Ingraham4 Bak
12 25 capt
ingrham41225
ESTB 2 25 fascist 6 25 ice la mart law
SOME BAK
SEE BAD TRINITY
MERRI OK
see war on xian bs
often // hannity? SEE BAD TRINITY
SAVANAH NICK S
see EXTRA JUD KILLING VENEZ SLF DEF
JRNL FAIL HOMAN 9 25
SEE HYPE FEAR GT REPACEMENT = CONSPIRACY
---
WOW ONE DAY NUMBER 1 DISINFO 2X
---
mma
Key Trump officials appeared on Fox networks more than 1,300 times in the first 300 days of his second term
Written by Isabella Sherk (https://www.mediamatters.org/author/isabella-sherk) & Harrison Ray (https://www.mediamatters.org/author/harrison-ray)
Research contributions from Tyler Monroe (https://www.mediamatters.org/author/tyler-monroe)
Published 12/04/25
:{:{Key officials in President Donald Trump’s second administration appeared on Fox networks over 1,300 times during his first 300 days back in office. Trump “border czar” Tom Homan led all officials with at least 133 appearances, while Fox News' Hannity led shows in airing the most appearances by Trump officials, with at least 158 interviews. Trump officials appeared on Fox networks on 290 (97%) of the administration's first 300 days.}:
Key Trump administration officials appeared at least 1,361 times on Fox networks
Media Matters looked at Fox appearances by key nominated or confirmed Trump officials during the administration’s first 300 days. Trump's “border czar” Homan remained (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/key-trump-officials-appeared-more-500-times-fox-networks-first-100-days-his-presidency) the most prominent administration official on the networks, appearing at least 133 times in total (he had logged 59 appearances when we assessed the first 100 days). White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller (82 appearances), National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett (75), and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin (74) followed. Trump himself has appeared on Fox News at least 26 times.
Top 10 key Trump officials on Fox networks (Clickhere (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4035301) for the full list)
:
Fox shows are a trusted platform for Trump administration interviews
Hannity far outpaced all other Fox shows, with at least 158 appearances by key Trump officials. At least 23 unique Trump officials appeared on the show, led by Miller (35 appearances), Homan (21), and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt (16).
Prime-time host Sean Hannity (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/guide-sean-hannitys-role-trumps-chief-white-house-propagandist) consistently served as a loyal booster for both his guests and the Trump White House, dedicating an entire section of his recent interview with Vice President JD Vance to praising the president’s “discernment” and claiming Trump’s energy levels are “beyond.”
Video file
Video
Citation
From the November 13, 2025, edition of Fox News' Hannity.
After Hannity, The Ingraham Angle had the most appearances (121 appearances), followed by Fox & Friends (111). In total, 436 (45%) of the 959 officials’ appearances on Fox News were on the network's evening programming (shows starting between 6 p.m. ET and 11 p.m. ET). Meanwhile, 587 (61%) of the appearances were on Fox News' opinion shows rather than the network’s supposed “news side.”
On Fox Business, Mornings with Maria Bartiromo (128 appearances), Kudlow (103), and Varney & Co. (76) featured the most appearances by key Trump officials. Fox Business served as a pliant venue for Trump's economic messaging, providing officials (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4029253) with a sympathetic (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4030274) platform (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4030541) to defend the administration's controversial and chaotic economic moves.
Top 10 shows on Fox networks with most appearances by key Trump officials
Former Fox employees who are now administration officials appeared at least 315 times
Several of the Trump officials featured on the Fox networks were also former Fox employees: former contributor Homan (133 appearances); former host-turned-Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy (65); former contributor-turned-FDA Commissioner Marty Makary (38); former contributor and White House national security adviser-turned-Ambassador to the United Nations Michael Waltz (28); former contributor-turned-Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard (27); and former Fox & Friends Weekend co-host-turned-Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth (24). In total, nearly a quarter (23%) of all key Trump official interviews across the two networks came from these 6 former Fox employees.
(Trump has tapped (https://www.mediamatters.org/donald-trump/comprehensive-review-revolving-door-between-fox-and-second-trump-administration) many other former Fox employees to be part of his second administration as well.)
Methodology...
---
smugly dumb
fellow Victor Davis Hanson discuss the COP30 conference, ...
Marc Morano scorches COP30 conference: 'This is a disaster' [Video] - AOL.com
AOL.com
An annual United Nations climate summit being held in the Amazonian city of Belém in Brazil is slated to include talks and appearances by California ...
INGRHAM Marc Morano scorches COP30 conference: 'This is a disaster' Video (https://www.aol.com/news/marc-morano-scorches-cop30-conference-033739077.html)
trump issues that matter, rockstar; has to bash trump; invas sp
JET AMBIT CLIM PREZ VAIN DUMB AS PLANT; GET MORTGAGE INSURE; TEQUL AT HOmE DURING FIRE; middle of winter, insurance GREENIAC CRaZIEST TP massive global CENSORSHIP regime GOOGLE PARTNER SQUELch DEBATE BC LOSE; UN WANTS TO CONTRoL ECON and energy IN 100 YES; TP IN BUCKET; FLUSH ECON AND FR SP; VIcT h d ctt cred censorhio regime is here; world passed them by king gustav bill gates NEWSOME IS A REACTIONARY; KING 6% COMEP BEAT US; ALTMAN AI NEED S 100 GIG; TRUMP PUMP OIL TO GET GAS DN, BANKRUPT ----iran russia lng europe p[als; AND _ RUSSIA? HATE 2ND mend want am to suffer; china chesh grin below cost built coal , nuke; wind expensive and ruin our economy; overfishing; predictions ice free by 2016; cooling 70’s block sun w pollut; another ice age bc ocean circ; species; added 47 yrs to tip pt.temp; king chls 100 mos; climate nut never say sorry never suffer conseq of grn; parochial irrelevant ; suffer bc our abundance 4th and #? poor ppl pay for dreamchasing?
---
Fox praised and validated Trump's legally questionable boat strikes in the Caribbean
Some at the network have been pressing for further US intervention – even regime change in Venezuela
Written by Jack Winstanley (https://www.mediamatters.org/author/jack-winstanley) & Emma Mae Weber (https://www.mediamatters.org/author/emma-mae-weber)
Published 10/29/25
Fox News has celebrated the Trump administration's lethal strikes against supposed drug smuggling boats in the Caribbean, despite concerns from legal experts over the strikes’ legality and bipartisan warnings from congressional members that they have seen no evidence to support the administration's claims that the strikes are targeting drug traffickers.
Along with championing the strikes — many of which have targeted boats coming from Venezuela — as “pretty spectacular” and a “great move” and praising the administration’s “aggressive” approach, some Fox figures and guests have gone so far as to suggest they would support regime change in Venezuela, claiming that the Maduro government is “part of the cartel.”
\Trump’s attacks on boats in the Caribbean draw legal questions from experts and legislators
The Trump administration has conducted numerous strikes in the Caribbean, attacking at least 13 boats and killing at least 51 people, claiming they are targeting the drug trade. President Donald Trump said of the strikes, many of which targeted Venezuelan boats, “It is violent and it is very — it’s amazing, the weaponry.” He has also hinted at further escalation, saying, “The land is going to be next.” Trump additionally authorized covert CIA action in the region, while the buildup of U.S. military assets in the region grows. The Guardian, \10/28/25 (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/28/latest-boat-strikes-caribbean-hegseth-trump); AP News, 10/24/25 (https://apnews.com/article/trump-cartels-hegseth-drugs-boat-strikes-6c3316b2852723e26c39dc701bba9d52); YouTube,
(https://youtu.be/UF_3m5QsZOk); Twitter/X, 10/23/25 (https://x.com/Acyn/status/1981453454150422794); The New York Times, 10/15/25 (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/15/us/politics/trump-covert-cia-action-venezuela.html), [10/8/25 (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/us/politics/venezuela-trump-qatar.html)]
:{:{Numerous legal experts say the killings are illegal.As The New York Times writes, “A broad range of specialists in laws governing the use of lethal force have called Mr. Trump’s orders to the military patently illegal. … The administration insists that the killings are lawful, invoking legal terms like ‘self-defense’ and ‘armed conflict.’ But it has offered no legal argument explaining how to bridge the conceptual gap between drug trafficking and associated crimes, as serious as they are, and the kind of armed attack to which those terms can legitimately apply.”}:
NPR noted that the Trump administration “has designated several South and Central American drug cartels and gangs as foreign terrorist organizations, but Congress has not authorized the use of force against them” and quoted a former State Department legal adviser, who said, “Outside of armed conflict, there is a word for the premeditated killing of people, and that word is 'murder.'" He added, “And just because the administration puts together this fig leaf of a legal justification does not legitimize these premeditated killings in the Caribbean.” The New York Times, \10/24/25 (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/24/us/politics/white-house-boats-law.html?partner=slack&smid=sl-share); NPR, [10/24/25 (https://www.npr.org/2025/10/24/nx-s1-5584173/trump-drug-boats-venezuela-maduro)]}:
Trump has repeatedly claimed that the strikes are saving thousands of Americans from drug overdoses, but there’s no evidence to support the claim. According to Trump, “Every boat that we knock out we save 25,000 American lives.” Trump has used this figure multiple times to defend the strikes, but the administration has not provided evidence showing drugs were destroyed during the attacks. Additionally, as PolitiFact notes, drug experts have said it is difficult to calculate how many lives are saved as a result of drug interception efforts but that Trump’s claim is “mathematically dubious.” “For Trump’s statement to be accurate, the drugs on five boats would have been responsible for 125,000 deaths, nearly double the number of overdose deaths in one year,” PolitiFact wrote. PolitiFact, [10/16/25 (https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2025/oct/16/donald-trump/US-military-drug-boat-strike-Venezuela-save-25000/)]
The strikes have drawn bipartisan concern, as legislators question the Trump administration's claims and their lack of supporting evidence. On Fox News Sunday, according to The Hill, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) stated that Congress has seen “no evidence presented” to support the administration's claims that the targets are drug traffickers. Similarly, Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) stated that the evidence he has seen in support of the strikes “does not back up” the administration's claims that the boats were transporting fentanyl. The Hill, [10/26/25 (https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5574179-congress-concerns-trump-military/)]
Fox figures and guests cheered on the strikes and celebrated the administration's actions
Fox host Laura Ingraham called the strikes “pretty spectacular” and concluded, “I love this” and “Trump is actually trying to do something.” Former Army Special Forces member Jim Hanson said the “reward” for bringing “that poison into our country” is “getting turned into an oil slick on the Caribbean.” Jason Redman, a former Navy SEAL, applauded the U.S. for taking the “lead” and said we have to “break the will” of “individuals who are willing to go out in those boats and smuggle drugs into America.” Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, [10/24/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4034255)]
In the week prior, Ingraham stated that “Trump's working overtime on issues that really matter,” such as “taking out deadly threats before they even arrive on our shores.” Ingraham played a video of a boat being bombed, adding her own “boom” sound effect. After playing a bleeped clip of Trump saying Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro “doesn’t want to f— around with the United States,” Ingraham concluded, “Bombs and the f-bombs. At least we know President Trump will never stop trying to save American lives.” Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, [10/17/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4034257)]
OnAmerica’s Newsroom, former FBI agent Dan Brunner called the strikes a “great move,” adding, “Let’s go on offense. Let’s push the envelope.” Brunner added that “we need to utilize” the FBI, Homeland Security, and CIA. He said: “We’ve got a lot of experience in conducting investigations into these cartels. … Blowing up a boat, yes, that stops that shipment. But we need to find out where all the shipments are coming from and going through the root system.” Fox News, America’s Newsroom, [10/17/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4034258)]
After a guest argued Trump should “keep pushing forward” as it's “the only way these traffickers will stop,” Fox host Lara Trump replied: “I think a lot of people agree with you. … Fortunately we have a president who is doing just that, meeting them with strength.” Trump also praised her father-in-law for dubbing his targets “ISIS of the Western hemisphere,” saying, “What a great name for these narco-terrorists. That’s exactly what I think they should be identified as.” Fox News, My View with Lara Trump, [10/25/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4034265)]
Host Jesse Watters described a strike by saying: “Trump just smoked another coke boat in the Caribbean, and he’s just getting started.” In the segment that followed, correspondent David Spunt reported: “We can confirm the Pentagon deploying massive help in support of the operation to root out drugs being smuggled into the United States.” The chyron read, “Pentagon drops the hammer on smugglers.” Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, [10/24/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4034266)]
OnAmerica’s Newsroom, former acting Drug Enforcement Administration Administrator Derek Maltz called fentanyl “a weapon of mass destruction” and said he’s “very thankful” for the administration's “aggressive” approach. He also claimed that “of course it's fair game” to attack cartels on land. Fox News, America’s Newsroom, [10/24/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4034267)
OnFox Noticias, guest Jesus Romero claimed that Trump is deploying “a military contingent to carry a message, not only to President Maduro, but also to all the criminals.” Romero added, “This is the message, and this is the response of the president of the United States“ to “return peace and tranquility and to stop the flow of drug trafficking into the United States.” Fox Deportes, Fox Noticias, [9/26/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4033687)]
Fox justified the strikes and repeated Trump's unproven claim that they save large numbers of American lives
Fox & Friendsco-host Ainsley Earhardt repeated the claim that “every boat that we strike is 25,000 American lives that have been saved.” Earhardt elaborated, saying, “We’re talking about … fentanyl pills, we’re talking about fentanyl powder, illegal guns, methamphetamine, cocaine, pounds of heroin.” Co-host Lawrence Jones, taking aim at naysayers, added, “You are going to have to choose a side. Are you going to be on the side of the cartels, which is the new ISIS, or are you going to be side of the American people?” Fox News, Fox & Friends, [10/24/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4034264)]
Host Laura Ingraham claimed, “Countless American lives will be saved because of our aggressive posture.” Ingraham praised Trump, saying he is “working overtime … targeting drug cartels that poison and kill hundreds of thousands of Americans with fentanyl and cocaine.” Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, [10/23/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4034269)]
OnThe Story with Martha MacCallum, Derek Maltz claimed of the cartels: “We’ve never had any terrorist organizations, even if you combine Al Qaeda, ISIS, Hezbollah, killing this many Americans.” He also argued of the supposed drug trafficking, “It's not even just a threat to our country, but once again President Trump is helping keep the world safe.” Fox News, The Story with Martha MacCallum, [10/20/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4034268)]
Fox Noticiashost Rachel Campos-Duffy said, “If you are a criminal trafficking lethal drugs into this country that kill its people, you will face lethal consequences.” She added that “President Trump is not sorry” about the boat strike. Fox Deportes, Fox Noticias, [9/4/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4033669)]
Fox hosts and guests called for further violence and US intervention – with some even supporting Venezuelan regime change
OnThe Five, co-host Jesse Watters said the boat strikes are “more about regime change in Venezuela,” adding later, “There is going to be major action against Maduro pretty soon.” Watters said the action might be “a layup” and if it is, and “Maduro is deposed, we’re basically Monroe Doctrine-ing — we call it the Don-roe doctrine-ing — out of Latin America and China and Russia,” which would add up to Trump “wielding a lot of power internationally.” Fox News, The Five, [10/16/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4034263)]
Jim Shedd, a former DEA agent, argued on Fox that “we should be striking the Venezuelan military outposts.” Shedd added that “the national guard of Venezuela and the Venezuelan army and the air force has to be destroyed because they are co-conspirators in the distribution of narcotics into this country, which has been causing death and havoc for decades.” Fox News, The Story with Martha MacCallum, [10/24/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4034262)]
OnFox Noticias, Jovel Alvarez, an independent journalist, said, “I hope that President Donald Trump takes the initiative to remove Maduro from power.” He added that Trump could “practically” become the “liberator of Venezuela.” Fox Deportes, Fox Noticias, [10/15/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4034226)]
OnFox & Friends, retired Gen. Jack Keane said of Venezuela, “I think it’s high time we went after this thing that was polluting our population so much.” Keane argued that the Venezuelan government is “supporting the cartel in the sense the government is part of the cartel. Because they take the revenue from that source.” Fox News, Fox & Friends, [10/24/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4034260)]
OnSunday Night In America with Trey Gowdy, after Rep. Maria Salazar (R-FL) mentioned that Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Machado is planning to “open the oil rigs” to U.S. companies, host Trey Gowdy mentioned that “she may be leading that country here in the not-too-distant future.” Fox News, Sunday Night in America with Trey Gowdy, [10/26/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4034259)]
OnFox Report, Manhattan Institute fellow Daniel Di Martino described Trump’s actions against Venezuela as “the same as fighting ISIS,” arguing the U.S. needs “to do everything possible.” He said: “And if that means striking inside Venezuela where Maduro is, who is a cartel leader, that the U.S. government doesn't recognize as president, this is the same as fighting ISIS, except that they’re actually bringing drugs and terrorism to America directly right now.” Di Martino also claimed, without citing evidence, that “80% of Venezuelans support” the strikes. He added that he is “very happy about hearing about the CIA operations in Venezuela, about bringing the carrier.” Fox News, Fox Report with John Scott, [10/26/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4034261)]
mma //
- ### An intelligence report debunked MAGA media claims about Tren de Aragua and Venezuela. A Trump official is now under fire for reportedly ordering the report be redone. (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/intelligence-report-debunked-maga-media-claims-about-tren-de-aragua-and-venezuela-trump)
:{:{05/28/25}:
- ### Right-wing media's campaign for military intervention and regime change in Venezuela (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/right-wing-medias-campaign-military-intervention-and-regime-change-venezuela)
:{:{09/05/25}:
- ### Right-wing media concoct their own legal justification for Trump’s extrajudicial strike on Venezuelan boat (https://www.mediamatters.org/immigration/right-wing-media-concoct-their-own-legal-justification-trumps-extrajudicial-strike)
09/05/25
---
---}:
VID CANAL STR NICK SHIRLEY
Laura Ingraham claims that Democrats are "signaling very clear that it's war time" | Media Matters for America (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/laura-ingraham-claims-democrats-are-signaling-very-clear-its-war-time)
MMA
October 22, 2025, edition of Fox News' The Ingraham Angle
LAURA INGRAHAM (HOST): The words they're using -- fight, push, resist -- they're signaling very clearly that it's war time and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson thinks he's a general.
...
Johnson dismantled tyranny. ICE-free zones are the answer. We're on the front lines, okay, general. General idiot. Sure sounds like he's calling for insurrection to me. And they're already promising their post-war tribunals.REP GARCIA
---
---
mma
How Fox News has justified and celebrated ICE’s violent immigration crackdown in Chicago
As ICE targeted immigrant communities, Fox whitewashed its abuses
Written by John Knefel (https://www.mediamatters.org/author/john-knefel)
Research contributions from Ben Van Bloem (https://www.mediamatters.org/author/ben-van-bloem), Harrison Ray (https://www.mediamatters.org/author/harrison-ray), Payton Armstrong (https://www.mediamatters.org/author/payton-armstrong), Jack Wheatley (https://www.mediamatters.org/author/jack-wheatley) & Sophie Lawton (https://www.mediamatters.org/author/sophie-lawton)
Published 10/21/25
October 9 marked one month of “Operation Midway Blitz,” the Trump administration’s effort to target and harass immigrant communities in Chicago with military-style raids and violent enforcement to advance its mass deportation plans. Fox News has responded by celebrating and justifying the violence Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have unleashed on Chicago residents regardless of citizenship or immigration status.
Fox inaugurated the operation by embedding (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-embeds-feds-bringing-war-terror-trumps-invasion-chicago) a reporter with ICE agents in a move reminiscent of the height of the global war on terror, signaling to its audience that Chicago was a battlefield that required a militarized crackdown. Over the subsequent four weeks, Fox dutifully fulfilled that expectation with coverage that painted civic resistance to ICE as proof that Trump’s authoritarian tactics were needed, while simultaneously whitewashing the agency’s worst abuses.
Fox News celebrates ICE’s raid on a Chicago apartment building, even as the official story falls apart
On September 30, ICE initiated a raid (https://abc7chicago.com/post/ice-chicago-federal-agents-surround-south-shore-apartment-building-dhs-requests-military-deployment-illinois/17908911/) on a Chicago apartment building that began with agents rappelling (https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/ice-escalates-aggressive-raids-in-chicago-as-trump-moves-to-deploy-national-guard) from a Black Hawk helicopter and ended with residents — citizens and noncitizens alike — reportedly imprisoned in unmarked vans, grouped by perceived race, ethnicity, or immigration status. Parents were separated from their children, some of whom were zip-tied to other kids, according to a witness. In at least one instance, an agent pointed their gun (https://chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/2025/10/05/congress-members-rally-south-shore-apartment-ice-raid) in the face of a grandmother who lives in the building, she said. Agents destroyed family belongings and lobbed (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/19/us/chicago-south-shores-border-patrol-raid.html) flash-bang grenades as they ransacked (https://blockclubchicago.org/2025/10/02/south-shore-residents-return-to-ransacked-apartments-try-to-move-out-after-ice-raid-it-looks-like-hell/) the building.
In a different context, it would have been the stuff of right-wing paranoid nightmares (https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/07/us/conspiracy-theories-over-jade-helm-get-some-traction-in-texas.html). But this was a building in Chicago that houses Black and immigrant families, and Fox found it worthy of praise.
In a segment teasing coverage of the siege, Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner said (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4034003) the security forces had zeroed in on “a Chicago apartment complex … targeting members of the brutal Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang,” adding: “Seems like a good thing."
The ICE claim that the raid would yield TdA members, which Faulkner parroted, turned out to be wrong. According to MSNBC’s reporting (https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/news/trump-immigrants-violent-crime-chicago-illinois-ice-rcna237272), only one of the people arrested was “verified” as part of Tren de Aragua, and ICE didn’t provide evidence to back up even that assertion. (ICE has repeatedly (https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/blog/men-deported-el-salvador-stories-investigation/#::text=Making%20matters%20worse%2C%20key%20government,a%20Tren%20de%20Aragua%20member.%E2%80%9D) claimed (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/19/fbi-cbp-tren-de-aragua-emojis) people (https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/blog/the-missing-due-process-for-gang-allegations/) are members of TdA, only to have its accusations fall apart under scrutiny.)
The next evening, host Laura Ingraham repeated the false ICE talking point that the raid turned up gang members.
“TdA gang members in Chicago got a surprise this week, an unexpected drop-in that involved a Black Hawk helicopter and hundreds of federal agents,” Ingraham said.
Video
Citation
From the October 1, 2025, edition of Fox News' The Ingraham Angle
Ingraham also falsely claimed that the building raid was proof that Trump was “fixing the criminal mess” in Chicago.
MSNBC found that of the 37 people arrested, only eight had criminal charges and it isn’t clear how many — if any — had been convicted.
Faulkner returned to the story on October 2, reiterating the false characterization of the building.
“The political left is also pushing against a massive federal raid on an apartment complex taken over by members of the violent Tren de Aragua gang,” she said.
Video
Citation
From the October 2, 2025, edition of Fox News' The Faulkner Focus
The storming of the apartment building wasn’t the only violent incident Fox chose to celebrate. On September 19, a federal agent in a Chicago suburb threw (https://www.teenvogue.com/story/kat-abughazaleh-chicago-broadview-ice-protests) Democratic congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh to the ground during a protest outside an ICE facility.
Ingraham praised (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4034000) the assault.
“A similar situation in Chicago today where absolutely unhinged agitators worked to form a blockade — they don't have actual jobs, but that is their job — in front of an ICE facility, including a Democrat congressional candidate who was thrown to the ground by an ICE agent,” Ingraham said. “Good work.” (Abughazaleh formerly worked at Media Matters.)
Fox News justifies ICE's violent tactics
Even when Fox personalities didn’t overtly celebrate ICE’s abuses, the network has justified the Trump administration’s brutal tactics. Such coverage frequently clustered around high-profile events with dramatic footage, such as the storming of the apartment building. Other notable incidents included federal agents using tear gas, pepper ball projectiles, and rubber bullets (https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/broadview-ice-facility-protest-illinois/) on protesters on September 19 (https://chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/2025/09/20/protesters-arrested-broadview-ice) and again on September 26 (https://blockclubchicago.org/2025/09/26/feds-tear-gas-shoot-rubber-bullets-at-protesters-outside-broadview-ice-facility/).
:{:{On September 19, host Laura Ingraham played a clip of Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss describing getting tear-gassed, to which Ingraham responded that his “constituents seem to be the illegal alien gang members, predators, sexual deviants, felons that they end up protecting.” Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, [9/19/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4034035)]}:
Describing the same event, Fox host Jesse Watters said the protesters“went loco” and “slashed tires,” adding, “Mostly peaceful protests are no bueno in the golden age. One day they’ll learn.” Watters introduced footage of ICE’s brutal tactics by mocking the protesters, saying it “didn’t work out for them.” Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, [9/19/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4034027)]
Fox anchor Harris Faukner aired imagery of federal officers using chemical munitions at the September 19 demonstration, saying, “Of course they have to disperse that crowd.” Faulkner also asked over the footage: “What happened to peaceful protesting?” Fox News, The Faulkner Focus, [9/22/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4034021)]
Fox anchor John Roberts argued that ICE officers were “forced to shoot pepper bullets and tear gas to keep things under control” during a September 26 protest at an ICE facility. Fox News, America’s Newsroom, [9/26/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4034030)]
Correspondent Mike Tobin made a similar claim that same day onThe Faulkner Focus, arguing that ICE “needed to make space” for an official vehicle even while he himself suffered effects from the fumes. Tobin added: “Pardon my delivery, I’ve just — the aftermath — aftereffects of the tear gas. Also it seemed that there were a few individuals that they wanted to detain. So they cleared out the crowd. They zeroed in … on a couple of people. They put them face down and bound them on the pavement and took those individuals into custody.” He also displayed a rubber bullet the federal agents had fired at the crowd. Fox News, The Faulkner Focus, [9/26/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4034028)]
Watters said “the Feds had to bring out the tear gas” over the weekend of September 26 because “antifa agitators have been rioting” outside their facility. Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, [9/29/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4034023)]
OnSpecial Report, Tobin adopted law enforcement’s framing of the midnight Chicago apartment raid by claiming that “criminal illegal immigrants” had “taken the place over.” Tobin: “In the dark of night, federal agents storm an old apartment building on Chicago's South Side. They had developed information that criminal illegal immigrants had taken the place over. So a joint operation with the FBI, ATF, Border Patrol, and ICE brought in federal manpower to take control of the apartment.” Fox News, Special Report with Bret Baier, [9/30/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4034024)]
In two notable cases, Fox appeared to justify federal agents shooting two people, killing one of them, by repeating government claims that were soon undercut by local reporting.
Fox News repeats government claims justifying federal agents shooting two people, one fatally
On September 12, an ICE officer in a northern suburb of Chicago shot and killed Silverio Villegas González following a traffic stop. A Department of Homeland Security statement claimed the officer had been “seriously injured,” which was later contradicted (https://chicago.suntimes.com/the-watchdogs/2025/09/22/ice-officer-injuries-nothing-major-deadly-franklin-park-shooting-mexican-immigrant-chicago-video) by police body camera footage in which the officer is heard saying his injuries were “nothing major.” A witness also told the Sun Times that (https://chicago.suntimes.com/the-watchdogs/2025/09/22/ice-officer-injuries-nothing-major-deadly-franklin-park-shooting-mexican-immigrant-chicago-video) they “didn’t see Villegas González dragging one of the agents behind his car,” and NBC News reported (https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ice-fatal-shooting-chicago-bodycam-footage-villegas-gonzalez-rcna233484), “No videos show the actual shooting or the ICE agent being dragged and injured, making it difficult to corroborate DHS’s account of what happened.”
Fox framed the fatal shooting by repeating the unsubstantiated government claims.
As the news broke, Fox anchor Martha MacCallum presented DHS’ version of events without qualifications.
“An ICE officer severely injured during a traffic stop in Illinois," MacCallum said. “ICE says that the suspect dragged the officer as he tried to get away.”
Video
Citation
From the September 12, 2025, edition of Fox News' The Story with Martha MacCallum
Weekend anchor Jon Scott said (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4034066) González “tried to flee the scene in a car, dragging the agent by his bumper,” adopting (https://abcnews.go.com/US/ice-officer-fatally-shoots-man-resisted-arrest-dragged/story?id=125519005#::text=Interest%20Successfully%20Added-,ICE%20officer%20fatally%20shoots%20man%20who%20resisted%20arrest%2C%20dragged%20agent,Octavio%20Jones/Reuters) DHS’s initial characterization. “The agent wound up shooting and killing that alien.”
Then on September 28, Fox & Friends Weekend co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy repeated (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4034084) the characterization, saying, “We saw an ICE agent dragged with his vehicle.”
Two Fox hosts had a similar approach to an October 4 incident in which a Border Patrol agent shot Chicago woman Marimar Martinez five times. According (https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/2025/10/06/marimar-martinez-anthony-ian-santos-ruiz-border-patrol-shooting-brighton-park) to her attorney, footage apparently contradicts initial government allegations that Martinez had rammed her car into the agent’s vehicle — which the government then moved (https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/16/us/chicago-car-ramming-case-ice-protests) more than 1,000 miles away, despite its likely role as key evidence in the case. Several of the government's claims appear to be undercut (https://newrepublic.com/article/201957/trump-chicago-secret-police-shot-woman-damning-info) by the criminal complaint against Martinez.
Jesse Watters repeated the government’s unverified version of the event.
“So you’re saying she didn’t ram the ICE officer’s vehicle with her car and trap it?” Watters asked co-host Jessica Tarlov. She had referenced press coverage that undercut the government’s version of events, to which Watters replied: “We don’t have that — I’m just not going to take your word for it.”
Video
Citation
From the October 7, 2025, edition of Fox News' The Five
Ingraham claimed (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4034088) officers had been “nearly run over” and called it a “coordinated ambush of federal officers.”
Beyond the Chicago area, the Trump administration has surged (https://www.npr.org/2025/10/10/nx-s1-5567177/national-guard-map-chicago-california-oregon) — or threatened to surge — federal immigration and police forces, the National Guard, and the military into Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Portland, Memphis, Baltimore, New Orleans, San Francisco, and New York City. Many of those cities have already resisted Trump’s onslaughts. Wherever he sends his forces next, Fox is sure to follow, cheering his administration along the way.
---
---
MMA
Star Fox host Laura Ingraham is now in business with the president’s son
Written by Matt Gertz (https://www.mediamatters.org/author/matt-gertz)
Research contributions from Tyler Monroe (https://www.mediamatters.org/author/tyler-monroe)
Published 10/20/25
Fox News star Laura Ingraham spent years railing against the purported corruption caused by the business interests of President Joe Biden’s son. But now she’s going into business with Donald Trump Jr., federal records show, a wildly and obviously unethical conflict of interest that no credible news outlet would tolerate.
Ingraham and Donald Trump Jr. are among the directors of “Colombier Acquisition Corp. III,” a special-purpose acquisition company (https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/30/what-is-a-spac.html) which is seeking to raise $260 million in an initial public offering in order to acquire another company, according to a registration statement (https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/2091024/000121390025099955/ea0261111-01.htm) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday and first reported (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-10-17/trump-jr-s-firm-taps-palihapitya-gop-influencers-for-new-spac) by Bloomberg. The firm’s CEO is Omeed Malik, co-founder and managing partner of the venture capital fund 1789 Capital (https://www.reuters.com/investigations/trump-linked-venture-fund-1789-capital-tops-1-billion-assets-2025-09-08/), which invests in companies aligned with the MAGA movement and has “grown into a financial powerhouse” since November, when Trump was elected president and his son became a partner. Several other executives and directors for the SPAC are also 1789 Capital employees, the filing shows.
No credible news outlet would allow a conflict of interest of this magnitude
The SPAC’s prospectus positions the company as a way to benefit from “the market’s excitement to fund the next chapter of American Exceptionalism by investing in the Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Growth (‘EIG’) economy, a set of era-defining business and investment opportunities that we believe will build the next period of American prosperity.” It continues: “These opportunities are rooted in America-first cultural shifts after the 2024 U.S. election, a resurgence of merit-based investing in growth equity, a focus on market-based solutions for America, and a celebration of America’s most prominent founders. Opportunities in the EIG economy include but are not limited to companies that reindustrialize the American economy and enhance American prosperity and security.”
Ingraham’s bio in the document identifies her as “the host of ‘The Ingraham Angle,’ an hour-long cable news program, which launched in October 2017, on Fox News (weeknights),” a program which “features Ms. Ingraham’s analysis of politics, business, legal matters and the culture, along with her interviews with prominent individuals in those fields.”
The potential conflicts of interest created by Ingraham’s roles with the SPAC and Fox are legion:
She stands to financially benefit from a business plan that is explicitly tied to the success of the MAGA movement.
She stands to financially benefit from the sprawling business interests of the president’s son, which otherwise could have been fodder for critical reporting.
She seems to have received the opportunity due to her loyalty to the MAGA cause, which creates the implication that failure to remain loyal would prevent future such opportunities.
She is slated to chair the SPAC’s compensation committee, meaning she could directly control payments made to the son of a president she covers on her show.
The SPAC’s prospectus cites its team’s “unique access to celebrities, technologists, tastemakers, investors, and entrepreneurs,” which “will assist in our target sourcing efforts,” as well as their “track record of building and boosting brands by partnering with influential figures with large followings”; applied to Ingraham, this language corrupts Fox’s booking process by suggesting a potential secondary rationale for appearances on her show.
Notably, Ingraham regularly claimed the business dealings of Hunter Biden (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-failed-attempt-use-hunter-biden-gin-impeachment-his-father-numbers) in the years prior to his father’s presidential election implicated Joe Biden in rampant corruption. Hunter Biden’s name was mentioned during at least 164 episodes of Ingraham’s Fox show in the less than two years from January 3, 2023, when Republicans took control of the House of Representatives after promising (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/house-gop-prepares-two-years-right-wing-media-bubble) to use their power to investigate those business interests, through Trump’s election on November 5, 2024, according to a Media Matters review of the Kinetiq video database.
Ingraham claimed during one such program, in June 2023, that Hunter Biden’s clients were “sophisticated players” who were “prepared to pay millions” because “they believed they would get certain benefits in return from the U.S. government.”
“Every single person in the White House press room knows how all this works,” she added. “The only defense that they have is that we can’t prove that Biden himself did lobbying or was directing Hunter’s business.” Ingraham concluded by bemoaning that “these foreign interests are now encouraged to believe that America is for sale” and arguing that “one pillar of the 2024 campaign for Republicans should be, the Bidens are getting richer while your family is getting poorer.”
Video
Citation
From the June 26, 2023, edition of Fox News' The Ingraham Angle
A few short years later and President Trump’s son is overseeing a business empire (https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2025-trump-family-presidency-wealth/?embedded-checkout=true) which includes not only the venture capital funding through 1789 Capital but also foreign real estate deals; massive crypto investments; and nebulous advisory roles with several companies. And Ingraham has looked at the various financial schemes (https://www.mediamatters.org/bret-baier/fox-anchor-bret-baier-said-media-should-100-scrutinize-trumps-family-same-bidens-he) involving the president’s family and decided to join him and cash in.
Again, no credible news outlet would allow a conflict of interest of this magnitude, roughly analogous to if Hunter and MSNBC star Rachel Maddow were to have gone into business together during the Biden administration. But don’t expect the Fox brass to step in: Once you’ve put the president’s daughter-in-law on the payroll (https://www.mediamatters.org/lara-trump/presidents-daughter-law-hosts-weekly-show-fox-news-call-it-propaganda-too-kind) and given her an hour a week to produce propaganda for the administration, you’ve acknowledged that you are in a different line of work.
---
OMFG TERROR
NO TXT JUST VID NO TRANSCRIPT
INGR id BOTH AS JRNLISTS ANN-TIFA FRIEND
ATTACK ON STUDENT MINN CHRLIE ASSAS TRIUMP, CATH SCH? ...NO TIME TO LOSE FELOINY CONSP STATE DEPT DECL INTL ARM OF ANTIFA TERROR ORG; OPEN UP TO SANTIONS; SAV BIDEN IGNORE JRNL AND STREETS; ANDY BRITALLY ASSAULTED; DOM TERR ORG ; JRNL DEMONIZED BY LAMESTREAM, ALSO IGNORE VIOLENT STR THUS VINDCATED; PRO HAMAS FREAS IN HY, PPL TIRED OF TERROR BEG FOR NAT GD; PRTOZ MAYOR JOHNSON CALLED TUMP NAZI IS THAT INCTE VIOL; ANTIFA SHOCH TROOPS FOR DEMS, ATTACK POL OPP; YOU ARE ON HIT LIST BRAVE TO COME TO DC
Inside the road to dismantle Antifa: 'We don't have any more time to lose' | Fox News Video (https://www.foxnews.com/video/6382403654112)
Inside the road to dismantle Antifa: 'We don't have any more time to lose'
Journalist Andy Ngo and Frontlines TPUSA contributor Savanah Hernandez discuss their experiences reporting on rioters on 'The Ingraham Angle.'
---
MMA
Laura Ingraham says the indictment of Letitia James is “like Christmas morning”
10/09/25
https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/laura-ingraham-says-indictment-letitia-james-christmas-morning)
---
MMA
Calls for retaliatory prosecutions are the next phase in the right’s rewriting of January 6
Written by Matt Gertz (https://www.mediamatters.org/author/matt-gertz)
Published 10/08/25
The MAGA right’s cynical effort to rewrite the history of January 6 reached a new but seemingly inevitable low this week, as right-wing media figures, the GOP, and the Trump administration teamed up to demand retribution against those who attempted to impose consequences on the perpetrators of the event.
In late 2020, President Donald Trump and his allies in the Republican Party and right-wing media attempted to overturn the results (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/they-did-it-and-will-do-it-again-if-no-one-stops-them) of the election that he had lost, using false claims (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/trumps-coup-depends-right-wing-information-bubble) of widespread voter fraud. That campaign’s final phase relied on (https://www.mediamatters.org/donald-trump/most-important-story-about-trumps-vp-why-he-needs-new-one) Vice President Mike Pence to refuse to certify the electoral count based on a nonsensical (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/trump-lawyer-john-eastman-touted-his-plan-overturn-2020-election-interviews-right-wing) legal theory. When it became clear Pence would not cooperate, a mob of Trumpists (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-coup) — summoned to Washington, D.C., by the president who told them (https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2021-01-06/ill-never-concede-trump-delivers-last-grievanced-gasps-to-supporters-as-congress-begins-to-ratify-his-defeat) “we will never concede” — assaulted (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2021/jan-6-insurrection-capitol/) scores of law enforcement officers as they stormed the U.S. Capitol, sending Pence and the assembled Congress into hiding (https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/13/politics/pelosi-jan-6-capitol-riot-video) and delaying the counting of electoral votes.
This January 6 insurrection faced widespread (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/meta-fox-news-and-collapse-anti-january-6-consensus) public condemnation (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-personalities-now-claim-january-6-prosecutions-are-political-time-many-condemned) in its immediate aftermath. But right-wing propagandists, led by then-Fox star Tucker Carlson (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/tucker-carlson-leading-16-truth-movement), went to work dismantling what turned out to be a fragile consensus. In the insidious counternarrative (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/how-fox-news-and-right-wing-media-made-jan-6-revisionism-great-again) they created, January 6 was either righteous or something of a nothingburger, and the true scandal was the subsequent efforts to punish its perpetrators. Four years later, that version of events is the dominant one (https://www.mediamatters.org/january-6-insurrection/january-6-and-people-who-knew-better) on the right, with special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment of Trump (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/trumps-plot-steal-election-what-set-2020-apart) over his role treated as part of a Democratic plot (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-immediately-runs-frantic-defense-trump-after-latest-indictment). And as a result, efforts to achieve accountability for the crimes of January 6 have become partisan almost by definition.
Fox News star host Jesse Watters said (https://www.mediamatters.org/january-6-insurrection/fox-stars-told-their-audiences-trump-should-not-pardon-violent-j6-offenders) the day after the storming of the U.S. Capitol that “people that think it wasn't that big of a deal” were wrong. “You can't smash windows, spray police with chemical agents, assault police officers, loot, and vandalize.”
But this week, Watters declared that “the Democrat reaction to January 6 was worse than January 6.” Watters pointed to the new revelation (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/why-right-wing-media-apparatus-suddenly-yelling-about-jack-smith-supposedly-spying-gop) served up by Trump law enforcement appointees that Smith had received the phone records of several Republican senators from the period around January 6 as part of his criminal investigation of the events and baselessly concluded that “what they were probably trying to do is cast this wide net to create some grand criminal conspiracy and indict the entire Republican Party.”
Watters then demanded retribution against Smith and other federal law enforcement figures involved in the January 6 investigations. “This guy should be in prison,” he said. “And what they need to do is either appoint a special counsel or have some sort of Senate select committee to go up, do hearings, put Wray, put Garland, put Smith under oath, and if they lie, you throw them in prison.”
Video
Citation
From the October 7, 2025, edition of Fox News' The Five
Legal reporters (https://x.com/kyledcheney/status/1975384789617418526) and experts (https://x.com/Acyn/status/1975402962525847626) have noted that seeking phone records of Republican officials who might have been in communication with Trump around the time of January 6 was an obvious step for the investigators, who ultimately indicted the president over what they alleged (https://www.justice.gov/storage/US_v_Trump_23_cr_257.pdf#page=2) were attempts to use “unlawful means of discounting legitimate votes and subverting the election results.” But that conclusion presumes that investigators should have been investigating at all, and the current position of the Trumpist right is exactly as Watters pitched it: After Trump’s return to the presidency, he pardoned January 6 perpetrators (https://www.mediamatters.org/january-6-insurrection/rights-propaganda-machine-gets-its-jan-6-pardons) and purged (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/sean-hannity-once-celebrated-fbi-rank-and-file-now-hes-touting-trumps-purge) law enforcement who helped prosecute them.
On Tuesday night, Fox hosts and the Republican guests they hosted pushed falsehoods about Smith’s probe in order to justify retaliatory investigations into his effort. The sequence of events is roughly analogous (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/durham-report-and-inevitable-end-foxs-anti-mueller-farce) to the crusade by Trump, congressional Republicans, and propaganda outlets like Fox to secure investigations into special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election. That resulted in years of content for Fox’s stars — but the resulting four-year probe failed to garner prison time for a single person.
Here we go again.
Jack Smith did not “spy” on Republican senators in a scandal “worse than Watergate”
Fox stars Watters, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham all used the same false characterization on Tuesday as they sought to stir up outrage about Smith’s January 6 probe.
Watters claimed that the “big story” was “that Joe Biden's FBI was spying on top Republican senators”; Sen. Josh Hawley, one of the senators (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/07/us/politics/republican-senators-jack-smith-phone-records.html) whose records were included, subsequently told the host that the FBI “got wiretaps essentially” against them. Ingraham claimed the senators “were all spied on” in “an attempt at partisan surveillance.” According to Hannity, Smith had been “using the federal government to spy on several U.S. senators.”
Hannity and Ingraham also ran with with Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley’s (R-IA) absurd (https://x.com/ChuckGrassley/status/1975297712712262100) characterization of the report as “WORSE THAN WATERGATE”: Ingraham termed it “arguably worse than Watergate,” while Hannity claimed more definitively that the report was “worse than anything alleged against Richard Nixon during Watergate.”
These claims are baseless and absurd.
The Watergate scandal featured operatives associated with Nixon’s reelection campaign attempting to break into the offices of the Democratic National Committee on the orders of a White House official, most likely (https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/02/why-did-nixons-team-order-watergate-break-in-in-the-first-place) in an effort to place equipment to actively surveil the president’s partisan opposition for explicitly political purposes. This is obviously very different from legitimate investigative steps taken as part of a duly promulgated criminal investigation.
And the FBI document at the root of the claim does not say anything about active or real-time surveillance — it references only a “preliminary toll analysis on limited toll records associated with” nine members of Congress.
The records were reportedly obtained (https://www.foxnews.com/politics/jack-smith-tracked-private-communications-calls-nearly-dozen-gop-senators-during-j6-probe-fbi-says) from major telephone providers responding to a subpoena Smith obtained. And according to Grassley, the record the FBI reviewed (https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/press/rep/releases/biden-fbi-spied-on-eight-republican-senators-as-part-of-arctic-frost-investigation-grassley-oversight-reveals) “shows when and to whom a call is made, as well as the duration and general location data of the call” but “does not include the content of the call.”
Fox uses false premises to call for criminal investigations
All three shows featured calls for further investigations into Smith’s probe.
“It's time Pam Bondi appoint a special counsel to investigate Jack Smith, Merrick Garland, and Chris Wray,” Watters declared. “At the very least, we should have a Senate special select committee hold hearings and have these goons testify under oath, and if they lie to Congress, off to prison. As they said, no one is above the law.”
Hawley, in his interview with Watters, likewise called for “a special prosecutor who's going to go at this hard,” adding, “We need hearings in public. Put these people under oath. Start with Jack Smith. Let's hear from Merrick Garland. Let's hear from Christopher Wray -- and anybody who broke the law needs to be prosecuted.”
“I think the time has come for criminal prosecutions,” Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) told Ingraham. “I think indictments should be coming here. We can't tolerate this and the Democrats try to act like President Trump's weaponizing. It's not what's happening.”
And on Hannity’s show, FBI Director Kash Patel declared that such probes were ongoing.
“We're just warming up,” he said. “But we are running our investigations to the ground. We are finding every single person involved. We will not leave a single room locked.”
“This is what Donald Trump was put in place to do,” he concluded. “And I'm honored to be his FBI director to lead this charge. And the men and women at the FBI, we're all in on this mission.”
That doesn’t include, of course, the FBI agents fired or reassigned because they worked January 6 cases. Because for this administration and the propagandists who support it, those who tried to get accountability for January 6 are the saga’s true villains.
//
They did it and will do it again – if no one stops them (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/they-did-it-and-will-do-it-again-if-no-one-stops-them)
07/22/22 11:12 AM EDT
- ### How Fox News and the right-wing media made Jan. 6 revisionism great again (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/how-fox-news-and-right-wing-media-made-jan-6-revisionism-great-again)
01/03/24 8:57 AM EST
- ### Why the right-wing media apparatus is suddenly yelling about Jack Smith supposedly spying on GOP senators (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/why-right-wing-media-apparatus-suddenly-yelling-about-jack-smith-supposedly-spying-gop)
10/07/2
---
---
A Trump-appointed judge just demolished right-wing fearmongering about Portland
Written by Matt Gertz (https://www.mediamatters.org/author/matt-gertz)
Published 10/06/25 MMA
Fox News propagandists cheered last month when President Donald Trump directed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to send 200 National Guard troops to Portland, Oregon, claiming the move was necessary because, in host Jesse Watters’ words, the entire city “has been under siege by antifa for four months.” But a Trump-nominated federal judge blocked the deployment on Saturday, noting that protests in the city have been “small and uneventful” for months and writing that the president’s order “was simply untethered to the facts.”
After Trump deployed (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/right-wing-media-cheer-trump-deploy-national-guard-other-american-cities-after-dc) the National Guard to Washington, D.C., in August and suggested he would do the same in other U.S. cities, right-wing media spent (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/right-wing-medias-dystopian-portland-coverage-feeds-trumps-threats-deploy-national-guard) September trying to turn Portland into the president’s next target. They created and fed the narrative that Portland is a “chaotic city” consumed by “civil insurrection” in which “every weekend is war.” While news reports (https://www.politico.com/news/2025/09/27/donald-trump-portland-military-protest-00583423) from the city portrayed (https://www.kptv.com/2025/09/29/neighbors-portlands-ice-facility-concerned-about-federal-agents-not-protestors/) the protests as minor, MAGA pundit Steve Bannon told his audience, “Antifa's burning down Portland every night. … They've taken control of Portland.”
The president responded to the overheated commentary of his most zealous supporters. In a September 27 post (https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115276694936263266) to Truth Social, Trump ordered Hegseth to send troops to protect “War ravaged Portland” from “Antifa, and other domestic terrorists,” and claimed he was “authorizing Full Force, if necessary.”
But after Hegseth directed (https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2025/09/29/pentagon-calling-up-200-guard-troops-to-deploy-to-oregon/) 200 members of the Oregon National Guard to the city over the objection (https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/gov-kotek-urges-oregon-residents-004425706.html) of Gov. Tina Kotek, the state of Oregon and the city of Portland sued (https://www.doj.state.or.us/media-home/news-media-releases/oregon-files-motion-for-temporary-restraining-order-to-block-unlawful-federalization-of-national-guard/) in federal court, arguing that the president had exceeded his legal and constitutional authority.
District Court Judge Karin Immergut — a stalwart (https://www.fjc.gov/history/judges/immergut-karin-johanna) of the GOP legal community who worked on Kenneth Starr’s investigation of President Bill Clinton, served as a U.S. attorney under President George W. Bush, and was nominated to the bench by Trump himself — agreed. On October 4, she issued a temporary restraining order which blocked the deployment.
Trump-appointed judge: Portland protests “were small and uneventful”
Immergut wrote in her ruling (http://portland.gov/federal/documents/10-4-2025-state-city-v-trump-temporary-restraining-order-granted/download) that Trump had not met the standard under the statutory authority he invoked, which only allows the president to federalize National Guard units in cases of invasion, rebellion, or when the federal government has been rendered otherwise unable to execute the law.
She explained that contrary to Trump’s depiction of the situation in Portland, her review determined: “As of September 27, 2025, it had been months since there was any sustained level of violent or disruptive protest activity in Portland. During this time frame, there were sporadic events requiring either PPB monitoring or federal law enforcement intervention, but overall, the protests were small and uneventful.”
The judge added that the federal government produced “only four incidents of protesters clashing with federal officers in the month of September preceding the federalization order,” calling these “inexcusable, but they are nowhere near the type of incidents that cannot be handled by regular law enforcement forces.”
She further wrote that the standard the federal government tried to set “would allow the President to call in the National Guard whenever one law enforcement office receives support from another office, which is a routine aspect of law enforcement activity. If the President could equate diversion of federal resources with his inability to execute federal law, then the President could send military troops virtually anywhere at any time.”
Immergut concluded that Trump lacked the statutory authority to federalize the guard in this case “because the situation on the ground belied an inability of federal law enforcement officers to execute federal law,” adding: “The President’s determination was simply untethered to the facts.”
That’s not how Fox presented Portland to its viewers
Fox hosts pulled out the stops to present the city as a violent hellhole crying out for the federal intervention the president had ordered.
“Left-wing terror is at record highs,” Watters declared (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4033761) on his September 29 broadcast. “They're shooting at Teslas, Trump, Charlie, and ICE. After sending in the Guard into L.A. and D.C., Trump is going for round three — Portland.”
“This weekend, he directed the secretary of war to send 200 National Guardsmen to protect war-ravaged Portland, and he is authorizing them to use full force if necessary, because federal facilities in Portland have been under siege since the start of the summer,” Watters continued, adding, “Every weekend, antifa has been on the warpath.”
Watters claimed (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4033762) two nights later: “Portland has been under siege by antifa for four months. The Guard is there to get things under control, but Portland Democrats say they want to deport the Guard because the protests are mostly peaceful.”
On September 29, host Laura Ingraham similarly claimed (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4033764) that Portland was “getting a dose of Trump-style safety” because an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility and “the areas around it have been under siege regularly in Oregon, and it continued this past weekend.” She added that Oregon was “rushing to court siding with criminals and against public safety.”
The same night, host Sean Hannity accused (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4033763) Oregon and Portland of “typical radical, predictable left-wing sanctuary state and city lies” because officials there supposedly won’t acknowledge that the “city’s on fire” and consumed by “a whole lot … of violence, lawlessness if you ask me.”
Their arguments are wildly overstated on the facts. But there’s so much more at stake, as Immergut pointed out in her ruling.
“This country has a longstanding and foundational tradition of resistance to government overreach, especially in the form of military intrusion into civil affairs,” she wrote (http://portland.gov/federal/documents/10-4-2025-state-city-v-trump-temporary-restraining-order-granted/download). “This historical tradition boils down to a simple proposition: this is a nation of Constitutional law, not martial law. Defendants have made a range of arguments that, if accepted, risk blurring the line between civil and military federal power—to the detriment of this nation.”
Fox’s star hosts apparently disagree, and are standing with Trump as he tries to send the nation hurtling toward martial law.
//
- ### Right-wing media cheer for Trump to deploy National Guard to other American cities after DC (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/right-wing-media-cheer-trump-deploy-national-guard-other-american-cities-after-dc)
08/14/25 10:52 AM EDT
- ### Right-wing media’s dystopian Portland coverage feeds into Trump’s threats to deploy National Guard (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/right-wing-medias-dystopian-portland-coverage-feeds-trumps-threats-deploy-national-guard)
09/29/25 5:48 PM EDT
- ### Fox News' Kayleigh McEnany attempts to justify deployment of National Guard by declaring “a pretty clear rebellion” against the government (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-kayleigh-mcenany-attempts-justify-deployment-national-guard-declaring-pretty)
10/06/2
---
---
Laura Ingraham says James Comey's Russia investigation “was a travesty and justice must be done”
Written by Media Matters Staff (https://www.mediamatters.org/author/media-matters-staff)
Published 09/25/25
Video
Citation
From the September 25, 2025, edition of Fox News' The Ingraham Angle
LAURA INGRAHAM (HOST): We have to think about it this way, too, regardless of how this all turns out, the director of the FBI helped spearhead one of the most damaging episodes of American criminal justice that we have ever seen -- injustice, I should say. Taking it upon himself to try to unseat a sitting president of the United States with these bogus, B.S. cases that they tried to, you know, gin up in the public's mind, affect public opinion, and ultimately hobble this president. That's at the bottom of what all went on here. And there were a lot of people involved. But he was at the top of the food chain here. Barack Obama was the other, but he was at the top chain here. And I think justice must be done, lest no one have faith in the FBI anymore. If nothing comes of everything that we know happened, then what are we?
FITZGERALD: Well, I'm retired FBI and I certainly agree with that. I would be very much bothered if this wasn't taken to its logical conclusion.
I'm going to go back to 2017, the Women's March in January of that year. Right after Trump was inaugurated or right around that time. I'll never forget Mrs. Comey and two of her daughters were interviewed by chance, by CNN directly identifying themselves, who they were. They have every right to do that, First Amendment, all that. But you really think the wife and daughters of the FBI would stay away from making controversial statements about the upcoming Trump administration. But we knew that was just one adjacent part of what their husband/father was doing. It was also Crossfire Hurricane going on inside the FBI. And we all know where that went, winding up with him possibly committing perjury in front of Congress.
INGRAHAM: This was a long, winding set up of a duly elected president of the United States. And it was a travesty and justice must be done.
MMA//
- ### Fox News panel expresses extreme skepticism on Comey charges: “I don't think this case even gets to trial” (https://www.mediamatters.org/andrew-mccarthy/fox-news-panel-expresses-extreme-skepticism-comey-charges-i-dont-think-case-even)
09/26/25 12:02 PM EDT
- ### Media Matters weekly newsletter, September 26 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media-matters-weekly-newsletter/media-matters-weekly-newsletter-september-26)
09/26/25 10:50 AM EDT
- ### Fox News' Howard Kurtz says the Comey indictment was “completely and totally orchestrated by President Trump” (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-howard-kurtz-says-comey-indictment-was-completely-and-totally-orchestrated)
09/25/2
---
How Fox covers for Trump administration malfeasance
Monday night was a perfect case study
Written by Matt Gertz (https://www.mediamatters.org/author/matt-gertz)
Published09/23/25 MMA
The job of a Fox News evening host isn’t to cover President Donald Trump and his administration, it’s to give them cover. The network’s stars are shameless propagandists who employ a variety of tactics to hide the president’s misdeeds from their viewers. Their Monday night programs, which followed days of administration chaos and corruption, perfectly encapsulate how this process works.
Trump and his supporters, in just a few short months, have ushered in an unprecedented and radical transformation (https://www.axios.com/2025/09/23/trump-unprecedented-presidency-behind-the-curtain) of American political life. A president who won office in large part (https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/07/business/inflation-economy-trump-tariffs) by exploiting voter discontent over rising prices has exacerbated that problem (https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/24/economy/us-tariffs-passthrough-consumers) through unilateral tariffs while simultaneously consolidating power, crushing dissent, enriching himself and his allies, and dismantling and remaking agencies that secure goals like public health.
The result is that any given day can feature several instances of wildly scandalous behavior, any one of which might have sunk a previous administration.
On Monday night, four such stories were circulating: Trump pushed out a U.S. attorney who had refused to prosecute his political opponent on insufficient evidence and replaced him with a crony; several outlets reported that his Justice Department appointees quashed a probe into a White House adviser who had been recorded taking a cash bribe; there was ongoing fallout from his top media regulator publicly threatening media companies over airing Jimmy Kimmel’s show; and at a White House event the president and his advisers issued a warning over Tylenol usage based on an unproven link to autism.
Any of those stories, explained in context, could prove devastating for the president and his team. But Trump has maintained high approval ratings with his supporters — and thus maintained lock-step backing from congressional Republicans — in no small part because his base gets information through the filter of right-wing media. And much of the right-wing media, fearing a revolt from their audiences, isn’t inclined to provide information that conflicts with their biases.
Here’s how each of those scandals played out Monday night on the panel show The Five and the eponymous programs of Laura Ingraham, Jesse Watters, and Sean Hannity.
Fox ignored Trump replacing a defiant prosecutor with a crony
What happened:On Friday, ABC News reported (https://abcnews.go.com/US/trump-poised-fire-us-attorney-resisting-effort-charge/story?id=125700904) that Trump was “expected to fire” U.S. Attorney Erik Siebert because Siebert had refused White House demands to bring mortgage fraud charges against New York Attorney General Letitia James, who previously prosecuted Trump, because investigators did not find incriminating evidence against her. After Siebert left office, Trump publicly called on (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/20/us/politics/trump-justice-department-us-attorneys.html) Attorney General Pam Bondi to “act fast” on prosecutions against James, former FBI Director James Comey, and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) in what The New York Times called “an extraordinary breach of prosecutorial protocols that reach back to the days following the Watergate scandal.” The president subsequently appointed (https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/22/politics/lindsey-halligan-us-attorney-eastern-virginia-trump-james-comey) Lindsey Halligan, a White House aide and longtime Trump legal adviser with no experience as a prosecutor, to replace Siebert; she took office as acting U.S. attorney on Monday.
Fox’s response: Fox’s stars spent the years of Trump’s first term and Joe Biden's presidency complaining of a two-tiered system of justice (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/after-trumps-indictment-lock-her-brigade-feigns-horror-over-political-prosecution) in which federal law enforcement agencies were persecuting the right (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/rights-rubicon-narrative-farce) while letting the left off the hook (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/trumpist-media-demanding-politicized-justice). In reality, Republican and Trump-appointed officials kept finding sufficient evidence to prosecute Trump and his allies and didn’t find enough to do the same against his foes. But now that Trump is loudly and publicly demanding politicized prosecutions — and pushing out his own appointed prosecutor when he refused to play along — the same voices have gone silent: The story was not mentioned Monday on The Five or the programs of Ingraham, Watters, and Hannity.
Many such cases: Fox hosts have similarly ignored stories about Trump’s relationship (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/donald-trump-killed-jeffrey-epstein-story-right) with deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein; Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. killing (https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/rfk-jr-kennedy-mrna-vaccines-fox-news-rcna223917) research into next-generation vaccines; statements (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-scoffed-andry-hernandez-was-just-gay-barber-when-trump-sent-him-torture-prison) by an immigrant the Trump administration sent in error to a notorious foreign prison who says he was beaten and sexually assaulted by guards; reports that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth sent (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-gave-new-classified-email-revelation-hegseth-signal-scandal-just-40-seconds) information derived from a classified email over an unsecured group chat; and an exodus (https://www.mediamatters.org/pete-hegseth/fox-stars-pass-defending-hegseth-amid-pentagon-chaos) of top Defense Department staffers over concerns with Hegseth’s management style.
Fox excused Trump regulator threatening media companies
What happened: Two days after ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel inaccurately suggested that the alleged killer of Turning Points USA founder Charlie Kirk was part of “the MAGA gang,” Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr publicly threatened (https://www.mediamatters.org/donald-trump/jimmy-kimmel-and-maga-strong-arming-american-media) ABC’s affiliates and its corporate parent, Disney, with regulatory retribution. Nexstar, a large affiliate network which needs Carr’s approval for a corporate merger, subsequently said its affiliates would immediately preempt Kimmel’s show; soon after, ABC announced that the program was suspended indefinitely. On Monday, after widespread criticism of the administration’s effort to curtail speech and ABC’s capitulation, Disney said (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/22/business/media/jimmy-kimmel-returns-abc.html) Kimmel would return to the air on Tuesday.
Fox’s response:Several Fox hosts used the news that Kimmel was returning to the air to claim that his initial removal had been a business decision unrelated to administration pressure. Hannity claimed (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4033292) that while those “on the left” had been “melting down” and falsely blaming Trump for Kimmel’s suspension, it was now proven to have been “a decision by ABC Disney, not the government.” Watters called (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4033295) it a “show-biz decision” and aired a chyron stating “ABC benched Kimmel, not Trump.” Ingraham agreed (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4033296) with guest Raymond Arroyo’s claim that “ABC deciding to put Kimmel back on, it does lay to rest this narrative that somehow the government was orchestrating his removal from the air.” Fox host and former Trump White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said (https://x.com/Acyn/status/1970261100626424210) on The Five, “The government didn't decide it because he’s back tomorrow, so quite clearly the government didn’t force this.” Their talking point aligned with arguments that Republican politicians (https://x.com/MattGertz/status/1969119830436352319) and Carr himself (https://nypost.com/2025/09/22/media/fcc-chair-brendan-carr-denies-government-censorship-led-to-jimmy-kimmel-suspension-its-because-of-his-ratings/) had offered about the case as they backpedaled away from its free-speech implications.
Many such cases:Fox hosts similarly made excuses when Trump tried (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/even-jesse-watters-can-tell-trump-trying-fire-fed-governor-cook-over-pretext) to fire Federal Reserve board member Lisa Cook over a pretext; when Trump failed to release (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/jesse-watters-desperate-deflections-illustrate-rights-trump-epstein-dilemma) Epstein documents as he promised; when a Democratic senator was violently removed (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-parroted-dhs-claim-padilla-lunged-toward-noem-video-debunks-it) from a Department of Homeland Security press conference; when a foreign government gifted (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/foxs-comically-pathetic-spin-foreign-government-gifting-trump-400-million-plane) Trump a plane valued at $400 million; when the administration sent people (https://www.mediamatters.org/immigration/how-fox-handling-reports-trump-administration-may-have-erroneously-sent-people-foreign) in error to a notorious foreign prison; and when top Trump aides discussed (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-propagandists-scramble-explain-former-colleagues-texting-war-plans-reporter) plans for military strikes in an unsecured text chain — and inadvertently included a journalist in the group.
Fox aided Trump advisor caught in bribery scandal
What happened: MSNBC and other news outlets reported (https://www.mediamatters.org/immigration/fox-averts-its-eyes-former-employee-homan-reportedly-receiving-bag-cash) over the weekend that the FBI had recorded White House border czar Tom Homan accepting a bag of cash from undercover agents in September 2024 as part of a corruption investigation, and that the probe was subsequently scuttled by Trump law enforcement appointees. Homan, at the time a Fox contributor and a close Trump adviser pegged for a key administration role on immigration if Trump were elected, had reportedly indicated to the agents that he could help them win government contracts. In statements, top officials from the FBI, DOJ, and White House claimed the probe had not uncovered evidence of illegal activity — but notably did not deny that Homan had been recorded taking a bag of cash from undercover agents.
Fox’s response: Fox hosts regularly provide administration officials and other appointees an opportunity to field friendly questions that help them spin damaging stories. Ingraham gave Homan that treatment (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4033299) on Monday. After offering him softball questions about a new California law banning ICE agents from wearing masks and how the administration can “speed up” mass deportations, she asked him to respond to the story from “our always reliable MSNBC” that “you took $50,000 in cash in a bag from an undercover FBI agent to help them win government contracts in Trump's second term.” In his minute-long response, Homan denounced the “hit piece,” claimed that “nothing illegal happened,” and touted his own “sacrifices” and work for the president — but notably did not deny taking the bag of money. For her part, Ingraham let Homan ramble and ended the interview rather than asking a follow-up question to clarify that point.
Many such cases: Fox hosts similarly aided Kennedy after he purged (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-helps-kennedy-jr-spin-cdc-purge) top leaders from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Hegseth after he shared (https://www.npr.org/2025/04/22/nx-s1-5372348/signal-pete-hegseth-defense-department) attack plans over an unsecured text chain.
Fox cheered Trump pushing unproven Tylenol-autism link
What happened:Researchers have found (https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-real-reason-autism-rates-are-rising/) that autism is largely a heritable condition and that the increase in cases over the years is due primarily to a broadening of the diagnostic criteria. But at a Monday event at the White House, Trump, Kennedy, and other top health aides “launched a broad offensive against the mainstream understanding of autism, claiming without new evidence that acetaminophen — the active ingredient in the common pain reliever Tylenol — was a cause of the disorder,” as The New York Times put it (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/22/health/kennedy-autism-tylenol-trump.html). Health agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration, previously called such evidence inconclusive, and the drug is “considered one of the few safe options to treat pain or fever during pregnancy.”
Fox’s response: Ingraham on Monday touted (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4033300) the administration for “sounding the alarm” over a link between Tylenol and autism in response to how “the number of children with autism has spiked unbelievably over the last number of years.” She then hosted Trump health officials Mehmet Oz and Marty Makary to tout the “growing body of evidence” in support of the administration’s position and to denounce contrary findings as “false.” Watters likewise highlighted (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4033304) the White House’s “major medical bombshell” before turning to another Trump health official, Jay Bhattacharya, to praise the administration for supporting “prudent medicine” and providing a “judicious evaluation” of the evidence.
Many such cases: Fox hosts similarly cheered after Bondi reportedly ordered (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/tulsi-gabbards-russiagate-conspiracy-theory-cant-even-survive-softball-fox-news-interview) federal prosecutors to launch a grand jury probe into various Obama administration figures on spurious grounds; Trump ordered strikes (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-let-chief-trump-propagandist-hannity-lead-special-coverage-us-strikes-iran) on Iranian nuclear targets; the president enacted various (https://www.mediamatters.org/tariffs-trade/art-deal-fox-propagandists-spin-wildly-trumps-huge-tariff-win) unilateral tariff shifts (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/three-ways-maga-media-are-responding-trumps-tariffs-crashing-stock-market); and the Trump administration implemented (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/sean-hannity-once-celebrated-fbi-rank-and-file-now-hes-touting-trumps-purge) a mass purge of FBI agents.
MMA //
The Trumpist media is demanding politicized justice (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/trumpist-media-demanding-politicized-justice)
06/14/23 1:24 PM EDT
Jimmy Kimmel and the MAGA strong-arming of American media (https://www.mediamatters.org/donald-trump/jimmy-kimmel-and-maga-strong-arming-american-media)
09/18/25 12:00 PM EDT
Fox averts its eyes from former employee Homan reportedly receiving a bag of cash (https://www.mediamatters.org/immigration/fox-averts-its-eyes-former-employee-homan-reportedly-receiving-bag-cash)
09/22/25
---
---
mma
Laura Ingraham predicts there will be an economic boom “January to June of next year” (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/laura-ingraham-says-there-will-be-economic-boom-january-june-next-year)
09/05/25
---
MMA
Laura Ingraham: “Tariffs work. Always have, always will.” (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/laura-ingraham-tariffs-work-always-have-always-will)
07/10/25
---
PROJECTION DEFLECTION
mma 7 25
July 7, 2025, edition of Fox News' *The Ingraham Angle
LAURA INGRAHAM (HOST): Even otherwise, reasonable people, if they're led to believe by trusted news and political sources that Trump is truly evil and that he is truly a fascist, fascist country, then isn't armed rebellion the only answer? That deranged individual wearing full tactical gear who tried to ambush the border patrol today in McAllen, Texas, yeah, apparently thought so. Now, this is what Democrats knew would happen. They knew it. And, yet, they never tamped down the rhetoric, not after city blocks were burned during the Floyd riots, not after the Trump assassination attempts.
---
// watters gutf Laura Ingraham says Senator Alex Padilla was performing “a carefully choreographed stunt” at DHS briefing
06/12/25
https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/laura-ingraham-says-senator-alex-padilla-was-performing-carefully-choreographed-stunt-dhs)
---
MMA
Right-wing media call for “overwhelming force” and arrests in LA protests
Written by Chloe Simon (https://www.mediamatters.org/author/chloe-simon) & Reed McMaster (https://www.mediamatters.org/author/reed-mcmaster)
Published 06/12/25
Protests in Los Angeles have been ongoing as Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids continue to target migrant communities. In response, right-wing media have urged the Trump administration and law enforcement to crack down harder on protesters, called for Democratic officials to be arrested, and suggested the protesters were funded by outside groups.
Fox News host Laura Ingraham and others encouraged President Donald Trump to employ the Insurrection Act against protesters while Daily Wire host Matt Walsh said Trump should use “overwhelming force.” Fox host Sean Hannity and War Room host Steve Bannon have called for arrests of Democratic officials, and The Daily Caller blamed a “Pro-Chinese Communist Millionaire” for funding the protests.
Protests erupted after the Trump administration conducted ICE raids in LA and sent in troops
In late May, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller demanded ICE officials begin targeting migrants at places of work, specifically noting stores like Home Depot and 7-Eleven. In an emergency meeting, Miller reportedly berated officials, according to three current and former immigration officials. One told The Washington Examiner, “They’ve been threatened, told they’re watching their emails and texts and Signals. That’s what is horrible about things right now. It’s a fearful environment. Everybody in leadership is afraid. … There’s no morale. Everybody is demoralized.” One official said Miller asked, “Why aren’t you at Home Depot? Why aren’t you at 7-Eleven?” Washington Examiner, [5/30/25 (https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/white-house/3425297/stephen-miller-eviscerated-ice-officials-deportation-numbers/)]
Protests erupted in LA following ICE raids on businesses in the area on Friday, June 6, and have continued after the Trump administration sent in the National Guard and Marines. The protests spread from the garment district, where agents were first spotted searching for migrants, and have been “largely peaceful.” The New York Times, [6/11/25 (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/08/us/la-protests-national-guard-trump.html)]
CNN reports “Trump is building a political case to use American troops not in a foreign conflict, but at home, to bolster his mass deportation sweeps.”CNN described Trump’s strategy as “conjuring a narrative of invasion and insurrection,” adding: “He’s exaggerating disorder in the relatively contained unrest, looting and protests in Los Angeles. And he’s implying that, to keep the country safe, he’s ready to deploy soldiers across the country.” CNN, [6/11/25 (https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/11/politics/trump-military-los-angeles-protests-fort-bragg)]
Right-wing pundits urged Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act, arrest protesters, or utilize “overwhelming force” to put down protests
Fox News legal analyst Kerri Kupec Urbahn suggested the protests could give Trump a path to invoke the Insurrection Act. She claimed, “What the Trump administration could do, and there’s gonna be a lot of conversation about that publicly and I'm sure it’s happening right now behind the scenes, is invoking the Insurrection Act, which allows the United States government to send in military when there is an obstruction happening of federal law enforcement with or without the state's consent. So I think that may be where this is headed if this doesn't quiet down.” Fox News, America’s Newsroom, [6/9/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4030606)]
In an op-ed for The Daily Wire, host Matt Walsh wrote, “The only solution, of course, is to treat them like the terrorists they are. Use overwhelming force to put down the riots.” He added: “Charge and convict the rioters and send them to prison for years. … Any illegal foreign invader involved in a riot should be shipped immediately to Guantanamo Bay.” The Daily Wire, [6/9/25 (https://www.dailywire.com/news/la-descends-into-chaos-as-mexican-rioters-wage-war-on-america)]
Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk suggested invoking the Insurrection Act. He claimed, “Los Angeles does not feel like a protest, what's happening there. It's an entire city that's declaring open rebellion to American sovereignty and authority.” Rumble, The Charlie Kirk Show, [6/9/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/charlie-kirk/charlie-kirk-responding-protests-los-angeles-we-must-be-unafraid-declare-insurrection)]
Fox News host Laura Ingraham argued it would be Trump’s “right” and “obligation” to invoke the Insurrection Act if he feels the U.S. “is being threatened from within.” She said, “Now Democrats are pretending to be outraged about the prospect of Trump invoking the Insurrection Act. Which, of course, is his right. I’d say it's his obligation to do if — and it's his call — if he feels the United States is being threatened from within by violent, seditionary forces.” Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, [6/10/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4030609)]
White nationalist streamer Nick Fuentes urged the Trump administration to use the protests “to federalize a National Guard and send it into the cities. Take over law enforcement. And above all else, use it to arrest thousands of people every day to be deported.” He also added, “If we're not doing that, then we're wasting our time here. It's just a big stunt.” Rumble, America First with Nick Fuentes, [6/10/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4030614)]
Zach Hoyt, one of Twitch's most popular streamers who goes by “Asmongold,” called for the Trump administration to enact martial law and put protestors in “little camps.” Hoyt stated, “They just need to completely fucking, like, stomp this shit out.” He added, “Bring in the military, bring in the National Guard, fucking martial law, curfews — arrest all these people. Make the little camps where you can hold them in. Do the entire fucking thing.” Twitch, ZackRawrr, \6/9/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4030627); The Atlantic, [4/25/25 (https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2025/04/how-video-games-took-over-politics-asmongold/682592/)]
Some commentators demanded Trump arrest Democratic politicians such as Gov. Gavin Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass
War Roomhost Steve Bannon called for Bass’ arrest and accused officials of “getting in between ICE and other law enforcement.” He stated, “Right there, LAPD. The mayor is involved in this and having the stand down. She ought to be arrested today. Immediately.” Real Americas' Voice, War Room, [6/9/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/steve-bannon/steve-bannon-calls-arrest-los-angeles-mayor-karen-bass)]
On his radio show, Fox News host Sean Hannity said Newsom “should be arrested for obstructing U.S. immigration law.” Premiere Radio Networks, The Sean Hannity Show, [6/9/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/sean-hannity/sean-hannity-says-gavin-newsom-should-be-arrested)]
In an interview with “border czar” Tom Homan, Trump ally Laura Loomer asked if he would criminally charge Democratic politicians like Newsom or Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) for “obstructionist behavior.” Loomer: “Are you having any discussions with DHS, with the DOJ, or with the Trump administration to possibly bring criminal charges for harboring of illegal aliens by people like Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, or mayor Karen Bass, or people like Nancy Pelosi or Maxine Waters, because this would really fit the bill of what you described as obstructionist behavior. It's incitement, in my opinion. They are inciting violence by fanning the flames of violence against ICE officials and people like yourself. What qualifies as obstructionist behavior, and will we see any Democrat lawmakers or the governor himself be criminally charged?” Rumble, Loomer Unleashed, [6/9/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4030613)]
Some right-wing figures also suggested the protesters were paid and funded by China, billionaires, or church groups
Fox & Friendshost Brian Kilmeade alleged that “the opposition” in Los Angeles includes groups “supported by the state, the government, and the Chinese government.” Kilmeade later claimed that “they are getting paid.” Fox News, Fox & Friends, [6/10/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4030610)]
Bannon: “This thing is organized, it’s another huge thing financed by the Walton family and all these billionaires.” Real America’s Voice, War Room, [6/10/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4030615)]
On Bannon’s podcast, conservative personality Ben Bergquam claimed Catholic Charities and Lutheran Social Services are behind the LA protests. He stated, “As soon as you start going after the organizations that are behind this, whether that's Catholic Charities, or Lutheran Social Services, or any of these organizations. The communist groups in our country that are working intentionally to undermine this nation, the liberation theology pastors in our country, all of this, that's the root of it.” Real America’s Voice, War Room, [6/9/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4030617)]
The Daily Caller published an article headlined “Group Stoking Anti-ICE LA Riots Tied To Pro-Chinese Communist Millionaire.” The piece went on to allege that the “Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) spoke out in support of the mob rioting against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) over the weekend, posted to X to call for more action on Sunday and created signs that protesters were seen carrying. The PSL shares personnel overlap with groups funded by American tech mogul Neville Singham, whom The New York Times described in August 2023 as sitting at the center of a ‘lavishly funded influence campaign’ promoting pro-Chinese Communist Party (CCP) propaganda.” The Daily Caller, [6/9/25 (https://dailycaller.com/2025/06/09/group-stoking-anti-ice-la-riots-tied-pro-chinese-communist-millionaire/)]
---
mma
- ### Daily Wire's Matt Walsh: “The president should use his authority to immediately terminate all migration from the Third World” (https://www.mediamatters.org/immigration/daily-wires-matt-walsh-president-should-use-his-authority-immediately-terminate-all)
06/10/25 2:01 PM EDT
- ### Steve Bannon: “All ten million have to go, not just the criminals and the insane asylum” (https://www.mediamatters.org/steve-bannon/steve-bannon-all-ten-million-have-go-not-just-criminals-and-insane-asylum)
:{:{06/10/25}:
- ### Newsmax host on Democrats: “At what point are they declared to be a terrorist organization?” (https://www.mediamatters.org/newsmax/newsmax-host-democrats-what-point-are-they-declared-be-terrorist-organization)
06/10/25 9:24 AM EDT
- ### Laura Ingraham says Democrats are using immigration to “resettle America with new people in order to transform it completely” (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/laura-ingraham-says-democrats-are-using-immigration-resettle-america-new-people-order)
06/09/25 7:55 PM EDT
June 9, 2025, edition of Fox News' The Ingraham Angle
LAURA INGRAHAM (HOST): And Biden and Mayorkas, they basically tacitly agreed. They opened the border and they gave benefits to 10 million illegal aliens. The goal? Well, made a lot of those protesters happy, right? Those organizations, but the goal was to resettle America with new people in order to transform it completely in ways that you really can't do at the ballot box, at least when you're that radical. So, what they essentially believe is that all of us need to do penance for the sins of taking this land from native people, for slavery, for what we did to women and so on and so forth. And, by the way, the penance never ends.
- ### Sean Hannity says Gavin Newsom “should be arrested” (https://www.mediamatters.org/sean-hannity/sean-hannity-says-gavin-newsom-should-be-arrested)
06/09/25
---
---
mma
lie about medicare cuts BBB
Laura Ingraham says American universities have “sold their souls to the CCP” (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/laura-ingraham-says-american-universities-have-sold-their-souls-ccp)
06/03/25
---
colbert called out z on reframe of epa mission BS
mma
How Fox manufactured legitimacy for Zeldin’s destructive climate and environmental rollbacks
Special ProgramsClimate & Energy (https://www.mediamatters.org/climate-energy)
Written by Evlondo Cooper (https://www.mediamatters.org/author/evlondo-cooper)
Research contributions from Harrison Ray (https://www.mediamatters.org/author/harrison-ray)
Published 03/13/25
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin has used his extensive appearances on Fox News and Fox Business to justify freezing environmental programs and slashing climate-related funding. A Media Matters analysis found that Zeldin has made at least 22 appearances on cable news since his confirmation on January 29 (https://apnews.com/article/trump-cabinet-zeldin-epa-climate-change-9f0def092a907deb5209c2b9ac14a81d), with 21 of those on Fox networks.
This pattern of strategic media appearances has enabled the Trump administration to reframe essential climate initiatives as corrupt and wasteful while avoiding substantive media scrutiny of its climate and environmental rollbacks, shielding it from the consequences of these harmful policy shifts. Moreover, Zeldin has used these appearances to create a feedback loop in which harmful narratives aimed at climate funding are repeatedly echoed by Fox personalities until they become conventional wisdom across the network.
Fox provided Zeldin a shield from scrutiny, echoing past Trump EPA media strategies}:
Zeldin's Fox-heavy strategy has allowed him to avoid tough questioning and push misleading talking points without rebuttal. Zeldin's Fox appearances have been largely friendly and laudatory, with hosts rarely probing the consequences of cutting climate and environmental programs or challenging his characterization of climate initiatives as wasteful.
Zeldin made at least 21 appearances on Fox News and Fox Business since his confirmation on January 29, including 2 appearances each on Varney & Co., The Story with Martha MacCallum, Mornings with Maria, and Sunday Morning Futures. He has appeared on The Ingraham Angle at least 3 times. This approach directly echoes former Trump EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, who in 2017 appeared on Fox News twice as often as he did on CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, and NBC combined. Media Matters, [8/15/17 (https://www.mediamatters.org/sean-hannity/study-epa-chief-scott-pruitt-has-given-more-interviews-fox-all-other-major-tv-networks)]
During his sole CNN appearance during the studied period, Zeldin faced direct questioning about specific EPA actions and workforce reductions — a stark contrast to his numerous Fox appearances, where such scrutiny was consistently absent. This emerging pattern resembles the approach of Pruitt, who overwhelmingly favored conservative media outlets during his tenure at the EPA. CNN, CNN Newsroom, \2/4/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4028121); Mother Jones, 7/14/17 (https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2017/07/scott-pruitt-desperately-wants-to-be-loved/); Media Matters, [8/15/17 (https://www.mediamatters.org/sean-hannity/study-epa-chief-scott-pruitt-has-given-more-interviews-fox-all-other-major-tv-networks)]
On March 12, Zeldin announced the most aggressive environmental rollbacks in EPA history, including rescinding pollution regulations and eliminating environmental justice programs, framing these actions as essential to lowering energy costs despite the widespread environmental and public health risks. Under his leadership, the agency has also moved to repeal the endangerment finding which underpins federal climate regulations, proposed slashing EPA staff by 65%, and paused the implementation of key pollution rules limiting “forever chemicals” in Americans’ drinking water. Fox has largely failed to ask Zeldin about these major actions. The New York Times, \3/12/25 (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/12/climate/epa-zeldin-rollbacks-pollution.html?utm_campaign=heatmap_am&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=351737913&utm_content=351737913&utm_source=hs_email); The New York Times, 2/20/25 (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/20/climate/epa-climate-funds-green-banks-20-billion.html?partner=slack&smid=sl-share); Inside Climate News, 2/16/25 (https://insideclimatenews.org/news/16022025/climate-environmental-justice-programs-trump-freeze/); Reuters, 2/27/25 (https://www.reuters.com/world/us/white-house-walks-back-trump-statement-65-epa-staff-cuts-2025-02-27/); Union of Concerned Scientists, 1/21/25 (https://blog.ucs.org/don-anair/rolling-back-vehicle-standards-is-bad-for-drivers-the-auto-industry-and-anything-that-breathes/); The Associated Press, 2/27/25 (https://apnews.com/article/epa-endangerment-finding-zeldin-trump-climate-change-4b34246d5ca798154af08560fd94f7b9); Inside Climate News, 3/2/25 (https://insideclimatenews.org/news/02032025/trump-epa-greenhouse-gas-pollution-endangerment-finding/); Bloomberg Law, [3/10/25 (https://news.bloomberglaw.com/environment-and-energy/states-float-pfas-drinking-water-limits-as-epa-weighs-biden-rule)]
With Fox’s help, Zeldin framed EPA policy rollbacks as economic necessity
Zeldin and Fox hosts repeatedly framed environmental deregulation as a purely economic decision, shifting the conversation away from environmental protection to discussions of government efficiency and business growth.
During Zeldin’s appearance on the February 25 episode of Varney & Co., host Stuart Varney pivoted the conversation toward the administration’s efforts to “speed up the permitting process for companies investing in America” over a chyron reading “EPA prioritizes deregulation, promotes investments.” Fox Business, Varney & Co., [2/25/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4028122)]
During Zeldin's February 27 interview on The Evening Edit, host Elizabeth MacDonald characterized his EPA cuts as focusing exclusively on eliminating “this shocking amount” of wasteful government spending, saying: “You are working to cut EPA spending by about two-thirds because you're finding waste.” Fox Business, The Evening Edit, [2/27/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4028123)]
Fox and Zeldin politicized climate funding to justify cuts
Fox hosts and Zeldin reframed climate and environmental initiatives as corrupt political projects, feeding into Fox’s larger misinformation loop.
During his February 18 interview on Mornings With Maria, Zeldin bragged about canceling environmental justice funding, claiming federal grants were directed toward “left-wing ideologues” instead of addressing legitimate environmental concerns for communities in need. “It’s absolutely incredible,” Bartiromo said, demanding, “What were the Biden officials doing other than being asleep at the wheel?” Fox Business, Mornings with Maria, [2/18/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4028124)]
Speaking with host Maria Bartiromo during the February 23 episode of Sunday Morning Futures, Zeldin suggested that grant recipients were selected based on political connections rather than merit and stated, “It’s a clear-cut case of waste and abuse. The entire scheme is criminal, in my opinion.” Fox News, Sunday Morning Futures, [2/23/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4028125)]
Zeldin used his Fox appearances to create a feedback loop (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/after-trumps-attempt-halt-20-billion-climate-projects-vulnerable-communities-fox-falsely) in which these talking points were introduced, echoed by hosts, and then repeated in later segments — laundering false claims and misleading narratives into conventional wisdom spread across Fox networks.
Fox provided a platform for Zeldin to inject, recycle, and amplify misinformation about climate programs
A key example is Zeldin's misleading claim (https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/24/climate-grant-recipient-spending-trumps-epa-tries-claw-back-00205814) that $2 billion in climate funds were improperly awarded to an organization linked to Democratic politician Stacey Abrams, implying she personally received EPA funds. (Abrams was senior counsel for Rewiring America, a member of the Power Forward Communities coalition; there is no evidence (https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2025/feb/26/facebook-posts/without-evidence-social-media-posts-claim-fraud-in/) she personally received EPA grant funds.) This specific accusation targeting Abrams later evolved into broader claims characterizing all climate funding as corrupt political payoffs to Democratic allies and donors, demonstrating how targeted accusations expanded into wholesale attacks on climate and environmental programs.
February 18: Zeldin planted the seed for his attack on Abrams on America Reports, claiming that Biden's EPA structured the grants around “drastically reducing accountability and oversight” and alleging that it included "$20 billion going out the door up front." He framed protests against federal spending cuts as proof that “a lot of left-wing organizations … are beneficiaries of the money.” Fox News, America Reports, [2/18/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4027873)]
February 20: On The Ingraham Angle, host Laura Ingraham explicitly suggested that Abrams criticized cuts to federal agencies because she personally received government funds, stating, “She’s worried about them getting DOGE’d — maybe it's because she was profiting from the EPA,” over a chyron reading “Stacey Abram’s Slush Fund.” Zeldin reinforced the claim, emphasizing that Power Forward Communities received $2 billion in grants after Abrams' affiliated group had only received $100 the previous year. He framed the funding as corrupt and implied mismanagement, further fueling the broader narrative that climate funding was being funneled to Democratic allies. Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, [2/20/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4028179)]
February 21: Fox News’ Special Report repeated this framing of the EPA’s climate funding, with correspondent Steve Harrigan reporting, “Lee Zeldin claims the money was basically a slush fund to reward left-wing political groups, including one where Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams worked as senior counsel.” Fox News, Special Report, [2/21/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4027869)]
February 23: Zeldin sharpened the claim on Sunday Morning Futures, suggesting that the organization receiving the funds had no track record of handling large budgets. “This group in 2023 only received $100,” he claimed. “This isn't even like it’s a longtime group that has some reputation of handling large budgets. They received $2 billion in 2024.” Fox News, Sunday Morning Futures, [2/23/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4028125)]
February 26: Fox & Friends enabled Trump administration officials to amplify the claim, with White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt telling viewers: “You look at what Lee Zeldin has found at the EPA — $20 billion that the Democrats pushed out the door in the final weeks of Joe Biden’s presidency, $2 billion of that went to an NGO that was run by Stacey Abrams. So there is real fraud taking place in our federal government.” Fox News, Fox & Friends, [2/26/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4028180)]
March 6: Zeldin reiterated the claim on Jesse Watters Primetime, broadening it further: “It's going to people who are in the Obama and Biden administrations, it’s going to donors.” He added, “It's not going directly to remediate that environmental issue, to deliver clear air, land, and water. It's billions — tens of billions of dollars — going through their friends.” Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, [3/6/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4028128)]
March 12: On The Ingraham Angle, the host escalated the framing of climate funding as Democratic fraud, amplifying Zeldin’s earlier claim that “$20 billion of your tax dollars were parked in an outside financial institution in a deliberate effort to limit government oversight.” She also explicitly called for criminal prosecutions, asserting that Democrats used the EPA to funnel money to political allies. Zeldin reinforced this narrative, tying his regulatory cuts — including the repeal of the Clean Power Plan 2.0 — to ending government waste, claiming that “you have self-dealing, conflicts of interest, unqualified recipients,” and alleging that a Stacey Abrams-linked group had signed agreements that “tied EPA's hands behind their back.” Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, [3/12/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4028250)]
Fox’s propaganda shields Zeldin’s climate destruction from accountability
Fox News has played a pivotal role in manufacturing legitimacy for the Trump administration’s climate and environmental rollbacks. By allowing Zeldin to spread questionable claims about climate funding, amplifying his misleading narratives, and repeating unverified accusations as established facts, Fox has functioned not just as a shield but as an active participant in the Trump administration’s attempts to reframe climate funding as corruption and environmental deregulation as necessary reform.
At the same time, Fox hosts consistently failed to challenge Zeldin on policy rollbacks targeting key environmental protections. Despite appearing on Fox twice after the Supreme Court’s March 4 ruling (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/supreme-court-epa-san-francisco-sewage-discharge/) weakening the Clean Water Act, Zeldin was never asked about how the decision could impact the EPA’s ability to regulate pollution. Similarly, Fox did not press Zeldin on reports that he urged the Trump administration to reconsider the endangerment finding (https://apnews.com/article/epa-endangerment-finding-zeldin-trump-climate-change-4b34246d5ca798154af08560fd94f7b9), the EPA’s determination that “planet-warming greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare,” which forms the legal basis for regulating emissions.
This strategy doesn’t just obscure policy impacts — it actively misleads the public. By laundering misinformation through repetition and friendly framing, Fox creates an echo chamber in which attacks on climate programs are treated as fact while the real-world consequences of slashing climate funding are ignored, effectively shielding Zeldin from accountability for the full scope of his EPA agenda.
As the Trump administration advances its fossil fuel agenda (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/02/climate/trump-us-climate-policy-changes.html), from gutting the Clean Water Act to dismantling the legal foundation for climate regulation, Fox's selective coverage ensures that the consequences of these policies remain hidden from public scrutiny — allowing the real impacts of these destructive environmental rollbacks to remain largely unexamined.
:{:{## Methodology...}:
---
---
AN 3 25
During a mid-March interview with Fox News' Laura Ingraham (https://x.com/atrupar/status/1900326426286436711), Vice President JD Vance aggressively defended President Donald Trump's passion for tariffs. Trump (https://www.alternet.org/2020/11/trump), Vance claimed, inherited a major economic crisis from former President Joe Biden, and Trump's policies will turn the economy around.
But Vance's claims come at a time when Trump is getting the United States into an all-out trade war with Canada and other longtime allies and the stock market has investors worried. On March 11, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 427 points (https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/us/us-stock-market-dow-jones-falls-trump-tariffs-sp500-nasdaq-economic-slowdown/articleshow/118896862.cms?from=mdr). And economist Paul Krugman views Trump's policies — from tariffs to mass deportations to extensive layoffs of federal government workers — as a recipe for a major recession.
Vance's claims on Fox News are getting a brutal and comprehensive fact-check.
READ MORE:'A stupid fight': Conservative blasts Trump for action 'too absurd to believe' (https://www.alternet.org/conservative-blasts-trump-absurd/)
On X, formerly Twitter, University of Michigan economist Justin Wolfers posted (https://x.com/JustinWolfers/status/1900357710782083467), "Mr. Vice President @JDVance, I'm sure you don't mean to mislead anyone, but the hard data suggest that in fact you've inherited a stronger economy than any administration in your lifetime."
Vance told Ingraham (https://x.com/atrupar/status/1900326426286436711), "There is, as the president has said, a recognition that we have to accept — which is that Joe Biden left this economy in a disaster."
But Wolfers posted a chart (https://x.com/JustinWolfers/status/1900357710782083467) showing that in fact, Trump inherited a very low "misery index" from Biden — one that, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data, "was lower than any other president in at least half a century."
Journalist Aaron Rupar (https://x.com/atrupar/status/1900326426286436711), tweeting Ingraham's interview with Vance, commented, "JD Vance turns reality upside down."
READ MORE:'Discontent': Trump in big trouble with majority of voters — here's why (https://www.alternet.org/bad-polls-for-trump/)
The New York Independent fact-checked Vance (https://x.com/nyi_news/status/1900459545186406661) as well, laying out a lot of data.
The Independent tweeted (https://x.com/nyi_news/status/1900459545186406661), "Remember this. Here's Biden's America: — Unemployment at 40-year low for two straight years. — Stock market at an all time high, 401(k)s flourishing — 2.7 million new jobs created in 2023 and 17 million overall; — Bank failures under Trump: 16 Bank Failures under Biden: 5."
The Independent also noted (https://x.com/nyi_news/status/1900459545186406661), "—The $2.2 trillion Inflation Reduction Act was the biggest climate bill in history — The $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan gave Americans cash to cope with the pandemic downturn — The $280 billion CHIPS Act aims to position the U.S. to outcompete China in producing semiconductors and other advanced tech."
The Bulwark's Tim Miller (https://x.com/Timodc/status/1900378509354127600), a Never Trump conservative and former GOP strategist, tweeted, "Explain to me how the Biden economy was the worst in history, every metric has deteriorated in the two months since he left, and yet somehow the fundamentals of the economy are strong now? @JDVance."
Writer Greg Cantwell tweeted (https://x.com/gregmcantwell/status/1900379996285497557), "The stock market hit record highs and unemployment reached record lows under Biden. Plus, no stupid f------g trade wars."
READ MORE: 'Our cushion is gone': Ohio farmers worry Trump won't pay up on promised funding (https://www.alternet.org/ohio-farmers-trump/?utm_source=push_notifications)
---
mma
Right-wing media cheer Trump administration’s arrest of Mahmoud Khalil
The Trump team is trying to deport a permanent resident of the United States and revoke his green card, and right-wing media are celebrating the effort
Written by Gideon Taaffe (https://www.mediamatters.org/author/gideon-taaffe) & Jack Winstanley (https://www.mediamatters.org/author/jack-winstanley)
Published 03/13/25
Legal resident Mahmoud Khalil was arrested and detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement following his activism for Gaza at Columbia University, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio shared a story about him online, writing, “We will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported."
Such arrests are a policy goal of the Heritage Foundation and Khalil's arrest reportedly followed some online targeting of him. Right-wing media have responded to his arrest by calling for more arrests and deportations, arguing that the administration needs to “send a message” and that students are “going to lose."
ICE arrested Khalil after the Trump administration cracked down on college protests
Mahmoud Khalil was detained by ICE following his pro-Palestinian activism at Columbia University. According to his attorney, ICE agents initially claimed his student visa had been revoked, but when Khalil noted he is a lawful permanent resident with a green card, they detained him anyway. Khalil’s wife, who is a U.S. citizen, was also threatened with arrest. The Washington Post, [3/9/25 (https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2025/03/09/columbia-arrest-mahmoud-khalil/)]
The Department of Homeland Security told CBS News that Khalil’s arrest was “in support of President Trump's executive orders prohibiting anti-Semitism” and claimed he “led activities aligned to Hamas,” but it did not provide any charges or alleged crimes. The executive order called for the deportation of “pro-jihadist” protesters. Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote on social media that the U.S. will revoke green cards of anyone who “supports Hamas.” According to legal scholar Steve Vladeck, “To sustain the lawfulness of Khalil’s arrest, the government has to identify the specific basis on which it believes that Khalil is subject to removal.” CBS, \3/10/25 (https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/ice-arrest-mahmoud-khalil-palestinian-activist-columbia-protests/); NPR, 1/30/25 (https://www.npr.org/2025/01/30/g-s1-45468/trump-antisemitism-executive-order-protests-deport-hamas); The Daily Beast, 3/10/25 (https://www.thedailybeast.com/ice-now-arresting-people-with-green-cards-as-marco-rubio-promises-deportations/); One First with Steve Vladeck, [3/10/25 (https://www.stevevladeck.com/p/131-five-questions-about-the-khalil)]
Khalil is being held in a Louisiana detention center, and his lawyers have objected to that location. Khalil’s lawyer called his move to Louisiana “a blatantly improper but familiar tactic designed to frustrate the New York federal court's jurisdiction, and isolate Mahmoud far from his lawyers, his home, and his local community of support.” A U.S. district judge ordered Khalil to remain in the U.S. “to preserve the court's jurisdiction” and is scheduled to oversee a detention hearing on Wednesday. NBC News, [3/10/25 (https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/demonstrators-take-nycs-federal-plaza-mahmoud-khalil-arrested-ice-rcna195602)]
Deporting activists such as Khalil is a policy goal of the Heritage Foundation’s “Project Esther” and reportedly followed online targeting
Project Esther, a Heritage Foundation-backed plan to “combat antisemitism,” calls for “Foreign HSO \Hamas Support Organizations] leaders and members” to be “deported from the U.S.” The Jewish magazine Forward notes, “The plan’s first targets are pro-Palestinian organizations like Students for Justice in Palestine, American Muslims for Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace.” The Heritage plan also suggests that these organizations are “dedicated to the destruction of capitalism and democracy” and benefit “from the support and training of America’s overseas enemies.” According to the plan, such organizations have “infiltrated their ideology into the U.S. education system across all levels. ... The U.S. education system fosters antisemitism under the guise of ‘pro-Palestinian,’ anti-Israel, anti-Zionist narratives across universities, high schools, and elementary schools, often under the umbrella or within the rubric of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and similar Marxist ideology.” Heritage Foundation, [10/7/24 (https://www.heritage.org/progressivism/report/project-esther-national-strategy-combat-antisemitism); Forward, [11/19/24 (https://forward.com/opinion/676036/antisemitism-heritage-foundation-project-esther/)]
Khalil’s detention and his arrest was reportedly preceded by a series of online posts that identified him as a protester and “SUSPECTED FOREIGN NATIONAL.” At least one of the posts tagged Rubio and asked him to “revoke Mahmoud Khalil’s visa.” Drop Site News, [3/9/25 (https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/dhs-detains-columbia-university-student-gaza)]
Right-wing media and guests cheered the arrest and argued that the Trump administration “needs to go further” to tamp down pro-Palestinian protests
OnFaulkner Focus, former Fox contributor Leo Terrell, who is on the White House task force combating “anti-Semitic harassment in schools and on college campuses,” stated that Khalil’s arrest “is the beginning of a series of victories.” Terrell added, “This arrest of this individual is an indication and should serve as a deterrent that the Trump administration is not going to allow individuals on a student visa with a green card to commit antisemitic behavior on our college campuses.” Fox News, The Faulkner Focus, \3/10/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4028173); Department of Justice, [2/3/25 (https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-announces-formation-task-force-combat-anti-semitism)]
On Newsmax, right-wing political activist Kennedy Goetz argued that if you support pro-Palestinian protests, “your visa should be provoked,” after she was asked about whether Khalil's green card should be revoked.She also said that “if you come into our country, it is a privilege, and it is an absolute privilege to be a United States citizen.” Newsmax, The National Report, [3/10/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4028177)]
Fox News’ Aishah Hasnie said the Trump administration has to “send a message” and “make an example of somebody” to get college protests to end. Hasnie continued, “You can’t keep behaving this way, especially if the universities don't do anything about it.” Co-anchor John Roberts commented that the student protests are “trespassing at the very least along with potentially giving support and comfort to a terrorist organization.” Fox News, America’s Newsroom, [3/10/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4028178)]
Right-wing radio host Hugh Hewitt called Khalil’s arrest “a warning shot as well to anyone supporting Hamas,” despite admitting the government has “not produced evidence showing he has made a specific statement of support of Hamas.” Hewitt explained that the Trump administration is testing the waters with Khalil, saying, “I think they've begun with Mr. Khalil. He has the highest level of protection that a noncitizen can have, legal permanent resident.” Fox News, America’s Newsroom, [3/11/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4028181)]
OnFox & Friends, co-host Lawrence Jones noted to attorney Chris Swecker that Trump administration officials “haven't even explored the criminal element” regarding Khalil yet. Swecker argued that “they need to go further” and stated that the arrest “sends the right message,” adding, “Resources need to be devoted to this, and I think this is just the beginning, Lawrence. I think this was just a shot across the bow.” Fox News, Fox & Friends, [3/11/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4028186)]
Fox host Brian Kilmeade warned, “Students, you are going to lose,” due to the Trump administration’s “relentless” actions, adding that no Democrat is “going to stand up for you.” Jones, added, “If the Democrats want to make this kid their martyr, I don’t think it’s going to go well for them. I want them to target the rest of them.” Fox News, Fox & Friends, [3/11/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4028183)]
On Newsmax, The Daily Wire’s Andrew Klavin said that Khalil is “better off getting out of here” and he hopes “all the people who were with him who are not American nationals are sent home in a big, big hurry.” Host Rob Schmitt also called Khalil a “serious pro-Hamas agitator” and commented that he hopes ICE “can get this guy and many more out of this country.” Newsmax, Rob Schmitt Tonight, [3/10/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4028182)]
Conservative writer Brigitte Gabriel celebrated the arrest on X, stating “ONE DOWN!” Twitter/X, [3/9/25 (https://x.com/ACTBrigitte/status/1898822026904694989)]
During a panel discussion of Khalil’s case,The Fiveco-host Greg Gutfeld claimed, “You can deport him. He doesn't have to be a criminal.” Gutfeld also baselessly claimed that Khalil “has seen some USAID money.” Fox News, The Five, [3/11/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4028217)]
Fox News host Laura Ingraham claimed, “There are a lot more Mahmoud Khalil's out there.”She added, “And they are living here. They are working here. They are studying here on student visas, on work visas, and it is their goal — the left's goal — to normalize this notion of foreigners coming here and then advocating for the overthrow of our government.” Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, [3/11/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4028218)]
//
- ### Pro-Palestinian student protests have been largely peaceful. Right-wing media want to call in the National Guard. (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/pro-palestinian-student-protests-have-been-largely-peaceful-right-wing-media-want-call)
04/25/24
- ### Far-right media figures with extreme ties are planning a “United for Israel” march at Columbia to counter peaceful pro-Palestinian student protests (https://www.mediamatters.org/middle-east/far-right-media-figures-extreme-ties-are-planning-united-israel-march-columbia-counter)
04/24/24
- ### Right-wing media equate Palestinian flag with Nazism and support for Hamas (https://www.mediamatters.org/middle-east/right-wing-media-equate-palestinian-flag-nazism-and-support-hamas)
12/14/23
---
---
mma
Laura Ingraham celebrates far-right AfD party's surge in Germany (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/laura-ingraham-celebrates-far-right-afd-partys-surge-germany)
02/24/25
---
---
Right-wing media cheer Trump's anti-Christian bias task force after years of laying the groundwork
Right-wing commentators have spent years claiming that the Biden administration was “waging spiritual warfare against Christianity” and that “the left wants to drive Christians out of the public square”
Written by Payton Armstrong (https://www.mediamatters.org/author/payton-armstrong)
Published 02/27/25 mma
A task force created by President Donald Trump to eradicate alleged “anti-Christian bias” is drawing praise from right-wing media figures — some of whom have spent years baselessly claiming that Christians are a persecuted group in the United States, even though experts say there’s no such widespread bias.
Right-wing commentators celebrated Trump’s task force as “a cultural resurgency” and declared that “this is the counter-revolution against their color revolution that occurred in the summer of 2020.”
In one instance, Christian nationalist media figure Lance Wallnau joined Steve Bannon’s podcast to praise the task force as the first step in the “recapturing of institutions,” naming education, media, business, and government among the institutions he wants to infuse with “the ideas of Western civilization, which is the ideas of Christian civilization.” This appears to be a reference to the Seven Mountain Mandate popularized (https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/lance-wallnau-doug-mastriano-christian-dominion-1234602214/) by Wallnau, which instructs Christians to impose fundamentalist values on American society by conquering the “seven mountains” of cultural influence in American life: government, education, media, religion, family, business, and entertainment.
Experts have argued “there is no widespread anti-Christian bias in our society" and that Trump’s anti-Christian bias task force is actually “enshrining Christian privilege in our society.”
Trump issued an executive order on “eradicating anti-Christian bias,” but experts say “there is no widespread anti-Christian bias in our society”
Trump first announced the task force during a speech at the National Prayer Breakfast in early February, saying it will “protect Christians” and bring “our country back together as one nation under God,” and he later issued an executive order listing examples of supposed bias under the Biden administration.The executive order — titled “Eradicating Anti-Christian Bias” — claimed that “the previous Administration engaged in an egregious pattern of targeting peaceful Christians, while ignoring violent, anti-Christian offenses.” The executive order claimed, “The Biden Department of Justice sought to squelch faith in the public square by bringing Federal criminal charges and obtaining in numerous cases multi-year prison sentences against nearly two dozen peaceful pro-life Christians for praying and demonstrating outside abortion facilities.” The Hill, \2/6/25 (https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5130103-trump-national-prayer-breakfast-religious-discrimination-task-force-anti-christian-bias/); White House, [2/6/25 (https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/02/eradicating-anti-christian-bias/)]
The Associated Press reported that “critics said Trump is claiming to see persecution in distorted case descriptions, a calendar coincidence and other situations that, while raising concerns, don’t add up to a pattern.”As noted by the Associated Press, “Christianity is by far the largest faith in America, and Christian conservatives have a strong grip on the levers of government.” The Associated Press, [2/13/25 (https://apnews.com/article/eradicating-anti-christian-bias-trump-religious-freedom-c4a01b2d75b471e7329f84a6e662c934)]|}:
On CNN, religious extremism expert Matthew Taylor argued “there is no widespread anti-Christian bias in our society,” noting that claims of anti-Christian persecution can “become a pretext for them persecuting actual minority groups.”Taylor urged that “we need to recognize that there is no widespread anti-Christian bias in our society,” and said, “It's striking that given the widespread realities of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, and as you said, mosques and synagogues tend to have more attacks than churches per capita, there's no task force on rooting out anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. Instead, this is enshrining Christian privilege in our society.” CNN, CNN Newsroom, [2/9/25 (https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/cnr/date/2025-02-09/segment/22)]
Multiple Republican-led states have moved to require Bible instruction or a display of the Ten Commandments in all public schools.Last year, Louisiana became the first state to require all public schools to display the Ten Commandments. Soon after, Oklahoma’s state superintendent directed all public schools to teach the Bible, including the Ten Commandments, and conservative media figures promoted the policy as a way to “impose Christian values” and encouraged other states to follow suit. At the start of the 2025 legislative session, Alabama Republican lawmakers proposed mandates to display the Ten Commandments in public schools and give students the “opportunity to participate in daily prayer” or risk losing some state funding. PBS, \6/19/24 (https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/louisiana-to-become-first-state-to-require-that-the-ten-commandments-be-displayed-in-every-public-school-classroom); New York Times, 6/27/24 (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/27/us/oklahoma-public-schools-bible.html); Media Matters, 7/8/24 (https://www.mediamatters.org/education/oklahoma-state-superintendent-says-pastor-and-right-wing-commentator-suggested-his-new); AL.com, [2/15/25 (https://www.al.com/news/2025/02/alabama-lawmakers-push-school-prayer-ten-commandments-displays-will-courts-say-amen.html)]
Right-wing media and extreme anti-LGBTQ groups have a long history of conflating criticism of anti-LGBTQ positions with anti-Christian hostility.They’ve said that Democratic senators have anti-Christian bias for questioning federal judicial nominees’ anti-LGBTQ statements or ties to bigoted groups, and they’ve described basic legal protections for LGBTQ people as anti-Christian. Media Matters, \11/8/19 (https://www.mediamatters.org/marc-thiessen/fox-news-contributor-marc-thiessen-says-criticism-anti-lgbtq-positions-anti-catholic), [5/20/14 (https://www.mediamatters.org/sean-hannity/how-fox-news-helping-homophobes-hijack-christianity)]
During the Biden administration, right-wing media personalities baselessly claimed Christians were targeted by the government and “the left”
- When Transgender Day of Visibility coincided with Easter in 2024, right-wing media figures — especially on Fox News and Newsmax — claimed that the Biden administration was attacking Christians.Right-wing media used the day to warn Christians that they were under attack after Biden’s statements recognizing Transgender Day of Visibility, with Fox’s Jesse Watters arguing that Biden is “waging spiritual warfare against Christianity.” Between Fox and Newsmax, the networks combined aired more than 4 hours of coverage and nearly 80 segments, slamming Biden for his “demonic” remarks which they said amounted to an “attack on Christian faith.” Media Matters, \4/2/24 (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/right-wing-media-melt-down-over-easter-and-trans-day-visibility-falling-same-day), [4/2/24 (https://www.mediamatters.org/newsmax/fox-news-and-newsmax-conducted-dayslong-freakout-because-transgender-day-visibility)]
On his network, former Fox News star Tucker Carlson hosted anti-abortion protester Paul Vaughn — who was arrested for blocking access to a clinic — and falsely claimed that Vaughn was facing prison time for merely singing hymns and praying.Carlson said that Vaughn “had dared to pray and sing hymns in the hallway of an abortion clinic. In other words he did what the Biden administration really fears, he prayed. And for doing that, he faces 11 years in prison.” USA Today fact checked Carlson’s claim, noting that: “Vaughn was arrested for physically obstructing access to an abortion clinic, not for praying,” highlighting that “the law in question explicitly protects First Amendment speech and also includes language ensuring free access to houses of worship.” \Tucker Carlson Network, *Tucker Carlson \vid] Uncensored,[
(https://youtu.be/_ilkJeN22W0); USA Today, [4/1/24 (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2024/04/01/abortion-protesters-arrest-unrelated-to-prayer/73166262007/)
Carlson again falsely claimed that Vaughn was facing felony charges “from the Biden administration for praying at an abortion clinic and daring to sing hymns,” adding that “from the perspective of the people who run the country there’s really just one enemy, and that’s faithful Christians.”During a Tucker Carlson Uncensored clip posted on X, Carlson said: “If you’re interested in who they really hate, well, look at what's happening. So Christian churches across the country have been burning and no one in the government is doing anything about it. Look at how Christian churches were treated during Covid … we talked the other day to a guy who is facing 11 years in prison, federal felony charges from the Biden administration, for praying at an abortion clinic and daring to sing hymns. So if you are a faithful Christian — not a fake Christian, David French Christian, but an actual Christian, of the kind this country has always had, of the kind this country was created to harbor actually — you are seen as an enemy by the people who run it.” Twitter/X, [4/18/24 (https://x.com/TuckerCarlson/status/1781080270369595785)]|}:
Fox host Laura Ingraham repeatedly lamented the supposed anti-Christian bias of the Biden administration, including in an interview with Vaughn where she suggested that “singing hymns and peacefully expressing your traditional Christian beliefs can get you thrown behind bars.” During the interview, Ingraham’s show displayed a chyron that read: “Liberals fighting to wipe out Christian values.” FoxNews.com, [1/31/24 (https://www.foxnews.com/media/pro-life-activist-facing-11-years-prison-peaceful-protest-makes-felon-bidens-doj)]|}:
Ingraham also complained that then-Attorney General Merrick Garland was not addressing a “growing anti-Christian bias in the United States and criminal activity geared towards Christians.” The chyron read “to the left, Christians are the emerging enemy” and Ingraham claimed that “pro-life centers across the country” and “churches have been attacked,” adding that to the left, “if you’re a Christian, a bible-believing Christian, you’re a terrorist.” Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, [3/29/23 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4027768)]
Following a deadly shooting at a Christian private school in Nashville, Tennessee, Ingraham claimed the Biden White House and “the left” had been “ginning up anti-Christian sentiment” by allegedly teaching kids “to treat Christians as haters and mortal threats to their existence.”Ingraham told her audience: “Isn’t it also the case that the left in America — and even this White House — is ginning up, without saying the words necessarily, but ginning up anti-Christian sentiment by referring to trans activists as heroes and their bravery for standing up against the intolerant class, the haters. So these kids are learning to treat Christians as haters and mortal threats to their existence.” Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, \4/11/23 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4027769); Media Matters, [4/12/23 (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/right-wing-media-ran-dubious-police-claims-covenant-school-shooters-manifesto-continue)]|}:
Sean Davis, CEO of The Federalist, argued that by charging anti-abortion protesters under the FACE ACT, “the Biden regime clearly desires to make being a pro-life Christian a crime.” As documented by Media Matters, anti-abortion figures baselessly accused the Biden Department of Justice of weaponizing the FACE Act against protestors convicted of harassment at abortion clinics. Twitter/X, \6/21/24 (https://x.com/seanmdav/status/1804219387143962877); Media Matters, [6/11/24 (https://www.mediamatters.org/health-care/anti-abortion-media-figures-baselessly-accuse-biden-doj-weaponizing-face-act)]|}:
Right-wing media spent years launching hyperbolic accusations of Christian persecution, especially amid growing LGBTQ inclusion
When the European parliament displayed an LGBTQ Jesus, Steve Bannon lamented that “the Judeo-Christian West” is “anti-Christian by its leadership,” suggesting there will be “Diocletian” level persecution.He warned: “If you're prepared to accept it, it's going to get first-century Rome anti— it's going to get Diocletian. You're going to get to Diocletian anti-Christian and you're going to get there pretty quickly.” Real America’s Voice, War Room, \5/5/23 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4027770); FoxNews.com, [5/7/23 (https://www.foxnews.com/world/art-european-parliament-shows-jesus-gay-sadomasochistic-slaves-sparking-outrage-disgusting)]
While hosting Jack Phillips — a Colorado baker who had been sued for refusing to make a trans-themed cake — Fox’s Laura Ingraham declared that “the left wants to drive Christians out of the public square.”Ingraham added: “You don't even have a right to have a small business if you're a Christian today. You certainly don't have any conscience right, you have no religious rights, you have no First Amendment rights, if you clash with what they believe to be, you know, the supremely protected among us.” Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, \1/30/23 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4027771); Associated Press, [10/8/24 (https://apnews.com/article/colorado-baker-transgender-cake-lawsuit-dismissed-248cd8903edd14b1c601291bd5a49c1e#::text=Colorado's%20Supreme%20Court%20on%20Tuesday,brought%20the%20case%20national%20attention.)]|}:
Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk has relentlessly claimed that Christian values in the U.S. are under attack, claiming that they could be thrown in prison.At a 2023 TPUSA pastor’s summit, Kirk warned pastors that “if we continue theological disputes and don't focus on liberty, then we're going to be having those theological disputes from prison.” Ahead of the 2024 election, Kirk claimed that pro-choice Democrats would “create a secret police that will audit, intimidate, raid every single” pregnancy center in the U.S., saying that when that happens, “we'll be like, wow, I really wish that we Christians would have bought ourselves a little more time so that our nonprofits, our leaders, wouldn't go to federal prison.” NPR, \10/24/24 (https://www.npr.org/2024/10/24/nx-s1-5009316/charlie-kirk-turning-point-christian-nationalism-trump); Media Matters, 4/27/23 (https://www.mediamatters.org/charlie-kirk/charlie-kirks-turning-point-usa-increasingly-leaning-right-wing-christian); Real America’s Voice, The Charlie Kirk Show, [8/16/24 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4027773)]|}:
Tucker Carlson suggested that the “trans movement is targeting Christians,” citing the Covenant school shooting.Carlson claimed that “the trans movement is the mirror image of Christianity and therefore its natural enemy,” declaring that “Christianity and transgender orthodoxy” are on a “collision course” and claiming that “one side is likely to draw blood before the other side.” Rolling Stone, [3/28/23 (https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/tucker-carlson-claims-trans-movement-targeting-christians-gun-control-1234705347/)]|}:
On Fox News, Oklahoma state superintendent Ryan Walters lamented that a Harris/Walz administration would “trans the kids“ and “push all faith out of the public square,” as now-White House faith director Paula White-Cain bragged that Trump was “promising in his second term to do even more for Christians as he shares the same values.”White-Cain called for national “revival” and “turning our hearts back to God” and Walters declared that a Harris/Walz administration would be the “most anti-Christian administration in American history.” FoxNews.com, \8/10/24 (https://www.foxnews.com/video/6360184946112); Religion News Service, [2/21/25 (https://religionnews.com/2025/02/21/trumps-choice-to-run-white-house-faith-office-sparks-theological-turf-war/)]|}:
On Sebastian Gorka’s Salem Media podcast, Breitbart’s Thomas Williams said that the U.S. is a “post-Christian society, but in many ways an anti-Christian society.”Gorka — who is now the counterterrorism chief in Trump’s administration — replied, “right,” and Williams added, “We are a Judeo-Christian nation by its foundation, and in the value system that understands what the family is, what society is.” Salem Media, America First with Sebastian Gorka, \6/14/23 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4027772); CBS News, [1/7/25 (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-sebastian-gorka/)]|}:
- Fox host Emily Compagno labeled the U.S. an “anti-Christian, anti-Judeo-Christian society.”Compagno cited backlash to a graduation speech from Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker that reportedly attacked the LGBTQ community and told “women to forget about a career and serve their man instead.” Fox News, Gutfeld!, \6/11/24 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4027774); OutSports, [5/13/24 (https://www.outsports.com/2024/5/13/24093811/harrison-butker-nfl-catholic-benedictine-college-kansas-city-chiefs/)]
Former Trump DOJ official Jeff Clark told Bannon that a second Trump administration needed a “beefed up” religious liberty task force to fight anti-Christian sentiment in the U.S., citing a story he heard about a “school district that was prohibiting bus drivers even from wearing Christmas regalia.” Responding to a campaign speech where Trump pledged to create an anti-Christian bias task force if elected, Clark said: “That's wonderful to announce, especially in an increasingly anti-Christian world. I mean, I'd seen a story about a school district that was prohibiting bus drivers even from wearing Christmas regalia to entertain the students a little bit. I mean things have gone into bonkers land. And look, in the first Trump term, we did have a religious liberty task force. And I think we need an even more beefed up one.” Real America’s Voice, War Room, \12/20/23 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4027776); Fox News, [12/19/23 (https://www.foxnews.com/media/pa-school-district-apologizes-telling-bus-drivers-remove-christmas-decor-inclusivity)]|}:
Right-wing media heaped praise on Trump’s task force, celebrating Trump “proudly defending our heritage as inheriting the values of the Bible”
Charlie Kirk applauded the task force’s creation, declaring that “this is the counter-revolution against their color revolution that occurred in the summer of 2020.” He said, “We are proudly defending our heritage as inheriting the values of the Bible,” adding, “This is a cultural resurgency. No longer should you be afraid to share your faith. No longer should you be afraid to share your political values. This is the counter-revolution against their color revolution that occurred in the summer of 2020, and it is ascendant.” Real America’s Voice, The Charlie Kirk Show, [2/6/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4027778)]
On her show, Ingraham celebrated that “we have a president who believes our nation has a divine destiny” and displayed a chyron declaring: “Trump restores faith in America.”Ingraham then hosted a teacher, Marisol Arroyo-Castro, who claimed she had been suspended for having a crucifix in her classroom. Ingraham told Arroyo-Castro that “they see you and your presence as a threat,” and said, “I don’t think it’s constitutional.” Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, \2/6/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4027784); CT Insider, [1/30/25 (https://www.ctinsider.com/connecticut/article/new-britain-ct-crucifix-teacher-arroyo-castro-20063353.php)]
Praising the task force announcement, right-wing commentator Michael Knowles said, “I love that he \Trump] is saying anti-Christian hostility, anti-Christian bias in the government” rather than “squish Republicans” who say “we want to just generally and universally speaking protect all religions.”Knowles elaborated, saying, “There aren't really threats against all general religions kind of broadly, man. That's not the problem. America wasn't founded on the principles of just kind of all the religions generally, universally, man. The specific problem that we saw explode during the Biden administration was bias against Christians. … That's the problem that has to be addressed, and that's the specific problem Trump is addressing, and I love it.” [Daily Wire, The Michael Knowles Show, [2/7/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4027779)]
Steve Bannon celebrated the announcement and hosted media figure Lance Wallnau — a “prophet” and self-described Christian nationalist — with the two discussing right-wing Christians’ “recapturing of institutions” including “education, of media, of business, of government.”Bannon and Wallnau discussed how the task force can be used “to seize the institutions of the federal government” with “the ideas of Western civilization, which is the ideas of Christian civilization.” Wallnau said that “there are three arteries that make this happen: legislation, litigation, and the shaping of public opinion,” adding, “because people like you, as long as we can shape the public opinion, the secret sauce is you've got to work with the awakening that's happening and move with it in such a way that you litigate and you legislate, but never get too far ahead of public persuasion.” Real America’s Voice, War Room, \2/7/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4027782); Media Matters; 9/27/24 (https://www.mediamatters.org/jd-vance/jd-vance-appear-town-hall-christian-nationalist-show-whose-host-has-said-kamala-harris); Rolling Stone, [9/29/22 (https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/lance-wallnau-doug-mastriano-christian-dominion-1234602214/)]|}:
Video
Citation
From the February 7, 2025, edition of Real America's Voice's War Room
After Trump’s speech announcing his intent to create a task force, Bannon suggested that the president needs to “make sure they're going throughout the government because the administrative state is absolutely anti-Christian,” claiming that “the deep state is demonic.” Real America's Voice's chief White House correspondent Brian Glenn added, “Certainly we have seen how demonic this previous administration has been in terms of allowing religious freedom.” Real America’s Voice, War Room, [2/6/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4027780)]
Fox host Jeanine Pirro praised the task force’s creation and attacked the FBI and the Biden administration for supposedly targeting Catholics, a claim that was found to be baseless after an internal investigation.Pirro noted that Trump “went to two prayer breakfasts this morning and he talked about eradicating anti-Christian bias,” and complained about “when the FBI director Christopher Wray came out and really told us no one at the FBI was targeting Christians and Senator Hawley came out and they found that leaked memo that the FBI was investigating Catholics and priests were gone to so they could then inform on parishioners who were considered domestic terrorists.” The New York Times reported that “Republicans claimed the bureau’s memo was evidence of an anti-conservative strain among F.B.I. ranks, but an internal investigation failed to uncover any ‘malicious intent.’” Fox News, The Five, \2/6/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4027794); New York Times, [4/18/24 (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/18/us/politics/catholic-extremists-fbi.html)]|}:
//
- ### Trump and his MAGA allies increasingly embrace extreme prophetic media (https://www.mediamatters.org/donald-trump/trump-and-his-maga-allies-increasingly-embrace-extreme-prophetic-media)
05/30/24
- ### Trump scheduled to address right-wing media “prophets” and pastors who claim he’s “anointed to be King” (https://www.mediamatters.org/donald-trump/trump-scheduled-address-right-wing-media-prophets-and-pastors-who-claim-hes-anointed)
10/18/24
- ### Oklahoma state superintendent says pastor and right-wing commentator suggested his new Bible mandate in public schools (https://www.mediamatters.org/education/oklahoma-state-superintendent-says-pastor-and-right-wing-commentator-suggested-his-new)
07/08/24
---
---
MMA
Laura Ingraham sounded the alarm about the need for Congress to assert its authority against a “tyrant” “would-be dictator” in the White House — in 2014
Shockingly, Laura Ingraham and her Fox News colleagues’ concerns about executive orders may vary depending on which party holds the White House
Written by Alicia Sadowski (https://www.mediamatters.org/author/alicia-sadowski), Jane Lee (https://www.mediamatters.org/author/jane-lee), Isabella Corrao (https://www.mediamatters.org/author/isabella-corrao) & Helena Hind (https://www.mediamatters.org/author/helena-hind)
Research contributions from Chloe Simon (https://www.mediamatters.org/author/chloe-simon) & Sage Hodil (https://www.mediamatters.org/author/sage-hodil)
Published 02/14/25
The beginning of President Donald Trump's second term have featured an aggressive and legally dubious expansion of executive power. A piece (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/13/opinion/trump-constitutional-crisis.html?partner=slack&smid=sl-share) by the New York Times editorial board warning of a potential constitutional crisis said, “President Trump is trying to expand his authority beyond the bounds of the law while reducing the ability of the other branches to check his excesses.” While Fox News personalities have been celebrating Trump's authoritarian impulses, they previously characterized executive actions during the terms of former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden as “fascistic" and “dictatorial."
Laura Ingraham’s words were particularly acute, warning of the “homegrown tyranny” of a “king.”
In a 2014 blog post (https://web.archive.org/web/20141222183057/http://www.lauraingraham.com/b/GOP-Must-Resist-Homegrown-Tyranny/-463619129233355816.html) that Media Matters unearthed from an archive of Ingraham’s website, and which appears not to have been previously reported, she implored Congress to use “traditional instruments of Congressional authority.” Echoing current criticisms of Trump's unconstitutional barrage, Ingraham wrote: “Stop yielding more and more power to a man who evidently feels that there are no legal constraints on his authority to rewrite our laws and our Constitution.” She also wrote that, “The issue now is whether Congressional Republicans will knuckle under to the President, or whether they will act to protect our freedoms, our sovereignty, and our system of government.”
Ingraham and her Fox colleagues decried an “imperial presidency” and was a president who was a “tyrant”
Then-radio personality, now current Fox News host Laura Ingraham claimed Obama wanted “to just be king for a day” and was “annoyed with the checks on his power.”Mediaite, [1/28/14 (https://www.mediaite.com/tv/ingraham-obama-has-given-up-persuading-people-wants-to-be-king-for-a-day/)]
In a “Shut Up & Blog” post on her website, Ingraham repeatedly called Obama a “tyrant” and “would-be dictator,” and instructed Congress to restrict his power using “traditional instruments of Congressional authority.” Lauraingraham.com via archive.org, [11/19/14 (https://web.archive.org/web/20141222183057/http://www.lauraingraham.com/b/GOP-Must-Resist-Homegrown-Tyranny/-463619129233355816.html), accessed 2/12/25]
Ingraham wrote:
Going forward, there should be no question of giving the tyrant any more power, such as the power to negotiate binding new trade agreements that could affect an array of U.S. laws and regulations. And every spending measure should be carefully scrutinized to ensure that Congress is not giving the tyrant more power that he can abuse to the long-term detriment of this country. The tyrant's appointees should be subject to close and careful scrutiny, as the history of the last few years proves that they are motivated by partisanship and they cannot be trusted to cooperate voluntarily.
…
It's time to govern, and stop yielding more and more power to a man who evidently feels that there are no legal constraints on his authority to rewrite our laws and our Constitution. The Founders knew that it was possible for a charismatic would-be dictator to win his way into the White House, and they gave Congress and the states lots of weapons to defend themselves against such a tyrant. There's no point now in bemoaning the fact that our President wants to be a tyrant – he is what he is. The issue now is whether Congressional Republicans will knuckle under to the President, or whether they will act to protect our freedoms, our sovereignty, and our system of government.
Ingraham likened Obama's immigration action to “homegrown tyranny” of a “king.”Ingraham continued: “Memo to the Republicans: You must resist homegrown tyranny. This is the closest thing I have ever seen in my lifetime to soft dictatorship.” Courtside Entertainment Group, The Laura Ingraham Show, [11/20/14 (https://www.mediamatters.org/laura-ingraham/laura-ingraham-likens-obamas-immigration-action-home-grown-tyranny-king)]
Video
From the November 20, 2014 edition of Courtside Entertainment Group's The Laura Ingraham Show
LAURA INGRAHAM (HOST): Imagine if that's just what we started to do. What do you think the Democrats would do? Well, let's — let's — let's expand it out to social issues. Oh, well, we have a lot of people who believe that their First Amendment rights have been violated in protesting near abortion clinics, prayerful protests. You know something? I know the Supreme Court has said this, that, or the other thing. And I know some of these, localities and states, they have some view about how close you can get to the front of an abortion clinic.
But you know something? We're I'm actually, as president, as the king — as the new king, I am going to establish my own boundary, my own limitation because I think it's unfair for these people who've had their First Amendment rights trampled upon to be kept out of a particular zone of privacy. So I'm gonna give a reprieve to them for any prosecution. No federal prosecution. No federal penalties. No federal anything.
We can keep doing this. I can keep going down a list, and you could do it with Obamacare. As king, the new king, new Republican king, I'm gonna say any individual that chooses not to buy health insurance, guess what? You're not gonna be subject to that IRS penalty. You're not gonna be subject to extra withholding. You are not gonna be penalized in any way because the system is broken.
Congress hasn't done what I demand that it do, which is to repeal Obamacare. So I, as the chief executive, am going to prod Congress along. And when you do what you're supposed to do, Congress, then my executive order, I'm gonna rip it up. Obamacare, First Amendment issues, environmental issues, taxation issues. Where does this environmental issues, taxation issues. Where does this end? Does it ever end? At what point do we roll back this homegrown tyranny?
I wrote a piece on the website, how the GOP must resist this homegrown tyranny. Must. Not — not might, not maybe, must. And this means every element of resistance must be employed. I know everyone is going to jump to impeach, impeach, impeach.
I mean, you could impeach the president in the House of Representatives, you're not gonna be convicted in the Senate. Not gonna happen. Okay? So you could impeach the — I — I'm — I'm — I've not not been in favor of that. I don't think I think he's that would be his his saving grace.
You impeach Obama, that's the biggest gift you can give Obama. That is he he's begging you to impeach him. I mean, at this point, that would be the only thing I could see that would rescue Obama is an impeachment proceeding.
Ingraham: “For eight years, George W. Bush, the establishment of the GOP, was mute during the tyranny of the Obama administration.” Fox News, The Ingraham Angle,[3/6/18 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4027516)]
Video
From the March 6, 2018, edition of Fox News' The Ingraham Angle
Van Susteren and Karl Rove wondered if Obama was “acting like a dictator” because of his immigration executive orders.Fox News, On the Record, [1/14/14 (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-hypes-limbaugh-claim-obama-running-us-dictator-executive-orders)]
Host Sean Hannity said Obama had instituted an “imperial presidency” and was ruling by “executive fiat.” Fox News, On the Record with Greta van Susteren, [1/28/14 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4027539)]
GRETA VAN SUSTEREN (HOST): All right. Well, you just heard Laura Ingraham say that the president is annoyed and refers to his imperial presidency.
SEAN HANNITY (GUEST): I agree. She is 100% right. You know, we have separation of powers, coequal branches of government. For example, if Congress passes a law and the president signs it into law. Like Obamacare, he cannot unilaterally just decide oh, I'm not going to abide by certain provisions of the law.
…
I think they can complain. I think they got to use the courts. I think they need to speak more loudly. I think they need to inform people that we have coequal branches of government. I want louder voices. Because here's the problem, if you have an imperial presidency, he's ruling by executive fiat. That is not how our framers designed our Constitution and our Constitution matters. Otherwise we are shredding it
. We shred it and the country itself is hurt.
During the Biden administration, Biden was called a “dictator” for issuing executive orders
Fox host Sean Hannity: “With the stroke of the pen, we’re losing tens of thousands of jobs. We've got governance by executive order on a level we have never seen in our history.”Fox News, Hannity, [2/1/21 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4027513)]
Video
From the February 1, 2021, edition of Fox News'Hannity
SEAN HANNITY (HOST): Senator, you see the agenda. With the stroke of a pen, we're losing tens of thousands of job. We got governance by executive order on a level we've never seen in our history. We have trouble getting the COVID vaccine out to people. We have some real problems in the country. And on top of that, they're gonna now offer amnesty to 11 million people or path to amnesty at a time when Americans are out of work at the highest levels because of the pandemic and now because of the stroke of a pen of Joe Biden. What do they do? What do Republicans do to counter this to keep these jobs?
Host Mark Levin: “Biden's over 40 executive orders and actions violates separation of powers. We don't have a president who dresses up legislation as an executive order.”Fox News, Hannity, [2/3/21 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4027521)]
Hannity: “Joe’s ruling by executive order is basically ignoring an entire branch of government.”Fox News, Hannity, [2/5/21 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4027514)]
Co-host Lisa Boothe said Biden was “acting as a tyrant” for signing an executive order protecting access to reproductive healthcare following the overturning of Roe v. Wade.Boothe stated: “He's essentially acting as a tyrant, not wanting to respect the Supreme Court.” Fox News, Outnumbered,\7/8/22 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4027519); CNN, [7/8/22 (https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/08/politics/what-is-in-biden-abortion-executive-order/index.html)]
Video
Citation
From the July 8, 2022, edition of Fox News' Outnumbered
Levin said Biden has “perfected the ability to rule like a dictator” by signing a historic number of executive orders.Westwood One, The Mark Levin Show, [9/23/22 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4027511)]
Levin also claimed that forgiving student debt via executive order is “unconstitutional,” “fascistic,” and “dictatorial.”He stated: “When Joe Biden issues an executive order giving up debt that is owed to the United States taxpayer, that is an unconstitutional act, that is a fascistic act by an out-of-control man who thinks he's got this kind of power … these kinds of dictatorial powers.” Westwood One, The Mark Levin Show, [2/28/23 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4027520)]
Mark Levin calls Joe Biden's student loan debt forgiveness "fascistic” and “dictatorial”
February 28, 2023
Audio
From the February 28, 2023, edition of Westwood One's The Mark Levin Show
MARK LEVIN (HOST): President doesn't have any powers of this kind. None. And so when Joe Biden issues an executive order, giving up debt that is owed to the United States taxpayer, that is an unconstitutional act. That is a fascistic act by an out of control man who thinks he's got this kind of power. He signs executive orders left and right. And of course, he's cheered by the Marxists in the country, whether they be historians or media types or nut jobs in Congress. They hate the Constitution to begin with. But then they claim the Constitution gives a president these kinds of dictatorial powers.
---
---
mma Laura Ingraham calls Massachusetts “a hotbed of child predators” (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/laura-ingraham-calls-massachusetts-hotbed-child-predators)
02/13/25
---
{{ ===
MMA
As the Trump administration effectively shuts down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Fox News is near silent
Written by Harrison Ray (https://www.mediamatters.org/author/harrison-ray)
Research contributions from John Knefel (https://www.mediamatters.org/author/john-knefel)
Published 02/10/25
Fox News has mentioned the Consumer FInancial Protection Bureau only a handful of times since Russell Vought, a key architect of Project 2025, took over as acting director on February 7.
Last week, President Donald Trump appointed (https://www.wsj.com/finance/regulation/russell-vought-taking-over-as-new-acting-head-of-cfpb-9650d338) Russell Vought — a principal architect of Project 2025 who had been confirmed by the Senate to lead the Office of Management and Budget — as the acting director of the CFPB. Upon assuming his role, Vought ordered (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/09/business/vought-cfpb-musk-trump.html) the CFPB's 1,700 employees to cease nearly all work and closed the agency's headquarters on February 10. He also halted approval processes for proposed rules, ongoing investigations, and public communications, effectively neutralizing (https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/doge/russell-vought-consumer-financial-protection-bureau-trump-rcna191356) the bureau's operations. Vought's actions so far at CFPB tracks the stated (https://www.mediamatters.org/russ-vought/russ-vought-whole-notion-independent-agency-should-be-thrown-out) objectives for the bureau in Project 2025 (https://www.mediamatters.org/project-2025), a conservative policy blueprint designed to hollow out federal agencies.
The CFPB, established (https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R42615/6#::text=The%20Consumer%20Financial%20Protection%20Bureau%20%28CFPB%29%2C%20which%20formally%20started,the%20Dodd%2DFrank%20Act%29.) in 2011 after the 2008 financial crisis in an effort to protect consumers from predatory financial practices, has long been a target (https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/4667736-supreme-court-consumer-financial-protection-bureau-rejecting-gop-challenge/) for conservatives who view it as a site of government overreach. Dismantling the agency removes (https://katiecouric.com/news/politics-and-policy/consumer-financial-protection-bureau-funding-cutoff-vought/) essential safeguards for Americans, like the Biden-era protections against surprise overdraft (https://apnews.com/article/overdraft-fees-cap-cfpb-rule-0c15f3cb489ca2d37544ad66c524ce73) fees, reforms (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/12/business/navient-settlement-student-loans.html) to the student loan servicing market, transformations (https://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/06/business/consumer-bureau-plans-to-make-over-mortgage-market.html) in mortgage lending rules, and the enforcement (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/16/business/cash-app-fraud-settlement.html) of repayments to victims of fraud from banks and money transmitters.
Despite the serious ramifications of Vought's appointment, from February 7, when he took over as acting director of the bureau, through 3 p.m. on February 10, Fox News almost entirely ignored the story. In total, the network personalities mentioned the CFPB just 5 times for a total of about 40 seconds.
Fox's coverage mostly centered around the announcement of Vought’s appointment, with little acknowledgement of the Project 2025 architect's imminent efforts to undermine the bureau.
Methodology
Media Matters searched transcripts in the SnapStream video database for all original programming on Fox News Channel for any of the terms any of the terms “CFPB,” “consumer,” “financial,” “protection,” “bureau,” or “Vought,” or any variation of the term “Russ” from February 7, when Russell Vought took over as acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, through 3 p.m. on February 10, 2025.
We timed segments, which we defined as instances when the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is the stated topic of discussion, or when we find significant discussion of the bureau. We defined significant discussion as instances when two or more speakers in a multitopic segment discuss the bureau with one another.
We also timed mentions, which we defined as instances when a speaker mentions the bureau without another speaker in the segment engaging with the comment, and teasers, which we defined as instances when the anchor or host promotes a segment about the bureau scheduled to air later in the broadcast.
We rounded all times to the nearest minute.
// MMA
Project 2025 architect begins dismantling the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau following years of right-wing media attacks
Right-wing media have targeted the CFPB even as it has saved working Americans tens of billions of dollars
Written by John Knefel (https://www.mediamatters.org/author/john-knefel)
Research contributions from Isabella Corrao (https://www.mediamatters.org/author/isabella-corrao)
Published 02/11/25 MMA
The new head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — a former top architect in the controversial transition plan known as Project 2025 — reportedly (https://www.businessinsider.com/cfpb-shutting-down-dc-offices-russ-vought-trump-elon-musk-2025-2) told its employees on February 10 to “not perform any work tasks this week,” at least temporarily shuttering an agency that has been the target of right-wing media attacks for years.
Russ Vought, who also serves as the director (https://www.mediamatters.org/russ-vought/trump-set-appoint-project-2025-architect-russ-vought-office-management-and-budget) of the Office of Management and Budget, wrote over the weekend that the CFPB “will not be taking its next draw of unappropriated funding because it is not 'reasonably necessary' to carry out its duties.”
The CFPB has saved working Americans tens of billions of dollars since it was founded in 2011, including more than $6 billion (https://www.consumerfinance.gov/data-research/research-reports/data-spotlight-overdraft-nsf-revenue-in-2023-down-more-than-50-versus-pre-pandemic-levels-saving-consumers-over-6-billion-annually/) in annual overdraft fees alone from 2019-2023. Calling it “one of Wall Street’s most feared regulators,” The New York Times reported (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/09/business/vought-cfpb-musk-trump.html) on February 9 that the bureau’s success has put it “squarely in the Trump administration’s cross hairs.”
It has clawed back $21 billion for consumers. It slashed overdraft fees (https://www.consumerfinance.gov/data-research/research-reports/data-spotlight-overdraft-nsf-revenue-in-2023-down-more-than-50-versus-pre-pandemic-levels-saving-consumers-over-6-billion-annually/), reformed the student loan servicing market (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/12/business/navient-settlement-student-loans.html), transformed mortgage lending rules (https://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/06/business/consumer-bureau-plans-to-make-over-mortgage-market.html) and forced banks and money transmitters to compensate fraud victims (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/16/business/cash-app-fraud-settlement.html).
It may no longer be able to carry out that work.
…
In less than 36 hours, Mr. Vought threw the agency into chaos. On Saturday, he ordered (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/08/us/politics/cfpb-vought-staff-finance-watchdog.html) the bureau’s 1,700 employees to stop nearly all their work and announced plans to cut off the agency’s funding. Then on Sunday, he closed the bureau’s headquarters (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/09/us/russell-vought-consumer-bureau-protect-hq-close.html) for the coming week. Workers who tried to retrieve their laptops from the office were turned away, employees said.
Now, Vought appears to be fulfilling a Project 2025 promise — and a longtime right-wing media goal — by taking an axe to the CFPB.
Vought and Project 2025 envision massive White House power grab
Prior to joining the Trump administration, Vought founded the Center for Renewing America (https://www.mediamatters.org/january-6-insurrection/center-renewing-america-preparing-next-republican-administration-govern), one of more that 100 conservative organizations on the advisory board of Project 2025 (https://www.mediamatters.org/heritage-foundation/guide-project-2025-extreme-right-wing-agenda-next-republican-administration). He also wrote the chapter in Project 2025’s policy book, Mandate for Leadership (https://cloudfront.mediamatters.org/static/D8File/2024/03/26/2025_mandateforleadership_full.pdf), on the Executive Office of the President of the United States, calling “to bend or break the bureaucracy to the presidential will.”
Vought laid bare Project 2025’s broad ambitions in a secretly recorded video (https://www.mediamatters.org/russ-vought/undercover-interview-project-2025-architect-gets-candid-initiatives-radical-goals-and) last year, saying that he and his collaborators had prepared “about 350 different documents that are regulations and things of that nature that are — we’re planning for the next administration.”
The Trump administration has already begun following (https://www.mediamatters.org/project-2025/least-four-trumps-anti-immigrant-executive-orders-are-more-extreme-project-2025s) through (https://www.mediamatters.org/project-2025/project-2025-laid-foundation-trump-using-dei-target-usaid-staff-and-level-broader) on Project 2025’s goals, and dismantling the CFPB is no different. Mandate for Leadership refers to the bureau as a “highly politicized, damaging, and utterly unaccountable federal agency” that is “unconstitutional,” writing that the “next conservative President should order the immediate dissolution of the agency—pull down its prior rules, regulations and guidance, return its staff to their prior agencies and its building to the General Services Administration.”
In his dual role at the top of OMB and the CFPB, Vought is well-positioned to enact this sweeping agenda, and he is already taking steps that would amount to a massive power grab for Trump’s White House.
Vought and his colleagues at the Center for Renewing America are leading supporters (https://www.mediamatters.org/project-2025/project-2025-partner-lays-foundation-trump-ignore-congressional-spending-major-power) of a radical theory that the executive branch can unilaterally refuse to spend money allocated by Congress. Toward that end, Vought issued (https://www.mediamatters.org/russ-vought/russ-voughts-fingerprints-are-all-over-trumps-new-federal-funding-freeze) an OMB memo that temporarily froze all federal funding. (The memo was later retracted (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-funding-freeze-rescinded-memo/) after widespread backlash.)
Vought outlined his extreme vision for expansive control in a recent interview (https://www.mediamatters.org/russ-vought/russ-vought-whole-notion-independent-agency-should-be-thrown-out) with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
Video
Citation
From the November 18, 2024, edition of The Tucker Carlson Show on The Tucker Carlson Network
“There are no independent agencies,” Vought said, specifically mentioning the CFPB among others. “So there may be different strategies with each one of them about how you dismantle them, but as an administration, the whole notion of an independent agency should be thrown out.”
Right-wing media have long attacked the CFPB
Right-wing media figures have targeted the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau since its inception in the wake (https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/01/business/rohit-chopra-consumer-financial-protection-bureau-wallstreet.html) of the Great Recession.
In 2015, The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board attacked (https://www.mediamatters.org/wall-street-journal/wall-street-journal-lambasts-consumer-financial-protection-bureau-standing) the CFPB for its multiyear investigation into racially discriminatory car financing practices. The Journal’s board called the effort an “outrageous regulatory campaign” and called on Congress to implement additional hurdles to the CFPB’s enforcement capacity. The CFPB ultimately clawed back (https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/cfpb-and-doj-reach-resolution-with-toyota-motor-credit-to-address-loan-pricing-policies-with-discriminatory-effects/) tens of millions of dollars for racial minorities who had been subject to higher-than-average loan rates across several lenders.
In November 2017, Fox News anchor Dana Perino invited (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-nation/foxs-dana-perino-allows-guest-attack-cfpb-without-disclosing-he-represented-anti-cfpb) a guest on to criticize the CFPB without disclosing that they represented clients opposed to the bureau’s regulations. Right-wing blog The Federalist published (https://web.archive.org/web/20171127224855/https://thefederalist.com/2017/11/27/perfect-time-destroy-consumer-financial-protection-bureau/) an article the same day with the headline: “This Is The Perfect Time To Destroy The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.” A day later on Fox News, never-Trump conservative Jonah Goldberg referred (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/foxs-jonah-goldberg-consumer-financial-protection-bureau-hate-crime-against-constitution) to the CFPB as a “hate crime against the Constitution.”
More recently, right-wing media figures targeted (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/tens-millions-americans-are-inundated-credit-card-junk-fees-and-now-right-wing-media-are) a Biden-era initiative at the CFPB that went after predatory credit card gouging schemes and other junk fees that cost working people in the United States more than $10 billion every year.
The Trump administration has already begun following through on Project 2025’s goals, and dismantling the CFPB is no different
“This morning he's \President Biden] talking about late fees, and he's talking about corporate America, and it's companies' fault that people are facing inflation,” Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo said (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4017339). The next day she [again (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4017340) criticized Biden’s focus on “late fees,” directing her viewers’ anger toward undocumented immigrants instead of credit card companies.
On February 5, Fox published an opinion piece (https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/trump-can-delete-elizabeth-warrens-failed-experiment-once-all) calling for Trump to “delete Elizabeth Warren’s failed experiment once and for all,” claiming that “CFPB is doing more harm than good, and its dissolution is not just a policy preference but an economic necessity.”
As news of Vought’s takeover broke, several conservative outlets cheered what they saw as the demise of the CFPB. The Daily Wire framed (https://web.archive.org/web/20250210203045/https://www.dailywire.com/news/cfpb-gutted-in-latest-trump-admin-move-to-cut-government-waste) Vought’s actions in its headline as the “Latest Trump Admin Move To Cut Government Waste.” Conspiracy theory (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2024/09/28/gateway-pundit-election-claims/75419017007/) website The Gateway Pundit celebrated (https://web.archive.org/web/20250209211128/https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/02/funding-elizabeth-warrens-consumer-financial-protection-bureau-cut/): “The corrupt agency which was the ‘brainchild’ of Senator Elizabeth ‘Pocahontas’ Warren (D-MA) could be on its last legs.” The think tank Vought founded also weighed in, publishing a white paper (https://americarenewing.com/issues/primer-the-cfpb-should-be-shut-down/) titled: “The CFPB Should Be Shut Down.”
On Fox News, host Laura Ingraham defended (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4027426) the good name of several financial institutions against the intrusions of the CFPB.
“Now, to give you a sense of how partisan that place has become, in December its chief rushed to file several lawsuits against the payment platform Zelle, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo, alleging this amorphous failure to protect consumers,” Ingraham said. “It's ridiculous. And it amounts to another shakedown of business by anti-capitalist crusaders. That’s all it is.”
Video
Citation
From the February 10, 2025, edition of Fox News' The Ingraham Angle
Ingraham was a lonely voice at Fox News celebrating the news, despite network figures campaigning against the CFPB for years. A Media Matters study (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/trump-administration-effectively-shuts-down-consumer-financial-protection-bureau-fox-news) found that between Vought’s appointment to head the agency on February 7 and 3 p.m ET on February 10, “network personalities mentioned the CFPB just 5 times for a total of about 40 seconds.”
---}}:
---
mma see pardon trump anno 2 25
Right-wing media figures rushed to defend President Donald Trump’s decision to issue pardons or commutations to over 1,500 people who participated in the January 6 insurrection at the United States Capitol — including those convicted of violence against police.
They offered a number of arguments to support their defense: They baselessly claimed legal efforts to hold participants accountable were “show trials” or unfair compared to legal repercussions for the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, said the pardons are justified because of former President Joe Biden’s pardons, and diminished the violence on January 6 by recasting those criminally charged as “ordinary patriots.”
Other right-wing figures defended the clemency by noting that Trump had campaigned on the issue, declaring, “Promises made, promises kept."
Right-wing media figures spent years urging pardons for January 6 participants, which Trump granted on the first day of his second term
Trump issued pardons or commutations on the first day of his second term to over 1,500 participants in the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, including those convicted of violent offenses against law enforcement officers. Trump had stated ahead of his presidency that he intended to issue pardons to some January 6 participants “in the first hour” of his second term. The Associated Press, \1/21/25 (https://apnews.com/article/capitol-jan-6-pardons-trump-justice-department-8ce8b2a8f8cb602d5eaf85ac7b969606); The Guardian, [1/6/25 (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/06/pardons-january-6-rioters-trump)]
Right-wing media figures have spent years creating a revisionist history of January 6, claiming that Trump supporters were “set up” and casting attempts to hold participants accountable as politically motivated. Right-wing media figures, initially led by former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, sought to downplay the extent of the day’s violence and substitute a revisionist counternarrative that declared January 6 participants as the victims of a false-flag operation perpetuated by the federal government. When participants were charged with crimes, right-wing figures suggested the prosecutions were evidence that “the major critics of the left have been targeted by lawfare” and referred to defendants as “political prisoners.” Media Matters, \5/21/24 (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-personalities-now-claim-january-6-prosecutions-are-political-time-many-condemned), 2/24/21 (https://www.mediamatters.org/january-6-insurrection/tucker-carlsons-insurrection-alternate-reality), 1/3/24 (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/how-fox-news-and-right-wing-media-made-jan-6-revisionism-great-again); The Associated Press, [1/4/24 (https://apnews.com/article/jan-6-rioters-defiant-judges-trump-4c42aabc97c5aa7ffa25430d7f3be3f2)]
Right-wing media also specifically pushed for pardons for January 6 participants for years. Right-wing media figures have been defending January 6 participants since at least February 2022, suggesting that Trump should “pardon every January 6ther," or at least “pardon those people who were nonviolent on January 6.” Media Matters, \1/20/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/january-6-insurrection/rights-propaganda-machine-gets-its-jan-6-pardons), [1/10/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/january-6-insurrection/fox-news-personalities-have-been-floating-idea-pardons-january-6-rioters)]
Prior to Trump’s issuance of the pardons, right-wing media lashed out against now-Vice President JD Vance, who told Fox News that violent January 6 defendants “obviously” should not be pardoned. Following Vance’s January 12 interview, where he suggested the pardons would be selective, right-wing media figures urged the president to “pardon everybody,” recycling claims that the Capitol riot was a “setup” by law enforcement. Media Matters, \1/28/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/january-6-insurrection/right-wing-media-lashed-out-jd-vance-saying-violent-january-6-defendants), [1/22/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/jesse-watters-praises-trump-issuing-pardon-jan-6-rioter-arrested-punching-cop-rally-got)]
Right-wing media justified January 6 pardons by claiming that the government “showed mercy” or “nothing happened” to Black Lives Matter protestors in 2020
Right-wing media figures have continued to baselessly claim that Black Lives Matter protesters were treated with leniency compared to January 6 participants even though news outlets have debunked (https://apnews.com/article/records-rebut-claims-jan-6-rioters-55adf4d46aff57b91af2fdd3345dace8) the claim and reported (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2022/02/22/fact-check-thousands-black-lives-matter-protesters-arrested-2020/6816074001/) that over 17,000 arrests were made in the first two weeks of the BLM protests. Additionally, a report (https://m4bl.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Struggle-For-Power-The-Ongoing-Persecution-of-Black-Movement-by-the-U.S.-Government.pdf)from the City University of New York Law School’s Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility Clinic determined that the Trump administration engaged in an “aggressive assertion of federal jurisdiction” over the protests and that many of the federal penalties were “clearly harsher” than applicable state law.
Right-wing host Dan Bongino claimed that “the process used to target \J6ers] was clearly political,” arguing that “absolutely nothing happened” when BLM protestors allegedly attacked police at the White House. Bongino stated: “But there is zero doubt that when the White House was attacked by BLM and antifa and Secret Service agents and uniformed division officers I know personally were hurt and wounded, that absolutely nothing happened to these people at all. So you can have two simultaneous thoughts at the same time, and I want you to pay attention to this. You can and should say, ‘I am absolutely, resolutely against attacks on law enforcement for doing their job,’ period there. But I am also against a greater danger, which is a weaponized Justice Department that picks and chooses when they take this stuff seriously and targets political opponents for it. And that’s what happened here.” [Rumble, The Dan Bongino Show, [1/22/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4027015)]
Fox News host Laura Ingraham complained about outrage over January 6 pardons, saying, “Where was their demand for jail time and their outrage when the George Floyd rioters burned down American cities?” Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, [1/21/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4027018)]
Defending the pardons, Fox host Sean Hannity falsely claimed that the government “never prosecuted” Black Lives Matter protestors for the 2020 protests. Hannity lamented that there were “574 riots in the summer of 2020, we had dozens of dead Americans, thousands of injured cops, billions in property damage, we have videotape evidence — they never prosecuted these people.” Premiere Radio Networks, The Sean Hannity Show, [1/22/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4027059)]
Right-wing pundit Larry Elder claimed that “absolutely nothing happened” to BLM protesters who attacked cops. Elder: “In the summer of 2020, you got people who were battering police officers and absolutely nothing happened to them.” Newsmax, Rob Schmitt Tonight, [1/21/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4027019)]
Fox host Jesse Watters praised the January 6 pardons while claiming that Democrats “showed mercy to BLM after they ransacked and firebombed cities.” Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, [1/22/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/jesse-watters-praises-trump-issuing-pardon-jan-6-rioter-arrested-punching-cop-rally-got)]
Fox & Friendsco-host Lawrence Jones claimed that “there were no charges” for the BLM protests. Jones added: “So, I don't want anybody targeting cops. But I think what ended up happening, according to some of the reports, and I can pretty much confirm it, is when there was some debate going on who to pardon and they kept going back and forth and he said, just pardon them all. I'm not going to do this. If this is your effort to delay me getting the J6ers pardoned, the people that were overcharged, which a lot of legal scholars agree, then I'm just going to pardon them all.” Fox News, Fox & Friends, [1/23/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4027020)]
Right-wing media justified the pardons by claiming that the January 6 trials were politically motivated and unfair and that the sentences were excessive
Watters praised Trump for issuing a pardon for a man who received 20 years for “punching a cop at a rally that got out of control,” adding, “These guys got squeezed into pleas.”He said: “We don't think you should be able to punch a cop in the face and get away with it, but 20 years is a long time for punching a cop in the face. And these guys got squeezed into pleas.” Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, [1/22/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/jesse-watters-praises-trump-issuing-pardon-jan-6-rioter-arrested-punching-cop-rally-got)]
Fox host Will Cain claimed that investigations into January 6 participants were “an attempt to cook the books within the DOJ and the FBI to suggest that domestic terrorism was on the rise.” He also stated that, “Real people had their lives ruined. Real people sat and rotted in jail. And Donald Trump, today, for those real people, brought justice.” Fox News, The Will Cain Show, [1/21/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4027022)]
During Fox News’ inauguration coverage, Ingraham defended the pardons by claiming “these people were never had the real chance to put on a proper defense” and “documents were destroyed.” Ingraham noted Trump had granted “1,600 pardons for J6ers who were arrested,” adding, “And a lot of them were sentenced to two, three, four, five years in jail. His point is, documents were destroyed, which they were, and these people were never had the real chance to put on a proper defense. That was really big.” Mediaite, [1/20/25 (https://www.mediaite.com/tv/fox-host-laura-ingraham-praises-trump-for-pardoning-jan-6-rioters-who-she-once-condemned-as-criminals/)]
Ingraham also justified Trump pardoning participants because “a lot of them served years in jail already.” She added, “We know sex assaults of convicts are, you know, go to jail all across this country for a couple of years. Some of these people have been in jail for already four years.” Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, [1/22/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4027023)]
Former GOP congresswoman Michelle Bachmann said onFlashPointthat January 6 “was like a prayer meeting” and complained that there were “1,500 people who've been in jail serving time is far in excess of what murderers and rapists have to serve in jail.” Bachmann added, “People were preaching the gospel on the streets. It was like a family reunion. The happiest people you would ever see. There was no discontent on the Capitol Hill that day.” Victory Channel, FlashPoint, [1/21/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4027051)]
Right-wing conspiracy theorist Mike Cernovich wrote, “Not one J6’er got a real trial so Trump had to release them all.” He added, “Anyone who has a problem with this can talk to the judges and prosecutors who did Stalin era show trials.” Twitter/X, \1/21/25 (https://x.com/Cernovich/status/1881732888976314846); Media Matters, [8/21/18 (https://www.mediamatters.org/maga-trolls/mike-cernovichs-far-right-conspiracy-theories-bigotry-and-association-white)]
Right-wing figure Dinesh D’Souza, who has pushed election denial conspiracy theories, called the pardons in an X post “a just outcome” because the trials were “show trials.” He also claimed that “when the process is thoroughly corrupted, everyone is presumed innocent after the fact.” Twitter/X, \1/21/25 (https://x.com/DineshDSouza/status/1881740127762071687); Media Matters, [5/4/22 (https://www.mediamatters.org/dinesh-dsouza/dinesh-dsouzas-2000-mules-based-debunked-conspiracy-theories-and-lies-about-2020)]
Former Fox host Bill O’Reilly claimed that “there was prosecutorial misconduct directed at some people who got into this fracas and got punished far beyond their crime.” Premiere Radio Networks, The Sean Hannity Show, [1/24/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4027060)]
Right-wing media figures compared Trump’s pardons to Biden’s preemptive pardons for potential targets of the Trump administration
Prior to exiting the White House, then-President Joe Biden issued pardons (https://apnews.com/article/biden-trump-fauci-milley-pardons-january-6-3cba287f89051513fb48d7ae700ae747) for Dr. Anthony Fauci, retired Gen. Mark Milley, members of the House January 6 committee, and several of his family (https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/20/politics/joe-biden-preemptive-pardons/index.html) members in an attempt to protect them against potential reprisals by the incoming Trump administration. Following Trump’s January 6 pardons, right-wing media figures have equated (https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/biden-trump-pardons-not-the-same.html) the pardons issued by Biden and Trump, ignoring that the Trump administration had publicly telegraphed its intent to target many of those pardoned by Biden.
OnFox Noticias, co-host Julie Banderas questioned why the media is “so focused on the Jan. 6 pardons and not the criminal pardons granted by Joe Biden.” Fox Deportes, Fox Noticias, [1/22/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4027063)]
Discussing the potential political fallout of Trump pardoning January 6 participants convicted of violence, Newsweek deputy opinion editor Batya Ungar-Sargon invoked Biden’s preemptive pardons. She said that “what Biden did in terms of pardoning was so utterly egregious and is going to become a massive albatross around the neck of his party in a way that these really aren't for Donald Trump.” The Free Press, Honestly with Bari Weiss, [1/24/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4027066)]
Fox anchor Bret Baier likened Biden's preemptive pardons of his family to Trump's pardon of January 6 participants, saying, “What about that, the pardon back and forth between the two presidents?” Fox News, Special Report with Bret Baier, [1/21/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4027030)]
Right-wing media figures glossed over violent offenses by January 6 participants, saying Trump pardoned nonviolent “ordinary patriots” who were set up by law enforcement
Right-wing media figures have justified Trump’s blanket January 6 pardons by glossing (https://www.mediamatters.org/january-6-insurrection/right-wing-media-gloss-over-trumps-pardons-violent-january-6-rioters) over pardons for those convicted of seditious conspiracy or violent crimes. Approximately 140 police officers were injured (https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/11/us/politics/capitol-riot-police-officer-injuries.html) that day, and (https://apnews.com/article/capitol-siege-proud-boys-donald-trump-congress-government-and-politics-a8baa24af07b20ab792f4ef6f4481fac) several armed individuals (https://www.reuters.com/fact-check/us-capitol-attack-rioters-had-weapons-including-firearms-2025-01-16/) and extremist groups were present.
Newsmax’s Greg Kelly excused the pardons as “Donald Trump pardon\ing] vulnerable, not very powerful, regular, ordinary patriots” and claimed that “to the extent he \Enrique Tarrio] did anything wrong, it was a setup, a total and complete setup.” Kelly claimed that Trump pardoned the vulnerable and powerless. He also argued that Tarrio — the leader of the Proud Boys who was convicted of seditious conspiracy — was “just a guy who was being a guy, exercising his constitutional rights.” [Newsmax, Greg Kelly Reports, [1/20/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/greg-kelly/newsmaxs-greg-kelly-donald-trump-pardoned-vulnerable-not-very-powerful-regular-ordinary); NBC News, [1/22/25 (https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ex-proud-boys-leader-enrique-tarrio-back-home-trumps-jan-6-clemency-rcna188841)]
Lawrence Jones suggested Trump pardoned people who “didn’t attack officers" or engage in “any actual violence,” failing to mention that several of the pardons went to those who did attack officers. While discussing Trump’s January 6 pardons, Jones alluded to the fact that both Trump and Vance previously implied the pardons would be for people who “didn’t attack officers, if there wasn’t any actual violence.” Fox News, Fox & Friends First, [1/21/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4026777)]
Fox News legal editor Kerri Urbahn failed to note that violent offenders were also pardoned when she emphasized “incredibly harsh sentences and penalties for mostly, for most of them, relatively minor offenses." Instead, she highlighted what she implied was over sentencing of “relatively minor offenses like trespassing, misdemeanors, and the like” and called the pardons “great.” Fox News, Fox & Friends, [1/21/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4026780)]
Lara Logan, who has pushed conspiracy theories, responded to a post about Stewart Rhodes, leader of the Oath Keepers militia, receiving a pardon and wrote that he was “set-up” and “it was complete BS.” Twitter/X, \1/21/25 (https://x.com/laralogan/status/1881611046135476305); CBS News, 1/22/25 (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/stewart-rhodes-oath-keepers-leader-visits-capitol-hill/); Media Matters, 3/28/22 (https://www.mediamatters.org/lara-logan/fox-nation-host-lara-logan-shares-conspiracy-theories-about-putins-purge-rothschild), [10/21/22 (https://www.mediamatters.org/lara-logan/what-lara-logans-descent-60-minutes-qanon-says-about-right)]
Right-wing media figures defended the clemency as a campaign promise Trump fulfilled: “Promises made, promises kept”
Rumble host Donald Trump Jr. shared a video of Trump signing the pardons, commenting, “Promises Made, Promises Kept… And we are only just starting.”He also posted, “President Trump has just signed an executive order granting full pardons to about 1,500 J6 prisoners!” Twitter/X, [1/20/25 (https://x.com/DonaldJTrumpJr/status/1881509159872684302)]
Pro-Trump troll Laura Loomer posted, “God bless the J6 patriots and President Trump for pardoning them! Promises made, promises kept!” Twitter/X, [1/20/25 (https://x.com/LauraLoomer/status/1881522649647722592)]
OnOutnumbered, Fox News contributor Steve Hilton said, “The Trump pardon, whatever you think of them, it's the delivery of an election promise.” He added, “He said he would do this in pretty much every rally. He’s doing what he said. Biden said he would never do anything like this. It's the exact opposite. Trump is doing what he said. Biden is doing the opposite of what he said.” Fox News, Outnumbered, [1/21/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4027130)]
Lawrence Jones celebrated the clemency: “Promises made, promises kept on day 1.” He said of Trump: “I think he made pretty clear and JD Vance kind of doubled down on it, if you didn't attack officers, if there wasn't actual violence, and you were caught up within the system, you were overcharged, you’ve done enough time, and he — promises made, promises kept on day 1.” Fox News, Fox & Friends, [1/21/25 (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4026777)]
---
---
mma
Laura Ingraham says Joe Biden should be impeached for “fundamentally” changing America through immigration (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/laura-ingraham-says-joe-biden-should-be-impeached-fundamentally-changing-america-through)
09/27/24
---
mma 9 24
Fox News is helping Republicans spin fracking as a major election issue
The network mentioned fracking 544 times in the lead-up to Kamala Harris’ CNN interview
Special ProgramsClimate & Energy (https://www.mediamatters.org/climate-energy)
Written by Allison Fisher (https://www.mediamatters.org/author/allison-fisher)
Research contributions from Ilana Berger (https://www.mediamatters.org/author/ilana-berger)
Published 09/05/24
Fox News is helping the right elevate fracking as a supposedly major election issue by continuing to litigate Kamala Harris’ position even after she and her campaign have stated that she no longer supports a ban on the natural gas extraction procedure. By keeping the focus on Harris’ position, Fox is distracting from important context about the controversial technique and its relevance to voters.
According to Axios (https://www.axios.com/2024/07/23/fracking-gop-harris-trump-pennsylvania), shortly after Harris announced her bid for the presidency, Republicans started “circulating Harris' endorsement of a fracking ban during her short-lived 2019 White House run — even though she walked it back after becoming President Biden's running mate.”
Then, during the August 29 joint CNN interview with Harris and running mate Tim Walz, one of the first questions from Dana Bash was about her position (https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/29/politics/harris-walz-interview-read-transcript/index.html) on fracking, with the CNN anchor describing it as “a pretty big issue, particularly in your must-win state of Pennsylvania.”
An analysis by Media Matters found that from July 27, when Kamala Harris’ campaign stated (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-07-27/harris-backs-off-fracking-ban-as-gop-campaigns-on-past-position) that she does not support a ban on fracking, to the August 29 interview, Fox News mentioned fracking 544 times, compared to CNN’s 201 mentions and MSNBC’s 30.
Because Fox is driving the discussion around fracking, it has often focused on whether Harris supports the practice and how her position would affect her electability in Pennsylvania.
News networks would better serve their audiences by explaining the climate impacts (https://www.desmogblog.com/2019/12/22/methane-leaks-venting-blowouts-fracking-climate-change) or local environmental threats (https://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/2019/11/20/johns-hopkins-researcher-pa-should-ban-fracking/) associated with fossil fuel extraction, how local voters actually feel about fracking, how energy both clean and fossil fuel-based has fared under the Biden-Harris administration, and even whether a presidential candidate could actually ban fracking.
Fox News shows no sign of stopping its attacks on Harris’ fracking position even as both she and her campaign have stated she doesn’t support a ban
Fox News has suggested that Harris will be hostile to the oil and gas industry regardless of her stated position.
On the August 15 edition of Fox & Friends (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4023228), co-host Ainsley Earhardt said, “She wanted to ban fracking, her entire career. Now all of a sudden she’s saying I’m not gonna ban fracking. … She wants to get into the White House on January 20 … and then not change anything. She wants to go so liberal. So just don’t get caught up in her flip-flops, because she does not believe this in her heart. She is — look at her voting record.”
On The Ingraham Angle (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4023229), Fox host Jeanine Pirro suggested that Harris has not changed her fracking position from 2019, saying: “That was just five years ago. Kamala's agenda was clear as day. Radical and progressive. But suddenly she doesn't believe in any of that anymore,” listing positions including fracking. “Will the real Kamala Harris please stand up? … How can the Trump campaign ensure that voters see the real Harris?”
Pirro’s guest, former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy added: “So it doesn’t matter if she changes her words. We know what her actions are.”
After Fox & Friends (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4023359) aired a clip of Harris talking about fracking, guest Andre Beliveau of the Commonwealth Foundation said, “She can backtrack or flip-flop all she wants. The record of the Biden-Harris administration the last four years is quite clear and that record has included — I mean, it's been Green New Deal-ism. It has been a pause on LNG exports.”
After Harris’ CNN interview, some Fox News figures said her position on fracking can’t be trusted.
While the interview was still airing, Pirro and Fox contributor Joe Concha attacked the vice president’s response on Hannity (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4023295), with Concha claiming that “she's lying” about her position on fracking. The following day,Fox & Friends (https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4023296) co-host Lawrence Jones questioned whether she was just going along with Biden’s position and would ultimately revert back to her 2019 stance.
The network also helped spread misinformation aboutBiden’s position on fracking (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-misinformation-and-lies-about-biden-are-dominating-cable-news-coverage-fracking) in 2020, and it dominated the conversation then too.
During the week leading up to that election, the network also pushed the false narrative (https://www.mediamatters.org/cable-news/cable-news-particularly-fox-overstated-role-pennsylvania-fracking-2020-election) that Pennsylvania would likely be won or lost depending on how voters interpreted the candidates’ stance on fracking. And during the 2022 midterms elections, Fox attacked (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/right-wing-media-are-misleading-its-audience-about-john-fettermans-stance-fracking) Pennsylvania Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman for his stance on fracking,conflating his previous support for a fracking moratorium — a temporary prohibition — with an outright, permanent ban.
Even though the playbook has been exposed, Fox News continues to use it to shape the national media coverage of the issue.
Rather than obsessing about her position, networks could provide valuable context about fracking
- Presidents cannot ban fracking on private and state land, where the vast majority – 90% – of fracked-gas production is done. “While there are several ways Harris, if elected president, could halt fracking on federal lands using executive power, she wouldn’t be able to unilaterally ban it on private land,” Bloomberg explains. “Under a 2005 law, the Environmental Protection Agency has almost no regulatory power over fracking. Changing that would require an act of Congress.” Bloomberg, \7/27/24 (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-07-27/harris-backs-off-fracking-ban-as-gop-campaigns-on-past-position); PolitiFact, [9/1/20 (https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/sep/01/joe-biden/fact-checkin-joe-biden-pa-his-fracking-policy/)]
Under the Biden-Harris administration, U.S. oil and gas production is at an all-time high – including in Pennsylvania — and its policies are supporting major energy projects in the state. As reported by Axios, the state is “part of the multibillion-dollar hydrogen ‘hubs’ program under the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law,” and the “EPA announced nearly $400 million in grants for climate projects there under the Inflation Reduction Act.” Reuters, \3/28/24 (https://www.reuters.com/graphics/USA-BIDEN/OIL/lgpdngrgkpo/); U.S. Energy Information Administration, accessed 8/2/24 (https://www.eia.gov/dnav/ng/hist/n9050pa2m.htm); Axios, [7/23/24 (https://www.axios.com/2024/07/23/fracking-gop-harris-trump-pennsylvania)]
Public support for fracking in Pennsylvania is not a given. After Harris’ recent CNN interview Pennsylvania-based journalist Nick Field wrote, “I can not emphasize enough that - unless they happen to work in the fracking industry - Pennsylvanians don't care about fracking.” A 2020 survey conducted by YouGov found support for fracking in the state was evenly split, though Pennsylvanians who live in rural areas or identify as Republican were more likely to back it. Twitter/X, \8/29/24 (https://x.com/nick_field90/status/1829326592788603200); YouGov, [10/19/20 (https://today.yougov.com/politics/articles/32525-how-americans-feel-about-fracking)]
Real issues with fracking are almost entirely ignored in election horse race coverage. In the final week of the 2020 election cycle, cable news coverage failed to meaningfully cover the well-documented environmental and climate issues associated with fracking. This cycle, the media can add to the list of issues the fact that the industry has not delivered the wealth promised to many communities burdened with fracking wells. Media Matters, \11/19/20 (https://www.mediamatters.org/cable-news/cable-news-particularly-fox-overstated-role-pennsylvania-fracking-2020-election); Environmental Health News, [2/12/21 (https://www.ehn.org/fracking-economics-2650429410.html)]
Methodology...
---
---
an ah may
Democratic incumbent President Joe Biden and presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump have agreed to two debates (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/15/us/politics/trump-biden-debate-june.html): the first hosted by CNN in Atlanta on June 27, the second by ABC News on September 10.
June 27 is early for a presidential debate, as the Republican National Convention won't be held until July 15-18 in Milwaukee — and its Democratic counterpart isn't until August 19-22 in Chicago. Biden's supporters view the June 27 debate as a golden opportunity for the president, as it will give him a chance to hammer Trump issue by issue and, they hope, improve his poll numbers. Many polls released in May have showed Biden narrowly trailing Trump by single digits in key swing states.
But some far-right pundits at Fox News (https://www.thedailybeast.com/fox-news-is-already-throwing-a-hissy-fit-over-next-months-cnn-debate?ref=home) are furious about the debates, including Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity and Jesse Watters.
READ MORE:Biden 'heavily' investing in these 3 states that are 'key to the whole election': analysis (https://www.alternet.org/biden-investing-swing-states/)
Ingraham complained that (https://www.thedailybeast.com/fox-news-is-already-throwing-a-hissy-fit-over-next-months-cnn-debate?ref=home) Biden needs a "game changer" performance and is hoping to get it "with the help of" CNN hosts Dana Bash and Jake Tapper.
Watters sarcastically commented, "Both moderators say Trump's Hitler, so the debate will be fair and balanced. Is Tapper going to cut the cameras away from Trump to fact-check him? We'll have to see."
Watters also attacked ABC News' George Stephanopoulos, saying that he "praised the deep state and said Trump's a threat to democracy" and adding, "I’m sure they'll be calling balls and strikes.”
READ MORE:[Biden campaign hammers Trump over infamous COVID comment
Hannity slammed Tapper as a "radical left-wing partisan talk show host" who is "masquerading as a journalist" and claimed that CNN "is filled with left-wing hacks who we know hate" Trump.
The Daily Beast's William Vaillancourt observes (https://www.thedailybeast.com/fox-news-is-already-throwing-a-hissy-fit-over-next-months-cnn-debate?ref=home), "It didn’t take long at all for some of Fox News' most-watched hosts to frame next month's debate between President Joe Biden and Donald Trump, which was announced Wednesday morning, as unfair to the presumptive GOP nominee."
Although Fox News hosts have been attacking CNN and ABC News as too biased to be hosting the debates, they haven't had a lot to say about the controversy that surrounded the right-wing cable news channel's coverage of the last U.S. presidential election.
Fox News was sued by Dominion Voting Systems and its competitor Smartmatic after promoting the false, thoroughly debunked claim that their equipment was used to help Biden steal the 2020 presidential election from Trump. In 2023, Fox News agreed to a $787.5 million settlement with Dominion (https://apnews.com/article/fox-news-dominion-lawsuit-trial-trump-2020-0ac71f75acfacc52ea80b3e747fb0afe), although Smartmatic's $2.7 billion lawsuit (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-01-24/fox-corp-must-face-smartmatic-s-2-7-billion-defamation-suit) against Fox News is ongoing.
READ MORE:[How Fox News' Trump trial coverage became an exercise in 'unintended hilarity': columnist
In an op-ed published on May 16 (https://www.thedailybeast.com/all-signs-point-to-a-trump-debate-meltdown?ref=home?ref=home), the Daily Beast's David Rothkopf doesn't agree with far-right claims that CNN and ABC News are too biased to be hosting the presidential debates. But he does argue that the debates could be a golden opportunity for Biden, as Trump is "out of practice" when it comes to debating as well as "bad at it."
Moreover, Rothkopf argues, the debates give Biden a chance to hammer Trump on issue after issue.
"In the view of those close to Biden," Rothkopf writes (https://www.thedailybeast.com/all-signs-point-to-a-trump-debate-meltdown?ref=home?ref=home), "Trump's got a serious problem on the issues. He's on the wrong side of the American public on many of the policy questions most important to them. For example, Trump keeps proclaiming he is the one responsible for the repeal of Roe v. Wade. "
Rothkopf adds (https://www.thedailybeast.com/all-signs-point-to-a-trump-debate-meltdown?ref=home?ref=home), "Almost two-thirds of all women and over six out of ten men support legal abortion according to a recent Pew report.… (Trump) loves Vladimir Putin, for example. In a Pew poll last year, 91 percent of Americans indicated they have an unfavorable view of Russia, with 62 percent having views that are very unfavorable."
READ MORE:Mary Trump: Here's why Ivanka and Don Jr. haven't show up to their father’s 'tawdry' trial (https://www.alternet.org/ivanka-trump-trial/)
Trump still knows how to fire up his hardcore supporters at MAGA rallies. But Rothkopf stresses that the debate format is problematic for Trump given his lack of self-discipline.
"Trump's defective character is so clear, and the danger he presents is so great, that the current president will have a hard time looking worse in comparison," Rothkopf writes (https://www.thedailybeast.com/all-signs-point-to-a-trump-debate-meltdown?ref=home?ref=home). "The contrasts between the two men and their beliefs could not be starker."
*Read the Daily Beast's full Fox News coverage at this link (https://www.thedailybeast.com/fox-news-is-already-throwing-a-hissy-fit-over-next-months-cnn-debate?ref=home) and David Rothkoph's Daily Beast op-ed here (https://www.thedailybeast.com/all-signs-point-to-a-trump-debate-meltdown?ref=home?ref=home) (subscription required).
READ MORE: Fox News suggests Trump 'force' court to throw him in jail — by quoting him (https://www.alternet.org/fox-host-court-jail/)
---
---
mma
Clay Travis: “We’re in a real war. Legal warfare is afoot and it’s time to return fire.” (https://www.mediamatters.org/jesse-watters/clay-travis-were-real-war-legal-warfare-afoot-and-its-time-return-fire)
:{:{05/31/24}:
- ### Laura Ingraham says Democrats could use reaction to Trump conviction to “maybe even declare martial law” (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/laura-ingraham-says-democrats-could-use-reaction-trump-conviction-maybe-even-declare)
05/31/24 7:45 PM EDT
- ### Jesse Watters predicts “there will be a revolution” if Donald Trump receives jail time (https://www.mediamatters.org/jesse-watters/jesse-watters-predicts-there-will-be-revolution-if-donald-trump-receives-jail-time)
05/31/24 6:10 PM EDT
- ### Sean Hannity calls Judge Merchan “the most corrupt judge I've ever seen in my lifetime” (https://www.mediamatters.org/sean-hannity/sean-hannity-calls-judge-merchan-most-corrupt-judge-ive-ever-seen-my-lifetime)
05/31/24 4:09 PM EDT
- ### Jack Posobiec endorses “reciprocity” after Trump's 34 guilty verdicts: “Get the message across by any means necessary” (https://www.mediamatters.org/jack-posobiec/jack-posobiec-endorses-reciprocity-after-trumps-34-guilty-verdicts-get-message-across)
05/31/24 3:17 PM EDT
- ### Project 2025 plans to dismantle the federal agency that tracks hurricanes (https://www.mediamatters.org/project-2025/project-2025-plans-dismantle-federal-agency-tracks-hurricanes)
05/31/24 3:07 PM EDT
- ### Matt Walsh: “Donald Trump should immediately create and publish a list of 10 high-ranking Democrat criminals who he will have arrested when he takes office” (https://www.mediamatters.org/matt-walsh/matt-walsh-donald-trump-should-immediately-create-and-publish-list-10-high-ranking)
05/31/24 2:21 PM EDT
- ### CNN and MSNBC fact-checked Trump's complaints about his guilty verdicts. Fox News repeated them. (https://www.mediamatters.org/donald-trump/cnn-and-msnbc-fact-checked-trumps-complaints-about-his-guilty-verdicts-fox-news)
05/31/24 1:01 PM EDT
- ### MAGA figure Mike Davis fantasizes about a Trump DOJ prosecuting Biden, Garland, and legal figures in Trump's trials: “There is absolutely gonna be retribution” (https://www.mediamatters.org/mike-davis/maga-figure-mike-davis-fantasizes-about-trump-doj-prosecuting-biden-garland-and-legal)
05/31/24 12:42 PM EDT
- ### Steve Bannon attacks House Republicans, calls for a “vast investigation” into Trump's 34 guilty verdicts (https://www.mediamatters.org/steve-bannon/steve-bannon-attacks-house-republicans-calls-vast-investigation-trumps-34-guilty)
05/31/24
---
---
border is basically the only gop issue for 2024?
Laura Ingraham says details of immigration compromise “do not matter,” she will personally work towards defeating any Republican that votes for it | Media Matters for America (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/laura-ingraham-says-details-immigration-compromise-do-not-matter-she-will-personally-work)
---
---
omg
https://www.alternet.org/laura-ingraham-renewables-maui-wildfire/
---
Giddy with ignorance, Fox's Laura Ingraham enjoyed a deep belly cackle at what she thought was President Biden's expense, mocking him for referring to the Webb telescope as, uh, the Webb telescope. (As in the powerful James Webb Space Telescope (https://webb.nasa.gov/) that can offer details not captured by other telescopes.)
"Did he call it the web telescope? Isn't it the Hubble? Is he thinking of web Hubble? I don't understand!" the confused faux news host said, bursting into such a fit of laughter, she had to wipe away the tears. (See video (https://twitter.com/ndrew_lawrence/status/1719146091105448304) below, posted by Andrew Lawrence.)
Guest Raymond Arroyo joined in the merriment, nodding and laughing as he agreed with the outrageousness of somebody calling the Webb telescope the Webb telescope. "Yes, yes, who knows?"
---
---