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Fox News’ pro-data center coverage increased by 420% following sobering GOP memo about data centers and midterms

The gap between the network’s pro-data center and anti-data center coverage widened significantly after a memo warned tech companies that the issue could cost Republicans competitive midterm elections

*Special* ProgramsClimate & Energy

Written by Ilana Berger

Published 10/27/26

The volume of pro-data center claims made by Fox News personalities and guests increased 420% after August 18, when the National Republican Senatorial Committee warned in a memo to tech companies that their communication strategy is failing to generate positive discourse around the issue and could cost pro-data center Republican candidates in the upcoming midterms.

Data centers and concerns about Big Tech more broadly have emerged as major issues for voters in the 2026 election cycle, while industry leaders have given hundreds of millions of dollars to AI-friendly candidates.

Media Matters reviewed Fox News’ data center-related coverage from the two weeks before the memo was reported and compared it to the two weeks that followed in order to determine what impact, if any, the memo potentially made on the network’s approach to covering data centers. Researchers examined pro-data center claims, which highlighted the benefits the facilities could bring to host communities, as well as anti-data center claims, which highlighted the leading concerns that communities have about the technology.

The research found that:

Fox News figures and guests made more than five times more pro-data center claims (203) from August 19 through September 2 than they did from August 5-18, when they made just 39.

In the two weeks before the memo was reported, Fox aired 39 pro-data center claims and 27 anti-data centers claims. The gap between pro- and anti-data center claims increased during the period following the memo’s release, from August 19 through September 2, when the network aired 203 pro-data center claims, or more than twice as many as the 86 anti-data center claims it made during the same period.

Of 242 total claims supporting the construction of new data centers during the entire study period, more than half (56%) specifically argued that the technology is essential for progress and prosperity (136), and 105 claims (43%) argued that opposition to data centers in the U.S. is being fueled by bad actors such as the Chinese government.

Fox News’ data center coverage earlier this year often reflected right-wing media splits on the issue

Over the spring and into the summer, some Fox personalities blamed “far-left activists” and the Chinese government for driving data center opposition around the country, ignoring evidence that the controversy has been bipartisan. The network also attempted to quell fears about data centers contributing to rising electric rates.

Video

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From the May 15, 2026, edition of Fox News' Jesse Watters Primetime

Other network figures expressed sympathy for Americans who are reluctant to embrace new data centers and related infrastructure in their communities. The Big Weekend Show’s Johnny “Joey” Jones and Tomi Lahren cautioned against assuming that only Democrats take issue with these projects and urged Republicans to address the concerns of their voting base more directly, especially in rural communities.

Video

Citation

From the July 19, 2026, edition of Fox News' The Big Weekend Show

In two weeks after the GOP messaging memo, Fox aired more than twice as many pro-data center claims as negative ones

On August 19, Axios reported that “the Senate GOP campaign arm, in a private memo to top AI companies, warns that toxic views of U.S. data centers are killing the party's chances of holding a vital seat in Ohio.” Using a competitive Senate race in Ohio as a case study, the National Republican Senatorial Committee argued that Democratic nominee Sherrod Brown was treating data centers as his “de facto opponent” in his race against Republican incumbent Jon Husted, calling the strategy “significantly more effective than traditional messaging tracts.”

The committee urged tech companies to “fix how Ohioans see” data centers and to explain “who benefits, who pays, and why a community should want one.” The alternative, it warned, would be a “Democrat candidate who wants to stop data center construction altogether, which will cause America to lose the AI race to China.”

Fox News apparently went to work, dramatically increasing its pro-data center coverage.

Beginning on August 20, the day after the memo was reported by Axios, Fox started to air segments focused particularly on Virginia’s Loudoun County, “home of the world’s largest concentration of data centers.” Fox portrayed the county as a success story illustrative of what data centers could do for others like it, with host Will Cain referring to Loudoun as “data center alley, the richest county in America,” during an August 20 segment of The Will Cain Show.

“Over the past two years, a new $102 million rec center, a $22 million going into a new park, and two new schools have opened in Loudoun County. The source of it all? Data centers,” he said. “Now that’s the economic case.”

Between August 20 and 21, the network ran at least five segments covering Loudoun County, and in the two weeks that followed the memo’s release, the network aired 203 total pro-data center claims — more than twice as many as the 86 anti-data center claims it made during the same period.

Even in the two weeks prior to reporting on the NRSC memo, when the network aired drastically less coverage of the issue, Fox was already making more arguments in favor of data centers than against them — airing 39 pro-data center claims compared to 27 negative examples between August 5-18.

“What we’re seeing in Virginia is these are becoming hubs for data centers,” Fox Business’ Cheryl Casone said on Fox & Friends First during an August 5 segment. “I think at the end of the day, I think it’s a good thing for these economies. And look, AI is changing our world. … President Trump also told Trace [Gallagher] last night, look, you don't want the Chinese to get ahead because whoever wins the race wins AI.”

Fox’s most frequent claim — that the data center buildout is essential for American progress and prosperity — accounted for 56% of all pro-data center claims

Fox heavily relied on the narrative that communities can benefit from tax revenue generated by data centers through new infrastructure, pay raises, or investments in community services. Fox hosts Jesse Watters and Will Cain suggested, respectively, that Loudoun County doesn’t “even know what to do with all the money” because data centers “make you too rich.”

Fox News also framed data centers as essential to modern life. Because many existing data centers host servers that “help us stream videos, search the internet, email and play online games,” some network personalities argued that pushing back against future projects would leave Americans deprived of new technology and stall progress.

“Any time you're streaming, you need a data center. Any time you're DoorDashing, any time you're watching me on Instagram or TikTok, you need a data center,” Watters said on August 24, referring to himself as an “unpaid consultant” doing “PR for Big Tech for free.”

Fox also repeatedly reassured viewers that data centers would create prosperity in communities where they are built by providing jobs, even as the impact of AI on the labor market remains uncertain.

Fox’s second most frequent claim, which represented 43% of pro-data center claims during our study period, suggested that anti-data center sentiment across the country was being heavily influenced by China, underscoring what the Trump administration says is an urgent need to minimize industry guardrails in the U.S.

Network host Brian Kilmeade combined all of these arguments in making “the case for data centers” on August 23.

Video

Citation

From the August 23, 2026, edition of Fox News' One Nation with Brian Kilmeade.

BRIAN KILMEADE (HOST): So if you say no to data centers, don’t complain when your cloud storage rates go up, your phone bill rises, or the internet speed slows down, because we are asking for more computing — you are, too — every single day. You may not realize it.

And saying no to data centers nationwide also means saying no to the tax dollars that can flow into a community. You’re talking about generating a lot of money. You’re talking about millions of dollars a year for a small town, tens of millions for a large campus. So the initial surge of great-paying blue collar jobs will be there, then construction gets the green light and the hard hats will go on. Those construction jobs, I know, don’t last forever, but they’ll be there for a while to build it and the tax base will remain.

So if Americans don’t build the infrastructure to meet the demand, somebody else will. One country would love to see America slow down. That name goes like: China.

As midterms approach, Fox personalities and guests continue to insist that data center opposition in the U.S. is being fueled by China

Fox has been remarkably consistent in using China as a boogeyman to try and sway viewers on data centers, portraying the facilities’ construction as critical to national security and American dominance. This trend has continued since the study period well into October, as next month’s midterm elections approach.

In an October 5 interview with Fox anchor Harris Faulkner, Trump’s former acting head of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Bridget Bean said, “We need to win the race. Because whoever wins the AI race really sets the rules for the next century.” She continued, “I think that a world in which China runs the most sophisticated technology in history is not one … where our American freedoms can survive.”

On October 11, Fox contributor Clay Travis said on The Big Weekend Show, “China is spending tons of money to tell us that we shouldn’t be building data centers. And to me this ultimately comes down to who is going to control the future?” He then characterized “allowing China to influence us to build less” as a “bad decision.”

Some of Fox’s recent conversations about data centers have attempted to downplay the risks of AI development in the U.S., even as some industry leaders have expressed concerns about the government’s ability to “implement regulation” quickly and effectively.

On October 18, above the chyron “Ensuring America’s AI Dominance,” Fox host and former GOP Rep. Trey Gowdy asked AI company Exiger CEO Brandon Daniels what people “who don’t want data centers living beside them” should know. Daniels assured viewers that in terms of building a “framework for safety,” the Trump administration is “moving at a pace that is actually keeping up with the technology.”

“It’s not doomsday, because we can control these systems,” Daniels concluded. “And if we harness the technology, if we’re the first in the race — if we actually deliver on our technological capacity and technological innovation — we certainly will be the beneficiaries of literally hundreds of millions of potential future trades and jobs.”

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mma

Here's the MAGA host taking credit for Katie Zacharia’s appointment to press secretary

Buck Sexton: “I have been maneuvering for months behind the scenes telling everybody that I know in D.C. and in this Trump White House who will listen that she is the absolute best option here”

Written by Gideon Taaffe & Helena Hind

Published 10/15/26

Update 10/16/26: President Donald Trump fired Katie Zacharia as White House press secretary after only five days on the job. Buck Sexton and co-host Clay Travis addressed her firing during the October 16 edition of their show, with Sexton admitting her press conference was “a little shaky” and that her initial hiring was “a shock.” He noted that he knows Zacharia only through the show and he's “actually never met her in person.” He continued, “Not the right role at the right time, you know, she’s got four kids. … Not everybody’s built for the fire.” Sexton floated White House principal deputy press secretary Anna Kelly to replace Zacharia.

After President Donald Trump announced on October 9 that he had appointed Katie Zacharia as the new White House press secretary, right-wing media figure Buck Sexton claimed he had been rallying for Zacharia to get the job.

According to Sexton, he had been “maneuvering for months behind the scenes telling everybody that I know in D.C. and in this Trump White House who will listen that she is the absolute best option here.” He later added that he “tried to bring it up when we were in the White House with Trump” but was interrupted by a phone call from Secretary of State Marco Rubio. (On September 28, Sexton and his co-host Clay Travis met with Trump in the Oval Office and had "conversations with key White House figures and insiders such as Marco Rubio, Karoline Leavitt, Natalie Harp, Stephen Miller, and Susie Wiles.”)

Citation

From the October 9, 2026, edition of Premiere Radio Networks' The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show

Sexton floated Zacharia for press secretary in August, saying, “Personally, I think she would be fantastic in the role.”

Zacharia’s first press conference on October 13 reportedly sparked internal turmoil at the White House, with one staffer calling the press conference “brutal” and others describing it to CNN as “unusual, awkward, stilted and, at times, uncomfortable.” It has since been reported that even though Trump referred to her as an “attorney,” Zacharia never passed the bar exam.

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MMA

Right-wing media repeated Trump administration claims that over 250,000 noncitizens registered to vote — now that “inflated” number is falling apart

Right-wing media personalities used unsubstantiated figures from DHS to push for the SAVE America Act and to cast further doubt on election security

Written by Hanne MacDonald & Reed McMaster

Research contributions from Jack Wheatley

Published 08/27/26

Right-wing media ran with unsubstantiated claims from the Trump administration that the Department of Homeland Security found hundreds of thousands of noncitizens registered to vote in federal elections, often using the figures to cast doubt on state election systems and to push for voting restrictions like the SAVE America Act. However, new reporting shows the administration’s numbers are falling apart.

The Trump administration promoted “inflated” DHS claims that hundreds of thousands of noncitizens were registered to vote

• In a July 16 primetime speech, President Donald Trump claimed DHS had “identified approximately 278,000 noncitizens who are registered to vote in federal elections.” Afterward, FactCheck.org reported “the White House linked to a DHS document claiming that a ‘review’ of ‘public data files’ in four states — California, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Nevada — found over 250,000 noncitizens illegally registered to vote. The document provided no information about how that estimate was derived, or the methodology used.” At a July 17 press conference, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin repeated the 250,000 figure and “said an additional 28,000 noncitizens were registered to vote” in at least 23 other states. But recent reporting undermines the counts the administration provided.
• On August 20, The New York Times reported, “The Department of Homeland Security told Nevada election officials that it identified 185 ‘potential’ noncitizens on the state’s voter rolls, not the nearly 16,000 it claimed last month.” The paper explained that “during a meeting last week with state election administrators, Homeland Security officials said they had identified just 185 potential noncitizens in the state so far, according to emails as well as recordings of the meeting obtained by The New York Times.”
• The federal officials said they were still considering 14,000 names for further review, according to one of the emails. In the virtual meeting, federal officials told Nevada that the nearly 16,000 they had originally identified represented “the ceiling” of potential noncitizens.

• NPR added on to the Times’ reporting on the Nevada call with an August 25 article headlined “DHS acknowledges the noncitizen numbers it touted on voter rolls were inflated.”

• NPR has confirmed that officials in Pennsylvania had a similar call with DHS after Trump's allegations in July, but the state has not received a smaller list of potential noncitizens from the federal government.
• “It was clear that DHS did not have confidence that the numbers they have stated publicly were accurate,” said an official with knowledge of the meeting in Pennsylvania, who did not have permission to speak publicly. Should DHS provide credible proof, the official said the state would notify law enforcement and work to remove unlawful voters from the voter list.
• In response to questions from NPR, DHS provided a statement but did not address why the agency touted numbers its own employees acknowledged were inflated.
• …
• California, another state mentioned in Trump's announcement, echoed that concern in a statement to NPR.
• “The real threat is that eligible voters—your friends, family, and neighbors—are recklessly and mistakenly removed from the voter rolls as a result of the administration's fishing expedition for purported non-citizens,” the statement reads. The state said DHS has not provided a response to its questions about the allegations.

Right-wing media figures amplified the Trump administration's unsubstantiated claims, frequently pushing for the SAVE America Act and fearmongering about noncitizen voting

• • On his radio show, Fox host Sean Hannity said Trump's claim that there are “250,000 illegals registered to vote in this country” should “shock every American.” Hannity went on to claim that there could “only be nefarious reasons” why Democrats are opposing election “integrity measures” like the SAVE America Act. In a later episode, Hannity repeated the claim, arguing he does not know why “anybody would ever be against” voter ID mandates. [Premiere Radio Networks, The Sean Hannity Show, 7/17/26, 7/20/26]

• • Podcaster and former Trump strategist Steve Bannon promoted the claim that 278,000 noncitizens were registered to vote before asking, “Where's [former Border Patrol commander-at-large Gregory] Bovino when you need him?” He stated, “The 278,000 that are voting. In just four states. There's millions and millions of illegal aliens voting. And Markwayne Mullins, the passive voice. Somebody that's a speechwriter, use the active voice. Stop using the passive voice. It's a passive organization. Where's Bovino when you need him?” [Real America's Voice, War Room, 7/17/26; NBC 5 Chicago, 1/27/26]

• • Former FBI deputy director and podcaster Dan Bongino said we “need the SAVE America Act” after playing clips of Markwayne Mullin claiming to have identified “250,000 noncitizens registered to vote.” Bongino asked, “How is this not a story?” and explained that the “goal” of the “media” is “destroying the election system and faith in our republic.” [Silverloch, The Dan Bongino Show, 7/20/26]

• • The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro played a clip of Trump claiming there are “278,000 noncitizens registered to vote” before stressing the need for the SAVE Act. After explaining what it means for alleged noncitizens to appear on the voter rolls and noting that “the notion that you have widespread noncitizen voting” has “yet to be substantiated,” Shapiro concluded, “Bottom line is this, though: When the president says that Congress should pass the SAVE Act, obviously that's true. The SAVE Act is significantly more prophylactic than it is corrective." [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 7/17/26]

• • OutKick founder Clay Travis argued that we need to “find out how many more tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions of people are currently on voter rolls that shouldn't be there,” after reiterating Trump's claim that there are 278,000 noncitizens registered to vote “just based on four states.” [Fox News, The Faulkner Focus, 7/22/26]

• • On The Dan Bongino Show, Scott Presler stated that there are “at least 250,000 noncitizens on the voter rolls alone in Cali, New Jersey, Nevada, and Pennsylvania.” Presler, whom The Washington Post has described as “an online influencer with a following built around the false claim that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump,” claimed, “The American people demand proof of citizenship, and we demand photo voter ID in order to secure our elections.” [Silverloch, The Dan Bongino Show, 8/18/26; The Washington Post, 11/3/24]

• • Hannity argued the 250,000 number is “probably a real number” because Trump said it. He said, “Now, this is a guess, but I would imagine, you know, if the president says that there was information within our intelligence committee — I'm sorry, within our intelligence community — of 250,000 illegals that are illegally registered to vote, that's probably a real number.” [Premiere Radio Networks, The Sean Hannity Show, 7/22/26]

• • Podcaster Dave Rubin claimed “there's a problem here” after repeating the 250,000 number. He said, “250,000 non-registered people, noncitizens are registered to vote. There's a problem here.” [YouTube, The Rubin Report, 7/20/26]

• • Days later, Rubin admitted he didn't “have any more evidence” to understand the discrepancy between numbers provided by the Trump administration and election officials, but asserted that Trump is “probably going to be right about this.” Rubin explained, “Now they're slowly admitting there's something, and Trump's giving more specific numbers. I tend to think, as Donald Trump has been directionally right about basically everything for the last 10 years, he's going to probably be right about this too.” [YouTube, The Rubin Report, 7/22/26; ABC News, 7/22/26]

• • Turning Point USA's Andrew Kolvet promoted the numbers from DHS and claimed Democrats “don't care.” Kolvet said, “President Trump did that whole press conference, a primetime address, where we found out there's over a quarter of a million in just a handful of states that are on the voter rolls.” Kolvet claimed Democrats “don't care” and “they say nobody's going to do this. Well, actually, we have proof that people do it.” [Real America's Voice, The Charlie Kirk Show, 7/23/26]

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MMA Outkick’s Clay Travis suggests “Jeffrey Epstein’s behavior would’ve actually been legal” in some jurisdictions because his victims were teenagers, “not 9 and 10-year old girls”

07/09/25

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FAIL

AN 3 26

On Friday, March 20, a woman identified as "Linda from Arizona" called into a, "The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show," with a suggestion: sending U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to airports. President Donald Trump later did exactly that, and his supporters praised the move as a way to help U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) workers who are feeling overwhelmed as a partial shutdown of the federal government drags on.

Linda's main concern, however, wasn't helping TSA employees, but upsetting liberals and progressives. Linda told the hosts, "I think it would set their hair on fire" — to which one of them responded, "Democrats would go absolutely insane."

In an article published on March 25, Salon's Amanda Marcotte notes that Trump's idea to send ICE agents to airports appeared to come from Linda — a move that, the journalist stresses, did nothing to ease the long lines at U.S. airports.

Marcotte explains, "Both Linda and the hosts were blunt that the goal was not actually helping the Transportation Security Administration run more efficient checkpoints, but to trigger the liberals…. Liberals hate ICE, the logic went, so why not inflict ICE on liberals and make them squeal? But the MAGA coalition has not been known for its logic, and it's clear from the conversation that no one involved was really thinking this through. Instead, the scheme was rooted in a childish — and sadistic — impulse to bully."

The headaches at U.S. airports are illustrated by passenger Will Frampton. During a March 24 appearance on MS NOW, Frampton told host Chris Jansing that he showed up at Atlanta's airport five hours early for a flight — but missed it because he spent nine hours waiting in a TSA security line.

According to Marcotte, the ICE-in-airports idea is hurting, not helping, Trump.

"After the idea percolated up from Linda to Clay-and-Buck and then to Fox News, Trump thought it was a stroke of genius," Marcotte writes. "Since he couldn't admit that he got the idea from a random woman in Green Valley, Arizona, he took credit for it on Monday, (March 23), comparing himself to the man who invented the paperclip in the process. What is remarkable is that everyone involved — all of them, from Linda to Trump himself — are so consumed with the desire to trigger the liberals that no one stopped to wonder if the plan to put ICE in airports would backfire, as it appears to be doing."

Marcotte continues, "Early reports show ICE is doing nothing to speed up security lines, many of which have hours-long waits due to Republicans' refusal to pass a Democratic proposal to fund the TSA directly while still withholding DHS funding. The presence of ICE is instead ratcheting up tensions at the already stress-laden airports. Federal immigration officers can't do the real work of screening passengers, but they can harass and manhandle people suspected of being immigrants. Despite credulous media reports perpetuating the belief that ICE has been deployed to help TSA agents, every indication is that Trump's goal is to make already-miserable traveling experiences even worse."

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Right-wing media falsely suggest Donald Trump chartered a plane for Nelson Mandela out of the goodness of his heart

Trump’s airline was already up for sale due to financial troubles, and he charged Mandela $130,000 to use one of his jets

Written by Courtney Hagle

Published 10/18/24 mma

In an October 18 interview with Donald Trump, Fox host George “Tyrus” Murdoch praised the former president for chartering a plane for the late South Africa President Nelson Mandela in the 1990s, adding that it’s “hard” for Trump to “talk about the good things you’ve done.” Some others in conservative media joined in, suggesting that Trump assisted Mandela for the sake of generosity and goodwill.

In reality, as Washington Post columnist Glenn Kessler explained, the plane chartered for Mandela was not Trump’s personal private jet but a Boeing 727 from Trump Shuttle, “an airline that Trump briefly owned before it was essentially seized by the banks because he failed to make payments on his loans.” Kessler noted that Mandela was charged $130,000 to use the plane by Trump Shuttle, which was already in financial trouble and was preparing to be sold.

Speaking to Trump in an OutKick vid] titled “Manhood is under ATTACK!” Tyrus said Mandela “was trying to come to the United States. The United States government wasn’t helping him, no one was helping him. You chartered a 727 plane for the entire trip. … Why is it hard for you to talk about the things you've done?”

Trump responded humbly: “I love doing it. I don't need praise for it.”

“I just like helping people,” he added. “I help a lot of people, and I enjoy doing it, and I never talk about it. … It's not a narrative the press likes to talk about.”

IFrame Content

Some right-wing media joined in, lauding Trump’s generosity after the Trump campaign pushed the clip.

Turning Point USA co-founder and podcaster Charlie Kirk claimed that Trump helped Mandela “when the US Government wouldn’t,” adding, “He doesn’t go around bragging about his good deeds, but there are endless such stories.”

Students for Trump Chair Ryan Fournier wrote: “I had no idea Trump chartered a plane for Nelson Mandela to come to the United States when our own government wouldn't even help him. Trump is a good man.”

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September 17, 2024, edition of OutKick's OutKick The Show

CLAY TRAVIS (HOST): Finally, Scientific American magazine has endorsed Kamala Harris. It's the second endorsement that this magazine has felt compelled to make in its 179-year history. The last endorsement they had was for Joe Biden. Now they are endorsing Kamala Harris. Why? What has Kamala Harris done that you look at Donald Trump if you were truly being honest and not just a victim of Trump derangement syndrome?

What has Trump done? And what has Kamala done such that you have to have a magazine that has nothing to do with politics decide to endorse a political candidate for a second time, both times anti-Trump, no matter who the candidate was, I think they would have made that choice.

...

I am of the opinion that science should be much like the First Amendment, filled with a variety of perspectives, and you should be challenging consensus all the time. I think we would have been far better off if more people had challenged shutting down schools, shutting down businesses, making people wear masks, social distancing by six feet, the COVID shot. I think if all those things had been challenged, we would be far better off as a country.

The history of science, if you study it, is actually of scientists being incredibly wrong about almost everything. And when they are initially challenged, they try to shut down anyone who challenges the conventional authority. Go back and study history, this is the truth. So I'm actually skeptical any time science lines up and says this is the answer, you cannot challenge it. I think we need robust uninhibited debate.

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Right-wing media are gleefully promoting a false, racist rumor that Haitian migrants are eating pets

Right-wing figures have called Haitian people “locusts,” zombies,” and “weird Third World aliens”

Written by Chloe Simon & Reed McMaster

Research contributions from Gideon Taaffe

Published 09/10/24 mma

On September 9, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s running mate JD Vance claimed that Haitian migrants had “abducted and eaten” pets in Springfield, Ohio, seemingly referencing debunked social media rumors.

Though local officials explained that there was no truth to the claim, right-wing media immediately jumped on the bandwagon, amplifying Vance’s allegations and pushing racist narratives about Haitian immigrants.

Some right-wing figures accused Haitian migrants of consuming “cats and ducks” and comparing them to “zombies” and “locusts.”

• ## JD Vance falsely alleged Haitian migrants are kidnapping and eating people’s pets, continuing long-standing right-wing media attacks on Haitians
  • JD Vance wrote on X that he had previously raised concerns about “Haitian illegal immigrants draining social services and generally causing chaos all over Springfield, Ohio” and “reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn't be in this country.” While Vance did admit in a subsequent post that “it's possible, of course, that all of these rumors will turn out to be false,” he doubled down by telling by telling his “fellow patriots” not to “let the crybabies in the media dissuade you” and encouraged them to continue making “cat memes.” Twitter/X, [9/9/24, 9/10/24, 9/10/24]
  • The claim Haitian migrants are eating cats seemingly originated from a commentator at a local meeting, Facebook rumors, and a video of a woman accused of eating an animal. The video used as evidence took place in Canton, Ohio, not Springfield, Ohio, and The Guardian reported that the woman did not appear to be a Haitian immigrant. The Guardian, [9/9/24]
  • Springfield City Manager Bryan Heck says there is no truth to the story.In a statement to ABC News, Heck said that “in response to recent rumors alleging criminal activity by the immigrant population in our city, we wish to clarify that there have been no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community.” (Vance had previously cited Heck in a Senate Banking committee meeting about issues Springfield has had with housing for Haitian migrants.) ABC News, [9/9/24]
  • The debunked attack on Haitian people is the latest in years’ worth of racist right-wing media tirades against the country. In the aftermath of the deadly 2010 Haiti earthquake, right-wing media said that the “Haitian pact with the devil is historical fact” and that the country was “so screwed up because it wasn’t colonized long enough.” Then in 2018, when Trump had labeled Haiti a “shithole country,” Infowars’ Alex Jones backed him up, saying it is a “literal craphole” and a “hellhole.” Media Matters, [1/14/10, 1/20/10, 1/21/10, 1/12/18; NBC News, 1/11/18]
• ## Right-wing and far-right media figures and Trump allies have used this claim to launch hateful attacks at migrants, criticize the Biden/Harris administration’s immigration record, and encourage people to vote for Trump
  • The Federalist posted an article titled “If You Want Haitians Eating Cats And Decapitating Ducks In Your Town, Vote For Harris.”The piece also alleges that even though many have denied this claim, “officials have no way of knowing whether this is really happening” and that the debunks serve to “shame anyone who dares to notice the problems that arise when you inundate a community with foreigners from the Third World.” The Federalist, [9/10/24]
  • Fox anchor Trace Gallagher claimed migrants are “taking over” Springfield Ohio and eating people’s pets. He stated, “They’ve got 20,000 illegal immigrants that have flooded into this place. They are taking over the city. They are taking people's pets and killing them and eating them.” Media Matters, [9/9/24]
  • Trump campaign adviser Alex Bruesewitz claimed that “President Trump made it a felony to abuse animals” and “Kamala Harris allows illegal aliens to eat pets.” Bruesewitz also added, “Vote for Trump.” Twitter/X, [9/9/24]
  • Trump ally Laura Loomer released “limited edition” “pet collars for your furever friends so that Kamala’s @KamalaHarris’s invaders know our pets are NOT YOUR LUNCH.”The collars say “Not Your Lunch #MAGA” and cost $23.28. Twitter/X, [9/9/24; Untamed USA, accessed 9/10/24]
  • The Gateway Pundit published an article titled “Epic Memes Emerge Online Following Reports of Cat and Bird-Eating Haitian Immigrants in Ohio, Causing Liberals to Lose Their Minds.” The article argued that the memes showed “not even our most beloved animals are safe from Harris’s open border,” noting that some of them depicted Trump as “a protector of the animals while telling Americans to vote for him in November.” The Gateway Pundit, [9/9/24]
  • Conservative outlet Townhall suggested voting for Trump to stop cats and ducks from being “consumed by illegal immigrants.” The site posted, “Right now—somewhere in Ohio—innocent cats and ducks are being consumed by illegal immigrants. Don't just sit idly by while your pets are victimized. Do something.” Twitter/X, [9/9/24]
  • Townhall columnist Kurt Schlichter said that he wants to “close our borders to weird Third World aliens who want to eat our cats and dogs and our geese and ducks.” Twitter/X, [9/9/24]
  • Libs of TikTok posted a poll asking people “which do you prefer,” “mean tweets” or “Haitians grilling cats.” Twitter/X, [9/9/24]
  • In a discussion about the Haitian migrant story, Outkick host Clay Travis compared migrants coming into the U.S. to “locusts” who will “become a plague upon your land.”Travis further claimed that migrants in the U.S are “not going to adopt any of your values” and are going to “bring whatever awful things had destroyed the country that we were in to your country.” Premiere Radio Networks, *The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show*, [9/9/24]
  • Travis also claimed “Kamala’s illegal immigrants” are “eating up cats,” which he said puts “cat ladies for Kamala … in a tough spot.” He stated, “The wild thing to me is, Buck, you had all the cat ladies for Kamala that were running around because JD Vance made a reference years ago to childless cat ladies, and you had people showed up dressing up like cats. These cat women are in a tough spot now that Kamala's illegal immigrants are eating up cats.” Premiere Radio Networks, *The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show*, [9/9/24]
  • Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk amplified the rumor about Haitian immigrants, claiming that “allegedly, Haitians are going around and taking people's pets and eating them.”Media Matters, [9/9/24]
  • Infowars host Alex Jones argued that Haitians are being “brought in” to the country and committing multiple violent crimes as well as eating pets. He stated, “You've got the Haitians, who have had a collapsed country for many decades, the Clintons feeding off of them, all of it. Being brought in, in medium-sized towns, cities, you know, 20-, 30,000 a pop like Springfield, Ohio. Which is they're eating the dogs, the cats, raping, burning, murdering, just like zombies running around.” InfoWars, *The Alex Jones Show*, [9/9/24]
  • Daily Wire Matt Walsh argued that the cat eating is “happening everywhere that illegal immigrants are being imported.” He continued, “One wonders what the childless cat ladies will say when their cats end up in a Haitian's crock pot or whatever they use to cook cats — I don't know. After all, this isn't just happening in Springfield, Ohio. It's happening everywhere that illegal immigrants are being imported.” The Daily Wire, *The Matt Walsh Show*, [9/9/24]
  • TPUSA contributor Jack Posobiec shared a screenshot of a Facebook post claiming the poster’s neighbor’s daughter lost her cat to Haitian migrants who were “carving it up to eat.” Posobiec added, “20,000 Haitians have been imported to Springfield, Ohio since Biden and Kamala took office.” Twitter/X, [9/8/24]
  • Right-wing figure Ian Miles Cheong posted a video of a cat and a duck playing together with the caption: “Don't show this to the new 'residents' of Springfield, Ohio.” Twitter/X, [9/9/24]
  • Right-wing commentator Mike Crispi alleged that we’ve “now reached the point where the poor asylum seeking migrants are eating house cats and wild birds.” Crispi also claimed that “Democrats are seeking to make these individuals citizens/voters.” Twitter/X, [9/9/24]
  • In response to someone asking him if he’s ever “met or helped any Haitians,” Gab CEO Andrew Torba posted that he’s “more concerned with helping and serving my own people in Ohio who the Haitians are terrorizing with their savagery.” Twitter/X, [9/10/24]

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right-wing media’s playbook for attacking Kamala Harris: A flood of misogyny and racism

Right-wing media spared no time in hurling racist and sexist attacks against the likely Democratic presidential candidate

WRITTEN BY PAYTON ARMSTRONG, CHARIS HOARD & EMMA MAE WEBER

PUBLISHED 07/23/24

Since President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential election and endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris, right-wing media have launched sexist and racist attacks at Harris to try to diminish her qualifications. They’ve claimed that she can’t be president because she doesn’t have biological children, labeled her “the ultimate diversity, equity, and inclusion candidate,” fixated on her laugh, claimed that she promotes "the occult,” and likened her to “Jezebel.”

• ## Biden suspended his presidential campaign and endorsed Harris on July 21

• • In a statement released on July 21, Biden suspended his presidential campaign after weeks of calls to step down from top Democrats.Weeks after a poor debate performance and amid mounting pressure to step aside, Biden announced he would serve the remainder of his term, and he subsequently endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for the Democratic nomination for president, thanking her for being an “extraordinary partner.” Bloomberg, [7/21/24; The Hill, 7/19/24]

• • Harris announced her official bid for the presidency hours after Biden's suspension, with multiple Democratic lawmakers expressing their support.Harris asserted in a statement that “my intention is to earn and win this nomination.” The Associated Press, [7/21/24]

• ## Right-wing media have attacked Harris over her race and gender for years

• • Right-wing media have lobbed racist and sexist attacks at Harris for years, calling her a “DEI hire” who “gets more favorable treatment because of her race and gender.” Right-wing figures have also referred to Harris as an example of ”why DEI doesn’t work" and claimed she “launched her political career in [the] bedroom.” Media Matters, [7/3/24, 7/11/24]

• ## Right-wing media sexualized Harris and diminished her accomplishments with sexist attacks

• • Infowars host Alex Jones called Harris a “fleshlight.” When speculating about a Hillary Clinton ticket, Jones said, “So don't think they won't try to push Kamala out and put her in, or have Kamala, who's dumber than a box of rocks, she's basically a fleshlight, put Hillary on as her VP. And boy if she does that, she’s gonna get JFK’d.” Infowars, *The Alex Jones Show*, [7/22/24]

• • Daily Wire founder Ben Shapiro said that Harris has “never earned anything,” claiming that she got “handed her original post in California state government because she was sleeping with Willie Brown.”Shapiro went on to claim that “she lucked into her job as attorney general of the state and then from there, she really lucked into her job as senator. … Then she proceeded to luck into her job as vice president. Earn and win the nomination. She’s not earning and winning anything. She’s inheriting it.” The Daily Wire, *The Ben Shapiro Show*, [7/21/24]

• • Right-wing influencer Dom Lucre shared a photo of Harris and former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown with the caption, “How did Kamala Harris become our Vice President? I heard she has always been a suck up to wealthy Democrats.”In a similar post, Lucre also jeered, “Kamala Harris started her career on her knees how can we trust her to stand up for this country?” Twitter/X, [7/22/24, 7/22/24; The New York Times, 1/14/21]

• • Trump ally Roger Stone posted: “Kamala Harris campaign now selling official campaign kneepads.” Twitter/X, [7/21/24]

• • Rumble host and Trump ally Laura Loomer said that Harris “was once an escort and … she got her career started giving blow jobs to successful, rich, black men,” including Willie Brown and Montel Williams.In a now-unavailable post on X (formerly Twitter), Loomer said that Harris performed a sex act on Brown “while he was a married man in exchange for political power. Here she is ‘dating’’ @Montel_Williams in 2001, who appears to be holding hands with more than one woman at the same time on the red carpet.” The woman who Williams was holding hands with in 2001 was his daughter, and he was separated from his wife when he and Harris dated. The Wrap, [7/22/24; The Associated Press, 7/22/24]

• • OutKick host Clay Travis said Kamala Harris “got her start in politics by sex as a mistress of a married man.”He also attacked Kamala for not having kids, saying, “If you're a married woman with kids, if you're a grandma with kids, do you have any respect for the woman who is the mistress of the married man and never even became his second wife and had kids with him on her own?” OutKick, *OutKick The Show with Clay Travis*, [7/22/24]

• ## Right-wing media both called Harris the “DEI candidate” and questioned her Blackness

• • Daily Wire host Matt Walsh said Harris as the Democratic presidential nominee would be “a poetic way for us to end this year of reckoning with the madness of DEI.” Walsh then went on to call Harris “sort of Black,” saying she “lacks the IQ and the competence to lead this country” and claiming she has “never earned anything through her own merit.” The Daily Wire, *The Matt Walsh Show*, [7/22/24]

• • OutKick host Clay Travis claimed that Harris “failed her way up” and is “the ultimate diversity, equity, and inclusion candidate.” Travis also asserted that ”we just saw what DEI does, at the Secret Service; it nearly gets the president killed," in reference to the attempted assassination on former President Donald Trump last week. Outkick, *Outkick The Show with Clay Travis*, [7/21/24; Media Matters, 7/15/24]

• • Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk said Harris was chosen because of “the same criteria of DEI that got Trump shot.”Kirk also said, “You could not have a better example of the worst aspects of the country or the Democrat party. But now — that's where she is. She is a DEI candidate.” Real America’s Voice, *The Charlie Kirk Show*, [7/22/24]

• • Fixating on Harris’ race and gender, Fox contributor Tammy Bruce warned that the fear of being called racist or sexist will be weaponized by the Democratic Party, claiming their approach is like domestic violence.Bruce said Democrats will turn to “more identity politics. There will be more accusations. There will be accusations that if you don't like Kamala — we’ve already heard it — you are a sexist and you are a racist and you’re everything else. … It’s a way to control you. Where it’s dangerous to speak up, dangerous to contradict the masters of the universe out there, where you will do as you are told or you will be punished. It is very similar to the nature of domestic violence. It is domestic violence writ large.” Fox News, *Hannity*, [7/22/24]

• • Right-wing personality Rob Smith, who has been a Turning Point USA contributor, called Harris the “DEI soon-to-be nominee for President.”Twitter/X, [7/22/24; Fox News, accessed 7/22/24]

• • Newsmax host Sebastian Gorka said that Harris “very well might be the first DEI president.”Gorka added that Harris “is literally a DEI hire, a woman who laughs about little yellow school buses and Venn diagrams, who cackles like an insane woman.” Newsmax, *Newsmax broadcast*, [7/21/24]

• • On Newsmax, guest Chris Kohls mispronounced Harris’ first name and questioned, “Is she Black? Is she Indian? Nobody knows.”Host Sebastian Gorka replied that it’s not racist to mispronounce Harris’ name if we “work out how her slave-owning Jamaican ancestors pronounced that name.” Newsmax, *Rob Schmitt Tonight,* [7/22/24]

• • Newsmax guest Joel Gilbert said Harris “has no common experiences with Black Americans.”Gilbert, author of a book that speculates Michelle Obama will run for president, continued, ”She doesn't even bring the African American vote that they've hemorrhaged to Donald Trump because she's not African American. Her mother is from India. Her father's from Jamaica. She grew up in Canada, and she married a white Jewish guy." Newsmax, *Greg Kelly Reports*, [7/21/24]

• • YourVoice America's Bill Mitchell: “Kamala Harris never ran as a black woman until 2020.” Twitter/X, [7/22/24]

• ## Right-wing media also claimed that Harris can’t be president because she has no biological children

• • Article III Project senior counsel Will Chamberlain asserted that the “really simple, underdiscussed reason why Kamala Harris shouldn’t be President” is because she has “no children.”(While Harris has no biological children, she became the stepmother of Cole and Ella Emhoff when she married second gentleman Doug Emhoff in 2014.) Twitter/X, [7/21/24; Today, 7/19/24]

• • Laura Loomer said: “A woman who has no biological children of her own should not be allowed to make decisions in the White House for your children.”Loomer also attacked Harris' passion for reproductive justice, jeering “Republicans need to … ask why a woman with no kids of her own and just a scarred up uterus is so obsessed with wanting to kill your babies." Twitter/X, [7/22/24]

• • While listing reasons why Harris shouldn’t be president, OutKick’s Clay Travis noted that Harris “doesn't have any kids of her own.”He also called Harris a “side chick” who “got her start in politics by banging Willie Brown” and said he doesn’t think Harris will “really motivate Black voters very well, particularly Black men.” OutKick, OutKick The Show with Clay Travis, [7/21/24]

• ## Right-wing media fixated on Harris’ laugh, saying she sounds like a “giggling idiot” and a “hyena”

• • Fox host Sean Hannity said Harris is facing a “likability crisis” and voters “detest” Harris because of her laugh. He then characterized Harris as “your giggling vice president.” Fox News, *Hannity*, [7/21/24]

• • Fox analyst Brit Hume said that “you can argue a great many Americans think Harris is a giggling idiot, there’s no doubt about that.” Fox News, *Fox News Live*, [7/21/24]

• • Roger Stone posted an attack ad from Make America Great Again Inc.and wrote, “Lying, hyena-laughing Kamala.”Twitter, [7/21/24]

• ## Right-wing media launched other bizarre attacks, including likening Harris to “Jezebel” and accusing her of promoting “the occult”

• • Right-wing commentator and self-described prophet Lance Wallnau said that Harris “represents something which I believe is probably the amalgam of the spirit of Jezebel in a way that will be even more ominous than Hillary because she'll bring a racial component and she's younger.”Twitter/X, [7/22/24; Rolling Stone, 9/29/22]

• • Right-wing pundit James Lindsay claimed that Harris’ repetition of the statement “to see what can be, unburdened by what has been” is “occult” and “it's a Marxist and Luciferian incantation.”Twitter/X, [7/21/24]

• • On her radio show, former Trump attorney Jenna Ellis endorsed Lindsay’s analysis, declaring that Harris “is advancing not just cultural Marxism, but paganism and the occult.”Ellis complained that “this is who is going to be likely the Democrat nominee. … If we are going to genuinely claim being a Christian nation and advancing policy that is based in and rooted in a biblical worldview or if we are going to elect someone in November that is specifically, intentionally, and obviously pushing for a Luciferian incantation and the occult.” American Family Radio, *Jenna Ellis in the Morning*, [7/22/24]

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mma

Clay Travis: “We’re in a real war. Legal warfare is afoot and it’s time to return fire.”

:{05/31/24

2. ### Laura Ingraham says Democrats could use reaction to Trump conviction to “maybe even declare martial law”

05/31/24 7:45 PM EDT

3. ### Jesse Watters predicts “there will be a revolution” if Donald Trump receives jail time

05/31/24 6:10 PM EDT

4. ### Sean Hannity calls Judge Merchan “the most corrupt judge I've ever seen in my lifetime”

05/31/24 4:09 PM EDT

5. ### Jack Posobiec endorses “reciprocity” after Trump's 34 guilty verdicts: “Get the message across by any means necessary”

05/31/24 3:17 PM EDT

6. ### Project 2025 plans to dismantle the federal agency that tracks hurricanes

05/31/24 3:07 PM EDT

7. ### 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”

05/31/24 2:21 PM EDT

8. ### CNN and MSNBC fact-checked Trump's complaints about his guilty verdicts. Fox News repeated them.

05/31/24 1:01 PM EDT

9. ### 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”

05/31/24 12:42 PM EDT

10. ### Steve Bannon attacks House Republicans, calls for a “vast investigation” into Trump's 34 guilty verdicts

05/31/24

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https://www.mediamatters.org/clay-travis/outkick-founder-clay-travis-we-have-more-issues-fake-racism-america-today-we-do

aha // schmitt sen hold up col promote, story 1 demands denial of racism

Outkick's Clay Travis baselessly claims jury found “E. Jean Carroll was lying” | Media Matters for America

OutKick's Clay Travis defends sports reported who admitted to making up reports | Media Matters for America

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[Outkick’s Clay Travis endorses Trump’s vermin comments | Media Matters for AmericaOutkick’s Clay Travis endorses Trump’s vermin comments | Media Matters for AmericaOutkick’s Clay Travis endorses Trump’s vermin comments | Media Matters for America](https://www.mediamatters.org/clay-travis/outkicks-clay-travis-endorses-trumps-vermin-comments)

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Fox Corp.'s OutKick hosts "the sperminator" to push his anti-vax agenda | Media Matters for America

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Clay Travis: “What Sam Bankman-Fried did pales in comparison ... to the fraud that was perpetrated by Moderna and Pfizer” | Media Matters for America

Clay Travis accuses Pfizer and Moderna of creating "worthless" COVID vaccines | Media Matters for America

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~ drag

https://www.mediamatters.org/clay-travis/hundreds-thousands-new-subscribers-outkicks-youtube-channel-will-be-fed-racist-and

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https://www.mediamatters.org/clay-travis/youtube-has-done-nothing-stem-tide-covid-19-misinformation-outkicks-clay-travis

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mma 3 23

clay Travis, a regular Fox News guest and the founder of Fox’s recently acquired sports website Outkick, has been using his supposed sports programs to rehash right-wing narratives on COVID-19, race and crime, and conservative censorship.

Since Outkick was purchased by Fox in 2021, it has more than doubled its viewership. As the network has grown, it has become more like an offspring of Fox News than a sports platform, emphasizing and rehashing Fox's right-wing narratives even when they're unrelated to athletics.

Travis hosts three shows, Outkick The Show with Clay Travis, Wins & Losses, and The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. While the latter is correctly labeled political, his other two shows are categorized under sports on both Apple Podcasts and iHeartPodcasts.

Travis has a history of drawing attention to himself via vulgar stunts and spreading conspiracy theories, especially about COVID-19. He often brags about making inflammatory and sexist remarks, claiming they grow his platform.

Outkick The Show is a daily news recap where Travis talks about current events in news and sports. He has repeatedly used this show to spread anti-vaccine conspiracy theories, downplay racism involved in police murders such as the killing of Tyre Nichols, and promote other right-wing non-sports stories.

The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Showfrequently features similar content, with Travis and fellow Fox News regular Buck Sexton spouting conservative talking points about President Joe Biden and the pandemic. Their rhetoric often mimics commentary on Fox.

Travis also runs an interview podcast, Wins & Losses, where he provides a safe space for conservative guests who share his conspiratorial views on the pandemic and supposed social media bias against conservatives. As of this writing, Apple Podcasts currently labels the show as a “sports” podcast even though only five of the most recent 20 episodes featured guests related to sports. 15 of the 20 most recent episodes included conservative media figures, like anti-vax conspiracy theorist Alex Berenson and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX).

Although they are published under the seemingly nonpartisan banner of sports commentary, Travis’ programs are just poorly disguised right-wing political programming.

Travis heavily promoted coronavirus conspiracy theories

Travis is a prolific purveyor of coronavirus misinformation. He has downplayed the severity of COVID-19, insisted effective precautions such as masks do nothing, and fearmongered about and denied the efficacy of vaccines.

Notably, Travis supported the baseless anti-vaccine conspiracy theory that there is an increase in cardiovascular complications in athletes tied to the COVID-19 vaccine. He doubled down on this after Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed during a game. Travis has pushed multiple COVID-19 conspiracy theories on his sports shows, even when they don’t involve athletes:

• Travis accused MSNBC of covering up evidence that COVID-19 vaccines increased the number of myocarditis cases after MSNBC host Yasmin Vossoughian revealed she had myocarditis. He said, “Isn't it amazing how many people out there are refusing to acknowledge that the COVID shot might in any way have massively increased the number of people that are having heart-related issues who are otherwise extremely healthy?” While the mRNA vaccines do slightly increase the risk for myocarditis, actually getting COVID-19 puts patients at a much higher risk for the condition than any vaccine. Outkick, Outkick The Show, [1/31/2023]
• Travis deemed it “very valid” to question whether the COVID-19 vaccine was responsible for Damar Hamlin’s collapse. He said, “This is a fair question now – was the COVID shot in any way involved? We know that the COVID shot has created myocarditis in some individuals. Did Damar Hamlin get the COVID shot? Was it involved in any way in his issue on the football field? All of those, very valid questions.” Outkick, Outkick the Show, [1/6/2023]
• Travis said he was “troubled by people coming out and saying you can’t ask about whether the COVID shot might’ve been involved in any way in his [Hamlin’s] heart-related condition.” Outkick, Outkick The Show, [1/24/2023]
• Travis claimed all COVID-19 vaccines do not work. According to him, “Not only do the shots not work, I think they actually make you more likely to get COVID.” Outkick, Outkick The Show, [2/2/2023]
• Travis claimed that a new study proved masking did not work against coronavirus and those who wore protective face coverings during the height of the pandemic were “idiots”. Travis was cherry picking information as numerous studies disprove this claim. While mocking masking against COVID-19, Travis remarked, “All of it was cosmetic theater for idiots." Outkick, Outkick The Show,[2/2/2023]
• Travis hosted COVID-19 conspiracy theorist Alex Berenson who downplayed the number of virus deaths in America and claimed lockdowns were purely political.Berenson claimed the United States higher than average COVID-19 deaths were a result of America being a “big country” and said, “We get big numbers when we have big countries.” He claimed, “This is about people who want us to be in lockdown. They want to push us there.” iHeartPodcasts, Wins & Losses, [8/17/2022]

Travis downplayed police brutality against the Black community and accused media of only covering crime when perpetrators are white

After the Memphis police department releasedbody cam footage of the department’s SCORPION unit fatally beating Tyre Nichols on January 7, Travis repeatedly pushed the debunked narrative that “Black-on-black crime” is ignored in favor of hate crime coverage, aFox News-esque narrative that is eerily similar to those espoused by hate groups to justify their bigotry by mischaracterizing Black communities as more prone to violence.

• Travis claimed the Black Lives Matter movement focuses purely on violent acts done by white people against Black people. Travis stated, “Black Lives Matter isn’t about Black lives at all. Black Lives Matter is only about the person who takes the Black life. It’s really Black Lives Matter in parenthetical, so long as a white person is involved in taking the Black life.” Outkick, Outkick The Show, [1/30/2023]
• Travis claimed coverage of Tyre Nichols’ killing was fading because the officers involved were also Black. Travis said that news was, “almost vanishing instantly” because it involved Black police officers. Outkick, Outkick the Show, [1/30/2023]
• Travis accused MSNBC and CNN of only covering violence when there's racism involved, and falsely claimed the networks did not cover the Monterey Park shooting.He stated, “Soon as it becomes clear that the shooter was an Asian man killing Asian people, nobody cares.” Travis attacked MSNBC and CNN, stating the networks only care about crime “when a white guy does it. Non-white guy commits a crime, [coverage] vanishes almost overnight.” Outkick, Outkick The Show, [1/23/2023]
• Travis attacked Reverend Al Sharpton for his eulogy at Tyre Nichols’ funeral, which placed attention on the role of racism in Nichols murder. Travis called Sharpton a “Race Hustler.” He then falsely claimed a disproportionate number of killings of Black people by the police is the result of Black people committing more crimes. “Over 50% of all murders are committed by Black people. That's a stat that makes everybody, like, get really uncomfortable because nobody wants to talk about it.” Outkick, Outkick The Show, [2/2/2023]

Travis used his sports shows to complain about conservative media censorship and Hunter Biden conspiracies

Travis regularly pushes the idea that conservative voices are censored or deprioritized on the internet. The claim is not supported by evidence as social media companies disclose very little about their content moderation decisions.

In particular, Travis has promoted conspiracies about The New York Post’s Hunter Biden laptop story being taken down from Twitter in 2020, and used his sports network to connect Biden’s mishandling of classified documents to his son. In reality, the documents show a social media company scrambling to separate real stories from suspected foreign influence. This faulty narrative has also been pushed heavily by Fox News.

• Travis claimed Twitter’s decisions to take down The New York Post’s story on Hunter Biden’s laptop “probably rigged the 2020 election.“ He claimed that the so-called “Twitter files” showed “a systemic attempt to rig elections and political conversations exclusively for a left-wing political benefit.” In reality the documents show a social media company scrambling to separate real stories from suspected foreign influence. Outkick, Outkick The Show, [12/9/2022]
• Travis argued the situation surrounding the Hunter Biden laptop story “makes Watergate seem like jaywalking.” Travis additionally claimed the blocking of the story on Twitter was a “conspiracy of silence to protect Joe Biden and potentially rig the 2020 election.” iHeartPodcasts, Wins and Losses,[1/25/2023]
• Travis interviewed New York Post’s Miranda Devine, who wrote the original story on Hunter Biden’s laptop, on his sports podcast. She insisted her story on the laptop showed Joe Biden “was intimately involved” with the supposed scandal. “He met with Hunter Biden's overseas business partners.” In reality, evidence that Joe Biden was involved with his son’s business dealings hasn’t materialized and evidence he even knew the specifics of Hunter’s dealings is questionable at best. iHeartPodcasts, Wins and Losses, [1/25/2023]
• Travis used his sports podcast to platform Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon, who lamented that the Babylon Bee had been banned from Twitter for violating the site's terms of service about misgendering transgender people. Dillon complained that Twitter engaged in “viewpoint discrimination” by refusing to allow his website to post content that misgendered Assistant Secretary for Health Rachel Levine. Travis allowed Dillon to argue he has a right to harass people for being transgender. iHeartPodcasts, Wins & Losses, [5/7/2022]

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https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/outkick-founder-clay-travis-tells-his-audience-stop-testing-covid-19

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proxy for pinko prof? strict fr?

mma 3 23

As the Biden administration defends the president’s policy of canceling up to $20,000 of student debt for millions of Americans against a Republican-backed challenge before the Supreme Court, some right-wing commentators are going beyond their old arguments against the policy to make truly outrageous claims about it.

When President Joe Biden first announced his administration’s plan in August to address the very real problem of student debt doubling in the past decade, which affects tens of millions of Americans, conservatives tried arguing that the policy was unfair, would raise inflation, would favor the rich, and had no legal basis.

But when arguments about the policy reached the Supreme Court yesterday, some right-wing media figures went far beyond their previous opposition to the policy and levied some egregious new attacks:

• Fox News host Mark Levin called Biden’s student loan cancellation policy “a fascistic act by an out-of-control man”who is “cheered by theMarxists in the country.”
• OutKick founder Clay Travis: “This was a transparent political attempt by Joe Biden to rig in his favor the 2022 election.”
• Travis again portrayed the student debt cancellation policy as a voter turnout scheme: Biden “wanted to drive up young voters’ turnout as much as he could.”
• Fox contributor Liz Peek: “You can't just dole out $400 billion to get votes, which is basically what this is all about.”
• Media Research Center’s Stephanie Hamill said “it’s almost like a bribery” of voters.
• Newsmax host Rob Schmitt said it’s a “vote-buying scheme” to get people “on the narcotic of social welfare.”
• Schmitt later portrayed student debt cancellation as Biden wanting “to dump hundreds of billions of dollars that we don't have on 8-balls, Jack Daniels, and flights to Mexico.”
• Fox contributor Marc Thiessen claimed student debt cancellation is “an act of stolen valor,” and that Biden is “turning millions of Americans into people who are engaged in stolen valor.”
• Turning Point USA President Charlie Kirk used student debt cancellation to attack college education in general, claiming he might not be so opposed if colleges were “producing fruit that loved America.” Instead, he said, they’re the “Wuhan Institute of Virology equivalent of idea pathogens in our country” and asked, “Is this a alleged money laundering scheme to pay off colleges for their Marxist indoctrination?”
• Kirk also wrote on Twitter that “college is a scam!”

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https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/how-right-turned-dr-fauci

matt g

no lnx many vid]

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease official and a public health adviser to seven presidents, announced on Monday that he plans to retire in December after more than 50 years of public service. President Joe Biden toasted Fauci as “a steady hand with wisdom and insight honed over decades” and praised his “unparalleled spirit, energy, and scientific integrity,” while top scientists touted his record of “sav[ing] countless lives.”

While Fauci once earned the Presidential Medal of Freedom from then-President George W. Bush, his impending retirement was not greeted with plaudits from the right. On Fox News that night, Tucker Carlson’s opening monologue described him as “a dangerous fraud, a man who has done things that in most countries, at most times in history, would be understood perfectly clearly to be very serious crimes.” The New York Post headlined its editorial the next day “Good riddance to dangerous Dr. Fauci,” while The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board concluded that “his legacy will be that millions of Americans will never trust government health experts in the same way again.”

Fauci, like everyone else involved in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic that has killed more than 1 million Americans, does not have a perfect record. But he spent his career trying to remain impartial, avoid partisanship, and offer the best advice he could, and for decades, he was respected on both sides of the political aisle. That reputation ultimately could not survive the relentless propaganda of the right-wing press, which needed a coronavirus scapegoat and found one in the octogenarian scientist.

Right-wing propagandists began turning Fauci into their latest hate object in March 2020. At the time, states had imposed stay-at-home orders and other social distancing measures that were recommended by the Trump administration to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus. Fox and other pro-Trump outlets consistently downplayed the threat posed by the virus and promoted a minimalistic response that dismissed such efforts in favor of snake oil miracle cures.

Trump’s media supporters could not or would not try to directly challenge the president, and settled instead on targeting Fauci, who was a face of the administration’s response. He initially drew their ire as a critic of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, the malaria drugs that Fox hosts and then the president had recommended as a coronavirus treatment (numerous studies have found the drugs ineffective) and as part of the supposed “ruling class” that could weather a long-term economic shutdown. 

At the time, even right-wing pugilists like Fox’s Tucker Carlson were still pulling their punches. “Imagine another year of this,” he said on his April 3, 2020, show. “That would be national suicide, and yet, that is what Anthony Fauci is suggesting, at least.” But Carlson went on to acknowledge that Fauci wasn’t trying to “hurt America,” saying that he “seems like a very decent man” who was simply misguided. 

That gentility would not last. The pro-Trump media — and Carlson in particular — became increasingly unhinged and vituperative toward Fauci as the pandemic wore on. Ultimately, the right-wing attacks on Fauci had dramatic impacts for the country.

By mid-May of 2020, Fox’s prime-time stars had decided that the crisis was over. When Fauci said in congressional testimony that it was not, and that the virus was likely to recur in the fall and winter, they began pushing for Trump to fire him. On programs that the Fox-obsessed president watched religiously, they portrayed Fauci as power-mad and using his influence to “favor what the Democrats want.” Those attacks continued over the following weeks and months. 

In July, Trump began publicly echoing the right-wing media’s concerns about Fauci. The following month, the president appointed Scott Atlas, a radiologist and right-wing think tanker who caught his attention through frequent Fox appearances, to the White House coronavirus task force.

Atlas effectively displaced Fauci as Trump’s top coronavirus adviser, and used that position to promote a “herd immunity” strategy for coping with the virus. His actions ultimately helped bring about the very wave of hospitalizations and deaths Fauci had earned the opprobrium of the right for warning about months earlier.

But the right’s attacks on Fauci continued over the months and years to come.

Carlson was the scientist’s most implacable media foe. He described Fauci as an “elderly power-drunk epidemiologist”; “capricious and transparently political”; a “hypocritical buffoon”; an “oily politician on an ego trip”; and an “even shorter version of Benito Mussolini.” He denounced the scientist’s recommendations as “authoritarian,” falsely claimed that Fauci “helped to create” the coronavirus, and called for him to “never work in public policy again.”

Other right-wing pundits demonized Fauci as “one of the great criminals of our civilization” and a member of the “medical deep state” who was “on a jihad” against Trump and behaves “more like a monarch.” They called for an investigation into his purported crimes and fantasized about him being put in “leg irons” or even beheaded. They even accused him — falsely — of killing puppies, with one describing him as “the dog-murdering and orphan-killing doctor, Anthony Benito Fauci.”

Fox’s attacks on Fauci have become so habitual that they often seemed to serve as background noise on the right-wing channel. But at times, the network’s talking heads have issued comments so abhorrent that they trigger widespread public outrage and even a response from the network brass. Fox sidelined Lara Logan, a host on the network’s streaming service, after she compared Fauci to the infamous Nazi doctor Josef Mengele during a November 2021 appearance. The following month, the network publicly defended host Jesse Watters after he drew controversy for exhorting an audience of young right-wing activists to “ambush” Fauci with a rhetorical “deadly” “kill shot.” 

Amid the flurry of often violent public criticism, Fauci divulged that he regularly received threats. Earlier this month, a man was sentenced to more than three years in prison for sending Fauci emails with comments like “You and your entire family will be dragged into the street, beaten to death, and set on fire.”

Fauci’s retirement announcement has opened a debate about who might succeed him. But senior members of the U.S. medical establishment are warning that the right’s attacks on Fauci may limit the pool of applicants willing to try to fill his shoes.

“What keeps the former surgeon general [Jerome Adams] up at night is his fear that talented candidates won’t want these jobs after what Fauci and other public health officials have faced over the last few years,” Politico reported on Monday. “Fauci has received death threats, and his daughters have been harassed — and Adams worries that this vitriol is a big part of why Fauci is stepping down.”

When the next pandemic hits, the U.S. response might thus be hobbled, thanks to the right-wing media’s impulse to destroy a vital public servant for political gain.

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https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/right-wing-media-promise-harass-anthony-fauci-retirement-if-republicans-win-back-control

no lnx vid

Right-wing media promise to harass Anthony Fauci in retirement if Republicans win back control of Congress

Fauci’s retirement announcement was met with a new flurry of vitriol from right-wing media

WRITTEN BY ERIC KLEEFELD, BUSHRA SULTANA & SHELBY JAMERSON

PUBLISHED 08/24/22

When presidential medical adviser Anthony Fauci announced his plans to retire in December after five decades of public service, right-wing media personalities predictably attacked him, calling him a “sociopathic liar and political hack” who “needs to be held accountable for all of the lies and misdirections.”

On Monday, Fauci announced he intends to step down as President Joe Biden’s top medical adviser and as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. In response, right-wing media mounted a public onslaught, claiming that Fauci is stepping down to avoid investigations if Republicans take control of Congress in November, directing the GOP to investigate Fauci if the party should take control, proclaiming Fauci should face criminal charges and be sent to prison, and generally attacking his character.

Even Fox anchor Neil Cavuto, who had previously served as a seeming voice of reason and who has previously interviewed Fauci at the network, pressed the retiring public servant about whether his retirement was really just “a way to avoid Republican investigators.”

Video

CitationFrom the August 23, 2022, edition of Fox News’ Your World with Neil Cavuto

Right-wing media, especially Fox News, have been maligning Fauci since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. As Media Matters’ Matt Gertz noted, then-President Donald Trump’s “media supporters could not or would not try to directly challenge the president,” whose administration’s response included recommendations of stay-at-home orders and other social distancing measures, “and settled instead on targeting Fauci, who was a face of the administration’s response.” The smear campaign against Fauci didn’t stop; over a roughly 10-month period in 2021, Fox News personalities attacked him over 400 times.

Fauci may plan to retire at the end of the year, but the right-wing echo chamber is prepared to hound him for years to come if given the opportunity.

Claims that Fauci is stepping down to avoid oversight

Fox prime-time star Tucker Carlson speculated that Fauci may have resigned because he thinks the Republicans are going to take over Congress in the midterm elections and does not want to be investigated by them. “So it's possible that Tony Fauci might want to resign before he has to explain all of that to a new Congress,” Carlson said. “He might want to get out of town now and move to, say, Cambridge, find a safe place to hide before the reckoning. Just a thought. Because honestly, there's a lot to answer for.” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 8/22/22]

Fox prime-time host Laura Ingraham speculated that “Fauci thinks this retirement would save him from a congressional investigation or a subpoena.” She then interviewed Rep. James Comer (R-KY), who said congressional Republicans would want to investigate Fauci based on the conspiracy theory that the COVID-19 virus was human-made. [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 8/22/22]

Right-wing radio host Buck Sexton claimed, “Sociopathic liar and political hack Fauci is making a run for it before Republicans can take over the House.” [Twitter, 8/22/22]

Right-wing radio host Dana Loesch claimed Fauci “doesn't want that GOP-controlled House oversight.” [Twitter, 8/22/22]

Fox prime-time host Jesse Wattersclaimed that Fauci “seems to think stepping down before Republicans take the House will get him off scot-free.” Watters made this pronouncement just hours after Fauci appeared on Fox and told Neil Cavuto that he would not avoid appearing before Congress. [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 8/23/22]

The National Pulse’s Raheem Kassam: “BREAKING: Fauci to step down right before Republicans are expected to take control of Congress and commence investigations into his funding of the Wuhan Lab and pandemic response.” [Twitter, 8/22/22]

Conservative pundit Mercedes Schlapp claimed “it's no coincidence” that Fauci announced he will step down in December, noting that it “is right after Republicans will take back the House and immediately plan oversight into our pandemic response and his funding of gain of function research at the Wuhan Lab.” [Twitter, 8/22/22]

Calls for congressional Republicans to investigate Fauci

Fox prime-time host Sean Hannity declared that “Fauci still needs to be held accountable for all of the lies and misdirections.” He then interviewed Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA), who predicted that if there is a Republican-controlled Congress, it would subpoena Fauci to testify next year. [Fox News, Hannity, 8/22/22]

Fox’s “news side” presented a more respectable face for the right’s determination to investigate Fauci. Fox contributor Marc Thiessen discussed the need for an “after-action study” of the nation’s COVID-19 response, while blaming Fauci for various aspects of both the pandemic response and its economic consequences. Concluding the segment, co-anchor Bill Hemmer said that in “2023, I think we’ll see him again.” [Fox News, America’s Newsroom, 8/23/22]

Fox anchor Sandra Smith asked Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS): “What do you want to see happen as far as holding Dr. Anthony Fauci accountable for his actions during this pandemic?” Marshall then repeatedly and falsely accused Fauci of covering up the supposed creation of COVID-19 in a lab, statements which Smith did not challenge. [Fox News, America Reports, 8/23/22; FactCheck.org, 5/19/22]

Former White House adviser Peter Navarro said on Newsmax that the government should to “take that SOB’s passport” so Fauci cannot flee a Republican-led congressional investigation.Navarro himself was recently indicted for a charge of contempt of Congress over his refusal to cooperate with the House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection. [Newsmax, Eric Bolling: The Balance, 8/22/22; NPR, 6/4/22]

Calls for Fauci’s to face criminal charges and/or prison

“Stop the Steal” organizer Alex Bruesewitz wrote that Fauci “should be investigated, and quite frankly arrested, for what he put our country through.” [Twitter, 8/22/22; Media Matters, 7/27/22]

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Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk declared that Fauci “belongs in prison.” He continued, “Seize the passports. Freeze his pension, distribute it to his victims. Lawyer up. Time to hold him accountable for the last 3 years.” [Twitter, 8/22/22]

Right-wing radio host Clay Travis wrote that Fauci “belongs in prison,” claiming he is the “most destructive bureaucrat in United States history.” Travis also said Fauci’s “‘leadership’ on covid will — in the decades ahead — come to be seen as one of the greatest and most destructive failures in our nation’s history.” [Twitter, 8/22/22]

Right-wing podcasters Diamond & Silk: “Fauci doesn't need to just step down, he should be arrested for Crimes Against Humanity!” [Twitter, 8/22/22]

Attacks on Fauci’s character

In his opening monologue, Fox's Carlson said, “On some level, even Tony Fauci knows that Tony Fauci is in fact a dangerous fraud.” Carlson further elaborated that Fauci “has done things that in most countries at most times in history would be understood perfectly clearly to be very serious crimes.” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 8/22/22]

Fox host Rachel Campos-Duffy called Fauci an “authoritarian monster.” She claimed Fauci “led our country on a Chinese-style approach instead of an American-style where we look at science.” [Fox News, The Five, 8/23/22]

Washington Examiner’s Haisten Willis described Fauci as someone some people “feel is … self-promoting, unaccountable, and even liable for helping start the pandemic.” [Washington Examiner, 8/22/22]

Fox News contributor and Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen: “Never has anybody been so wrong about so much for so long and been so lionized as Anthony Fauci.” [Fox News, America’s Newsroom, 8/23/22]

Sean Duffy, Fox News contributor and former member of Congress, repeatedly accused Fauci of having “Chinese” principles instead of American ones in his supposed use of the power of government. [Fox News, The Faulkner Focus, 8/23/22]

Fox News’ Katie Pavlich said it is “sickening” the way Fauci supposedly let “power and fame” go to his head.Pavlich tweeted, “In March 2020 Fauci actually told the truth about who Wuhan coronavirus was deadly for, the elderly and those with comorbidities. He said it was ‘very clear.’ He also said drug store masks don’t work. Then, he got a taste of power and fame he just couldn’t let go. Sickening.” [Twitter, 8/22/22]

New York Post columnist Karol Markowiczon Fauci: “His half-century of ‘public service’ was a disaster for us. His handling of covid should be studied in the future as a blueprint of what not to do.” [Twitter, 8/22/22]

Right-wing commentator Ben Shapiro called Fauci “a true douchebag.” [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 08/23/22]

Right-wing media gadflyBenny Johnson called Fauci “the most evil and malevolent character in my lifetime.” [The Benny Show, via YouTube, 8/23/22]