mollie hemingway

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Who Funds That? EP 3: Justice Samuel Alito (with Mollie Hemingway)

Capital Research Center

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NOTE LEGACY MEDIA CNN NBC ~ OBAMA TRAITOR BS

As Trump struggles to deflect from reporting on his Epstein ties, MAGA media set their sights on the press

It’s getting really bad out there

Written by Matt Gertz

Published 07/23/25 MMA

Six months into Donald Trump’s second presidency, an unhinged MAGA media is infested with calls for the arrest of former President Barack Obama — and one prominent right-wing commentator is even floating legal consequences for journalists who debunk their twisted rationale.

On July 18, amid a Trump administration effort to stave off a MAGA revolt over its handling of disclosures related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard released documents she claimed proved the existence of “a treasonous conspiracy” by the Obama administration following the 2016 election against Trump, claiming she had asked the Justice Department to investigate further. The president piled on in remarks to the press on July 22, claiming that “we caught Barack Hussein Obama” and accusing him of “treason.”

This argument is based on either malice or stupidity. Gabbard is conflating the findings of a December 2016 document showing that the intelligence community did not assess that the Russian government had hacked election systems and changed vote totals to benefit Trump with those of a January 2017 assessment that the Russian government had sought to influence the campaign to benefit Trump by, among other things, hacking Democratic email servers and releasing the contents.

Based on that faulty premise, Gabbard accused Obama and his advisers of subverting the intelligence community for political aims. But the December 2016 assessment is consistent with what the Obama administration was saying publicly at the time, while the findings of the January 2017 assessment were reiterated in Trump administration reports by the Justice Department as well as a Senate committee helmed at the time by current Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Indeed, that committee reviewed the January 2017 intelligence community analysis and concluded it was an “impressive accomplishment” that “reflects proper analytic tradecraft” and “provides a proper representation of the intelligence” and that the analysts who produced it faced “no politically motivated pressure.”

Members of the right-wing media ecosystem, with few exceptions, do not care about these facts, and they are using incredibly demagogic language to rile up their audiences as they call for political retribution.

Benny Johnson is floating a “military tribunal” for Obama; Mike Davis says the former president should “lawyer up”; Charlie Kirk wants “perp walks”; Liz Wheeler is demanding that the charges be not “perjury” but “treason”; Jesse Watters is asking a U.S. senator whether Obama should “go to prison.” They have apparently learned nothing from overpromising on Epstein only for the Trump administration to under-deliver when the facts couldn’t match the MAGA narrative.

Indeed, according to Mollie Hemingway, editor-in-chief of The Federalist and a Fox contributor, even typing the preceding paragraphs casting doubt on the validity of Gabbard’s argument should expose me to legal exposure. In a July 22 thread, she described Gabbard’s “revelations” as “the biggest scandal in our history” and condemned media outlets for “ignoring” and “downplaying” it.

“Every time the Washington Post, CNN, the New York Times, Margaret Brennan, The Atlantic, etc., lie and say this story is not a big deal, they are perpetuating their seditious conspiracy,” she added. “Creative minds should think about what legal exposure they have for their role in this.”

Hemingway went on to describe those outlets and journalists as “co-conspirators” in the alleged plot. She did not identify the legal consequences she believes they should face. Nor is it clear what this legal argument would mean for conservatives like her Fox colleague Andrew McCarthy or Eli Lake, who criticized Gabbard’s conclusions, or the right-wing outlets which published their assessments, Rich Lowry’s National Review and Bari Weiss’ The Free Press.

It should go without saying that the idea of “creative minds” dreaming up ways to punish journalists for producing reporting which contradicts the views of the president, his administration, and its propagandists is an affront to the First Amendment and basic principles of free speech and a free press.

Unfortunately, right-wing dreams of frog-marching journalists may not be far-fetched

We warned in December, after Trump campaigned on threats to jail reporters and pull the licenses of critical news outlets and won, that a coalition of elite right-wing figures were “using wealth, lawfare, and government power to silence the press and carry out their political agenda unimpeded.” And the last six months have demonstrated the president’s determination to use his power to bend the press to his will.

Trump has sought to put financial pressure on news outlets in order to chill speech critical of him. He filed lawsuits that experts found frivolous over reporting he disliked from ABC News and CBS News, then successfully leveraged the threat or use of corrupt regulatory actions to secure eight-figure settlements. He is currently pursuing similar lawsuits against the Pulitzer Prize Board, The Des Moines Register, and the corporate parents of The Wall Street Journal. The president has threatened additional lawsuits against The New York Times and CNN and called for the firings of their reporters.

Corporate owners of media outlets appear to be buckling to this pressure. “Executives at major media outlets are reportedly instructing their newsrooms to temper their coverage of President Trump and his administration amid growing fears of political retribution,” Axios reported in May. Indeed, Trump has gloated to reporters about the effectiveness of his strategy.

Beyond personal lawsuits, Trump has floated federal criminal investigations into news outlets over their reporting. That is no idle threat given his pattern of launching Justice Department probes into his political enemies via executive order and given the reality that the top ranks of federal law enforcement are stocked with people who are comfortable functioning as an extension of his personal desires.

Indeed, federal law enforcement officials appear more than willing to participate in Trump’s assault on the free press. His attorney general terminated rules which restricted prosecutors from seeking records and testimony from journalists as part of leak investigations. Several noncitizens have faced detention by the Department of Homeland Security over their public writing. And a former lawyer for January 6 defendants is running a DOJ “Weaponization Working Group” whose purpose appears to be weaponizing the government against Trump’s foes.

Trump’s diverse right-wing coalition and the fractured media ecosystem he unified during his campaign may be breaking apart over his handling of the Epstein case. But he seems to recognize that one thing that brings them together is their shared hatred of Democrats like Obama and the free press, and he’s been acting accordingly. And that means that just an eighth of the way through his second presidency, we’re already in very dangerous territory.

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Trump’s latest attempt to defuse the Epstein revolt: Point supporters at common enemies

07/21/25 2:38 PM EDT

2. ### Misinformer of the Year: Anti-media intimidation

12/23/24 9:59 AM EST

3. ### Freedom of the press is about more than access

05/28/25

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mma 9 25

Right-wing media rushed to blame killing of Charlie Kirk on trans people

Authorities pushed back on unverified claims that the alleged shooter's ammunition was inscribed with “transgender ideology”

Special ProgramsLGBTQ

Written by Gideon Taaffe, Jack Winstanley & Noah Dowe

Published 09/12/25

After the September 10 killing of Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk, right-wing pundit Steven Crowder and The Wall Street Journal separately reported on an internal law enforcement bulletin claiming cartridges possibly connected to the shooting and recovered by police were engraved with “transgender and anti-fascist ideology.”

Some media figures seized on the scant reporting as key evidence of the suspect’s motivations, with right-wing commentators and outlets claiming the killer was a “leftist Trans radical,” labelling the killing an act of “trans terrorism,” and calling for the “trans movement” to be labeled “as a terrorist movement.”

Following a September 12 press conference with law enforcement that detailed the messages inscribed on the ammunition, initial reports suggesting a connection between trans people and the phrases on the bullet casings appear to be based on a misinterpretation of evidence.

• ## Right-wing outlets published unverified reporting that the alleged shooter engraved “transgender and anti-fascist ideology” onto the ammunition

• • Right-wing pundit Steven Crowder claimed on social media that he received an internal bulletin from an officer working at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives that indicated, “All cartridges have engraved wording on them, expressing transgender and anti-fascist ideology.” Crowder’s post included a screenshot of the internal bulletin bearing a Louder with Crowder watermark. He followed up the post hours later, saying, “Just received word that my company is being subpoenaed by the ATF. No details yet.” Twitter/X, [9/11/25, 9/11/25]

• • The Wall Street Journal similarly reported, “An early bulletin circulated widely among law enforcement officials said investigators found ammunition engraved with expressions of ‘transgender and anti-fascist ideology.’”The Journal did note, “Justice Department officials said the probe was in its early stages, investigators were still analyzing the evidence and the bulletin may not accurately reflect the messages on the ammunition.” The Wall Street Journal, [9/11/25]

• • According to The New York Times, the reporting had not been verified.The Times reported “a senior law enforcement official with direct knowledge of the investigation” said the report seized on by Crowder and the Wall Street Journal “had not been verified by A.T.F. analysts, did not match other summaries of the evidence and might turn out to have been misread or misinterpreted.” The New York Times, [9/11/25]

• • During a press conference, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox clarified the engravings found on the bullet casings, which appear to be online references. He stated, “Inscriptions on a fired casing read, Notices bulges. Capital OWO, what's this? Inscriptions on the three unfired casings read: Hey, fascist! Catch!, Up-arrow symbol, right-arrow symbol, and three down-arrow symbols. A second unfired casing read, Oh, bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao, ciao ciao. And a third unfired casing read, If you read this, you are gay. LMAO.” On September 12, The Wall Street Journal appended an editor’s note to its earlier article, explaining that Cox “gave no indication that the ammunition included any transgender references.” CNN,*The Situation Room*, [9/12/25; The Wall Street Journal, 9/11/25]

• • As reported by The Advocate, “The Gun Violence Archive has tracked mass shootings since 2013 and found in 2023 that just 0.1 percent involved a transgender shooter.By contrast, 96 to 98 percent have been committed by cisgender men.” The Advocate also found that several right-wing online accounts falsely suggested the shooter was a trans woman living in Washington, who quickly faced “a tidal wave of harassment.” The Advocate, [9/12/25]

• ## Many right-wing figures and outlets cited Crowder and WSJ’s unverified reporting about “transgender ideology” as evidence

• • On hisWar Roompodcast, Trump ally Steve Bannon claimed The Wall Street Journal’s reporting confirmed “what Steve Crowder and his team put out, which is that the bullets they found with the assassin's gun had radical t-----, you know, ideology on it — transgender ideology.” Real America’s Voice,*War Room*, [9/11/25]

• • RedState, The Daily Caller, The Daily Wire, The Federalist, and The Washington Times cited reports from Crowder and The Wall Street Journal to suggest that engravings with “transgender” ideology were recovered by police.RedState, [9/11/25; The Daily Caller, 9/11/25; The Daily Wire, 9/11/25; The Federalist, 9/11/25; The Washington Times, 9/11/25]

• • Fox & Friendshost Ainsley Earhardt claimed that the suspected shooter “had pro-trans and anti-fascist messages, according to sources, on the gun.” Fox News,*Fox & Friends*, [9/12/25]

• • Newsmax host Ed Henry suggested “the ammunition was actually covered with transgender ideology.”Henry also argued CNN “tried to downplay that by saying there were just cultural phrases on the ammunition,” referring to CNN’s reporting that investigators had discovered ammunition “scrawled with cultural phrases.” Newsmax,*Ed Henry: The Briefing*, [9/11/25; YouTube,

] VID]

• ## Others used the story as a rallying point to blame “transgenderism” and claim the shooter was a “trans killer”

• • Right-wing influencer Ian Miles Cheong: “A transgendered mutant murdered Charlie Kirk. Transgenderism must be banned, all trans people rounded up and forcibly institutionalized.” Twitter/X, [9/11/25]

• • Right-wing host Megyn Kelly: “What we know right now about motive — Charlie Kirk's killer engraved the ammunition used to murder him with pro-transgender ideology, according to reporting in multiple outlets, to the surprise of literally no one.” Kelly continued, “There's one particular group that's been running around killing Americans in the name of transgender ideology lately, and it's transgender activists or individuals or those who proclaim that they are.” SiriusXM, *The Megyn Kelly Show*, [9/11/25]

• • Federalist editor-in-chief Mollie Hemingway accused CNN of “demonic support for radical murderous trans ideology … via obscuring the truth.”Twitter/X, [9/11/25]

• • Right-wing influencer The Quartering posted that Kirk was “confirmed killed by far leftist Trans radical.” Twitter/X, [9/11/25]
  • Infowars host Alex J

• • ones said Crowder’s claims proved “the cold blooded killer of Charlie Kirk is another psychotic trans activist.” Jones later said, “All evidence points towards the killer being another trans death cult psycho.” Twitter/X, [9/11/25, 9/11/25]

• • Right-wing conspiracy theorist Mike Cernovich referred to the shooter as a “trans killer.”Twitter/X, [9/11/25]
  • Citing “trans paraphernalia written on the cartridges of this rifle,” Donald Trump Jr. claimed on Fox News that he “can’t frankly name a mass shooting in the last year or two in America that wasn't committed by a transgender lunatic.”Fox News, *Fox News Live*, [9/11/25]

• • OnThe Megyn Kelly Show, Donald Trump Jr. suggested he “can’t name, including probably like Al Qaeda and the Taliban, a group that is more violent per capita than the radical trans movement.”He continued, “I’m sure people are totally sane after jacking themselves up on hormones given to them by some rainbow hair freak doctor because they think men can somehow magically become women.” The Advocate, [9/11/25]

• • Newsmax host Rob Schmitt: “That is the least surprising part of all of this, that this came down to trans, … that it came down to the ever-so-violent far left in this country.” Newsmax, *Rob Schmitt Tonight*, [9/11/25]

• • Right-wing influencer Alexander Muse, known online as Amuse: “Here on a visa and celebrating the trans terror assassin’s murder of Charlie Kirk? Time to pack your bags.”Twitter/X, [9/11/25]

• • Right-wing host Benny Johnson said Kirk's killing “does match, on some degree, these other shootings that we’ve seen from transgenders.” YouTube, *The Benny Show*, [9/11/25]

• • In a repost of Crowder’s claims, Trump ally Laura Loomer wrote: “If this is true, it’s time to designate the trans movement as a terrorist movement.” Twitter/X, [9/11/25]

• • Daily Wire host Matt Walsh acknowledged “more confirmation is needed,” adding, “If this is more trans terrorism we must bring ruthless vengeance down on these savages.” Twitter/X, [9/11/25]

mma //

On the killing of Charlie Kirk, political violence, and the right’s response

09/12/25 1:22 PM EDT

2. ### Right-wing media endorse a potential Supreme Court challenge to same-sex marriage

08/28/25 2:42 PM EDT

3. ### Anti-trans pundits who championed the idea of protecting women’s sports now say that throwing sex toys at women athletes is hilarious

08/12/25

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mma

John Kelly warned that Trump is a fascist. Right-wing media absurdly claim by citing him that Kamala Harris is inspiring “assassins.”

PJ Media: “If you keep calling someone Hitler, eventually, someone will feel morally obligated to take action”

Written by Charis Hoard

Published 10/25/24 mma

This week, retired Gen. John Kelly -- former chief of staff to former President Donald Trump -- asserted in interviews with The New York Times that he believed Trump “falls into the general definition of fascist” and that he has previously praised Adolf Hitler.

Vice President Kamala Harris echoed the sentiments during her town hall on Wednesday night when asked about Kelly’s comments, sending right-wing media into an uproar.

In a desperate attempt to spin the serious remarks about Trump into a negative story about Harris, right-wing media figures attacked the Democratic nominee, calling her hypocritical, claiming that she was repeating unsubstantiated claims, and suggesting she’s inciting violence against Trump by agreeing with Kelly’s comments.

• ## Trump’s former chief of staff said Trump “falls into the general definition of fascist,” which Harris echoed during her town hall

• • Kelly claimed that Trump “falls into the general definition of fascist” in a series of interviews with The New York Times. Kelly also claimed that Trump has previously expressed admiration for Adolf Hitler, and he told The Atlantic that Trump had previously said, “I need the kind of generals that Hitler had.” The New York Times, [10/22/24; The Atlantic, 10/22/24]

• • During a CNN town hall on Wednesday night, Harris echoed Kelly’s statement, agreeing that Trump “is a fascist.” Harris asserted multiple times that she believes Trump is a fascist, saying that, if reelected, Trump would be “a president who admires dictators and is a fascist.” The Associated Press, [10/24/24]

• • In response to her comments, Trump attacked Harris on Truth Social, calling her a “Threat to Democracy” who is “increasingly raising her rhetoric” against him.Trump: “Comrade Kamala Harris sees that she is losing, and losing badly, especially after stealing the Race from Crooked Joe Biden, so now she is increasingly raising her rhetoric, going so far as to call me Adolf Hitler, and anything else that comes to her warped mind. She is a Threat to Democracy, and not fit to be President of the United States — And her Polling so indicates!” Truth Social, [10/23/24]

• ## Right-wing media attacked Harris for echoing Kelly’s remarks, calling her hypocritical, claiming that she was repeating “unsubstantiated claims,” and saying she was inciting violence against Trump

• • Townhall's site Twitchy suggested Harris is hypocritical for agreeing with Kelly after previously criticizing him.Twitchy referenced a 2019 post from Harris where she asserted that Kelly “was the architect of the Trump Administration's cruel child separation policy,” saying that Democrats “really turned on a dime when it comes to trusting Kelly’s integrity.” Twitchy, [10/24/24; Twitter/X, 5/3/19]

• • Conservative writer John Solomon claimed that Harris had previously “declared John Kelly had an ‘inability to speak truth to power,’” and claimed that “reporters who covered Harris’ attack conference had an obligation to report this.” Twitter/X, [10/24/24]

PJ Media posted a piece titled “Kamala Harris Is Trying to Get Trump Shot at Again.” The piece noted, “If you keep calling someone Hitler, eventually, someone will feel morally obligated to take action. This isn’t just innocent hyperbole: it’s a calculated narrative meant to provoke. For years, Democrats and media figures have portrayed Trump not as a political adversary but as an existential threat. That’s how we’ve ended up with two assassination attempts within just nine weeks.” PJ Media, [10/24/24]|}:

• • The Washington Free Beacon claimed that Harris wrongly characterized Trump as “increasingly unstable and unfit to serve,” asserting that she was pushing “fear” as a campaign message.The article also highlighted Harris’ previous criticisms of Kelly, saying she “once denounced [him] as ‘cruel’ and ‘unethical.’” The Washington Free Beacon, [10/24/24]

The Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway posted that Harris’ closing argument is: “We need Trump's cholesterol numbers and he has secretly told John Kelly evil things he's never told anyone else.” Hemingway: “Trump closing argument: ‘I'll fight for you and do for you what I did before on the economy, foreign policy, border, etc.’ Harris: ‘We need Trump's cholesterol numbers and he has secretly told John Kelly evil things he's never told anyone else.’” Twitter/X, [10/23/24]|}:

• • Right-wing radio host Bo Snerdley asserted that “Kelly is a fired employee. Who apparently bears a grudge. Let's see how many ‘fired’ or former employees of Ms. Harris - and there are many - get quoted in these final two weeks.” Twitter/X, [10/23/24]

• • Jesse Kelly Showhost Jesse Kelly claimed that the Harris campaign “has a billion dollars, an army of consultants, months to work on a plan,” but her “October surprise” is a sign that “this campaign ain’t gonna make it.” Kelly claimed that the surprise was “the same ‘Trump is Hitler!’ drivel we’ve been hearing since he came down the escalator in 2015.” Twitter/X, [10/23/24]

• • Conspiracy theorist Julie Kelly called Harris “desperate” and said she is repeating “unsubstantiated claims by John Kelly and Trump's alleged desire to hire generals like Hitler had.” Kelly also called Harris’ comments “desperate and disgusting conduct not just by a presidential candidate but a sitting vice president,” adding “This is not how winners behave.” Twitter/X, [10/23/24]

• • The Washington Free Beacon’s Chuck Ross asserted that Harris is “currently touting John Kelly, whom she called ‘unethical’ a few years ago.”Twitter/X, [10/23/24]

Fox host Sean Hannity linked Harris’ comment to past assassination attempts against Trump, seemingly suggesting that Harris is encouraging violence against Trump by echoing Kelly’s comments. Hannity: “Kamala Harris said ‘Donald Trump wants generals like Hitler’ tonight and apparently said earlier, you know, that he’s a fascist. The man now — we had two would-be assassins. … This rhetoric is getting so over the top, and it seems like that’s all they’re doubling down and tripling down on. And I would expect we’re probably gonna have an October surprise, maybe five a day, every day, for the next 13 days.” Fox News, *Hannity*, [10/23/24]|}:

Former GOP presidential candidate and Fox Nation host Vivek Ramaswamy called on Harris to “step up and apologize” for “stoking this culture of political violence that was shameful.”Fox News, *Hannity*:(style="background-color:#ffff00"):}:, [10/23/24]|

* America Reports' John Roberts claimed that Harris’ closing argument for her campaign is improperly focused on Trump. Roberts: “We are seeing Kamala Harris' closing argument for the last 13 days is ‘Trump is a fascist, he embraces Hitler and wants to have his generals.’ She's not saying to young Black men across the country: ‘Here's what I'm going to do for you economically.’” Media Matters, [10/23/24]

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mma 7 24

MAGA figures are suddenly afraid that Trump will lose and are looking for someone to blame.

On July 30, Project 2025 Director Paul Dans suddenly stepped down, even after promoting his work on War Room earlier in the day. The Trump campaign, in a memo signed by senior advisers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles, celebrated, even claiming they would welcome Project 2025’s demise.

But outside of the right-wing bubble, the PR move seems to have failed in its attempt to distance Trump from Project 2025.

As New York Times reporter Jonathan Swan noted, the Trump campaign reportedly has no transition plan — even compared to 2016 — and will need to rely on Project 2025 for staffing should he prevail in the election this fall. (This is also a reason why Project 2025 partner positions matter as much as what is in the official Project 2025 book: These are the people who would be in a position of power for staffing the federal government, especially if Trump follows through on threats to lay off thousands of federal civil servants.)

Other journalists and analysts reported similarly.

Project 2025 is the policy platform and staffing database organized by the Heritage Foundation for the next Republican presidential administration. The extreme policies have proved to be very unpopular with the American people, and this unpopularity seemingly led the Trump campaign to force Dans to resign.

The situation was already a tinderbox since Vice President Kamala Harris became the Democrats' likely presidential nominee, replacing President Joe Biden, since Trump’s campaign was reportedly designed to face Biden instead of Harris; switching MAGA’s messaging on a dime was going to be no easy task.

Before Harris took the reins, Trump had complained about Project 2025, even as Project 2025 contributors were invited to speak at the Republican National Convention, a key Project 2025 figure was appointed to the RNC’s platform committee, and Trump himself named the elected official perhaps most closely tied to Project 2025 as his new vice presidential nominee.

Inside the MAGA bubble, recriminations and blame are growing as Trump’s electoral position apparently grows weaker.

Nick Fuentes, the white nationalist, Holocaust denier, and groyper leader who dined with Trump at Mar-a-Lago in 2022, has been railing at LaCivita for a while. Just days ago, Fuentes bragged that his audience is more loyal to him than it is to Trump and said that he would not vote in 2024 because the people closest to Trump, like LaCivita and Wiles, are not loyal to America First ideals.

Wiles and LaCivita’s decision to turn on Project 2025 so publicly has only made this wound larger.

Pizzagate conspiracy theorist Mike Cernovich jumped in, writing that Project 2025 people were “loyal to the end” and that LaCivita is “preparing a coup against Trump.”

MAGA figures the Hodgetwins wrote that they don’t trust LaCivita and Wiles and that Trump needs “OG loyalists” to win the election.

Fuentes posted about the LaCivita/Wiles statement, and in replies and quotes, groypers directed rage against the pair. Groyper-aligned figure Tyler Russell reacted on a stream to Dans’ resignation, saying Fuentes was correct and LaCivita “needs to be the first person in jail.” He also added, “Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita — fuck both of you.”

White nationalist Vincent James Foxx also wrote that “Trump disavowing Project 2025 should be concerning because he's literally disavowing what he ran on in 2016.”

Daily Wire host Matt Walsh implored the Trump campaign to stop trying to disavow Project 2025.

Fox contributor Mollie Hemingway claimed that the Trump campaign was bowing to “left wing media lies.”

Noted extremist Pedro Gonzalez also criticized the decision.

This is not to say that all of MAGA is on the side of Project 2025 here. MAGA thought leader Catturd railed against the project, writing, “The Heritage Foundation doesn’t get to write this dumb 2025 project and get to pretend it’s Trump’s idea or something we real citizens (grassroots Trump supporters) support. Seriously, who in TF do these narcissists think they are speaking for us and Trump?”

Trump meme team leader Brenden Dilley simply wrote, “Fuck Heritage. Right in the ass.” (Bannon acolyte Grace Chong in turn harshly criticized Dilley.)

This is all quite reminiscent of 2016, when frequent turmoil roiled the Trump campaign, and he on a few occasions switched who was in charge, eventually settling on Steve Bannon less than 90 days before the election. Whatever solution Trump lands on this time will have to be different: Bannon is currently in federal prison.

Fox News' Laura Ingraham is not pleased with the latest setback Republicans face in wake of Herschel Walker's defeat in the Georgia Senate runoff.

On Tuesday, December 7, the former NFL player, who was backed by former President Donald Trump, ended up losing the election to Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.). During Ingraham's latest segment of "The Ingraham Angle," Fox News called the race for the Democratic incumbent.

Speaking to Fox News guest Mollie Hemingway, Ingraham expressed concern and frustration about the outcome of the election as she acknowledged that she was aware Walker was facing an uphill battle.

READ MORE: Time to 'turn the page': Fox News’ Laura Ingraham admits 'exhausted' Americans may finally be done with Trump

“We felt this coming,” Ingraham told Hemingway. “To me, it never felt like the Senate Republicans wanted this guy in office. He was a Trump pick and they didn’t like that.”

Ingraham went on to offer a critical assessment of Republican National Committee (RNC) Chair Ronna McDaniel who was in charge of overseeing the political party's voter turnout for the midterm election.

“We don’t change anything,” Ingraham continued. “We have the same people in place in leadership, same people in place apparently at the RNC, perhaps that’s not changing. But we just keep doing the same thing over and over again. I’m pissed tonight, frankly. I’m mad.”

Hemingway also offered a similar perspective describing the situation as "offensive."

“It’s really offensive for Republican voters, for Republican donors,” Hemingway said. “I mean, you look at what happened since the midterm elections where you had a Senate that basically responded to those disappointing midterm losses by doing nothing other than sabotaging their own base."

READ MORE: Fox News’ Laura Ingraham loses it when guest mentions ‘Sharpiegate’ during coronavirus discussion

She added, "What is the case for voting Republican for the Senate after these midterms? I don’t think one was even attempted to be made. And yet, nothing seems to be changing.”

READ MORE: Laura Ingraham attacks the ‘madness’ of public schools in call to ‘defund government education’

1 22 an

no lnx

Echoing ‘Vladimir Putin’s talking points’ is putting Fox News at odds with ‘pro-Ukraine’ Republicans: conservative

Fox News' Tucker Carlson speaking at the 2020 Student Action Summit, hosted by Turning Point USA at the Palm Beach County Convention Center in West Palm Beach, Florida,

Alex Henderson January 28, 2022

During the George W. Bush years, the right-wing media, including Fox News, were quick to parrot neoconservative talking points. But Fox News has since taken a much more Trumpian turn, and its biggest star, Tucker Carlson, often promotes MAGA isolationism and a hypernationalist “America first” ideology. That isolationism, Never Trump conservative David Frum stresses in an article published by The Atlantic on January 28, is putting Fox News pundits at odds with more hawkish conservatives when it comes to Russia and Ukraine.

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“Night after night,” Frum explains, “the host of the top-rated show on Fox News repeats Vladimir Putin’s talking points justifying aggression against Ukraine and opposing U.S. aid to that threatened sovereign country. Tucker Carlson’s influence is felt across right-wing social media, where it is amplified by figures such as Steve Bannon, Mike Cernovich, Glenn Greenwald and Mollie Hemingway. A highly visible coterie of socially conservative intellectuals also argues the case against helping Ukraine.”

Frum continues, “Meanwhile, day after day, Republican officeholders in the House and the Senate urge more support for Ukraine. That list includes not only traditionalists such as Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, but also, many legislators who got close to former President Donald Trump, such as Senators Tom Cotton, Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham.”

President Joe Biden has had a much more hawkish tone with Russia and President Vladimir Putin than Trump, and Frum notes that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has “backed the Biden Administration’s approach, as have the top Republicans on the House Intelligence and Armed Services Committees.”

“Broadly, Republican elected officials and the think tanks that advise them are staunchly pro-Ukraine; conservative talkers, especially on TV and social media, are varying degrees of anti-Ukraine,” Frum observes. “Russia-Ukraine is becoming a trial of strength, not only between Putin and NATO, but between different parts of the conservative world…. As powerful as Fox News messaging is, scenes of violence after Russian aggression sends Ukrainian refugees streaming westward to safety would be powerful too.”

Frum adds, “Americans are never eager to get involved in other people’s fights, but they remain deeply committed to a vision of their country as a force for good in the world.” many twt

incubatorkirk, ben shapiro and Mollie Hemingway, Lincoln Fellow 2014 

Senior Editor, The Federalist

A longtime journalist, Mollie Hemingway writes about culture, policy, and the political horse race for one of the Right’s hottest new web magazines.

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/republican-leader-claims-no-one-questioning-election-tucker-carlson-and-mollie-hemingway

alex k

https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2020/12/09/who-funds-the-federalist-finally-we-know/

For years, the funding behind the right-wing, pro-Trump publication The Federalist has been a total mystery. Many Twitter users have asked the website’s leaders, repeatedly, “Who funds The Federalist?” only to be blocked by the likes of publisher Ben Domenech, co-founder Sean Davis, or senior editor Mollie Hemingway. (This author is blocked by all three.)

Last year, Hemingway characterized the question as “a kind of a veiled threat” and a “clear, coordinated attempt to silence The Federalist.

However, a few months earlier, The Federalist’s affiliated nonprofit, FDRLST Media Foundation, had been certified as a 501(c)(3) charity by the Internal Revenue Service, meaning that donors could begin making tax-deductible contributions to the foundation. If the donor was a nonprofit organization like a family foundation or trade association, its grants to the FDRLST Media Foundation would eventually be part of the public record. Hemingway is a director and “governor” of the foundation.

Last week, CMD obtained the 2019 tax records of two right-wing funders who donated to the FDRLST Media Foundation that year: GOP megadonor and shipping supply billionaire Richard Uihlein and DonorsTrust, a donor-advised fund manager that has been dubbed “the dark money ATM” of the conservative movement.

The Uihleins

The Federalist may have once had a “never Trump” image, but the conservative publication moved quickly rightward as President Donald Trump became president and took over the Republican Party. The outlet is now known for vigorously defending Trump, for its trolling and conspiracy-laden posts, and for attacking liberal media. Sometimes trafficking in racism, The Federalist had a “black crime” tag until someone exposed the tag on Twitter.

It’s unclear when Uihlein, the Illinois-based founder of shipping supply company Uline, began funding The Federalist, but it makes sense that his foundation, the Ed Uihlein Family Foundation, donated $400,000 to the FDRLST Media Foundation last year. Uihlein and his wife, Liz, are influential Trump donors and among the Republican Party’s biggest funders; Uihlein is the fifth-biggest donor to outside political spending groups of the 2020 federal elections, having doled out over $63 million tosuper PACs such as the pro-Trump America First Action, Club for Growth Action, the Senate Leadership Fund, and Restoration PAC, which he funded nearly exclusively.

The New York Times reported in August that, based on interviews, Richard Uihlein was a donor to The Federalist, but his foundation’s 2019 tax return is the first evidence of his financial support to be made public.

As The Federalist published story after story denying science and opposing mask wearing during the coronavirus pandemic—including one story allegedly written by an anonymous small-town mayor claiming that health officials order mask mandates for political, not scientific, reasons—Liz Uihlein minimized the virus, calling it “overhyped,” and endangered Uline workers by allegedly using lax safety practices and initially discouraging employees from working from home. Liz Uihlein, the president and CEO of Uline, got an exemption from Canada’s quarantine requirement to visit a Uline facility in the country, which she reached via private jet. The Uihleins would eventually contract COVID-19 in November.

The Uihleins have endorsed fringe candidates such as Roy Moore, the far-right Alabaman who ran for Senate in 2017 and was credibly accused of sexual misconduct with minors by multiple women. Liz Uihlein was a member of the 2016 Trump campaign’s economic council.

The Ed Uihlein Foundation gave to additional right-wing media outlets in 2019, including The Daily Caller News Foundation ($25,000), the Media Research Center ($275,000), and the Real Clear Foundation ($350,000), which has ties to The Federalist (see below). It also donated $400,000 to the Center for Security Policy, an anti-Muslim hate group. Its largest 2019 contribution, $3.2 million, went to the Foundation for Government Accountability, a State Policy Network member that advocated kicking people off of Medicaid this year during the pandemic. Since 2014, the Uihleins have given the Foundation for Government Accountability over $11 million.

The “Dark Money ATM” of the Conservative Movement

One of the political right’s biggest funding vehicles, DonorsTrust, gave $249,000 to the FDRLST Media Foundation in 2019. CMD was first to report on DonorsTrust’s 2019 tax records and on the group’s major donation to the white nationalist hate group VDARE, as well as a smaller amount to the New Century Foundation, the nonprofit behind the white nationalist publication American Renaissance.

DonorsTrust also gave $1,350,000 to the Real Clear Foundation and nearly $400,000 to the Media Research Center in 2019, part of $15 million in grants to conservative media operations that year.

DonorsTrust is a donor-advised fund sponsor, meaning that it manages individual charitable accounts of its wealthy clients, who have included GOP megadonors such the DeVos, Koch, and Mercer Families. These clients can donate appreciable assets into their accounts and score a double tax benefit: they get both a capital gains tax break and a charitable tax deduction. Clients then direct DonorsTrust to donate their money to the nonprofits of their choice, as long as the DonorsTrust board approves the proposed recipient. Donor-advised fund managers allow their clients to remain anonymous, as the manager legally owns and disperses the money.

DonorsTrust and its sister organization, Donors Capital Fund, distributed $165 million in grants in 2019, much of it going to right-wing think tanks, advocacy groups, litigation centers, media outlets, extremists, and climate deniers.

Past Clues

The Uihlein and DonorsTrust grants are the first known donations to The Federalist, but one financial tie was already public. Journalist Andrew Perez found that the George E. Coleman Jr. Foundation is an investor in FDRLST Media, LLC, the company behind The Federalist. In 2018, the Coleman Foundation had $148,000 invested in FDRLST Media. The foundation’s trustee, Daniel Oliver, is a former Reagan official who was once executive editor of the conservative National Review, which receives significant funding from DonorsTrust through its affiliated National Review Institute.

In advance of a 2019 Buzzfeed News article that cited the Coleman Foundation investment, Domenech, The Federalist’s publisher, refused to comment but tweeted that this impending revelation of public information amounted to “doxxing” an investor. “They will do this because they want to shut us down,” he claimed.

Federal tax records for the FDRLST Media Foundation are not yet public, but the Washington, D.C. secretary of state has public records of the foundation. David DesRosiers, the publisher of Real Clear Politics and the former executive vice president of the Uihlein-funded Manhattan Institute, is a director. Hemingway is both a director and a “governor.” Attorney Alan P. Dye is the third director.

It’s possible that more FDRLST Media Foundation donors will emerge as CMD obtains additional 2019 tax records from conservative foundations.

In September 2017, FDRLST Media filed an offering of debt securities with the Securities and Exchange Commission. At the time, $200,000 of the $750,000 offered had been sold. Listed as a director of FDRLST Media was John McIntyre, president and CEO of Real Clear Media. Someone named Jenn McIntyre was also listed as a director and an executive officer. The filing located FDRLST Media at the same Chicago address as Real Clear Politics, the main publication of Real Clear Media.

Real Clear has taken a “sharp right turn” in recent years, likely due to its increased funding from right-wing donors and its reaction to Trump’s takeover of the Republican party. A CMD report showed that at least 99 percent of the 2015 to 2018 revenue of the Real Clear Foundation, which funds the outlet’s investigative stories, came from right-wing funders, including DonorsTrust, Donors Capital Fund, the Uihlein Foundation, and two foundations of Charles Koch.

“As the administration lurched from one crisis after another,” wrote The New York Times’ Jeremy Peters last month, “Real Clear became one of the most prominent platforms for elevating unverified and reckless stories about the president’s political opponents, through a mix of its own content and articles from across conservative media.”

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https://www.mediamatters.org/2020-supreme-court-nomination/right-wing-media-lash-out-after-sen-sheldon-whitehouse-exposes-dark

right-wing media lash out after Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse exposes the dark money network in the courts

Their response is to call him a conspiracy theorist — while trying to connect him to George Soros

WRITTEN BY ERIC KLEEFELD

PUBLISHED 10/13/20

During Tuesday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) delivered a presentation on the undisclosed dark money groups coordinating to push a partisan Republican agenda through the court system, including past and present efforts to throw out the Affordable Care Act. In response, right-wing personalities on Twitter dismissed Whitehouse as a conspiracy theorist — with this critique coming from notorious conspiracy theorists themselves.

Whitehouse described how multiple groups will file amicus briefs in Supreme Court cases — though they are actually funded by the same outlets, including a group called Donors Trust that Whitehouse called “a gigantic identity-scrubbing device for the right wing.”

Whitehouse’s speech relied heavily on a 2019 Washington Post report which outlined the links between right-wing legal organization the Federalist Society and the right-wing political organization Judicial Crisis Network via fundraiser Leonard Leo — with the nominally separate organizations actually based out of the same hallway of a building in downtown Washington, D.C.

“This more and more looks like it's not three schemes — but it's one scheme,” said Whitehouse, ”with the same funders selecting judges, funding campaigns for the judges, and then showing up in court in these orchestrated amicus flotillas to tell the judges what to do."

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one  of the most prominent right-wing media figures to criticize Whitehouse was Mollie Hemingway, a Fox News contributor and senior editor at the right-wing online outlet The Federalist — an organization which is itself famously opaque on its own funding.

Hemingway is hardly the ideal person, however, to be calling somebody else a conspiracy theorist. When multiple sources corroborate a story damaging to President Donald Trump, she has a pattern of often declaring that this corroboration is really the result of a coordinated conspiracy by those sources to be lying in synchronization with each other.

Hemingway thus saw a conspiratorial connection of her own, connecting Whitehouse’s speech to a recent opinion piece in The Washington Post that was critical of the Federalist Society:

Hemingway also sought to turn the rhetorical tables, posting an image that alleged a nefarious web of connection between Whitehouse, as a progressive U.S. senator, and activist groups that promote issues such as women’s health care, environmental conservation, and LGBTQ rights. However, Hemingway missed a major point that publicly disclosed campaign donations to an elected U.S. senator are not the same as a network of financial support that pushes for lawsuits and judicial appointments designed to achieve policy aims in the courts on behalf of its undisclosed donors.

And while Hemingway’s featured illustration also contained passing mention of liberal philanthropist George Soros — a Holocaust survivor who is often the target of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories — Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) just went straight to the point:

Tom Fitton of Judicial Watch, which also has a record of making conspiratorial smears against Soros, similarly skipped the middle man:

The Daily Wire founderBen Shapiro, himself no stranger to Soros conspiracy theories, talk of Trojan horses inside of Trojan horses, or killer progressives just around the corner, also mocked Whitehouse’s presentation:

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https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/new-report-reveals-one-of-the-funders-of-the-federalist-and-how-right-wing-commentators-warp-the-news/

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some right-wing pundits will offer a policy-by-policy defense of President Donald Trump, while right-wing pundits of the Never Trump persuasion — from CNN’s Ana Navarro and MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough to Bill Kristol and Charlie Sykes of The Bulwark — will go issue by issue while slamming the president. But Jeremy W. Peters, in an article for the New York Times, examines athird type of right-wing pundit: one who is generally pro-Trump but is less interested in defending Trump on the issues than demonizing Trump’s liberal critics.

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“What these writers and pundits don’t tend to do is make the doggedly pro-Trump defenses that appear on Breitbart and erupt from the mouth of Sean Hannity,” Peters explains. “Often, they don’t bother at all with the awkward business of trying to explain away Mr. Trump’s latest folly. Instead, they offer an outlet for outrage against those the president has declared his enemies, often by reducing them to a culture war caricature of liberalism.

Peter cites The Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway and Allie Beth Stuckey (who hosts the podcast “Relatable”) as examples of pundits who fall into that category. Stuckey, according to Peters, “does not go out of her way to defend the president” but does go out of her way to demonize his liberal critics.

“Through this lens,” Peters observes, “Mr. Trump’s transgressions seem irrelevant compared with the manifold misdeeds of everyone from the Clintons to CNN. Their portrayal of what the country would look like if the Democrats win big in November is indeed a frightening one to Trump supporters: a White House with Sen. Bernie Sanders as the shadow socialist president; a Democratic House of Representatives where Rep. Ilhan Omar calls the shots; a society in which mask mandates are the first step in a government experiment with social control; a political arena where conservatives are badgered into silence."

the piece also revealed one of The Federalist’s funders, who have long been kept secret, and indicated how the backer may have influenced its coverage:

Critics have asked who is funding the site, since ad revenue alone wouldn’t be enough to sustain its staff of 14 and political websites often rely on wealthy donors for support. The Federalist has not disclosed its supporters, leading to criticism that it is not being transparent about its agenda. But according to two people with knowledge of its finances, one of its major backers is Dick Uihlein, the Midwestern packing supply magnate and Trump donor who has a history of giving to combative, hard-right candidates, like Roy S. Moore of Alabama, who make many Republicans squeamish. (After Mr. Moore was accused of assaulting underage girls in 2017, The Federalist ran an opinion piece that defended men who dated young women as a practice with a long history that was “not without some merit if one wants to raise a large family.”)

Another pundit Peters discusses in his article is Ben Shapiro, who famously became the butt of jokes in the U.K. after calling British conservative Andrew Neil a “leftist” during an appearance on his BBC program (to Brits who are familiar with Neil, the notion that he is a “leftist” is beyond laughable). Shapiro is not deeply enamored of Trump the way that Breitbart’s staff are, but as Peters notes, Shapiro’s hatred of liberals by far outweighs his issues with Trump.

“Mr. Shapiro isn’t shy about calling out the president for his divisive and unfocused leadership, but far more often, he takes shots at Mr. Trump’s critics,” Peters explains. “Mr. Shapiro echoes other conservatives who deflect: Mr. Trump wasn’t helping anyone, for instance, by asking top public health officials to study whether disinfectant could be injected into the human body as a coronavirus treatment. But, Mr. Shapiro explained he didn’t actually tell people to put bleach in their bodies: ‘That doesn’t mean he was recommending actually injecting Clorox, people.’”

Tim Miller, a Never Trump conservative and GOP activist who writes for The Bulwark, told the Times that publications like The Federalist are motivated by “an unquenchable desire to take everybody else down a peg.” Miller, on the other hand, believes that Trump has been terrible for the conservative movement — and he is happy to express that view during his appearances on cable news.

With Hemingway, Stuckey and Shapiro, Peters observes, the main ingredient is “anti-liberalism” — not an intense adoration for all things Trump like one finds at Breitbart.

Nicole Hemmer, a research scholar at Columbia University in New York City, told the Times, “The conservative ideology that had been cohesive during the Cold War is falling apart. It seems to me that ‘owning the libs’ is kind of the way you hold everyone together when your policy preferences are coming apart."

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https://www.mediamatters.org/mollie-hemingway/federalist-trump-one-day-tale-how-quickly-baseless-allegation-reaches-president

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Melissa Joskow / Media Matters

From The Federalist to Trump in one day: A tale of how quickly a baseless allegation reaches the president

Trump accused Sen. Chris Murphy of potentially violating the Logan Act after right-wing media created and spread the allegation

WRITTEN BY KAYLA GOGARTY

RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM BOBBY LEWIS

PUBLISHED 02/20/20 2:22 PM EST

After The Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway reported that Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) met with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, right-wing media seized on the opportunity to call Democrats hypocrites and baselessly allege that the meeting was a violation of the Logan Act. President Donald Trump repeated the same allegation to the press a day later.

Trump has a history of promoting conspiracy theories and baseless allegations after he sees them amplified by right-wing media outlets. In this instance, right-wing media figures and the president are accusing Murphy of violating the Logan Act, “a 1799 law that prohibits ordinary citizens from negotiating with foreign powers.” According to University of Texas School of Law professor Steve Vladeck, the law, which has never been used to successfully prosecute any American citizen, “only applies to conduct that is designed to ‘defeat the measures of the United States’ or influence the conduct of foreign governments.”

Although there is no evidence that Murphy did either of those things in his meeting with Zarif,Trump accused the senator of violating U.S. law (an allegation he also previously made against former Secretary of State John Kerry). Trump’s allegation against Murphy came after right-wing outlets and social media accounts quickly amplified the report that The Federalist had originally published, using it to call Democrats hypocritical and to inaccurately compare Murphy to former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn. (Flynn pleaded guilty in 2017 to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.) Claiming that Democrats are hypocrites is a bad-faith argument that right-wing media personalities are using to create faux outrage, a common tactic of theirs.

Here is how the allegation against Murphy spread across right-wing media and was repeated by Trump on February 18:

Mollie Hemingway reports that Democratic senators met with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif

On February 17, Hemingway, the Federalist’s senior editor, published an article that claimed a “source briefed by the French delegation” to the Munich Security Conference said that Murphy and other Democratic senators met with Zarif during the conference last week. The article went on to baselessly allege that “such a meeting would mean Murphy had done the type of secret coordination with foreign leaders to potentially undermine the U.S. government.”

Hemingway also alleged that the State Department “was not aware of any side meetings with Iranian officials that Murphy was engaged in.” CNN and a Politico reporter debunked this allegation, saying that Murphy’s office actually did notify the State Department before the meeting with Zarif.

Right-wing media outlets and social media accounts amplify Hemingway’s report and start making egregious claims

Pro-Trump social media spread Hemingway’s article, including Facebook pages Patriot Movement AZ, Nashville Tea Party, and Make America Great Again, and Twitter accounts of Hudson Institute’s Rebeccah Heinrichs and The Federalist’s Sean Davis. Some right-wing media outlets, such as the The Daily Wire, CNS News, The Gateway Pundit, and Southern Patriot News, also reported on it.

On Twitter, right-wing accounts started making egregious claims:

Turning Point USA President Charlie Kirk

Hudson Institute senior fellow Michael Doran

Iranian opposition group Mojahedin-e-Khalq’s propaganda persona Heshmat Alvi

Conservative radio talker and Fox News host Mark Levin

Townhall’s Kurt Schlichter

Pompeo: “If they met, I don’t know what they said. I hope they were reinforcing America’s foreign policy, not their own.”

During a press availability on February 18, Voice of America’s Cindy Spang asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo if he could confirm that a group of Democratic senators met with Zarif. Pompeo said that he has “seen that piece” and that “if they met, I don’t know what they said. I hope they were reinforcing America’s foreign policy, not their own.”

Following Pompeo’s response, right-wing media outlets, including Townhall, The Washington Free Beacon, and The Federalist, reported on his comments, spurring additional reactions from right-wing social media accounts.

Murphy confirms that he met with Zarif

As is his general practice, Murphy discussed his overseas trip in a “behind the scenes” Medium post on February 18, part of which he turned into a Twitter thread as well. According to Murphy, he and Republican Sens. Ron Johnson (WI) and John Barrasso (WY) met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv, Ukraine, and they then met up with the rest of the bipartisan congressional delegation at the Munich Security Conference, which included House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), other House members, and over a dozen senators. Murphy wrote that he met with Zarif during the conference to discuss Yemen, “to gauge whether he thinks the reprisals for the Soleimani assassination are over,” and to “raise the issue of American prisoners held in Iran.”

Right-wing Twitter personalities inaccurately call the meeting a violation of the Logan Act

In response to Murphy’s comments, right-wing outlets accused him of “stonewalling,” “secretly meeting” with Iran, and being “a massive hypocrite.” TheBlaze even claimed, “None of this would be a problem had Murphy been more forthright about the meeting and his motivations for holding it before it took place.”

On social media, right-wing figures accused Murphy of violating the Logan Act, with Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton suggesting he committed treason. The phrase was even trending on Twitter at one point. Here are some examples:

Turning Point USA President Charlie Kirk

Far-right Pizzagate conspiracy theorist Mike Cernovich

Radio host Sebastian Gorka

Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton

Right-wing personality Kambree Kawahine Koa

Donald Trump Jr.

Fox News contributor Dan Bongino

The Federalist’s Sean Davis

Trump: “Sounds like to me a violation of the Logan Act”

As the story spread on social media, Trump quickly weighed in while speaking with the press on February 18.

His comments further fueled the baseless allegations against Murphy and even sparked a response from Zarif.

Even Fox News admits that “it would be a bit of a stretch to say he violated the Logan Act” before changing its tune

Right-wing media outlets such as Hot Air, The Washington Times, and Fox News covered Trump’s comments. Fox News aired Trump speaking with the press on January 18 and, in response,Fox News chief White House correspondent John Roberts said, “It would be a bit of a stretch to say that he violated the Logan Act.”

However, Fox changed its tune later:

Fox Business host Lou Dobbs said Murphy is “an abject fool,” “nothing more than a self-important hack,” and “knows how to be played.”

On Fox News @ Night, Hemingway said, “While it's true that [the Logan Act] is rarely used, it was famously used against Trump affiliates to really gin up that entire Russia collusion hoax. But now Chris Murphy seems to have a different view when it comes to his own coordination with the Iranian foreign minister.

Fox also hosted Hemingway on Fox & Friends the next morning, when she said, “Just a few years ago, when Mike Flynn, as an incoming member of the Trump administration, had a conversation with his Russian counterpart, Chris Murphy thought that this was treasonous, illegal. … But now, when Chris Murphy is having secret meetings in the hotel rooms of Iranian leaders, … now he thinks that’s perfectly fine.”

Trump amplified the allegation on Twitter

Trump continued to attack Murphy on February 19, repeating the false allegation in a post on Twitter that also raised his old accusations against Kerry and retweeting Sean Davis’ tweet about it.

Trump retweet of Sean Davis' February 18, 2020 tweet about the Logan Act

Trump attacked both Kerry and Murphy again on February 20 on Twitter, claiming that they “grossly violated the Logan Act.”

The short timeline between The Federalist’s publication of its report and Trump's amplification of the baseless allegation is emblematic of how quickly disinformation spreads across the right-wing media ecosystem, gets amplified by Fox, and influences the president. It's a tactic that has successfully exploited the Fox-Trump feedback loop and led to the president issuing pardons and making policy decisions.

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Right-wing media is also insisting that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is moving forward with impeachment only because she has caved to the progressive left; that the inquiry is merely political theater by Democrats; and that this is just the latest in a long list of attempts by the Democratic Party, the elite, and the “deep state” to oust a successful president. These talking points are nearly identical to the ones issued by the White House to minimize the gravity of the impeachment inquiry.

On Fox & Friends, Jason Chaffetz insisted that “this is the deep state fighting back against a disruptive, unconventional president who is cleaning out this, this swamp.”

Fox News contributor and Federalist senior editor Mollie Hemingway insisted multiple timesthat the complaint is an effort by the mainstream media and Democrats to destroy Trump, comparing it to the Mueller report.