25
the country, has essentially covered it
12:27
up. You had Antifa attacking the
12:30
Portland, Oregon
12:33
courthouse, the federal courthouse month
12:36
after month in 2020, still using it for
12:40
target practice. And then you have a
12:41
federal judge out there
12:44
a real whack job in what she wrote
12:46
talking about well you know this kind of
12:48
free speech and so forth and so on this
Trump Administration’s Pushback on Radical Networks
12:51
is this is normal in our country and so
12:53
forth. So we got a big problem here. Any
12:56
final words Peter?
12:57
Yeah we were uh happy to participate in
12:59
the round table. President Trump asked
13:01
us to share our findings with the
13:03
attorney general and with the director
13:04
of the FBI. We are glad to do so and we
13:07
hope that they will put it to good use.
Schweizer’s Final Warning: The Enemy Within
13:09
And I'll just say again, I don't know of
13:10
another president who would be doing
13:12
this, who really gets into the weeds and
13:14
says, "I love our country, Mr. and Mrs.
13:17
America. I got to do what I can to
13:19
protect you." Whether it's law
13:20
enforcement, whether it's ICE, whether
13:22
it's securing the border, whether it's
13:23
building up the military, and here, the
13:26
enemy within. Peter Schweitzer, great
13:29
group, great guy. Thank you for
13:31
everything. Appreciate it. Thank you,
13:33
Mark.
---
---}:
MMA
From the October 7, 2025, edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends
MARK LEVIN (FOX HOST): You know, Donald Trump uses this phrase, the enemy within. You know who else used that phrase? Great men of the past, Abraham Lincoln talked about the enemy within. When you have an enemy within, and you say we have an enemy within, our press starts attacking you as some kind of a fascist.
There is an enemy within. The Democrat party has changed. It's not just policy disputes, they seek to overthrow the republic, they seek to destroy our economic system. They want to change the citizenry and population. They want to bankrupt the country. These are not policy disputes anymore with the Democrat party. These are fundamental battles over the survivability of the United States. Trump gets it, 100%, and he's trying to do the best he can in our country, in the Middle East, and with Europe.
BRIAN KILMEADE (CO-HOST): Well said.
//
10/17/24 9:17 AM EDT
10/16/24 1:01 PM EDT
10/07/25
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MMA
Right-wing media run wild with the blatantly false claim that Democrats are shutting down the government to secure “health care for illegals”
The New York Times noted a “misleading” Republican talking point on the looming shutdown. That talking point is all over right-wing media.
Written by Gideon Taaffe, Isabella Sherk & Pete Tsipis
Published 09/30/25
Right-wing media are pushing a lie that Democrats are threatening to shut down the government over “free health care for illegal immigrants” and want to “blow up the budget” for “illegal aliens” even though undocumented immigrants are not eligible for federally funded health benefits.
The Democrats are actually pushing to extend subsidies for the Affordable Care Act without which millions of Americans could face significantly higher health care premiums and lose access to health care. Additionally, Democrats are pushing to reverse cuts to federally funded health care that were passed under Trump's “One Big Beautiful Bill” in July.
- ## As the government faces a shutdown, conservatives lie about Democrats’ funding priorities
- The U.S. government may face a shutdown on October 1 if Congress does not pass a short-term funding bill, and currently the two main points of contention are Democrats’ call to extend enhanced federal subsidies for Affordable Care Act coverage that are set to expire this year and reverse cuts to health care, including Medicaid, passed in Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill.”CNN, [9/30/25]
- Democrats have proposed to continue the ACA subsidies, which would help “22 million Americans lower their health insurance costs” and save health care for an estimated 4 million.According to the nonpartisan health policy research group KFF, the result of letting the subsidies end would be “an increase of more than 75% in premiums on average for enrollees; a 90% increase in many rural areas.” Subsequently, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that 4 million people will lose health insurance. CBS News, [9/30/25; KFF, 9/3/25; Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 9/22/25]
- Several prominent Republicans have falsely claimed that Democrats are trying to use a government shutdown to demand health care for undocumented immigrants.President Donald Trump posted a deepfake video to Truth Social of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) in a sombrero and a mustache and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) claiming, “If we give all these illegal aliens health care, we might be able to get them on our side so they can vote for us.” Vice President JD Vance posted, “Democrats are about to shutdown the government because they demand we fund healthcare for illegal aliens.” And House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) put out a press release that claimed “Democrats are Choosing Health Care for Illegal Aliens over American Troop Pay.” Truth Social, [9/29/25; Politico, 9/30/25; Twitter/X, 9/25/25; MikeJohnson.house.gov, 9/28/25]
- NY Times: The Democrats’ budget proposal “does not provide free health care for unauthorized immigrants.”Undocumented immigrants are “largely barred from federally funded health care,” as the Times reports, and while the Democrats’ proposal would restore eligibility for certain groups of “lawfully present” immigrants, it would not make unauthorized immigrants eligible. The Times adds: “There is no uniform definition for ‘lawful presence,’ a term typically used by federal and state health care and social welfare programs to determine eligibility. Most groups of ‘lawfully present’ noncitizens have authorized or legal immigration status like refugees and asylum recipients.” The New York Times, [9/29/25]
- ## Right-wing media falsely claim Democrats are shutting down the government over health care for undocumented immigrants
- Fox News host Ainsley Earhardt claimed Democrats say “we want health care for all Americans, but that would include the illegals.”Co-host Lawrence Jones replied, “They’re still fighting for illegals. You just lost the election over it.” He said the Democrats don’t have political support on this: “You lost on it. Move forward.” Fox News, *Fox & Friends*,[9/30/25]
- Teasing a segment, Fox News anchor Trace Gallagher said, “A government shutdown now 25 hours away and it appears Democrats are still pushing free health care for illegal immigrants.” Fox News, *Fox News @ Night*, [9/29/25]
- Fox host Sean Hannity said, “Schumer and his Democratic friends … want free health care for illegals as part of that deal.” He said it is “interesting because Democrats used to be totally against free health care benefits for illegals” and played clips of Schumer and then-first lady Hillary Clinton opposing the idea. Fox News, *Hannity*, [9/29/25]
- On his radio show, Hannity said Schumer won’t get what he wants because “we're not going to pay for health care for illegal immigrants by virtue of the fact they don't deserve benefits that are supposed to be reserved for the American people.” Premier Radio Networks, *The Sean Hannity Show*, [9/29/25]
- Fox host Mark Levin posted that Democrats “want to give their biggest constituency, illegal aliens, free healthcare at your expense, and blow up the budget.” He added that they will shut down the government if Republicans don’t “go along and spend another $1 trillion plus!” Twitter/X, [9/27/25]
- Hannity claimed that “if there is a government shutdown, it will be on the Democrats,” saying, “Democrats are fighting for, you know, for services for illegal immigrants. They're fighting for more DEI programs.” Hannity stated this to a caller who criticized Hannity for saying federal employees would “go home for two weeks, sit on the couch, and then come back and get back pay.” Premier Radio Networks,*The Sean Hannity Show*, [9/26/25]
- Hannity also claimed that Democrat demands “include things like over a trillion dollars in new spending for health care for illegals, taxpayer-funded gender swap surgeries for minors, open borders, men in women’s sports.” Fox News, *Hannity*, [9/23/25]
- Right-wing podcast host Laura Loomer wrote, “Democrats are threatening to shut down the government unless they get taxpayer-funded healthcare for illegals.” She added, “They really do hate America.” Twitter/X, [9/26/25]
- Right-wing talk show host and former White House press secretary Sean Spicer claimed that “access to health care” is “code for taxpayer financed healthcare for illegals.” Twitter/X, [9/30/25]
- Right-wing influencer Catturd posted, “Imagine shutting down the government because you want illegals to have free healthcare, and then thinking it’s gonna be popular with the American people.” Twitter/X, [9/30/25]
//
09/30/25 12:35 PM EDT
09/30/25 12:13 PM EDT
09/30/25
---
an 8 25
Although far-right MAGA Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) has been a forceful, combative supporter of President Donald Trump, she was critical of the military strikes that he ordered against Iran and favors a very isolationist approach to the Israel-Gaza conflict. And that stand is putting her at odds with Fox News host Mark Levin.
MTG and Levin are having a bitter war of words. Levin attacked Greene as a "lunatic" and "fake MAGA," declaring, "The Republican Party isn't going the way of Marjorie Taylor Greene or her ilk. No way!"
Greene, interviewed by Eric Bolling on Real America's Voice, said of Levin, "When Mark Levin talks about my ilk, he is insulting, I would say, most Americans in this country, Eric….. $37 trillion in debt, inflation is so high, groceries are expensive, bills are expensive, people can't afford rent, credit card debt is at an all-time high, and young people today cannot ever even dream of buying a house. That's the America that Mark Levin has fought for, that’s the America that Mark Levin loves, and Mark Levin, let’s be really honest, is Israel First. He’s not America First. So if it were up to Mark Levin, America would fight every single war that the secular government of nuclear-armed Israel wanted to drag America into."
READ MORE: 'Very jealous': Trump ally says White House secretly 'can't stand' this MAGA congresswoman
Greene, a 51-year-old Gen-Xer, attacked Fox News for catering to "neocons" and "Baby Boomers" and told Bolling they are "not the future of America" or the Republican Party.
Greene's feud with Levin is generating a lot of discussion on X, formerly Twitter.
Georgia Republican Jeff Criswell said of Greene, "I'm a baby boomer. And I am headed to D.C. to replace this moron. Respectfully."
X user Edward Fairfax Rochester tweeted, "Boomer here. I listen to Robert Barnes rarely Fox News."
Another X user, Gil Sosinsky, posted, "@mtgreenee is a self-centered ingrate who has zero self-awareness. The largest group are children of baby boomers (millennials) Greene's insulting baby boomers is no differenr than baby boomers trivializing WWII generation. So dimwit Greene hates elderly & Jews."
Richard Angwin commented, "Marjorie Taylor Greene calling Fox News viewers 'elderly and brainwashed' is rich coming from someone whose conspiracy-fueled rants make QAnon look like a bedtime story."
READ MORE: The one big reason why most Republicans are acting irrationally — without consequences
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MMA
Fox let chief Trump propagandist Hannity lead special coverage of the US strikes on Iran
Hannity said the attack “will go down in history as one of the greatest military victories”
Written by Matt Gertz
Published 06/23/25
Fox News turned to Sean Hannity, the Donald Trump political operative who hosts a weekday prime-time show, to help the president sell his new war with Iran, airing two hours of special coverage after Trump’s Saturday night announcement that the U.S. military had struck three Iranian nuclear strikes. The wildly unethical choice emphasized Fox’s role as a Trumpist outlet whose primary mission is propagandizing its audience to support the president’s actions.
Bret Baier, Fox’s chief political anchor, broke the news on the network’s airwaves at 7:52 p.m. ET, minutes after Trump posted about what he deemed the “very successful attack.” Baier and his guests provided overly credulous coverage that nonetheless resembled a normal news broadcast. But just under an hour into that coverage, an on-screen bug revealed that Hannity would be taking over the network’s coverage live beginning at 9.
Fox executives, knowing that Trump intended to speak at the White House at 10 p.m., made the conscious decision to ensure that for the hour before and after those remarks, the network’s coverage would be guided by Hannity, not its “news side” team.
Hannity spent the last decade shattering every possible ethical norm on Trump’s behalf: He has appeared in and even scripted his campaign ads, spoken at a campaign rally, and advised presidential decisions on staffing, communications, and policy — all while regularly interviewing Trump himself on his Fox show. He has also advocated for a U.S. military strike on Iranian nuclear sites for more than a decade.
Hannity predictably used the opportunity on Saturday to shower Trump with praise and host a parade of shills who touted the president’s decision to bomb Iran.
“I just spoke to the president of the United States,” Hannity said at the top of his broadcast. “I have some new information and breaking details to share about tonight's, what is [an] historic air campaign. Now tonight, Iran's nuclear ambitions, they are officially dead. It appears the United States just completely obliterated Iran's top secret Fordo nuclear facility.” Hannity added that two other Iranian nuclear sites had been “wiped out.”
“This is a huge development tonight, and I believe the world is a much safer place,” he concluded.
Video
Citation
From Fox News's June 21, 2025, special coverage
“Maybe it's a little early to go there, but this will go down in history as one of the greatest military victories — taking out the No. 1 state sponsor of terror,” Hannity later added. “They've been responsible for hundreds of thousands of missiles between themselves and their proxies being fired into Israel. They have threatened to wipe Israel and the U.S. off the map, and that threat has been removed tonight.”
“There is no doubt we are watching history tonight,” Hannity said after Trump’s address. “There's no doubt that — I agree with the president — this is one of the most skilled, important, imperative peacekeeping, peace-through-strength-keeping operations in the last 40 years, and certainly the reign of terror in Iran, whether they know it or not, is coming to a quick end.”
Hannity turned to Mark Levin, the hawkish Fox weekend host who reportedly counseled Trump to back Israel’s strikes on Iran over lunch at the White House earlier this month, during both hours of coverage.
Levin praised Trump as “a historic figure” and screamed at Fox’s audience that they could now “go to bed peacefully tonight” because Trump had stopped “these Islamo-Nazis [who] were building nuclear weapons to attack us with ballistic missiles.”
“This mission was never going to fail under this commander in chief,” he ranted. “This is historic, he is historic, the United States military is historic,” Levin continued, comparing the strikes to those of “Reagan and Thatcher defeating the Soviet Union.”
Video
Citation
From Fox News' June 21, 2025, special coverage
“It's about time we rally around this president, rally around our United States military, [and] accept the fact that this is a high point in American history and world history,” he later added, claiming Trump “protected the entire Earth from these barbarians” and “prevented World War III.”
Fox viewers also heard from Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton (“I commend President Trump for his resolute and strong action”), Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin (“peace through strength is what President Trump has been talking about from Day 1”), Fox contributor Katie Pavlich (“God bless President Trump, God bless the U.S. military, and God bless the Israelis for paving the way so the mission could be as successful as it was tonight”), and Texas Rep. Ronny Jackson (“the world heard the president speak tonight and that’s what leadership looks like, that’s what commander in chief looks like”).
Hannity returned to Levin for the “last word” of the night. Levin took some credit for the strikes, praised Trump for going through with them, and engaged in score-settling with unnamed figures who had opposed them.
“To be perfectly honest about this, there were a handful of us who encouraged this night, who said that we needed to take military action to bring about this result. It is not so much that we had to convince President Trump — he knew what to do, he instinctively knows what to do, he is a brilliant, brilliant man,” Levin said. “But there are other people. I was laughing because they are now believers, and they are now talking about what a fantastic night this is.”
In the hours since Hannity signed off, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine effectively contradicted Trump’s Saturday night statement that Iran’s nuclear sites were “completely and fully obliterated,” saying it was still too soon to fully assess the damage; U.S. officials acknowledged that Iran had may have moved its supply of enriched uranium to an unknown location before the attack; Trump floated a goal of “regime change”; and The New York Times detailed how “the president was closely monitoring Fox News, which was airing wall-to-wall praise of Israel’s military operation and featuring guests urging Mr. Trump to get more involved,” in the days leading up to the strike.
If Trump tuned in to his favorite network on Saturday night, he heard a host who functions as his chief propagandist showering him with praise for following through. That’s apparently exactly what the Fox executives wanted. And that bodes ill for how the network will handle a war against Iran based on obvious lies and featuring rapidly shifting aims.
//
06/18/25 2:03 PM EDT
01/22/25 12:56 PM EST
11/19/2
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Written by Matt Gertz
:{Published 06/18/25 mma
President Donald Trump appears to be careening toward a U.S. military strike on Iran as current and former Fox News figures — from posts on the network’s airwaves, elsewhere in the right-wing media ecosystem, and within his administration — fight to influence his decision.
For years, Trump's obsession with the Fox universe has driven policy decisions, administration staffing, and countless stream-of-consciousness social media posts. Now, the network will have an outsized role in determining America's potential involvement in a spiraling regional military conflict.
The George W. Bush administration spent months “following a meticulously planned strategy to persuade the public, the Congress and the allies of the need to confront the threat from Saddam Hussein” before finally launching that war in March 2003. That strategy — based on cooked intelligence about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction dishonestly sold to American people — resulted in the deaths of more than 4,000 U.S. service members and more than 200,000 Iraqi civilians as well as a massive financial cost.
Two decades later, Trump seems poised to join Israel's attack on Iran, with the stated goal of preventing that country from acquiring nuclear weapons that the U.S. intelligence community says it is not seeking. The president on Tuesday threatened to assassinate Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, bragged that the U.S. is involved in securing the airspace over that country, and called for “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER,” all while the U.S. military is marshalling forces in the region. And that push has come with little effort to convince the public, which overwhelmingly opposes U.S. military involvement in Iran, of the necessity of such a course.
The Fox propaganda engine is driving this chaotic process. Trump reportedly became more interested in U.S. military action because he saw favorable Fox coverage of Israel’s initial attacks on Iran, while more recent segments have stressed the importance of U.S. involvement. Fox host Mark Levin and his former colleague Tucker Carlson are waging a scorched-earth battle for Trump’s ear, with Levin apparently gaining the advantage. And top administration officials with roles in a potential conflict — including Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth — are in their positions in the first place because Trump approved of their previous work at the network.
It remains unclear what the president will decide to do and how any of it will play out for the country and the world. What seems likely, however, is that the Trump administration will undertake its Iran policy with the same inconsistency that characterized his tariff policy; the same low quality of staff work that got a reporter added to a text chain where top officials shared info about a forthcoming U.S. strike; the same lack of care for the lives of foreigners that has already killed hundreds of thousands of people; and the same disinterest in following the law on display in his deportation plan.
And Trump’s action, regardless of what it is, will receive sycophantic cheers from his propagandists at Fox.
The Fox-Trump feedback loop is powering Iran policy
A June 17 New York Times story detailing how Trump had shifted from trying to restrain an Israeli attack on Iran while overseeing negotiations with its leaders to supporting Israel’s strike and considering U.S. involvement highlights the role of a key player: Fox.
“When he woke on Friday morning, his favorite TV channel, Fox News, was broadcasting wall-to-wall imagery of what it was portraying as Israel’s military genius,” the Times reported. “And Mr. Trump could not resist claiming some credit for himself.”
Under typical circumstances, a U.S. president shifting the nation’s military posture based on a few cable news segments would sound fantastical. But under Trump, major aspects of federal policy regularly turn on what he is hearing from his favored TV personalities. Fox hosts understand their influence and regularly seek to influence Trump’s decisions, both through their programs and in private conversations with the president.
Fox’s hosts thus wield incredible power over Trump’s actions. And in recent days, those figures have been using their platforms to tell the president that U.S. strikes on Iran are both important and likely to succeed with little cost. They know which buttons to push and are banging on them as hard as they can.
“Trump's favorite TV network has staked out the pro-war position – and it isn't making as much room for debate,” CNN’s Brian Stelter reported on June 18. “Guest after guest on Fox has played to Trump's ego — simultaneously praising the president and pushing for US intervention through his television screen.”
Carlson and Levin go to war
Carlson and Levin are waging a scorched-earth campaign against each other, with each presenting their own views as the true America First position as they seek to influence Trump’s decision-making.
Carlson, a proponent of the right’s white nationalist and Holocaust-denying wing who tends to oppose foreign military interventions in favor of attacks on domestic enemies, claims that bombing Iran would “shut down Trump’s three core promises.” Levin, a staunch advocate for deploying U.S. power in the Middle East, argues that American intervention would be consistent with Trump’s policy of “peace through strength.”
Levin currently appears to have the upper hand. Politico reported last week that Levin made his case to Trump directly at a June 4 meeting:
During a private lunch with the president at the White House last Wednesday, conservative talk show host Mark Levin told Trump that Iran was days away from building a nuclear weapon, an argument Trump’s own intelligence team has told the president is not accurate, according to an intelligence official as well as another Trump ally familiar with the matter. Levin urged Trump to allow the Israeli government to strike Iranian nuclear sites, which Trump has told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would torpedo the diplomacy.
Carlson subsequently lashed out at Levin and other Fox figures whom he (accurately) described as “warmongers.” He wrote on June 13:
The real divide isn’t between people who support Israel and people who support Iran or the Palestinians. The real divide is between those who casually encourage violence, and those who seek to prevent it — between warmongers and peacemakers. Who are the warmongers? They would include anyone who’s calling Donald Trump today to demand air strikes and other direct US military involvement in a war with Iran. On that list: Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Rupert Murdoch, Ike Perlmutter and Miriam Adelson. At some point they will all have to answer for this, but you should know their names now.
Levin replied, calling Carlson “a reckless and deceitful propagandist” who “promote[s] antisemitism and conspiracy nuts” (all obviously true). He added: “It doesn’t occur to you that your supposed sources are disloyal to POTUS. You and they are undermining him and you just declared your break from the President.” In a series of subsequent posts, he denigrated his former colleague as “Chatsworth Qatarlson” and accused him of “rooting for Iran” and “trashing our president.”
Carlson responded in a June 16 appearance on his ally Stephen Bannon’s program in which he claimed that Levin is “terrible on TV” (true) with a screen presence reminiscent of “listening to your ex-wife scream about alimony payments” (sexist but at least directionally correct). He further claimed that Levin’s appearances on Fox demonstrate that what the network is “doing is what they always do, which is just turning up the propaganda hose to full blast and just trying to, you know, knock elderly Fox viewers off their feet and make them submit to where you want them to” (extremely accurate).
Trump, for his part, weighed in on Sunday, June 15, saying of Carlson’s critique of his Iran policy, “I don't know what Tucker Carlson is saying. Let him go get a television network and say it so that people listen.” In a Monday night post, he described Carlson as “kooky” (another accurate characterization), adding, “IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON!” Levin swiftly highlighted both comments on social media.
Levin took a curtain call on Hannity’s Fox show on Tuesday night, screaming, “You’re either a patriotic American who’s gonna get behind the president of the United States – the commander-in-chief, or you’re not!”
Many key administration roles are filled by former Foxers
Several senior administration officials who will play key roles in advising Trump on whether and how to conduct military strikes and then implement that policy are wildly unqualified people who got their jobs because the president liked their Fox appearances. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth are among the 23 former Fox employees Trump has appointed to his second administration.
Gabbard, a former Fox contributor from the Carlson wing of the MAGA movement who lacks “the typical intelligence experience of past officeholders,” said in congressional testimony earlier this year that it was the conclusion of the intelligence community that “Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Khamanei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program he suspended in 2003.”
Trump, however, apparently preferred Levin’s lunchtime claim that Iran was actually days away from a bomb, telling reporters on June 17, “I don’t care what she said. I think they were very close to having a weapon.” The president, Politico reported Tuesday, “has increasingly mused about nixing Gabbard’s office completely” and, according to one source, “thinks she ‘doesn’t add anything to any conversation.’”
Trump promoted Hegseth from Fox & Friends Weekend co-host to the leadership of the Pentagon, and based on his past Fox commentary, he is likely a voice in favor of military action. His early leadership of the Defense Department is not encouraging for how such action might go — he has driven off his senior staff, discussed U.S. strikes in private texts that subsequently leaked, and oversaw a costly and ultimately ineffective campaign against Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Other relevant former Foxers include Mike Huckabee, the former network host Trump installed as U.S. ambassador to Israel, and Tammy Bruce, the former Fox contributor currently ensconced as the State Department spokesperson.
No matter what happens, this much is certain: A bunch of current and former Fox News employees are essentially deciding whether the U.S. is going to war.
//
11/13/24 11:34 AM EST
11/19/24 7:30 AM EST
04/23/25
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AN 6 25
Although Donald Trump has, at times, taken an imperialistic turn during his second presidency by calling for the United States to annex Greenland and the Panama Canal and saying that Canada should become "the 51st state," the America First ideology that he usually champions is known for being isolationist. MAGA proponents of America First thinking — including Vice President JD Vance, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) and "War Room" host Steve Bannon — typically make an anti-interventionist argument that is a big departure from the hawkishness favored by traditional Reagan and Bush conservatives.
In an article published on June 10, Politico reporters Rachael Bade and Felicia Schwartz detail the infighting among Republicans over Iran.
"An influential group of GOP hawks has launched a behind-the-scenes lobbying offensive pressing President Donald Trump to not only back off his administration’s quest for a nuclear deal with Iran, but greenlight an attack on Tehran by Israel," the journalists explain. "The campaign is raising alarms among Trump and his allies, who have launched a counteroffensive to keep the president's diplomacy on track."
READ MORE: Trump's latest move is a danger to all of us
According to Bade and Schwartz, far-right radio host Mark Levin is among the Republicans pushing for a hawkish policy on Iran. Levin, they report, is claiming that Iran is close to building a nuclear weapon, while members of Trump's intelligence team are disputing that claim.
"Levin urged Trump to allow the Israeli government to strike Iranian nuclear sites, which Trump has told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would torpedo the diplomacy," Bade and Schwartz explain. "Levin has been waging a public war against Trump's longtime friend and special envoy leading talks, Steve Witkoff."
Meanwhile, some of Rupert Murdoch's media outlets, according to the Politico reporters, have "savaged Witkoff" and promoted Levin's position.
A senior Trump Administration official, interviewed on condition of anonymity, told Politico, "They’re trying to push the president to make a decision that’s not what he wants…. There’s clearly a lobby for war with Iran versus those who are more aligned with the president, that know he is the one that has been able to bring them to the negotiating table."
READ MORE:'Not heading anywhere good': NYT reporter sounds alarm on Trump's military move in LA
*Read the full Politico article at this link.
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March 6, 2025, edition of MSNBC's *Deadline: White House
NICOLLE WALLACE (HOST): I mean, Angelo, I wanna come back to something that you have really put in the front of my mind, and that's narrative dominance. And I think it is clear after November's election that Donald Trump always had and maintained and, probably did today, maintains narrative dominance. I think the speech was about dominance, right?
And I think that you can want that to change. You can hate that that is, but the narrative dominance will only change when the credibility is restored on the part of all the people that were right about all of this stuff. And I wonder if you can sort of speak about -- I mean, it seems like lived experience and the pain that people are going to feel because of what Trump is doing that's deeply unpopular helps restore credibility of the folks were that were warning.
I mean, the most unsurprised people are the pro-democracy coalition, the people that were on the front lines and many of the Democratic politicians who were saying this is exactly what he's going to do. The surprised people are the Trump-voting federal workers, the Trump-voting farmers, the Trump-voting small business owners for whom the tariffs, the firings, and the cuts are devastating.
ANGELO CARUSONE (MEDIA MATTERS PRESIDENT): Yeah. I mean and even to your point about the most surprised people -- and I said the last time I was here, and it remains true. If you really want to hear the truth about how people are feeling right now, you have to listen to the callers and to right-wing talk radio because it's only gotten more intense in the last few days because they are calling into the show that they typically listen to and have been for years. And they are saying I'm a listener and yet I've now been affected by this thing. And I didn't think it was going to happen to me.
And they are appealing to people like Sean Hannity and Mark Levin and these other prominent right-wing talkers to sort of go to someone in the Trump orbit and say to them, "Wait. You made a mistake. It actually is hurting me. I didn't -- I wasn't supposed to lose my job. This grant wasn't supposed to get affected. This rule that is affecting my local community was not supposed to happen. You just need to explain to them." And then, of course, they won't do it. And that's, to me, really significant because we are only at the very, very early stages of the types of actions that they're going to continue to take, and we're already seeing the consequences of it.
The other part that's really interesting about the narrative side of it is that one thing that -- you know they offset this right-wing echo chamber, but it's not one monolith. It's not just Fox News anymore. Fox News is a laggard. They used to be the vanguard. They used to be like the assignment editor for the rest of the right-wing media. Fox News and Rush Limbaugh were the centers of gravity. And if they talked about it, it would reverberate through that echo chamber.
That's not really the case anymore. It's a real loose coalition of sort of like right-wing edge lords, frustrated manosphere people, the traditional right-wing media. There's massive disparity. And that echo chamber sort of has been functioning because Trump has been at the center of it and the vibes have been so good, but it's a real loose coalition.
And one place where you see a big separation is around Social Security. In the more traditional right-wing media, there's a lot of, "Woah. Don't break Social Security. Careful. Be careful. That's going to get us backlash."
But in the younger parts of the right-wing media, they're excited for this because 50% of young people didn't expect to get Social Security in the first place, so they don't care if it breaks. And so that's the part that's really interesting is that putting aside anything that the Democrats do and the rest of the media, there is real vulnerabilities already within the right-wing space, both that they're beginning to internalize the truth, as we're seeing with the right-wing talkers and their ability to maintain an echo, is already starting to show some fracture points.
So what does that mean in the grand scheme of things and to your point about restoring credibility? That's the target. That's where both the rest of the meeting -- and I'm so grateful for Alex's reporting on this -- that to elevate those stories, in a way that helps really connect the dots between the harms that are being experienced right now and the actions and the policies that the administration are taking, either because they're reckless as John has said or because they're intentional and deliberate because they're just cruel and callous and because they're trying to reshape our culture. That is going to help restore the credibility. Don't tell people that you have to be credible. Show them that.
They'll get there.
WALLACE: And the point of the credibility is that that is sort of the doorway through which you walk to regain narrative dominance. And then once it is built on the true real lived experiences of people, again -- Democrats, Republicans, farmers, teachers, workers, Social Security recipients -- then it is unshakable.
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Fox News host Mark Levin offered a rebuttal of President Donald Trump’s misleading claims about the war between Russia and Ukraine on his radio show Wednesday, voicing his support for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“While Levin did not present his argument as being a rebuke of Trump, most of his points seemed to be aimed at debunking Trump’s claims over the last few days,” writes Mediaite’s Isaac Schorr.
“Now look, I don’t have a problem if it’s the position of our administration to cut back on support for Ukraine — which I oppose, by the way — then so be it,” Levin said. “Elections have consequences, so be it. But I want to make sure the facts are on the table and you, the American people, draw your own conclusion.”
READ MORE:'Not just blood that they’re after': Expert says Christian Nationalists 'want a show'
“MAGA doesn’t support Putin,” he said.
Trump recently claimed that Zelenskyy’s approval rating was at 4 percent and suggested that Ukraine started the war.
“Zelenskyy’s latest poll, he’s at 57 percent,” Levin said.
“The parliament — with all parties in the parliament — support what he’s doing,” he added. “They’re trying to survive. Ukraine did not invade Russia. Russia invaded Ukraine.”
READ MORE: 'Cowardice': GOP faces backlash after report suggests death threat may have swayed vote
"He refuses to have Elections, is very low in Ukrainian Polls, and the only thing he was good at was playing Biden 'like a fiddle,'" Trump posted on Truth Social Wednesday. "A Dictator without Elections, Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left. In the meantime, we are successfully negotiating an end to the War with Russia, something all admit only 'TRUMP,' and the Trump Administration, can do. Biden never tried, Europe has failed to bring Peace, and Zelenskyy probably wants to keep the 'gravy train' going. I love Ukraine, but Zelenskyy has done a terrible job, his Country is shattered, and MILLIONS have unnecessarily died – And so it continues….."
Levin defended Zelenskyy’s actions. “Zelenskyy ordered martial law — that’s what the constitution there compelled,” he said. “Zelenskyy hasn’t called for an election — that’s what the constitution there compels. Now, I’m waiting for the first free election for Vladimir Putin. I mean, this is almost comical in a sick way that Putin is demanding an election. Why is he demanding an election in Ukraine when he doesn’t have free and real elections in his own country? And why does he — why does he get to call the shots when in fact, he murders people who dare to challenge him?”
“This is what we’re dealing with. Again, old KBG, and not just KBG, [Putin] was in like Flynn with the Stasi in East Germany. So, I don’t know why there are people that not only oppose Zelenskyy, but seem to support Putin,” said Levin.
People with this position are pushing “policies that in many ways are un-American in my view, and policies that if they had espoused these policies not that long ago, people would have wondered if they were on the take, or who they’re working for, something like that," he added. "Not that they are, but they would wonder.”
READ MORE: 'The time is now': Trump critics call out 4 ex-presidents for their silence
“Ukraine doesn’t have the industrial might that a Russia has — or a China. A relatively small population of around 40 million people, mostly an agricultural country. They didn’t start this war. What were they supposed to do? Roll over and play dead?” he asked.
“If Ukraine is making preposterous demands that cannot be met, that’s another problem, that’s another problem. But the idea that Ukraine must hold elections in violation of its own constitution as a condition for peace, or that Ukraine must give up more territory as a condition for peace… you have to understand the Ukrainian people don’t want to do that. That’s why Zelenskyy at 57%, higher than most politicians in our own country!” he said.
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crm sum on rule of law concept ~ fACISM
ANTI-COMMIE?
mma
trump legal cases' judges, prosecutors have been attacked by right-wing media and threatened by the public
WRITTEN BY JACK WINSTANLEY & GIDEON TAAFFE
PUBLISHED 05/30/24
In addition to death threats, swatting attempts, and envelopes full of white powder, many of the judges and prosecutors involved in former President Donald Trump's various legal battles have also faced abuse from right-wing media figures. These public servants have been demonized as politically motivated, corrupt, and unethical, and in several cases right-wing media have attacked judges' families as well.
- ## Threats against public officials are increasing amid Trump's attacks on his political and legal opponents
- The New York Times recently reported that political violence and threats against public officials have been on the rise since 2020. The Times noted Trump's role in this trend, writing, “The former president has long used personal attacks as a strategy to intimidate his adversaries. He has turned that tactic on the judges and prosecutors involved in his various legal cases, all of whom have subsequently been threatened.” The New York Times, [5/19/24]
- ## Special counsel Jack Smith
- Special counsel Jack Smith, who was appointed to oversee two investigations into Trump — one related to his retention of classified documents, and another into his efforts to overturn the 2020 election — was subjected to an attempted swatting raid alongside other threats since his appointment. Smith has been repeatedly targeted by both Trump and his right-wing media sympathizers. They hit Smith with personal attacks and made misleading claims about the cases he is presenting against the former president.
In August, Fox News’ Mark Levin attacked Smith, saying, “This guy is sleazy, he's destroying our republic, he's destroyed our electoral system.” Fox News, *Fox & Friends*, [8/3/23]
- On Newsmax, Trump official Peter Navarro said Trump must order a future attorney general to prosecute Jack Smith for “seditious conspiracy.” Newsmax, *Rob Schmitt Tonight*, [8/1/23]
- While ranting against Trump’s various indictments, Levin stated that “Jack the Ripper Smith, his ass should be dragged in front of a committee in Congress whether he likes it or not.” Additionally, he stated that Smith’s “family is bloated with Obama Democrats.” Fox News, *Hannity*, [3/30/23]
- Fox host Laura Ingraham said, “AG Garland and his prosecutorial hitman Jack Smith are doing more damage to America than any group of Capitol rioters ever could.” Fox News, *The Ingraham Angle*, [8/7/23]
- ## District Attorney Fani Willis
- At least two people have been charged with making threats against Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis while she has been prosecuting Trump for his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia. Trump and right-wing media figures have frequently targeted Willis, saying that she is “corrupt” and that her case against Trump is politically motivated.
- While discussing Trump’s indictment in Georgia, Fox News contributor Newt Gingrich stated on Hannity, “I think what you're seeing tonight is one tree in a forest and I think we are drifting towards the greatest constitutional crisis since the 1850s and the rise of secession and the Civil War.” He suggested that the indictments against Trump are “a desperate last-ditch effort by a corrupt machine to destroy their most dangerous opponent, in a way which … breaks the Constitution, destroys the rule of law.” Fox News, *Hannity*, [8/14/23].
- Right-wing podcaster Tim Pool responded to a post claiming that the “Fulton County DA went insane” with the comment “Civil war.” He later posted, “The only path forward is escalation. Either Trump is a cult leader trying to overthrow the US Or Democrats are engaged in seditious conspiracy to steal power.” Twitter/X, [8/15/23, 8/15/23]
- Fox host Mark Levin said of the indictment brought forward by Willis: “Stalin would be proud. I'm sure Putin’s proud." He called the indictment “the motions of justice,” compared it to the actions of “autocratic regimes,” and said Willis has “been doing a number of outrageous things.” Fox News, *Hannity*, [8/14/23]
- ## District Attorney Alvin Bragg
- Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg — who is currently prosecuting Trump for allegedly making hush money payments to a porn star in an effort to influence the 2016 election — has been repeatedly targeted with death threats. Bragg’s office has been “inundated with racist emails” and letters since he indicted Trump, including one death threat that was mailed to his office along with a white powder. Both Trump and right-wing media figures have lobbed extreme attacks against Bragg, who they have repeatedly claimed is a “Soros-backed” district attorney.
- Fox host Greg Gutfeld claimed Alvin Bragg “has more blood on his hands than the Wuhan market.” Gutfeld also claimed that Bragg “is reinventing it [the justice system] as a prosecution arm for the hard left, which should be pretty chilling to everybody because no one is safe if he can do this.” Fox News, *The Five*, [3/22/23]
- Former Trump adviser Stephen Miller claimed that Bragg’s case showed that “we are now living in a post-Constitution, post-truth era where progressive, Soros-backed prosecutors will decide for themselves who is free and who is not.” While appearing on the now-defunct Tucker Carlson Tonight, Miller warned, “If we allow our legal system to become weaponized in this way, then all of our freedoms exist solely on the sufferance of whichever prosecutor is in charge wherever we live.” Fox News, *Tucker Carlson Tonight*, [3/23/23]
- On his radio show, Fox's Mark Levin stated, “Alvin Bragg should wind up in prison. He's interfering with this election.” Westwood One, *The Mark Levin Show*, [4/4/24]
- ## Judge Juan Merchan
- Judge Juan Merchan is presiding over Trump’s hush money trial. Both Merchan and his family have been the target of threats, which has resulted in the judge taking measures to protect himself and his family. Conservative media have defended Trump’s smears against Merchan’s daughter and have amplified the former president’s attacks.
- Trump ally and far-right conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer said Trump wouldn’t need to attack Merchan’s daughter if the judge’s family members “were ethical and they stopped posting about Trump going to jail.” She then downplayed the attacks, adding, “They're so overdramatic, these people.” Rumble, *Loomer Unleashed*, [3/28/24]
- Fox host Laura Ingraham claimed that it “sure looks like an apparent conflict of interest that the judge’s daughter has” while calling Trump’s trial a “fraud.” Her guest, former Trump impeachment defense lawyer David Schoen, added, “The appearance of impropriety is clear, so he should recuse himself for that reason.” Fox News, *The Ingraham Angle*, [4/2/24]
- War Room co-host Natalie Winters accused Merchan of conspiring with progressive donor George Soros and the Brennan Center to wage “lawfare” against Trump, citing Merchan’s daughter’s company ties with Democrats and progressive organizations. Winters also claimed that the organization run by Merchan’s daughter worked for a “Chinese Communist Party influence group behind Confucius Institutes - hotbeds of propaganda and espionage banned by Trump.” Twitter/X, [5/14/24, 5/13/24]
- On Fox News’ America’s Newsroom, attorney Jonna Spilbor speculated about whether people had “filed complaints with the committee on judicial conduct complaining about the fact that he should have recused himself.” Spilbor also asserted that “people who are not fans of Donald Trump should be looking at this prosecution and saying to themselves, ‘This scares me, because if they can do it to him, they can do it to me, my husband, my wife, my brother, sister, anybody.’” Fox News, *America’s Newsroom*, [5/13/24]
- :{:{Real America’s Voice host Wayne Allyn Root wrote that Merchan would “wind up in Guantanamo for life for TREASON.” He also called the trial a “rigged communist show trial run by [a] communist judge” and added, “I'll be the one clapping as they take him away in leg irons.” Twitter/X, [4/30/24]}:
Judge Tanya Chutkan}:
- Judge Tanya Chutkan was appointed to oversee Trump’s election interference case and now has faced multiple instances of harassment. Chutkan has reportedly received threatening phone calls and was seemingly the victim of a swatting attempt. The justice has been a target of right-wing media’s vitriol, which has included calls for her to recuse herself from Trump’s case.
* Fox’s Mark Levin called Chutkan “a whack job.” He then asked his audience, “Do you think Trump will get a fair shot with her? Of course not.” He added, “The system is really truly rigged.” Westwood One, *The Mark Levin Show*, [8/2/23]
- On WABC’s now-discontinued Chat with the Mayor, host and alleged Trump co-conspirator Rudy Giuliani called Chutkan “the most inhumane sentencer on the court for January 6 people” and said she is “hardly … going to be balanced in this case.” He went on to claim, “This is the Soviet Union, Red China, or Nazi Germany. That judge should recuse herself if she has any ethics.” Rolling Stone, [8/1/23; WABC, Chat with the Mayor, 8/2/23; The New York Times, 5/10/24]
- On Newsmax, former Trump adviser Sebastian Gorka said Trump’s case “is their attempt to steal 2024” and called Chutkan “the worst January 6 judge possible.” He cited Chutkan’s role in ruling to convict January 6 rioters, saying, “This is a political hit job, nothing else.” Newsmax, *Rob Schmitt Tonight*, [8/1/23]
- On Fox News' Jesse Watters Primetime, a graphic depicted Chutkan as “the Obama Punisher.” Host Jesse Watters described her as “an Obama donor, nicknamed ‘the Punisher’ for how harsh she’s been with January 6 defendants.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [8/2/23]
- ## Judge Arthur Engoron
- While presiding over Trump’s civil fraud trial, Judge Arthur Engoron and his clerk, Allison Greenfield, reportedly were “bombarded” with death threats and antisemitic attacks. In one instance, an individual paid a website for private information about Engoron, which law enforcement said “confirmed intentions to follow through with the threats” if Engoron did not “cease action” against Trump. Trump himself had shared calls for a “citizens arrest” of Engoron and District Attorney Letitia James.
- On his War Room podcast, Steve Bannon called Engoron a “crazy Nazi judge.” Bannon also insinuated that Engoron would go after other Trump allies, stating to MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, “They’re trying to bankrupt him [Trump], they’re trying to bankrupt you.” Media Matters, [1/30/24]
- Infowars' Alex Jones called Engoron a “virulent anti-free speech guy” and a “kook” and a “political operative.” Jones went on to claim that Engoron would be “rewarded as the Democrats continue to have dictatorship — they’ll make this guy a Supreme Court Justice.” Infowars, *The Alex Jones Show*, [11/10/23]
- On her Rumble livestream, Laura Loomer justified the attacks against Engoron and his family, saying that “Trump wouldn't need to attack the members of these, the family members of these judges if they actually were ethical.” She singled out Engoron’s wife and added that the outrage over Trump’s repeated attacks against Engoron was “overdramatic.” Rumble, *Loomer Unleashed*, [3/28/24]
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News host Mark Levin attacks retired Gen. Mark Milley for saying that Trump is a fascist to the core 10/23/24 mma
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mmas
October 24, 2024, edition of Fox News' Jesse Watters Primetime
MARK LEVIN (GUEST): She's running for president of the wrong country. She should be running for Nicaragua, Venezuela, Cuba where they're very good at price controls. The people are very thin there. Have you noticed? They don't have a weight problem or anything of the sort. The people starve. And if we leave it to Kamala Harris who hasn't spent 15 seconds in the private sector to help feed us, we are all going to starve to death. That's what's going to happen. All she knows is government, that's all she's ever done, except for that phony issue about McDonald's where nobody has any evidence that she ever worked at McDonald's.
...
JESSE WATTERS (HOST): Maybe she's trying to fight obesity with price controls. Everybody will drop 50 pounds like that.
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mma 3 24
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Since Hamas' October 7 attack on Israelis, Islamophobic rhetoric has thrived in right-wing media spaces}:
- Hamas launched its attack against Israel on October 7, with militants from the Gaza Strip targeting both civilians and Israeli military personnel. Since then, Israel has promised to eradicate Hamas, leading the Israeli military to target Gaza in an ongoing conflict that has left more than 1,400 Israelis and nearly 3,800 Palestinians dead. Al Jazeera, [10/20/23]
- Right-wing media figures fearmongered about a supposed “global day of jihad” transpiring on October 13.The notion of a “day of jihad,” in which Islamic extremists would launch Hamas-inspired attacks around the world, seemed to come in part from the mistranslation of a statement from former Hamas political leader Khaled Meshaal. Without a “specific and credible threat” to the U.S., this day failed to materialize. The rhetoric nonetheless sparked increased fears of violence during a time when anti-Muslim violence is already expected to rise. Media Matters, [10/16/23; The Guardian, 10/17/23]
- An Illinois man who “‘listens to conservative talk radio on a regular basis’ and became obsessed with the war between Hamas and Israel” allegedly stabbed his 6-year-old Palestinian tenant to death in what is being investigated as a hate crime. NBC News, [10/16/23]
- ## Radio hosts and guests fearmongered about Islamic extremists attacking the U.S.
- Charlie Kirk told people to carry a gun to defend themselves in case sleeper cells are “activated” in the U.S. The Turning Point USA founder told his audience, “This needs to be a wake up call. They are here, they mean harm to the American homeland and I pray that they are not activated. Make sure you have a gun on you.” Salem Media Group, *The Charlie Kirk Show*, [10/11/23]
- According to Kirk, “We have imported the dynamite right into our country.” Kirk claimed that “we have invited some of the most disgusting people on the planet into the West,” including “Third World Muslims,” and now “we shouldn’t be surprised” to see a “global day of jihad.” Media Matters, [10/16/23; Salem Media Group, The Charlie Kirk Show, 10/12/23]
- Kirk claimed that “millions of young, fighting-age Muslim men in America” have the potential to be “activated” as terrorists. Kirk said, “You have tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of young, fighting-age Muslim men in America. All it takes is for a couple of them to be activated in this country.” Salem Media Group, *The Charlie Kirk Show*, [10/12/23]
- Kirk fearmongered about the potential of Islamic terrorists crossing the U.S.-Mexico border and “shooting up a public place in the name of Allah.” Kirk said, “What's to prevent one of these Muslims that came across the border … from getting their hands on a firearm and going and shooting up a public place in the name of Allah?” Salem Media Group, *The Charlie Kirk Show*, [10/10/23]
- Sean Hannity told his audience to take the “global day of jihad” seriously despite a lack of evidence. He proclaimed, “Hamas has now called for their supporters to make tomorrow, Friday the 13, a global day of jihad. Now I care about everyone in my audience. I'm gonna urge all of you: Take this seriously.” He added, “You know, it’s a holy war, and they want it worldwide.” Premiere Radio Networks, *The Sean Hannity Show*, [10/12/23]
- Hannity claimed there are terrorist cells in the U.S. that have already entered the country illegally and are planning attacks.He said, “I guarantee you that among the 8 million, by the end of this year, of illegal immigrants, I guarantee you people that have connections to terrorism have entered this country and that there are terror cells plotting, planning, and scheming another attack.” Premiere Radio Networks, *The Sean Hannity Show,* [10/17/23]
- On right-wing pundit Eric Metaxas’ show, a guest spread the conspiracy theory that the Biden administration is allowing men from “Muslim countries” into America to be later used to cause chaos. Appearing on The Eric Metaxas Show, The Stream senior editor John Zmirak claimed, “They were letting in thousands of military-age men from Muslim countries and spreading them all over the country. Why? My theory, my conclusion is this is the next army of political police, of political thugs whom the Democrats will send out onto the streets to riot, to burn, to threaten, to intimidate, to pillage the next time it suits their political advantage.” Salem Media Group, *The Eric Metaxas Show*, [10/11/23]
- ## Right-wing radio hosts spread blatant Islamophobia
- Steve Deace claimed that Islam has “no compunction or reservation at all about using women and children as human shields.” “Hey, I lose a wife. I've got seven more,” Deace said, mocking Muslims. “I lose a kid, I'll make another kid with the other seven wives. And that kid, you know, was just welcomed by Allah into heaven as a hero.“ Blaze Radio, *Steve Deace Show*, [10/16/23]
- Charlie Kirk maintained that the “vast majority of Muslims” live “in the 1300s” and hold a “medieval worldview.” Kirk framed the Israel-Hamas conflict as “civilization, aka Western values, versus barbarism.” Salem Media Group, *The Charlie Kirk Show*, [10/11/23]
- Kirk claimed Muslims are going to kidnap people “across the world.”According to Kirk, “People are going to start getting kidnapped all across the world if we mishandle this. You’re going to see a string of kidnappings,” Kirk said. “Americans don’t travel internationally nearly as much as Europeans, but we travel internationally a lot, and there's a lot of Muslims out there.” Salem Media Group, *The Charlie Kirk Show*, [10/11/23]
- Kirk falsely claimed that Islamic law justifies killing children. “It's perfectly acceptable in Islamic law to go kill kids — perfectly fine,” Kirk said. Salem Media Group, *The Charlie Kirk Show*, [10/12/23]
- Shapiro claimed that the United Nations is “despicable and vile” and “filled with Islamist countries that support the death of Jews.” Westwood One, *The Ben Shapiro Show*, [10/10/23]
- ## Right-wing radio hosts dehumanized Palestinians
- Charlie Kirk claimed Palestinians in Gaza are “savage animals.” The TPUSA founder and Salem Media Group radio host stated, “To be clear, they will — they'll take you out of the car and cut your head off and parade you through the streets. They're really nice people we got dealing with here. And I'll never forget — as soon as they see an Israeli license plate, they're savage animals, they’ll come after you.” Salem Media Group, *The Charlie Kirk Show*, :{[10/11/23]}:
- Mark Levin declared, “The Israelis are up against these animals — they’re not even animals,” before calling Palestinians “subhumans.” On his Westwood One radio show, Levin also questioned why the safety of Palestinian civilians should be considered, “particularly when the enemy wants its own civilians killed.” Westwood One, *The Mark Levin Show*, [10/13/23]
- Levin: “And I'm supposed to, what, shed crocodile tears, for what's going to happen to these people?”Levin also called people in Gaza “barbarians” and said that their deaths are not Israel’s responsibility. Levin continued, “I'm not. Maybe I'm the only one who will voice it, but I'm not. Israel has every right to throw every damn thing it has at barbarians. And if there are innocent people, quote-unquote ‘civilians’ who are killed, then maybe they ought to organize to take out the government they elected, but it's not Israel's responsibility." Westwood One, *The Mark Levin Show*, [10/10/23]
- Levin implied that all Palestinians are evil and said that if “there's collateral damage” when Israel attacks Gaza, “so be it.” According to Levin, “One side is immoral and evil. The other side is moral and good. It's that simple.” Westwood One, *The Mark Levin Show*, [10/17/23]
- Steve Deace claimed that Palestinians are “basically Arab squatters, people who were kicked out of countries like Jordan, who didn't want them.” The Blaze Radio host said, “There’s no such thing as a Palestinian. It’s a people group that does not exist. They’re basically Arab squatters, people who were kicked out of countries like Jordan, who didn’t want them.” Blaze Radio, *The Steve Deace Show*, [10/13/23]
- Blaze Radio producer Aaron McIntire claimed that Palestinian civilians “don’t exist” and also called them “squatters.”McIntire said, “What you do with the Palestinian civilians — that don’t exist — what you do with the people, the squatters, who live in the area known as Gaza Strip: Make Egypt take them, make the Arab nations, Arab neighbors take them.” Blaze Radio, *The Steve Deace Show*, [10/13/23]
- Deace also said, “There is no such thing as a Palestinian people as a people group.”He stated, “The people identifying as Palestinians — and they're not all Muslims, they're not all, you know, Hamas crazies, and every one of them's made in the image of God. Nevertheless, there is no such thing as a Palestinian people as a people group. These are folks from other Arab countries, a lot of them, a legacy like in Jordan that were kicked out of those countries, and there's a reason why these Arab countries like Jordan and Egypt are closing their borders to them now. They don't want them back.” Blaze Radio, *Steve Deace Show*,[10/16/23]
- Charlie Kirk claimed Palestinians are all antisemitic to justify attacking them: “The reality is Hamas and the Arab world, they just hate Jews. They just want Jews dead.” Salem Media Group, T*he Charlie Kirk Show*, [10/12/23]
- ## Right-wing radio figures tried to justify withholding aid to Palestinians
- Sean Hannity said any humanitarian aid to Palestine will help Hamas. Hannity stated, “Any humanitarian aid you want to give the innocent people in Gaza — I don't know what the percentage is because I don't know how deep their indoctrination is — will not go to the civilians. Innocents won't see this aid. It will go to Hamas, and they will build out their terror network.” Premiere Radio Networks, *The Sean Hannity Show*, [10/18/23]
- Ben Shapiro said “turning off water and electricity in military areas is normal” and emphasized that Israel is trying to avoid targeting civilians. Westwood One, *The Ben Shapiro Show*, [10/16/23]
- Shapiro claimed that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, a humanitarian organization, allows for “Jew hatred” and should not be supported. According to Shapiro, “The UNRWA, the U.N. refugees administration, which is an agency that is specifically dedicated only to the Palestinians, it’s amazing. It’s a garbage administration run internationally that allows for full indoctrination in Jew hatred at UNRWA schools and the hiding of weaponry beneath UNRWA schools. They admitted yesterday on Twitter, briefly, that Hamas was literally stealing aid and then they deleted it because they’re afraid that Hamas might get mad at them.” Westwood One, T*he Ben Shapiro Show*, [10/17/23]
- On The Mark Levin Show, the president of the Zionist Organization of America declared: “The civilians are not innocent.”ZOA National President Mort Klein said that the U.S. should withhold aid because Palestinian civilians were also guilty for Hamas’ October 7 attack, saying, “In any war, do you do something against the civilians there? Do we do anything for the Vietnam civilians? For the Iraqi civilians? For the German civilians? No. It is a war. And yet strangely enough when it's Israel fighting Hamas Nazis, we want to aid the civilians. And I must add, the civilians are not innocent.” Westwood One, *The Mark Levin Show*, [10/18/23]
- ## Right-wing radio figures defended or downplayed civilian casualties in Gaza
- Mark Levin complained that asking Israel not to bomb schools or cut off food and medication to Gazan civilians constitutes too many “conditions.”Levin said: “Urban battle: It’s going to be very hard. Of course it is, but the Israelis are being told by our government, ‘Make sure your feed the population, make sure you medicate the population, make sure you don’t hit a mosque, a hospital, a school, don’t hit any of those. Now go for it.’ Look at all these conditions. All these conditions.” Westwood One, *The Mark Levin Show*, [10/16/23]
- Brian Kilmeade suggested civilians should not be let out of Gaza because terrorists might escape. According to the Fox News and radio host, “Word is — there’s some word that we are pressuring — the U.S. is pressuring Israel to hold off on the invasion so that more civilians get out. But you know who else gets out? The terrorists! Who are going to plot and plan another day and be treated like heroes when the red carpet comes out with a lot of these evil regimes or the Muslim Brotherhood affiliates around the world around the globe. “ Fox News Radio, *The Brian Kilmeade Show*, [10/16/23]
- Shapiro excused civilian casualties as necessary to achieve Israeli military objectives, saying, “This notion, that it is incumbent on Israel not to achieve its military objectives in order to prevent civilian casualties caused by Hamas, is absurd on its face.” Westwood One, *The Ben Shapiro Show*, [10/17/23]
- Shapiro also said that Palestinian civilians should not be prioritized over “the first rule of war: winning.” According to Shapiro, “Yes, of course, those of moral bent ought to work to minimize civilian casualties. Yes, of course, those of moral bent ought to work to find a place for civilians to escape from the line of fire. But neither of those rules can be prioritized over the first rule of war: winning. War is ugly by nature. Nearly the ugliest thing. As it turns out, there’s only one thing uglier: losing to those who don’t care about morality or decency at all.” Westwood One, *The Ben Shapiro Show*, [10/16/23]
- Sean Hannity claimed Hamas and Iran, not Israel, are to blame for civilian deaths in Gaza. According to the Fox News and radio host, “The people of Palestine — those that have been killed and will be killed — you can only blame one group, and that would be the terrorist group Hamas. Well, you can blame another group too — the No. 1 state sponsor of terror that helped, apparently, organize, foment these attacks against Israel. That would be Iran.” Premiere Radio Networks, *The Sean Hannity Show*, [10/16/23]
- Kilmeade said it’s “not Israel’s problem” that civilians are collateral damage in eradicating Hamas.According to Kilmeade, “They say go by the rules of war, and — the best you can — but if Hamas is going to use these people as human shields, prevent them from leaving, or going south, or leaving their building — even though it’s gonna be targeted — that’s not Israel’s problem, it’s their problem.” Fox News Radio, *The Brian Kilmeade Show*, [10/16/23]
- Beck claimed there are “no Israeli war crimes” and said that “every innocent harmed in Gaza is on Hamas.” Beck dismissed the number of casualties caused by Israel, arguing, “Every piece of human suffering in Gaza is on Hamas. Want more peace? Have less Hamas.” Blaze Radio, *The Glenn Beck Program*, [10/17/23]
- ## Right-wing radio figures tried to justify the complete elimination of Palestinian people from the Gaza Strip
- Blaze Radio founder Glenn Beck said Israel should make Gaza into a “parking lot,” claiming the over 2 million Palestinians who live there are simply the tools of “people who just want to kill Jews.”Beck stated, “I think Israel should park their car there. You know what I mean? Park a lot of cars there. It could be, you know, some sort of a parking lot that they make it. … The Palestinian people have been used over and over again by people who just want to kill Jews. That's it. That's — that's been the thing from the very beginning." Blaze Radio, *The Glenn Beck Program*, [10/16/23]
- Salem radio guest: “I’m OK” with an ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.During an appearance on Salem Media’s The Charlie Kirk Show, Breitbart writer Joel Pollak stated, “I don’t think it’s going to be something people consider, but it's there. It's a possibility, and frankly I'm OK with it. I say that at the risk of being accused of all kinds of stuff, but, you know, if it comes down to ethnic cleansing, if you want to cleanse my people, I'll cleanse yours first. I mean, that’s where we are.” Salem Media Group, *The Charlie Kirk Show*, [10/9/23]
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jenna $
https://www.mediamatters.org/mark-levin/foxs-mark-levin-any-republican-who-votes-against-supporting-impeachment-inquiry-we-will
https://www.mediamatters.org/mark-levin/attacking-bidens-efforts-negotiate-lower-drug-prices-mark-levin-claims-patients-can-get
mma 8 23
right-wing media this week responded to former President Donald Trump’s fourth criminal indictment — this time, for conspiring to subvert the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia — by arguing that the charges signal the end of American democracy and the start of a potential civil war.
- On August 14, Trump and 18 of his allies were indicted in the state of Georgia on charges of felony racketeering and conspiracy for their attempts to subvert the 2020 election. The 98-page indictment was handed down by a grand jury that reviewed evidence gathered during a two-and-a-half year investigation headed by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
- Right-wing media have defended Trump using inflammatory rhetoric, accusing Democrats of sedition and totalitarianism. The extreme reactions from the right echo previous attempts by conservative media to shield the former president from accountability for his various charges.
Right-wing media bemoaned the indictment as an attack on democracy, a display of tyranny, and a constitutional crisis
- Right-wing podcaster Tim Pool responded to a post claiming that the “Fulton County DA went insane” with the comment “Civil war.” He later posted that “the only path forward is escalation. Either Trump is a cult leader trying to overthrow the US Or Democrats are engaged in seditious conspiracy to steal power.” Twitter/X, [8/15/23, 8/15/23]
- On Hannity, Fox News contributor and former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich decried the consequences of the indictment for the future of the country, comparing it to “the rise of secession and the Civil War.” He said, “I think what you're seeing tonight is one tree in a forest and I think we are drifting toward the greatest constitutional crisis since the 1850s and the rise of secession and the Civil War. I don't mean that as hyperbole.” Fox News, *Hannity*, [8/14/23]
- Article III Project founder Mike Davis argued on Steve Bannon’s War Room that “there's no way they can come up with this before the election if he’s going to get a fair trial.”He then claimed that “this is going to have a very chilling effect on democracy” because “you can't get more dangerous than telling people if you dare to question elections in America, you face going to prison for many, many years.” Real America’s Voice, *War Room*, [8/15/23]
- Fox News host Mark Levin said indictments of Trump are “an attack on the people. Every indictment is an attack on our freedom, our ability to vote.” Levin claimed, “Every indictment is an attack on our freedom, our ability to vote. The Democrats don't care about voting. They care about winning at all costs. The Democrat Party wants to be the monopoly party in this country.” Fox News, *Hannity*, [8/15/23]
- Far-right troll Mike Cernovich claimed the indictment was evidence that Democrats are forming “a totalitarian regime.” He posted, “We are occupied by the same totalitarian regime that we used to read about. It’s here. They are emboldened. Evil never stops. It’s going to get worse.” Twitter/X, [8/14/23]
- Levin similarly claimed that “Stalin would be proud. I'm sure Putin’s proud. I’m sure our enemies are celebrating.” He continued, “Congress is supposed to make all these final decisions. You're not supposed to criminalize the challenging of electors or dual electors or counting of votes and that sort of thing." Fox News, *Hannity*, [8/14/23]
- Breitbart Senior Editor-at-Large Joel Pollak decried the indictment as “political persecution of the opposition.” He posted that the indictment “recalls trials by totalitarian regimes” and that prosecutors are “doomed to fail.” Twitter/X, [8/15/23]
- Daily Wire host Ben Shapiro posted, “Whatever you think of the Trump indictments, one thing is for certain: the glass has now been broken over and over again.” Shapiro added, “Political opponents can be targeted by legal enemies. Running for office now carries the legal risk of going to jail -- on all sides.” Twitter/X, [8/15/23]
- Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk labeled Trump’s indictment as “an attempt to nullify the United States Constitution.”He also called the charges “psychological warfare.” Salem Media Group, :{The Charlie Kirk Show}:, [8/15/23]
- Former Fox Business host Lou Dobbs labeled prosecutors as “Marxist” and claimed that they have “trampled President Trump's rights and the Constitution.” He then argued that “the Left is an evil force that must be held accountable.” Twitter/X, [8/15/23]
- Failed Arizona GOP gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake said on Steve Bannon’s War Room:{, “I think we’ll end up seeing another indictment,” before claiming that “they’ll eventually come for you.” She continued, “They’re going to go after grandmas and grandpas and people who were these alternate electors. This is political persecution of people who support America. … And if you don't think they'll eventually come for you, you are living in a fantasy land. They will eventually be coming after all of us.” :{Real America’s Voice, :{War Room}:}:, [8/15/23]}:
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mma 8 23
right-wing media are attacking Judge Tanya Chutkan, who will preside over Donald Trump’s pending criminal case in Washington D.C.
Chutkan was randomly selected to preside over the case. Appointed by former President Obama, she has been described as a “tough Jan. 6 sentencer”of defendants who participated in the insurrection, though she has “avoided some of the most pointed criticisms of Trump that some of her colleagues on the federal bench in D.C. have delivered.”
Media figures on the right have leveled numerous attacks and charges against her, describing her as politically motivated, and calling for her recusal in the case against the former president.
- Fox News host Mark Levin described Chutkan as “the worst, radical, left-wing, Obama judge in America” on Fox and Friends, adding that Trump would be indicted for “drinking too much orange juice.”
- On his radio show, Levin reiterated his claim and called Chutkan “a whack job.” He then asked, “Do you think Trump will get a fair shot with her? Of course not.” He added, “And so the system is really truly rigged. Really truly rigged.”
- On WABC’s Chat with the Mayor, alleged co-conspirator Rudy Giuliani called her “the most inhumane sentencer on the court for January 6 people.” He went on to claim, “This is the Soviet Union, Red China, or Nazi Germany. That judge should recuse herself if she has any ethics.”
- Newsmax host Greg Kelly called Chutkan “a bad judge” for Trump’s case and said, “She has major conflicts.”
- The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro called Chutkan “a very left-wing judge” and said, “It is certainly fair to point out that Jack Smith is filing in a court in Washington D.C. with probably the most Trump-hating judge in Washington D.C.”
- Newsmax host Eric Bolling called Judge Chutkan “a very harsh judge on anything surrounding January 6.”
- On her SiriusXM show, Megyn Kelly**p**redicted, “This judge is going to hate Trump, and she's not going to dismiss this case on the papers.”
- Newsmax host Sebastian Gorka said, “This is their attempt to steal 2024,” and called Chutkan “the worst January 6 judge possible — an Obama appointee who has given the harshest sentences to people who walked through the velvet ropes on January 6.”
- Laura Ingraham said she has “doubts about her” and said, “I want to remind you tonight that she worked for Hunter Biden's law firm at one point, Boies and Schiller.”
- On Fox Business, Alan Dershowitz and Kash Patel called for Chutkan to recuse herself from Trump’s case, with Derschowitz calling her former law firm “one of the most corrupt firms” and accusing them of being “Democratic hacks.”
- Dershowitz also appeared on BlazeTV’s The Glenn Beck Program and asserted that Chutkan “has a very questionable background” and “worked for years for a firm that’s highly questionable.”
- On Steve Bannon’s War Room, Patel again called for Chutkan’s recusal, saying, “She’s so entrenched through her past legal representations and family to the Democratic national party and the Hillary Clinton campaign that she could not be a fair, detached … arbiter of facts.”
- On Fox News' Jesse Watters Primetime, an over-the-shoulder graphic featured an image of Chutkan with the words, “the Obama Punisher,” and host Jesse Watters described her as “an Obama donor.”
- Turning Point USA’s Benny Johnson called Chutkan “a very nasty judge” and added, “This judge worked with Hunter Biden at a law firm. This judge should be recused, of course.”
- On Newsmax, co-host Bianca de la Garza pointed to the ties between Chutkan’s law firm and the president’s son, saying, “The person who runs it is ahuge donor to the Democratic party.” She predicted that Trump’s team would request a different judge to preside over the case.
- On Newsmax’s special coverage of the indictment, Newsmax contributor Joe diGenova said Chutkan will be “very, very bad for Donald Trump” and suggested there’s a risk “that she will not conduct a proper jury selection process” in Trump’s case.
- On hisradio show, Fox News host Sean Hannitysaid, “The Obama-appointed judge overseeing this case once worked for the same law firm as Hunter Biden. Is anybody going to call that a conflict of any kind? I’d say that might be a conflict.”
===
===
https://www.mediamatters.org/mark-levin/fox-news-mark-levin-says-jack-smith-has-started-war-against-country
---
not ingram watters here
mma 8 23
former President Donald Trump was indicted Tuesday on multiple federal charges connected to his criminal schemes to keep himself in power after losing the 2020 election, which culminated in a violent attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of his supporters. At this historic moment, it is also worth reexamining the public role that Fox News played in promoting one of Trump’s key efforts to stay in power — and which is now the central crime in the indictment — by creating fake Electoral College votes in states where Joe Biden had won the popular vote.
The August 1 indictment charges Trump with conspiracy to defraud the United States, and details the manner in which he and six unnamed co-conspirators manufactured the fake electoral votes. This scheme essentially involved a bait-and-switch, at first justifying the fake elector slates as a contingency plan in case a recount or court case were to flip a state’s election result in his favor, in line with a historical precedent from Hawaii’s presidential recount in 1960. However, even after no such results were flipped — indeed, Trump lost a state recount as well as dozens of legal challenges — he and his co-conspirators still attempted to convince then-Vice President Mike Pence to treat the fake electors as if they were real, and to reject the certification of real electoral votes for Biden.
The indictment also charges Trump with obstructing an official proceeding (the counting of the electoral votes on January 6, 2021) and engaging in a conspiracy against Americans’ civil rights to have their votes counted, based on his refusal to immediately tell his supporters to leave the Capitol, and that he and co-conspirators sought to use the violence as a means to further delay the electoral count. These further counts, in a sense, simply stem further out from the fraudulent electors scheme itself.
Two weeks ago, on July 18, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced state charges against the 16 fake Trump electors in her state, on counts of forgery punishable by up to 14 years in prison. In addition, the Trump campaign’s fake electors in Georgia could also face charges in the ongoing probe by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis of Trump’s efforts to subvert his election loss in that state. Eight of Georgia’s fake electors have already accepted an immunity deal, indicating that they could potentially provide evidence against other figures in the Trump campaign.
Fox News played a major role in promoting the fake electors conspiracy at the time, including hosting the major public announcement of the scheme on the morning of December 14, 2020, the day when the Electoral College delegates voted across the country. Fox hosts and guests repeatedly invoked Trump’s false claim that Congress or the vice president could simply treat the fake electoral votes as real ones, or that they presented some legitimate rival claim despite not having the certification of any state authority.
- On Fox & Friends, former Trump White House adviser Stephen Miller hyped “an alternate slate of electors in the contested states.”Miller said: “As we speak, today, an alternate slate of electors in the contested states is going to vote, and we're going to send those results up to Congress. This will ensure that all of our legal remedies remain open.” In addition to claiming that Trump could win a court case on the election results, Miller added, “And likewise, Congress has that opportunity as well to do the right thing,” suggesting that Congress might simply count the false electoral votes instead of the genuinely certified Biden slates. Fox News, *Fox & Friends*, [12/14/20
- [vid 12 14]
- fox contributor and law professor Jonathan Turley on Fox & Friends coined the Trump fake elector plan as “the Death Star strategy” while talking about its history and odds of success.Turley said, “It’s very hard to do and it’s very unlikely to succeed. But they can force a question to the presiding officer, who would be Vice President Pence.” Fox News, *Fox & Friends*, [12/14/20]
- Fox national correspondent Bryan Llenas uncritically reported that “Republican electors in Pennsylvania and Georgia met separately to cast their own votes for President Trump just to keep all legal options open.”On Fox’s Special Report, Llenas echoed Miller’s phrasing of the fake electors as a “legal” precaution, saying: “The historic Electoral College vote occurring as President Trump continues to contest the election results. In fact, Republican electors in Pennsylvania and Georgia met separately to cast their own votes for President Trump just to keep all legal options open.” Fox News, *Special Report*, [12/14/20]
- Fox anchor Martha MacCallum: Fake electors were voting “in solidarity with” Trump’s effort to “keep on fighting until the bitter end.”On her Fox “news”-side program, MacCallum said: “The Trump team says it will keep on fighting until the bitter end on January 20,” which she incorrectly said is “when Congress makes the final certification.” She continued: “In solidarity with that today, Republican electors in Pennsylvania and Georgia went ahead and cast protest votes in favor of President Trump, in hopes that a future lawsuit might succeed. This has actually worked once before in the state of Hawaii back in 1960, when Democrats challenged Richard Nixon's victory and flipped the state to John F. Kennedy.” Fox News, *The Story with Martha MacCallum*, [12/14/20]
- Then-Fox Business host Lou Dobbs legitimized the efforts of the fake electors.Dobbs uncritically reported that “Republican electors in Pennsylvania, Nevada, and Georgia meeting separately today to cast their own votes for President Trump — a procedural move that keeps all of President Trump's legal options open.” Fox Business, *Lou Dobbs Tonight*, [12/14/20]
- On his separate radio show, Fox host Mark Levin falsely claimed the fake electors were “sent by” the states, and specifically endorsed the fake Michigan electors fraudulently swearing that they met at the state Capitol. Levin said: “Now, as this process goes on, it does become harder and harder and harder to reverse course. But the final step is on January 6. January 6. Now, Pennsylvania and Georgia, the Republicans in those states have sent alternative votes, or are, to the archivist of the United States.” He then specifically legitimized the fake Michigan electors, saying: “The Michigan Republicans were going to do exactly the same thing, but the fascistic governorthere literally had state troopers block the legislative entry so the electors couldn't meet, the Republican electors, to send their electors to the archivist. I suppose they could meet somewhere else.” (The state’s Republican legislative leaders had publicly explained that the state Capitol building was closed to the public due to credible threats of violence.) Westwood One, :{The Mark Levin Show}:, [12/14/20; Detroit Free Press, “Legislative office buildings in Lansing closed Monday over security concerns,” 12/13/20]
- Dobbs continued to promote the fake elector scheme and the possibility that the Republicans in the House could name Trump as president. The next day, Dobbs said: “Seven states have chosen a slate of electors for both Joe Biden and President Trump. They are Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Nevada, and New Mexico. Now, if the House and the Senate cannot agree on which electors to accept, an untested constitutional procedure could result in each state being given one vote, which they would allocate to either Biden or Trump. And since the Republicans hold 26 of 50 statehouses, there would exist at least the mathematical possibility that President Trump could be named the constitutionally elected president.” Fox Business, :{Lou Dobbs Tonight:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:, [12/15/20]
- Dobbs declared “it’s shameful” that the fake Michigan electors were barred from the state Capitol, while his guest Phill Kline promoted the fake electors scheme.After Kline complained that the Democratic governor “effectively chained the doors of the Michigan legislature and prohibited Republicans from coming in,” Dobbs said: “Putting the state police to guard the door against Republican electors. … It’s shameful.” Kline then legitimized the scheme by pointing to historic examples of different electors being presented, while calling for continued investigations of fake election fraud claims. Fox Business, :{Lou Dobbs Tonight}:, [12/15/20]
- Fox Business guest Ken Blackwell falsely claimed that Joe Biden was not the president-elect because “seven states are sending competing slates of electors to the Congress.”Blackwell continued pushing the fake elector scheme as a way to “really push this through” and reelect Trump. Fox Business, :{Mornings with Maria Bartiromo}:, [12/16/20]
- On Hannity, then-Trump administration press secretary and campaign spokesperson Kayleigh McEnany mentioned “an alternative slate of electors” that may change the outcome of the election. McEnany said: “In the four states that we saw a lot of problems and with those big metro areas, the only metro areas where Joe Biden beat Hillary Clinton, ironically. In those states, there has been an alternative slate of electors voted upon, that Congress will decide in January. So, we will see what happens.” Fox News, :{Hannity}:, [12/17/20]
- Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo approvingly played a video clip of online right-wing personality Christian Walker touting the fake electors. In the clip, Walker declared: “And for your information, seven states sent their GOP electors to vote for Trump today: Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico. This preserves President Trump's right to remedy the fraud with his own electors. This isn’t over yet.” Bartiromo then told Walker: “I just love that.” Fox Business, :{Mornings with Maria Bartiromo}:, [12/18/20]
===
https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-role-spreading-conspiracy-theories-one-january-6-defendant-using-his-trial
mma 7 23
january 6 defendant Alan Hostetter will reportedly rely on three conspiracy theories at his trial, each of which he could have seen repeatedly on Fox News.
Hostetter, a former police chief, was initially charged alongside four other January 6 defendants who the government has accused of being Three Percenters — an extremist, anti-government ideology. The judge severed his case, however, “in a nod to the unusual nature of Mr. Hostetter’s proposed defense,” according to the New York Times.
The Times further reports:
Acting as his own lawyer, Mr. Hostetter has said that he intends tofight charges of conspiracy and obstruction based on what he calls“three fundamental pillars”: that the 2020 election was stolen from President Donald J. Trump; that he and other rioters had no desire to disrupt the challenges to the vote results that were taking place inside the Capitol on Jan. 6; and that, therefore, the assault on the building had to have been staged by “federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies.”
Fox News embraced Hostetter’s first false claim — that the 2020 election was stolen — across nearly the entire network.Fox cast doubt on the election results almost 800 times in the two weeks after it called the race for President Joe Biden, and falsely claimed machines run by Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic were unreliable or had been hacked to change vote totals. Dominion sued Fox for defamation, forcing a massive settlement on the day the trial was set to open. Smartmatic also filed a defamation lawsuit against Fox, which is ongoing.
Fox News also pushed Hostetter’s second inaccurate claim,that the rioters were simply tourists or otherwise not looking to disrupt the transfer of power. As recently as this March, prime-time host Laura Ingraham argued the insurrectionists were “old ladies walking through the halls of Congress taking selfies.” In January, her guest Miranda Devine, a Fox News contributor, claimed “most of the people that they've been rounding up are just guilty of trespassing. A lot of them were confused.” Fox’s Mark Levin said the rioters were simply “parading on public lands,” and compared them to “people in the civil rights movement.” On the day after the riot, Fox & Friends insisted the insurrectionists were at the Capitol to “voice their concerns” and to “defend our Republic.” That type of language was a fixture of Fox’s coverage, with on-air talent and guests calling the rioters “nonviolent” and “political prisoners." [twt]
hostetter’s final claim, that the insurrection was an inside job orchestrated and manufactured by federal law enforcement, was also a mainstay on Fox News. Like much of the network’s January 6 revisionism, this particular myth was largely, but not exclusively, driven by former marquee star Tucker Carlson. He filled his prime-time show and a documentary-style series called Patriot Purge with unsupported allegations that the riot was driven by FBI agents or informants, a claim that doesn’t stand up to even the mildest scrutiny.
Carlson promoted the series on Fox & Friends, during which co-host Brian Kilmeade asked, “Do you think maybe, perhaps and maybe you don't want to give away your series, you find indications that the FBI was actually pushing for this invasion?”
Hostetter recently criticized the network’s decision to fire Carlson in a rambling, incoherent defense motion that also referenced the JFK assassination and The Wizard of Oz. Prior to his ouster, Carlson had defended Hostetter as a victim of deep state persecution.
But Carlson wasn’t alone in spreading the conspiracy theory that the federal government was behind the attempted insurrection. Ingraham devoted a segment in October 2021 to the conspiracy theory that a man named Ray Epps was an FBI informant who had surreptitiously provoked the riot. She suggested in March of this year that FBI informants were “working the crowd either before they entered the Capitol or while they were in the Capitol.” Her guest in that segment was American Greatness’ Julie Kelly, a leading January 6 conspiracy theorist, who frequently pushed the same line on Carlson’s program as well. Levin interviewed Kelly in November 2021, asking, “Was this attack on the Capitol building instigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on January 6?” And a guest on the radio program of Fox’s Sean Hannity recently suggested that then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi “planned and conjured up” the riot to add drama to her daughter’s documentary film.
As the Times reports, prosecutors in Hostetter’s case are worried about the trial devolving to a “circuslike atmosphere.” If it does, Fox News will have played no small role in providing the elements for Hostetter’s spectacle.
===
---
mma 6 23
Right-wing media figures popularized and defended the Trump team’s last-ditch effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election through a scheme to nullify the election results, which is now under investigation by a special counsel — and some of the fake electors have reportedly already testified to a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C.
The scheme, cooked up by former Trump lawyers John Eastman and Rudy Giuliani, sought to create “alternate” slates of electors in favor of former President Donald Trump in seven swing states that voted for Joe Biden. At the time, several right-wing media figures supported the scheme to undermine the 2020 election, with some calling for key states to appoint their own alternate electors. Other right-wing media figures such as One America News host Christina Bobb and “Stop the Steal” organizer Ali Alexander were directly involved in engineering the fake elector scheme.
Individuals associated with Trump’s plot to appoint fake electors to overturn the outcome of the 2020 election have begun testifying before a federal grand jury.Last week, CNN reported:
Special counsel Jack Smith has compelled at least two Republican fake electors to testify to a federal grand jury in Washington in recent weeks by giving them limited immunity, part of a current push by federal prosecutors to swiftly nail down evidence in the sprawling criminal investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
The testimony, described to CNN by people familiar with the situation, comes after a year of relative dormancy around the fake electors portion of the investigation and as a parade of related witnesses are being told to appear before the grand jury with no chance for delay.
That activity could signal that investigators are nearing at least some charging decisions in a part of the 2020 election probe, sources added.
Now that the special counsel investigation is well underway and a related jury trial over the fake electors scheme in Wisconsin is set to begin, Fox News’ Mark Levin remains a vocally adamant defender of the scheme. On his radio show earlier this month, Levin claimed that “there’s no such thing as fake electors” and that the probe is “another novelty in the law that’s created by another Democrat prosecutor.”
Levin's continued defense of Trump's fake elector scheme is just one example of ayearslong campaign by right-wing media outlets to sow distrust in our elections process — and their consistent refrain that investigating Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election is political persecution has also primed conservative audiences to view the upcoming 2024 election with skepticism.
Right-wing media supported the fake electors scheme and presented it as a legitimate “remedy” for Trump’s 2020 loss
- Right after Election Day and two days before the 2020 election was called in Biden’s favor, Fox host Sean Hannity suggested on his radio show that “the remedy” to a Trump loss would be state electors going against the popular vote. Hannity said that to his “understanding,” electors are “not required to vote in accordance with whatever the state popular vote is, if they think there is fraud that is taking place they do have the power to stop that in these states.” Premiere Radio, *The Sean Hannity Show*, [11/05/20]
- Mark Levin appealed directly to state lawmakers, tweeting on November 5, 2020, “Reminder to the Republican state legislatures, you have the final say over the choosing of electors, not any board of elections, secretary of state, governor, or even court.” (He would later claim in a November 12, 2020, tweet, “Again and again, I have to explain that I never said electors should be chosen by the legislatures.”) Twitter, [11/05/20]
- Writing for The Blaze on November 5, 2020, Daniel Horowitz stated that “state legislatures can have their revenge and have the final say” in the 2020 election. Horowitz also echoed Levin’s support of the scheme, adding, “Mark Levin reminded his audience today that state legislatures are the ones who choose the electors who directly vote for president in each state.” The Blaze, [11/05/20]
- In a November 21, 2020, tweet, Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton claimed that a Pennsylvania court decision against the Trump campaign was a “miscarriage of justice and nakedly political.”Fitton also claimed that “under the Constitution, it is ultimately up [to] the Pennsylvania legislature to protect election integrity and appoint a clean slate of electors.” Twitter, [11/21/20]
- Christina Bobb argued on the December 14, 2020 episode of her OAN show that by “having the GOP electors cast their votes in these states, it preserves the legal remedy should Donald Trump win, either in court or in a state legislature, in the future.” She also defended the use of alternate electors because of the supposed “possibility that this state could flip or turn because there’s enough election fraud in here that it’s still contested.” OAN, [12/14/20]
- On the same day, OAN reporter Pearson Sharp showed a misleading videoof Trump’s fake electors being denied entry to the Michigan Capitol, which he said was evidence that “official state electors are being barred from performing their constitutional duties.” Sharp claimed that “that video is all you need to see to understand the lengths being taken to undermine the election.” OAN, [12/14/20]
- Former Fox Business host Lou Dobbs legitimized the efforts of the fake electors on the December 14, 2020, episode of Lou Dobbs Tonight.Dobbs uncritically reported that “Republican electors in Pennsylvania, Nevada, and Georgia [are] meeting separately today to cast their own votes for President Trump — a procedural move that keeps all of President Trump's legal options open.” Fox Business, *Lou Dobbs Tonight*, [12/14/20]
- Speaking with Bobb on December 15, 2020, former Arizona state Sen. Kelly Townsend claimed on OAN that the scheme was “absolutely legal and it’s not unprecedented.” Townsend would go on to defend the scheme further, claiming, “So it’s not treason. Some people are saying, ‘Oh, it’s treasonous, it’s seditious.’ It’s not any of that, it’s constitutional.” OAN, [12/15/20]
- On the July 31, 2022, edition of Fox News’ Life, Liberty, and Levin, host Mark Levin passionately defendedTrump's fake electors scheme, arguing that ,“you might think it's weird, you might think it's unethical, but it's not a crime.” Fox News, :{Life, Liberty, and Levin}:,[7/31/22]
===
===
https://www.alternet.org/right-wing-media-2661654976/
an 6 23
//
NO lnx
mAGA Republicans can be highly disdainful of anything they consider "green," be it wind and solar power, recycling or electric vehicles. Now, some of them are raging against new electric cars for not including AM radio.
The Guardian's Katie Thornton reports that Volkswagen and Mazda are joining Volvo, Tesla, BMW and Audi in excluding AM radio from their electric cars. They view it as a technical matter, while Turning Point USA's Charlie Kirk, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and far-right radio host Mark Levin are saying it is a conspiracy against far-right talk radio.
Thornton, in a report for The Guardian published on June 21, notes that some companies "have already dispensed with AM in their electric cars, because AM's already unpolished reception is subject to even more buzz, crackling."
READ MORE: 'That's not appropriate': Fox News host slams Steve Bannon for attacking the right-wing media network
"While some manufacturers have found workarounds for the interference," Thornton explains, "others appear to have decided that it's not worth the engineering expense."
Levin is furious, telling listeners, "They finally figured out how to attack conservative talk radio." Similarly, Kirk, on his radio show, claimed, "Whether they're doing this intentionally or not, the consequence will be.… an all-out attack on AM radio."
Cruz claims, "There's a reason big car companies were open totaking down AM radio.… Let's be clear: big business doesn't like things that are overwhelmingly conservative."
Thornton delves into the history of radio in her article, noting that "in the 1920s, when AM was all there was, listeners would gather around neighborhood and living room radio sets to hear everything from music to boxing matches, soap operas, and presidential speeches." But in the 1960s, she adds, FM — thanks to its superior sound quality — "overtook AM as the band of choice."
READ MORE: 'Fox News in Spanish': The new right-wing media outlet courting Latino voters
"Many music stations deserted AM, leaving it floundering in lo-fi isolation and struggling to secure advertising dollars, until it found its salvation in talk radio,"Thornton observes. "Initially, there was a wide variety of political perspectives on AM, but the deregulation of content and consolidation of ownership of radio during the 1980s edged many minority voices and local owners off the air…. These days, AM radio is somewhat synonymous in the public imagination with conservative blowhards, a place where false claims about the 2020 election, racist notions of a 'Great Replacement' and other conspiracy theories fester and escape into the atmosphere without accountability."
Thornton continues, "Far-right programming is not only ubiquitous, it's monotonous.… But the idea that AM radio is made up of nothing more than conservative talk is a myth that has dangerous implications for the medium."
READ MORE: Revealed: The text that toppled Tucker Carlson
The Guardian's full report is available at this link.
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===
===
https://www.mediamatters.org/mark-levin/mark-levin-complains-oath-keepers-founder-was-sentenced-18-years-prison-seditious
https://www.mediamatters.org/mark-levin/foxs-mark-levin-defends-posting-fundraising-link-ron-desantis-i-was-contacted-real-inner
===
https://www.mediamatters.org/mark-levin/foxs-mark-levin-its-not-even-possible-tx-shooter-swastika-tattoo-was-white-supremacist
https://www.mediamatters.org/mark-levin/foxs-mark-levin-defends-white-supremacist-replacement-conspiracy-theory-claims-democrats
===
// deep state? const sheriff
mma 4 23
mARK LEVIN (GUEST): And let me tell you something. Never before in American history has a president been indicted by a DA or an attorney general. It's never been tested. The truth is that you can't really indict a sitting president at the federal level. It's never been imagined at the state and local level, so why am I imagining it? Thanks to Alvin Bragg, he showed us how to do it against the next president, the leading Republican candidate for president.
By God, it's time for Republicans to fight back, to run on the edge of the Constitution, to see what they can do because we're going to lose the country otherwise. This corrupt president and his family are taking us under. This corrupt attorney general and this whole damn federal Department of Justice and FBI, they're out of control. We need local and state law enforcement to step up.
===
retaliation deflect rubber inverse
https://www.mediamatters.org/mark-levin/foxs-mark-levin-instructs-republican-prosecutors-see-if-theres-anything-there-you-can ~ biden
===
CYA? post domin disc
https://www.mediamatters.org/mark-levin/foxs-mark-levin-denies-his-past-promotion-sidney-powells-dominion-conspiracy-theories
===
https://www.mediamatters.org/mark-levin/foxs-mark-levin-classified-documents-are-safer-mar-lago-national-archives
4 23
===
rww 4 23
no twt
Levin appeared on Fox & Friends March 31, 2023 to denounce the indictment of Donald Trump (and plug his book).
When news broke Thursday that a Manhattan grand jury had voted to indict former President Donald Trump, Trump and his supporters were quick to portray him as an innocent victim and to suggest that his prosecution spelled the end of democracy in America.
The charges follow an investigation into a hush money payment made to former adult film star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election. With the indictment under seal, the exact charges have not yet been made public, though some news reports suggest Trump faces about 30 charges and that he is expected to be charged with falsifying business records to cover up the payment.
Trump himself displayed his trademark narcissism Thursday, writing in one of many urgent emails, “We are living through the darkest chapter of American history.”
The always-blustery right-wing pundit Mark Levin ranted on “Fox & Friends” Friday morning, “We have crossed the Rubicon. This is atyrannynow.”
Right-wing youth leader Charlie Kirk, who heads Turning Point USA, claimed that the indictment of Trump is a “designed campaign” by the left to provoke right-wing violence “to justify the next phase of their takeover of the country.”
Ali Alexander, a leader of the “Stop the Steal” effort to keep Trump in power after his 2020 loss, wrote on his Telegram account, “TRUMP INDICTMENT refocuses some things. We’re approaching Luciferian-triggered civil war. We must fight Them.May God bless and forgive us where we fall short.”
Far-right broadcaster Pete Santilli—who last week said that if Trump were arrested, the military and law enforcement should round up and execute former President Barack Obama and other members of the “criminal cabal”—reacted to the news by telling his viewers that “these leftist, gun-grabbing Maoists, you will never have a peaceful resolution with. They’re going to come and kill you.:
amid reports that New York law enforcement officials are preparing for possible violence, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene tweeted, “I’m going to New York on Tuesday. We MUST protest the unconstitutional WITCH HUNT!”
Although details of the indictment haven’t been made public,Sen. Ted Cruzused his “Verdict” podcast to denounce the indictment as “utter and complete garbage,” describing himself as angry and “heartbroken” over what he called a “devastating” blow to the rule of law. Cruz claimed that the Manhattan investigation was an effort by “radical Democrats” to “steal” the 2024 presidential election.
Cruz said the indictment would boost Trump’s election campaign, a sentiment echoed by other far-right followers of the twice-impeached former president. The Christian Broadcasting Network’s David Brody said the indictment had made Trump a “political martyr.”
On “FlashPoint,” a show that appears on evangelist Kenneth Copeland’s Victory Channel that was a steady source of misinformation about the 2020 election and Jan. 6 insurrection, failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate and election denier Kari Lake denounced what she called “false, phony charges.” Trump’s supporters, she said, are “tried and true” and will stay with him “all the way.”
Trump’s religious-right backers also rallied around him, with Franklin Graham calling it a “shameful day for America.”
As noted by religion scholar Diana Butler Bass in her latest newsletter, Trump has been using increasingly messianic and apocalyptic language in reference to his legal troubles in an effort to maintain religious-right support.Trump followers who believe he is anointed by God and is being persecuted like Jesus by the legions of Satan is “a theo-political wild card we’ve got to pay attention to,”Bass writes. She points to the biblical story of Jesus’ arrest in which one of his disciples attacked one of the soldiers. While Jesus insisted, “Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword,” Bass warns, “Do not expect the same from Trump.”
Tags: Charlie Kirk David Brody Donald Trump Franklin Graham Kari Lake Marjorie Taylor Greene Mark Levin Pete Santilli Donald Trump Election 2024 Rule of LawTrump Indictment
===
an 3 23
no lnx pix
Alexander Hinton, Rutgers University - Newark
In early March 2023, I mixed with the Make America Great Again faithful at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference – a popular meeting, often known as CPAC, for conservative activists and political figures.
I walked, ate and sat with the attendees at the National Harbor in Maryland over the course of four days. Many of them were dressed in MAGA and pro-Trump gear such as sequined hats and shirts that said things like “Trump won” the 2020 election. A few had tattoos of Trump’s face.
Media reports show that CPAC, which did not publicize the number of attendees, had lower-than-normal attendance and fewer high-profile sponsors.
Approximately 62% of CPAC attendees participating in a straw poll said they support Donald Trump for president in 2024.
Understanding CPAC
Many commentators and others have labeled CPAC extremist. The program was loaded with sometimes incendiary figures reviled by the left, including Republican Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz, as well as former Trump political advisers Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller.
I am a scholar of extremism in the United States and went to CPAC for two reasons. First, I wanted to hear firsthand what conservatives, and especially Trump followers, said. At a time of high political polarization, it is important to understand different positions.
Second, almost half of people in the U.S. fear political violence and civil war. I wanted to take the pulse of the conservative right and assess points of division ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
The conference’s theme was “Protecting America Now.” Who and what were the perceived threats? And, amid the polarization, was there any common ground shared by conservatives and liberals?
:{:{}:
}:
I discovered five frequent demons at the conference: there were China’s Communist Party and border criminals – including Mexican drug cartels and undocumented immigrants. “Radical left Marxists” and the ideologies of “wokism” and “transgenderism” were also frequent targets.
While I also found a few glimmers of hope for political common ground between the left and right, it was apparent that Trumpism – and the election denial, misinformation and scapegoating that come with it – is stronger than some think and, I believe, remains a threat to U.S. democracy.
A man in a wheelchair goes past a booth in a convention room that says 'Believe in America, not the media.'
CPAC attendees visit booths promoting political groups and products for sale.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
China
China was one of the biggest common enemies identified at the conference. Just days after senior U.S. intelligence officials said that China is the United States’ biggest national security threat, speaker after speaker at CPAC harped on this theme.
The first day included panels titled “Caging the Red Dragon” and “No Chinese Balloons Above Tennessee.”
Such language plays to the growing number of Americans who view China as the country’s biggest enemy.
Border criminals
The focus on China connected to another target at the conference – Mexican cartels that engage in human and drug trafficking. This includes groups that bring fentanyl – a drug that is Chinese-manufactured or made from Chinese-produced chemicals – into the U.S.
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Many speakers accurately noted the staggering number of fentanyl deaths in the U.S., including over 100,000 overdose deaths in 2021. But they did so in often apocalyptic terms.
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They were quick to blame the Biden administration, ignoring that these issues have a long history and also existed under former President Donald Trump.
The crisis, CPAC speakers said, includes large numbers of undocumented migrants crossing the border – who they sometimes derogatorily referred to as“illegal aliens.” Oddly, those crossing the border were depicted both as victims of the violent cartels and as criminal and economic threats to Americans.
American Marxism
CPAC speakers and attendees spotlighted what they saw as equally dire demons lurking within the country.
“Radical leftist Marxists” – a stand-in for all Democrats – stood at the top of the list. These leftist radicals, CPAC speakers suggested, were intent on turning the U.S. into a socialist country like China in which the state controlled bodies and minds and quashed individual rights and freedoms.
The Democratic Party “hates this country,” Fox TV personality Mark Levin claimed on the CPAC stage.
“This American Marxist movement,” he continued, his voice raising, “took off big time during COVID” and then “rode the wave of Black Lives Matter, Antifa and the cop-hating, to advance this racist, Marxist, bigoted, socialist, anti-American agenda – which is everything today the Democrat Party today stands for!”
The crowd responded with loud applause and cheers – ignoring that these often repeated claims have little basis in reality.
Wokism
This anti-American agenda, Levin and other CPAC speakers argued, was illustrated by “wokism.”
Being woke generally means understanding societal issues like racial and social justice. But CPAC speakers, who didn’t define the term, suggested that these efforts were really part of a “radical leftist” plot to control what people think and say – an idea that the right has derided as “political correctness” in the past.
‘Transgenderism’
There was also an emphasis on gender and the perceived threat of transgender people. Some of the anti-transgender sentiment was casual, such as when Rep. Gaetz quipped, “We had to spend four, five days asking the Chinese spy balloon what its pronouns were before we were willing to shoot it down.”
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Perhaps the most strident remarks were made by conservative political commentator Michael Knowles, who stated, “for the good of society … transgenderism must be eradicated from public life entirely.”
Despite his inflammatory language and use of “transgenderism,” a derogatory term suggesting that transgender people have “a condition,” Knowles received loud applause.
So, too, did other speakers who disparaged transgender identity – an issue that has become a culture wars flashpoint.
The Anti-Defamation League, among other human rights groups, has shown that the idea transgender people are predatory “groomers” or pedophiles is false and is being circulated by some Republicans only for political gain.
In March 2023, Tennessee became the first state to pass a law that restricts drag performances in the presence of children – a move that likely violates the First Amendment’s free speech protection and, in my view, is based on fear, not facts. Other Republican-led states are considering anti-drag legislation.
A large crowd of people look toward a screen that shows a white man in a dark suit. Next to the screen is a large American flag
[Guests listen to former President Donald Trump address the Conservative Political Action Conference as the headline speaker.
The warrior
By the time Trump took the stage, the CPAC crowd was primed. People danced and waved “TRUMP WAS RIGHT!” placards.
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Trump offered an apocalyptic vision of the country’s future.
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“Sinister forces” are seeking to turn the U.S. into a “lawless open-borders, crime-ridden, filthy, communist nightmare,” Trump said.
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Trump promised to fight back against these forces. “I am your warrior,” he told the adoring crowd. “I am your justice.”
The rocky ride ahead
I went to CPAC to find areas where the left and right might find common ground. Both sides worry about issues like inflation, fentanyl and crime. And, even as they may disagree on the path to get there, both want a better future for the country.
But politics is another demon lurking in the room. Most of the speakers at CPAC seemed to be there to rile up the crowd, which included many activists.
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This was especially true of Trump, whose divisiveness was on clear display at CPAC.
All of this suggests the U.S. faces a rocky ride to the upcoming 2024 election. The Conversation
Alexander Hinton, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology; Director, Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights, Rutgers University - Newark
===
like rush, feels qualified to bloviate on ANYTHING?
proxy for pinko prof? strict fr?
mma 3 23
As the Biden administration defends the president’s policy of canceling up to $20,000 of student debt for millions of Americans against a Republican-backed challenge before the Supreme Court, some right-wing commentators are going beyond their old arguments against the policy to make truly outrageous claims about it.
When President Joe Biden first announced his administration’s plan in August to address the very real problem of student debt doubling in the past decade, which affects tens of millions of Americans, conservatives tried arguing that the policy was unfair, would raise inflation, would favor the rich, and had no legal basis.
But when arguments about the policy reached the Supreme Court yesterday, some right-wing media figures went far beyond their previous opposition to the policy and levied some egregious new attacks:
- Fox News host Mark Levin called Biden’s student loan cancellation policy “a fascistic act by an out-of-control man”who is “cheered by theMarxists in the country.”
- OutKick founder Clay Travis: “This was a transparent political attempt by Joe Biden to rig in his favor the 2022 election.”
- Travis again portrayed the student debt cancellation policy as a voter turnout scheme: Biden “wanted to drive up young voters’ turnout as much as he could.”
- Fox contributor Liz Peek: “You can't just dole out $400 billion to get votes, which is basically what this is all about.”
- Media Research Center’s Stephanie Hamill said “it’s almost like a bribery” of voters.
- Newsmax host Rob Schmitt said it’s a “vote-buying scheme” to get people “on the narcotic of social welfare.”
- Schmitt later portrayed student debt cancellation as Biden wanting “to dump hundreds of billions of dollars that we don't have on 8-balls, Jack Daniels, and flights to Mexico.”
- Fox contributor Marc Thiessen claimed student debt cancellation is “an act of stolen valor,” and that Biden is “turning millions of Americans into people who are engaged in stolen valor.”
- Turning Point USA President Charlie Kirk used student debt cancellation to attack college education in general, claiming he might not be so opposed if colleges were “producing fruit that loved America.” Instead, he said, they’re the “Wuhan Institute of Virology equivalent of idea pathogens in our country” and asked, “Is this a alleged money laundering scheme to pay off colleges for their Marxist indoctrination?”
- Kirk also wrote on Twitter that “college is a scam!”
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https://www.mediamatters.org/mark-levin/foxs-mark-levin-qanon-shamans-lawyer-should-take-those-clips-right-fox-and-demand-his
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https://www.mediamatters.org/mark-levin/foxs-mark-levin-defends-kevin-mccarthy-giving-tucker-carlson-exclusive-access-footage
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an bad 2 23
Appearing to confess frustration, far-right Republican governor **Ron DeSantis** says he is remaking Florida’s education system because even after turning the state’s Democratic Party into a "rotten carcass on the side of the street," the left "can still impose their agenda on my people."
That "agenda," apparently includes so-called Critical Race Theory (CRT), Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG), and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs, according to far-right Fox News host Mark Levin who told the Florida governor the right is "in a culture war."
"We didn't start it," Levin told DeSantis. "But what I call theMarxist left, they started it.It is devouring our institutions. It is devouring our politics. It's devouring the private sector."
DeSantis did not disagree.
READ MORE: 'I Struck a Nerve': Robert Reich Makes the Case for Calling Ron DeSantis a 'Fascist'
As he uses the power of his office to pave the road for a likely 2024 run for the White House, DeSantis has not gone unnoticed. He has been accused of being "an Honest-to-God Semi-Fascist," turning Florida into "a laboratory for fascism," running his state "like a fascist," and being a "fascist for our time" and a "one-man civil rights wrecking ball, determined to neutralize any group that doesn't conform to his dangerously narrow view of social order."
All those accusations were before his Sunday night Fox News interview with Levin, who warned that "in the classrooms" there is "the sexualizing of little kids." Levin also said, "Disney, Walt Disney has to be rolling in his grave right now what's happened to Disneyland and Disney World and these other events in the culture."
Asked why he decided to take "the lead in taking this on as far as governors go," DeSantis bragged, "I got reelected November 2022. Largest vote than any Republican governor [in] Florida history has got, largest vote margin any governor candidates ever got. 1.5 million votes."
"I can win by 1.5 million votes. Make the Democratic Party in our state, basically, a rotten carcass on the side of the street. And yet, the left can still impose their agenda on my people if I'm not looking after fighting ESG and other woke companies and some of the stuff going on in the universities and the schools."
"And so I think I have an understanding that these fights are far broader than just one particular election. Yes, you do have to fight the woke in the halls of government and in the legislative chambers, and we have super majorities as Republicans in Florida so we will win all those fights, but you also have to be willing to defend your folks against this agenda being shoved down their throat from all these otherinstitutions,where these people aren't necessarily coming up for election."
DeSantis has infamously veered into pushing his supporters into local school board positions of power.
"So you talk about things with like the young kids and with Disney, and I see that not just through the eyes of a governor but also through the eyes of a dad," DeSantis continued. "You know, we have a six, a four, and a two-year-old at home. And we just believe as parents, we should be able to send our kids to school, have them watch cartoons without having somebody's sexual agenda shoved down their throats."
READ MORE: 'Political Theater': Conservative Rips Ron DeSantis for 'Sucking Up to the Anti-Vaxxers'
"And so when this issue came up, with the sexualization of the curriculum, of course in Florida, we think that that's inappropriate. And you know what? Republican, Democrat, Independent parents agree with us overwhelmingly."
That's debatable. In October Florida Politics reported, "Majorities oppose Ron DeSantis-backed 'Stop WOKE' and parental rights laws," including his "Don't Say Gay" law.
In January, a study by UCLA School of Law's Williams Institute found a large percentage of LGBTQ parents say they are concerned their families will be negatively impacted by DeSantis' laws, including HB 1557, the "Don't Say Gay" law – with some saying they already have been.
"Almost 9 out of 10 (88%) LGBTQ+ parents are very or somewhat concerned about the impact that HB 1557 will have on them and their children, with one in four reporting they have experienced anti-LGBTQ harassment since the law was passed and one in five reporting becoming less out in their communities since the law was passed. Parents have considered a variety of coping strategies in response to the bill, including moving out of the state (56%) and moving their children to a different school (11%). Over 16% of LGBTQ parents have already taken steps to move their families to another state."
Watch a short clip or the full interview below or at this link.
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Fox's Mark Levin: Democrats are “the enemy from within - an enemy that seeks to force us to commit suicide”
02/15/23
Fox's Mark Levin: People who say “we should be cutting our defense budget ... don't represent conservatism”
02/15/23
Fox's Mark Levin on CEO of Norfolk Southern skipping East Palestine town hall: “I suspect he's not attending because they're trying to get all the facts”
02/16/23
kpfa says ducked town hall bc of security concerns
https://www.mediamatters.org/mark-levin/foxs-mark-levin-ceo-norfolk-southern-skipping-east-palestine-town-hall-i-suspect-hes-not
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mma 2 23
MARK LEVIN (HOST): The gunman had his prior gun charge dismissed by a George Soros-backed prosecutor in the name of racial equity.
By the way, the amount of death and mayhem that George Soros has created in this country as a result of getting these kinds of phony prosecutors elected is unbelievable.
And I have noticed that none of these news organizations, Maggie Haberman at the New York Slimes, Phillip Bump-y over there, I guess, at the Washington Compostand the rest of these frauds and fools, I noticed that they have no interest whatsoever in looking into this, none. But it's quite newsworthy. None.
And I noticed that George Soros always skates. He's the guy behind the curtain that's helped unleash mayhem and murder and rape in our cities. Why? Because he's the sugar daddy to all these radical left-wing groups that work with the media and work with the Democrat Party. That's why. He now works with Charles Koch, over there at the Koch Foundation.
https://www.mediamatters.org/mark-levin/foxs-mark-levin-ive-been-having-trouble-breathing-minimal-exertion-and-im-starting-think
https://www.mediamatters.org/mark-levin/foxs-mark-levin-floats-changing-age-social-security-and-medicare-eligibility
MARK LEVIN (HOST): I told you he would lie about Social Security and Medicare, and I told you everything else he would do, but he lied even beyond that. And here in part is what he said. He was booed by the Republicans. And, of course, legal analysts and media analysts were very upset that the Republicans spoke out.
...
So today, he's out there doing it again because he doesn't have anybody to boo him or confront him or challenge him. What they're talking about is Rick Scott put out a proposal, which had a whole list of things including Social Security and Medicare reform. And so, he talks about sun setting these laws and so forth and so on, but he wasn't talking about Social Security, Medicare, so they wrap those into it. And they twist it and turn it and they lie.
In fact, the Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy said, even prior to this speech, no, we're not going to do this. You can hear the Republicans. You can even hear Biden himself say, I'm not saying most. I'm not even saying, you know, a significant number of you. Then why say it? Because the speech writers put it in there to try and lie to the American people.
These programs, one day, need to be reformed, and that doesn't mean slashing them. Maybe it means changing the age, and so forth, and grandfathering in everybody who's eligible over the next 5 or 10 years, so nobody's really affected in any significant way. I don't know. We've talked about it before. It's been talked about by Paul Ryan, it's been talked about by Reagan, it's --but it's the Democrats who keep taking money out of Medicare.
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Fox's Mark Levin: “I've been having trouble breathing with minimal exertion” and “I'm starting to think ... it was the vaccine booster”
02/10/23 9:55 AM EST
Fox's Mark Levin denounces Joe Rogan: “If he's going to say things that are absolutely bigoted, that are no better than common day antisemites, somebody's got to call him out”
02/09/23 1:25 PM EST
Fox's Mark Levin on Trump's mishandling of classified materials: “There are no rules for the president of the United States”
01/26/23 10:17 AM EST
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mma 1 23
Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) launched his campaign for the U.S. Senate on Tuesday by doing nearly a dozen interviews with right-wing TV and radio hosts and podcasters. His deep dive into the fever swamp demonstrates the influence the party’s radical commentators have on the modern Republican Party.
Banks, a hard-right culture warrior and 2020 election denier who was barred from a position on the House’s January 6 select committee, used the right-wing media to boost his profile as a member of Congress. He regularly appears on Fox News and promotes the conspiracy theories and obsessions of its stars; his communications director is Fox host Tucker Carlson’s son.
Banks officially announced his campaign during an early morning Fox & Friends hit and ended his day on the network’s prime-time show The Ingraham Angle (his 50th appearance on that program since 2018). In between, he courted Fox heavyweights Sean Hannity and Mark Levin on their radio shows; Newsmax host Sean Spicer; influential podcasters Steve Bannon, Charlie Kirk, and Vince Coglianese; Salem Radio Network host Hugh Hewitt; and local radio hosts Tony Katz and Rocky Boiman. Articles based on his pre-announcement interviews with National Review and FoxNews.com also published that day.
All day long, Banks’ campaign Twitter feed spewed out promotional clips from his various appearances.
Banks used the series of largely supportive interviews to tout his adherence to fringe-right narratives and conspiracy theories. He highlighted how he is “fighting to keep girls’ sports for girls” with Brian Kilmeade; condemned the “globalist agenda” to Laura Ingraham; bemoaned “wokeism infecting corporate America” with Hannity; recounted how he founded the House’s “first-ever anti-woke caucus” because “wokeism is a cancer” in his interview with Coglianese; and complained about the purported teaching of “critical race theory” in schools with Boiman.
Appearances like these give Banks the opportunity to win over powerful GOP figures and the audiences that trust them. And it shows whose support he prioritizes – hardcore insurrectionists like Bannon and Levin who played key roles in Donald Trump’s scheme to subvert the 2020 election, and anti-vax COVID-19 conspiracy theorists like Kirk and Ingraham.
Banks’ campaign is reveling in the success of this strategy of cozying up to the party’s most volatile figures.
Levin endorsed Banks for Senate during their interview, saying that he “demonstrated that you’re very solid and one of the great leaders in the House” and “would be a great senator.” Banks, in turn, praised Levin – the mastermind of the plot to pressure then-Vice President Mike Pence to illegally reject electors from key states won by Joe Biden – as “such an important conservative voice in America today."
Banks’ campaign also promoted praise from far-right commentator Jesse Kelly.
GOP Senate candidates steeped in right-wing culture war narratives had a rough time in the 2022 midterms. It remains to be seen whether Indiana’s voters want to be represented by someone laser-focused on loudly talking about girls’ sports while quietly plotting to shred the social safety net.
https://www.mediamatters.org/mark-levin/fox-news-host-mark-levin-calls-fox-news-contributors-brit-hume-and-marc-thiessen bastards
https://www.alternet.org/2022/11/mark-levin-ready-to-wrestle/ fox defectors trump
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mma 11 22
News reports over the past several months reveal that Republican candidates and elected officials — as well as allied groups — are using multiple strategies to undermine the upcoming 2022 elections and beyond. Tactics include trying to abolish or disrupt mail-in and early voting, particularly in Pennsylvania; challenging the eligibility of registered Democratic voters in Georgia; preparing legal challenges of GOP election losses; and supporting the fringe legal theory that state legislatures are the ultimate authority of elections. Right-wing media have supported all of these tactics during this election cycle.
Right-wing media have already allied with election conspiracy theory organizations to urge their audiences to volunteer and seek offices involved with running elections in order to help subvert them. They have also supported various election deniers seeking office this year, including a cabal of QAnon-linked conspiracy theorists running for secretary of state in various swing states who are promising to steal elections in preparation for a possible 2024 run by the defeated former President Donald Trump.
But these are not the only Republican strategies to subvert elections, and right-wing media so far have supported or covered for each of the following plots.
Fox News is covering up attempts by Trump allies to suppress voting in Georgia and other states
On September 1, Bloomberg News reported that a group called VoterGA, which is supported by Trump's disgraced former national security adviser Michael Flynn and election denier Patrick Byrne, “is challenging the eligibility of tens of thousands of Georgia voters” following the enactment of a law in 2021 that encouraged such challenges. According to Bloomberg, similar eligibility challenges are happening in Texas and Florida, “but the challenges in Georgia are the most extensive currently underway”:
The group, VoterGA, filed eight boxes Monday containing what its leader says are 37,500 challenges to voters in Gwinnett County, a once solidly Republican area of suburban Atlanta that has voted Democratic since 2016.
…
The Gwinnett challenges bring the total this election cycle to about 65,000, due largely to a 2021 overhaul of Georgia voting laws enacted in response to unfounded allegations of widespread fraud in 2020. The law effectively encouraged mass challenges of voter eligibility.
In the month and a half after the Georgia law was signed into effect, Fox News defended or advocated for these unnecessary voter restrictions in at least 270 separate segments. Despite Bloomberg’s recent reporting, the GOP’s allies at Fox News, including in its so-called “news” division, continued to defend the Georgia voter suppression law that made these mass voter eligibility challenges feasible. They also pretended that high early-voter turnout invalidated any accusations of voter suppression while failing to even mention the pattern of voter challenges:
- During an October 9 Fox News Sunday interview with Democratic gubernatorial nominee Stacy Abrams, Fox anchor Shannon Bream tried to use a net increase in early voting as proof against Abrams' claims of Republican-led voter suppression, proclaiming that “a net increase of 763,380 voters … sounds like the opposite of voter suppression.”
- Fox anchor Harris Faulkner presumptuously stated on October 19, “So no suppression there,” after presenting strong early-turnout numbers.
- Fox host Sean Hannity claimed on October 20 that the high voter turnout was “debunking the media mob and the Democrats' false narrative that Georgia’s election law is Jim Crow 2.0.”
- On October 26, Fox’s The Five co-host Geraldo Riverasaid that “it certainly seems unlikely that there is a climate of voter suppression” in Georgia “when you have this kind of record turnout.”
- Fox anchor Bill Hemmer and Fox contributor Sean Duffy criticized Abrams on October 25 for calling out “barriers to access” from the 2021 Georgia law, again citing turnout numbers.
Right-wing media are already laying the groundwork for “scorched-earth legal tactics” to overturn midterm losses
On October 23, Rolling Stone reported on a Trump-directed plot “laying the groundwork to challenge the 2022 midterm election results” through a series of “in-person meetings and conference calls” in recent months where he and his Republican allies “often discuss the type of scorched-earth legal tactics they could deploy.” Rolling Stone reports that Trump is fixated on Pennsylvania, but there are “plans in multiple states.” From the article:
And they’ve gamed out scenarios for how to aggressively challenge elections, particularly ones in which a winner is not declared on Election Night. If there’s any hint of doubt about the winners, the teams plan to wage aggressive court campaigns and launch a media blitz. Trump himself set the blueprint for this on Election Night 2020, when — with the race far from decided — he went on national television to declare: “Frankly, we did win this election.”
Trump has been briefed on plans in multiple states and critical races — including in Georgia. But Pennsylvania has grabbed his interest most keenly, including in the Senate contest between Democrat John Fetterman and the Trump-endorsed GOP contender Mehmet Oz. If the Republican does not win by a wide enough margin to trigger a speedy concession from Fetterman — or if the vote tally is close on or after Election Night in November — Trump and other Republicans are already preparing to wage a legal and activist crusade against the “election integrity” of Democratic strongholds such as the Philly area.
An October 27 Associated Press report suggested this Trump tactic is already happening. According to the report, “more than 100 lawsuits have been filed this year” regarding the elections, “largely by Republicans” to target voting rules, registration, use of voting machines, and the counting of ballots. The AP stated that “the cases likely preview a potentially contentious post-election period,” and that unlike Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election, this effort is much more organized:
The current effort, however, is more formalized, well-funded and well-organized and is run by the Republican National Committee and other legal allies with strong credentials. Party officials say they are preparing for recounts, contested elections and more litigation. Thousands of volunteers are ready to challenge ballots and search for evidence of malfeasance.
And as Media Matters senior fellow Matt Gertz explained on October 28, theright is already attacking the integrity of Pennsylvania’s elections, using a logjam created by the state's Republican-led state legislature as an excuse to question the validity of election results. Pennsylvania law prevents the counting of early mail-in ballots until Election Day, resulting in early tabulations that could show Republican candidates with a lead that decreases as mail-in ballots are tabulated over time. (This so-called “red mirage” phenomenon was extensively reported on in 2020.)
As if on cue, right-wing media are already lying that the Pennsylvania statewide races will be stolen by Democrats, using routine and expected delays in reporting the election results as an excuse:
- On October 28, Hannity told Pennsylvania Republicans to “have poll watchers in every single location” due to delays in counting mail-in ballots forced by the Republican legislature.
- On October 27, Terrance Bates of Real America’s Voice asked GOP Pennsylvania gubernatorial nominee Doug Mastriano if “the fix is in.”
- Convicted criminal and former Trump strategist Steve Bannon declared on October 27 that “the only way” Democrat Josh Shapiro can win the Pennsylvania gubernatorial race “is to cheat.”
- During an October 24 interview with Mastriano, radio host and campaign speaker Wendy Bell said Democrats are already “cheating” because they “lead in the early voting.”
- Fox host Tucker Carlson said on October 26 that it would be “absurd” for voters to accept the Pennsylvania Senate election as legitimate if Fetterman wins.
- Fox and talk radio host Mark Levinsaid on October 19: “They’re trying to steal the election for Fetterman.”
Trump and his allies are attempting to end early and mail-in voting in Pennsylvania
In addition to Trump’s reported focus on overturning Democratic victories in Pennsylvania, Semafor reported on October 18 that he and his allies are also working to change laws that allow for mail-in voting in the state, and that he’s already “woven talking points” from the campaign to overturn Pennsylvania’s mail-in voting law into his rallies in the state:
Former President Donald Trump is increasingly focused on changing voting rules in Pennsylvania, joining efforts to whip Republicans against a bipartisan mail-in voting law that’s become a Trump world obsession since he lost the state by over 80,000 votes.
Trump has spoken in recent weeks with allies who are leading a campaign to overturn the law, known as Act 77. Most recently, on September 6, he met with former Trump official Michael Caputo, Sam Faddis, a former CIA operations officer who ran for Congress in Maryland in 2016, and Pennsylvania county commissioner Doug McLinko at Trump Tower. Trump pledged to lend his support to their efforts, Faddis told Semafor.
In addition to lobbing the attacks on the integrity of Pennsylvania’s elections covered above, right-wing media personalities and allied groups have driven conspiracy theories about voter fraud in the state that are putting election workers and volunteers at risk of violence. Right-wing media are also targeting early mail-in ballots in other states, particularly Arizona. While Fox News has ignored reported examples of armed right-wing activists intimidating voters at ballot drop boxes, others are defending and supporting these risks to voters’ lives:
- QAnon supporter Melody Jennings, who founded an organization backing an effort to monitor ballot drop boxes, has taken credit for people monitoring an Arizona drop box during the state’s primaries — which she called a “dry run” for the midterm general elections. This effort has led to multiple complaints of voter intimidation, including one case where armed men in camouflage have reportedly staked out a drop box in Maricopa County. Jennings defended this blatant example of voter intimidation.
- On October 25, Bannon defended armed right-wing activists staking out drop boxes, saying: “It's not intimidation to put a set of eyeballs on these things — not intimidation.”
- Bannon has also repeatedly hosted Jennings on his program so she can promote her organization and its mission to monitor ballot drop boxes.
Right-wing media have endorsed the radical “independent state legislature” theory, which would allow Republicans to steal future elections
Atlantic staff writer Barton Gellman, who has written extensively of Trump's attempts to subvert and even overthrow American democracy, reported in July about a Supreme Court case being pushed by Republicans that could result in the court giving state legislatures ultimate authority over elections, allowing them to disregard constitutions, court rulings, and existing state laws in order to abuse election administration or alter results. As Gellman explained, it’s a “genuinely radical proposition” that “has never been accepted by any state or federal court.” From Gellman’s July 29 article in The Atlantic:
Republican lawyers, taking note of their structural advantage among battleground-state lawmakers, set forth the “independent state legislature” (ISL) doctrine. The doctrine is based on a tendentious reading of two constitutional clauses, which assign control of the “Manner” of congressional elections and the appointment of presidential electors in each state to “the Legislature thereof.” Based on that language, the doctrine proposes that state lawmakers have virtually unrestricted power over elections and electors. State courts and state constitutions, by this reading, hold no legitimate authority over legislatures in the conduct of their U.S. constitutional functions.
…
The immediate question in Moore is whether the state supreme court, applying the state constitution, can override the legislature’s choice on the manner of drawing election districts. (Until ISL came along, the long-standing answer was “yes.”) But advocates of the independent-state-legislature doctrine have their eyes on a bigger prize: the presidency.
If you give the legislature a blank check on the manner of appointing presidential electors, then a Republican majority could—in the most muscular version of ISL—simply disregard a Biden victory in the state’s popular vote and appoint Trump electors instead.
Fox News personalities approved of the 2020 attempt by Trump to use this bogus legal theory to overturn election results in swing states. Fox hostMark Levin was particularly aggressive in pushing this approach, and his eagerness to end American democracy via the independent state legislature theory has continued unabated in recent weeks. Other conservative media figures have defended it as well:
- Levin has repeatedly claimed that the independent state legislature theory is just a straightforward reading of the U.S. Constitution, even though it has never been accepted by a court. On September 30, Levin said that “even a relatively illiterate person can read that the state legislatures, specifically the legislature, determine the election processes by which electors are chosen to be president and vice president.” On October 3, Levin ranted: “‘Oh, that's the independent state legislature theory.’ No, that's what it says in the Constitution.” And on October 25, Levin even cut voters out of the loop on how presidential electors are chosen: “Article 2, section 1, Clause 2 of the Constitution, which we've talked about endlessly, provides, simply put, that the state legislatures shall determine how electors are chosen. It says legislatures. Doesn't say governors, doesn't say lower courts, doesn't say federal courts. Doesn't say voters. Legislatures.”
- On October 25, radio host Sebastian Gorka mocked Hillary Clinton for warning about the independent state legislature theory.
- Fox host Jesse Watters similarly attacked Clinton on October 25, accusing her of “undermining faith in our democracy” with her warning.
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https://www.mediamatters.org/ted-cruz/ted-cruz-appeared-one-fox-news-top-january-6-conspiracy-theorists-sell-his-conspiracy
mma 10 22
ted Cruz appeared with one of Fox News’ top January 6 conspiracy theorists to sell his conspiracy-laden book
WRITTEN BY SOPHIE LAWTON
PUBLISHED 10/24/22
SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX) APPEARED ON MARK LEVIN’S FOX NEWS SHOW TO PROMOTE HIS NEW BOOK, JUSTICE CORRUPTED: HOW THE LEFT WEAPONIZED OUR LEGAL SYSTEM,AND PARTICIPATED IN AN INTERVIEW FILLED WITH CONSPIRACY THEORIES AND ELECTION DENIALISM.
Appearing on October 23, Cruz told Levin he wrote the book because Democrats have “turned the Department of Justice, they’ve turned the FBI, they’ve turned the intelligence community into political enforcers.” He said the Department of Justice under President Joe Biden has been taken over by the “deep state” and said it poses “a fundamental threat to our liberty.”
Levin is one of Fox News’ biggest election denialists and a major apologist for the January 6 insurrection:
- Levin defended Donald Trump’s fake elector scheme and the former president’s claims of a stolen election. He claimed that “the system is built for objections” and that “when people say that Trump was trying to reverse an election — it's not over until Congress says it's over.”
- Levin also claimedTrump’s potential tampering with January 6 witnesses would not be against the law and downplayed claims Trump directed the Secret Service to bring him to the Capitol on January 6.
- When coup memo author John Eastman was under investigation by the January 6 committee, Levin repeatedly defended the disgraced law professor, saying he “didn’t do anything that was corrupt.” Levin demanded the release of emails between him and Eastman secured by the committee, claiming, “I'd love to know how they got them, apart from what's in them. Nobody came to me, I didn't get a subpoena.”
- Levin also downplayed texts from Fox host Sean Hannity used by the January 6 committee to show Hannity’s hypocrisy over the insurrection.
- Levin downplayed sedition charges against members of the paramilitary group the Oath Keepers, claiming that “it’s still not an insurrection.”
- Levin attacked the January 6 committee, telling his audience, “I hope you don’t watch,” and calling the hearings “ridiculous.” He has also called the committee “an internal enemy” and said it represents “unprecedented totalitarianism.”
- He called for Republicans to investigate the January 6 committee and even threatenedstaffers.
- Levin pushed the lie that Vice President Mike Pence could have stopped the certification of the 2020 election and the conspiracy theory that the FBI instigated the insurrection.
- Prior to the January 6 insurrection, Levin pushed members of Congress to reject the election results, claiming refusing to do so is equivalent to “shredding the Constitution.”
Given Levin’s history, It is no surprise that Cruz decided to promote his revisionist history book on his show.
When asked about the Department of Justice’s handling of January 6 insurrectionists, Cruz said his book includes “the first inside account of what happened on January 6.” Cruz showed that the book includes both election denial and references to right-wing conspiracy theories, noting, “I take them through the evidence of election fraud and voter fraud in November 2020, which the Democrats and the corporate media insist doesn’t exist,” and, “I ask in the book questions like, who is Ray Epps?” (Right-wing media baselessly accused Ray Epps of being an FBI plant who incited the insurrection.
[vid oct 23 life, lib & levin
cruz also revealed that his book discusses “George Soros prosecutors,” saying there is “a really dangerous phenomenon where Soros has put millions in terms of electing radicals who let violent criminals go.” Cruz used the Waukesha, Wisconsin, massacre suspect as an example, claiming a “George Soros prosecutor” let him out of jail before he drove a car into a parade, repeating a conspiracy theory about the event and a commonright-wing trope about the philanthropist
[oct 23? vid]
In a bizarre parting comment to promote the book, Cruz noted the last time he was on Levin's show to promote a book it “shot to number on the Amazon bestseller list” and was released “when Ruth Bader Ginsburg had died,” noting “I'm hopeful we'll see the same thing.” sales vs death presumably
---
===
https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-host-who-apparently-helped-mastermind-john-eastmans-coup-plot-was-only-one-talking
Fox News is burying Thursday’s revelations about the plot by then-President Donald Trump and Trump lawyer John Eastman to pressure then-Vice President Mike Pence to illegally reject electors from key states that supported Joe Biden and thus subvert the election to keep Trump in office, detailed during Thursday’s hearing of the House select committee investigating the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
The only mentions of that conspiracy during Fox’s prime-time block Thursday night came from Fox host Mark Levin – who apparently worked with Eastman to develop the plot and spoke out on Thursday in support of it.
Former Pence legal counsel Greg Jacob described at Thursday’s hearing Eastman’s scheme for Pence, during the January 6, 2021, joint session of Congress to count Electoral College votes, to either reject the votes from some states outright or send them back to their state legislatures for review. According to Jacob, during one meeting in which Eastman sought to pressure Pence to participate, the Trump lawyer acknowledged that the plot was illegal. The committee also aired video testimonies of other Trump aides saying that they had told Trump the plan was illegal, and produced an email from after the riot in which Eastman sought a presidential pardon.
J. Michael Luttig, a retired federal appeals judge and conservative icon who advised Pence with regard to the scheme, warned at the hearing’s conclusion that “Donald Trump and his allies and supporters are a clear and present danger to American democracy.”
“That’s not because of what happened on Jan. 6,” he added. “It’s because to this very day the former president, his allies and supporters pledge that in the presidential election of 2024 — if the former president or his anointed successor as the Republican Party presidential candidate were to lose that election — that they would attempt to overturn that 2024 election in the same way that they attempted to overturn the 2020 election. But succeed.”
Fox “news side” programs Your World and Special Reporteach ran news packages on the story that day, sandwiched around the “opinion side” panel show The Five, where discussion of January 6 was limited to sympathy for the perpetrators. Then at 7 p.m. ET, the real Fox came on, and the coverage of the hearing essentially vanished.
Eastman’s name was mentioned only once after that – by Levin, who in an appearance on Hannity criticized the select committee for not producing “professors on the left who actually agreed with John Eastman’s position before it was John Eastman’s position.” The Fox host, who has long publicly supported Eastman’s legal theory, went on to allege that “it is not clear under the 12th Amendment what the responsibilities of the vice president of the United States are and how they are limited.”
Neither Levin nor Sean Hannity noted that Levin was not just a commentator who supported Eastman’s plot, but apparently an active participant in its development.
In May, Eastman sought to prevent the release to the January 6 committee of a dozen emails he exchanged with a person matching Levin’s description. According to the filing, Eastman was communicating with Levin in order to collaborate with him on the litigation in Levin’s role as an attorney, and thus the emails should be protected by lawyer-client privilege. Notably, Eastman reportedly first caught Trump’s attention by expounding on a nearly limitless view of Trump’s legal authority during a 2019 appearance on Levin’s Fox program.
Levin’s comments on Hannity were the only meaningful discussion of the coup attempt on Fox’s evening “opinion” block. Jesse Watters, Tucker Carlson, and Laura Ingraham all ignored the substance of Thursday’s hearing on their programs (Ingraham did, however, host Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene [R-GA] to defend the rioters).
On Friday morning, the story was all but absent from Fox & Friends [twt matt g]
it’s not hard to figure out why Fox hosts aren’t covering Trump’s coup attempt – they regret that it didn’t succeed. And when Republicans attempt a similar scheme in the future, as Luttig suggested they would, the network’s propagandists will be actively supporting it.
---
Politico reported Friday that John Eastman, the disgraced ex-law professor who formulated many of former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, was also apparently in communication with Fox News host Mark Levin. The story gets even more interesting from there, revealing the shell game that right-wing media personalities engage in while doubling as political operatives.
A legal filing by Eastman’s attorneys reveals that, among the messages Eastman is still attempting to conceal from the House January 6 committee are 12 pieces of correspondence with an individual matching Levin’s description as “a radio talk show host, is also an attorney, former long-time President (and current board Chairman) of a public interest law firm, and also a former fellow at The Claremont Institute.” Other details, including a sloppy attempt to redact an email address, also connect to Levin, who did not respond to Politico’s requests for comment.
Eastman’s contention, however, is that he was not communicating with Mark Levin the media personality, which would forfeit attorney-client privilege on those communications. Instead, he was speaking with Mark Levin the attorney, and formulating legal strategies regarding the election.
A quick law lesson: The “dual role”
In their legal filing, Eastman’s attorneys argue that he should not have to turn over certain communications with right-wing media figures, even as other communications with those same people have been submitted. This question turns on a body of case law involving lawyers who serve in a “dual role.”
This area of law normally involves people who both are attorneys and have personal business interests, in which case a court must determine in which capacity they were acting and whether those communications or actions in question retain the legal privileges of secrecy.
The brief acknowledges that Eastman could find no previous instance in law having to do with media figures who were also attorneys, but it argues to extend this doctrine accordingly.
“Many members of the modern ‘media’ have multiple roles,” the filing argues, contending that some of Eastman’s communications with Levin in fact “involved work product communications with attorneys who also wear media ‘hats.’”
Eastman’s legal and media “hats” collide
In the case of Eastman, however, his work as an attorney in conservative causes and his public media presence have been so closely intertwined as to demonstrate that any such ethical separations quite simply do not exist in the right-wing media and political ecosystem.
Most notably, Eastman first came to Trump’s attention via an appearance on Levin’s Fox show back in May 2019, in which Eastman argued that Trump had the power as president to fire people who were investigating him. “The notion that the president can’t determine the course of an investigation is the most basic violation of separation of powers,” Eastman argued — even including an investigation involving the president himself.
The New York Times reported last year that Trump had never met Eastman before watching this episode. “Within two months, Mr. Eastman was sitting in the Oval Office for an hourlong meeting,” the Times reported.
In addition, Eastman’s new filing notes that he has had different sets of communications with an “opinion editor at Newsweek,” who is also affiliated with different conservative legal organizations. That description matches Newsweek editor Josh Hammer, who published Eastman’s disastrous op-ed in 2020 asserting that then-vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris was not a U.S. citizen and thus ineligible to run for office, even though she was in fact born in California. In this instance, clearly, the Venn diagram of the conservative legal and media worlds was simply a perfect circle.
And while Eastman was advising Trump on his theories of reversing the election results, he also advanced those ideas on former Trump adviser Steve Bannon’s show.
Levin uses his media platform to push far-right legal theories
While apparently acting under the privileges of an attorney corresponding with Eastman on their efforts to overturn the election, Levin also used his media platform with Fox News to publicly advocate for the same pseudo-legalistic theories. For example, he and Fox News contributor Ken Starr advocated the weekend after the election for state legislatures to overturn their election results and instead appoint pro-Trump slates to the Electoral College.
During an appearance on the December 10, 2020, edition of Hannity, Levin also advocated for the bizarre lawsuit in which Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the election results in four swing states. [vid CitationFrom the May 18, 2022, edition of Westwood One’s The Mark Levin Show
when on January 3, 2021, Levin said on his Fox show that it was Congress’ job to choose who won the presidential election — and he claimed members of Congress would be “shredding the Constitution” if they didn’t reject Biden’s victory.
In the nearly year and a half since the January 6 insurrection, Levin has used his radio show to chastise Congress for investigating the insurrection, spread conspiracy theories about the FBI having “instigated” the riot, defend Eastman’s idea that then-Vice President Mike Pence had the power to reject the election results, and compare riot defendants to "people in the civil rights movement."
Just this past Wednesday, Levin said on his radio show that people should not cooperate with the January 6 committee, “certainly not under these circumstances,” and he further called the entire inquiry a violation of the Constitution. So, are these pronouncements purely an aspect of his role as a media commentator, or do they also connect to the “hat” he wears as an attorney?
[aud CitationFrom the May 18, 2022, edition of Westwood One’s The Mark Levin Show]
Mathe dirty secret of right-wing media: They’re all in the “dual role”
In an odd way, however, Eastman’s legal team has delivered a sort of public service through this “dual role” argument, in that it puts all the rest of Fox News and other right-wing media figures, such as Josh Hammer, into their proper perspective. Essentially, all of these conservative media personalities wear different “hats” in both their media jobs and as political operatives — and they will swap labels for whichever one serves them most conveniently in any particular moment.
The examples abound. Most notoriously, there is Sean Hannity’s true role as a Republican operative and Trump’s “shadow” chief of staff, while leveraging his media presence to assist his favored political candidates. Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo scripted her TV interview with Trump to aid his effort to overturn the election results, and recently used her show to spread a COVID-19 conspiracy theory she apparently picked up from a Republican Senate candidate. And of course, numerous Fox News personalities have a long-running track record of appearing at Republican campaign rallies and fundraisers.
The proper response to this shell game is to simply stop humoring it. Instead of allowing Fox and other right-wing media figures to decide on a moment-to-moment basis whether they are journalists or political operatives, they should be recognized as political operatives at all times, and called out for the manner in which they use media trappings for a partisan front operation.
===
ref bigot ?
https://www.mediamatters.org/sean-hannity/short-guide-mark-levin-trumps-likely-source-his-wiretapping-lie
no lnx many twt
A Short Guide To Mark Levin, Trump’s Likely Source For His Wiretapping Lie
Special PROGRAMS
LGBTQ
WRITTEN BY MEDIA MATTERS STAFF
PUBLISHED 03/06/17 4:53 PM EST
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On March 4, President Donald Trump accused former President Barack Obama of ordering his phones in Trump Tower to be wiretapped during the 2016 election. Trump’s claim echoed points made by Mark Levin, a right-wing talk radio host with a history of anti-immigrant and anti-LGBTQ statements, climate denial, and racism. He also attacked Obama throughout his presidency, comparing him to dictators, accusing him of racism and anti-Semitism, and saying he had “planted the seeds of World War III.”
UPDATE 11/21: According to Washington Post reporter Erik Wemple, Levin recently agreed to host a new weekend prime-time program on Fox News. Levin has proven to be a reliable ally of the Trump administration in the past year, using his platform to defend Trump's unfounded lies, to amplify the White House's attacks on the free press, and to target prominent Democrats and progressives for opposing the efforts of the new administration.
Trump’s Claim That Obama Ordered A Wiretap Of Trump Tower Came From Talk Radio Host Mark Levin
Trump Repeated Rumor From Right-Wing Radio Host Mark Levin To Accuse Obama Administration Of Spying On Him During Election, Offering No Evidence. On the morning of March 4, President Donald Trump sent out a series of tweets accusing former President Barack Obama of improperly having his communications in Trump Tower wiretapped during the presidential campaign. Trump cited no evidence to support his allegation, which, according to BuzzFeed, “appears to have followed a path through the pro-Trump media” and may have been sparked by a right-wing radio rumor that was written up in a Breitbart.com post. [BuzzFeed, 3/4/17]
Levin Is One Of The Most Popular Talk Radio Hosts In The Country. Levin, a nationally syndicated radio host, was ranked fourth on Talkers magazine’s list of the “100 Most Important Talk Radio Show Hosts In America for 2016.” A 2013 Daily Beast article called Levin possibly “the most powerful conservative you never heard of,” citing his influence in the tea party movement and in the fight over comprehensive immigration reform. According to the article, former Minnesota Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann credited Levin with leading the Republican fight against the Affordable Care Act in 2009. [Talkers, accessed 3/6/17; The Daily Beast, 10/19/13]
Trump Endorsed Levin’s 2013 Book And Gave Levin One Of His First Interviews After He Announced His Presidential Bid
Trump Gave Levin One Of His First Interviews As A 2016 Presidential Candidate. Trump announced his candidacy on June 16, 2015, and gave an interview about his campaign to The Mark Levin Show the next day. Levin did not support Trump’s candidacy and initially stated that he would not vote for him. However, in September of 2016, Levin changed his mind and said he would vote for Trump. [Westwood One, The Mark Levin Show, 6/16/15 via YouTube; Media Matters, 3/2/16; Conservative Review, 9/6/16]
Trump Endorsed Levin’s Book Championing A State-Led Constitutional Convention. On August 15, 2013, Trump tweeted that Levin’s book The Liberty Amendments was “a truly great & important book.” The Liberty Amendments advocates for a constitutional convention organized by state legislatures to “reform” the federal government. The idea has been criticized by Supreme Court justices, with former Chief Justice Warren Burger warning that such a convention “would be a free-for-all for special interest groups.” Justice Antonin Scalia also said that he “certainly would not want a constitutional convention. Whoa! Who knows what would come out of it?” [Media Matters, 1/14/16]
Levin’s Record Includes Attacking President Obama, Latinos, LGBT Americans, And Climate Science
Mark Levin Regularly Attacked Obama And His Administration, Accusing Them Of Racism, Anti-Semitism, And “Plant[ing] The Seeds Of World War III”
Levin: The Obamas Are “Full Of Hate Speech.” On the May 11, 2015, edition of his show, Levin called the Obamas “racialists” and “race-baiters of the first order” and repeatedly asked, “Do black lives matter to this president?” He then said Barack and Michelle Obama are “full of hate speech” and compared them to Jim Crow-era segregationist George Wallace. [Westwood One, The Mark Levin Show, 5/11/15]
Levin: Obama Is A “Low-Life” And A “Racist” For Using “The N-Word” After The Charleston Shooting. On the June 22, 2015, edition of The Mark Levin Show, Levin called President Obama a “low-life” and “racist” for using the “n-word” in an interview following the shootings in Charleston, S.C. He also criticized those who protested the Confederate flag, asking, “What the hell does that have to do with any of this?” [Westwood One, The Mark Levin Show, 6/22/15]
Levin: Part Of Obama’s “Agenda” Was To “Change The Racial Makeup” Of America With The “Importation Of Millions And Millions From The Third World.” Levin cited “some article” to assert that “in 2020 or something like that … white schoolchildren will then be in the minority.” Levin concluded that “this has been part of the agenda of the Obama administration” -- to “change the racial makeup of the United States of America … with importation of millions and millions of people from the third world.” [Westwood One, The Mark Levin Show, 3/6/15]
Levin Warned That Obama Would Go “Full Mussolini” After 2014 Midterms. On the October 21, 2014, edition of Fox News’ Hannity, Levin urged viewers to vote Republican because “with Obama it’s going to get worse -- you’re going to see his full Mussolini come out with his pen and his phone” before the 2014 midterm elections. [Fox News, Hannity, 10/21/14]
Levin Diagnosed Obama With Narcissistic Personality Disorder. On the December 1, 2014, edition of his show, Levin “delve[d] into the far reaches of Obama’s brain, between those two massive ears of his” to find that “he’s not just a Marxist ideologue, something is loose.” Levin concluded that based on Obama’s comments surrounding the police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO, the symptoms of “narcissistic personality disorder” define “Obama to a T.” [Cumulus Media Networks, The Mark Levin Show, 12/1/14]
Levin: “There's Been More Genocide, More Rape, More Enslavement Under This President Than Any President In Modern History.” During a March 13, 2015, rant about Iran and weapons of mass destruction, Levin attacked Obama’s foreign policy for allowing “more genocide, more rape, more enslavement under this president than any president in modern history.” [Fox News, Hannity, 3/3/15]
Levin: Jewish Obama Donors Are “Self-Haters” Who “Despise Their Own Country.” Levin assailed “millionaire and billionaire Jewish people” as “the worst of the worst” for raising money for Obama and Democrats, “the enemies of liberty.” Levin added that “they’re not only self-haters, they despise their own country -- this country.” [Cumulus Media Networks, The Mark Levin Show, 7/31/14]
Levin: Obamacare Supporters Are “Brown Shirts.” Levin attacked supporters of the Affordable Care Act by comparing them to “brown shirts,” a reference to German Nazis. [Cumulus Media Networks, The Mark Levin Show, 12/4/13]
Mark Levin: President Obama “Is The Greatest Threat The Jews Face ... Since The 1930s.” On the March 27, 2015, edition of his radio show, Levin said Obama “is the greatest threat the Jews face -- not in this country, but in Israel -- since the 1930s,” in part because he was “arming up the Islamo-Nazis in Tehran” with the Iran nuclear deal. [Westwood One, The Mark Levin Show, 3/27/15]
Levin Demanded “A National Discussion About The Anti-Semitism” Of The Obama Administration. Levin said on the March 18, 2015, edition of Fox News’ Hannity, “I think this nation needs to have a discussion about what’s going on in this White House and this administration, about anti-Semitism.” He criticized Obama for “reaching out to Al Sharpton, the Muslim Brotherhood, CAIR, all these nutjob groups … willing to throw Israel over the side for the Islamo-regime in Tehran.” [Fox News, Hannity, 3/18/15]
Levin: “I'm Not Going To Give This Man What He Wants, A Captive Audience For His Castro-Like Speeches.” On January 12, 2016, Levin said that he would not watch Obama's final State of the Union address because he does “not [want] to give this man what he wants, a captive audience for his Castro-like speeches.” Levin described Obama as “a propagandist spewing forth on how great he is”:
MARK LEVIN: The hell with the State of the Union speech. The hell with a propagandist spewing forth on how great he is and he'd only be greater if everybody would do exactly what he says.
[...]
I am not going to give this man what he wants, a captive audience for his Castro-like speeches -- for his Castro-like speeches. [Westwood One, The Mark Levin Show, 11/12/16]
Levin Said Obama “Planted The Seeds Of World War III” With The Iran Nuclear Deal. On the July 14, 2015, edition of Fox News’ Hannity, Levin said the Iran nuclear deal “sealed the fate” of the world and “planted the seeds of World War III”:
MARK LEVIN: My reaction is that Barack Obama has now planted the seeds of World War III. And one day World War III is going to break out right here because of his actions today. To arm up the Iranian regime, this terrorist regime in Tehran, you know, Obama likes to say that Reagan and Kennedy negotiated with the Soviets. The Soviets had nukes. Iran does not have nukes. But thanks to him and Kerry and the other ideologues and lightweights that surround him, they're going to get nukes. And this is where World War III, in my view, is going to start. He has sealed the fate -- the adults who are listening to this program, your children and grandchildren, he has made this world so much more dangerous as a result of what he has done. These inspections are phony. There are no real sanctions. The Iranians can't be trusted. They have demonstrated that time and time again, no less than the United Nations has told us. The Russians and Chinese are thrilled by this because we'll be bogged down for decades. This is a complete disaster. [Fox News, Hannity, 7/15/15]
Mark Levin Regularly Attacks And Mocks Latinos And Immigrants
Levin Mocked Rep. Luis Gutiérrez's Accent, Called Him The “Self-Appointed Martin Luther King Of Latinos.” Levin called Illinois Democratic Rep. Luis Gutiérrez the “self-appointed Martin Luther King of Latinos” and said, “Can you have a negative IQ? If you’re Luis Gutiérrez, I think you can,” while mocking Gutiérrez’s accent. [Westwood One, The Mark Levin Show, 3/3/15]
Levin: Gutiérrez And Former Labor Secretary Tom Perez Are “Ethno-Thugs.” Levin decried “pigmentation caucuses” in the Congress and called the “ethno-thugs” Gutiérrez and then-Labor Secretary Tom Perez typical of this “sad state of affairs.” [Cumulus Media Networks, The Mark Levin Show, 10/2/14]
Levin Attacked Birthright Citizenship As A “Nut-Job Policy.” In 2010, Levin claimed that “the Constitution does not provide for” birthright citizenship and called it a “nut-job policy.” [TheRightScoop.com, 5/29/10]
Levin And Hannity Agreed That “Trump Was Right” To Want To End Birthright Citizenship. Levin appeared on the August 19, 2015, edition of Fox News’ Hannity to argue that “Trump is right” to seek an end to birthright citizenship and that it was only “slip-and-fall lawyers, some phony constitutional lawyers” who support the policy because “the Supreme Court has never ruled that the children of illegal aliens are American citizens.” [Fox News, Hannity, 8/19/15]
Levin Compared Citizenship For Children Of Undocumented Immigrants To Japanese Internment Camps. On the July 30, 2014, edition of his radio show, Levin predicted that an Obama executive action on immigration would be “the greatest act of despotism” since President Franklin Roosevelt forced people of Japanese ancestry into internment camps. [Cumulus Media Networks, The Mark Levin Show, 7/29/14]
Levin Calls Transgender Equality “Tyranny” And Compares Same-Sex Marriage To Heroin Addiction
Levin Tweeted A Report On An Obama Administration Rule Allowing Transgender Students To Use The Facilities Of Their Choice, Calling It “Obama’s Tyranny.”
[Twitter.com, 5/12/16]
Levin: The DOJ Is “Blackmail[ing]” North Carolina With Lawsuit Over The State’s Law Banning Trans People From Using The Facility Of Their Choice. Levin asserted that the lawsuit filed by the Department Of Justice over North Carolina’s law banning transgender people from using the facility of their choice was “blackmail” against the state and part of a “radical-left agenda.” From the May 9 edition of Westwood One’s The Mark Levin Show:
MARK LEVIN (HOST): So radical is this pathetic administration, so dangerous, so diabolical, that even our bathrooms aren’t safe. Now you knew that already. But we have a governor in North Carolina, Pat McCrory, who deserves the full support of this country. Because McCrory was blackmailed, in essence. He was told that he and the North Carolina legislature either back off their statute that basically restates that the boys’ room is for boys and the girls’ room is for boy, girls and it doesn’t discriminate against straights or gays or whatever, it’s just the way it is based on your genitalia. That if North Carolina didn’t back down, then the federal government is going to take billions and billions of dollars away from it. This is the way they blackmail states.
[...]
So what did Loretta Lynch and the Department of Injustice do today? Well, they sued him. They sued the state of North Carolina. And of course they wrap themselves in civil rights and fairness and equality. And remember what we’re talking about here. People who are changing their genitalia, or in the midst of changing their genitalia, or perhaps even thinking about changing their genitalia.
[...]
Who’s stopping anyone with a penis to go to a mens’ room and with a whatever to go to a female -- I shouldn’t even have said it. You understand. Since when has that changed anything? Why is that a civil right, to be able to, for a guy to go to a girls’ room and a girl to go to a guys’ room? What is this? [[, t] They act like it’s Selma, Alabama. Well it’s not. They’re always looking for a phony civil rights issue.
[...]
This is about a radical left agenda. Period. It’s about using the federal government to advance this radical left agenda. Period. [Westwood One, The Mark Levin Show, 5/9/16]
Levin On The SCOTUS Marriage Equality Ruling: “The Supreme Court Is Officially Nuts. A Runaway Oligarchy Using The Constitution To Enshrine The Left’s Agenda.”
[Twitter, 6/26/15]
Levin: GOP Should “Stop Chasing Genitalia” To Win Elections. Levin said on the June 10, 2014, edition of Fox News’ Hannity that the Republican Party should “stop chasing ethnic groups, stop chasing genitalia” to attract “Reagan Democrats” back to the party. [Fox News, Hannity, 6/10/14]
Levin: “Judicial Tyranny” Of Marriage Equality “Significantly Decreases The Nation’s Liberty.” Levin attacked “iron-fisted decision[s]” on “so-called social issues” like abortion and same-sex marriage as examples of “judicial tyranny” that “significantly decrease … the nation’s liberty.” [Cumulus Media Networks, The Mark Levin Show, 10/7/14]
Levin Compared Marriage Equality To Incest, Polygamy, And Drug Use. Speaking to a caller who supported same-sex marriage rights, Levin compared marriage equality to polygamy, saying it would be like if “everybody in society tak[ing] heroin,” or “an individual decides to have sex with a close relative … say a father and a daughter.” Levin defended this argument against marriage equality, saying, “I am using extreme examples just to address an extreme point.” [Cumulus Media Networks, The Mark Levin Show, 2/14/14]
Levin Claims The Earth Is Undergoing “Global Cooling,” Carbon Dioxide Is Not A Problem, And Clean Air Means Poverty
In A Fox News Special, Levin Claimed That Greenhouse Gases Were A Nonissue Because “Carbon Dioxide Is Necessary For Plants.” In October 2012, a Fox News special called “Behind Obama’s Green Agenda” featured Levin as an environmental expert. In the segment, Levin argued that greenhouse gas emissions are not a problem because “carbon dioxide is what we exhale, carbon dioxide is necessary for plants.” [Media Matters, 10/8/12]
Levin Cited A Study To Hype “Global Cooling” And Dismiss Efforts To “Control Carbon Dioxide” Emissions, Against The Explicit Warning Of The Study’s Co-Author. On November 13, 2008, Levin misleadingly cited a scientific study predicting an ice age in the next 10,000 to 100,000 years to claim that humans should not “try and control carbon dioxide” to combat climate change. While Levin read a news article about the study on his radio show, he omitted the co-author’s explicit warning that the ice age prediction was “no excuse for saying ‘we’ve got to keep pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.’” [Media Matters, 11/20/08]
Levin Said Measures To Ensure “Clean Air And Clean Water” Would Lead To “Poverty.” Levin attacked Obama for “be[ing] at war with productivity, research, investment, development, profits … [and] the private sector” by supporting, among other things, environmental regulations. Levin mocked supporters of cap-and-trade legislation by saying “‘Oh, we want clean air and clean water.’ And what does that mean? Poverty.” [ABC Radio Networks, The Mark Levin Show, 11/12/09]
Levin Has A Record Of Making Racist And Anti-Muslim Statements
Levin: “Why Would We End Racial Profiling?” On the July 15, 2013, edition of his show, Levin asked, “Why would we end racial profiling for law enforcement purposes? Are we all supposed to be Helen Keller?” He suggested police would not be allowed to report any race data because of restrictions on racial profiling. [Westwood One, The Mark Levin Show, 7/15/13]
Levin: Grand Jury Results Show Ferguson Shooting “Had Nothing To Do With Race,” And Officer Darren Wilson “Is Owed An Apology.” On the November 25, 2014, edition of his radio show, Levin claimed that the grand jury declining to indict then-Ferguson, MO, police officer Darren Wilson for the shooting death of Michael Brown showed that the shooting “had nothing to do with race”:
MARK LEVIN (HOST): Officer Darren Wilson's shooting and killing of Michael Brown had nothing to do with race, period. Still they talk about race. Still the president talks about race. Still the attorney general talks about race. Still the media talk about race. Michael Brown was shot, in essence, because the officer was defending himself, both in the squad car, and later when Michael Brown charged him, period. This has nothing to do with racial injustice, nothing whatsoever to do with racial injustice.
[...]
And so now, what do we have? We have race-baiting, we have out of control emotions, we have criminality. It's the left. The left, they ignore science, they ignore evidence, they ignore experience, they ignore knowledge, just like everything else, whether it's global warming or Obamacare. These things exist to be exploited. It's time for us to speak up for law enforcement. Law enforcement has been extremely restrained. It's time for us to speak out in defense of Officer Wilson, who's owed an apology. He's owed an apology. [Cumulus Media Networks, The Mark Levin Show, 11/25/14]
Levin: Sotomayor Is A “Bigot.” Levin called Sotomayor a “bigot” - before qualifying that her comment was “bigoted” - after she gave a speech in which she hoped that in race and sex discrimination cases the relevant life experience of a “wise Latina” might lead to “a better conclusion” than that of a white male. From his May 26, 2009 editions of his show:
LEVIN: [Senators] need to understand that if they vote to confirm a radical leftist -- and I will now say what I actually believe -- who is a bigot -- that's right, I said it -- then they need to pay a political price for this. [The Mark Levin Show, 5/26/09, via Media Matters]
Levin: U.S. Is Scoring Lower In Global Education Survey Because Migrant Children “Come In, They Pour Into Many Of Our School Systems.” On December 4, 2013, Levin suggested that immigrant children could be the reason the U.S.’ “numbers have dropped and continue to drop” in a global education survey of high school students, claiming that many of the children “only speak Spanish” and “are illiterate in Spanish because they’re poor.” [Cumulus Media Networks, The Mark Levin Show, 12/4/13]
Levin: Attorney General Eric Holder Committed “Hate Crimes” By Conducting Civil Rights Investigation In Ferguson After Shooting. On the October 23, 2014, edition of his radio show, Levin asked how then-Attorney General Eric Holder would be “held to account for what he did” in Ferguson, MO, accusing him of “hate crimes” and “race baiting” through his civil rights investigation of the shooting and its aftermath:
MARK LEVIN: I have a question. How will Eric Holder be held to account for what he did in Ferguson, Missouri? The attorney general of the United States, who took an oath to uphold the Constitution, which includes due process, which includes equal protection. How will Eric Holder be held to account for what he did in Ferguson, Missouri?
[...]
It's abundantly clear that the people who claimed that the officer, Darren Wilson, shot an innocent, unarmed black teenager, are liars. Flat-out liars. There are reportedly now over half a dozen black witnesses who contradict what's been said about the circumstances involving the shooting and the killing, who are afraid - who are afraid for their lives, afraid for their families, afraid for their jobs and their businesses. Eric Holder helped create that situation, that environment, in Ferguson, Missouri, which continues to this day because of groups like ACORN, still ACORN, and other radical left-wing hate America-type organizations.
[...]
So this is the situation now. So I'm asking, how will Eric Holder be held to account, how will he be held to account for his race baiting, for his -- in my view -- yes, hate crimes, if you will. Much of it has resulted as a result of his conduct, his comments, the conduct of the Civil Rights Division under his leadership. [Cumulus Media Networks, The Mark Levin Show, 10/23/14]
Levin: “There’s Nothing Controversial” About A Tweet Comparing Muslims To Nazis. After former Boston Red Sox pitcher, then-ESPN personality, and current Breitbart radio host Curt Schilling posted a tweet comparing Muslims to Nazis, Levin said, “There's nothing controversial about the Curt Schilling tweet,” going on to call ESPN “a disgrace” and encourage viewers to protest the network. [Media Matters, 10/26/15]
===
mma 10 22
MARK LEVIN (HOST): How the hell did the federal government get thirteen of my emails? I never got a subpoena. I was never given notice. And there's absolutely nothing in those emails that are worthwhile to anything. Zero. What else did they look at? I'm gonna get to the bottom of that, damn it.
I am telling you now, you stick with me. You stick with me, I'm gonna find out who every one of these G-D staffers are on that damn committee, every one of those Congress asses on that damn committee. Every damn one of them. I'm not gonna be intimidated. Life's too damn short to be intimidated.
===
mma 9 22
MARK LEVIN (HOST): And we're plowing ahead with hundreds of billions of dollars to impose andcompel people to use electricity, and we simply do not have the grid for it. We do not have the backup systems for it. We do not have processes in place to do this, and our reliance on basically one source of energy -- and when it comes to vehicles,a reliance on a foreign enemy, Red China.You can see now in real time that a natural disaster [refers to what? on top of a man made disaster is a catastrophe. An absolute catastrophe. This so-called climate change ideology must be stopped in its tracks.
:{:{}:
}:
===
mma
when Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel announced in April that the GOP would no longer participate in debates sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates, she said that her party was committed to identifying “newer, better debate platforms” to replace “the biased CPD.” For a glimpse of what they may be after, look no further than the motley collection of right-wing election deniers, anti-vaxxers, and conspiracy theorists selected to moderate recent Republican primary debates.
Right-wing commentators spend a lot of time complaining about purported liberal media bias, using regular salvos to work the refs and make excuses for their failures. Those complaints typically crescendoed every four years with the presidential debates. Republican politicians and conservative media figures would rage about the purported unfairness of the CPD-selected moderators, even as the party’s Fox News propaganda arm maintained a slot in the moderator rotation.
Debates for down-ballot races are generally more sedate affairs, typically moderated by anchors or reporters from local television affiliates, public radio stations, or print outlets. But this year, GOP primary candidates have also turned to national right-wing outlets, talk radio hosts, and fringe pundits.
Newsmax, a far-right cable network which infamously tried to seize market share from Fox by going all-in on then-President Donald Trump’s lie that the 2020 election had been stolen from him and currently faces lawsuits from multiple election technology companies in connection with that fraudulent reporting, has already hosted at least two high-profile Republican primary debates this cycle.
Eric Bolling moderated a New York gubernatorial primary debate for the network in June. Bolling, a former host for Fox and Sinclair Media Group, is a notorious bigot who lost his Fox gig after reportedly sending an unsolicited and unwanted photo of male genitalia to at least three female colleagues. He emerged in recent years as a key vector of conspiracy theories about COVID-19 vaccines who also regularly spread lies about purported fraud in the 2020 election.
Greta Van Susteren, who previously hosted shows at MSNBC, Fox, and CNN before joining Newsmax in May, also moderated a Pennsylvania GOP Senate debate that month.
Mark Levin, who hosts a weekly TV show for Fox, a streaming show for BlazeTV, and one of the right’s most popular syndicated talk radio broadcasts, will moderate two congressional primary debates in Florida this month. Levin, who was selected by the Republican Party of Florida, apparently helped mastermind the Trump plot to illegally reject electors from key states that supported Joe Biden and thus subvert the election to keep Trump in office and has a long record of bigoted commentary.
“I have Mark Levin that's going to moderate those. Obviously, he's a great guy, very smart," Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a press conference about the events. DeSantis touted Levin’s support on his campaign website when he first ran for governor in 2018.
While Levin and Newsmax have national presences, in other cases, debate organizers have turned to lower-profile right-wing figures from the area. In Wisconsin, three GOP candidates for governor participated in a debate moderated by local right-wing radio host Joe Giganti last month.
These events don’t always accomplish their intent of promoting the candidates without the sinister involvement of the “liberal media.” Lara Logan, a former CBS News correspondent-turned-Fox-personality, toured the internet fever swamps this year touting an array of increasingly bonkers conspiracy theories. She also moderated a GOP primary debate for a Texas congressional race in February, and while her questions were firmly embedded in far-right talking points, she drew criticism from viewers for her rambling, discursive monologues.
Here is one of Logan’s questions from that debate:
LARA LOGAN (MODERATOR): So speaking of the right to privacy and the Fourth Amendment, it didn't just – it wasn't just written for search and seizure in the Patriot Act. It was written also because what did the British do? They quartered in people's homes and they took everything from them and they prevented them from meeting and they prevented them from organizing and they prevented them from communicating. And what is happening in this country today, if you went to the Capitol on January 6, you can't even have a bank account in certain places in this country. And what that leads us into very neatly as well is Big Tech, you know? You know what happens? Everybody says, “Oh, we don't support Big Tech. We don't support Section 230 liability,” and yet we don't see anything change. Ted Cruz, he goes up there, he makes these grand speeches and they have fabulous. And you know what changes? Nothing. So I want to know how many of you have taken money from Google or Facebook or Twitter or any of them, if you would take money from any of them if they offered it to you? A lot of it because that's how they roll. And also, what would you do to break up these monopolies? Strip them of their Section 230 protections and stop the people in this audience and all over this country every single day being censored, every single day,because it is happening on a scale that is unimaginable and underreported. And the order for that is a high order crash. Are you sure? Twice in a row. Christian just. He just went first. Morgan, it's you first.
And sometimes the events fail to materialize. In Pennsylvania, four GOP gubernatorial candidates signed a letter to “the Pennsylvania press” demanding a Republican debate moderator. While they skipped a debate when such a moderator was not provided, they all ultimately folded and participated in at least one subsequent forum.
It’s hard to identify where Republicans might draw a line against having total loons moderating their debates. Last week, Jim Hoft published a press release on his Gateway Pundit website inviting the four leading candidates for the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate in Missouri to participate in a July 11 debate moderated by himself and Real America’s Voice host Gina Loudon.
It’s difficult to imagine that this will come together. Hoft is a far-right conspiracy theorist who is also perhaps the dumbest man on the internet, while Loudon is a charlatan and her outlet has provided a home for QAnon conspiracy theory content. And yet, given the trajectory of the GOP’s moderators, it’s not unthinkable.
There’s long been an incestuous relationship between the Republican Party and the right-wing media. GOP candidates try to stand out from their peers in hopes of attracting attention from the dominant players in the conservative echo chamber and ride that wave to victory. The most successful candidates were often those who sounded most like right-wing media figures – or those who actually were former right-wing media figures themselves.
Now GOP candidates aren’t just preening for the attention of propagandists like Levin and kooks like Logan – those are the people the party wants moderating its debates.
===
===
mma 9 22
MARK LEVIN (HOST): Senator, I don't have firsthand knowledge but there is a report out that Mister Pillow, Mike Lindell says the FBI stopped him at a Hardee's in Minnesota today and seized his phone.
Are you concerned about the extent to which Merrick Garland -- and he hasn't recused himself, and the FBI are going after citizens of this country -- including Donald Trump -- and the way they're doing it, with a massive number of subpoena and so forth.
They keep talking about election interference, and, I mean, I don't know the line between election interference and the Constitution here, and neither do they, but I've never seen anything like this. I've never heard of anything like this, just grabbing everyone and anything they possibly can and they're grabbing all their iPhones. I mean, do you think -- are you concerned about the weaponizing of law enforcement with less than sixty days to go before the midterm elections?
===
8 22 an raw story
the scheme to overthrow the 2020 presidential election using fake Trump electors in states President Joe Biden carried has been broadly panned as illegal by legal experts. Even John Eastman, the far-right lawyer who drafted the memo outlining the scheme, admitted in private to Trump that there was no real basis for it in law.
But according to Fox News commentator Mark Levin, it was a perfectly valid scheme. On Monday, he told his viewers, "That is to be resolved by the United States Congress. That is not a crime either. You might not like it. You might think it's weird, you might think it's unethical, but it's not a crime."
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), one of two Republicans on the House January 6 Committee and a key voice against Trump from the right, begged to differ, criticizing Levin's remark in a Twitter thread on Tuesday.
"The Eastman memos & fake elector scheme are indefensible," wrote Cheney, tagging Levin's account. "On the memos: Eastman took the opposite legal position a month before the election; he knew all 9 Justices would rule against him; & he admitted it was illegal in an Oval Office meeting & afterwards. White House lawyers said it was illegal too. The fake electoral slates were obviously false, and were transmitted to multiple federal officials for purposes of obstructing the electoral count. None of this is ambiguous."
"Watch the hearings, and read the opinion of the federal judge who concluded that Eastman and Trump likely violated two criminal statutes," concluded Cheney.
This comes amid recent reports that the Justice Department is zeroing in on Trump in its investigation into various schemes to overturn the election.
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https://www.mediamatters.org/mark-levin/fox-news-host-mark-levin-i-hope-you-dont-watch-january-6-committee-hearing
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https://www.mediamatters.org/mark-levin/fox-news-host-mark-levin-brags-about-not-watching-january-6-committee-hearing
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Though they deplored Babbitt's death shortly after the event, few among Republican Members of Congress and conservative media initially claimed any wrongdoing from law enforcement, or suggested that it warranted a backlash.
Gradually, though, efforts were made to suggest that Babbitt was a martyr, or at least a patriot who was unjustly killed.[72] Fox News hosts Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham and Mark Levin were sympathetic to Babbitt, with Levin understating Babbitt's actions and claiming that she had been just "walking around with the rest". Republican representative Paul **Gosar**claimed that she had been "executed", later doubling down on that commentand adding that the police officer had been "lying in wait" and demanding to know his name. This drew a rebuke from representative Liz Cheney, who accused Gosar of "[smearing] the men and women who defended us". Fringe conservative figures[72] and far-right extremists[73] have also cast Babbitt as a martyr or a "freedom fighter".[73] Democratic strategist Mark Burns said that this was a "dangerous development for a Republican Party with members [27] increasingly comfortable pressing for and defending political violence".[74] Both he andDavid Frum in The Atlantic compared these efforts to the Nazi glorification of Horst Wessel.[75]^
Some QAnon supporters, including Lin Wood, have claimed instead that Babbitt is still alive and that her apparent death was a "false flag" operation.[27][76]^
In October 2021, Trump recorded a video message arguing that "There was no reason Ashli should've lost her life that day. We must all demand justice for Ashli and her family".[77][78][79] Russian President Vladimir Putin condemned the shooting of Babbitt, describing it as an "assassination".[80]^
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an 6 22
no lnx twt
MAGA extremists are freaking out over Trump’s endorsement in Alabama Senate race
[Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama speaking at the 2021 Southern Regional Conference, hosted by Turning Point USA at the Sheraton Panama City Beach Golf & Spa Resort in Panama City Beach, Florida, Gage Skidmore
Alex Henderson June 13, 2022
On Friday, June 10, former President Donald Trump endorsed Katie Britt over Rep. Mo Brooks in Alabama’s GOP U.S. Senate primary — exalting her as a “fearless America First warrior.” Trump was once an ally of Brooks; now, he is slamming the Alabama congressman as “woke.” But some MAGA Republicans disagree strongly with Trump’s endorsement of Britt, including former Trump spokesperson Katrina Pierson and Fox News host Mark Levin.
On Trump’s social media platform Truth Social, Levin angrily wrote, “This is a gut punch. Very disappointing. Britt is a McConnell-supported RINO praised by the head of the Alabama Democrat Party. I hope Mo can pull it off. Lord knows, we need his conservative voice and vote in the Senate.”
On Twitter, Pierson linked to a March 8 article in Breitbart that accuses Britt of surrounding herself with Never Trump conservatives. Pierson wrote, “This Katie Britt?”
Britt has been the frontrunner in the primary, which has gone to a runoff. Candidate Mike Durant was in third place in the initial primary election, but Britt and Brooks were close enough in the vote count for them to go to a runoff that will be held on June 21.
In his endorsement of Britt, Trump argued, “The opposition says Katie is close to Mitch McConnell, but actually, she is not — in fact, she believes that McConnell put Mike Durant in the race to stop her, which is very possibly true.”
Writer Ryan Girdusky is another MAGA Republican who is angry that Trump endorsed Britt. On June 10, Girdusky tweeted, “Oh fuck off. Mo is the one.”
[grfx]
The Daily Beast’s Zachary Petrizzo, in an article published on June 12, observes, “The endorsement of Britt comes at a critical time for both campaigns. The primary runoff is in less than two weeks after neither candidate could secure 50% of the vote in the primary race. In April 2021, Trump endorsed Brooks, only to revoke the endorsement after Brooks urged Trump supporters to move on from claims that the 2020 election was ‘stolen.’”
Brooks is pointing out how much flip-flopping Trump has done in Alabama’s Republican U.S. Senate primary.
Petrizzo quotes Brooks as saying, “This is weird: last time Donald Trump talked about Katie Britt, he said she was unqualified for the Senate. Donald Trump is the only man in American politics who could get conned by Mitch McConnell twice in an Alabama Senate race.”
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new 5 22
https://www.mediamatters.org/january-6-insurrection/john-eastmans-latest-legal-filing-reveals-dual-role-fox-news-hosts-service
Politico reported Friday that John Eastman, the disgraced ex-law professor who formulated many of former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, was also apparently in communication with Fox News host Mark Levin.The story gets even more interesting from there, revealing the shell game that right-wing media personalities engage in while doubling as political operatives.
A legal filing by Eastman’s attorneys reveals that, among the messages Eastman is still attempting to conceal from the House January 6 committee are 12 pieces of correspondence with an individual matching Levin’s description as “a radio talk show host, is also an attorney, former long-time President (and current board Chairman) of a public interest law firm, and also a former fellow at The Claremont Institute.” Other details, including a sloppy attempt to redact an email address, also connect to Levin, who did not respond to Politico’s requests for comment.
Eastman’s contention, however, is that he was not communicating with Mark Levin the media personality, which would forfeit attorney-client privilege on those communications. Instead, he was speaking with Mark Levin the attorney, and formulating legal strategies regarding the election.
A quick law lesson: The “dual role”
In their legal filing, Eastman’s attorneys argue that he should not have to turn over certain communications with right-wing media figures, even as other communications with those same people have been submitted. This question turns on a body of case law involving lawyers who serve in a “dual role.”
This area of law normally involves people who both are attorneys and have personal business interests, in which case a court must determine in which capacity they were acting and whether those communications or actions in question retain the legal privileges of secrecy.
The brief acknowledges that Eastman could find no previous instance in law having to do with media figures who were also attorneys, but it argues to extend this doctrine accordingly.
“Many members of the modern ‘media’ have multiple roles,” the filing argues, contending that some of Eastman’s communications with Levin in fact “involved work product communications with attorneys who also wear media ‘hats.’”
Eastman’s legal and media “hats” collide
In the case of Eastman, however, his work as an attorney in conservative causes and his public media presence have been so closely intertwined as to demonstrate that any such ethical separations quite simply do not exist in the right-wing media and political ecosystem.
Most notably, Eastman first came to Trump’s attention via an appearance on Levin’s Fox show back in May 2019, in which Eastman argued that Trump had the power as president to fire people who were investigating him. “The notion that the president can’t determine the course of an investigation is the most basic violation of separation of powers,” Eastman argued — even including an investigation involving the president himself.
The New York Times reported last year that Trump had never met Eastman before watching this episode. “Within two months, Mr. Eastman was sitting in the Oval Office for an hourlong meeting,” the Times reported.
In addition, Eastman’s new filing notes that he has had different sets of communications with an “opinion editor at Newsweek,” who is also affiliated with different conservative legal organizations. That description matches Newsweek editor Josh Hammer, who published Eastman’s disastrous op-ed in 2020 asserting that then-vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris was not a U.S. citizen and thus ineligible to run for office, even though she was in fact born in California. In this instance, clearly, the Venn diagram of the conservative legal and media worlds was simply a perfect circle.
And while Eastman was advising Trump on his theories of reversing the election results, he also advanced those ideas on former Trump adviser Steve Bannon’s show.
Levin uses his media platform to push far-right legal theories
While apparently acting under the privileges of an attorney corresponding with Eastman on their efforts to overturn the election, Levin also used his media platform with Fox News to publicly advocate for the same pseudo-legalistic theories. For example, he and Fox News contributor Ken Starr advocated the weekend after the election for state legislatures to overturn their election results and instead appoint pro-Trump slates to the Electoral College.
During an appearance on the December 10, 2020, edition of Hannity, Levin also advocated for the bizarre lawsuit in which Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the election results in four swing states. [vid]
then on January 3, 2021, Levin said on his Fox show that it was Congress’ job to choose who won the presidential election — and he claimed members of Congress would be “shredding the Constitution” if they didn’t reject Biden’s victory.
In the nearly year and a half since the January 6 insurrection, Levin has used his radio show to chastise Congress for investigating the insurrection, spread conspiracy theories about the FBI having “instigated” the riot, defend Eastman’s idea that then-Vice President Mike Pence had the power to reject the election results, and compare riot defendants to "people in the civil rights movement."
Just this past Wednesday, Levin said on his radio show that people should not cooperate with the January 6 committee, “certainly not under these circumstances,” and he further called the entire inquiry a violation of the Constitution. So, are these pronouncements purely an aspect of his role as a media commentator, or do they also connect to the “hat” he wears as an attorney? [[aud]
the dirty secret of right-wing media: They’re all in the “dual role”
In an odd way, however, Eastman’s legal team has delivered a sort of public service through this “dual role” argument, in that it puts all the rest of Fox News and other right-wing media figures, such as Josh Hammer, into their proper perspective. Essentially, all of these conservative media personalities wear different “hats” in both their media jobs and as political operatives — and they will swap labels for whichever one serves them most conveniently in any particular moment.
The examples abound. Most notoriously, there is Sean Hannity’s true role as a Republican operative and Trump’s “shadow” chief of staff, while leveraging his media presence to assist his favored political candidates. Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo scripted her TV interview with Trump to aid his effort to overturn the election results, and recently used her show to spread a COVID-19 conspiracy theoryshe apparently picked up from a Republican Senate candidate. And of course, numerous Fox News personalities have a long-running track record of appearing at Republican campaign rallies and fundraisers.
The proper response to this shell game is to simply stop humoring it. Instead of allowing Fox and other right-wing media figures to decide on a moment-to-moment basis whether they are journalists or political operatives, they should be recognized as political operatives at all times, and called out for the manner in which they use media trappings for a partisan front operation.
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mma 1 22
LEVIN (HOST): Eight subpoenas from the committee have sought information more directly related to the Capitol unrest, including subpoenas to three right wing groups and their leaders: Proud Boys International LLC, Oath Keepers and First Amendment Praetorian, and each of their chairmen have been summoned by the probe.
On Wednesday, Nicholas Fuentes and Patrick Casey of the American First Movement were handed subpoenas based on the committee's suspicions of involvement in the chaos that unfolded at the Capitol. You believe this, ladies and gentlemen?
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wtf?
https://www.mediamatters.org/mark-levin/fox-news-host-mark-levin-says-att-doesnt-want-people-part-white-dominant-culture
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https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-trump-feedback-loop-generated-eastmans-presidential-coup-memo
no lnx vids
John Eastman’s coup memo was the result of the Fox-Trump feedback loop
WRITTEN BY MATT GERTZ
PUBLISHED 10/04/21 1:59 PM EDT
The prominent conservative lawyer behind a memo explaining how to subvert the 2020 election for President Donald Trump reportedly first caught Trump’s attention while shilling on the president’s behalf during an interview on Fox News.
Trump’s obsession with Fox programming is well-documented. Throughout his presidency, he regularly tweeted in response to shows he was watching; staffed his administration and legal defense teams with Fox regulars; and shaped his decision-making around advice he received from its personalities, both in person and on the air. On issues as diverse as border wall contracting, pandemic response, and pardons, federal policy responded to what the president was seeing on the right-wing propaganda network.
John Eastman, a Claremont Institute senior fellow who spoke to the pro-Trump mob in the hours before the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, apparently put himself on Trump’s radar in similar fashion.
“Trump, who had never met Mr. Eastman, saw him on the Fox News talk show of the far-right commentator Mark Levin railing against the Russia investigation” in mid-2019, The New York Times reported Saturday. “Within two months, Mr. Eastman was sitting in the Oval Office for an hourlong meeting.”
Eastman remained in Trump’s orbit over the next year and a half, according to the Times, and, after Trump lost the 2020 election, the right-wing attorney created a plan by which Vice President Mike Pence and congressional Republicans could use bogus claims of voter fraud to keep Trump in power. Eastman’s six-step scheme to end American democracy, revealed last month by The Washington Post and CNN, was foiled largely because Pence was ultimately unwilling to go through with it.
“Mr. Eastman’s appeal to Mr. Trump,” the Times reported, “rested in large part on his expansive views of presidential power — and his willingness to tell Mr. Trump what he wanted to hear.”
That description matches Eastman’s performance during the Fox interview that initially captured Trump’s attention. That appearance, for the May 12, 2019, edition of Life, Liberty, and Levin, followed the release of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report detailing his investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election. Trump and his supporters tried to spin that document as vindicating him. But it was actually incredibly damning, documenting, among other things, a variety of ways Trump had sought to obstruct the probe.
Over the course of his hour-long sitdown withLevin, who introduced him as a “brilliant” legal scholar, Eastman explained how the Constitution and federal law supported all of Trump’s most corrupt and bigoted impulses, while decrying Mueller’s team as biased political partisans whose probe was itself illegal and perhaps deliberately “set up to create a media frenzy.”
According to Eastman, it is impossible for a president to violate the law by interfering with a federal investigation, even if that investigation’s purpose was to review his activities or those of his associates. “The notion that the president can’t determine the course of an investigation is the most basic violation of separation of powers,” he claimed. Even if Trump had successfully fired Mueller himself it would be legal, according to Eastman, because “the entire executive branch is headed by one guy and the only constitutional check on that is through an impeachment power, not through statutes and not through regulations internal to the Department of Justice, because the president has the authority to change those whenever he wants.”
After Levin described one such incident mentioned in the report, when Trump allegedly ordered White House counsel Don McGahn to fire Mueller, Eastman said that “directing McGahn to fire him is no different than him picking up the phone himself, and even that would not have been obstruction.”
Video file
Citation From the May 12, 2019, edition of Fox News' Life, Liberty, and Levin.
Eastman went on to agree with Levin’s claim that the Mueller investigation was itself “fundamentally illegal” because “nobody in the administration itself [was] accused with any evidence of a crime,” which is required under the special counsel statute. In reality, Trump’s 2016 campaign chair and his first White House national security adviser were among the litany of presidential associates who were ultimately convicted or entered guilty pleas through the probe.
When Levin asked later in the program, “This is really a rejection by the Democrat Party and the media and the rest of them, a rejection of the 2016 election, isn't it?” Eastman replied, “I think so. They still can't believe that they lost that election and they're trying to rationalize that there must've been something nefarious in order to produce it.”
He went on to say that “this is really a challenge to the results of the last election, which means it is a challenge to the American people and the very notion that we govern ourselves,” and that the intent is to create a “tyranny of the majority.”
Video file
Citation From the May 12, 2019, edition of Fox News' Life, Liberty, and Levin.
Eastman also expressed support for Trump on a variety of other legal issues. He rejected the notion that payments foreign countries make to Trump through his hotel are violations of the emoluments clause of the Constitution, and decried federal judges who blocked versions of Trump’s Muslim travel ban as “part of a resistance movement to undo the results of the 2016 election.”
At the conclusion of the interview, Eastman said that nothing Trump has done rises to the level of “high crimes and misdemeanors” required for impeachment under the Constitution.
“I've been stunned at how scrupulous Trump and his team have been in staying within the legal lines that they had,” he said, contrasting to how President Barack Obama “blew through the lines on executive power and constitutional authority on numerous occasions."
Video file
Citation From the May 12, 2019, edition of Fox News' Life, Liberty, and Levin.
Eastman was able to turn an interview on a Sunday night Fox show into a position of real political power because the president himself had been glued to the set. And after Trump and his propagandists at Fox created a web of lies about a “rigged” election, he was there to concoct a legal pretext to keep Trump in office. The coup plot failed -- but it did result in deadly violence when a crowd incited by speeches from Trump, Eastman, and others stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6 in hopes of preventing the peaceful transition of power.
Since then, the situation has only grown more dire, as the Republican Party and right-wing disinformation apparatus have institutionalized Trump’s lie that the election was stolen, laying the groundwork to rig future elections in favor of the GOP, through Eastman’s strategy or another one. And Fox was at the root of it all.
Related
Trump lawyer John Eastman touted his plan to overturn the 2020 election in interviews with right-wing media
09/21/21 1:25 PM EDT
Broadcast news shows ignore Trump coup memo
09/22/21 4:32 PM EDT
CNN’s Brian Stelter highlights failure of news broadcasts to cover the Trump coup memo
09/26/21 2:44 PM EDT
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1220 mma wk dumb
- A truly wild story: A former police captain was arrested and charged with assaulting an air conditioner repairman who he falsely thought was carrying 750,000 fraudulent ballots in his truck. The organization allegedly paying the former cop to prove supposed election fraud is led by a QAnon conspiracy theorist, and its Facebook page is filled with conspiracy theories and violent rhetoric.
- A viral 4chan hoax about Chief Justice John Roberts tricked a presidential elector and pro-Trump media.
- Right-wing media personality and major Fox News advertiser Mike Lindell, of MyPillow, called for Trump to impose martial law.
- Invoking the infamous Dred Scott decision, Mark Levin screamed at the Supreme Court over Trump's election loss.
- Laura Ingraham encouraged viewers to gather for the holidays. She is still lying about how lethal COVID-19 is, and also claimed this weekthat vaccinations may not be necessary in the Dakotas because of how many people have already been infected.
- Tucker Carlson claimed vaccine distribution is “eugenics” against white people.
- Fox News villainized Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) for the massive hack (allegedly by Russia) that happened on Trump's watch.
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https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/right-wing-media/
:{:{When the Electoral College met on Monday, December 14, electors officially voted to give President-elect Joe Biden the 306 electoral votes he won in the 2020 presidential election. But in the right-wing media, the myth that President Donald Trump is the real winner and still has a legitimate path to victory persists. New York Times reporter Jeremy W. Peters, in an article published the following day, points to election coverage as a prime example of the}::{ alternate reality that exists in the right-wing media bubble — where fiction is accepted as fact.}:
}:
"One by one, presidential electors in all 50 states and the District of Columbia formally recognized Joseph R. Biden, Jr. as the president-elect — the latest and most significant rejection so far of Mr. Trump's desperate attempts to undo the will of the voters," Peters explains. "But inside the sprawling and self-reinforcing network of websites, podcasts and video news that has fed some of the most reckless and unrealistic claims about the election, the myth of Mr. Trump's political survival endures."
Peters goes on to cite some specific examples of the type of nonsense that came from the right-wing media on December 14.
"The lead story on the Gateway Pundit, which researchers have identified as one of the major sources (of) pro-Trump misinformation online, floated the idea of a 'BOMBSHELL' ruling in a case on Monday that the site teased as a possible game-changer: 'Will a Small County in Northern Michigan Be the Key to Overturning the Nation's Election Results?,'" Peters observes. "On a podcast hosted by Mr. Trump's former White House chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, a conservative activist vowed to file a new lawsuit seeking to reverse the electors' vote — adding to the dozens of suits so far, nearly all of which have been dismissed."[twt]
another far-right media figure who has been exalting Trump as the real winner of the 2020 election is radio host Mark Levin, who, Peters notes, "was one of the first to give a national platform to the conspiracy theories of the lawyers Lin Wood and Sidney Powell, whose various claims of fraud involve a multinational network of saboteurs and domestic enemies of the president both dead — Hugo Chávez of Venezuela — and alive: 'Never Trump' Republican officials."
Peters points out that far-right conspiracy theories have a "lost history in the Republican Party," and he cites the John Birch Society as a prime example of the 1960s. The Times reporter stresses, however, that "the fringe never, of course, enjoyed the support of the sitting president" back then.
Taking Peters' argument a step further, it should be noted that some people on the right didn't hesitate to call out the Birchers as nutcases — most notably, the late National Review founder William F. Buckley. Although the conservative Buckley bashed liberals and progressives on a regular basis during the 1960s and 1970s, he was no fan of the John Birch Society.
But as Peters points out, the "fringe" has so much influence in right-wing media in 2020 that even Fox News' Tucker Carlson "faced a backlash" when he "questioned" Powell's "credibility."
Reflecting on the influence of the John Birch Society during the 1960s compared to the lunatic fringe now, Yochai Benkler — a Harvard Law School professor who has been studying right-wing media — told the Times, "What you didn't get then was the same market exposure. You didn't have tens of millions of voters exposed."
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major early pusher amplification escalator
https://www.alternet.org/2020/11/did-donald-trump-steal-the-election-2648992261/
digby
Back in September, Politico's Anita Kumar reportedthat for the previous year the Trump campaign had been assembling a team of election lawyers from all over the country to familiarize themselves in local election laws and prepare "prewritten legal pleadings that can be hurried to the courthouse the day after the election, as wrangling begins over close results and a crush of mail-in ballots." The effort was led by "a 20-person team of lawyers" from major law firms who were overseeing a strategy in "key states the Trump campaign is targeting, like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan." It sounded like a very serious and professional operation, one which came as no surprise to me, since Republicans have specialized in disenfranchising Democratic voters for many decades.
Trump himself repeatedly made clear on the campaign trail what he planned to do, from contesting the validity of mail-in ballots to declaring himself the winner on election night regardless of whether the votes had been counted and filing a flurry of lawsuits contesting the election with an eye toward having "his" judges (including newly-minted Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett) deliver the election to him if necessary. I don't think anyone can possibly say they are surprised at how he has reacted to losing the election.
In the weeks before Nov. 3, Trump did have that team of high-powered legal talent arguing cases around mail-in ballots and shifting deadlines in various states, some of which did make it to the Supreme Court. But then the election actually happened and vote-counting began, and since then Trump's crack team has been been remarkably unsuccessful. The good lawyers have either been pressured to to quit orthrew in the towel themselves as it became patently obvious that they had no evidence of voter fraud.
That hasn't stopped Trump from plowing ahead anyway with the self-described "elite strike force" led by his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, last seen prior to the election with his hand down his pants in the latest Borat movie and famously presiding over a post-election press conference at a landscaping company next door to a sex shop and a crematorium. Trump was evidently impressed by Rudy's performance in both venues, because he gave the former LifeLock spokesman (hat tip to Salon's Roger Sollenberger) full authority to conduct the legal strategy to overturn the election results by any means necessary.
CNN reports that Giuliani has taken full control. For instance, upset by what he was hearing from three of the lawyers assigned to argue one of the Pennsylvania cases, the man once described as "America's mayor" fired them on the spot and took over the case — which was being argued the very next day — himself. He hadn't been inside a courtroom in more than 30 years, and it showed. He was very nearly laughed out of court.
Giuliani was undaunted. He immediately pulled together the other members of the "elite strike force": Sidney Powell, who is former national security adviser Michael Flynn's Fox News lawyer; veteran right-wing husband and wife team Victoria Toensing and Joe diGenova, also Fox News lawyers; and over-the-top Trump defender and campaign lawyer Jenna Ellis. None of them have any expertise in election law, but then they don't have a legal strategy either.
Having lost over and over again in court, Trump and his team have switched to their Plan B, which, as longtime Democratic strategist Chris Marshall spelled out in detail in Salon on Thursday, is to delay the certification of the vote in certain states and try to get Republican legislatures to assign electors to vote for Donald Trump instead of the actual winner, Joe Biden. This is based on the theory that if they can create enough chaos around the election results, Republican loyalists will rise to the occasion and "save democracy" from the Democrats, who are allegedly stealing the election.
This idea has been pushed by conservative talk show host Mark Levin and picked up by the right wing as a way to keep their beloved president in office for at least four more years. It's a theory that is very unlikely to prevail, particularly since the Supreme Court just decided a case on "faithless electors" last July, in which the justices made it very clear that whatever the founders may have anticipated in the 18th century, our democracy today demands that electors express the will of the people. It will take some convoluted intellectual gyrations for them to conclude that state officials can simply change the results at their discretion.
In order to blow the smoke as thick as possible, Giuliani and the "strike force" held a press conference at Republican National Committee headquarters on Thursday which was so surreal that it may have displaced the COVID task force briefing where Trump suggested that people might inject disinfectant as the all-time weirdest press conference of the Trump era.
Giuliani, Powell and Ellis held forth for 90 minutes, going full Infowars and throwing out one insane conspiracy theory after another. They said that Dominion voting machines had been created by former Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez (who has been dead for seven years) and financed by George Soros, the Clinton Foundation and "communistic" countries China and Cuba. Just in case that didn't work, the corrupt Democrats had also rigged the vote with a sophisticated computer hack that was only foiled because Trump won so overwhelmingly that it tripped up the algorithm which allowed the "strike force" to catch them in the act. Also, the mail-in ballots were fraudulent because so many of them were filled out properly. (Yes! The fact that there were very few problems with mail-in votes was somehow evidence they were fake!)...
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hit man?
trump dumps covid bill, ~ 25th aMeND
https://www.mediamatters.org/mark-levin/foxs-mark-levin-nancy-pelosi-mentally-ill-she-has-shakes-her-face-old-age-malformed
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1120 an
https://www.alternet.org/2020/11/a-far-right-radio-host-promoted-an-authoritarian-plan-to-steal-the-election-and-donald-trump-jr-signed-off-on-it/
Thursday, former Vice President Joe Biden had won 253 electoral votes in the U.S. presidential race compared to 214 for President Donald Trump — and as the vote-counting continued in Pennsylvania, Nevada and other battleground states, Biden's chances of a victory looked better and better.
In response to this dismal situation for the president, far-right radio host Mark R. Levin responded with a tweet suggesting a plan to overturn the results. Mother Jones' Tim Murphy denounced the idea as an authoritarian idea for trying to steal the election if Biden is declared the winner, and Murphy noted that Donald Trump, Jr. has signed off on Levin's idea.
Levin, typing in all caps, tweeted:[wacko rant re electors]
Murphy explains: "With Pennsylvania on the verge of flipping into the Democratic column — the remaining uncounted ballots appear to heavily favor Biden — Levin was promoting a legal theory that drew some attention before the election. Because state governments have to formally certify results and then formally send electors to the Electoral College, the Republicans who control the state legislatures of Pennsylvania and several other swing states could, in this theory, simply send their own set of rival electors and force Congress to choose — potentially tipping the election to Trump."
Trump, Jr., Murphy notes, signed off on Levin's idea for an authoritarian power grab by forwarding his tweet.But the Mother Jones reporter also points out that Washington Post columnist Greg Sargent has explained why there are many reasons to be skeptical of such a strategy from a legal and constitutional standpoint.
"Changing the process by which Pennsylvania appoints its electors requires changing Pennsylvania law, which the Democratic governor (Tom Wolf) would veto," Murphy writes. "If Biden goes on to win enough of the remaining uncalled states, perhaps his sizable Electoral College and popular vote lead will dissuade Republicans from attempting to deploy such chicanery."
Murphy also points out that Republican Jake Corman, majority leader of the Pennsylvania Senate, "wants nothing to do with" that type of power grab.
twt:
For anyone wondering: spokesperson for Pennsylvania Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman reiterated just now that the Republican controlled state legislature will NOT move to appoint electors to override popular vote, despite concerns about PA electoral process.
Nonetheless, Murphy stresses, it is disturbing when a well-known radio host wants to brazenly defy the will of the voters and the president's son signs off on it.
"The thing about going into untrodden territory is that no one really knows what it's like; the only sure thing is that it's not where you want to be," Murphy warns. "Even President Trump hasn't gone this far yet. But his son's promotion of such a plan is an ominous development as the campaign seeks to claw its way back by taking away people's votes."
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===
https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/the-right-wing-plan-to-steal-the-election-is-right-in-front-of-our-noses/
no lnx
The right-wing plan to steal the election is right in front of our noses
Written by Amanda Marcotte / Salon September 17, 2020
There has been a ton of news about Bill Barr — official title, “Attorney General of the United States;” actual job, Donald Trump’s capo — crawling across cable news chyrons in recent days, so much so that it’s hard to keep track of it all. There’s that thing he said about quarantine restrictions being nearly as bad as slavery. And the thing where he whined about the Justice Department staffers that’s more interested in enforcing the law than protecting Trump’s political power. And where he compared such people to preschool children, for having the temerity to question his decisions.
All that is bad, but probably the worst news this week is a report from the New York Times that “Barr told federal prosecutors in a call last week that they should consider charging rioters and others who had committed violent crimes at protests in recent months with sedition.”
He also asked federal prosecutors “to explore whether they could bring criminal charges against Mayor Jenny Durkan of Seattle for allowing some residents to establish a police-free protest zone near the city’s downtown for weeks this summer.”
This is especially alarming in light of Barr’s assertion, in the same speech where he made offensive comments about his own staff and about slavery, that he believes he has “virtually unchecked discretion” in determining what cases to prosecute.
Barr was talking about cases stemming from the protests in various cities over the summer. Although the vast majority of those protests were peaceful, there were a few incidents of violence and looting, though absolutely no evidence of plots to overthrow the U.S. government (which is what “sedition” means). Barr’s eagerness to overreact, however, is another alarming sign that he is exploring ways to assist Trump’s public and obvious plans to do whatever he can to steal the presidential election.
Thursday morning, in the midst of one of his lengthy morning Twitter tantrums, Trump hinted yet again at his plans to use phony claims about “fraud” as cover to keep election officials from counting all the ballots after Election Day:
[twt pix]
It’s a muddled mess of a tweet, but basically, he’s using scare quotes to suggest that votes by mail, at least by Democrats, are illegitimate. He’s also, in his usual manner, accusing his opponents of doing what he’s clearly planning to do, which in this case is to keep the ballots from being accurately tallied.
This is where Barr’s dark talk of “sedition” comes in. Should the votes in swing states be close — and every indication from polling is they will be — Trump will likely try to declare victory on the night of the election. After that, there will be a massive battle, as happened under similar circumstances in 2000, over how and whether to count all those mail-in ballots. Much of that will be in the courts, but there will be a street component, as well, as pro-democracy protesters will hit the streets to demand a full vote count, and election officials could face efforts to physically stop them from counting votes.
It’s increasingly clear that putting down those anticipated protesters and stopping the vote count is a priority for Trump and his allies. So there’s increasing talk from prominent Trump allies of a possible “insurrection” by the left after Election Day, and the need to use maximum force to put it down.
Michael Caputo, a 2016 Trump campaign aide and bug-eyed right-wing conspiracy theorist who was given the job of assistant secretary for public affairs at Health and Human Services, recently made news for a truly wacky set of utterances during a recent Facebook Live event. Among other things, Caputo accused government scientists of, yep, “sedition” and accused the left of plotting an insurrection, recommending that right-wingers “buy ammunition, ladies and gentlemen, because it’s going to be hard to get.”
A wave of bad press compelled Caputo to take a leave of absence from his government job, citing vague medical concerns, but what he said directly echoes the rhetoric of Roger Stone, his longtime friend and fellow Trump confidant. Stone recently saw his sentence for felonies related to his role in the Russian conspiracy to undermine the 2016 election commuted by Trump, and has been at the forefront of trying to characterize efforts to count all the votes as an “insurrection” to be suppressed with violence.
During a segment on Infowars last week, Stone suggested that Trump should invoke the Insurrection Act or declare martial law and that early voting and mail-in ballots in Nevada “should be seized by federal marshals and taken from the state” to keep them from being counted. Stone claimed such ballots were fraudulent, but of course the real concern is that they’re legitimate — and that far too many of them will be cast for Joe Biden.
On Tuesday, Mark Levin — who is currently a radio TV host, but formerly worked with Barr at the Justice Department during the Reagan/Bush years — warned that the protests from the summer will “multiply by five or 10” and that Trump should declare them insurrections because they “need to be put down.”
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Levin was being vague about what he thinks might provoke such enormous protests, but it’s not hard to see what upcoming event might do such a thing: A close election that Trump will try to steal by suppressing vote-counting.
And let’s be clear that Barr himself is on board with this idea that mail-in ballots are inherently illegitimate and that fighting to keep them from being counted is therefore justified. Barr has repeatedly floated baseless claims that mail-in ballots are fraudulent or that foreign countries “could easily make counterfeit ballots.”
None of this, it cannot be stated strongly enough, is true. It’s a shameless pretext for what is likely an upcoming fight to get those ballots thrown out.
It’s tempting to see all this talk of “insurrection” and “sedition” from the right — including Trump’s own government officials — as nothing more than hyperbole from Republicans who are emotionally overwrought in the face of what looks to be a lost election. Unfortunately, as the scandal around slowdowns at the U.S. Postal Service and lawsuits over mail-in voting make clear, the Trump administration is doing more than talk. It’s actively pulling whatever levers it can to keep Democratic votes from being counted this November.
Once those ballots have been cast, the fight to make sure they’re counted is going to get rough — not just in the courts, but in the streets. Much could depend on the ability of the left to hit the streets, not just in protests to put pressure on election officials to finish the vote count, but possibly to physically protect officials who are counting votes from armed right-wingers whom Trump has whipped into a frenzy. All this chatter about “insurrection,” “riots” and “sedition” is an effort to preemptively characterize pro-democracy protesters as a threat, and to justify using violence to suppress them.
Remember, Trump was willing to use tear gas and baton assaults against peaceful protesters just to keep them from heckling him. There’s no telling how far he’ll go to keep those same peaceful protesters from messing with his efforts to steal an election.
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https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-host-mark-levin-pushes-fringe-climate-denial-unhinged-rant-biden-sanders-unity
:{:{}:
}:
MARK LEVIN (FOX NEWS HOST): Do you know what this is? It's akin to The Communist Manifesto. This is the Bernie Sanders-Biden manifesto. They put this out. Nobody is discussing it. No newsroom has actually read it. It's not discussed at the Democratic convention. And by the way, liberty is not discussed. Electricians aren’t discussed, plumbers aren’t discussed --it's just a big hate fest.But I want to go through this very briefly, because that’s all the time I have anyway, I want people to know what is in thisdocument. It's 110 pages long, how they’re going to destroy your country. They want to retrofit millions of American homes and buildings to prevent carbon dioxide emissions and use. What’s carbon dioxide? Well if you’re in third grade and you’re taking a science class, it’s what you exhale and then plants use it to create oxygen. That’s third grade stuff.
…
Retool assembly lines for zero emissions vehicles. Bye, Detroit. All 500,000 school buses in America transitioned to zero emissions vehicles within years. Massive expansion of public transportation. Massive regulation of fossil fuels leading to blackouts and brownouts you can see in California right now. In other words, they want to end natural gas, coal, and oil.
…
Climate. “National goal of achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions from all new buildings by 2030” -- by the way, do you know what greenhouse gas emissions are? You ever drive by the road and you see a greenhouse in the winter and flowers are growing and tomatoes are growing? It's called the atmosphere!-- “In an attempt to create a 100% clean building sector.” You can see how they’re going to demolish our economy, destroy our smokestack industries. “Commit to eliminating carbon pollution” -- carbon dioxide is not pollution. We don’t get oxygen but from giving carbon dioxide to plants-- ”from power plants by 2035, through new technologies and neutral standards for clean energy and energy efficiency.” They want to install 500 million solar panels, 60,000 made-in-America wind turbines. You’ll never get any sleep. “Commit that all jobs in the clean energy economy will be unionized. Pursue environmental and climate justice.” I have no idea what any of that means
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no lnx an 320
Here’s why Trump slammed Fox News for being too ‘politically correct’
Fox News
Written by Matthew Rozsa / Salon March 6, 2020
President Donald Trump blasted Fox News while appearing on the right-leaning network, telling its highest-rated host Sean Hannity that the cable channel invites “inappropriate” guests who criticize him in a desire to be “politically correct.”
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“They put people on I think are inappropriate and say very, very false things, and people don’t challenge them. I think they’re trying to be very politically correct or ‘fair and balanced,’ right, is the term,” Trump told Hannity during a phone interview.
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After Hannity agreed with Trump’s opinion, the president added: “I think they hurt themselves, if you want to know the truth.”
Earlier in the interview, Trump complained to Hannity that “the media is all on [the Democrats] side” with the exception of “yourself” and other Fox personalities, including Fox News host Mark Levin and Fox Business host Lou Dobbs. Trump also mentioned Rush Limbaugh, a radio host who the president incorrectly identified as working for the Fox networks.
Trump has a history of attacking Fox News after the network invites guests who are critical of the president or releases unfavorable poll numbers about him. During a rally in Colorado last month, Trump criticized Fox News and Fox Business Network host Neil Cavuto, saying “they had this woman on Neil Cavuto who doesn’t treat us good” and that Cavuto himself is “not too good.”
That comment referred to A. B. Stoddard, a RealClearPolitics associate editor who claimed that Trump performed poorly during the presidential debates in the 2016 cycle. Trump incorrectly claimed in a tweet that he “won every one of my debates,” even though respondents in post-debate polls picked Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton as the winner of those contests.
The president also attacked Fox News in November for releasing a poll, which found that nearly half of Americans wanted him impeached and removed from office.
“You’re reading the wrong polls. I have the real polls,” Trump told reporters outside the White House. “I have the real polls. The CNN polls are fake. The Fox polls have always been lousy. I tell them they ought to get themselves a real pollster. But the real polls — if you look at the polls that came out this morning — people don’t want anything to do with impeachment. It’s a phony scam. It’s a hoax.”
A spokesperson from Fox News pointed Salon to an earlier statement by the network saying “our polling unit has long been held in high regard for being a nonpartisan source of research.”
Trump criticized Fox personalities Andrew Napolitano, Shepard Smith (who left in October) and others one month earlier after Fox News released a poll showing an increase in support for his impeachment and removal from office.
“From the day I announced I was running for President, I have NEVER had a good @FoxNews Poll. Whoever their Pollster is, they suck. But @FoxNews is also much different than it used to be in the good old days,” Trump tweeted at the time.
The president then launched a series of personal attacks at Fox News personalities whose opinions he views as unfavorable, including Judge Andrew Napolitano.
“With people like Andrew Napolitano, who wanted to be a Supreme Court Justice & I turned him down (he’s been terrible ever since), Shep Smith, @donnabrazile (who gave Crooked Hillary the debate questions & got fired from @CNN), & others, @FoxNews doesn’t deliver for US anymore,” Trump added. “It is so different than it used to be. Oh well, I’m President!”
Fox News anchor Bret Baier,responding to a presidential attack in 2019 after the network released an unfavorable poll about Trump’s chances in the 2020 election, said that “we have a news side and an opinion side. The opinion folks express their opinions. We do polls. Our latest poll had the Democratic candidates head-to-head, several of them ahead of President Trump. And this poll tracks exactly what the Real Clear Politics average of polls — even a little the other way — and this poll matches what we are seeing out there.”
Fox News senior political analyst Brit Humeexpressed similar thoughts earlier that year when Trump attacked the network for hosting a town hall event with former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who at that time was running for president.
“Say this for Buttigieg. He’s willing to be questioned by Chris Wallace, something you’ve barely done since you’ve been president,” Hume wrote on Twitter.
He added, “Oh, and covering candidates of both parties is part of the job of a news channel.”
You can watch the full interview below via YouTube:
===
==
mma
The cycle of Fox News coverage and President Donald Trump’s id repeated itself this weekend, this time involving the network’s coverage of the now-infamous blowup between Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and NPR reporter Mary Louise Kelly.
Kelly interviewed Pompeo on Friday. She asked him about Ukraine and impeachment, and he responded that he was only on to talk about Iran. After the interview, Kelly reported that Pompeo challenged her to find Ukraine on a map of the world without country labels on it. She also contends that Pompeo used profanity throughout their exchange.
After Kelly reported that, Pompeo responded with an official statement on Saturday, calling her a liar and suggesting that she confused Ukraine with Bangladesh. As many pointed out, this is ridiculous: Kelly has a masters degree in European studies from Cambridge and would not have said that Ukraine is in southeast Asia.
But Fox News took Pompeo's insult credulously, writing it up and leading its website. Fox host Mark Levin tweeted a link to the story, suggesting that NPR should no longer exist. Trump immediately agreed.
==
===
https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/heres-how-trump-weaponizes-crackpot-ideas-to-maintain-a-firm-grip-on-his-maga-base
no lnx
Here’s how Trump weaponizes crackpot ideas to maintain a firm grip on his MAGA base
Written by Alex Henderson January 10, 2020
If President Donald Trump is reelected in November, it won’t be because the majority of Americans share his views, but because of his ability to fire up his MAGA base, whip them into a frenzy, address their grievances and get them to the polls in large numbers. Trump, journalist Michael Kruse explains in a Politico article headlined “Trump’s Art of the Seal,” knows and understands his audience — and one of the things that has kept that audience excited is his ability to take fringe ideas, get them discussed in mainstream venues and weaponize them.
Trump has inspired widespread discussion of crackpot conspiracy theories ranging from birtherism (the racist claim that President Barack Obama was really born in Kenya instead of the U.S.) to the CrowdStrike theory — a belief that it was Ukraine, not Russia, that interfered in the 2016 presidential election. It was Trump’s pursuit of the CrowdStrike theory, Kruse explains, that led to him being impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives.
During President Barack Obama’s first term, Kruse explains, Trump’s “proto-political operation was essentially a two-man team” consisting of veteran GOP operative Roger Stone and his protégé Sam Nunberg.
“One of Nunberg’s self-appointed tasks was to help Trump understand what the masses on the right really wanted, and one way he did that was by listening to MarkLevin’s increasingly popular radio show,” Kruse recalls. “The people who were tuning in most intently to Levin, Nunberg thought, were the people most likely to vote for Trump if he launched an actual bid.”
Nunberg, according to Kruse, helped Trump realize that the far-right Tea Party movement was as angry at the GOP establishment as it was at Democrats.
“The Tea Party, in the estimation of Levin and his listeners, didn’t start as a reaction to the liberal outrages of President Barack Obama — it started as a reaction to what they viewed as the inconsistently hardline conservative policies of President George W. Bush,” Kruse observes. “Amnesty for immigrants, for instance? An absolute no-go.”
As Trump’s movement grew, Kruse notes, it didn’t do so by appealing to conservative intellectuals.
“For the better part of the past half-century, Trump, 73, has extracted from an array of similar sources — from the New York Post’s dishy Page Six to the toxicity of Twitter to far-right websites and lowbrow TV — a knack for knowing what people want. Not all people, but many people.”
Poll after poll has demonstrated that Trump is unpopular with the majority of Americans. But among his hardcore MAGA base, he is still quite popular. And Kruse wraps up his Politico article by describing the stranglehold Trump maintains on the Republican Party in 2020.
“If Trump began his political ascent as a follower — cannily co-opting ideas that resonated with a certain segment of the electorate — in doing so, he clearly has proceeded to forge a following of his own,” Kruse explains. “He has become a leader of those who are willing to be led in this way, solidifying lockstep support from the agenda-setting base of his party as well as its kingpins and figureheads, who parrot him the way he once did Levin.”
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ref
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/01/10/donald-trump-art-of-the-steal-096841
POLITICO
no lnx many
Trump’s Art of the Steal
How Donald Trump rode to power by parroting other people’s fringe ideas, got himself impeached for it—and might prevail anyway.
By MICHAEL KRUSE
01/10/2020 05:09 AM EST
Michael Kruse is a senior staff writer for POLITICO.
Sometime soon, Donald Trump, the third president in the history of the United States to be impeached, is expected to face a trial in the Senate, charged with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. Traced back to its roots, this is a crisis entirely of his own creation: He came across a sketchy scrap of information, a debunked piece of Russian propaganda relating to Ukraine, and he saw it as something he could use, to help himself and to hurt an opponent. He latched onto it, pumped it up, and passed it along.
Anyone wondering how the president could make this kind of mistake has missed something important about Trump’s rise. For as long as he has been in politics—in fact, for longer—he has been a ruthlessly effective practitioner of the art of parroting others’ most provocative, salacious ideas. “There are a lot of people that think …” “That’s what I heard …” “Some people even say …” His gossipy M.O. was a staple of his campaign, propelling his historic victory, but it also has driven the scandal that has consumed his presidency—“I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine, they say CrowdStrike,” he said on the now well-known call last July with President Volodymyr Zelensky.
If what he was referencing sounded kind of like a dodgy talk radio rant, that’s not an accident. It’s a deliberate tactic, one that Trump was developing, and exploiting, from the moment he first seriously started to consider a run for the White House.
In the early to middle part of the previous decade, Trump’s proto-political operation was essentially a two-man team—there was Roger Stone, now a felon, and there was Stone’s protégé, Sam Nunberg. One of Nunberg’s self-appointed tasks was to help Trump understand what the masses on the right really wanted. And one way he did that was by listening to Mark Levin’s increasingly popular radio show. The people who were tuning in most intently to Levin, Nunberg thought, were the people most likely to vote for Trump if he launched an actual bid. “Donald Trump,” Nunberg told me, meaning his candidacy, meaning his victory, “would never have happened without Mark Levin.”
[Billionaire real estate developer Donald Trump, left, walks to the Federal Courthouse in Newark, N.J., with Roger Stone, the director of Trump's presidential exploratory committee Monday, Oct. 25, 1999, for the swearing-in of Trump's sister as a federal appeals court judge. In a prelude to his possible presidential bid, Trump quit the Republican Party Monday and joined New York's wing of the Reform Party setting the stage for a possible presidential nomination battle with Pat Buchanan.
Donald Trump, photographed in Oct. 1999, with Roger Stone, the director of his presidential exploratory committee, walking behind him. | AP Photo]
Nunberg’s frequent emails to Trump, sent via an assistant in Trump’s office and which have not been reported on before, were accounts of the many grievances that animated Levin and his listeners. Union members resented union leaders. Republican rank and file loathed Republican elites. The Tea Party, in the estimation of Levin and his listeners, didn’t start as a reaction to the liberal outrages of President Barack Obama—it started as a reaction to what they viewed as the inconsistently hard-line conservative policies of President George W. Bush. Amnesty for immigrants, for instance? An absolute no-go. Trump, Nunberg stressed when we talked, didn’t want to be told what to say, but Nunberg nonetheless made his pitch for him as an insurgent outsider: “This is all marketing and you’re a great product … in a new type of market,” he said he told Trump. “Help me help you sell gold to these people that normally buy gold.”
Trump started listening to the show.
“He would call me up sometimes,” Nunberg recalled. “‘Oh, did you just hear what Levin said?’”
For the better part of the past half-century, Trump, 73, has extracted from an array of similar sources—from the New York Post’s dishy Page Six to the toxicity of Twitter to far-right websites and lowbrow TV—a knack for knowing what people want. Not all people but many people. And not what they say they want, but what they really want. Ostentatious and aspirational glitz. Plain talk to the point of crude talk. Conflict.
Employees, executives, aides and others who’ve known Trump well say he’s not a book-reader so much as a room-reader, “sucking in information that he finds valuable,” grabbing “nuggets” that he thinks can help him get what he covets, which is some slurry of wealth, attention, respect and power. “A creature of feel,”the late strategist Pat Caddell described him to me in the summer of 2018, “a visceral stimulus creature”—who could repackage what he took in and sell it back to the hoi polloi.
In 2010, for example, he recognized a lightning-rod issue torquing emotions and jumped right in, gleaning buzz for himself with his offer to purchase the site of the so-called “Ground Zero Mosque”—which alerted him to the potential potency of anti-Obama birtherism, which paved the way for his anger-girded, fear-mongering presidential candidacy. Trump is in this way less a thinker and more a megaphone, an amplifier of the ideas of others, the value of those ideas in his mind based not on veracity so much as utility. Which is another way of saying he’s not so much a leader as he is a follower. Perhaps the ultimate follower. Trump is the Follower of the Free World.
[Top: People protest a mosque construction near Ground Zero during a New York City Landmarks Commission vote in 2010. Bottom: A copy of President Barack Obama's long form birth certificate sits on a reporter's lap in the White House Briefing Room on April 27, 2011, after the administration released the document following extended criticism by those who did not believe he was born in the United States.
Top: People protest a mosque construction near Ground Zero during a New York City Landmarks Commission vote in 2010. Bottom: A copy of President Barack Obama's long form birth certificate sits on a reporter's lap in the White House Briefing Room on April 27, 2011, after the administration released the document following extended criticism by those who did not believe he was born in the United States. | Getty Images]
“Donald was never a CEO. He was a brand manager—you know, how do I appeal to the masses?” former Trump publicist Alan Marcus told me recently. “It’s like Elmer Gantry. It’s the carnival barker. It’s what every pitchman has always done. Tell the people what they want to hear.”
“Taking the information he wants or needs,” former Trump casino exec Jack O’Donnell said.
“Whether it’s true or not,” former Trump Organization exec Barbara Res said.
Taking it in. Sending it out. Over and over. Again and again.
This, regardless of whatever else it is or means, is a remarkable and undeniable talent: hoovering others’ ideas, making them his, and in doing so growing a following uniquely his own that far exceeds the size of the even considerable original audience. AMP It’s what got him elected. In some ways, too, it’s what got him impeached.
“There’s no question,” presidential historian Doug Brinkley told me last week. “He just trolls around and looks for weird stories that grab his attention, and he figures, ‘I know the American psyche, and this’ll grab their attention,’ and he throws it out there.”
But effective as cherrypicking and amplifying the most emotionally and politically useful tidbits has been for Trump throughout his life, it has proved an uneasy fit when practiced from the inside of an office that is supposed to represent the accumulated knowledge and official position of the entire U.S. government. In some sense, the entire impeachment process is a collision between Trump’s magnification of random, unverified rumors and an official regime of fact and process. The outcome will determine more than whether Trump is removed from office. It may well establish a new standard for what our government defines as true.
Speedy with job-site arithmetic but dismissive of academics, whom he considered weak and effete, Fred Trump Sr. of Queens, N.Y., bestowed upon his middle son and eventual heir not just extravagant riches but an anti-elitist, expertise-averse worldview. At New York Military Academy, at Fordham University in the Bronx and then the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, classmates have said, a young Donald Trump was a “disinterested,” skyscraper-doodling student, “loath to really study much,” game to “bluff his way through.”
But the fact that he wasn’t a scholar didn’t mean that he was stupid, according to people who worked with or watched him closely over the decades of his professional existence.
[Donald Trump (L), owner of the New Jersey Generals of the U.S. Football League, said his league’s $1.32 billion antitrust suit against the National Football League will crack “one of the great monopolies in the is country.” At right is his attorney Roy Cohn.
Donald Trump and his attorney Roy Cohn in October, 1984. | Getty Images]
“If he’s willing to listen, he’s a quick learner,” Res said.
“A quick study,” biographer Gwenda Blair concurred.
“Donald just absorbs, absorbs, absorbs,” former Trump Organization executive Louise Sunshine said. “He can extract so much information from his awareness of his surroundings and of the world around him.”
Starting in the 1970s, he learned, of course, how to fight dirty and win from his antagonistic attorney and mentor, Roy Cohn.
In the ’80s, he learned from Stone, and from watching George Steinbrenner, Ed Koch and Ronald Reagan, too. Steinbrenner, the bombastic owner of the New York Yankees, led as a loner. His secretary frequently could be heard saying, “Mr. Steinbrenner, Trump on line 2”. Koch won three terms as the mayor of New York in part “by playing the kibitzer,” wrote Martin Shefter, “the brash fellow who has an opinion on everything.” The formula for success, Koch thought, was relatively uncomplicated: Get attention to get votes. “And you can only do that,” he once said, “by being bigger than life. It’s theatrics.” Staging news conference after news conference, Koch packed the way he talked with superlatives, “best this” and “best that.” Reporters joked about having to join gyms just to keep up with him. But he seldom left them wanting for material. He called foes “wackos” and “kooks.” He called the city council “a gaggle of clowns.”
Reagan, meanwhile, won the Oval Office in one way not dissimilar to Koch’s path to Gracie Mansion—by winning over blue-collar, disaffected Democrats, who sought “safety” in the face of the changing, increasingly diverse society surrounding them. Reagan spent the decade blurring the lines between politics and entertainment, wondering at times how anybody could be an effective president without having been an actor first.
For Trump, the “visceral stimulus creature,” Steinbrenner, Koch and Reagan provided daily tutorials of sorts. And while his political affiliations were elastic and his overall ideology embryonic, Trump demonstrated early his acumen for tearing pages from proven playbooks and giving them his own signature twists—with blaring full-page newspaper ads in the late ’80s, criticizing American foreign policy and calling for the death penalty for (the innocent) Central Park Five. AA
[Top: At the June 1978 launching ceremony of the new New York Hyatt Hotel/Convention facility that will be built on the site of the former Commodore Hotel are, from left: Donald Trump, Mayor Ed Koch, Gov. Hugh Carey and Robert T. Dormer, executive vice president of the Urban Development Corp. Bottom right: President Reagan shakes hands with Donald Trump at a White House reception for members of the Friends of Art and Preservation in Embassies Foundation. Bottom left: New York Yankees manager Billy Martin, standing, meets developer Donald Trump at Municipal Stadium in West Palm Beach in March 1988. Seated with Trump are his son Donald, 10, with a ball given to him by Martin, and Yankees owner George Steinbrenner.
Top: At the June 1978 launching ceremony of the new New York Hyatt Hotel/Convention facility that will be built on the site of the former Commodore Hotel are, from left: Donald Trump, Mayor Ed Koch, Gov. Hugh Carey and Robert T. Dormer, executive vice president of the Urban Development Corp. Bottom right: President Reagan shakes hands with Donald Trump at a White House reception for members of the Friends of Art and Preservation in Embassies Foundation. Bottom left: New York Yankees manager Billy Martin, standing, meets developer Donald Trump at Municipal Stadium in West Palm Beach in March 1988. Seated with Trump are his son Donald, 10, with a ball given to him by Martin, and Yankees owner George Steinbrenner. | AP/Ronald Reagan Presidential Library/Getty]
And in the ’90s, Trump learned from watching Ross Perot run for president (and lose) and Jesse Ventura run for governor of Minnesota (and win). “The nutty billionaire and the wrestler,” he called them, according to Stone. He watched Newt Gingrich weaponize words in the political arena in a new and virulent manner, labeling Democrats “traitors” and “sick,” urging his fellow Republicans to do the same. He watched the rise ofpartisanship on cable TV, MSNBC on the left, Fox News on the right, and the spiking clamor for conservative talk radio—from 240 all-talk stations in the country in 1987 to 900 in ’92 to 1,130 in ’95. Rush Limbaugh, the trailblazer, the precursor to somebody like Mark Levin, railed away about “feminazis” and “commie-libs”—and his listeners loved it. “He’s saying what I think,” they thought.
And Trump in 2011 seized on what people, some people—misguided, bigoted or both—thought about the country’s first black president. The birtherism campaign he began to wage was the distillation of his scattershot but resolute education as the kibitzer, the gossip hound, the insurgent outsider, the nascent politician, the feeder off the fever swamps. The follower.
“I’m starting to wonder myself whether or not he was born in this country,” he said on Fox News in March of that year.
“He doesn’t have a birth certificate,” he told talkerLaura Ingraham two days later.“Somebody told me …”
“A lot of people do not thinkit was an authentic certificate,” he said on CNN in 2012, long after the White House released Obama’s “long form” birth certificate.
[Mark Levin speaks, with President Donald Trump behind him, during a ceremony to present the Presidential Medal of Freedom to former Attorney General Edwin Meese, in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2019, in Washington.
Mark Levin speaks during a ceremony at the White House in 2019. | Alex Brandon/AP Photo]
“Was it a birth certificate?You tell me,” he told ABC News in 2013. “Some people saythat was not his birth certificate.”
That same year, Nunberg arranged for Trump to make his Levin show debut, preparing a memo “to familiarize Mr. Trump with Mark Levin,” he wrote—deploying tried-and-true ways to pique Trump’s interest. Nunberg emphasized Levin’s ratings history (“In the first 18 months on the air, the program jumped to #1 in the time slot”), the company he kept (considersSean Hannity “his best friend”),his reach (books Liberty and Tyranny and Ameritopia: The Unmaking of America sold more than a million copies, Nunberg noted), and his compensation (“a reported annual salary of $12.5 million a year”). Nunberg mentioned, too, that what he said on the air often was disseminated on a variety of websites like TheRightScoop.com. People, in other words, “some people,” “many people,” “a lot of people,” were listening to what Levin was saying.
Armed with this advance work, the memo as well as the emails, Trump fit in well with Levin. In addition toshilling for the upcoming season of “The Celebrity Apprentice”—“Trace Adkins, La Toya Jackson, Dennis Rodman”—Trump delivered to Levin’s listeners what they wanted—which essentially was … Levin’s ideas, studiously collected by Nunberg, consumed by Trump and regurgitated back to the host.
“If the Republicans are going to win,” Trump said, “they’re going to have tobreak away from the Karl Roves of the world and, frankly, get more involved—you know, the Tea Party, these people are great. I’ve done some speeches in front of theTea Party.They are great Americans, they love this country, they work so hard, and they have been so mistreated by … the liberal media. … They truly are not treated with proper respect.”
And he landed especially hard on immigration and any notions of amnesty for undocumented immigrants.
“I watched last night,” he continued, referring to Obama’s State of the Union that year, “as Senator McCain and everybody were jumping up and down, you know, applauding—I never saw him move so fast, you know, nice guy, but he jumped up—and was applauding as soon as the immigration became a part of the discussion, a part of the speech.”
“Immigration,” Trump said, “will be the next thing, based on what I’m watching.”
Trump and Levin wrapped up by exchanging compliments.
“I’m extremely impressed with what you’re doing,” Levin said.
“You just have a great show,” Trump said. “I’m always listening.”
“Donald Trump,” Levin told his listeners after Trump signed off.“See that, folks? Very solid. Very conservative. To the right of the Republican establishment. Strong supporter of the Tea Party.I’m telling you. I’ve been watching this. I’ve been listening. People have been sending me his tweets.”
There was a reason for that. “He’s putting stuff out there,” Nunberg told me of Trump’s tweets at the time, some of which Nunberg was suggesting, “that sounds like Mark Levin.” FEEDBACK LITERALLY
In the few months before his interview with Levin:
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
Obama weak on immigration. All words, no action. He's been Prez 4 years.
197
6:12 PM - Oct 16, 2012
Twitter Ads info and privacy
987 people are talking about this
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
Obama is laughing at Karl Rove & all the losers who spent hundreds of millions of dollars and didn’t win one race, including the big one!
63
1:05 PM - Dec 3, 2012
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349 people are talking about this
And in the few months after:
Donald J. Trump
?
@realDonaldTrump
Whether you like it or not, Bush also gave us Obama!
54
8:12 AM - Jun 27, 2013
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190 people are talking about this
This ear-to-the-proverbial-ground political ramp-up wasn’t limited to Levin and talk radio. It was around this time as well that Trump began to give more and more talks on the pre-presidential hustings, GOP chicken dinners in places like Iowa and New Hampshire.
He talked to Pat Caddell about what he was picking up on the trail.“He would put forth his position or his feelings, and he would judge the level of the response to it, and that helped him organize, I suppose to whatever degree it was organized, his views about issues,” Caddell told me in 2018. “Things he said that didn’t go over disappeared. Things that did stayed.”
Twitter, too, increasingly served a similar purpose.
“He glommed onto it like it was an oxygen source,” Caddell explained. “And he would tweet what he believed, and people would retweet or answer or whatever, and it was kind of his ongoing focus group.”
“He loved it,” Nunberg said. “He doesn’t trust the political people who do the focus groups.” Instead: “What are we getting the most retweets on?”
In 2014 and ’15—well before Trump came down the escalator and announced his intention to run—Nunberg sent Trump nearly daily updates of snippets of news and possible topics and wordings for tweets. At the tops of the documents he showed the number of Trump’s Twitter followers ticking up (a snapshot from December of 2014: 2,751,488 … 2,753,548 … 2,757,190 …) and the number of days left until the GOP primary debate at the Reagan library and the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primaries ticking down.
A month into the presidential campaign, after the Vietnam-avoiding Trump insulted McCain by saying he was “not a war hero” and that he liked people “who weren’t captured,” he refused to apologize. That, Nunberg said, partly was because of what he had internalized by listening to Levin. Nunberg told Trump it was going to help him. (It certainly didn’t hurt him.) “He said, ‘Why?’” Nunberg said. “And I said, ‘Because our people despise John McCain. They despise the fact that McCain hides behind his military record to shit on Republicans and you can’t criticize him on anything because of his military record. I said, ‘John McCain—he is hated almost as much as Barack Obama on talk radio.’ … I said, ‘He might as well be Barack Obama on talk radio.’”
Talk radio led the way. Trump followed.
Theoretically, Trump could have changed. As successful as this pattern of behavior had been in the years preceding his run and during the campaign itself—he was, after all, elected president—Trump could have adjusted once he took office, having at his disposal, suddenly and quite unexpectedly, the world’s preeminent intelligence-gathering apparatus. But no—sticking to “that gossip kind of mentality,” said O’Donnell, the casino exec, Trump has continued to mine Twitter, plucking what he wants, “very comfortable with half thoughts,” “always looking for tidbits of information that he can use to his advantage.”
“He sees the ones that are the most popular,” former Fox News anchor Eric Bolling, identified by Time as someone who speaks regularly to Trump, told the magazine in June of 2018, “and getting the most [of the] zeitgeist, most attention on social media.”
And then? The last and most important piece of this by now almost rote process?
“He repeats it,” Bolling said.
[BEDMINSTER TOWNSHIP, NJ - NOVEMBER 20: (L to R) President-elect Donald Trump and former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani shake hands following their meeting at Trump International Golf Club, November 20, 2016 in Bedminster Township, New Jersey. Trump and his transition team are in the process of filling cabinet and other high level positions for the new administration.
President-elect Donald Trump and former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani shake hands at Trump International Golf Club in New Jersey, days after the election in Nov. 2016. Giuliani would go on to become President Trump's personal attorney. | Drew Angerer/Getty Images]
And for as long as he’s occupied the Oval Office, Trump’s been thinking about Ukraine.“Ukraine,” Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said a couple months back, “has always been problematic, from Day One. He’s heard a lotabout Ukraine from a lot of people.” He’s heard about it, according to reports, from RudyGiuliani, from his favored right-wing media outlets, from Vladimir Putin.
He started spreading it almost immediately.AMP
“I heard it’s owned by a very rich Ukrainian,” he said of CrowdStrike, incorrectly, in an interview with The Associated Press in April of 2017. “That’s what I heard.”
Officials have insisted to the president the CrowdStrike conspiracy is just that. He has not heeded their counsel.
It’s what led to the call with Ukraine’s Zelensky that led to the series of events that led to his impeachment. “The server,” Trump said, “they say Ukraine has it.”
“It’s combustible because Trump’s only looking for news stories and information that suits his persona, that build his persona up,”Brinkley, the presidential historian, told me last week. “And by doing that he is following the trolls down an ugly path.”
There are those who predict Trump’s tendencies will ultimately undo him. Thomas Bossert, who was Trump’s first homeland security adviser, logged a warning on a Sunday morning last fall. “If he continues to focus on that white whale,” Bossert said of Trump’s questionable Ukraine theory, “it’s going to bring him down.”
But it is hard to see that happening now. It’s virtually assured that Trump’s impeachment will end not with his ouster but with an acquittal by the Republican-controlled Senate. This purported ordeal could even be a boost. In fundraising, and in some polling, it already has been. And come November, he absolutely could win again. And if that happens,Trump in some sense would possess more power than any president ever—subjected to the gravest constitutional check, then given by voters another four years.
If Trump began his political ascent as a follower, cannily co-opting ideas that resonated with a certain segment of the electorate, in doing so he clearly has proceeded to forge a following of his own. He has become a leader of those who are willing to be led in this way—solidifying lockstep support from the agenda-setting base of his party as well as its kingpins and figureheads, who parrot him the way he once did Levin. The result: a crescendoing feedback loop, in which followers are leaders and leaders are followers, perpetuating ideas based on what works rather than what’s real.
“One of the sacred principles in U.S. history has been that presidents are supposed to tell the public the truth,” Brinkley said. “So this is a new kind of Republican that refuses to ever admit culpability or a mistake and is willing to destroy not just institutions but fact-based thinking, empirical thinking.” Trump? “He doesn’t care whether it’s true or not true, whether it destroys somebody or not—there’s no morality into it. It’s just a strange, weird bit of information—‘and it helps me, and I’m going to propagate it.’”
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https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/heres-how-trump-weaponizes-crackpot-ideas-to-maintain-a-firm-grip-on-his-maga-base
no lnx
Here’s how Trump weaponizes crackpot ideas to maintain a firm grip on his MAGA base
Written by Alex Henderson January 10, 2020
If President Donald Trump is reelected in November, it won’t be because the majority of Americans share his views, but because of his ability to fire up his MAGA base, whip them into a frenzy, address their grievances and get them to the polls in large numbers. Trump, journalist Michael Kruse explains in a Politico article headlined “Trump’s Art of the Seal,” knows and understands his audience — and one of the things that has kept that audience excited is his ability to take fringe ideas, get them discussed in mainstream venues and weaponize them.
Trump has inspired widespread discussion of crackpot conspiracy theories ranging from birtherism (the racist claim that President Barack Obama was really born in Kenya instead of the U.S.) to the CrowdStrike theory — a belief that it was Ukraine, not Russia, that interfered in the 2016 presidential election. It was Trump’s pursuit of the CrowdStrike theory, Kruse explains, that led to him being impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives.
During President Barack Obama’s first term, Kruse explains, Trump’s “proto-political operation was essentially a two-man team” consisting of veteran GOP operativeRoger Stone and his protégé Sam Nunberg.
“One of Nunberg’s self-appointed tasks was to help Trump understand what the masses on the right really wanted, and one way he did that was by listening to MarkLevin’s increasingly popular radio show,” Kruse recalls. “The people who were tuning in most intently to Levin, Nunberg thought, were the people most likely to vote for Trump if he launched an actual bid.”
Nunberg, according to Kruse, helped Trump realize that the far-right Tea Party movement was as angry at the GOP establishment as it was at Democrats.
“The Tea Party, in the estimation of Levin and his listeners, didn’t start as a reaction to the liberal outrages of President Barack Obama — it started as a reaction to what they viewed as the inconsistently hardline conservative policies of President George W. Bush,” Kruse observes. “Amnesty for immigrants, for instance? An absolute no-go.”
As Trump’s movement grew, Kruse notes, it didn’t do so by appealing to conservative intellectuals.
“For the better part of the past half-century, Trump, 73, has extracted from an array of similar sources — from the New York Post’s dishy Page Six to the toxicity of Twitter to far-right websites and lowbrow TV — a knack for knowing what people want. Not all people, but many people.”
Poll after poll has demonstrated that Trump is unpopular with the majority of Americans. But among his hardcore MAGA base, he is still quite popular. And Kruse wraps up his Politico article by describing the stranglehold Trump maintains on the Republican Party in 2020.
“If Trump began his political ascent as a follower — cannily co-opting ideas that resonated with a certain segment of the electorate — in doing so, he clearly has proceeded to forge a following of his own,” Kruse explains. “He has become a leader of those who are willing to be led in this way, solidifying lockstep support from the agenda-setting base of his party as well as its kingpins and figureheads, who parrot him the way he once did Levin.”
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July 18, 2019 11:22 PM EDT}:
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rapurous reception by the rr OC faithful, host brn nose
june 8, 2019
unfreedom of the press: defined as any press that opposes djt is propaganda
tv and radio host mark levin talked about his book, unfreedom of the press, in which he argued that the press has lowered its standards in providing objective and trustworthy journalism.
john d. heubusch
applause] >> good evening, everyone. for toes who have not had a chance to meet i have the honor of being at the executive director of the ronald reagan presidential foundation, as always hereat the -- [applause] >> if you would in honor our our men and women in uniform who defend our freedom around the world, please join me for the pledge of allegiance. >>i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, and to the republic nor its stands, one nation, under god, indivisible, with accomplish judd
-- with liberty and just for all. thank you, please be seated. >> before we get started, there's just a few people in the audience i want to make sure i recognize tonight and i will start with mark's wife, julie, and his son, chase. julie and mark? [applause] >> this is special. mark's mother-in-laws sylvia strauss. silver ra. [applause] . >> and it would not be an event at the reagan lie if i didn't recognize elton and his wife, janice. >> first, before the great one takes the stage, i want him to know how grateful all of us are that he once again has taken three days of off this incredibly busy life to leave the bunker and travel all the way to california and back. [applause] by visiting us, the us i mean not only this unruly crowd that is in this packed house before me but also the hundreds of the denali fans live watching this next door. welcome to all of you. [applause]
>> now, mark has been here quietly, a time or two with his family over the years. but this is his sixth official visit to the reagan library. a tradition he so generously started way back in 2010 when he was here with his number one "new york times" best selling book, liberty and tyranny.did mention that his newest book, unfreedom of the appreciation the one each of you are holding this week's number one "new york times" best seller. [cheers and applause]
>> it has been one of the greatest honors of my life to count this man as a friend. i genuinely mean that. i bet that each one of you feels the same kind of kinship with mark as well. listening to him on the radio each day or watching him on television or getting the chance to shake his hand, it's a big deal. and comforting to know his voice and intellect reaches millions of people each day. gratifying to know his point of view, our point of view, is so eloquently expressed amidst all of the noise and chatter we're treated to from talking heads and the many who pretend to have our nation's best interests in mind. [applause] mark has achieved so much since he was with us two years ago. levin tv has grown by leaps and bounds. on top of that he now dominates the tv ratings on texas news with his show, life, liberty and levin. [cheers and applause]
>> radio show on the air for 17 years, now tracks over 7 million listeners every day. [cheers and applause] he is no won we are we all took such great pride when he was recently inducted into the national radio hall of fame a few months ago. [cheers and applause] >> so, some -- since we were last teague with him. just like you and me he is human, too. he has faced some sadness and some challenges, too, this past year. he and julie, worst mark's dad, jack, and mom, norm yaa in a few months there is a modest bench in this odder -- odder toum that bears their names. . BATHOS
>> it overlookes the beautiful green valley below that faces the pacific. the same view shared by president reagan's own gravesite. he's taken on a lot of work. it's super human effort to produce and perform as much as he does and as well as he does every day and he does it for us. his levinnites, for his country. that he loves so much. [applause] mark, i think it's no secret we here in california have been busy, too. while you were writing you best-selling books and producing brand new shows, we were busy in the great state of california, the same state that twice made ronald reagan its governor and its 40th president, becoming number one in so many things as well. since you were last with us, mark, just think of what we have achieved while you have been gone. in that timecalifornia has raised its state income tax to the highest in the anyway we're number one. [booing]
>> here in l.a. , our state sales tax and local sales taxcombined are the highest in the country. [booing] >> sanctuary citiesacross the great land have nothing on us. [booing] >> we have a distinction of being a sanctuary state. [booing] >> no wonder, then, that we harbor more illegal aliens -- i'm sorry -- undocumented immigrants -- than any other state in america. [booing] >> since you last visited, we have succeeded inattracting the largest homeless population of any state in the nation. we have thehighest gas prices in the nation and not to be outdone we own the largest debt of any state in the nation. finally we hold the record of filing more lawsuits, 52, to be exact, against the trump administration than any other state. [booing]
>> that's right. i said it, mark. [cheers and applause] >> we have been busy, too. ladies and gentlemen, please join me in giving a warm welcome to mr. mark levin. [cheers and applause] [cheers and applause] >> let's go to texas. mark, how are you holding up? your like -- you and sean hannity three hours or radio arranges hour of tv and now an hour on fox each sunday. the busiest you have ever been.
>> let me say this, this thome, the reagan library. served in the reagan administration. this is home to me three days is not enough. [applause] >> i love all of you. all of you great patriots out here in california. fighting the state, fight the local, fight the bat for the federal government. one after another said don't forget we're here. will never forget you're here. [cheers and applause] >> i remember when this was a vibrant state. i remember when ronald reagan was governor. i remember when pete wilson was governor, the great days days days of the golden state and now you can see what blue one party rule does, takes the most magnificent state in the country and puts its number one where it ought to be number 50 and number 50 where it tooth be number one. it's disgrace what the left has down to this country and they're trying to do it to the state to the whole country. when you look at the people who are running right now, i'm speaking for myself, not the library here. when you look at the people running on the democrat side, they're insane. absolutely insane. [cheers and applause]
>> to answer your question, whatever time i'm putting in isn't enough. so we'll do whatever we have to do. the way i look at it the men and women in uniform in hell holes royal the worn to protect this country i'm pleased to have a microphone and a camera in my face every day and i will use tom damn microphone and camera to advance the cause of liberty. [cheers and applause] this is easy to what 18, 19 and 20-year-olds are doing in afghanistan and syria, all over the country. this is easy compared to what the border patrol is doing and i.c.e. is doing right now. it's easy compared to our law enforcement, what they're doing. it's compared to what the heroes are doing in this country. so, they're the ones who deserve our gratitudes. [applause]
>> mark there is something about this book, it flew off the shelf to be number one very fast and i know liberty and tyranny was number one, took but seems to be something special about this book at this time. are you able to complaint. >> i am. the press is out of control. the press is unminding freedom of the press. i make a distinction between the modern mass media and the free press. cnn is not free presS. msnbc is not a free press. the "new york times" is not free press. the "washington post" is not a free press. a free press is a press that is not pushing the ideological agenda,n't the pack party of one part ore another foot. certain push can socialing a timism, when you turn on the tv today most channels are brow beating you with the propaganda, with if the left wing agenda. hello there the left wing agents and so forth. that's not freedom of the press. freedom of the press is actually occurring outside those types. it's on the internet. it's with web sites, the bloggers, it's with news people all over the world.
the difference between the mod dealership media today and the patriot media that helped found this country is the patriot media, the men with the printing presses, with the pamphlets, 30 some newspapers. that was it. they were trying to fundamentally transform government. ... that's diametrically opposed what the press is supposed to be. when was the last time there was a leak to the new york times that was helpful to the president of the united states? it never happens. when was the last time there was an exposc in washington post that was negative on nancy pelosi? it never happens. they beat this president, they beat this president, and the people who support him every day. they did it before he was elected, they did it during the election, they've done it since the election, they are doing it today. that's not a free press, that's propaganda, that's what that is [applause] and to answer your question, what this book does, it's not a service level book, i look at the history of the press, look at the constitution and i really dug into the issue of the press, where does it come from, why is it important, i look at that. then i look at the evidence, it's overwhelming of what goes on in our newsrooms today. there is no diversity in our newsrooms.
it's all one way. then i looked at how the american people think of the press. 80% of americans trusted, 80% of democrats do. why do you think? then i look at social activism like chuck todd announcing on meet the press, we are not going to do climate changeanymore, i said who the hell is this guy? is he smart? no. does he have a particular background on the subject? no. is he a hack? yes. okay. there are physicists, phd's, the people, climatology, meteorology, thousands of them that have written extensively about this so now they are banned from going on meet the press because we are climate change deniers. is anybody here denied this climate change? what we denies that there is anything we can do about it. there's a sun up there. [applause] so i think people are looking for answers and people are looking for arguments. and what is exciting about this book to me, and your reaction to it, what i'm trying to generate here, remember i was part of the reagan revolution, the tea party revolution, the article 5 convention of states revolution b& [applause] and what we are trying to do now is defend the constitution and those who want to remove duly elected president of the united states.
what this book does is explain who they are. because they are political, they are band for ever going to get our country back, if we are ever going to get our freedom of the press back we have to deal with these people. that's what this book is about. [applause] >> i was thinking when i read your book that if president trump had been given the opportunity to give it its title he would call it "fake news". [laughter] >> i wish i had thought of that. [laughter]
>> i was listening to your show a few months ago and it became apparent, i think you had an opportunity may be quietly and maybe more than once, i don't know, to sit with our president to talk with our president. i'm not asking you to betray any conversations but having met with him on spoken with him, should we have all the confidence in him that you think we should? >> i don't meet with him that often. there is an occasional conversation. i will tell you, this is a very smart man, enormously charismatic man. he knows what's going on. he knows where he wants to take the country. he's not anything like he's portrayed in the media. he's very deep. when you look at him compared to binders, it's like a jump. [laughter] i would tell you this, and republican primary band in general election i supported the president, trump. and i'm glad i did. [applause] because a lot of his positions bb [applause] a lot of his positions are so solid and i don't know that any of those other republicans on the stage as i think back that could've withstood what he's withstanding right now.
i think we are extremely, extremely fortunate that he is there. he stands between us and them. and he and his family bb [applause] [cheering] and he and his family are taking more crap than any president or family should have to take. it is outrageous what the left gets away with. what pelosi and her husband get away with. what these chairman of these committees get away with. so i have told my family, i will do whatever i have to do, whether going on fox, the radio, read about, to defend this republic and this constitution against the mob that is trying to forcibly remove a duly elected president of the united states. [applause]
>> on the mob, good point, bill barr, our new attorney general bb [applause] do you think, mark, as you were chief of staff when he was attorney general, do you think the attorney general is going to be successful in getting to the bottom of all that went on behind-the-scenes and all the intelligence agencies and the fbi? do you think we will find the truth of what actually happened?
>> i cannot be more proud of bill barr. [applause] he didn't have to take this job. he'd been attorney general before, and enormously successful general counsel and ceo. he could've gone off to the villages like robert mueller. [laughter] but he didn't. he is coolheaded, he's cool as a cucumber this guy. he knows what he's doing, they will hold him in contempt, is this a joke? i hold them in contempt by the way. and i don't need a rope to hold them in contempt, i just told them and contempt. he is a man of the law. he comes out of the bush administration, he doesn't have access to grand. he sees we have a robie house representative. he sees that we have rogue committee chairman.
that they have one objective, which is trying to destroy this presidentand his presidents. he had six committees. using government pay for staff, using tax dollars, that have turned the house of representatives into an opposition research organization appendage to the dmc, that's why they want is taxes and bank records and finance. i've never seen anything like this in my life. he challenges them.he says i'm not going to give it to you i will go to court. he's going to sue them and go to court and they say that's an obstruction of justice. [laughter] this is like the dumbest house of representatives. [laughter] ever. [cheering] [laughter] [cheering] he listened to jerry nadler. or maybe not. [shouting] you listen to this guy, chairman of the committee, he goes on, he won't come on my shows, goes on msnbc, cnn, maybe russia tv fall i know, he goes on and on. the president has obstructed justice. wait a minute. he's a congress and the runs of committee, the committee crimes? was there a trial i missed? was there a sentencing i missed?
just because a prosecutor writes a report doesn't mean the president has committed anything. then he waves around the constitution, i go, he just violated like the fourth amendment, the fifth amendment, sixth amendment, 14th amend, and you are waving around the constitution of the united states. saying the president of the united states doesn't honor it. it's almost like a freak show. then you have nancy pelosi who says i don't want impeachment. she wants him in prison. [laughter] then you have one of them,they bring fried chicken to the microphone. he wants to arrest the attorney general. handcuff him to the chair. and taken to the cafeteria, they call this their prison in the house of representatives. i'm thinking to myself, what the hell has happened to the democratic party over here? seriously. the kooks are running the democrat party.what the hell was your question? [laughter] he doesn't remember either. >> let me see where this is going. do you think they will drive this car right off the cliff and actually try to impeach president trump?
>>i think they want to drive his ratings down to about 37 percent to 35 percent at which time they will pull the trigger. if they can't get him down that far, i think they will just keep pounding him. keep going on tv. with the democratic party press. they keep trying to destroy him so he will have a difficult time and reelection. i think the media and the democratic party unwillingly and willingly are working hand in glove. they know they can do and say anything and brian stelter and don lemmon and chris cuomo are going to repeat. i think they are trying to drive down his ratings if they can get them down in the mid-30s i think they will make a move on him. here's the problem, they are looking at polls right now and it's too early to look at polls but they look at polls and they see the president behind initiative, wisconsin, some of these other states. pelosi is sitting there thinking, i don't know if i want to mess around right now. maybe we can win these states. what they don't want to awaken is you.
they don't want to awaken the millions of americans who are either not involved or annoyed but would become very much more active and she knows that and she's concerned about that. that's why you hear some commentators say, go ahead, try to impeach them. because there's millions of people, you are trying to impeach the president for what? we just had an investigation, there is no collision. she's walking a fine line that i think if she could impeach him she would. she wants to get the numbers down i think of to get them down they will try. you see how weird this is. we have an election coming up.
in less than two years. you don't need to impeach anybody. particularly since the senate is not going to remove him. it's all a fan dance. they are trying to figure out whether they impeach him to make sure he doesn't win reelection or just pretend they are investigating but not impeaching him to try to make sure he doesn't win reelection. in the meantime,china is on the move, iran is on the move, north korea is on the move, all these countries are on the move. in the meantime, there's a disaster on the border, they don't care, they are not focused on that, and i think that's what the republicans need to focus on. [applause]
>> does he get reelected? >>. [shouting] [cheering] >> i'm not nostradamus, first of all. [laughter] i think in the end the american people elect him president the united states again. i think he deserves it. [cheering] [applause] but i don't think it's a sure thing and i don't think they think it's a sure thing either. what you think there's open borders? why do you think red states are becoming purple. what you think purple states are becoming blue? why do you think ronald reagan couldn't get elected dog catcher in the state today? or colorado has gone blue, or nevada has gone blue. we are running out of state. so i think it's a problem. by the way, as a footnote, this is why i am annoyed by some of these pseudo-constitutional conservatives when the president is trying to secure the border.
i take a backseat to nobody when it comes to the constitution. you have a national emergency act of 1976 that has been used over 50 farms dumb at times. did you ever hear the pseudo-constitutional assertive's used object? they didn't even know the law existed, as a matter fact. the president is using statutory authority, he's using the budgetary authority, he's using all the relevant authorities that have been used by other presidents. there are aspects of that law i don't like but is not using the aspects of that law that i don't like. so we can have instruction about that. also this tariff thing, i'm not a big tariff guy except when it comes to china and i think china is the enemy. china needs to be addressed. economically, and militarily. [applause] china is not a joke, china is going to be the number one superpower if this president is not reelected. i'm going to tell you that right now. that said, he's not using, he might be saying he's using tariffs on trade with china the way i look at it, is using it for national security because they keep stealing our stuff and that's a good enough reason. when you look at mexico, this is a national security problem. we have millions of people trying to get into this country in the communities you have hundreds of thousands of people being released in the community. the mayors don't know, the city council don't know, the community doesn't know. a five percent tariff i hear people say, you know what that's going to do to the cost of goods?
i know what that's going to do is to drive up the cost of goods. 1. 1 illegal aliens are going to do this country? it's going to drive up the cost of property taxes and schooling a law enforcement and healthcare. this isn't a costing to me, this is a president who's getting no help from the democrats.the republicans when they control the senate of the house didn't do a damned thing to secure the border. and she's trying to fix it. [applause]
>> on the southern border i remember about a months worth of time. >>. [inaudible] [laughter] i'm just kidding. he already bought it, it doesn't matter. i'm kidding. >> it used to be, you might remember, the southern border problem was a manufactured crisis. >> four months ago. now it's, okay maybe it's a crisis but it's your fault mr. president. how did we go from there to there?
>> because they live. one of the lines they were using on this president when they were separating children from adults because the democrats, separating children from their parents. we now know and almost 40% of the cases they work to their parents. they were trying to figure out if these were predators, perverts, what's going on here? you can't just send the little kids on with these adults, we don't know who they are and we don't even know how to get information on a lot of them. but it was curious to me when they said it's like training camps. because i wanted to remind them it was their great hero franklin roosevelt who actually set up internment camps and put japanese-americans and americans of japanese descent in a internment camps. when you look at most of the real horrors done in this country, is the democratic party and more recently the left that is abused power. so trump to set up internment camps, that would be your hero franklin roosevelt. when he was trying to do and what they are trying to do is make sure those kids are safe. because they don't know who they are with. it's rather strange to have a political party bbi can talk about the republicans too, it's rather strange to have political party in this country that hates the country. i told him very provocative when i say these things but i don't care.
you have a democratic party that puts party first. that's what the hard left does. 31st. i don't put republican first, do you? we are americans. we put the country first. i talked about americanism. they put the party first. the party that attacks the most successful economic system on the face of the earth, the best healthcare system on the face of the earth, the most beneficent law enforcement on the face of the earth, the most courageous military on the face of the earth, the constitution itself destroying it while they waited around, what kind of a party is this? listen to these candidates who are running, a systemically racist country when people south of the border who don't happen to be caucasian are trying to pour into this country by the millions, why would they try to come into a systemically racist country? where you have people trying to come into this country to make a living and they talk about the wage gap. first of all, what wage gap? get off your ass and earn whatever you want to. there isn't a wage gap. [applause] anyway. i speak for myself, not the reagan library. [laughter] it's well known. >> do you believe bb they say trumps tweets are offensive. not to me. [laughter]
>> do believe these numbers recently about the surveys showing 51 percent of our nations lung young bbnations young people are in favor of socialism? do they know what's socialism is? >> yes and no, they favorite, yes. that's like asking if seven euros favor santa claus. i suppose they do. if you are actually a little more sober and think things through a little bit, what does socialism create? nothing.socialism is an ideology. capitalism is a reality. capitalism is about commerce and trade. nobody invented capitalism. people voluntarily came together, they traded, there was commerce, people wanted some things, people created some things. we didn't need a marques. is there somebody who created capitalism out there the way marx createdmarxism? no. it's a call since then the human condition that exists. natural law, individual free will, things of that, capitalism is about what's between your ears. creativity, making something better than it is. socialism is about government. redistribution of wealth. punishing people, taking from people, doing all these other things. so capitalism is not taught in our universities and colleges, it's not taught in our public schools.
it needs to be. but they have a monopoly over our public schools and colleges and universities,mostly due to tenure as a matter fact. the most young people believe in socialism? yes. not all. but most. it also, do they know what it is? no. because on one hand they oppose authority. on the other hand that's a authoritarian. i've been thinking about this a lot and that's actually, he did tell you, my next book i been thinking about a lot. [laughter] agreement have a title for it i'm just kidding. i will announce it here so any of the backbenchers you my witness. academic unfreedom. because i think that's what's going on in the colleges and universities. that's a monopoly we have to deal with. and because it's laced with government, the government can deal with it. what i mean by that is we subsidize around demise. we shouldn't leave it to faculty to choose other faculty. there ought not be one or two years after which you get tenure. it doesn't work that way anywhere else in the world. i got to think it through but i want to address that one day. we really should be able to address younger people with the message of liberty.
because i think young people can be attracted to liberty. i don't mean just liberty in smoking pot or whatever it is. i mean liberty as a human condition. can you name, this is rhetorical, can you name any living republicans in the senate or the house to talk about liberty? no. they talk like this all the time. some of them unspoken here so i will create any problems. and they throw in with big government and they are okay with that. nobody to liberty. but what does liberty mean? why is liberty important? how does that create opportunity? how does that create wealth. instead we get free stuff. when we say freedom we don't mean free stuff. we don't have a public discussion, the left drives the public discussion, they drive the discussion and colleges and universities and then we are shocked when 51 percent of the people under the age of 21 believe in socialism. has anybody explained the opposite to them? no.
>> you got some family living in california, your friends in california, a lot of friends here, you hurt my litany of problems at the outset. do you think there is hope for the state? i know you are 3000 miles away but you talk about it some, what do you think it's going? >> the problem here is they have a chokehold on the government. and they redressed it in ways that they ensure the reelection. the actually change the demographics and the popularity of the state, they change the voting in the state. so if the republican loses they keep coming until a democrat wins.
[laughter] you have every aspect of a tyranny in this state. and it's very hard to break through. and people like schwarzenegger and others who were really focused on self and not focused on proper governance. this state was really, to brag for all around the world you had conservative republican governors. mostly republican legislatures. you people moving to california was the state of opportunity. when i was growing up in penn state, everybody wanted to come to california. it's a comedy was hot, you had, it's still is a beautiful state. it was a state that everybody wanted to go to. now it's a state everybody wants to leave. that's the difference between them and us. you look at florida, every is moving to florida right now. they have no income tax. the democrats keep trying to put an income tax. there's four or five states that have no income tax. bustling states, people are moving to those states. what gets me though is that you have people who they spend their home life in new york or new york city, they vote democrat, vote democrat, vote democrat to get a big pension, they moved to florida and boat democrat. i call them locusts. [applause] you have one crazy proposal after another coming out of your legislature. so crazy that your former crazy governor brown had a veto some of that. i'm crazy but you are even crazier than i am. like the enormous amount of money on the railway.
people should go to prison for stuff like that. they really should. this is the ideology of the left. it's like obamacare, obamacare bbit was never solve everything. nobody says a word about obamacare. it's medicare for all. locusts. they destroy one thing, they move onto the next thing and have you read the first chapter of my book, the mindset is this. you always have to give up more of your wealth and more of your freedom because their proposals are impossible. they cannot work. but they are not bthey do not blame themselves. they blame the people running it or the population but we didn't have enough resources or there's too many rich people, whatever it is. it's never their ideologies so what do they do? they double down, double down, double down and live. medicare is medicare for nobody. what that means is no medicare, no private healthcare, and bernie sanders is in charge. that's what that means. [laughter]
>> i want to turn it to the audience to ask questions. i bet you there is a bunch. we have staff going to all the aisles that have a microphone, if you have a question, raise your hand and we will start right over here. >> thanks for taking my question. it was a question you asked, mark, they didn't know he answered correctly when you're talking about bill barr and his investigation and where that was going to lead and what he thought might come of that.
>> i got rambling i forgot. [laughter] i think we have a shot at it. i think we have a good shot at it. and i think it's crucially important, obviously, because what we had here was the obama administration interfering with the last election. russians are always trying to interfere and i'm not one of these code pink republicans because russia passed, putin is the enemy, they are buzzing our ships, trying to knock out our ships, they arepropping up venezuelaeven though they pretend to be bof venezuela. putin is a menace, is a problem, the russians are a menace, they are a problem. by the way, i know russians, might ancestors are russians. i've been waiting for them to question me. [laughter] but the greatest danger jefferson talked about, lincoln, joseph, it's a danger from within. when you have your own government putting spies into another campaign, when you have your own government abusing these courts. when you have your own government trying to take out a candidate and then a president of the united states, you have a huge problem on your hands. the democrats do not want to get to the bottom of this, the media do not want to get to the bottom of it because they are involved in it. the media, people say to me, why will the media at least admit they were wrong about the russian collision? they were in on it. why are there going to admit they were wrong.
who do you think they were leaking to? they were leaking to the new york times two years ago i pointed out i was looking at the newspapers. they were in on it. the media is in on it. the media are an appendage of the democrat party. they pushed the progressive agenda. that's the problem with the media. look. people want to feel good and want to say, were to get to the bottom of this, people are going to go to jail. i don't know but i will say this, it's a good thing he's the attorney general. he uses the right words, plain english like spy. he's got a real u.s. attorney in connecticut looking into this. the inspector general who was appointed by obama but seems to be a straight shooter worried about him there already starting to trash him. i'd say finally we are on the offense and defense and that's a good thing. [applause]
>> hello, you talked about the radical chokehold in california. some of that has to do with voting and there's been a lot of legislation the bball of those things that have passed in california. how can we citizens, how can we respond to that and break loose of this to radical chokehold at the voting booth and otherwise? >> i don't have an answer for you. [laughter] if i did you wouldn't ask me that question. i don't have an answer. it's a big problem. sometimes things have to collapse before you rebuild them. this state is headed for bankruptcy. i will be damned as a virginian if i'm going to bail out all the left lane cooked democrats in the state. [applause] but i don't know because the one-party rule stuff is very difficult to break through. you are right. all the changes to voting have been made to help the democrat party. the borders open to help the democrat party. if those were future republicans pouring over the border conveyed rebuilding 100 foot wall with moats and alligators and machine guns and everything else. but those are future democrats. at least they feel they are. same with the changes in the border rules. they are all intended to help the democrats hold the power forever. that's why they want to get rid of the electoral college, exactly the same thing. even though they would undermine the whole constitutional republican notion that's in the constitution the democrats and the media like to say count the vote. the popular vote, one person one vote. except for when they lose. then it's, go to the courts. or go to the permanent bureaucracy. it really is and is just to justify the means for that party and to the left.
we take the vote if they win, reject the vote if they lose. support the electoral college if they win, oppose it if they lose. gerrymandering yes, if they can use it, gerrymandering know if they can. it's a very dangerous party. that's been taken over by a very radical ideology, there are very few sanctions left in that party, there is a difference between these radical progressives and old-time liberals. there is very few old-time liberals left in the democrat party.>> right here. >> hey mark, given joe biden was the dumbest man to ever serve in the senate, and dumbest man to ever serve as vice president, what are you think his chances are of becoming the dumbest man to serve as president?[applause] >> if he is elected, he will be. [laughter] although, there's carter. [laughter] you notice all the republicans are stupid at all but democrats are nobel prize winners? you notice that? he's got a shot at it. look at the stakes. we have fewer and fewer opportunities of winning. 25 years ago i remember reading the articles by historians that said the democrats are going to lose as far as the eye can see, it was after two reagan massive victories, there was just too many red states. so the democrats figure, we got to change these states. and how do you change the states? change the populations. it's like your state here, you were talking about it. it's becoming so difficult to even get the vote out, to get the numbers are coming to get the change, people wash their hands and they leave. they give up on the system while they keep pumping up there side using state law, federal law to do that, does joe biden have a chance?
yes. a look at these political campaigns as military operations. i'm not talking about guns and all that. i'm saying, anything is possible but we really have to be smart. they now know that trump won wisconsin. in michigan, minnesota, and some of these other states, but very few vote. do not believe those states alone this time. there can import resources and money into those states. they already have created this character around joe biden. how is joe biden a blue-collar democrat? the guy has been in government for half a century. he gets out of law school and he wins the wilmington city council at the age of like 12. then he gets elected to the senate at 29, sworn in at 30. blue-collar bbwith the electrician in between? a plumber in between? then they used to call him lunch bucket drill. lunch bucket joe, when did he carry a lunch bucket this document he never carried a lunch bucket. they've created this guy like he is blue-collar joe. he's a blue-collar billionaire in office, that's the name i've given him. and the unions should be backing him to the hills. because what do you think green new deal is all about? it's going to destroy union jobs, it's going to destroy blue-collar jobs. it's going to destroy the building, this is the language they use and they imported the stuff from york. they wanted to d industrialize america. it's about de-growth, these are words they invent much like d train or something like that or deplane. words i never heard of before. we should be able to secure that wet. they thrown in with the radical environmental movement. the radical environmental movement hates assembly lines. hates smokestacks. hates progress, hates technology. and we should exploit that because that's who those people are, to answer your question, it's a perfect campaign almost perfect campaign and the right issues are raised he is to fight through the media is going to be at him every step of the way. i think trump will win but does biden have a shot? of course biden has a shot. and he is so stupid. the thing this guy says, he just is. the things this guy says, unbelievable, nobody could get away with it. bb [laughter] who even talks like this? okay. but they're going to give him a pass and protect them. his son is all gummed up in corruption but there to give them a pass, they're gonna try to protect them. it's going to be up to the president and us to get the message to our fellow citizens.
>> appear in the balcony. >> thank you mark, you and your family coming out here and doing what you do. my question is twofold, it seems like the democrats always rally and they always get the memo on the news, all the news channels are always talking the same language, speaking the same terms and the republicans put their tails between their legs and don't rally behind our president. that's my first question, it's very frustrating to me when they flip-flop our own party. number two, i believe senator cruz may have brought it up a while ago with the conviction of el chapo saying that we could maybe seize assets in excess of maybe $18 billion that would pay for the wall, mexico would be paying for the wall. comments on that. [applause] >> in the old days we would have seen mexico. no offense. [laughter] [applause] remember the days when bb nevermind.patton got a jeep, remember that? he put a machine gun on the jeep. [laughter] and he chased them out of texas.i was asked by ben shapiro the other day, who were one of my favorite presidents i said james polk, you know why? because california, arizona, new mexico, and other parts of the united states were seized. and became part of the united states. so i've always had an affinity for james polk. [laughter]
i'm not sure how to answer your second part of your question. the first part of your question i look at guys like mitt romney and i say to myself bb the senate is filled with guys like this. the first thing he does is he comes in office and writes an op-ed in the washington poster trashing the president. they know to go to mitt romney now to trash the president of the united states and god rest his soul he's the new john mccain. he wants to be that because maybe he harbors a desire to run again, i don't know what it is. he comes from a very red state. it's been affected by a lot of what's going on in california and some other states. you think you'd be a leader for conservatives and he's not. president of the united states has to fight these people. the president of the united states stared down mexico with a five percent tariff and the republicans are going to the media and talking about, we can't do this and we can't do that, meanwhile, what the hell have they done, mitch mcconnell has been there for 112 years, what has he done about the border? absolutely nothing. it's a big problem. and you are right, they would never do anything like this to obama. ever. nancy pelosi stares at one of them, they melt and back off. kevin mccarthy stares at one of them and they laughed, quite frankly. they do whatever they want to do. thedemocrat party is united in promoting the democrat party. the republican party is just not a united party and in many ways. i often tell my wife, we are going to miss trump when he's gone. [applause] and i'm a reagan guy. i'm also a trump guy.
[cheering] [applause] [cheering] we are going to miss him. because he's not george w. bush. because he's a fighter. he takes on the media. he takes on the democrat party. he takes on individuals in his own party and calls them as he sees them. this is what drives them nuts. number two, could he say things a different way? yes, but he doesn't want to. maybe if they stop calling him hitler and stalin and mussolini and white supremacist and anti-semi antiracist, maybe he wouldn't call them nasty. or a kook. or whatever. he doesn't call them the names that they call him on a daily basis. but we are going to miss him for a lot of reasons. number one, he fights. he fights.[applause] he is not a philosophical conservative. but in most ways he is a conservative.
i don't much care how he got there. he just got there. and that's fine by me. [applause] i also know he is not them. i also know he loves this country, i also know he believes in our economic system. i also know he believes in sovereignty and border country. i also know how he treats allies like israel, i know this is a man bb [applause] [cheering] he knows infanticide when he hears it and rejects it. [applause] he has put more bon the courts since ronald reagan. [applause] he's not them. and he's better than them. he is also not a rhino. [applause] so he might lose. but, you know what, sometimes you lose and then sometimes you pick up your pieces and when the next round. i'm very impressed with a lot of what he's doing. i try to put myself in his own shoes. could you wake up every day under the attacks he faces? threats against his children and his family and his taxes and his finances, state of new york trying to take after him. on and on and on. this is a very remarkable man in many ways. [applause] and i know some people would prefer that he spoke differently. but he tweeted differently. that he did all these things differently. i would prefer if the other side spoke differently and tweeted differently and didn't do what they do. [applause] all i know is, he got elected president and mitt romney did not. [cheering] and john mccain did not.
>> we are not done yet. i know there are more questions. but mark, before you leave, he been here before we've given you like a reagan hat and a reagan jacket and those things, we are not going to let you go. >> i use those by the way. >> i know you do. mark has a studio called the reagan studio and it's filled with some extraordinary things and i was trying to think, what can we give to mark as a gift for coming all the way out here and we decided. >> oh. >>. [laughter] >> if you could uncover that. there is a statue. >> wow. [cheering] [applause] >> when you visit the united states capital and you go into the great rotunda you will see this statue of ronald reagan that's going to stand there for their thousand years. this is a replica of that and on it it says " to mark levin, a true american. " thank you mark. >> thank you, that's beautiful. >> there are not many of those.
>> no, thank you. [cheering] [applause] i don't know if tsa is going to let me bring that on the plane. [laughter] this is a magnificent institution. this is a great library. i love coming here. the history of ronald reagan is so crucially important, he turned this country around. he defeated the soviet union. he did so many things that young people need to learn about so it is a treat for my family and me and my friends to be here. i can't tell you, john hi bush is absolutely the most fantastic friend. [applause] and melissa and his staff are absolutely unbelievable to do something like this. but i want to tell you from the bottom of my heart, to sit there and books and see one beautiful patriot and american after the other, from every walk of life, from all over the country, from all over the world, look around, every pigmentation, gay, straight, children, 91-year-old, 97-year-old people who have served in the war and people who been in law enforcement, i cannot tell you how proud i am when you come to a place like this for one of our national town hall meetings to reinvigorate ourselves, there are people who share your viewpoints who care about this country and sorry we have to move quickly but i try to look every person in the eye and try to shake every person to do the best i can. [applause] the to have my beautiful wife by my side, my mother-in-law by my side. [applause] i want you to know something, something is going on in the shop i was in new jersey 2000 people showed up. i was on long island, 2000 people showed up. i was in tysons corner virginia, 3000 people showed up. and all saying exactly the same thing you are, something is going on. there is enough of us, we shall overcome. god bless you. thank you. thank you. [cheering] [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, we ask that you respectively remain in your seats and tell the levin family has been escorted out. please remain in your show less text
*this transcript was compiled from uncorrected closed captioning.
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John D. Heubusch is an Executive Director for the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Library with 21 videos in the C-SPAN Video Library; the first appearance was a 2009 Speech. The year with the most videos was 2011 with five videos. The year with the highest average number of views per program was 2019 with an average of 3,188 views per program. Most appearances with Craig Shirley (2), Mark R. Levin(2), Frederick J. Ryan (2). Most common tags: Reagan, Ronald, Conservatives, Immigration.
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https://www.c-span.org/video/?460745-1/unfreedom-press
JUNE 8, 2019
Unfreedom of the Press
TV and radio host Mark Levin talked about his book, Unfreedom of the Press, in which he argued that the press has lowered its standards in providing objective and trustworthy journalism.
John D. Heubusch
APPLAUSE] >> GOOD EVENING, EVERYONE. FOR TOES WHO HAVE NOT HAD A CHANCE TO MEET I HAVE THE HONOR OF BEING AT THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE RONALD REAGAN PRESIDENTIAL FOUNDATION, AS ALWAYS HERE AT THE -- [APPLAUSE] >> IF YOU WOULD IN HONOR OUR OUR MEN AND WOMEN IN UNIFORM WHO DEFEND OUR FREEDOM AROUND THE WORLD, PLEASE JOIN ME FOR THE PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE. >> I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, AND TO THE REPUBLIC NOR ITS STANDS, ONE NATION, UNDER GOD, INDIVISIBLE, WITH ACCOMPLISH JUDD
-- WITH LIBERTY AND JUST FOR ALL. THANK YOU, PLEASE BE SEATED. >> BEFORE WE GET STARTED, THERE'S JUST A FEW PEOPLE IN THE AUDIENCE I WANT TO MAKE SURE I RECOGNIZE TONIGHT AND I WILL START WITH MARK'S WIFE, JULIE, AND HIS SON, CHASE. JULIE AND MARK? [APPLAUSE] >> THIS IS SPECIAL. MARK'S MOTHER-IN-LAWS SYLVIA STRAUSS. SILVER RA. [APPLAUSE] . >> AND IT WOULD NOT BE AN EVENT AT THE REAGAN LIE IF I DIDN'T RECOGNIZE ELTON AND HIS WIFE, JANICE. >> FIRST, BEFORE THE GREAT ONE TAKES THE STAGE, I WANT HIM TO KNOW HOW GRATEFUL ALL OF US ARE THAT HE ONCE AGAIN HAS TAKEN THREE DAYS OF OFF THIS INCREDIBLY BUSY LIFE TO LEAVE THE BUNKER AND TRAVEL ALL THE WAY TO CALIFORNIA AND BACK. [APPLAUSE] BY VISITING US, THE US I MEAN NOT ONLY THIS UNRULY CROWD THAT IS IN THIS PACKED HOUSE BEFORE ME BUT ALSO THE HUNDREDS OF THE DENALI FANS LIVE WATCHING THIS NEXT DOOR. WELCOME TO ALL OF YOU. [APPLAUSE]
>> NOW, MARK HAS BEEN HERE QUIETLY, A TIME OR TWO WITH HIS FAMILY OVER THE YEARS. BUT THIS IS HIS SIXTH OFFICIAL VISIT TO THE REAGAN LIBRARY. A TRADITION HE SO GENEROUSLY STARTED WAY BACK IN 2010 WHEN HE WAS HERE WITH HIS NUMBER ONE "NEW YORK TIMES" BEST SELLING BOOK, LIBERTY AND TYRANNY. DID MENTION THAT HIS NEWEST BOOK, UNFREEDOM OF THE APPRECIATION THE ONE EACH OF YOU ARE HOLDING THIS WEEK'S NUMBER ONE "NEW YORK TIMES" BEST SELLER. [CHEERS AND APPLAUSE]
>> IT HAS BEEN ONE OF THE GREATEST HONORS OF MY LIFE TO COUNT THIS MAN AS A FRIEND. I GENUINELY MEAN THAT. I BET THAT EACH ONE OF YOU FEELS THE SAME KIND OF KINSHIP WITH MARK AS WELL. LISTENING TO HIM ON THE RADIO EACH DAY OR WATCHING HIM ON TELEVISION OR GETTING THE CHANCE TO SHAKE HIS HAND, IT'S A BIG DEAL. AND COMFORTING TO KNOW HIS VOICE AND INTELLECT REACHES MILLIONS OF PEOPLE EACH DAY. GRATIFYING TO KNOW HIS POINT OF VIEW, OUR POINT OF VIEW, IS SO ELOQUENTLY EXPRESSED AMIDST ALL OF THE NOISE AND CHATTER WE'RE TREATED TO FROM TALKING HEADS AND THE MANY WHO PRETEND TO HAVE OUR NATION'S BEST INTERESTS IN MIND. [APPLAUSE] MARK HAS ACHIEVED SO MUCH SINCE HE WAS WITH US TWO YEARS AGO. LEVIN TV HAS GROWN BY LEAPS AND BOUNDS. ON TOP OF THAT HE NOW DOMINATES THE TV RATINGS ON TEXAS NEWS WITH HIS SHOW, LIFE, LIBERTY AND LEVIN. [CHEERS AND APPLAUSE]
>> RADIO SHOW ON THE AIR FOR 17 YEARS, NOW TRACKS OVER 7 MILLION LISTENERS EVERY DAY. [CHEERS AND APPLAUSE] HE IS NO WON WE ARE WE ALL TOOK SUCH GREAT PRIDE WHEN HE WAS RECENTLY INDUCTED INTO THE NATIONAL RADIO HALL OF FAME A FEW MONTHS AGO. [CHEERS AND APPLAUSE] >> SO, SOME -- SINCE WE WERE LAST TEAGUE WITH HIM. JUST LIKE YOU AND ME HE IS HUMAN, TOO. HE HAS FACED SOME SADNESS AND SOME CHALLENGES, TOO, THIS PAST YEAR. HE AND JULIE, WORST MARK'S DAD, JACK, AND MOM, NORM YAA IN A FEW MONTHS THERE IS A MODEST BENCH IN THIS ODDER -- ODDER TOUM THAT BEARS THEIR NAMES. .
>> IT OVERLOOKES THE BEAUTIFUL GREEN VALLEY BELOW THAT FACES THE PACIFIC. THE SAME VIEW SHARED BY PRESIDENT REAGAN'S OWN GRAVESITE. HE'S TAKEN ON A LOT OF WORK. IT'S SUPER HUMAN EFFORT TO PRODUCE AND PERFORM AS MUCH AS HE DOES AND AS WELL AS HE DOES EVERY DAY AND HE DOES IT FOR US. HIS LEVINNITES, FOR HIS COUNTRY. THAT HE LOVES SO MUCH. [APPLAUSE] MARK, I THINK IT'S NO SECRET WE HERE IN CALIFORNIA HAVE BEEN BUSY, TOO. WHILE YOU WERE WRITING YOU BEST-SELLING BOOKS AND PRODUCING BRAND NEW SHOWS, WE WERE BUSY IN THE GREAT STATE OF CALIFORNIA, THE SAME STATE THAT TWICE MADE RONALD REAGAN ITS GOVERNOR AND ITS 40th PRESIDENT, BECOMING NUMBER ONE IN SO MANY THINGS AS WELL. SINCE YOU WERE LAST WITH US, MARK, JUST THINK OF WHAT WE HAVE ACHIEVED WHILE YOU HAVE BEEN GONE. IN THAT TIME CALIFORNIA HAS RAISED ITS STATE INCOME TAX TO THE HIGHEST IN THE ANYWAY WE'RE NUMBER ONE. [BOOING]
>> HERE IN L.A. , OUR STATE SALES TAX AND LOCAL SALES TAX COMBINED ARE THE HIGHEST IN THE COUNTRY. [BOOING] >> SANCTUARY CITIES ACROSS THE GREAT LAND HAVE NOTHING ON US. [BOOING] >> WE HAVE A DISTINCTION OF BEING A SANCTUARY STATE. [BOOING] >> NO WONDER, THEN, THAT WE HARBOR MORE ILLEGAL ALIENS -- I'M SORRY -- UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS -- THAN ANY OTHER STATE IN AMERICA. [BOOING] >> SINCE YOU LAST VISITED, WE HAVE SUCCEEDED IN ATTRACTING THE LARGEST HOMELESS POPULATION OF ANY STATE IN THE NATION. WE HAVE THE HIGHEST GAS PRICES IN THE NATION AND NOT TO BE OUTDONE WE OWN THE LARGEST DEBT OF ANY STATE IN THE NATION. FINALLY WE HOLD THE RECORD OF FILING MORE LAWSUITS, 52, TO BE EXACT, AGAINST THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION THAN ANY OTHER STATE. [BOOING]
>> THAT'S RIGHT. I SAID IT, MARK. [CHEERS AND APPLAUSE] >> WE HAVE BEEN BUSY, TOO. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, PLEASE JOIN ME IN GIVING A WARM WELCOME TO MR. MARK LEVIN. [CHEERS AND APPLAUSE] [CHEERS AND APPLAUSE] >> LET'S GO TO TEXAS. MARK, HOW ARE YOU HOLDING UP? YOUR LIKE -- YOU AND SEAN HANNITY THREE HOURS OR RADIO ARRANGES HOUR OF TV AND NOW AN HOUR ON FOX EACH SUNDAY. THE BUSIEST YOU HAVE EVER BEEN.
>> LET ME SAY THIS, THIS THOME, THE REAGAN LIBRARY. SERVED IN THE REAGAN ADMINISTRATION. THIS IS HOME TO ME THREE DAYS IS NOT ENOUGH. [APPLAUSE] >> I LOVE ALL OF YOU. ALL OF YOU GREAT PATRIOTS OUT HERE IN CALIFORNIA. FIGHTING THE STATE, FIGHT THE LOCAL, FIGHT THE BAT FOR THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. ONE AFTER ANOTHER SAID DON'T FORGET WE'RE HERE. WILL NEVER FORGET YOU'RE HERE. [CHEERS AND APPLAUSE] >> I REMEMBER WHEN THIS WAS A VIBRANT STATE. I REMEMBER WHEN RONALD REAGAN WAS GOVERNOR. I REMEMBER WHEN PETE WILSON WAS GOVERNOR, THE GREAT DAYS DAYS DAYS OF THE GOLDEN STATE AND NOW YOU CAN SEE WHAT BLUE ONE PARTY RULE DOES, TAKES THE MOST MAGNIFICENT STATE IN THE COUNTRY AND PUTS ITS NUMBER ONE WHERE IT OUGHT TO BE NUMBER 50 AND NUMBER 50 WHERE IT TOOTH BE NUMBER ONE. IT'S DISGRACE WHAT THE LEFT HAS DOWN TO THIS COUNTRY AND THEY'RE TRYING TO DO IT TO THE STATE TO THE WHOLE COUNTRY. WHEN YOU LOOK AT THE PEOPLE WHO ARE RUNNING RIGHT NOW, I'M SPEAKING FOR MYSELF, NOT THE LIBRARY HERE. WHEN YOU LOOK AT THE PEOPLE RUNNING ON THE DEMOCRAT SIDE, THEY'RE INSANE. ABSOLUTELY INSANE. [CHEERS AND APPLAUSE]
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
>> MARK THERE IS SOMETHING ABOUT THIS BOOK, IT FLEW OFF THE SHELF TO BE NUMBER ONE VERY FAST AND I KNOW LIBERTY AND TYRANNY WAS NUMBER ONE, TOOK BUT SEEMS TO BE SOMETHING SPECIAL ABOUT THIS BOOK AT THIS TIME. ARE YOU ABLE TO COMPLAINT. >> I AM. THE PRESS IS OUT OF CONTROL. THE PRESS IS UNMINDING FREEDOM OF THE PRESS. I MAKE A DISTINCTION BETWEEN THE MODERN MASS MEDIA AND THE FREE PRESS. CNN IS NOT FREE PRESIDENT. MSNBC IS NOT A FREE PRESS. THE "NEW YORK TIMES" IS NOT FREE PRESS. THE "WASHINGTON POST" IS NOT A FREE PRESS. A FREE PRESS IS A PRESS THAT IS NOT PUSHING THE IDEOLOGICAL AGENDA,N'T THE PACK PARTY OF ONE PART ORE ANOTHER FOOT. CERTAIN PUSH CAN SOCIALING A TIMISM, WHEN YOU TURN ON THE TV TODAY MOST CHANES ARE BROW BEATING YOU WITH THE PROPAGANDA, WITH IF THE LEFT WING AGENDA. HELLO THERE THE LEFT WING AGENTS AND SO FORTH. THAT'S NOT FREEDOM OF THE PRESS. FREEDOM OF THE PRESS IS ACTUALLY OCCURRING OUTSIDE THOSE TYPES. IT'S ON THE INTERNET. IT'S WITH WEB SITES, THE BLOGGERS, IT'S WITH NEWS PEOPLE ALL OVER THE WORLD.
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE MOD DEALERSHIP MEDIA TODAY AND THE PATRIOT MEDIA THAT HELPED FOUND THIS COUNTRY IS THE PATRIOT MEDIA, THE MEN WITH THE PRINTING PRESSES, WITH THE PAMPHLETS, 30 SOME NEWSPAPERS. THAT WAS IT. THEY WERE TRYING TO FUNDAMENTALLY TRANSFORM GOVERNMENT. ... THAT'S DIAMETRICALLY OPPOSED WHAT THE PRESS IS SUPPOSED TO BE. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME THERE WAS A LEAK TO THE NEW YORK TIMES THAT WAS HELPFUL TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES? IT NEVER HAPPENS. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME THERE WAS AN EXPOSC IN WASHINGTON POST THAT WAS NEGATIVE ON NANCY PELOSI? IT NEVER HAPPENS. THEY BEAT THIS PRESIDENT, THEY BEAT THIS PRESIDENT, AND THE PEOPLE WHO SUPPORT HIM EVERY DAY. THEY DID IT BEFORE HE WAS ELECTED, THEY DID IT DURING THE ELECTION, THEY'VE DONE IT SINCE THE ELECTION, THEY ARE DOING IT TODAY. THAT'S NOT A FREE PRESS, THAT'S PROPAGANDA, THAT'S WHAT THAT IS [APPLAUSE] AND TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTION, WHAT THIS BOOK DOES, IT'S NOT A SERVICE LEVEL BOOK, I LOOK AT THE HISTORY OF THE PRESS, LOOK AT THE CONSTITUTION AND I REALLY DUG INTO THE ISSUE OF THE PRESS, WHERE DOES IT COME FROM, WHY IS IT IMPORTANT, I LOOK AT THAT. THEN I LOOK AT THE EVIDENCE, IT'S OVERWHELMING OF WHAT GOES ON IN OUR NEWSROOMS TODAY. THERE IS NO DIVERSITY IN OUR NEWSROOMS.
IT'S ALL ONE WAY. THEN I LOOKED AT HOW THE AMERICAN PEOPLE THINK OF THE PRESS. 80% OF AMERICANS TRUSTED, 80% OF DEMOCRATS DO. WHY DO YOU THINK? THEN I LOOK AT SOCIAL ACTIVISM LIKE CHUCK POT ANNOUNCING ON MEET THE PRESS, WE ARE NOT GOING TO DO CLIMATE CHANGE ANYMORE, I SAID WHO THE HELL IS THIS GUY? IS HE SMART? NO. DOES HE HAVE A PARTICULAR BACKGROUND ON THE SUBJECT? NO. IS HE A HACK? YES. OKAY. THERE ARE PHYSICISTS, PHD'S, THE PEOPLE, CLIMATOLOGY, METEOROLOGY, THOUSANDS OF THEM THAT HAVE WRITTEN EXTENSIVELY ABOUT THIS SO NOW THEY ARE BANNED FROM GOING ON MEET THE PRESS BECAUSE WE ARE CLIMATE CHANGE DID LYONS. IS ANYBODY HERE DENIED THIS CLIMATE CHANGE? WHAT WE DENIES THAT THERE IS ANYTHING WE CAN DO ABOUT IT. THERE'S A SON UP THERE. [APPLAUSE] SO I THINK PEOPLE ARE LOOKING FOR ANSWERS AND PEOPLE ARE LOOKING FOR ARGUMENTS. AND WHAT IS EXCITING ABOUT THIS BOOK TO ME, AND YOUR REACTION TO IT, WHAT I'M TRYING TO GENERATE HERE, REMEMBER I WAS PART OF THE REAGAN REVOLUTION, THE TEA PARTY REVOLUTION, THE ARTICLE 5 CONVENTION OF STATES REVOLUTION b& [APPLAUSE] AND WHAT WE ARE TRYING TO DO NOW IS DEFEND THE CONSTITUTION AND THOSE WHO WANT TO REMOVE DULY ELECTED PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
WHAT THIS BOOK DOES IS EXPLAIN WHO THEY ARE. BECAUSE THEY ARE POLITICAL, THEY ARE bAND FOR EVER GOING TO GET OUR COUNTRY BACK, IF WE ARE EVER GOING TO GET OUR FREEDOM OF THE PRESS BACK WE HAVE TO DEAL WITH THESE PEOPLE. THAT'S WHAT THIS BOOK IS ABOUT. [APPLAUSE] >> I WAS THINKING WHEN I READ YOUR BOOK THAT IF PRESIDENT TRUMP HAD BEEN GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY TO GIVE IT ITS TITLE HE WOULD CALL IT "FAKE NEWS". [LAUGHTER] >> I WISH I HAD THOUGHT OF THAT. [LAUGHTER]
>> I WAS LISTENING TO YOUR SHOW A FEW MONTHS AGO AND IT BECAME APPARENT, I THINK YOU HAD AN OPPORTUNITY MAY BE QUIETLY AND MAYBE MORE THAN ONCE, I DON'T KNOW, TO SIT WITH OUR PRESIDENT TO TALK WITH OUR PRESIDENT. I'M NOT ASKING YOU TO BETRAY ANY CONVERSATIONS BUT HAVING MET WITH HIM ON SPOKEN WITH HIM, SHOULD WE HAVE ALL THE CONFIDENCE IN HIM THAT YOU THINK WE SHOULD? >> I DON'T MEET WITH HIM THAT OFTEN. THERE IS AN OCCASIONAL CONVERSATION. I WILL TELL YOU, THIS IS A VERY SMART MAN, ENORMOUSLY CHARISMATIC MAN. HE KNOWS WHAT'S GOING ON. HE KNOWS WHERE HE WANTS TO TAKE THE COUNTRY. HE'S NOT ANYTHING LIKE HE'S PORTRAYED IN THE MEDIA. HE'S VERY DEEP. WHEN YOU LOOK AT HIM COMPARED TO BINDERS, IT'S LIKE A JUMP. [LAUGHTER] I WOULD TELL YOU THIS, AND REPUBLICAN PRIMARY bAND IN GENERAL ELECTION I SUPPORTED THE PRESIDENT, TRUMP. AND I'M GLAD I DID. [APPLAUSE] BECAUSE A LOT OF HIS POSITIONS bb [APPLAUSE] A LOT OF HIS POSITIONS ARE SO SOLID AND I DON'T KNOW THAT ANY OF THOSE OTHER REPUBLICANS ON THE STAGE AS I THINK BACK THAT COULD'VE WITHSTOOD WHAT HE'S WITHSTANDING RIGHT NOW.
I THINK WE ARE EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY FORTUNATE THAT HE IS THERE. HE STANDS BETWEEN US AND THEM. AND HE AND HIS FAMILY bb [APPLAUSE] [CHEERING] AND HE AND HIS FAMILY ARE TAKING MORE CRAP THAN ANY PRESIDENT OR FAMILY SHOULD HAVE TO TAKE. IT IS OUTRAGEOUS WHAT THE LEFT GETS AWAY WITH. WHAT PELOSI AND HER HUSBAND GET AWAY WITH. WHAT THESE CHAIRMAN OF THESE COMMITTEES GET AWAY WITH. SO I HAVE TOLD MY FAMILY, I WILL DO WHATEVER I HAVE TO DO, WHETHER GOING ON FOX, THE RADIO, READ ABOUT, TO DEFEND THIS REPUBLIC AND THIS CONSTITUTION AGAINST THE MOB THAT IS TRYING TO FORCIBLY REMOVE A DULY ELECTED PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. [APPLAUSE]
>> ON THE MOB, GOOD POINT, BILL BARR, OUR NEW ATTORNEY GENERAL bb [APPLAUSE] DO YOU THINK, MARK, AS YOU WERE CHIEF OF STAFF WHEN HE WAS ATTORNEY GENERAL, DO YOU THINK THE ATTORNEY GENERAL IS GOING TO BE SUCCESSFUL IN GETTING TO THE BOTTOM OF ALL THAT WENT ON BEHIND-THE-SCENES AND ALL THE INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES AND THE FBI? DO YOU THINK WE WILL FIND THE TRUTH OF WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED?
>> I CANNOT BE MORE PROUD OF BILL BARR. [APPLAUSE] HE DIDN'T HAVE TO TAKE THIS JOB. HE'D BEEN ATTORNEY GENERAL BEFORE, AND ENORMOUSLY SUCCESSFUL GENERAL COUNSEL AND CEO. HE COULD'VE GONE OFF TO THE VILLAGES LIKE ROBERT MUELLER. [LAUGHTER] BUT HE DIDN'T. HE IS COOLHEADED, HE'S COOL AS A CUCUMBER THIS GUY. HE KNOWS WHAT HE'S DOING, THEY WILL HOLD HIM IN CONTEMPT, IS THIS A JOKE? I HOLD THEM IN CONTEMPT BY THE WAY. AND I DON'T NEED A ROPE TO HOLD THEM IN CONTEMPT, I JUST TOLD THEM AND CONTEMPT. HE IS A MAN OF THE LAW. HE COMES OUT OF THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION, HE DOESN'T HAVE ACCESS TO GRAND. HE SEES WE HAVE A ROBIE HOUSE REPRESENTATIVE. HE SEES THAT WE HAVE ROGUE COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN.
THAT THEY HAVE ONE OBJECTIVE, WHICH IS TRYING TO DESTROY THIS PRESIDENT AND HIS PRESIDENTS. HE HAD SIX COMMITTEES. USING GOVERNMENT PAY FOR STAFF, USING TAX DOLLARS, THAT HAVE TURNED THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES INTO AN OPPOSITION RESEARCH ORGANIZATION APPENDAGE TO THE DMC, THAT'S WHY THEY WANT IS TAXES AND BANK RECORDS AND FINANCE. I'VE NEVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE THIS IN MY LIFE. HE CHALLENGES THEM.HE SAYS I'M NOT GOING TO GIVE IT TO YOU I WILL GO TO COURT. HE'S GOING TO SUE THEM AND GO TO COURT AND THEY SAY THAT'S AN OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE. [LAUGHTER] THIS IS LIKE THE DUMBEST HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. [LAUGHTER] EVER. [CHEERING] [LAUGHTER] [CHEERING] HE LISTENED TO JERRY NADLER. OR MAYBE NOT. [SHOUTING] YOU LISTEN TO THIS GUY, CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMITTEE, HE GOES ON, HE WON'T COME ON MY SHOWS, GOES ON MSNBC, CNN, MAYBE RUSSIA TV FALL I KNOW, HE GOES ON AND ON. THE PRESIDENT HAS OBSTRUCTED JUSTICE. WAIT A MINUTE. HE'S A CONGRESS AND THE RUNS OF COMMITTEE, THE COMMITTEE CRIMES? WAS THERE A TRIAL I MISSED? WAS THERE A SENTENCING I MISSED?
JUST BECAUSE A PROSECUTOR WRITES A REPORT DOESN'T MEAN THE PRESIDENT HAS COMMITTED ANYTHING. THEN HE WAVES AROUND THE CONSTITUTION, I GO, HE JUST VIOLATED LIKE THE FOURTH AMENDMENT, THE FIFTH AMENDMENT, SIXTH AMENDMENT, 14TH AMEND, AND YOU ARE WAITING AROUND THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. SAYING THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES DOESN'T HONOR IT. IT'S ALMOST LIKE A FREAK SHOW. THEN YOU HAVE NANCY PELOSI WHO SAYS I DON'T WANT IMPEACHMENT. SHE WANTS HIM IN PRISON. [LAUGHTER] THEN YOU HAVE ONE OF THEM, THEY BRING FRIED CHICKEN TO THE MICROPHONE. HE WANTS TO ARREST THE ATTORNEY GENERAL. HANDCUFF HIM TO THE CHAIR. AND TAKEN TO THE CAFETERIA, THEY CALL THIS THEIR PRISON IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. I'M THINKING TO MYSELF, WHAT THE HELL HAS HAPPENED TO THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY OVER HERE? SERIOUSLY. THE KOOKS ARE RUNNING THE DEMOCRAT PARTY.WHAT THE HELL WAS YOUR QUESTION? [LAUGHTER] HE DOESN'T REMEMBER EITHER. >> LET ME SEE WHERE THIS IS GOING. DO YOU THINK THEY WILL DRIVE THIS CAR RIGHT OFF THE CLIFF AND ACTUALLY TRY TO IMPEACH PRESIDENT TRUMP?
>> I THINK THEY WANT TO DRIVE HIS RATINGS DOWN TO ABOUT 37 PERCENT TO 35 PERCENT AT WHICH TIME THEY WILL PULL THE TRIGGER. IF THEY CAN'T GET HIM DOWN THAT FAR, I THINK THEY WILL JUST KEEP POUNDING HIM. KEEP GOING ON TV. WITH THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY PRESS. THEY KEEP TRYING TO DESTROY HIM SO HE WILL HAVE A DIFFICULT TIME AND REELECTION. I THINK THE MEDIA AND THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY UNWILLINGLY AND WILLINGLY ARE WORKING HAND IN GLOVE. THEY KNOW THEY CAN DO AND SAY ANYTHING AND BRIAN STELTER AND DON LEMMON AND CHRIS CUOMO ARE GOING TO REPEAT. I THINK THEY ARE TRYING TO DRIVE DOWN HIS RATINGS IF THEY CAN GET THEM DOWN IN THE mid-30s I THINK THEY WILL MAKE A MOVE ON HIM. HERE'S THE PROBLEM, THEY ARE LOOKING AT POLLS RIGHT NOW AND IT'S TOO EARLY TO LOOK AT POLLS BUT THEY LOOK AT POLLS AND THEY SEE THE PRESIDENT BEHIND INITIATIVE, WISCONSIN, SOME OF THESE OTHER STATES. PELOSI IS SITTING THERE THINKING, I DON'T KNOW IF I WANT TO MESS AROUND RIGHT NOW. MAYBE WE CAN WIN THESE STATES. WHAT THEY DON'T WANT TO AWAKEN IS YOU. THEY DON'T WANT TO AWAKEN THE MILLIONS OF AMERICANS WHO ARE EITHER NOT INVOLVED OR ANNOYED BUT WOULD BECOME VERY MUCH MORE ACTIVE AND SHE KNOWS THAT AND SHE'S CONCERNED ABOUT THAT. THAT'S WHY YOU HEAR SOME COMMENTATORS SAY, GO AHEAD, TRY TO IMPEACH THEM. BECAUSE THERE'S MILLIONS OF PEOPLE, YOU ARE TRYING TO IMPEACH THE PRESIDENT FOR WHAT? WE JUST HAD AN INVESTIGATION, THERE IS NO COLLISION. SHE'S WALKING A FINE LINE THAT I THINK IF SHE COULD IMPEACH HIM SHE WOULD. SHE WANTS TO GET THE NUMBERS DOWN I THINK OF TO GET THEM DOWN THEY WILL TRY. YOU SEE HOW WEIRD THIS IS. WE HAVE AN ELECTION COMING UP.
IN LESS THAN TWO YEARS. YOU DON'T NEED TO IMPEACH ANYBODY. PARTICULARLY SINCE THE SENATE IS NOT GOING TO REMOVE HIM. IT'S ALL A FAN DANCE. THEY ARE TRYING TO FIGURE OUT WHETHER THEY IMPEACH HIM TO MAKE SURE HE DOESN'T WIN REELECTION OR JUST PRETEND THEY ARE INVESTIGATING BUT NOT IMPEACHING HIM TO TRY TO MAKE SURE HE DOESN'T WIN REELECTION. IN THE MEANTIME, CHINA IS ON THE MOVE, IRAN IS ON THE MOVE, NORTH KOREA IS ON THE MOVE, ALL THESE COUNTRIES ARE ON THE MOVE. IN THE MEANTIME, THERE'S A DISASTER ON THE BORDER, THEY DON'T CARE, THEY ARE NOT FOCUSED ON THAT, AND I THINK THAT'S WHAT THE REPUBLICANS NEED TO FOCUS ON. [APPLAUSE]
>> DOES HE GET REELECTED? >>. [SHOUTING] [CHEERING] >> I'M NOT NOSTRADAMUS, FIRST OF ALL. [LAUGHTER] I THINK IN THE END THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ELECT HIM PRESIDENT THE UNITED STATES AGAIN. I THINK HE DESERVES IT. [CHEERING] [APPLAUSE] BUT I DON'T THINK IT'S A SURE THING AND I DON'T THINK THEY THINK IT'S A SURE THING EITHER. WHAT YOU THINK THERE'S OPEN BORDERS? WHY DO YOU THINK RED STATES ARE BECOMING PURPLE. WHAT YOU THINK PURPLE STATES ARE BECOMING BLUE? WHY DO YOU THINK RONALD REAGAN COULDN'T GET ELECTED DOG CATCHER IN THE STATE TODAY? OR COLORADO HAS GONE BLUE, OR NEVADA HAS GONE BLUE. WE ARE RUNNING OUT OF STATE. SO I THINK IT'S A PROBLEM. BY THE WAY, AS A FOOTNOTE, THIS IS WHY I AM ANNOYED BY SOME OF THESE PSEUDO-CONSTITUTIONAL CONSERVATIVES WHEN THE PRESIDENT IS TRYING TO SECURE THE BORDER.
I TAKE A BACKSEAT TO NOBODY WHEN IT COMES TO THE CONSTITUTION. YOU HAVE A NATIONAL EMERGENCY ACT OF 1976 THAT HAS BEEN USED OVER 50 FARMS DUMB AT TIMES. DID YOU EVER HEAR THE PSEUDO-CONSTITUTIONAL ASSERTIVE'S USED OBJECT? THEY DIDN'T EVEN KNOW THE LAW EXISTED, AS A MATTER FACT. THE PRESIDENT IS USING STATUTORY AUTHORITY, HE'S USING THE BUDGETARY AUTHORITY, HE'S USING ALL THE RELEVANT AUTHORITIES THAT HAVE BEEN USED BY OTHER PRESIDENTS. THERE ARE ASPECTS OF THAT LAW I DON'T LIKE BUT IS NOT USING THE ASPECTS OF THAT LAW THAT I DON'T LIKE. SO WE CAN HAVE INSTRUCTION ABOUT THAT. ALSO THIS TARIFF THING, I'M NOT A BIG TARIFF GUY EXCEPT WHEN IT COMES TO CHINA AND I THINK CHINA IS THE ENEMY. CHINA NEEDS TO BE ADDRESSED. ECONOMICALLY, AND MILITARILY. [APPLAUSE] CHINA IS NOT A JOKE, CHINA IS GOING TO BE THE NUMBER ONE SUPERPOWER IF THIS PRESIDENT IS NOT REELECTED. I'M GOING TO TELL YOU THAT RIGHT NOW. THAT SAID, HE'S NOT USING, HE MIGHT BE SAYING HE'S USING TARIFFS ON TRADE WITH CHINA THE WAY I LOOK AT IT, IS USING IT FOR NATIONAL SECURITY BECAUSE THEY KEEP STEALING OUR STUFF AND THAT'S A GOOD ENOUGH REASON. WHEN YOU LOOK AT MEXICO, THIS IS A NATIONAL SECURITY PROBLEM. WE HAVE MILLIONS OF PEOPLE TRYING TO GET INTO THIS COUNTRY IN THE COMMUNITIES YOU HAVE HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE BEING RELEASED IN THE COMMUNITY. THE MAYORS DON'T KNOW, THE CITY COUNCIL DON'T KNOW, THE COMMUNITY DOESN'T KNOW. A FIVE PERCENT TARIFF I HEAR PEOPLE SAY, YOU KNOW WHAT THAT'S GOING TO DO TO THE COST OF GOODS?
I KNOW WHAT THAT'S GOING TO DO IS TO DRIVE UP THE COST OF GOODS. 1. 1 ILLEGAL ALIENS ARE GOING TO DO THIS COUNTRY? IT'S GOING TO DRIVE UP THE COST OF PROPERTY TAXES AND SCHOOLING A LAW ENFORCEMENT AND HEALTHCARE. THIS ISN'T A COSTING TO ME, THIS IS A PRESIDENT WHO'S GETTING NO HELP FROM THE DEMOCRATS.THE REPUBLICANS WHEN THEY CONTROL THE SENATE OF THE HOUSE DIDN'T DO A DAMNED THING TO SECURE THE BORDER. AND SHE'S TRYING TO FIX IT. [APPLAUSE]
>> ON THE SOUTHERN BORDER I REMEMBER ABOUT A MONTHS WORTH OF TIME. >>. [INAUDIBLE] [LAUGHTER] I'M JUST KIDDING. HE ALREADY BOUGHT IT, IT DOESN'T MATTER. I'M KIDDING. >> IT USED TO BE, YOU MIGHT REMEMBER, THE SOUTHERN BORDER PROBLEM WAS A MANUFACTURED CRISIS. >> FOUR MONTHS AGO. NOW IT'S, OKAY MAYBE IT'S A CRISIS BUT IT'S YOUR FAULT MR. PRESIDENT. HOW DID WE GO FROM THERE TO THERE?
>> BECAUSE THEY LIVE. ONE OF THE LINES THEY WERE USING ON THIS PRESIDENT WHEN THEY WERE SEPARATING CHILDREN FROM ADULTS BECAUSE THE DEMOCRATS, SEPARATING CHILDREN FROM THEIR PARENTS. WE NOW KNOW AND ALMOST 40% OF THE CASES THEY WORK TO THEIR PARENTS. THEY WERE TRYING TO FIGURE OUT IF THESE WERE PREDATORS, PERVERTS, WHAT'S GOING ON HERE? YOU CAN'T JUST SEND THE LITTLE KIDS ON WITH THESE ADULTS, WE DON'T KNOW WHO THEY ARE AND WE DON'T EVEN KNOW HOW TO GET INFORMATION ON A LOT OF THEM. BUT IT WAS CURIOUS TO ME WHEN THEY SAID IT'S LIKE TRAINING CAMPS. BECAUSE I WANTED TO REMIND THEM IT WAS THEIR GREAT HERO FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT WHO ACTUALLY SET UP INTERNMENT CAMPS AND PUT JAPANESE-AMERICANS AND AMERICANS OF JAPANESE DESCENT IN A INTERNMENT CAMPS. WHEN YOU LOOK AT MOST OF THE REAL HORRORS DONE IN THIS COUNTRY, IS THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY AND MORE RECENTLY THE LEFT THAT IS ABUSED POWER. SO TRUMP TO SET UP INTERNMENT CAMPS, THAT WOULD BE YOUR HERO FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT. WHEN HE WAS TRYING TO DO AND WHAT THEY ARE TRYING TO DO IS MAKE SURE THOSE KIDS ARE SAFE. BECAUSE THEY DON'T KNOW WHO THEY ARE WITH. IT'S RATHER STRANGE TO HAVE A POLITICAL PARTY bbI CAN TALK ABOUT THE REPUBLICANS TOO, IT'S RATHER STRANGE TO HAVE POLITICAL PARTY IN THIS COUNTRY THAT HATES THE COUNTRY. I TOLD HIM VERY PROVOCATIVE WHEN I SAY THESE THINGS BUT I DON'T CARE.
YOU HAVE A DEMOCRATIC PARTY THAT PUTS PARTY FIRST. THAT'S WHAT THE HARD LEFT DOES. 31ST. I DON'T PUT REPUBLICAN FIRST, DO YOU? WE ARE AMERICANS. WE PUT THE COUNTRY FIRST. I TALKED ABOUT AMERICANISM. THEY PUT THE PARTY FIRST. THE PARTY THAT ATTACKS THE MOST SUCCESSFUL ECONOMIC SYSTEM ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH, THE BEST HEALTHCARE SYSTEM ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH, THE MOST BENEFICENT LAW ENFORCEMENT ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH, THE MOST COURAGEOUS MILITARY ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH, THE CONSTITUTION ITSELF DESTROYING IT WHILE THEY WAITED AROUND, WHAT KIND OF A PARTY IS THIS? LISTEN TO THESE CANDIDATES WHO ARE RUNNING, A SYSTEMICALLY RACIST COUNTRY WHEN PEOPLE SOUTH OF THE BORDER WHO DON'T HAPPEN TO BE CAUCASIAN ARE TRYING TO POUR INTO THIS COUNTRY BY THE MILLIONS, WHY WOULD THEY TRY TO COME INTO A SYSTEMICALLY RACIST COUNTRY? WHERE YOU HAVE PEOPLE TRYING TO COME INTO THIS COUNTRY TO MAKE A LIVING AND THEY TALK ABOUT THE WAGE GAP. FIRST OF ALL, WHAT WAGE GAP? GET OFF YOUR ASS AND EARN WHATEVER YOU WANT TO. THERE ISN'T A WAGE GAP. [APPLAUSE] ANYWAY. I SPEAK FOR MYSELF, NOT THE REAGAN LIBRARY. [LAUGHTER] IT'S WELL KNOWN. >> DO YOU BELIEVE bb THEY SAY TRUMPS TWEETS ARE OFFENSIVE. NOT TO ME. [LAUGHTER]
>> DO BELIEVE THESE NUMBERS RECENTLY ABOUT THE SURVEYS SHOWING 51 PERCENT OF OUR NATIONS LUNG YOUNG bbNATIONS YOUNG PEOPLE ARE IN FAVOR OF SOCIALISM? DO THEY KNOW WHAT'S SOCIALISM IS? >> YES AND NO, THEY FAVORITE, YES. THAT'S LIKE ASKING IF SEVEN EUROS FAVOR SANTA CLAUS. I SUPPOSE THEY DO. IF YOU ARE ACTUALLY A LITTLE MORE SOBER AND THINK THINGS THROUGH A LITTLE BIT, WHAT DOES SOCIALISM CREATE? NOTHING. SOCIALISM IS AN IDEOLOGY. CAPITALISM IS A REALITY. CAPITALISM IS ABOUT COMMERCE AND TRADE. NOBODY INVENTED CAPITALISM. PEOPLE VOLUNTARILY CAME TOGETHER, THEY TRADED, THERE WAS COMMERCE, PEOPLE WANTED SOME THINGS, PEOPLE CREATED SOME THINGS. WE DIDN'T NEED A MARQUES. IS THERE SOMEBODY WHO CREATED CAPITALISM OUT THERE THE WAY MARQUES CREATED MARXISM? NO. IT'S A CALL SINCE THEN THE HUMAN CONDITION THAT EXISTS. NATURAL LAW, INDIVIDUAL FREE WILL, THINGS OF THAT, CAPITALISM IS ABOUT WHAT'S BETWEEN YOUR EARS. CREATIVITY, MAKING SOMETHING BETTER THAN IT IS. SOCIALISM IS ABOUT GOVERNMENT. REDISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH. PUNISHING PEOPLE, TAKING FROM PEOPLE, DOING ALL THESE OTHER THINGS. SO CAPITALISM IS NOT TAUGHT IN OUR UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES, IT'S NOT TAUGHT IN OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
IT NEEDS TO BE. BUT THEY HAVE A MONOPOLY OVER OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES, MOSTLY DUE TO TENURE AS A MATTER FACT. THE MOST YOUNG PEOPLE BELIEVE IN SOCIALISM? YES. NOT ALL. BUT MOST. IT ALSO, DO THEY KNOW WHAT IT IS? NO. BECAUSE ON ONE HAND THEY OPPOSE AUTHORITY. ON THE OTHER HAND THAT'S A AUTHORITARIAN. I'VE BEEN THINKING ABOUT THIS A LOT AND THAT'S ACTUALLY, HE DID TELL YOU, MY NEXT BOOK I BEEN THINKING ABOUT A LOT. [LAUGHTER] AGREEMENT HAVE A TITLE FOR IT I'M JUST KIDDING. I WILL ANNOUNCE IT HERE SO ANY OF THE BACKBENCHERS YOU MY WITNESS. ACADEMIC UNFREEDOM. BECAUSE I THINK THAT'S WHAT'S GOING ON IN THE COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES. THAT'S A MONOPOLY WE HAVE TO DEAL WITH. AND BECAUSE IT'S LACED WITH GOVERNMENT, THE GOVERNMENT CAN DEAL WITH IT. WHAT I MEAN BY THAT IS WE SUBSIDIZE AROUND DEMISE. WE SHOULDN'T LEAVE IT TO FACULTY TO CHOOSE OTHER FACULTY. THERE OUGHT NOT BE ONE OR TWO YEARS AFTER WHICH YOU GET TENURE. IT DOESN'T WORK THAT WAY ANYWHERE ELSE IN THE WORLD. I GOT TO THINK IT THROUGH BUT I WANT TO ADDRESS THAT ONE DAY. WE REALLY SHOULD BE ABLE TO ADDRESS YOUNGER PEOPLE WITH THE MESSAGE OF LIBERTY.
BECAUSE I THINK YOUNG PEOPLE CAN BE ATTRACTED TO LIBERTY. I DON'T MEAN JUST LIBERTY IN SMOKING POT OR WHATEVER IT IS. I MEAN LIBERTY AS A HUMAN CONDITION. CAN YOU NAME, THIS IS RHETORICAL, CAN YOU NAME ANY LIVING REPUBLICANS IN THE SENATE OR THE HOUSE TO TALK ABOUT LIBERTY? NO. THEY TALK LIKE THIS ALL THE TIME. SOME OF THEM UNSPOKEN HERE SO I WILL CREATE ANY PROBLEMS. AND THEY THROW IN WITH BIG GOVERNMENT AND THEY ARE OKAY WITH THAT. NOBODY TO LIBERTY. BUT WHAT DOES LIBERTY MEAN? WHY IS LIBERTY IMPORTANT? HOW DOES THAT CREATE OPPORTUNITY? HOW DOES THAT CREATE WEALTH. INSTEAD WE GET FREE STUFF. WHEN WE SAY FREEDOM WE DON'T MEAN FREE STUFF. WE DON'T HAVE A PUBLIC DISCUSSION, THE LEFT DRIVES THE PUBLIC DISCUSSION, THEY DRIVE THE DISCUSSION AND COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES AND THEN WE ARE SHOCKED WHEN 51 PERCENT OF THE PEOPLE UNDER THE AGE OF 21 BELIEVE IN SOCIALISM. HAS ANYBODY EXPLAINED THE OPPOSITE TO THEM? NO.
>> YOU GOT SOME FAMILY LIVING IN CALIFORNIA, YOUR FRIENDS IN CALIFORNIA, A LOT OF FRIENDS HERE, YOU HURT MY LITANY OF PROBLEMS AT THE OUTSET. DO YOU THINK THERE IS HOPE FOR THE STATE? I KNOW YOU ARE 3000 MILES AWAY BUT YOU TALK ABOUT IT SOME, WHAT DO YOU THINK IT'S GOING? >> THE PROBLEM HERE IS THEY HAVE A CHOKEHOLD ON THE GOVERNMENT. AND THEY REDRESSED IT IN WAYS THAT THEY ENSURE THE REELECTION. THE ACTUALLY CHANGE THE DEMOGRAPHICS AND THE POPULARITY OF THE STATE, THEY CHANGE THE VOTING IN THE STATE. SO IF THE REPUBLICAN LOSES THEY KEEP COMING UNTIL A DEMOCRAT WINS.
[LAUGHTER] YOU HAVE EVERY ASPECT OF A TYRANNY IN THIS STATE. AND IT'S VERY HARD TO BREAK THROUGH. AND PEOPLE LIKE SCHWARZENEGGER AND OTHERS WHO WERE REALLY FOCUSED ON SELF AND NOT FOCUSED ON PROPER GOVERNANCE. THIS STATE WAS REALLY, TO BRAG FOR ALL AROUND THE WORLD YOU HAD CONSERVATIVE REPUBLICAN GOVERNORS. MOSTLY REPUBLICAN LEGISLATURES. YOU PEOPLE MOVING TO CALIFORNIA WAS THE STATE OF OPPORTUNITY. WHEN I WAS GROWING UP IN PENN STATE, EVERYBODY WANTED TO COME TO CALIFORNIA. IT'S A COMEDY WAS HOT, YOU HAD, IT'S STILL IS A BEAUTIFUL STATE. IT WAS A STATE THAT EVERYBODY WANTED TO GO TO. NOW IT'S A STATE EVERYBODY WANTS TO LEAVE. THAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THEM AND US. YOU LOOK AT FLORIDA, EVERY IS MOVING TO FLORIDA RIGHT NOW. THEY HAVE NO INCOME TAX. THE DEMOCRATS KEEP TRYING TO PUT AN INCOME TAX. THERE'S FOUR OR FIVE STATES THAT HAVE NO INCOME TAX. BUSTLING STATES, PEOPLE ARE MOVING TO THOSE STATES. WHAT GETS ME THOUGH IS THAT YOU HAVE PEOPLE WHO THEY SPEND THEIR HOME LIFE IN NEW YORK OR NEW YORK CITY, THEY VOTE DEMOCRAT, VOTE DEMOCRAT, VOTE DEMOCRAT TO GET A BIG PENSION, THEY MOVED TO FLORIDA AND BOAT DEMOCRAT. I CALL THEM LOCUSTS. [APPLAUSE] YOU HAVE ONE CRAZY PROPOSAL AFTER ANOTHER COMING OUT OF YOUR LEGISLATURE. SO CRAZY THAT YOUR FORMER CRAZY GOVERNOR BROWN HAD A VETO SOME OF THAT. I'M CRAZY BUT YOU ARE EVEN CRAZIER THAN I AM. LIKE THE ENORMOUS AMOUNT OF MONEY ON THE RAILWAY.
PEOPLE SHOULD GO TO PRISON FOR STUFF LIKE THAT. THEY REALLY SHOULD. THIS IS THE IDEOLOGY OF THE LEFT. IT'S LIKE OBAMACARE, OBAMACARE bbIT WAS NEVER SOLVE EVERYTHING. NOBODY SAYS A WORD ABOUT OBAMACARE. IT'S MEDICARE FOR ALL. LOCUSTS. THEY DESTROY ONE THING, THEY MOVE ONTO THE NEXT THING AND HAVE YOU READ THE FIRST CHAPTER OF MY BOOK, THE MINDSET IS THIS. YOU ALWAYS HAVE TO GIVE UP MORE OF YOUR WEALTH AND MORE OF YOUR FREEDOM BECAUSE THEIR PROPOSALS ARE IMPOSSIBLE. THEY CANNOT WORK. BUT THEY ARE NOT bTHEY DO NOT BLAME THEMSELVES. THEY BLAME THE PEOPLE RUNNING IT OR THE POPULATION BUT WE DIDN'T HAVE ENOUGH RESOURCES OR THERE'S TOO MANY RICH PEOPLE, WHATEVER IT IS. IT'S NEVER THEIR IDEOLOGIES SO WHAT DO THEY DO? THEY DOUBLE DOWN, DOUBLE DOWN, DOUBLE DOWN AND LIVE. MEDICARE IS MEDICARE FOR NOBODY. WHAT THAT MEANS IS NO MEDICARE, NO PRIVATE HEALTHCARE, AND BERNIE SANDERS IS IN CHARGE. THAT'S WHAT THAT MEANS. [LAUGHTER]
>> I WANT TO TURN IT TO THE AUDIENCE TO ASK QUESTIONS. I BET YOU THERE IS A BUNCH. WE HAVE STAFF GOING TO ALL THE AISLES THAT HAVE A MICROPHONE, IF YOU HAVE A QUESTION, RAISE YOUR HAND AND WE WILL START RIGHT OVER HERE. >> THANKS FOR TAKING MY QUESTION. IT WAS A QUESTION YOU ASKED, MARK, THEY DIDN'T KNOW HE ANSWERED CORRECTLY WHEN YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT BILL BARR AND HIS INVESTIGATION AND WHERE THAT WAS GOING TO LEAD AND WHAT HE THOUGHT MIGHT COME OF THAT.
>> I GOT RAMBLING I FORGOT. [LAUGHTER] I THINK WE HAVE A SHOT AT IT. I THINK WE HAVE A GOOD SHOT AT IT. AND I THINK IT'S CRUCIALLY IMPORTANT, OBVIOUSLY, BECAUSE WHAT WE HAD HERE WAS THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION INTERFERING WITH THE LAST ELECTION. RUSSIANS ARE ALWAYS TRYING TO INTERFERE AND I'M NOT ONE OF THESE CODE PINK REPUBLICANS BECAUSE RUSSIA PASSED, PUTIN IS THE ENEMY, THEY ARE BUZZING OUR SHIPS, TRYING TO KNOCK OUT OUR SHIPS, THEY ARE PROPPING UP VENEZUELA EVEN THOUGH THEY PRETEND TO BE bOF VENEZUELA. PUTIN IS A MENACE, IS A PROBLEM, THE RUSSIANS ARE A MENACE, THEY ARE A PROBLEM. BY THE WAY, I KNOW RUSSIANS, MIGHT ANCESTORS ARE RUSSIANS. I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THEM TO QUESTION ME. [LAUGHTER] BUT THE GREATEST DANGER JEFFERSON TALKED ABOUT, LINCOLN, JOSEPH, IT'S A DANGER FROM WITHIN. WHEN YOU HAVE YOUR OWN GOVERNMENT PUTTING SPIES INTO ANOTHER CAMPAIGN, WHEN YOU HAVE YOUR OWN GOVERNMENT ABUSING THESE COURTS. WHEN YOU HAVE YOUR OWN GOVERNMENT TRYING TO TAKE OUT A CANDIDATE AND THEN A PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, YOU HAVE A HUGE PROBLEM ON YOUR HANDS. THE DEMOCRATS DO NOT WANT TO GET TO THE BOTTOM OF THIS, THE MEDIA DO NOT WANT TO GET TO THE BOTTOM OF IT BECAUSE THEY ARE INVOLVED IN IT. THE MEDIA, PEOPLE SAY TO ME, WHY WILL THE MEDIA AT LEAST ADMIT THEY WERE WRONG ABOUT THE RUSSIAN COLLISION? THEY WERE IN ON IT. WHY ARE THERE GOING TO ADMIT THEY WERE WRONG.
WHO DO YOU THINK THEY WERE LEAKING TO? THEY WERE LEAKING TO THE NEW YORK TIMES TWO YEARS AGO I POINTED OUT I WAS LOOKING AT THE NEWSPAPERS. THEY WERE IN ON IT. THE MEDIA IS IN ON IT. THE MEDIA ARE AN APPENDAGE OF THE DEMOCRAT PARTY. THEY PUSHED THE PROGRESSIVE AGENDA. THAT'S THE PROBLEM WITH THE MEDIA. LOOK. PEOPLE WANT TO FEEL GOOD AND WANT TO SAY, WERE TO GET TO THE BOTTOM OF THIS, PEOPLE ARE GOING TO GO TO JAIL. I DON'T KNOW BUT I WILL SAY THIS, IT'S A GOOD THING HE'S THE ATTORNEY GENERAL. HE USES THE RIGHT WORDS, PLAIN ENGLISH LIKE SPY. HE'S GOT A REAL U.S. ATTORNEY IN CONNECTICUT LOOKING INTO THIS. THE INSPECTOR GENERAL WHO WAS APPOINTED BY OBAMA BUT SEEMS TO BE A STRAIGHT SHOOTER WORRIED ABOUT HIM THERE ALREADY STARTING TO TRASH HIM. I'D SAY FINALLY WE ARE ON THE OFFENSE AND DEFENSE AND THAT'S A GOOD THING. [APPLAUSE]
>> HELLO, YOU TALKED ABOUT THE RADICAL CHOKEHOLD IN CALIFORNIA. SOME OF THAT HAS TO DO WITH VOTING AND THERE'S BEEN A LOT OF LEGISLATION THE bbALL OF THOSE THINGS THAT HAVE PASSED IN CALIFORNIA. HOW CAN WE CITIZENS, HOW CAN WE RESPOND TO THAT AND BREAK LOOSE OF THIS TO RADICAL CHOKEHOLD AT THE VOTING BOOTH AND OTHERWISE? >> I DON'T HAVE AN ANSWER FOR YOU. [LAUGHTER] IF I DID YOU WOULDN'T ASK ME THAT QUESTION. I DON'T HAVE AN ANSWER. IT'S A BIG PROBLEM. SOMETIMES THINGS HAVE TO COLLAPSE BEFORE YOU REBUILD THEM. THIS STATE IS HEADED FOR BANKRUPTCY. I WILL BE DAMNED AS A VIRGINIAN IF I'M GOING TO BAIL OUT ALL THE LEFT LANE COOKED DEMOCRATS IN THE STATE. [APPLAUSE] BUT I DON'T KNOW BECAUSE THE ONE-PARTY RULE STUFF IS VERY DIFFICULT TO BREAK THROUGH. YOU ARE RIGHT. ALL THE CHANGES TO VOTING HAVE BEEN MADE TO HELP THE DEMOCRAT PARTY. THE BORDERS OPEN TO HELP THE DEMOCRAT PARTY. IF THOSE WERE FUTURE REPUBLICANS POURING OVER THE BORDER CONVEYED REBUILDING 100 FOOT WALL WITH MOATS AND ALLIGATORS AND MACHINE GUNS AND EVERYTHING ELSE. BUT THOSE ARE FUTURE DEMOCRATS. AT LEAST THEY FEEL THEY ARE. SAME WITH THE CHANGES IN THE BORDER RULES. THEY ARE ALL INTENDED TO HELP THE DEMOCRATS HOLD THE POWER FOREVER. THAT'S WHY THEY WANT TO GET RID OF THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE, EXACTLY THE SAME THING. EVEN THOUGH THEY WOULD UNDERMINE THE WHOLE CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLICAN NOTION THAT'S IN THE CONSTITUTION THE DEMOCRATS AND THE MEDIA LIKE TO SAY COUNT THE VOTE. THE POPULAR VOTE, ONE PERSON ONE VOTE. EXCEPT FOR WHEN THEY LOSE. THEN IT'S, GO TO THE COURTS. OR GO TO THE PERMANENT BUREAUCRACY. IT REALLY IS AND IS JUST TO JUSTIFY THE MEANS FOR THAT PARTY AND TO THE LEFT. WE TAKE THE VOTE IF THEY WIN, REJECT THE VOTE IF THEY LOSE. SUPPORT THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE IF THEY WIN, OPPOSE IT IF THEY LOSE. GERRYMANDERING YES, IF THEY CAN USE IT, GERRYMANDERING KNOW IF THEY CAN. IT'S A VERY DANGEROUS PARTY. THAT'S BEEN TAKEN OVER BY A VERY RADICAL IDEOLOGY, THERE ARE VERY FEW SANCTIONS LEFT IN THAT PARTY, THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THESE RADICAL PROGRESSIVES AND OLD-TIME LIBERALS. THERE IS VERY FEW OLD-TIME LIBERALS LEFT IN THE DEMOCRAT PARTY.>> RIGHT HERE. >> HEY MARK, GIVEN JOE BIDEN WAS THE DUMBEST MAN TO EVER SERVE IN THE SENATE, AND DUMBEST MAN TO EVER SERVE AS VICE PRESIDENT, WHAT ARE YOU THINK HIS CHANCES ARE OF BECOMING THE DUMBEST MAN TO SERVE AS PRESIDENT?[APPLAUSE] >> IF HE IS ELECTED, HE WILL BE. [LAUGHTER] ALTHOUGH, THERE'S CARTER. [LAUGHTER] YOU NOTICE ALL THE REPUBLICANS ARE STUPID AT ALL BUT DEMOCRATS ARE NOBEL PRIZE WINNERS? YOU NOTICE THAT? HE'S GOT A SHOT AT IT. LOOK AT THE STAKES. WE HAVE FEWER AND FEWER OPPORTUNITIES OF WINNING. 25 YEARS AGO I REMEMBER READING THE ARTICLES BY HISTORIANS THAT SAID THE DEMOCRATS ARE GOING TO LOSE AS FAR AS THE EYE CAN SEE, IT WAS AFTER TWO REAGAN MASSIVE VICTORIES, THERE WAS JUST TOO MANY RED STATES. SO THE DEMOCRATS FIGURE, WE GOT TO CHANGE THESE STATES. AND HOW DO YOU CHANGE THE STATES? CHANGE THE POPULATIONS. IT'S LIKE YOUR STATE HERE, YOU WERE TALKING ABOUT IT. IT'S BECOMING SO DIFFICULT TO EVEN GET THE VOTE OUT, TO GET THE NUMBERS ARE COMING TO GET THE CHANGE, PEOPLE WASH THEIR HANDS AND THEY LEAVE. THEY GIVE UP ON THE SYSTEM WHILE THEY KEEP PUMPING UP THERE SIDE USING STATE LAW, FEDERAL LAW TO DO THAT, DOES JOE BIDEN HAVE A CHANCE? YES. A LOOK AT THESE POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS AS MILITARY OPERATIONS. I'M NOT TALKING ABOUT GUNS AND ALL THAT. I'M SAYING, ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE BUT WE REALLY HAVE TO BE SMART. THEY NOW KNOW THAT TRUMP WON WISCONSIN. IN MICHIGAN, MINNESOTA, AND SOME OF THESE OTHER STATES, BUT VERY FEW VOTE. DO NOT BELIEVE THOSE STATES ALONE THIS TIME. THERE CAN IMPORT RESOURCES AND MONEY INTO THOSE STATES. THEY ALREADY HAVE CREATED THIS CHARACTER AROUND JOE BIDEN. HOW IS JOE BIDEN A BLUE-COLLAR DEMOCRAT? THE GUY HAS BEEN IN GOVERNMENT FOR HALF A CENTURY. HE GETS OUT OF LAW SCHOOL AND HE WINS THE WILMINGTON CITY COUNCIL AT THE AGE OF LIKE 12. THEN HE GETS ELECTED TO THE SENATE AT 29, SWORN IN AT 30. BLUE-COLLAR bbWITH THE ELECTRICIAN IN BETWEEN? A PLUMBER IN BETWEEN? THEN THEY USED TO CALL HIM LUNCH BUCKET DRILL. LUNCH BUCKET JOE, WHEN DID HE CARRY A LUNCH BUCKET THIS DOCUMENT HE NEVER CARRIED A LUNCH BUCKET. THEY'VE CREATED THIS GUY LIKE HE IS BLUE-COLLAR JOE. HE'S A BLUE-COLLAR BILLIONAIRE IN OFFICE, THAT'S THE NAME I'VE GIVEN HIM. AND THE UNIONS SHOULD BE BACKING HIM TO THE HILLS. BECAUSE WHAT DO YOU THINK GREEN NEW DEAL IS ALL ABOUT? IT'S GOING TO DESTROY UNION JOBS, IT'S GOING TO DESTROY BLUE-COLLAR JOBS. IT'S GOING TO DESTROY THE BUILDING, THIS IS THE LANGUAGE THEY USE AND THEY IMPORTED THE STUFF FROM YORK. THEY WANTED TO D INDUSTRIALIZE AMERICA. IT'S ABOUT DE-GROWTH, THESE ARE WORDS THEY INVENT MUCH LIKE D TRAIN OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT OR DEPLANE. WORDS I NEVER HEARD OF BEFORE. WE SHOULD BE ABLE TO SECURE THAT WET. THEY THROWN IN WITH THE RADICAL ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT. THE RADICAL ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT HATES ASSEMBLY LINES. HATES SMOKESTACKS. HATES PROGRESS, HATES TECHNOLOGY. AND WE SHOULD EXPLOIT THAT BECAUSE THAT'S WHO THOSE PEOPLE ARE, TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTION, IT'S A PERFECT CAMPAIGN ALMOST PERFECT CAMPAIGN AND THE RIGHT ISSUES ARE RAISED HE IS TO FIGHT THROUGH THE MEDIA IS GOING TO BE AT HIM EVERY STEP OF THE WAY. I THINK TRUMP WILL WIN BUT DOES BIDEN HAVE A SHOT? OF COURSE BIDEN HAS A SHOT. AND HE IS SO STUPID. THE THING THIS GUY SAYS, HE JUST IS. THE THINGS THIS GUY SAYS, UNBELIEVABLE, NOBODY COULD GET AWAY WITH IT. bb [LAUGHTER] WHO EVEN TALKS LIKE THIS? OKAY. BUT THEY'RE GOING TO GIVE HIM A PASS AND PROTECT THEM. HIS SON IS ALL GUMMED UP IN CORRUPTION BUT THERE TO GIVE THEM A PASS, THEY'RE GONNA TRY TO PROTECT THEM. IT'S GOING TO BE UP TO THE PRESIDENT AND US TO GET THE MESSAGE TO OUR FELLOW CITIZENS. >> APPEAR IN THE BALCONY. >> THANK YOU MARK, YOU AND YOUR FAMILY COMING OUT HERE AND DOING WHAT YOU DO. MY QUESTION IS TWOFOLD, IT SEEMS LIKE THE DEMOCRATS ALWAYS RALLY AND THEY ALWAYS GET THE MEMO ON THE NEWS, ALL THE NEWS CHANNELS ARE ALWAYS TALKING THE SAME LANGUAGE, SPEAKING THE SAME TERMS AND THE REPUBLICANS PUT THEIR TAILS BETWEEN THEIR LEGS AND DON'T RALLY BEHIND OUR PRESIDENT. THAT'S MY FIRST QUESTION, IT'S VERY FRUSTRATING TO ME WHEN THEY FLIP-FLOP OUR OWN PARTY. NUMBER TWO, I BELIEVE SENATOR CRUZ MAY HAVE BROUGHT IT UP A WHILE AGO WITH THE CONVICTION OF EL CHAPO SAYING THAT WE COULD MAYBE SEIZE ASSETS IN EXCESS OF MAYBE $18 BILLION THAT WOULD PAY FOR THE WALL, MEXICO WOULD BE PAYING FOR THE WALL. COMMENTS ON THAT. [APPLAUSE] >> IN THE OLD DAYS WE WOULD HAVE SEEN MEXICO. NO OFFENSE. [LAUGHTER] [APPLAUSE] REMEMBER THE DAYS WHEN bb NEVERMIND. PATTON GOT A JEEP, REMEMBER THAT? HE PUT A MACHINE GUN ON THE JEEP. [LAUGHTER] AND HE CHASED THEM OUT OF TEXAS. I WAS ASKED BY BEN SHAPIRO THE OTHER DAY, WHO WERE ONE OF MY FAVORITE PRESIDENTS I SAID JAMES POULTON, YOU KNOW WHY? BECAUSE CALIFORNIA, ARIZONA, NEW MEXICO, AND OTHER PARTS OF THE UNITED STATES WERE SEIZED. AND BECAME PART OF THE UNITED STATES. SO I'VE ALWAYS HAD AN AFFINITY FOR JAMES POLK. [LAUGHTER] I'M NOT SURE HOW TO ANSWER YOUR SECOND PART OF YOUR QUESTION. THE FIRST PART OF YOUR QUESTION I LOOK AT GUYS LIKE MITT ROMNEY AND I SAY TO MYSELF bb THE SENATE IS FILLED WITH GUYS LIKE THIS. THE FIRST THING HE DOES IS HE COMES IN OFFICE AND WRITES AN OP-ED IN THE WASHINGTON POSTER TRASHING THE PRESIDENT. THEY KNOW TO GO TO MITT ROMNEY NOW TO TRASH THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES AND GOD REST HIS SOUL HE'S THE NEW JOHN McCAIN. HE WANTS TO BE THAT BECAUSE MAYBE HE HARBORS A DESIRE TO RUN AGAIN, I DON'T KNOW WHAT IT IS. HE COMES FROM A VERY RED STATE. IT'S BEEN AFFECTED BY A LOT OF WHAT'S GOING ON IN CALIFORNIA AND SOME OTHER STATES. YOU THINK YOU'D BE A LEADER FOR CONSERVATIVES AND HE'S NOT. PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES HAS TO FIGHT THESE PEOPLE. THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES STARED DOWN MEXICO WITH A FIVE PERCENT TARIFF AND THE REPUBLICANS ARE GOING TO THE MEDIA AND TALKING ABOUT, WE CAN'T DO THIS AND WE CAN'T DO THAT, MEANWHILE, WHAT THE HELL HAVE THEY DONE, MITCH McCONNELL HAS BEEN THERE FOR 112 YEARS, WHAT HAS HE DONE ABOUT THE BORDER? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. IT'S A BIG PROBLEM. AND YOU ARE RIGHT, THEY WOULD NEVER DO ANYTHING LIKE THIS TO OBAMA. EVER. NANCY PELOSI STARES AT ONE OF THEM, THEY MELT AND BACK OFF. KEVIN McCARTHY STARES AT ONE OF THEM AND THEY LAUGHED, QUITE FRANKLY. THEY DO WHATEVER THEY WANT TO DO. THE DEMOCRAT PARTY IS UNITED IN PROMOTING THE DEMOCRAT PARTY. THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IS JUST NOT A UNITED PARTY AND IN MANY WAYS. I OFTEN TELL MY WIFE, WE ARE GOING TO MISS TRUMP WHEN HE'S GONE. [APPLAUSE] AND I'M A REAGAN GUY. I'M ALSO A TRUMP GUY. [CHEERING] [APPLAUSE] [CHEERING] WE ARE GOING TO MISS HIM. BECAUSE HE'S NOT GEORGE W. BUSH. BECAUSE HE'S A FIGHTER. HE TAKES ON THE MEDIA. HE TAKES ON THE DEMOCRAT PARTY. HE TAKES ON INDIVIDUALS IN HIS OWN PARTY AND CALLS THEM AS HE SEES THEM. THIS IS WHAT DRIVES THEM NUTS. NUMBER TWO, COULD HE SAY THINGS A DIFFERENT WAY? YES, BUT HE DOESN'T WANT TO. MAYBE IF THEY STOP CALLING HIM HITLER AND STALIN AND MUSSOLINI AND WHITE SUPREMACIST AND ANTI-SEMI ANTIRACIST, MAYBE HE WOULDN'T CALL THEM NASTY. OR A KOOK. OR WHATEVER. HE DOESN'T CALL THEM THE NAMES THAT THEY CALL HIM ON A DAILY BASIS. BUT WE ARE GOING TO MISS HIM FOR A LOT OF REASONS. NUMBER ONE, HE FIGHTS. HE FIGHTS.[APPLAUSE] HE IS NOT A PHILOSOPHICAL CONSERVATIVE. BUT IN MOST WAYS HE IS A CONSERVATIVE. I DON'T MUCH CARE HOW HE GOT THERE. HE JUST GOT THERE. AND THAT'S FINE BY ME. [APPLAUSE] I ALSO KNOW HE IS NOT THEM. I ALSO KNOW HE LOVES THIS COUNTRY, I ALSO KNOW HE BELIEVES IN OUR ECONOMIC SYSTEM. I ALSO KNOW HE BELIEVES IN SOVEREIGNTY AND BORDER COUNTRY. I ALSO KNOW HOW HE TREATS ALLIES LIKE ISRAEL, I KNOW THIS IS A MAN bb [APPLAUSE] [CHEERING] HE KNOWS INFANTICIDE WHEN HE HEARS IT AND REJECTS IT. [APPLAUSE] HE HAS PUT MORE bON THE COURTS SINCE RONALD REAGAN. [APPLAUSE] HE'S NOT THEM. AND HE'S BETTER THAN THEM. HE IS ALSO NOT A RHINO. [APPLAUSE] SO HE MIGHT LOSE. BUT, YOU KNOW WHAT, SOMETIMES YOU LOSE AND THEN SOMETIMES YOU PICK UP YOUR PIECES AND WHEN THE NEXT ROUND. I'M VERY IMPRESSED WITH A LOT OF WHAT HE'S DOING. I TRY TO PUT MYSELF IN HIS OWN SHOES. COULD YOU WAKE UP EVERY DAY UNDER THE ATTACKS HE FACES? THREATS AGAINST HIS CHILDREN AND HIS FAMILY AND HIS TAXES AND HIS FINANCES, STATE OF NEW YORK TRYING TO TAKE AFTER HIM. ON AND ON AND ON. THIS IS A VERY REMARKABLE MAN IN MANY WAYS. [APPLAUSE] AND I KNOW SOME PEOPLE WOULD PREFER THAT HE SPOKE DIFFERENTLY. BUT HE TWEETED DIFFERENTLY. THAT HE DID ALL THESE THINGS DIFFERENTLY. I WOULD PREFER IF THE OTHER SIDE SPOKE DIFFERENTLY AND TWEETED DIFFERENTLY AND DIDN'T DO WHAT THEY DO. [APPLAUSE] ALL I KNOW IS, HE GOT ELECTED PRESIDENT AND MITT ROMNEY DID NOT. [CHEERING] AND JOHN McCAIN DID NOT. >> WE ARE NOT DONE YET. I KNOW THERE ARE MORE QUESTIONS. BUT MARK, BEFORE YOU LEAVE, HE BEEN HERE BEFORE WE'VE GIVEN YOU LIKE A REAGAN HAT AND A REAGAN JACKET AND THOSE THINGS, WE ARE NOT GOING TO LET YOU GO. >> I USE THOSE BY THE WAY. >> I KNOW YOU DO. MARK HAS A STUDIO CALLED THE REAGAN STUDIO AND IT'S FILLED WITH SOME EXTRAORDINARY THINGS AND I WAS TRYING TO THINK, WHAT CAN WE GIVE TO MARK AS A GIFT FOR COMING ALL THE WAY OUT HERE AND WE DECIDED. >> OH. >>. [LAUGHTER] >> IF YOU COULD UNCOVER THAT. THERE IS A STATUE. >> WOW. [CHEERING] [APPLAUSE] >> WHEN YOU VISIT THE UNITED STATES CAPITAL AND YOU GO INTO THE GREAT ROTUNDA YOU WILL SEE THIS STATUE OF RONALD REAGAN THAT'S GOING TO STAND THERE FOR THEIR THOUSAND YEARS. THIS IS A REPLICA OF THAT AND ON IT IT SAYS " TO MARK LEVIN, A TRUE AMERICAN. " THANK YOU MARK. >> THANK YOU, THAT'S BEAUTIFUL. >> THERE ARE NOT MANY OF THOSE. >> NO, THANK YOU. [CHEERING] [APPLAUSE] I DON'T KNOW IF TSA IS GOING TO LET ME BRING THAT ON THE PLANE. [LAUGHTER] THIS IS A MAGNIFICENT INSTITUTION. THIS IS A GREAT LIBRARY. I LOVE COMING HERE. THE HISTORY OF RONALD REAGAN IS SO CRUCIALLY IMPORTANT, HE TURNED THIS COUNTRY AROUND. HE DEFEATED THE SOVIET UNION. HE DID SO MANY THINGS THAT YOUNG PEOPLE NEED TO LEARN ABOUT SO IT IS A TREAT FOR MY FAMILY AND ME AND MY FRIENDS TO BE HERE. I CAN'T TELL YOU, JOHN HI BUSH IS ABSOLUTELY THE MOST FANTASTIC FRIEND. [APPLAUSE] AND MELISSA AND HIS STAFF ARE ABSOLUTELY UNBELIEVABLE TO DO SOMETHING LIKE THIS. BUT I WANT TO TELL YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART, TO SIT THERE AND BOOKS AND SEE ONE BEAUTIFUL PATRIOT AND AMERICAN AFTER THE OTHER, FROM EVERY WALK OF LIFE, FROM ALL OVER THE COUNTRY, FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD, LOOK AROUND, EVERY PIGMENTATION, GAY, STRAIGHT, CHILDREN, 91-YEAR-OLD, 97-YEAR-OLD PEOPLE WHO HAVE SERVED IN THE WAR AND PEOPLE WHO BEEN IN LAW ENFORCEMENT, I CANNOT TELL YOU HOW PROUD I AM WHEN YOU COME TO A PLACE LIKE THIS FOR ONE OF OUR NATIONAL TOWN HALL MEETINGS TO REINVIGORATE OURSELVES, THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO SHARE YOUR VIEWPOINTS WHO CARE ABOUT THIS COUNTRY AND SORRY WE HAVE TO MOVE QUICKLY BUT I TRY TO LOOK EVERY PERSON IN THE EYE AND TRY TO SHAKE EVERY PERSON TO DO THE BEST I CAN. [APPLAUSE] THE TO HAVE MY BEAUTIFUL WIFE BY MY SIDE, MY MOTHER-IN-LAW BY MY SIDE. [APPLAUSE] I WANT YOU TO KNOW SOMETHING, SOMETHING IS GOING ON IN THE SHOP I WAS IN NEW JERSEY 2000 PEOPLE SHOWED UP. I WAS ON LONG ISLAND, 2000 PEOPLE SHOWED UP. I WAS IN TYSONS CORNER VIRGINIA, 3000 PEOPLE SHOWED UP. AND ALL SAYING EXACTLY THE SAME THING YOU ARE, SOMETHING IS GOING ON. THERE IS ENOUGH OF US, WE SHALL OVERCOME. GOD BLESS YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. [CHEERING] [APPLAUSE] >> LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, WE ASK THAT YOU RESPECTIVELY REMAIN IN YOUR SEATS AND TELL THE LEVIN FAMILY HAS BEEN ESCORTED OUT. PLEASE REMAIN IN YOUR Show Less Text
*This transcript was compiled from uncorrected Closed Captioning.
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Mark Levin lauds Fox News opinion shows for attacking the Mueller probe
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3/19
- Sean Hannity even said that parents are in hospitals killing babies in gladiator-style entertainment. Needless to say, that is not happening.
- Death panels are back!The previous lie of the year about the Affordable Care Act has returned, with Fox host Mark Levin suggesting that "Medicare-for-all" will lead to senior citizens being murdered.
- A Fox contributor is arguing that "Medicare-for-all" would be communists
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dark $ mayer:
AFP hired LLF Mark levin (radio deal // beck) sez Mann can not do stats, “enviro-statists” 222 govt power grab.
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Friday, October 12, the Metropolitan Republican Club in New York City invited Proud Boys founder and right-wing media host Gavin McInnes to speak.
On his CRTV show (CRTV is the digital network run by Fox News host Mark Levin), McInnes advocates for revanchist positions: He's called for "a big memorial for all the whites," teamed up with a men's rights activist to attack Black women, talked about how great he thinks the patriarchy is, made disgusting remarks about LGBTQ people, argued that women don't belong in the workplace, and much more. McInnes' written work can best be described as attempting to forge new ways to be racist.
McInnes is also the founder of the Proud Boys. Proud Boys is a self-described “Western chauvinist” men-only fraternal organization. There are two crucial things to understand about the group: Misogyny and violence. Misogyny is the core operating principle of the group: Not only are women not allowed to join, they are not even allowed to be present when meetings take place. The group even has a ritual where members subject themselves to punches while naming breakfast cereals. To reach the inner sanctum of the group, a Proud Boy must engage in violence with anti-fascists. The group also has ties to white supremacists; the chief organizer of the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville was a Proud Boy, and when a white nationalist narrative goes viral, there's usually a link to the Proud Boys. In terms of finding members, Proud Boys has used Facebook and Infowars to recruit. If you had to sum up the Proud Boys, it would be to describe them as a pro-Trump street gang, the violent wing of the modern Republican Party.
After the event, Proud Boys assaulted three protesters; video shows "more than a dozen" Proud Boys, including at least three skinheads, punching and kicking protesters on the ground. The NYPD told Buzzfeed News that they were still "researching a response" as to why none of the Proud Boys were arrested even though there were officers on the scene. Video from the scene is horrifying.
As the beatdown happened, Fox News immediately put the blame onto left-wing protesters and portrayed the Proud Boys as the victims. There is no evidence whatsoever for that conclusion, and to the contrary, while Fox News warned of "swords and vandalism" at the event, the only sword was wielded by McInnes himself -- the event was to commemorate and reenact the execution of the Japanese socialist Inejiro Asanuma.
While shocking, Fox News' protection of the Proud Boys should come as no surprise. Fox News is explicitly deferential to the Proud Boys. They've interviewed McInnes on air without even identifying him.Tucker Carlson has posed for pictureswith Proud Boys and refused to distance himself from the group, and in fact has even echoed some of McInnes' rhetoric. A New York Post columnist recently arguedon Fox & Friends that the Proud Boys "don't have any real dark beliefs."
But it's not just right-wing media that gets the Proud Boys wrong. NBC News profiledthe Proud Boys in 2017 and made a series of mistakes, in the end only glamorizing the group. A New York Times headline about the melee merely labelled McInnes a "right-wing provocateur."
Trump has repeatedly incited violence at his rallies. Of course a pro-Trump group would take that call to action to the streets.
Amidst right-wing violence, conservatives complain about angry left-wing mob
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https://www.wnd.com/2017/03/mark-steyn-responds-to-firing-by-crtv/
bs
no lnx
WND EXCLUSIVE
MARK STEYN RESPONDS TO FIRING BY CRTV
Conservative star let go after 1 month on new network
Published: 03/05/2017 at 4:15 PM
There are strange goings on at CRTV, the new “conservative” online television network built largely around the personality of talk-show host Mark Levin.
A new show by Canadian conservative writer and talker Mark Steyn launched only a month ago has been summarily dropped without explanation, leaving Steyn bewildered.
“This has been a stunning and sobering week for me, with nothing quite like it before in my professional life,” he mused on his website this weekend. “Many viewers of ‘The Mark Steyn Show’ have asked me to write my account of what really happened. To be honest, I’ve found it easier addressing Trump’s joint address and the Obamas’ book deal and immigrant terrorists and immigrant gangs and almost any other subject – which is why I’ll be back on the telly next week, rather than sitting around the house getting slumped in despair.”
Steyn went on to say he has not fully processed what happened and it’s a matter of legal dispute.
Like the reporting you see here? Sign up for free news alerts from WND.com, America’s independent news network.
Earlier last week, Steyn tweeted that neither he nor his production firm had been paid byConservative Review, the business that owns CRTV.
“CRTV’s contract with Mark Steyn Enterprises has ended, and we will no longer be carrying the Mark Steyn Show,” a statement for Conservative Review reads. “CRTV wishes Mr. Steyn and his team the best in their future endeavors.”
But that’s not how Steyn sees it.
Find Out More >
65,727
“Actually, the contract is up on June 30th 2021. So @CRTV gave me 4 1/2 yrs notice,” he tweeted. “(But no severance.)”
The cancellation of the program was made at the behest of Cary Katz, CRTV’s principal investor and founder of the company. He’s a bit of a mystery man inside conservative circles, until recently supporting mostly establishment Republicans.
Katz built his fortune as founder of College Lending Corp., a private company that specializes in marketing loans to university students. It lent nearly $11 billion in 2008 but took a big hit thereafter with the advent of Obamacare, which abolished private-sector distribution of federal loan monies.
For his role in the venture, Levin was an adamant “Never-Trumper” during much of the 2016 campaign – along with Glenn Beck, whose fortunes have waned, at least in part, because of the strong “against-the-grain” approach on his radio show.
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also politico
If you’re a regular listener of Glenn Beck’s radio show and you wanted to contribute to a political group that would advance the populist conservative ideals he touts on his show, you’d have plenty of reason to think that FreedomWorks was your best investment.
But if you’re a fan of Mark Levin’s radio show, you’d have just as much cause to believe that Americans for Prosperity, a FreedomWorks rival, was the most effective conservative advocacy group. And, if Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity are who you listen to, you’d be hearing a steady stream of entreaties to support the important work of the Heritage Foundation.
“The point that people don’t realize,” said Michael Harrison, founder and publisher of the talk media trade publication TALKERS Magazine, “is that(big time political talk show hosts) are radio personalities – they are in the same business that people like Casey Kasem are in – and what they do is no different than people who broadcast from used car lots or restaurants or who endorse the local roofer or gardener.”That’s not coincidence. In search of donations and influence, the three prominent conservative groups are paying hefty sponsorship fees to the popular talk show hosts. Those fees buy them a variety of promotional tie-ins, as well as regular on-air plugs – praising or sometimes defending the groups, while urging listeners to donate – often woven seamlessly into programming in ways that do not seem like paid advertising.
The Heritage Foundation pays about $2 million to sponsor Limbaugh’s show and about $1.3 million to do the same with Hannity’s – and considers it money well spent.
“We approach it the way anyone approaches advertising: where is our audience that wants to buy what you sell?” Genevieve Wood, Heritage’s vice president for operations and marketing. “And their audiences obviously fit that model for us. They promote conservative ideas and that’s what we do.”
Last month, in the midst of a flurry of scrutiny of GOP presidential candidates’ stances on health insurance mandates similar to one included in the 2010 Democratic healthcare overhaul, Limbaugh took to the airwaves to defend Heritage’s past support for such a proposal.
“The Heritage Foundation to this day says they are being impugned and misrepresented in terms of their advocacy for such a thing,” Limbaugh said, explaining that the venerable think tank “abandoned the idea once they saw it implemented” and realized “it doesn’t work.”
Limbaugh, who has been a paid Heritage endorser since 2009, said the reversal did nothing to detract from the “profound … respect for Heritage. Heritage is the gold standard. Heritage was every bit as involved in Reaganism as Reagan was, and nothing’s changed.”
Levin,whose endorsement deal with the tea party organizing group Americans for Prosperitystarted last summer, was similarly protective of his sponsor last year after President Barack Obama singled out the group in making the case that anonymously funded attack ads were distorting the midterm elections.
“Americans for Prosperity is a magnificent organization that people join voluntarily. You. Me,” Levin said
. Obama, Levin continued, “wants you to hate Americans for Prosperity. So if he wants you to hate it, then you should embrace it, and promote it, and support it and join it, because it’s effective.”
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...Beck, lavishing praise on FreedomWorks’s new social network website this year, seemed to acknowledge the blurriness of the line between his show’s content and messages paid for by advertisers.
“This is a new thing from FreedomWorks and by the way, they are sponsor of this program and I have a commercial to do for them in, well, in just a few minutes. I don’t think they’re going to get one because this is pretty much it,” he said on his show, in a clip that’s posted on his personal website. “But it is something that I believe in, I’m not saying this because they’re paying me to do a commercial in a couple of minutes. This is something that I think is absolutely critical.”
To be sure, the hosts’ political perspectives dovetail with those of their endorsees and their paid sponsorships do not preclude them from discussing – or even praising – other groups.
And theintegration of sponsors and their causes into the content of conservative talkers’ shows is not unique to advocacy groups and think tanks, as Beck demonstrated in 2009 when he melded his frequent warnings of impending economic collapse with his promotion of gold, generally, and the precious metals retailer that sponsored his show, Goldline, specifically.
That prompted liberals – led by now-embattled Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner – to accuse Beck and, to a lesser extent, other conservative talk show hosts sponsored by gold retailers, of using misleading fear-mongering tactics “to cheat consumers.”
The increased willingness of non-profits to write big checks for such radio endorsements – which appears to have started in 2008, when Heritage paid $1.2 million to sponsor the talk shows hosted by Hannity and Laura Ingraham – seems to be a primarily, if not entirely, a conservative phenomenon.
That’s perhaps attributable to the enduring power of talk radio on the right, as well as a newer development, the explosion of grassroots engagement by tea partiers and other newly mobilized Republican activists, which has spurred a competition for grass roots support – and contributions - among conservative groups.
Heritage estimates that it in each of the past two years, its sponsorships with Limbaugh and Hannity brought in more than 40,000 new memberships starting at the $25 level, while FreedomWorks said that in the three months after its Beck sponsorship started in April 2010, the group saw a huge spike in traffic to its website (which featured a photo of Beck linked to a fundraising appeal), resulting in 50,000 new email sign-ups.
Americans for Prosperity wouldn’t divulge any details about its sponsorship of Levin,but board member Art Pope said the endorsement “makes AfP’s position on issues and policies more widely known and it also does attract grassroots activists or potential donors to AfP.”
The groups pay the companies that distribute the hosts’ shows, and not the hosts directly, for the endorsements.
While the deals differ, most provide the sponsoring group a certain number of messages or so called “live-reads,” in which the host will use a script, outline or set of talking points to deliver an advertisement touting the group and encouraging listeners to visit its website or contribute to it.
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Abramoff's Favorite Think Tank Schools Tea Partiers on Health Care
— By Stephanie Mencimer
| Tue Mar. 16, 2010 2:41 PM PDT— Flickr/andrewaliferis (Creative Commons).On Tuesday, tea partiers and other activists who came to Capitol Hill to protest the health care bill were armed with the usual array of signs demanding that Congress "Kill the Bill," comparing Obamacare to socialism and the usual rhetoric. But many of them were also toting a slick, hefty tome called, "Shattered Lives: 100 Victims of Government Health Care" that was being distributed at the rallies by the National Center for Public Policy Research. The report features an introduction by talk show host Mark Levin, the author of Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto, and is essentially a compilation of media health care horror stories--everywhere but in the U.S., which, of course, could provide tomes worth of material about the failures of the private health care system.The "Shattered Lives" stories come from Great Britain, Japan, Russia and South Africa, and read together, they do offer up some pretty horrible details about national health care. There's the British six-year-old whose brain tumor went undiagnosed for years because the National Health Service insisted in giving him painkillers for his headaches but not a brain scan. There's one about the guy who ended up pulling his own tooth with a rusty pair of plyers because he couldn't find a dentist.It's a gripping read, and the production values suggest that someone put up a big chunk of money to produce and distribute it to tea party activists far and wide. (Rally participants on Tuesday got free bound copies that cost $14.95 on Amazon.) There's reason to be suspicious. After all,NCPPR isn't just any public policy group. You might recall that not only has it done stealth research for tobacco companies, but it was also one of the nonprofit groups accused of helping the disgraced uber-lobbyist Jack Abramoff pimp his clients in exchange for big donations. The report doesn't say who paid for the work, but it has all the hallmarks of the usual corporate suspects.=Right-wing radio hate monger Mark Levin will receive an award at CPAC this year. We've put together a brief sampling of Levin's lies and vitriol:http://mm4a.org/1kAEtKp=srcwMark R. Levin is president of Landmark Legal Foundation.According to a biographical note on the website of the Young America's Foundation Levin "served previously in the Reagan Administration, including chief of staff to Attorney General Edwin Meese, Associate Deputy Attorney General of the United States, and Deputy Solicitor at the U.S. Department of the Interior. Mr. Levin is an expert on the U.S. Constitution and government ethics. He represented Mr. Meese during the Iran-Contra investigation and was a leading advocate for the impeachment of President Bill Clinton."[1]"He is an MSNBC legal analyst, a contributing editor of National Review, and a frequent contributor to the Washington Times and Human Events. Mr. Levin often appears on CNN's Crossfire, CNBC's Rivera Live, and Fox News Channel's Hannity & Colmes. Rush Limbaugh appointed Mr. Levin head of his 'legal division'," the biographical note states.Levin also hosts a radio show syndicated by ABC Radio Networks.[2]## External links- Young America's Foundation, "Biography: Mark Levin", undated, accessed March 2004.Categories: - - Media - Lawpro trump anti iran nuke deal ...http://mediamatters.org/tags/mark-levin--Levin: Media Matters is a “criminal enterprise”POSTED AT 7:44 PM ON SEPTEMBER 29, 2007 BYVia Johnny Dollar at OWatch, here’s no-holds-barred Mark Levin lambasting Media Matters and MoveOn.org (the “brownshirts of the Clinton crime family”==Thomhartmann.com / By Thom Hartmann [1]# The Right Wing Cult Machine ExposedApril 26, 2013 |
Far right Conservatism has become a cult, and Rush Limbaugh is its leader.
By definition, a cult is a group or sect bound together by adoration of the same thing, person, ideal, etc.
A cult promises you redemption. It tells you that if you do what it says, and as it believes, you will be protected from the evil people that are out to get you and the rest of society.
A cult purges the non-believers. And it actively tries to vilify all those who are not part of the cult, saying that they're doomed and destined to go to hell.
So how did Limbaugh become the leader of such a large, and influential, cult?
Like with any cult, the power that Limbaugh has over his flock as grown over time.
Right wing radio started out in conflict with mainstream society, and outside of mainstream politics.
What was once a little cult guided by Limbaugh has transformed into a massive cult that today has enveloped much of the Conservative movement.
So how did this transformation occur?
Well, like cult leaders do, Limbaugh offered up a theatrical flair, and accompanied that with a marketing genius.
He offered his followers redemption. He offered them protection from what he told them they should fear – liberals and feminists. He demanded ideological purity, and absolute devotion to the ideology of far-right "conservative" corporatism. And he vilified all those who didn't see things his way.
Limbaugh then managed to convince his followers that faith in his word was more important than facts. No matter what everyone else said, if Rush said it, it must be true. Only information that supports Limbaugh's positions can be believed, and everything else is just lies.
Since his first successes, he's been followed by a succession of other right-wing cult leaders, from Glenn Beck to Mark Levin to Alex Jones.
Which brings us to today.
Rush Limbaugh and the rest of the right-wing talk radio cult have conjured up such a large following that they're helping the Koch Brothers drive the polarization within the Republican Party, and within America's political discourse.
Ironically, so says Frank Luntz, a top Republican consultant and campaign guru.
Earlier this week, Luntz told a group of college students at the University of Pennsylvania that Limbaugh and his fellow right-wing talk-radio cult leaders are "problematic" for the Republican Party because they're responsible for the stark polarization within the party.
In a secret recording of his comments, Luntz can be heard saying that, "And they get great ratings, and they drive the message, and it's really problematic. And this is not on the Democratic side. It's only on the Republican side...[inaudible]. [Democrats have] got every other source of news on their side. And so that is a lot of what's driving it. If you take—Marco Rubio's getting his ass kicked. Who's my Rubio fan here? We talked about it. He's getting destroyed! By Mark Levin, by Rush Limbaugh, and a few others. He's trying to find a legitimate, long-term effective solution to immigration that isn't the traditional Republican approach, and talk radio is killing him. That's what's causing this thing underneath. And too many politicians in Washington are playing coy."
Basically, Luntz was saying that the right-wing media and its cult following are not serving the national political debate and not helping the Republican Party widen its appeal beyond its declining base of aging boomer cultists.
But no matter what Luntz says, Limbaugh and the rest of his right-wing media pals will continue to rally their followers, and continue to vilify those who dare think otherwise.
They will continue to paint President Obama as America's anti-hero, using terms like "socialist" and "Muslim" to further scare their cult followers into seeing things their way.
The good news is that there are still some semblances of a normal, and non-cult media in America.
Unlike the right-wing media, real media – and even progressive media – is not cult-like. It talks about ideas that are widely accepted (social safety net, clean environment, nondiscrimination, a solid middle class), and that are not in conflict with the rest of society.
It's not based on fear or faith. It's based on facts. And it respects other beliefs and ideas, instead of vilifying them.
And perhaps, most importantly, real media doesn't fear or hate our government, and certainly doesn't suggest we should be armed and ready to attack our own government.
Sadly, that cult is coming dangerously close to having complete control over the Republican Party and much of the political discourse in our country.
Thankfully, people are waking up and recognizing the far right-wing media for what it is: a cult.
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http://www.rightwingwatch.org/category/people/mark-levin
http://mediamatters.org/tags/mark-levin
Fair And Balanced? Fox News' Hour-Long Attack On Obama's "Green Agenda"
Blog››› October 8, 2012 5:55 PM EDT ››› JILL FITZSIMMONS
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2012/10/08/fair-and-balanced-fox-news-hour-long-attack-on/190458
===
...That’s the debate that broke out across the conservative movement last week when Politico revealed that the Senate Conservatives Fund (SCF), the right wing group targeting establishment Republican senators, had spent $427,000 to buy copies of Mark Levin’s four-year-old book Liberty or Tyrannyto distribute to donors. Not surprisingly, Levin is a big supporter of candidates backed by the SCF like Matt Bevin, the Tea Party challenger to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
The article in and of itself didn’t cause a furor. What did raise a ruckus was when Brad Dayspring, the spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC)tweeted it out, saying “WHOA! Senate Conservatives Fund spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to make Mark Levin’s book a bestseller.” That tweet created a political tempest
===http://www.rightwingwatch.org/category/people/mark-levin
===
http://en.:{wikipedia:(style="background-color:#ffff66;"):}:.org/wiki/Mark_Levin
Mark Reed Levin (born September 21, 1957) is an American radio host, lawyer, author, and political commentator who served in the Reagan administration. He is the host of The Mark Levin Show which, in the U.S, is a nationally-syndicated talk show, and he is President of the :{Landmark Legal Foundation:(style="background-color:#ffff66;"):}:. He has authored bestselling books and contributed to various media outlets. As of October 2009, Levin was listed as a Contributing Editor on the *National Review Online* website.[^^1]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Levin#cite_note-0)
Contents[hide] |
[edit] Biography
Mark R. Levin grew up in Cheltenham Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Levin graduated from Cheltenham High School and holds a B.A. from Temple University, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa and *magna cum laude*. Levin also earned a Juris Doctor from Temple University Beasley School of Law.
Beginning in 1981, Levin served as advisor to several members of President Ronald Reagan's Cabinet, eventually becoming Associate Director of Presidential Personnel and ultimately Chief of Staff to Attorney General Edwin Meese; Levin also served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education at the U.S. Department of Education, and Deputy Solicitor of the U.S. Department of the Interior.
He has practiced law in the private sector, and is president of Landmark Legal Foundation, a conservative public interest law firm founded in 1976 and based in Leesburg, Virginia.
Levin has participated in the Freedom Concerts, an annual benefit concert to aid the families of fallen soldiers, and he uses his radio program to promote the concerts.[^^2]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Levin#cite_note-1)[^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Levin#cite_note-2)3]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Levin#cite_note-2) Levin is also involved with Troopathon, a charity which sends care packages to soldiers serving overseas.[^^4]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Levin#cite_note-3)
In 2001, the American Conservative Union awarded Levin its Ronald Reagan Award.[^^5]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Levin#cite_note-4)[^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Levin#cite_note-5)6]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Levin#cite_note-5)
[edit] Radio broadcasting
Levin began his broadcast career as a guest on conservative talk radio programs. For many years he was a frequent contributor of legal opinions to *The Rush Limbaugh Show*, where Limbaugh referred to him on-air as "F. Lee Levin," a tongue-in-cheek reference to the famous defense attorney F. Lee Bailey. He was also a contributor to *The Sean Hannity Show* and eventually got a radio slot of his own on WABC, following Sean Hannity's program. Hannity has nicknamed Mark Levin "The Great One."[^^7]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Levin#cite_note-6)Levin and Hannity remain frequent contributors to each other's programs.
[edit] The Mark Levin Show
Levin began his radio hosting career in 2002 as a Sunday afternoon host on WABC. His radio show, a mix of political and social commentary from a conservative point of view, covers legal issues in some detail, including decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court. Levin follows the traditional talk radio model of taking listener calls throughout the show. In the fall of 2003, his show filled the 6-8 p.m. (ET) time slot. As of February 2, 2009, his show was expanded to three hours, namely, 6-9 p.m.[^^8]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Levin#cite_note-bystorm-7)
As of 2006, his show is syndicated by Citadel Media (formerly known as ABC Radio Networks) on over 150 stations and the SIRIUS XM Patriot channel. Levin's show has been rated number one in its time slot in New York, Chicago, Detroit, Dallas – Fort Worth and Washington, D.C..[^^8]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Levin#cite_note-bystorm-7) According to *Talkers Magazine*, The Mark Levin Show is one of the most-listened to radio talk shows, with more than 8.5 million listeners weekly.[^^9]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Levin#cite_note-talkers2010-8)
Levin's show has garnered some criticism, including from *New York Times* columnist David Brooks and former George W. Bush speechwriter David Frum, for being too aggressive and negative in his analysis.[^^10]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Levin#cite_note-Frum1-9)[^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Levin#cite_note-Frum2-10)11]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Levin#cite_note-Frum2-10)
Levin is known for punning the names of liberal politicians and liberal newspapers. Such puns include "Anthony's Weiner" for Rep. Anthony Weiner and the "Washington Compost" for the *Washington Post*.
[edit] Writer
[edit] Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto
Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto[^^12]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Levin#cite_note-11) was released on March 24, 2009, and became a No. 1 New York Times best seller for eleven of twelve weeks,[^^13]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Levin#cite_note-12) as well as No. 1 on Nielsen's BookScan.[^^14]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Levin#cite_note-13) It comes in at No. 2 on Amazon.com's list of bestselling books of 2009.[^^15]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Levin#cite_note-14) The book includes discussion of a variety of issues that, according to Levin, need to be addressed in the United States. Liberty and Tyranny has sold over one million copies according to Threshold Editions, the book's publisher.[^^16]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Levin#cite_note-HumanEvents1-15) Former federal prosecutor and fellow National Review Online author Andrew C. McCarthy wrote of Liberty and Tyranny in *The New Criterion*:
We are in the high tide of America’s Leftist ascendancy: the Obama evisceration of individual freedom and installation of authoritarian collectivism—at warp speed, driven by an ambition that would have made Woodrow Wilson and FDR blush. Against this tidal wave, Levin offers not so much a defense as a plan of attack, a clarion call to roll back the seas of Change.[^^17]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Levin#cite_note-NewCriterionMcCarthy-16)
Taking a contrary view, Steve Almond of *Salon* wrote that
the tantalizing beauty of a Mark Levin's text resides precisely in this ability to attribute any crisis of State to its nefarious indulgences. The current economic meltdown, for instance, should not be blamed on the psychotic greed of Wall Street, but on the State's deranged need to throw money at the poor and undeserving.[^^18]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Levin#cite_note-SalonAlmond-17)
[edit] Rescuing Sprite: A Dog Lover's Story of Joy and Anguish
In 2007, Levin released a book about his dogs, Pepsi and Sprite. Specifically, the book was about Sprite, a Spaniel mix that his wife and son persuaded him to adopt from the local shelter in 2004. The book was titled Rescuing Sprite: A Dog Lover's Story of Joy and Anguish[^^19]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Levin#cite_note-18). Rescuing Sprite chronicles Sprite’s health deterioration in 2006 and how Levin and his family dealt with their loss.
[edit] Men In Black: How The Supreme Court is Destroying America
Levin authored the bestselling book, Men In Black: How The Supreme Court Is Destroying America[^^20]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Levin#cite_note-19) in 2005, in which Levin advanced his thesis that activist judges on the Supreme Court (from all parts of the political spectrum) have "legislated from the bench." In her review of Men in Black[^^21]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Levin#cite_note-20), *Slate* magazine's legal correspondent and Canadian journalist Dahlia Lithwick wrote that "no serious scholar of the court or the Constitution, on the ideological left or right, is going to waste their time engaging Levin's arguments once they've read this book." In contrast, a review in the *Defense Counsel Journal* described Men in Black as “…a forceful indictment of what Levin identifies as an increasingly 'activist' court for amending our national Constitution in the guise of construing it.” [^^22]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Levin#cite_note-21)
[edit] References
- **^** "Mark R. Leving Archive on the National Review Online". http://author.nationalreview.com/?q=MjQyMg==. Retrieved 2009-10-22.[dead ^link]^
- **^** "Sean Hannity, Freedom Concert comes to Nokia Theatre". http://www.thechronicleonline.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=572&Itemid=348.[dead ^link]^
- **^** "Montgomery Gentry loves country and sings for "Freedom"". New York Daily News. 2007-09-11. http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/2007/09/11/2007-09-11_montgomery_gentry_loves_country_and_sing.html. Retrieved 2009-12-04.
- **^** "Troopathon Homepage". Move America Forward. http://www.troopathon.org/index.php. Retrieved 2009-12-04.
- **^** "CPAC Pleased to Present Annual Reagan Award". The American Conservative Union. http://www.conservative.org/pressroom/2008/080220pr.asp. Retrieved 2009-12-04.[dead ^link]^
- **^** "Ronald Reagan Award Presented to Landmark's President Mark Levin". Landmark Legal Foundation. http://www.landmarklegal.org/DesktopFrame.aspx?frame=LONGTEXT&itemid=375. Retrieved 2009-12-04.
- **^** Mark Levin Retrieved 2010-08-28.
- ^ a(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Levin#cite_ref-bystorm_7-0) b(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Levin#cite_ref-bystorm_7-1) Jeffrey, Terence; Allan Ryskind (2006-10-02). "Mark Levin Takes Talk Radio by Storm". Human Events. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3827/is_200610/ai_n17193209. Retrieved 2007-09-16.
- **^** "The Top Talk Radio Audiences". Talkers magazine. September 2010. http://talkers.com/online/?p=71. Retrieved 2010-09-14.
- **^** Frum, David (2009-08-13). "The Reckless Right Courts Violence; Hysterical Talk from TV and Radio Hosts May Be a Cynical Marketing Exercise. But It's Getting Too Dangerous to Ignore". The Week. http://www.theweek.com/bullpen/column/99474/The_reckless_Right_courts_violence. Retrieved 2009-10-17.
- **^** Frum, David (2009-03-07). "Why Rush is Wrong: The party of Buckley and Reagan is now bereft and dominated by the politics of Limbaugh. A conservative's lament.". *Newsweek*. http://www.newsweek.com/id/188279. Retrieved 2009-10-17.
- **^** ISBN 1-41656-285-0
- **^** "Hardcover Nonfiction". The New York Times. 2009-06-21. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/21/books/bestseller/besthardnonfiction.html?ref=bestseller.
- **^** Nielsens Bookscan *Liberty and Tyranny*, April 9, 2009
- **^** Amazon.com
- **^** Vivian, Jordan (2009-09-15). "*Liberty and Tyranny* Sells a Million". *Human Events*. http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=33558. Retrieved 2009-09-21.
- **^** McCarthy, Andrew (2009-05). "The Work of Generations". *New Criterion*. http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/The-work-of-generations-4086. Retrieved 2009-10-08.
- **^** Almond, Steve (2009-09-12). "Glenn Beck is the future of literary fiction". *Salon.com*. http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2009/09/12/rightwing_bestsellers/print.html. Retrieved 2009-09-24.
- **^** ISBN 1-41655-913-2.
- **^** ISBN 0-89526-050-6
- **^** Dahlia Lithwick, "The Limbaugh Code: The *New York Times* best seller no one is talking about.", *Slate*, April 1, 2005
- **^** "*Men in Black: How the Supreme Court is Destroying America*", Defense Counsel Journal , January 1, 2006.
[edit] External links
- Mark Levin Show, The Official Mark Levin Website
- marklevinshow feed
- The Official Mark Levin Show Audio Rewind
- Landmark Legal Foundation
- Mark Levin is on the air from NationalReview.com
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Levin"
Categories: American broadcast news analysts | American columnists | American Jews | American political pundits | Pennsylvania lawyers | American political writers | American Spectator people | American talk radio hosts | Conservatism in the United States | National Review people | School board members in the United States | People from Montgomery County, Pennsylvania | Radio programs on XM Radio | Reagan Administration personnel | Temple University alumni | United States Department of Education officials | 1957 births | Living people
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