matt walsh WIRE
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FASCIST 6 25 ICE LA ~ RULE OF LAW POW ON SNAP
MERRI OK
VENEZ
see miso 4
sadly 2nd mofo 12 23 BTB says wire can make 7 figures each/yr?!
SEE WOD4
SEE SOC SAFETY NET
michael? older white guy west clare; 500 pop 900 ukrainians on bannon knowles? //
freq mma
see BTB on origins
see wire
see CRM trump gop defense
SEE DRAG HYPE COMING FOR KIDS
many eg
hate tag racist
rww tag: Matt Walsh
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matt is carnival barker, sez shit ben can't?!
aha: hype/fear (esca / echo algo amplify) --> clicks / names email contact --> cash
BAK 2 26
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MMA
MAGA media: If Democrats take power in Congress, they will “trans your kids”
Written by Helena Hind
Published 10/29/26
Ahead of the midterms, MAGA media figures are trotting out their usual attacks against Democrats, including one particularly familiar argument: Vote Republican because Democrats want to “trans your kids, cut the genitals off your children.” Echoing anti-trans campaign rhetoric from 2024, some right-wing hosts and guests have repeated this narrative, warning their audiences, “You let those people get into power, you don’t have a country anymore.”
Several have specifically attacked Democratic Texas Senate nominee James Talarico for his public statements supporting transgender people.
The current anti-trans approach is an apparent rehash of a 2024 attack line. That year, Fox News significantly boosted its anti-trans coverage, airing at least 47 segments mentioning trans athletes in October 2024 compared to just six such segments in September 2024, an increase of more than 683%. A Trump campaign ad similarly attacking then-Vice President Kamala Harris for her support of gender-affirming care aired more than 30,000 times before Election Day.
GOP losses in 2025 gubernatorial elections, however, suggested that the anti-trans strategy was unreliable. Right-wing media portrayed the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial races as further referendums on trans issues, and both Republican candidates lost. As Media Matters previously explained, those losses demonstrate that “the supposed backlash vote exists mainly in right-wing media rhetoric, not in voter behavior.”
Nevertheless, Republican candidates and organizations that support them have reportedly spent over $180 million on anti-trans political ads attacking Democratic candidates during the 2026 midterm cycle, even though few voters have ranked trans issues among their top concerns in recent polls. And with Republicans trailing in the polls, right-wing media have been getting more desperate and extreme in their attacks against Democrats, including by resorting to their same old anti-trans strategy.
Podcaster Steven Crowder: “We have a two-party system. One of them wants to trans your kids.” Crowder then played various clips of trans-affirming statements from Talarico and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). [Rumble, Louder with Crowder, 10/21/26]
Podcaster Andrew Kolvet attacked Democrats’ education policies and claimed, “They want to trans your kids.” Kolvet: “Let’s go through the list. What is the left better on, exactly? Are they better on the border? No, no, objectively no. Are they better on education? They want to indoctrinate your kids. They want to trans your kids. They don’t want to let you get school choice or vouchers to take your kids to a Christian school or a classical education school. No. So they’re not better there. Schools are failing.” [Real America’s Voice, The Charlie Kirk Show, 10/20/26]
Right-wing commentator Chad Prather claimed “Democrat socialists” want to “trans your kids, cut the genitals off your children,” warning, “You let those people get into power, you don’t have a country anymore.” Prather: “These people running on the progressive left side, these Democrat socialists that are out there — I mean, if [Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul] El-Sayed is not evidence of that — if these people out there that want to put you on train cars that are dancing on the grave of Charlie Kirk that literally are wishing death upon conservatives in America. These people who want to trans your kids, cut the genitals off your children, these people, they want to abort babies up into toddlerhood — you let those people get into power, you don't have a country anymore. And I'm not overstating that. They've literally come out and said what they intend to do, what they want to do.” [BlazeTV, Sara Gonzales Unfiltered, 10/6/26]
Federalist CEO Sean Davis said Republicans should frame the midterms as “a choice between” Republicans and “people who want to cut off your kids' genitals, people who want to trans your kids.” Asked by podcaster Benny Johnson what he would like to see as a “closing midterm message” from Republicans, Davis replied: “I think it would be important for them to make clear that people have a choice, and you have a choice between a guy, Donald Trump, and Republicans, who really have done incredible work, even if they've not done everything we've wanted, and the choice between that and people who want to cut off your kids' genitals, people who want to trans your kids, people who want to import infinity Third-World Islamic jihadist radicals.” Johnson added, “We can put that on a shirt: godless American communists that want to cut your … children's genitals off.” [YouTube, The Benny Show, 9/29/26]
Video
Citation
From the September 29, 2026, edition of The Benny Show, streamed on YouTube
On War Room, guest Danielle Buck said Talarico “wants to trans our kids,” adding, “This man is going to ruin our state.” Buck stated, “He wants to open our borders. He wants to trans our kids. He believes that there are six genders. He believes that God is nonbinary. Like, this man is going to ruin our state.” [Real America’s Voice, War Room, 9/23/26]
Blaze Media’s Glenn Beck claimed Democrats started “telling you that you got to trans your kid” after the 2020 election, adding, “They win this election, they're going to double down again.” Beck: “They’re going to double down after this election. They’re going to double down. You think it was bad then? Do you remember what it was like under Obama? And then Trump lost in 2020 and all of a sudden you’re like, oh my gosh, these people are monsters. What are they doing? All of a sudden, they're telling you that you got to trans your kid. And you're like, wait a minute, I didn't vote for any of that. You thought that was bad? They win this election, they’re going to double down again.” [Blaze Media, The Glenn Beck Program, 10/22/26]
PBD Podcast panelist Adam Sosnick: “They're going to trans your kids. They're going to Talarico your kids, and that's what's basically the Democratic brand is at this point.” Sosnick said the Democrats used to be “the party of the working man. Now they are the party of the working woman — the college-educated, liberal ideology, go to school in your ivory towers. The only thing that’s masculine about the Democratic Party these days are the Abdul El-Sayeds that want to put women in hijabs. That’s about as masculine as it gets. Other than that, they’re going to trans your kids. They’re going to Talarico your kids, and that’s what's basically the Democratic brand is at this point.” [Valuetainment, PBD Podcast, 10/19/26]
On his podcast, Donald Trump Jr. said that if Democrats come into power, there will be “trans kids back in school” and “trans agendas back in school, in your classrooms, with your children.” [Rumble, Triggered with Donald Trump Jr., 10/12/26]
Article III Project founder Mike Davis urged War Room viewers to vote Republican, asking, “Do you want Democrats funding trans surgeries for kids? Or do you want Trump blocking that?” Davis continued, “We need to … make a very rational decision here. It is team America versus team Mohammad.” [Real America’s Voice, War Room, 10/23/26]
Daily Wire host Michael Knowles said Democrats “want to send CPS to your house to take your kids away if you don't want to trans your kids.” Answering the question “What could the Republicans focus on” in the midterms, Knowles listed immigration, violence, and supposed “predations” on Christians as issues Republicans could talk about before saying, “Let's talk about transing your kids. That's a major social issue. Let's talk about the LGBT indoctrination in kindergarten. Let's talk about all of those issues that we win on. Those are the 80-20 issues. Those are the 90-10 issues.” [The Daily Wire, The Michael Knowles Show, 9/28/26]
Fox News host Greg Gutfeld attacked Talarico: “The moment we get a Democrat president, he might just flip back again and start cutting up kids all over again.” Gutfeld also called Talarico “disturbing” and accused him of “demonic trickery.” [Fox News, The Five, 10/15/26]
//
Two-thirds of Fox segments about James Talarico included anti-LGBTQ attacks
06/16/26 10:12 AM EDT
11/06/25 5:23 PM EST
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MMA
May 11, 2026, edition of The Daily Wire's The Matt Walsh Show
MATT WALSH (HOST): It's the same playbook all over again. Activist theater is presented as a profound spur of the moment stand against oppression to create an emotional superstructure for radical change. That's why Pearson has spent most of the last week pretending to be a low IQ ghetto revolutionary. Watch.
...
Every aspect of his behavior is an act. None of it is real. And if you doubt that, now's a good time to play the clip of Pearson from when he attended a small, extremely expensive liberal arts school in Maine. And then we'll contrast how he sounded then to what he sounds like now. We played this clip a few times before, but it bears repeating just to emphasize how truly shameless these fake civil rights leaders are. Watch.
...
Now we could laugh at him all we want, and we should. He's a total clown. Should not be taken seriously, but he's still doing it. And he still got a lot of supporters. None of them care that he's completely fake, and they all excuse it. They say, oh, that's just code switching. So if you put -- if you could put -- if you could, you know, use a term to describe it, code switching, that makes it OK. Yeah. He's code switching, which is another word for being fake and dishonest and phony.
And indeed, Martin Luther King Jr did the exact same fake pastor voice. No one cared that he was a phony either. People still listen to his speeches with that absurd way of speaking and pretend that it sounds profound. But we should just be honest, like it sounds ridiculous. It sounds phony and ridiculous. And it sounded that way when Martin Luther King Jr did it. Now I guess Noam Chomsky might qualify as an exception. He went on the record saying that while he admired MLK, he couldn't stand to listen to his fake voice. Watch.
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AN 3 26
Opposition to President Donald Trump’s war on Iran is to be expected from Democrats and others on the left, but according to a popular far-right influencer, conservatives are divided and “deeply furious” over the conflict. And while much of the conservative messaging on social media has been supportive of the war, he claims that doesn’t align with the conservative discussion offline.
“I’ve never seen such a disconnect between the commentary on this site and what I hear in the real world,” posted Matt Walsh, a far-right commentator with over 4 million followers on X. “I’ve talked to dozens of normal conservatives in real life about the Iran war and I haven’t met a single one who’s actually enthusiastically in favor of it.”
He went on to say that while some conservatives he’d spoken with are “warily optimistic,” the rest are “not only opposed but deeply furious.” Many are afraid to express this fury, said Walsh, because they’re worried they’ll “be shouted down by throngs of alleged American conservatives who allegedly have wanted nothing more than for America to go to war with Iran.”
For Trump and the GOP, Walsh predicted, the political fallout could be catastrophic, as he claims to have spoken with many “VERY conservative lifelong Republican voters who are so furious and feel so betrayed that they’re planning to sit out the midterms…People are pissed.”
Walsh isn’t the only far-right media figure to express outrage over the war on Iran and thoughts on how it could impact the November elections.
Tucker Carlson has been an outspoken opponent of the war, notably giving a high-profile interview to ex-US National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent, who resigned over concerns about the conflict. Megyn Kelly has voiced criticism of the war but stops short of blaming Trump, claiming he was pushed toward it by more hawkish conservatives. And far-right provocateur Nick Fuentes has told his followers to boycott the midterms over the war.
Online personality Candace Owens agreed with a blunt assessment of the matter: “Not only is Trump losing the war, he has also completely forfeited his legacy and base.”
These far-right voices are speaking out as the latest polls show the stark unpopularity of Trump and his war. Over 60 percent of voters say they disapprove of the war, while the president’s approval rating has sunk to a historical low of just 33 percent.
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some bro ai will wipe out jobs of women who vote dem, somehow will help blue collar men?!
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mma
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an 3 26
The White House was forced to fire back after a prominent conservative influencer and podcaster criticized President Donald Trump‘s various and rapidly-shifting reasons for attacking Iran in a massive and ongoing military exercise that the president and defense chief have called “war.”
Matt Walsh, who hosts his right-wing podcast on The Daily Wire and has four million followers on X, on Monday expressed his confusion with the administration’s talking points.
“So far we’ve heard that although we killed the whole Iranian regime, this was not a regime change war,” he began. “And although we obliterated their nuclear program, we had to do this because of their nuclear program. And although Iran was not planning any attacks on the US, they also might have been, depending on who you ask. And although we are not fighting this war to free the Iranian people, they are now free, or might be, depending on who seizes power, and we have no idea who that will be.”
“The messaging on this thing is,” he said, “to put it mildly, confused.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt responded to Walsh just hours later, saying that Trump on Saturday had “released a statement laying out clear objectives to the American people for Operation Epic Fury.”
According to Leavitt, they include destroying Iran’s missiles and Navy, ensuring Iran’s proxies cannot destabilize the region or the world, stopping them from making and using IEDs, guaranteeing Iran can never have a nuclear weapon, and preventing the Iranian regime from threatening America.
“Simply put,” she wrote, “the terrorist Iranian regime would not say yes to peace.”
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MMA
February 19, 2026, edition of The Daily Wire's The Matt Walsh Show
MATT WALSH (HOST): The outcomes have been fantastic. Just fantastic. 240 million gallons of sewage. Fantastic outcome. Fantastic. If that's fantastic, I would hate to see what outcome this guy would consider to be subpar. If 240 million gallons of sewage is a fantastic great outcome, then what would even he call, you know, suboptimal? Well, anyway, there you have it, when you're hiring personnel at DC water, it's vitally important to have a lot of people who aren't white. The executives need to look like the employees because when you're drinking water out of the tap or taking a shower, you know, the thing you care about is whether the people who ensured the cleanliness and safety of your water look like you or not. And if you get E. coli or some other exotic disease or parasite in your intestines from the water, well, you could take solace in the fact that while you're puking your guts out, at least there was a sufficient level of diversity over in the water management department. David Gaddis never explains why this is so important, but he doesn't really have to.
At this point, it's common knowledge that in many cases, government employment functions like a jobs program for people who are not white. This is one of those things that sounds offensive to some people, I guess, but it's clearly true, and even Democrats will admit it. If you've ever had the misfortune of walking into a DMV office, which many adult has, you may have noticed that they typically aren't very diverse, you know, or they're diverse only in the leftist sense of not being diverse at all. A lot — mostly Black women, some Black men, not a lot of white people over at the DMV. Neither are transit jobs or most administrative jobs in the government, and that's no accident. By and large, nonwhite people get these jobs and then they hire other nonwhite people, and once they get the jobs, they're basically impossible to fire. This has led to the creation of the so-called Black middle class, which is almost entirely a tax-funded function of the government.
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// GRIEVANCE?
MMA
February 2, 2026, edition of The Daily Wire's The Matt Walsh Show
MATT WALSH (HOST): So now if you're between the ages of 18 and 64 with the new requirements added to the previous requirements, if you're 18 and 64, so an adult below retirement age, and you don't have children under the age of 14, then you need to work for 20 hours a week to qualify for food stamps.
Otherwise, it says you can have food stamps, but only for three months in a three year period, so it's like a cushion that -- and then you got to get back on your feet. These are not only reasonable requirements, but so minimal and so basic that they barely even count as requirements. And yet the Congressional Budget Office estimates that these bare minimum requirements will disqualify millions of people.
You know, because millions of people are on the dole, bilking the system, taking money out of your pocket while making no attempt to care for themselves and not even putting in the bare minimum of effort. Like, needless to say, if you're an able-bodied adult, there is no valid reason why you can't work at least a part-time job. Like, there's no reason why you can't go out and get and then work at least a part-time job, but really a full-time job, especially if you don't have young children at home. No young children at home, you're able-bodied, you're an adult below retirement age, you should be able to work. That's it.
Now I'm happy these requirements are going to place. I would much prefer that everybody in this category, which is adults without young children who are not elderly or disabled -- I'd prefer that everyone just be disqualified from food stamps outright. I think that'd be perfectly fair. And I don't even think you need to wind it down. If we're up to me, I wouldn't even wind it down for somebody like Kenny. I would just say you're out. Like, you're out. Go get a job, man. Like, what are you doing? Oh, there are barriers. What what barriers are preventing you from getting any job at all? Stop it. OK. A 16 year-old can go out there and get some kind of job. You're telling me that a 16 year-old could go out there and get some kind of job, but you can't get any as a grown ass man, as an adult in your, what, your 50s? You can't get any job? None? Come on.
And, look, I'm sure Kenny is a nice guy. I have no problem with Kenny. But this is really the question. Why should I be forced to give Penny -- to give Kenny -- to give Kenny a single penny? Why should I be forced to give Kenny a penny? Why should I? Like, to anyone who supports the SNAP program, this is kind of the question. This is really where the rubber meets the road. What moral obligation do I have to Kenny, who we just saw there? Again, probably a nice guy. What obligation do I have to him? Because that's the whole premise of entitlement. It's right there in the name, entitlements. Like, they're entitled to it. Well, entitled from who? Because it's -- the money's not coming out of nowhere. It's coming from taxpayers. So what we're being told is that they are entitled to your money. Let's if they -- so Kenny is on the food stamps. He is an entitlement. He is entitled — entitled — entitled — to your money. Entitled. You owe it to him. What? Why do you owe -- what do you owe him? Why do you owe him anything at all?
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AN 1 26
President Donald Trump and senior members of his administration are now openly communicating that the only law they respect is that "might is right." One conservative is warning that Americans should take their words very seriously.
In a Monday article for anti-Trump conservative website The Bulwark, editor Jonathan V. Last pointed to a recent post by far-right social media influencer Matt Walsh justifying the recent capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Walsh referred to Maduro as a "s——little tinpot third world dictator" whose ouster was necessary because he was "harming our country" and "interfering with our national interests."
"'International law' is fake and gay. The only international law is that big and powerful countries get to do what they want," Walsh wrote on X. "It has been that way since the dawn of civilization. It will always be that way. And we are the most powerful country on the planet. It's about time that we start acting like it."
Last also observed that White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller made a similar argument in an interview with CNN host Jake Tapper. When Tapper asked him about Trump not ruling out using the U.S. military to seize Greenland from Denmark, Miller defended the president by arguing that powerful countries should be able to assert their authority by force if necessary.
"We live in a world, in the real world ... that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power," Miller said. "These are the iron laws of the world since the beginning of time."
The Bulwark editor doubted if this worldview stopped at international law, and posited that the Trump administration likely viewed domestic laws as able to bent and broken to accommodate the wishes of the powerful. He opined that Trump is "seeking a return to an old international order which antedates the modern, rules-based era" in which global hegemons carve up the world into "spheres of influence where the strong do what they can while the weak suffer what they must."
"Tell me: Do you think it is impossible that Trump and his revanchists also seek to return America to an old order in which control of the military is control of the government?" He wrote. "He wants Russia and China’s foreign policy. Why would he not also want their domestic policies?"
"[T]he law says that federal agents cannot brutalize the citizenry. But the practical reality is that the federal agents outnumber and outgun local law enforcement. So they cannot be arrested for brutalizing the citizenry," he added. "The law of the jungle is already here."
Click here to read Last's full article for The Bulwark.
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MMA
November 5, 2025, edition of The Daily Wire's The Matt Walsh Show
MATT WALSH (HOST): Now these numbers represent a drastic shift in more ways than one. And don't listen to anyone who tries to tell you, oh, it's always been this way. New York is — New York has always had a significant immigrant population. It's been this way for many generations. Well, yes, but not all immigration is the same.
You know, these immigrants are now coming from very different parts of the world compared to where they were coming from a hundred years ago.
You know, this chart prepared by VDare demonstrates this, as you can see here. And according to the US census, New York was 98% white in 1910. 98%. 90% in 1950. 77% white in 1970. Then it dropped to 52% in 1980. 44% by 1990. By 2020, it was down to 32%.
So, from almost everybody is white to a small minority, 32% in the span of about a hundred years. Now, that is a demographic transformation that's inevitably going to result in massive cultural changes, and those changes have not been positive. That's just a fact.
So anyone who says, oh, you're doing identity — even people — even conservatives. Well, this is identity politics. We need to be past this. Oh, shut up. This is just the reality. It's a thing that's happening. OK? We got to talk about the things that are happening in the country.
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11/05/25 10:46 AM EST
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10/28/25
October 28, 2025, edition of MSNBC's Deadline: White House
BASIL SMIKLE (GUEST): And the the point I would make in addition to that is if you are looking to punish people, right, they're mostly punishing their supporters. There are more people in this country from red states -- there are more white Americans, particularly Republicans, that are on these programs. So if you want to even use the sort of, you know, that sort of welfare queen trope that a lot of Republicans have historically used, it doesn't even touch that or come close to touching that. So the suggestion -- the point I would think is that they're only just trying to punish Americans using this tactic.
ALICIA MENENDEZ (HOST): Well, Angelo, to build on the point that Basil just made, I'm sure you've seen the highly partisan framing of the USDA's -- a government agency's communication in a message saying that Democrats are to blame and, quote, "The well is about to run dry." I wonder the extent to which on conservative media that message is being echoed or how they are justifying to Basil's point about the fact that this is a lot of Trump's own supporters who are being impacted by this, how they are explaining that away.
ANGELO CARUSONE (MEDIA MATTERS PRESIDENT): Yeah. I mean, you know, I think the way they look at it is in a few dimensions. One, they never acknowledge the reality, right, that it's going to be a lot of their own supporters. Even though they all kind of know it, they never actually acknowledge that. The predominant right-leaning narrative is what's been that way for 20-plus years going all the way back to Rush Limbaugh, you know, sort of really reinforcing the false notion of a welfare queen or, you know, one of the things he used to say about the WIC program in particular was that it was all just a gigantic fiction because why would you need a program like this if they were able to have babies in the first place? Surely, they weren't that desperate if they were able to have babies. So clearly, it was just sort of a Democratic fiction, and that's been percolating forever.
So it's basically the notion that it's liberals and Black people that are getting this program predominantly. So to some extent, they're happy. There's a lot of schadenfreude and they're leaning into the cruelty that there's a whole bunch of people that don't get it, that they don't like, that are going to be punished.
And on the flip side, some of this soft undercurrent, and you sort of got to that in your messaging, is that, yeah, there are going to be some of their people that are going to suffer from this. And to an extent, they're perfectly fine with that as long as they know that they can convince their people that it's Democrats at fault. Because recognize that a big part of what they want to do here is not only to punish liberals and Democrats, any of their perceived political opponents, but to keep the anger flowing on their side so that they can continue to justify and rationalize the cruelty that they're inflicting on the country and our slide toward authoritarianism. And you sort of need that as the fuel to then justify all the other extreme measures that you're taking. So that's the large framework that's playing out in the right-wing media right now. More bloodthirstY and more cruelty.
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10/28/25
October 28, 2025, edition of The Daily Wire's The Matt Walsh Show
MATT WALSH (HOST): Has anyone ever starved to death in the modern history of this country because they haven't had access to food? I mean, has that actually happened in this country? Has a single sane adult, OK — now, we're not talking about kids who are victims of horrific abuse and those kinds of awful cases, in which case, like, food stamps are not solving that. Has any sane adult, through no fault of his own, shriveled and died because he couldn't afford to buy anything to eat? Has there been a single example of someone in modern America, in modern America, someone who has no family, no friends, no other forms of state or federal welfare he can tap into, no food banks, no churches he can visit, no job, no soup kitchens nearby, no charity food drives in his area, nothing at all?
:{:{So the point is that there's a — there are a bunch of lines of defense. Like, when we deal with the question of, well, who should be feeding you? Right? There's — there are a lot of answers that come up. And the first person, ideally, who feeds you should be you. You should be feeding yourself if you're an adult. Who should feed your children? It should be you. Like, that's the first. That's where we should go.}:
That should be number one, you. And if you really can't, I mean, there are things that happen where someone really, really can't. So through no fault of their own, they can — they're not able to feed themselves. That can happen. I'm not denying that. But then there are so many other — in modern America, there are so many other lines of defense — even if you take EBT out of it, there are so many other lines of defense that should mean that you're not going starve. You should have your family. You should have friends. Even if you don't have them, you have a local community, you have soup kitchens, you have charities, you have churches, you have all of these things. You have food drives, all of these things. You have other forms of welfare programs that also exist.}:
So for how many people — I guess this is the question, how many people are in a situation where all of those lines of defense have failed, every single one. And the only possible thing left that can feed them is EBT? You know? Now, if something like that — if there were someone in that situation, if something like that were ever happening in United States, then I'd be the first in line to say, yes. Get that person a taxpayer funded hot dog. I don't want to see anyone starve. Nobody does. But I don't think that's that's actually happening in modern America, and nobody has demonstrated otherwise. Like, no one has presented us with a person and said, OK. Here's someone who — there's an actual human who's alive today in America, and for this person, legitimately, if they don't have food stamps, they will starve. It's the only thing. It's the only way they could get their hands on food. I — no one has shown that example.
And in fact, if you look at what food stamp recipients are saying in their own words, you come away with the distinct impression that, like, almost none of these people actually need the food stamps. Instead, you come away with the impression that many of these people are simply entitled, lazy, barely literate, and, like, some of them are just frankly bad people. And, of course, that doesn't describe every adult on food stamps. No one is saying that. But it does seem to describe a large portion of them. And that is a moral outrage that we as tax paying Americans who are funding this, we have every right to be upset about that. When people are stealing our money who don't even need it and just wasting it in this profligate way, don't let anyone morally blackmail you into thinking that you're not allowed to be upset about that. Of course you could be upset about that. And, of course, you could demand answers. You're taking my money. I want to know who exactly needs it, and for what, and how are you spending it? That is a legitimate question. Of course, it is. And what you end up with is there are a lot of people who, rather than get a job, would prefer to rob grocery stores and the people shopping inside them.
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AN 10 25
CRM?
'Truly horrendous': MAGA melts down at 'awful' Pope Leo XIV for denouncing Trump policy
In a rare moment of direct commentary on American politics, Pope Leo XIV ignited a firestorm among conservative Catholics and MAGA-aligned figures after defending Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich’s decision to honor longtime Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill) — a pro-choice Democrat — for his decades of public service.
Speaking to reporters at the Vatican on Tuesday night, Pope Leo XIV called for a broader, more consistent interpretation of Catholic social teaching, particularly around what it means to be "pro-life."
“I think that is very important to look at the overall work that this Senator has done during, if I'm not mistaken, 40 years of service in the United States Senate,” the pope said.
“I understand the difficulty and the tensions, but I think, as I myself have spoken in the past, it’s important to look at many issues that are related to what is the teaching of the Church," the pontiff said. "Someone who says 'I'm against abortion but I'm in favor of the death penalty' is not really pro-life. So someone who says 'I'm against abortion but I'm in agreement with the inhuman treatment of immigrants who are in the United States' — I don't know if that's pro-life.”
The remarks came just days after Cardinal Cupich announced that Durbin would receive the Archbishop Bernardin Award for Public Witness, praising the Illinois Democrat’s “lifelong commitment to human dignity, social justice and the common good.” The reaction from the MAGA wing of the American Catholic community to Pope Leo XIV's remarks was swift and vitriolic.
Conservative influencers, commentators, and clergy accused both Cupich and Pope Leo XIV of "selling out" the pro-life cause and elevating politics over doctrine.
MAGA filmmaker and anti-DEI advocate Robby Statbuck wrote: “Pope after Pope has been a disappointing profile in cowardice who I just can’t look to as a leader. If Robert Sarah was Pope, this would not happen. Many would come back to the church then. Leo sounds like another Francis.”
Joe Rigney, an associate pastor, wrote: “I know that Protestants are supposed to be sheepish in the face of Catholic social teaching (‘deep in history,’ layers of tradition, antiquity, etc), but when the ‘Vicar’ of Christ and the successor of Peter morally equates abortion, deportations, and the death penalty for heinous crimes, and then proceeds to bless a block of ice in order to save the planet from climate change, I admit to being decidedly unimpressed with the ‘seamless garment.’”
Far-right podcaster and self-described traditional Catholic Matt Walsh wrote: “Really terrible answer from Pope Leo. God Himself prescribes the death penalty in the Bible. Is the Pope saying that God is ‘not pro-life’? And who exactly is advocating for ‘inhumane treatment of immigrants’? What sort of inhumane treatment is he referring to? Deportations? Also, how can he say that ‘nobody has all the truth’ on any of these issues? We know the truth on abortion. It isn't complicated. Awful stuff from the Pope. Truly horrendous on about five different levels.”
He continued: “Even if you disagree with the death penalty, to draw a moral equivalence between executing convicted murders after a fair trial and dismembering children in the womb is moral madness. Reddit-tier nonsense coming from the Pope. Very disturbing.”
Michael Heinlein, a Catholic commentator, wrote: “A terribly unclear question made this all the worse. As Cardinal George used to say ‘don’t tell me how you feel, tell me what you think!’”
Christopher Hale, a former Democratic nominee for Congress, mocked the MAGA backlash and wrote: “Maybe if he said it in Latin while wearing the papal tiara, MAGA would listen to him.”
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MMA
10/07/25
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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”
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
08/28/25 2:42 PM EDT
08/12/25
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mayor stands w gov pritzker on military 8 25
September 3, 2025, edition of The Daily Wire's The Matt Walsh Show
MATT WALSH (HOST): Now when you hear politicians like Brandon Johnson claim that they have solutions, remember videos like this one. They've gone out of their way to make violent crime much, much worse in Chicago. This is a deliberate effort that they've embarked on. Now it's true that in our federal system, states are not required to assist the federal government in carrying out certain policy objectives, but it's also true that states and local government cannot actively interfere with the federal government's decision to enforce the law. That is not states rights. That is treason.
Brandon Johnson is openly encouraging residents of Chicago to engage in treason against the United States. And for that reason, Brandon Johnson should be arrested, charged with treason, convicted, and then given the requisite punishment for a capital offense. Will that ever happen? Probably not. But then again, just a few days ago, Tren de Aragua, you know, they never thought that they'd be intercepted as they sped towards the United States on their drug boats. They certainly didn't imagine they'd get blown up without any warning.
All indications are that we are entering a new phase of federal governance, one where the U.S. military acts to defend the American people, where false narratives from NGOs are ignored, where criminals are actually punished when they violate the law in public. So who knows? Maybe Brandon Johnson shouldn't be so confident. Like Washington, D.C., which has experienced something like a 50% drop in violent crime since the National Guard moved in, Chicago is about to become a much safer place.
The more JB Pritzker lies about crime statistics, the more Brandon Johnson commits treason in public, the more obvious it becomes that this strategy needs to be applied to every major American city. Democrats have no response. They have no counterargument. The safer America becomes, the more they will complain. And in response, every American who's paying attention will recognize their party for what it is. They are the party of chaos, crime, and cartels, and they should be treated accordingly.
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mma
As mass deportation intensifies, right-wing media expand their aim to include American citizens
MAGA volk: Right-wing media personalities are expanding their hostility toward undocumented immigrants and now are targeting naturalized and native-born citizens in an assault on American identity
Written by Jason Campbell
Research contributions from John Whitehouse
Published 08/25/25
Since its inception, the MAGA movement has focused energy on trying to purge the United States of people who do not have legal status in the country. The Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts accelerated this summer after passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill, alongside the opening of new migrant detention centers. Now, MAGA media are extending that hostility toward immigrants to take aim at naturalized and native-born citizens in an assault on American identity itself.
This weekend, MAGA personality Jack Posobiec shared a meme asking Americans what kind of “stock” they are, and suggested that new citizens are somehow less “American” than others. Lest anyone doubt his intent, on Monday morning, he shared it again. (“Foundation stock” is a term used for animal breeding, for what it’s worth.)
Citation
The notion of certain Americans being less “American” has escalated in right-wing media in recent months.
In July, The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh launched an attack on Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL) for proposing legislation, The Dignity Act, to allow certain undocumented immigrants to apply for legal status. During his tirade, Walsh said Salazar is “not American” and should “go back to Cuba” — a startling claim given that Salazar is an American citizen who was born in the United States.
In a follow-up rant, Walsh doubled down on his attacks and argued that citizenship does not give a person equal claim to American identity “as someone who's lived in the country their entire life, who speaks the language, respects the culture, has ancestral ties to the country and its history."
Salazar is not the first U.S. citizen to have their national identity come under assault in recent months. After winning the Democratic mayoral primary in New York City, Zohran Mamdani was attacked across the right-wing media ecosystem. Many of these smears focused on his Islamic faith or his political views, but some targeted his status as a naturalized citizen. Right-wing pundit Jack Posobiec said Mamdani is “not an American,” and the Article III Project’s Will Chamberlain wrote: “Denaturalize and deport Zohran Mamdani."
Minneapolis mayoral candidate Omar Fateh has received similar attacks. Posobiec also claimed Fateh is “not an American,” while Walsh acknowledged that Fateh “was born in America, but he’s not actually an American."
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) has long been a target of right-wing media. In April, Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk said Omar has not “assimilated to America” and is instead trying “to infect the United States of America with her radical, anti-American Mohammadism, amongst her extreme leftist beliefs."
On Newsmax, Mercedes Schlapp attacked another common target for right-wing media, saying “I’m thinking that maybe they should deport Rashida Tlaib."
To put a fine point on the issue, there is a demographic thread that unites Salazar, Mamdani, Fateh, Omar, and Tlaib — they are all non-white citizens. As Kirk’s executive producer and co-host, Andrew Kolvet, declared last month: “Just by stats, by history, yeah, [being] white probably helps be an American.” He then called for an “immigration moratorium” in the United States.
While hostility to undocumented immigrants also characterized President Donald Trump’s first administration, the current racially focused rhetoric on the right has been building for years.
In 2022, an 18-year-old gunman killed 10 people in Buffalo, New York. He left behind a 180-page racist manifesto filled with hateful rants about the “great replacement” conspiracy theory — once relegated to the fringe of online discourse — which argues that white people in the U.S. are being intentionally replaced with non-white foreigners. Three years after the Buffalo attack, claiming “the great replacement is real” is no longer a fringe idea; it’s a bedrock talking point in right-wing media.
This mentality is linked with growing suggestions that the United States is not “a nation of immigrants,” as Fox host Rachel Campos-Duffy argued in July, but “a nation of settlers.” Some personalities are even attacking the Statue of Liberty; Walsh claimed the famous poem at its base, which offered haven to “your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” “in no way represents any kind of core American value."
MAGA attacks on Americans’ identities also extend to religion. Kirk said that Islam is “not compatible with Western civilization” and “fundamentally is at odds with the fiber and the DNA of our existence, of our birthright” under the U.S. Constitution, which “cannot coexist with Islam.” Muslims are dangerous, according to Kirk, plotting to “conquer” the United States “whether by sword” or “having a lot of babies.” And this view seemingly extends into the Trump administration, where Christian nationalist figures fill Trump’s religious liberty commission.
In the MAGA consciousness, America is not a melting pot but a homogenous identity, a MAGA “Volk,” and anyone else’s protections of legal immigration status or even citizenship can be removed at any point. This is why we see growing calls from the right for curtailing dual citizenship and demands to end all immigration into the United States. Kirk recently said that “America was at its peak when we halted immigration for 40 years and we dropped our foreign-born percentage to its lowest level ever. We should be unafraid to do that."
It’s not only immigrants and Muslim Americans who right-wing media are seeking to target. For MAGA, Democrats and the left are also incompatible with American identity. Kirk claimed that Democrats “don’t love the United States of America. They are at war with the American republic. There is no appealing to their higher angels. … There’s only the lower demons of the Democrat Party.” Fox’s Jesse Watters accused Democrats of “straight-up treason” over immigration policy. Laura Ingraham suggested Democrats opposing the Trump administration are trying to start an “armed rebellion,” and Newsmax’s Chris Plante asked, “At what point are they to be declared a terrorist organization?"
Manufacturing the friend-enemy distinction through political rhetoric and then enforcing that divide throughout society is an integral aspect of fascism: Those loyal to the regime are considered friends while those opposed are cast into the outer darkness, treated as enemies of the state, traitors, or parasites on the body politic. By calling into question the citizenship of immigrants, Muslims, and anyone who opposes the MAGA ideology, the right’s assault on American identity under the Trump administration is shaping a chilling new reality for our country.
And the MAGA assault on American identity is not just rhetorical — the angry rants on podcasts and social media platforms today could become White House policy tomorrow. Trump has mused about deporting U.S. citizens found guilty of a crime. Right-wing media have likewise campaigned to denaturalize and deport citizens.
“Not everyone in this country is an American,” said Walsh, “even the ones with legal status."
We’re seeing the end result of that mentality now: MAGA media want the Trump administration to target those with legal status next. Charlie Kirk made that clear, connecting all of these threads when he said, “If you're not an American, that's fine. Go back to your place of origin. … Just go back. Hasta la vista. But we have a culture to protect. We have a country to love. No man can serve two masters. Christ our Lord said that. We have a heritage to preserve."
//
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08/22/25
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MMA
08/12/25
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MMA
08/13/25
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MMA
Right-wing media call for “overwhelming force” and arrests in LA protests
Written by Chloe Simon & Reed McMaster
Published 06/12/25
Protests in Los Angeles have been ongoing as Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids continue to target migrant communities. In response, right-wing media have urged the Trump administration and law enforcement to crack down harder on protesters, called for Democratic officials to be arrested, and suggested the protesters were funded by outside groups.
Fox News host Laura Ingraham and others encouraged President Donald Trump to employ the Insurrection Act against protesters while Daily Wire host Matt Walsh said Trump should use “overwhelming force.” Fox host Sean Hannity and War Room host Steve Bannon have called for arrests of Democratic officials, and The Daily Caller blamed a “Pro-Chinese Communist Millionaire” for funding the protests.
Protests erupted after the Trump administration conducted ICE raids in LA and sent in troops
- In late May, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller demanded ICE officials begin targeting migrants at places of work, specifically noting stores like Home Depot and 7-Eleven. In an emergency meeting, Miller reportedly berated officials, according to three current and former immigration officials. One told The Washington Examiner, “They’ve been threatened, told they’re watching their emails and texts and Signals. That’s what is horrible about things right now. It’s a fearful environment. Everybody in leadership is afraid. … There’s no morale. Everybody is demoralized.” One official said Miller asked, “Why aren’t you at Home Depot? Why aren’t you at 7-Eleven?” Washington Examiner, [5/30/25]
- Protests erupted in LA following ICE raids on businesses in the area on Friday, June 6, and have continued after the Trump administration sent in the National Guard and Marines. The protests spread from the garment district, where agents were first spotted searching for migrants, and have been “largely peaceful.” The New York Times, [6/11/25]
- CNN reports “Trump is building a political case to use American troops not in a foreign conflict, but at home, to bolster his mass deportation sweeps.”CNN described Trump’s strategy as “conjuring a narrative of invasion and insurrection,” adding: “He’s exaggerating disorder in the relatively contained unrest, looting and protests in Los Angeles. And he’s implying that, to keep the country safe, he’s ready to deploy soldiers across the country.” CNN, [6/11/25]
- ## Right-wing pundits urged Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act, arrest protesters, or utilize “overwhelming force” to put down protests
- Fox News legal analyst Kerri Kupec Urbahn suggested the protests could give Trump a path to invoke the Insurrection Act. She claimed, “What the Trump administration could do, and there’s gonna be a lot of conversation about that publicly and I'm sure it’s happening right now behind the scenes, is invoking the Insurrection Act, which allows the United States government to send in military when there is an obstruction happening of federal law enforcement with or without the state's consent. So I think that may be where this is headed if this doesn't quiet down.” Fox News, *America’s Newsroom*, [6/9/25]
- In an op-ed for The Daily Wire, host Matt Walsh wrote, “The only solution, of course, is to treat them like the terrorists they are. Use overwhelming force to put down the riots.” He added: “Charge and convict the rioters and send them to prison for years. … Any illegal foreign invader involved in a riot should be shipped immediately to Guantanamo Bay.” The Daily Wire, [6/9/25]
- Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk suggested invoking the Insurrection Act. He claimed, “Los Angeles does not feel like a protest, what's happening there. It's an entire city that's declaring open rebellion to American sovereignty and authority.” Rumble, *The Charlie Kirk Show*, [6/9/25]
- Fox News host Laura Ingraham argued it would be Trump’s “right” and “obligation” to invoke the Insurrection Act if he feels the U.S. “is being threatened from within.” She said, “Now Democrats are pretending to be outraged about the prospect of Trump invoking the Insurrection Act. Which, of course, is his right. I’d say it's his obligation to do if — and it's his call — if he feels the United States is being threatened from within by violent, seditionary forces.” Fox News, *The Ingraham Angle*, [6/10/25]
- White nationalist streamer Nick Fuentes urged the Trump administration to use the protests “to federalize a National Guard and send it into the cities. Take over law enforcement. And above all else, use it to arrest thousands of people every day to be deported.” He also added, “If we're not doing that, then we're wasting our time here. It's just a big stunt.” Rumble, *America First with Nick Fuentes*, [6/10/25]
- Zach Hoyt, one of Twitch's most popular streamers who goes by “Asmongold,” called for the Trump administration to enact martial law and put protestors in “little camps.” Hoyt stated, “They just need to completely fucking, like, stomp this shit out.” He added, “Bring in the military, bring in the National Guard, fucking martial law, curfews — arrest all these people. Make the little camps where you can hold them in. Do the entire fucking thing.” Twitch, ZackRawrr, [6/9/25; The Atlantic, 4/25/25]
- ## Some commentators demanded Trump arrest Democratic politicians such as Gov. Gavin Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass
- War Roomhost Steve Bannon called for Bass’ arrest and accused officials of “getting in between ICE and other law enforcement.” He stated, “Right there, LAPD. The mayor is involved in this and having the stand down. She ought to be arrested today. Immediately.” Real Americas' Voice, *War Room*, [6/9/25]
- On his radio show, Fox News host Sean Hannity said Newsom “should be arrested for obstructing U.S. immigration law.” Premiere Radio Networks, *The Sean Hannity Show*, [6/9/25]
- In an interview with “border czar” Tom Homan, Trump ally Laura Loomer asked if he would criminally charge Democratic politicians like Newsom or Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) for “obstructionist behavior.” Loomer: “Are you having any discussions with DHS, with the DOJ, or with the Trump administration to possibly bring criminal charges for harboring of illegal aliens by people like Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, or mayor Karen Bass, or people like Nancy Pelosi or Maxine Waters, because this would really fit the bill of what you described as obstructionist behavior. It's incitement, in my opinion. They are inciting violence by fanning the flames of violence against ICE officials and people like yourself. What qualifies as obstructionist behavior, and will we see any Democrat lawmakers or the governor himself be criminally charged?” Rumble, *Loomer Unleashed*, [6/9/25]
- ## Some right-wing figures also suggested the protesters were paid and funded by China, billionaires, or church groups
- Fox & Friendshost Brian Kilmeade alleged that “the opposition” in Los Angeles includes groups “supported by the state, the government, and the Chinese government.” Kilmeade later claimed that “they are getting paid.” Fox News, *Fox & Friends*, [6/10/25]
- Bannon: “This thing is organized, it’s another huge thing financed by the Walton family and all these billionaires.” Real America’s Voice, *War Room*, [6/10/25]
- On Bannon’s podcast, conservative personality Ben Bergquam claimed Catholic Charities and Lutheran Social Services are behind the LA protests. He stated, “As soon as you start going after the organizations that are behind this, whether that's Catholic Charities, or Lutheran Social Services, or any of these organizations. The communist groups in our country that are working intentionally to undermine this nation, the liberation theology pastors in our country, all of this, that's the root of it.” Real America’s Voice, *War Room*, [6/9/25]
- The Daily Caller published an article headlined “Group Stoking Anti-ICE LA Riots Tied To Pro-Chinese Communist Millionaire.” The piece went on to allege that the “Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) spoke out in support of the mob rioting against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) over the weekend, posted to X to call for more action on Sunday and created signs that protesters were seen carrying. The PSL shares personnel overlap with groups funded by American tech mogul Neville Singham, whom The New York Times described in August 2023 as sitting at the center of a ‘lavishly funded influence campaign’ promoting pro-Chinese Communist Party (CCP) propaganda.” The Daily Caller, [6/9/25]
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mma
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06/10/25 9:24 AM EDT
06/09/25 7:55 PM EDT
06/09/25 6:28 PM EDT
06/09/25
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MMA
05/19/25
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MMA
Daily Wire's Matt Walsh: “There's a lot of inbreeding in Somalia, which affects IQ”
02/24/25
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mma
02/05/25
mma
Matt Walsh: Bishop Mariann Budde “is exhibit A for why women should not be pastors, priests, or bishops”](https://www.mediamatters.org/matt-walsh/matt-walsh-bishop-mariann-budde-exhibit-why-women-should-not-be-pastors-priests-or)
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mma October 31, 2024, edition of The Daily Wire's The Matt Walsh Show
MATT WALSH (HOST): Look, I know we all get a little exhausted by the constant complaints of double standards. Right? On the right, we're always whining about double standards, and it does get exhausting after a while. But also, it — we have to complain about it because the other option is to just accept the double standards and say nothing about them, which is not an agreeable option either. So, that's why I have to say, in this case, a guy named Douglass Mackey was put on trial by the Biden administration, and they're trying to send him to prison for exactly the kind of joke that Kimmel just told. Douglass MacKay, as we've talked about on the show many times — if you listen to the show, you're familiar with the case — he posted a meme, encouraging Hillary supporters to vote by text, and apparently, some of them were dumb enough to actually do it. And — but it was a joke because, of course, you can't vote by text. I'm sure we'll get to the point pretty soon where you can, but right now you can't. And Kimmel's telling exactly the same joke. The punch line is exactly the same, which is that, oh, I'm advising you to vote in a way that you can't really vote. If you try to vote that way, then your vote won't count. It's the same joke.
Which is why I am honestly not joking when I say that if Trump is elected, he should have Jimmy Kimmel arrested for that. He should have him arrested. He should open up a federal investigation and have this guy arrested, have him frog-marched from his studio into a jail cell. You gotta make these scumbags live according to their own rules. it's the only way. So, that's the only way that I stop complaining about the double standard is if we force one standard. If we say to them, like, this is the standard you're setting for us, and now we're gonna force you to live by it too.
Now, you might say that Jimmy Kimmel's joke is free speech. And it is. It totally is. It was free speech for Douglass Mackey too. But are we gonna continue protecting the free speech rights of people who are actively trying to imprison us for exercising our own free speech rights? I mean, that's just suicide.
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samewashing? normalizing fascism?
10/30/24 mma
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Mainstream media don’t have to take the right's phony outrage over Biden’s “garbage” comments seriously
Written by Gideon Taaffe
Published 10/30/24 mma
Some mainstream media outlets aided the inevitable right-wing outrage cycle regarding President Joe Biden's comments about a racist joke made at a Trump rally by adopting right-wing media's framing.
Speaking to nonprofit Voto Latino, Biden reacted to a comedian at Trump’s weekend rally calling Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage,” saying, “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporter’s — his — his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American. It’s totally contrary to everything we’ve done, everything we’ve been.”
NBC senior White House correspondent Gabe Gutierrez initially reportedthe comments as Biden calling Trump supporters “garbage”; Biden later clarified what he said, writing on social media, “Earlier today I referred to the hateful rhetoric about Puerto Rico spewed by Trump's supporter at his Madison Square Garden rally as garbage—which is the only word I can think of to describe it. His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable. That's all I meant to say. The comments at that rally don't reflect who we are as a nation.”
basket of deplorables problem? trying to get last few undecided?]
The next day, Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris told reporters that Biden “clarified his comments, but let me be clear: I strongly disagree with any criticism of people based on who they vote for.” She mentioned that she had called for unity in a speech the previous night, saying, “You heard my speech last night. I believe the work that I do is about representing all the people, whether they support me or not. I will be a President for all Americans.”
Even though Biden clarified his comments, many in the mainstream media posted headlines suggesting Biden called Trump supporters “garbage” and that his comments could give the right “a way to pivot away” from the overwhelming racism at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally.
The Associated Press incorrectly wrote that Biden “suggests Trump supporters are ‘garbage’ after comic’s insult of Puerto Rico.” ABC News wrote up right-wing media’s bad-faith outrage, saying in a headline that Biden “angers GOP associating ‘garbage’ with Trump supporters.” NPR framed Biden’s comment as “a divisive remark” in a piece titled “Harris urged unity in her closing argument. Biden's ‘garbage’ line undercut that.”
Biden’s comment predictably led to a deluge of apoplectic reactions from right-wing media figures, who falsely claimed that the president called all Trump supporters “garbage” and made comparisons to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s “basket of deplorables” comment during the 2016 election cycle. (That comment was also misleadingly covered at the time, with some saying she was referring to all Trump supporters, when Clinton was specifically talking about voters who supported Trump for “racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic” reasons.)
Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk fearmongered that Biden “is using dehumanizing language towards 80 million Americans,” adding, “They think you are garbage, therefore worthy of elimination.” Fox News called the comments the “2024 campaign’s October Surprise.” The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh said that the comments are “the kind of seething, anti-American contempt that you only find among Democrat elites.”
While right-wing media engage in bad-faith outrage over Biden’s comments, Trump has repeatedly disparaged the United States and Democrats during his campaign. He recently said America is “like a garbage can for the world” and has ramped up demonizing rhetoric toward immigrants and political foes. Trump has called Democrats “evil,” “dangerous,” and “enemies from within,” going as far as suggesting he will use the military against “radical left lunatics.”
By adopting the right-wing framing about Biden’s remarks, the mainstream media are enabling a false narrative that both sides are ramping up hostile rhetoric. They don’t need to engage in the right’s latest efforts to deflect from Trump’s racism and extremism.
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During former President Donald Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City, podcaster Tony Hinchcliffe attacked Puerto Rico, claiming it’s “literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean.”
Although the remarks sparked outrage, numerous right-wing media figures have defended him. Some attacked critics for allegedly not having a sense of humor; others agreed that Puerto Rico is trash or dismissed Puerto Rico’s electoral relevance.
Here are numerous examples from the hours after Hinchcliffe made those racist remarks.
Donald Trump Jr.responded by reposting Hinchliffe’s defense that “these people have no sense of humor.”
Fox & Friends is Fox News’ morning show that promotes Trump and his agenda. During the program, co-host Lawrence Jones said: “Number two, maybe it’s just me, Ainsley, I have a dark sense of humor, you know, And so I, like … maybe this was not the appropriate format for the comedian to be there? But it’s comedy.”
Laura Loomer is abigoted podcaster who is heavily connected to Trump. She responded by wondering, “Did the managers at @unitedtalent UTA leak Tony Hinchcliffe’s jokes? And if they did, did they do so because he’s Pro Trump?”
Matt Walsh is a bigoted podcaster. He wrote: “I hope everyone appreciates the masterful strategy here. Trump is goading the Dems into spending their final week crying about jokes. They are absolutely taking the bait. They can't help themselves.”
The Hodgetwinsare pro-Trump podcasters who have met Trump. They wrote: “Democrats must be retarded if they think a famous comedian telling a joke about Puerto Ricans is gonna get them to flip their vote to Kamala.”
Will Chamberlain is a Republican commentator and strategist. He wrote: “Man, Trump is going to really struggle now to win Puerto Rico’s 0 electoral votes.”
Milo Yiannopoulos is the far-right and bigoted commentator who worked with Steve Bannon to help elect Trump in 2016. He responded by attacking Puerto Ricans, writing: “Two things a Puerto Rican just won’t do 1. Describe themselves as American, no matter how many generations of American citizens precede them 2. Set foot in Puerto Rico.” He also wrote, “I agree with the Democrats, Puerto Ricans are emotionally incontinent children who can’t take a joke”; and “If you’re wondering how bad Puerto Rico is Venezuelans won’t go there.”
Andrew Torba is the antisemitic leader of the racist social media platform Gab. He wrote: “What are all of those people doing in Pennsylvania instead of Puerto Rico? Is it some kind of island of garbage or something?”
Carpe Donktum, real name Logan Cook, is a pro-Trump account meme maker. He responded by writing: “I can't believe that Trump might lose Puerto Rico's electoral votes because of a joke. Thanks @TonyHinchcliffe, way to go.”
===
mma
October 23, 2024, edition of The Daily Wire's The Matt Walsh Show
MATT WALSH (HOST): Now, some of the alleged witnesses of these alleged comments have come out publicly now and denied that Trump ever said it, and we'll get to that in a minute — ever said this thing about, you know, bearing an f-ing Mexican. But even without those denials, any intelligent person knows this is BS. OK? Nobody would say what Trump is claimed to have said here. Once again, Trump's enemies hate him so much that they can't even make up plausible lies about him.
Like, if you wanted to make up a more plausible lie, maybe you would claim that Trump offered to pay for the funeral expenses, but then later expressed dismay about how expensive it was and, you know, made some kind of comment about how the funeral industry rips people off. Now, I don't think that he would say that or did say that, but, you know, it's slightly more — like, it doesn't go the extra mile to make it outlandish. And it wouldn't be any kind of scandal if he did say that. But they go, you know, they go much further than that, and instead, they claim that it does — he said that it doesn't cost that much to bury an f-ing Mexican. Which is the kind of comment that a bad fiction writer would have their villain say.
And these corporate media journalists are bad fiction writers and Trump is their villain. And so this is the kind of dialogue you get from these people.
And it doesn't even make any sense. Like, what does her being Hispanic have to do with the funeral cost? Like, are we supposed to believe that Trump thought that funeral costs are staggered depending on the ethnicity of the people involved?
And again, these people hate Trump so much that they can't think clearly enough to make the lie more plausible. Like, they didn't even claim that it was — like they could have claimed that he said, oh, it doesn't cost that much to f-ing bury someone. Again, I wouldn't buy that either, but, like, that's more plausible than bury an f-ing Mexican. Like, who would why would he say that? It doesn't even make any sense. It's just it's totally asinine.
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Matt Walsh: “If somebody doesn't think they're racist, then they aren't racist”
09/05/24
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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.
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Matt Walsh: “The public school system should be totally abandoned”
07/17/24
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racist spin on india china BS mma 4 24
MATT WALSH (HOST): Most of the air and water pollution in the world comes from Asia. So, she says that climate change is not only a man-made problem, but a white man-made problem. Well, most of the air and water pollution on earth comes from Asia. In fact, we talked about it recently that one Asian country has 83 of the top 100 polluting cities — the cities that have the most pollution, one Asian country has 83 of those top 100 cities, and that's the country of India. So, you know, that's Asia. And then Africa is the second worst offender when it comes to water pollution specifically, which means that the people that are destroying the planet, the worst offenders at destroying the planet are non-whites.
A recent analysis showed that the United States is the largest historical emitter of carbon emissions by a wide margin. The Guardian reported in 2021:
The Carbon Brief analysis shows that about 85% of the cumulative emissions of the US and China are from fossil fuel burning, and 15% from deforestation, with the reverse true for Brazil and Indonesia.
...
The US has been the biggest cumulative polluter from 1850 all the way to the present day. Russia was the second biggest polluter until 2007, when its emissions were surpassed by China’s, whose emissions started rising rapidly from the 1970s. The UK was the third biggest emitter for a century, from 1870 until 1970, when it was overtaken by Brazil.
The Guardian also published this chart visualizing the data:
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Walsh: “Native tribes were five thousand years behind the civilized world ... The fact that they were also high all the time perhaps should tell us something”
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{{MMA 1 24 ERUPTION?
SCOTUS let feds nat guard cut texas barbed razor wire?
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MMA 1 24
:{MATT WALSH (HOST): Here we go again. Where they say that temperatures are the hottest, not just in our lifetime, and not just since they started keeping temperature records, and not even just since when they started keeping historical records of anything -- they're saying it's the hottest in 125,000 years, well before the dawn of human civilization. :{That's how far back they're going. And this is pretty simple. Your BS detector needs to be calibrated well enough to at least pick up on this kind of BS. You don't even need a BS detector. OK.}:
This is a dump truck load of BS pulling up right to your front door, and, I mean, you can sniff it out without much trouble. You don't even need to open the door to sniff it. The idea that anybody actually knows the precise global temperatures from 125,000 years ago is laughably ridiculous. OK, I don't care -- you can take any scientist with all the qualifications in the world, I don't care how long their resume is, how many papers they've written, how many schools, how many degrees they have and PhDs -- when they start saying that, you laugh in their face. You laugh in their face. You say, you moron. You're just an idiot is all you are, because it's completely insane.}:
:{Nobody has any freaking idea what the temperature was tens of thousands of years before the pyramids were built, much less when the pyramids were being built. Nobody knows. Nobody. How could they? There wasn't anyone around to keep track. Like, who are we going to ask? :{Now, do you know where they get these figures from? Because without fail, as I'm saying this right now, I'm going to get a bunch of smarmy comments -- you don't know any -- Read a book sometime. }:
You don't know anything about it. They can figure -- they know this. They know this for sure. And these people saying this, they don't know how. They don't know how. If you ask them, you go to the comments right now, and you see all the smarmy comments, and you ask any of them, well, yeah, how do they know? How do they know? Tell me how they know what the temperature was on, like, May 15th in the year 10,041 BC, what -- how do they know that? Well, they just do. It's science, because of science, and science is a magical crystal ball that tells them.}:
And the truth, if you want to know how they really get these numbers, is that they pull them out of their asses. That's how they get them. But a scientist won't tell you that if you ask him. If you ask him, oh, where did you get this? He won't say, why, from my own ass, of course. That's where I got it, even though it's true.
...
OK. So they are looking at ice -- they're looking at ice, and they're looking at tree rings. And from that, we're supposed to believe that they have extracted, not just very rough temperature, sort of ,ballpark estimates. But what we're supposed to believe is that they have precise yearly annual records that are accurate down to the last degree. That's what they want to believe. So, it's not like they're saying, OK, from the year 125,000 BC to 75,000 BC, during that global era, temperatures were relatively warm or whatever. You know, they're not saying that because that's a rough, very rough sort of generalized estimate. Instead, they want us to believe that they can identify the temperatures by exact years dating back 125 millennia and give exact temperatures by looking at tree rings.
I mean, this is -- I used this analogy yesterday for something else, but this is really like reading tarot cards. This is -- it's straight up superstition at this point. You might as well believe that someone could look at a tarot card and tell you what your future is going to be. So, it is totally absurd. And that's why, again, the only appropriate response to this is just to laugh at it.
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Matt Walsh: "Nonwhite countries are by far more racist than white ones" | Media Matters for America
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mma 12 23
:{:{In 2023, as climate-driven disasters plagued countries around the world and the COP28 climate change conference saw the adoption of a historic (though reportedly “loophole”-ridden) agreement referencing a transition away from fossil fuels for the first time, right-wing media remained committed to hindering progress}:
. Three concerning trends emerged in their strategies, which included facilitating comebacks for long-discredited climate deniers, cheering on violence against climate activists, and attributing deadly climate-driven events to conspiracies or religious calamity.}:
Right-wing media facilitated comebacks for long-discredited climate deniers.
Discredited climate deniers like Judith Curry, Patrick Moore, Anthony Watts, and Gregory Wrightstone, who have been vocal for decades, received renewed attention in 2023 from right-wing media figures, who seemed to be turning to views that stray further and further from established science.
Judith Curry, former chair of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Georgia Tech, consulted for oil and gas companies during her time in academia. She resigned from Georgia Tech in 2017 citing climate “craziness” and has been called out by other climate scientists for taking public positions reliant on debunked climate change denialarguments.
Patrick Moore is a former nuclear energy consultant and climate change denier who falsely claims he is a co-founder of Greenpeace. Anthony Watts runs a junk science climate denier blog and is a senior fellow at the fossil fuel-funded Heartland Institute. Gregory Wrightstone is a geologist who worked for the natural gas industry for 20 years, started a consulting firm for energy companies, and is now the executive director of a climate change denial non-profit.
- Climate deniers found a reliable home on Newsmax’s Rob Schmitt Tonight.Media Matters found that Curry and Moore appeared as guests on Newsmax’s Rob Schmitt Tonight combined at least 7 times in 2023 alone.
- In 2023, these climate deniers appeared on cable news for the first time in years. Wrightstone appeared on One America News, seemingly making his first cable news appearance since 2019. Moore and Curry both appeared on Fox News for the first time since 2019, and Watts appeared on Fox News for the first time, according to Media Matters’ records. Moore and Curry were guests on Jesse Watters Primetime and Watts was a guest on The Ingraham Angle. As predicted, Jesse Watters continued Tucker Carlson’s legacy of climate denial on Fox News. Media Matters, [7/17/23]
- On X (formerly Twitter), bad actors found support and saw their audiences grow as climate scientists fled the platform. In the past year, Curry’s account grew by approximately 31,600 followers while Moore’s account grew by more than 32,500. Media Matters previously reported that climate deniers and contrarians have benefited from Elon Musk’s takeover of the platform. “Yes the number of my followers is increasing much more rapidly than over the past year or so,” Curry said in a November 2022 tweet. Moore also expressed contentment with his account growth in April 2022. Social Blade, accessed 12/15/23; Twitter/X, [11/11/22, 4/6/22; Media Matters, 12/8/22; The Guardian, 8/15/23]
Right-wing media attempted to justify violence against climate activists engaging in non-violent direct action.
In 2023, activist groups doubled down on demands for a global transition away from fossil fuels. Their tactics included throwing paint or food on famous works of art and property, infiltrating cultural events, and obstructing busy roads, provoking outrage from right-wing media.
- Right-wing media escalated a yearslong campaign to frame protesters as violent, aggressive, and mentally ill to justify state efforts to criminalize civil disobedience.Right-wing influencers described climate activists as “enemies of humanity” and compared nonviolent direct actions, such as blocking roads, to “firing a gun into the air at random targets” and committing violent crimes. This framing has also been reflected in charges filed in Georgia, where authorities repurposed a state anti-terrorism law to target environmental activists as part of a crackdown on what they claim to be violent extremism. Media Matters, [2/1/23, 11/10/23; Drilled, 12/6/23; Grist; 1/27/23]
- Right-wing pundits have called for disproportionately severe punishments for those who have engaged in controversial and disruptive — but peaceful — acts of protest.The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh and former Daily Caller writer Greg Price have suggested that activists who have thrown food and paint at famous works of art should be dismembered, “beaten with a bullwhip,” or forced into “labor camps where they spend all day drilling for oil.” Media Matters [8/7/23; Media Matters, 2/1/23]
- When motorists responded to protests with violence, right-wing media repeatedly excused and even condoned the behavior.In November, Matt Walsh and other right-wing influencers blamed two government protesters in Panama for their own deaths after a U.S. citizen allegedly killed them for blocking the road. In Europe and in the U.S., violent motorists were praised and celebrated for beating up protesters who obstruct traffic. Media Matters, [11/10/23, 8/7/23; Media Matters, 2/1/23]
Conspiracy theorists and right-wing Christian media figures spread misinformation about extreme weather events, often suggesting they were planned or indicative of a religious event.
Conspiracy theorists spread misinformation about the causes of extreme weather events, often suggesting they are orchestrated occurrences. In parallel, conservative Christian media figures reject the scientific consensus on human-driven climate change, attributing such events to divine will and interpreting them as “demonic attacks,” manifestations of biblical prophecy, or signs of the End Times.
- Conspiracy theorists and right-wing media fabricated evidence that the fires that devastated the historic town of Lahaina, Hawaii, in August were planned. Claims that the fires were started by a direct energy weapon as a ploy to raise property prices or accelerate the construction of a “smart city” circulated online, and accounts used doctored images to back up these claims. YouTube and Meta allowed these posts to be monetized. Media Matters, [8/23/23]
- TikTok was a hotbed for misinformation about climate-driven events. TikTok videos falsely claiming that catastrophic wildfires plaguing Canada over the summer were started deliberately via helicopter, drone, or “Directed Energy Weapons” proliferated across social media, garnering millions of views. The fires received little coverage in U.S. media until smoke reached the East Coast, blanketing major cities in smoke and resulting in unhealthy air quality. Media Matters, [6/14/23]
- Right-wing Christian media figures and TikTok influencers dismissed climate change and instead cited biblical prophecy, the End Times, or “demonic attack” as explanations for extreme weather events. As concern about climate change declined among young evangelicals, Christian programs and news outlets such as FlashPoint and Charisma News attributed this summer’s heatwaves and wildfires to “God’s anger” and a “decline of morality.” TikTok accounts with hundreds of thousands of followers claimed the events were signs of the return of Jesus Christ. Even more mainstream right-wing media figures like Fox News hosts Tucker Carlson and Pete Hegseth suggested that only God controls the weather. Media Matters, [12/11/23]
- Climate change drove extreme wildfires in 2023.An August study found that human-induced climate change made Quebec’s 2023 fire season at least twice as likely and roughly 20% more intense. In the U.S. this year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration tracked 25 weather or climate disasters with losses exceeding $1 billion each. World Weather Attribution, [8/22/23; NOAA, 12/8/23]
2024 will be another crucial year for climate action, with the U.S.’s climate leadership and goals hinging on the election. While a recent CNN poll found that two-thirds of U.S. adults are concerned about the impacts of climate change in their communities, we can expect to see right-wing media assist GOP efforts to delegitimize and derail Biden’s landmark climate policy, the Inflation Reduction Act. In tandem, bad actors will also likely continue to shift the focus from these devastating impacts in order to vilify those speaking out about them, creating the potential for even more violence.
11/10/23 4:28 PM EST
06/14/23 12:45 PM EDT
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AHA SOVERIENTY IS GOD TERM // THE CONST BUT USEFUL IN TERMS OF YOU’RE NOT THE BOSS OF ME, CONST RT TO DO ANYTHING I WANT
Right-wing media figures exploit anti-immigrant riots in Ireland to demonize migrants and Muslims, and attack legal immigration
Steve Bannon, Tucker Carlson, and others pushed the “great replacement” conspiracy theory and falsely portrayed immigrants as threats to public safety
WRITTEN BY JOHN KNEFEL
RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM JACINA HOLLINS-BORGES, SOPHIE LAWTON & JACK WHEATLEY
PUBLISHED 11/30/23
Right-wing media figures reacted to anti-immigrant riots in Ireland by demonizing Muslims, falsely accusing migrants of being a risk to public safety and attacking the very idea of legal immigration. Their response is an escalation of the xenophobic rhetoric that right-wing media frequently direct at unauthorized migration, and is a clear attempt to push for policies that would drastically reduce legal immigration levels.
The riots in Dublin were sparked after early reports on November 23 that an Irish citizen who allegedly stabbed five people, including three children, was believed to have been born abroad — thus highlighting the suspect’s perceived foreignness. Subsequent reporting found that although the alleged attacker was apparently born in Algeria, he has lived in Ireland for at least 20 years, according to Irish authorities. Numerous studies have found that increased levels of immigration do not cause a rise in crime rates either in the United States or European countries.
This manufactured panic and demonization of a marginalized group echoes a similar episode from last week, when Fox News invented a terrorism scare over a car crash at the U.S.-Canada border and used the nonexistent plot to paint Muslims, Arabs, Palestinians, and their supporters as the culprits, only to retract its reporting hours later. Anti-Muslim hate incidents have also skyrocketed during Israel’s bombardment and invasion of the Gaza Strip after Hamas’ attack on October 7.
Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon exploited the Dublin attack to spread his anti-immigrant message across multiple platforms, including his own War Room podcast as well as Tucker Carlson’s show on X (formerly Twitter) and Donald Trump Jr.’s streaming show on Rumble, a far-right competitor to YouTube. In several of these segments, Bannon and his interlocutors endorsed versions of the racist “great replacement” conspiracy theory, which holds that liberal elites are attempting to change the demographics of white-majority countries through mass migration from the Global South to maintain political and economic dominance.
Prior to Fox News’ firing of Carlson, he was the network’s — and perhaps the entire country’s — most visible proponent of the great replacement theory. During Bannon’s appearance on Carlson’s show on November 27, both figures pushed openly nativist bigotry alongside the racist conspiracy theory.
Bannon referred to migrants to the United States and Ireland as “alien invaders,” adding that Irish politicians have “sold out the sovereignty of the Irish” and that the riots were “natural blowback.”
“The Irish government is trying to replace the population of Ireland with people from the Third World, obviously,” Carlson responded. “But why? What's the justification for that?”
“You talk about the great replacement theory and people are — oh, you know, people get very upset when you talk about it, but just look at the math,” Bannon answered.
“It’s not a theory,” Carlson interjected.
“This has happened across Europe,” Bannon continued. “It's happened in Germany.”
“In 100 years, there'll be a minority of Irish people in Ireland,” Carlson said. “That's a big change, and it's on purpose.”
Later in their conversation, Bannon endorsed mass deportations, saying: “I think illegal alien invaders are coming because they've gamed the asylum system. My belief is those people have to go home. They have to be returned, they have to leave our country or we're not going to have a country.”
Later that day, Bannon appeared on Donald Trump Jr.’s Triggered to celebrate Hungary’s far-right authoritarian leader Viktor Orbán and Irish mixed martial arts fighter Connor McGregor, who had come under police investigation following anti-migrant social media posts.
Video
CitationFrom the November 27, 2023, edition of Triggered, streamed on Rumble
Former President Donald Trump fought “for the sovereignty, not just of nation-states, but the sovereignty of the individual citizens in those nation-states,” Bannon said. “I think it's inspired Orban in Hungary. I think McGregor in Ireland standing up the other day was inspired by Donald Trump.”
The discussion then turned to the knife attack in Dublin, with the host claiming Arab and Muslim cultures celebrate anti-social violence.
“In their culture, they can stab people in the streets. It's fine. We must allow them to do that to our children,” Trump Jr. facetiously said, adding, “I mean, the government is taking an actively hostile position against their citizens in favor of, like, seemingly savages in many cases.”
Bannon returned to the subject the next day on his War Room podcast, calling for the “deportation of the 9 million — at least 9 million to 10 million — illegal alien invaders coming in the Biden regime.”
“What happened in Ireland — it's all coming here, folks,” Bannon warned ominously. “It’s all coming here.”
His guest the following hour was conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who has been increasingly embraced by right-wing media in recent years. Jones falsely claimed that “illegal aliens or migrants” are responsible for “the majority of muggings, rape, and murder in every European country."
That evening, Bannon discussed the violence in Ireland in another episode of War Room, where his guest, author Michael Walsh, again pushed the great replacement conspiracy theory.
“This was the spark that set off what’s become a powder keg across the country, which is the notion — widely held among the Irish people — that they’re being replaced by foreigners,” Walsh said. He added that the Irish government “is committed to this program of quiet replacement and has demonized what we would have called Irish patriots,” referring to the far-right mobs.
Several other right-wing media figures also used the riots to spread anti-migrant bigotry.
- BlazeTV’s Steve Deace defended the mob, arguing that “the Irish Proud Boy wannabes” are “not the villain here,” suggesting they “have had enough” and feel like “I’ve already lost my culture to Islam. Now our daughters are getting raped and assaulted” by the “rape-fugees we brought in.”
- “Concerned citizens in Dublin, Ireland look on helplessly as busloads of undocumented migrants are brought into their community,” anti-LGBTQ social media account Libs of Tik Tok posted on X (formerly Twitter).
- Salem Media’s Charlie Kirk questioned “how Ireland allowed so many foreigners and Third-Worlders into the beautiful country of Ireland?"
- Self-described “proud Islamophobe” Laura Loomer blamed the attack on a “Muslim migrant."
"Across the West, the status quo has become intolerable,” Loomer added. “The endless waves of immigrants, the devastation of our culture, and the crackdown against anyone who dares to stand against it has all become too much to bear.”
“There can be no doubt that the average person is, at last, awake to the gravity of the situation, and their anger is brewing,” Loomer continued. “White people, in particular, have taken all of this on the chin for the last few decades, but that appears to be coming to an end.”
- Former Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis argued that regardless of the suspect’s citizenship status, he “was an immigrant nonetheless,” claiming the incident was further evidence that “Europe is at the precipice of falling."
Following the riots, some observers of the far right argued that anti-immigrant sentiment had become a major issue in Ireland in recent years, and that politicians needed to do more to address the rising xenophobia. Right-wing media figures are determined to stand in the way.
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https://www.mediamatters.org/matt-walsh/daily-wires-matt-walsh-hires-gregg-re-former-tucker-carlson-producer-history-liking
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CHUTKAN
https://www.mediamatters.org/matt-walsh/daily-wires-matt-walsh-says-americas-founding-fathers-would-violently-overthrow-present
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no lnx twt
Edgelords at risk of falling off: Daily Wire hosts confirm YouTube strikes, suspensions
After stripping advertiser revenue from Matt Walsh’s YouTube channel, the platform suspended Candace Owens and Michael Knowles for violating the terms of service
Special PROGRAMS
LGBTQ
WRITTEN BY ARI DRENNEN
PUBLISHED 06/15/23
In what is becoming a regular series of disclosures, Daily Wire CEO Jeremy Boreing took to Twitter Sunday night to report that podcast hosts Candace Owens and Michael Knowles had both been suspended for receiving second strikes against their accounts on Friday and that Jordan Peterson had been given his first. Three strikes against a YouTube account in a 90-day period leads to its termination.
Matt Walsh’s YouTube account was stripped of advertiser revenue in April for hateful conduct against trans Bud Light model Dylan Mulvaney. Walsh said in a speech denouncing Media Matters that the move had cost him more than $100,000 per month, and he complained that “it doesn’t seem that other channels are being held to this standard right now.”
That seems to be changing: Boreing alleged that “in the last 90 days, our accounts have received 104 violations for ‘Hateful and Derogatory’ content, earning them ‘limited monetization,’” He added that “nearly every one of these violations comes from our coverage of the trans debate.”
The Daily Wire once again credited Media Matters for YouTube’s decision to enforce its existing terms of service, with vice president of public relations Alyssa Cordova sharing an article from March that enumerated the anti-trans hate published across Daily Wire YouTube channels.
In a Twitter thread posted Wednesday, Knowles claimed that he had received a weeklong suspension from YouTube for violations including implying that trans people are “mentally inferior” and referring to Mulvaney using he/him pronouns.
Recent weeks of Candace Owens have featured the personality urging viewers to avoid shopping at Target “or else you’re gay and you’re a pervert,” claiming that “transgenderism” is “a cancer and we should fight it,” and bragging that she could “beat up” a nonbinary Navy service member.
Knowles has argued that banning books and drag queens is “very American,” called to ban the Pride flag and other LGBTQ symbols, and breathlessly warned viewers that “hypnosis pornography” might turn them trans. This dark and dehumanizing rhetoric fits with a larger vision of state violence against marginalized communities.
In his thread about the suspensions, Boreing called out investment firms Blackrock and Vanguard,joining a larger conservative effort to cancel companies with pro-LGBTQ policies.Peterson called the two companies “sworn enemies” and promised retribution that would make Target and Bud Light “sideshows by comparison.”
Despite the action on YouTube, the DailyWire+ app remains available on the Google Play Store, which says that it disallows “apps that promote violence, or incite hatred against individuals or groups based on race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, age, nationality, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, caste, immigration status, or any other characteristic that is associated with systemic discrimination or marginalization.”
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The DailyWire+ app is also available on the Apple App Store, which claims to ban “defamatory, discriminatory, or mean-spirited content, including references or commentary” about sexual orientation and gender, particularly if the app or content “is likely to humiliate, intimidate, or harm a targeted individual or group.” Apple removed Infowars, the podcast hosted by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, from the platform in September of 2018, spurring other tech companies to do the same, and severely limiting the reach of Jones’ harmful rhetoric.
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8 23 snapshot
https://www.mediamatters.org/climate-deniers/15-nonsensical-comments-made-right-wing-media-during-2023s-summer-climate-fueled
15 nonsensical comments made by right-wing media during 2023’s summer of climate-fueled extreme weather events
Special PROGRAMS
CLIMATE & ENERGY
WRITTEN BY ALLISON FISHER
PUBLISHED 08/07/23
July 2023 was the earth’s hottest month on record, punctuated by record-shattering extreme heat events, catastrophic floods, and historic wildfires. While major media outlets sounded the alarm on the climate crisis, climate denial and downplay reached a fever pitch among right-wing media outlets and influencers.
Many in the right-wing media have downplayed the record heat — suggesting that it’s normal summer weather, despite clear evidence that the intensity of this summer’s heat waves would not have been possible without climate change — or dismissed its lethal impact by arguing that more people die of cold than heat. Others have said those linking July’s extreme weather to climate change are weaponizing these events to push a radical climate agenda or call for climate lockdowns.
Here are 15 other examples that illustrate the lengths to which right-wing media are going — often deploying nonsensical arguments or outright lies that attempt to ignore the fact that there is scientific consensus that carbon emissions are heating our planet— to maintain climate denial in the face of climate-fueled catastrophes:
1 in
- response to extreme weather that grounded planes in the Northeast, Fox host Rachel Campos-Duffy said the left is “trying to control the weather” and “trying to be God.” Fox News, Fox & Friends, [7/3/23]
- Responding to calls for climate action, Newsmax host Eric Bolling denied that human activity is responsible for warming: “Real scientists, meaning those not purchased by the kings of propaganda, well, they’ll tell you there is actually no such thing as climate change.” Newsmax, Eric Bolling The Balance, [7/11/23]
- Fossil fuel shill Steve Milloy on Newsmax’s Rob Schmitt Tonight: “The Earth is greener than ever before. Have we affected the planet and wildlife? Yeah, sure. But you know, in the end, it's been, I think, positive. The Earth is carrying more life now than ever before thanks to warming, thanks to CO2, thanks to fossil fuel use.” Newsmax, Rob Schmitt Tonight, [7/11/23]
- Newsmax host Greg Kelly said that “LGBTQ+IA whatever has been kind of pushed so relentlessly. … I think climate change and the whole phony debate about it has something to do with it,” suggesting the goal is to decrease population in order to reduce climate impacts. Newsmax, Greg Kelly Reports, [7/11/23]
- Fox host Jesse Watters suggested that U.S. special presidential envoy for climateJohn Kerry made it “impossible” to believe in climate change because according to Watters he lied about using a private plane. Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, [7/13/23]
- Conservative radio and Fox News host Mark Levin on his radio show said climate change is a religion not based on science: “This is a religion. This is an ideology. This isn’t science. ...Don't you see how hot it is in Nevada? In the middle of the damn summer?It's what we have air conditioning for.”Westwood One, The Mark Levin Show, [7/13/23]
- Far-right media host Steven Crowder claims that carbon dioxide is not pollution because plants use it: “Is carbon dioxide the — basically, you know, the neurotoxin atmospheric poison that people make it out to be? Because you just pointed outplants thrive on it.” Rumble, Louder with Crowder, [7/15/23]
- Fox host Greg Gutfeld attempted to downplay the record-breaking heat with bizarre logic: “The problem with using weather — like saying, ‘This place broke records’ — how many states,how many countries didn't break records? Nobody ever provides you the context. They’re going, ‘Three countries had record-breaking heat waves.’ It’s like, well, how many countries are there?” Fox News, The Five, [7/17/23]
- The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh claimed that the record heat is not a result of human activity but the sun::{ “The sun … that’s what calls the shots on Earth. It determines the temperature. It determines everything in terms of weather. … And until you can figure out a way to literally control the sun, there is basically nothing we can do to intentionally and significantly raise, lower, or otherwise affect the temperature on Earth.” The Daily Wire, The Matt Walsh Show, :(style="background-color:#ffffffff"):}:[7/18/23:{]}:
- The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro: “Thank God we have this thing called air conditioning. … You know what’s a great cure for being super-duper hot outside? Being a first world country.” The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, [7/20/23]
- Fox Business host Larry Kudlow on America Reports: “This is not an overly hot July. ... Hot weather happens in some places; cooler weather happens in other places. We do not have a climate catastrophe.” Fox News, America Reports, [7/21/23]
- Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk on climate science and why carbon dioxide is not pollution: “The science is not solid. The science is debated. They look at science as if it is religious, irrefutable dogma.” Kirk added, “The built-in premise of the climate hoax is carbon is bad. OK, well, carbon is life, actually. … Don’t plants thrive on carbon dioxide?” Real America’s Voice, The Charlie Kirk Show, [7/24/23]
- On The Ingraham Angle, American Majority founder Ned Ryun called climate change a “hoax”: “It is nothing more than an attempt to manipulate people into a state of fear to have them give more control over to a ruling elitewho would take thishoaxand enforce it through a whole host of means.” Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, [7/27/23]
- On America’s Newsroom, fossil fuel shill Daniel Turner deliberately conflated weather with climate: “And if you look at the weather forecast for this great city, where I’m born and raised, next Friday is mid-70s. So we are in what's called a heat wave.” Fox News, America’s Newsroom, [7/28/23]
- Climate denier Marc Morano on Jesse Watters Primetime blamed global wildfires on arsonists, dismissing the role of climate change: “This is a global problem of people starting this. Now, is it climate change? Well, this would be the equivalent of blowing up a dam or sabotaging a dam and allowing a valley to flood and then saying, oh, look, climate change is causing more floods.” Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, [7/28/23]
Pagination
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whadda tool
https://www.mediamatters.org/jesse-watters/jesse-watters-bringing-his-egregious-brand-climate-denial-8pm-hour
fox News host Jesse Watters, whose primetime show is slated to take over the 8 p.m. slot, has successfully spun misinformation about renewable energy, decarbonization, and even public health initiatives into ubiquitous talking points that are now routinely used by climate change deniers.
Watters’ unrelenting posture of condescension falsely brands climate change mitigation as a corruption-laced grift to leech money from unsuspecting Americans, inviting fossil fuel shills and climate deniers to fill in the gaps of his outlandish theories. For Watters, the depths of the supposed lies from the environmental movement are only made more ironic by the triviality of the climate crisis and its consequences for his audience.
In the past year, Watters doubled down on feeding this delusion:
- Watters said that global warming is “more about corporate propaganda. They’re just saying, ‘You have to buy, or you’re going to die.’” He continued, “You got to get a new car; you got to get solar panels; you got to get a new stove. Who do you think has the money? They get the money and our prices go up.” Fox News, *The Five*, [2/1/23]
- In a segment on gas stoves Watters said, “They’re trying to force their green industrial revolution on us, whether we want it or not. Seems like this is just a ploy to get them to buy more stuff the Democrats are selling.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [1/10/23]
- Before an interview with renewable energy opponent Michael Schellenberger, Watters said that “climate change hysteria” is “all cash”:“It’s all a ruse. So what’s the climate hysteria really about? It’s all cash…The climate stuff sounds to me like corporate America’s making us buy new stuff, and then making us feel guilty for not buying it.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [1/3/23]
- Watters claimed that CNN modeling sea level rise of New York City is “just to scare us into paying more taxes to the government to fight global warming.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [2/16/22]
- In a segment where he claimed voters don’t care about climate change, he said, “Certain parts of the world will get a tiny bit warmer, but the United States will do just fine.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [7/20/22]
- Using a popular climate change denier talking point, Watters insisted that, “Nowhere though have experts been more wrong than on climate change.”Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [4/12/22]
Consequently, his show, Jesse Watters Primetime, has been a boon to various bad actors and industry executives in their efforts to hinder an economy-wide transition away from fossil fuels by vilifying wind farms without evidence.
Watters unleashed a deluge of misinformation about offshore wind and whales...
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https://www.mediamatters.org/daily-wire/daily-wires-authoritarian-vision-increasing-state-sanctioned-violence-against-oppressed
no lnx vid
the Daily Wire’s authoritarian vision for increasing state-sanctioned violence against oppressed communities
The right-wing media outlet has become increasingly open about using police, prisons, and bans on books and Pride events to carry out its conservative agenda
Special PROGRAMS
LGBTQ
WRITTEN BY JOHN KNEFEL
RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM JACINA HOLLINS-BORGES
PUBLISHED 06/13/23
“The law is a teacher,” Michael Knowles said last month as he launched into one of his darkly ministerial rants about punishing trans and LGBTQ people. But for Knowles and his colleagues at The Daily Wire, it seems the law is more like a weapon, and one that they feel increasingly comfortable aiming at their perceived enemies.
This year alone, several of the site’s marquee stars — including Knowles, Matt Walsh, and Candace Owens — have called for massive expansions of the death penalty and the prison-industrial complex, and have celebrated state-backed repression of ideas and freedom of assembly though bans on books and LGBTQ events. Taken together, these calls to expand state capacity to reinforce existing racial and gender hierarchies — by targeting those who deviate from or challenge those structures — articulate a broader ideology, with the unambiguous goal of using state power to make life in the United State intolerable for anyone they label as a disfavored group or organization.
On May 23,the Daily Wire announced that it would begin working in partnership with Twitter to stream its shows for free on the increasingly extremist-friendly platform. It remains to be seen what effect this will have on the Daily Wire’s overall reach, but the move signals the outlet’s potential ascension, or at least aspiration, to serve as an alternative to Fox News. The joint effort with Twitter will also likely increase the ability of Daily Wire hosts to directly affect government policy; for instance, Walsh was an early supporter of a Tennessee bill, now a law, that prohibits gender-affirming care for trans youth. The outlet already has a sizable footprint on Facebook, generating millions of interactions through its anti-trans content. At the same time, YouTube has at times demonetized or suspended Daily Wire shows for violating the platform’s anti-hate speech policy.
Conservative media have historically embraced the rhetoric of small government while simultaneously advocating for expansive “big government” policies that entrench existing inequalities. Right-wing media have long advocated for using state power to control abortion and reproductive rights, to limit marriage rights to heterosexual couples only, to prohibit and penalize the use of racialized drugs, to expand policing in majority Black and brown communities, and to construct racist legal regimes, such as Jim Crow. That suite of policies in no way represents a small or limited vision of government — it exerts tremendous coercive power over individuals’ daily lives.
Current right-wing punditry, especially at the Daily Wire, has abandoned even the fig leaf of small government rhetoric. Daily Wire hosts now openly embrace the power of the state to punish, imprison, and kill those under its control, as the examples below — all from this year alone — demonstrate.
The Daily Wire’s approach to the death penalty: “Just execute them all”
Among Daily Wire hosts, Walsh is the most open in his desire to use state power to execute people he has deemed undesirable. As Media Matters previously reported, Walsh praised Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for signing a bill in early May that would expand the death penalty as a potential punishment for people convicted of sexual assault of a child younger than 12. The new law is in direct violation of Kennedy v. Louisiana, a Supreme Court case that ruled the death penalty is available as punishment only if the offender murders the child as well.
Walsh’s endorsement of DeSantis’ new law needs to be understood within the larger campaign right-wing media have waged against LGBTQ communities. Over the last year, conservative pundits have resurrected the myth that gay people, trans people, nonbinary people, and drag performers are a threat to children, referring to them as “groomers” and “pedophiles.” Florida’s expansion of the death penalty under the guise of protecting children is in fact an extension of the state’s totalitarian project to eliminate trans people from public life all together, a goal that Daily Wire hosts share.
Video
CitationFrom the May 2, 2023, edition of the Daily Wire's The Matt Walsh Show
In discussing the new law, specifically in the context of the Kennedy decision, Walsh celebrated the fact that in theory “we don't have to make choices” between executing murderers and child sex abusers. “We can execute all of them.”
“We should be able to, anyway. Execute all the worst people, all of the worst criminals. Just execute them all,” he added. “And this is the right first step. There's a lot more that needs to be done. I mean, this is actual criminal justice reform.”
Walsh then justified his policy on the grounds that long-term imprisonment is costly, when in reality, studies have consistently found that the death penalty is more expensive than life-without-parole sentences. “I would say that along with everything else, it is an unjust and undue burden on society,” Walsh said. “You know, as a taxpayer, I should not be required to keep child rapists alive just because we're too squeamish to execute them as we should.”
He then proposed further cutting costs by abolishing the criminal appeals process for these cases altogether.
“And if we're really starting to understand that society — if we're really starting to reform the system, you know, then we're going to start talking about not only are we executing these people, but we're doing it quickly. We're not giving them 30 years to appeal, OK? The conviction is passed down, you're convicted, you're guilty, you've been found guilty, and then the execution is carried out the next day — how about, carried out at dawn following the conviction.”
Walsh had made similar comments in February. After describing what he sees as a vast conspiracy in the medical community to cover up the harms of gender-affirming care — which is in fact safe and associated with positive health outcomes — Walsh outlined his preferred remedy.
“The next step under a Trump administration, or any Republican administration, should be to arrest the culprits, the hundreds and hundreds of them, if not thousands of them, and throw them in federal prison,” Walsh said. “Now, this can't be a matter of simple fines and financial penalties – I mean, that should be part of it. But the only real recourse here, the only semblance of justice, would be prison sentences, very long ones.”
“Now, if it were up to me, you know, we'd go further than that,” he continued. “As far as I'm concerned, mutilating and castrating children should be legally considered a capital crime and it should earn the prescribed penalty for such crimes. But if we can't have that, then prison will have to suffice.”
Walsh’s bloodlust doesn’t end there. He has advocated for expanding the death penalty to include people convicted of selling illicit drugs, a position he shares with former President Donald Trump. In his May 18 episode, Walsh read a news story about the spread of xylazine, a tranquilizer that is sometimes combined with illicit drugs, including fentanyl.
Video
CitationFrom the May 18, 2023, edition of The Matt Walsh Show
“The people that are actually selling this stuff, the people that are responsible for turning our cities into zombified wastelands, we should be discussing much more severe penalties for them,” Walsh said. “And when I say, ‘much more severe,’ I mean the most severe penalties — the death penalty.”
“It is a form of murder,” Walsh added. “You’re giving these drugs — the fact that they want it doesn’t make it any different, doesn’t make it better. You are killing people en masse and the distributors of these drugs are mass murderers, there’s no question about that, and they should face the penalties prescribed for that.”
Walsh isn’t the only Daily Wire host who sees the salutary effects of expanding the death penalty. His colleague Knowleshas called for the return of public executions, which “would do a lot to bring back the deterrent effect of capital punishment, certainly,” a position he shares with other conservatives.
Hangings in the town square, or their contemporary equivalent, would also have the added benefit from Knowles’ perspective of foregrounding Christianity in public life. “And so, we live our lives trying to put it out of our head. But death is very important,” Knowles said. “It's one of the four final things — death, judgment, heaven, and hell. You're living your life as a preparation to die, and you need to be prepared for your death.”
In May, Knowles offered his own circumscribed support for DeSantis’ bill to expand the death penalty, again appealing to the Bible’s authority.
“Ron DeSantis says we’re challenging that now if you rape a child, pretty much the most heinous crime you can imagine, you get the death penalty. Totally agree with that in principle,” Knowles said. “I see no problem with that in principle. I see no problem with the death penalty in principle. In fact, I think it's quite natural, biblical.”
Knowles' hesitancy was due to his fear that the law could create unintended incentives, but he had no compunctions about the morality of it.
“I don't actually agree with this particular instantiation of the death penalty in practice,” he said. “In principle, I do. But in practice, the only reason I don't is that as a matter of prudence, if you don't kill child rapists, if you, if the punishment is not execution, then it creates some incentive for the rapist not to murder his victim. So if there's any way that through the law, we can incentivize a rapist not to murder his victim, I think that's probably wise and prudent. In principle, they deserve death, certainly.”
Daily Wire hosts frequently find inspiration from some of the world’s most oppressive legal punishment systems. In late May, Knowles criticized a New York Times tweet about a new anti-LGBTQ law in Uganda, claiming that the paper’s social media post had implied that the death penalty could apply to all gay people in the country.
“The death penalty is not for just being a little light in the loafers; the death penalty is for raping children,” Knowles said. He then contrasted the Twitter post to the Times’ print article, which foregrounded that aspect of the new law and clarified what the social media feed elided.
“The New York Times is defending Ugandan child rapists to own the cons,” he added, referring to conservatives. “Now call me a hardliner if you want, but I think it is not unreasonable to execute child rapists.”
“Attempted child rape only gets 14 years in prison,” he continued. “If anything, that aspect of the law is too lenient.”
Walsh praised the law as well, calling for its universal implementation and doubling down on his call to expand the death penalty beyond capital offenses. “This should be happening everywhere,” Walsh said. “Of course child rapists should be put to death. The idea that you can only put someone to death if they also kill their victim — it’s absurd, really. It’s an absurd idea.”
The Daily Wire’s vision for using police and prisons against its enemies: “We have to stop them aggressively, by force, by law.”
The death penalty is the ultimate form of state violence, but not the only one. As the above examples demonstrate, Daily Wire hosts frequently fantasize about incarcerating their declared enemies for extraordinary lengths of time.
Walsh hands out theoretical prison sentences with all the gusto of a tyrant-in-waiting. In addition to demanding mass arrests of LGBTQ health care providers and people who sell drugs, he also called for “life sentences for those who falsely accuse someone of rape because to falsely accuse someone of rape is just as bad as being a rapist,” specifing on Twitter that life sentences should be “mandatory.”
After the singer Lizzo defied Tennessee’s ban on drag shows, Walsh tweeted: “Throw her in jail.” He tweeted that a middle school teacher who gave her kids an LGBTQ-themed book “deserves to be in prison.” When college students protested an appearance by anti-trans activist Riley Gaines, Walsh wrote: “They all should be expelled and thrown in prison.”
During his June 2 show, Walsh illustrated how he repurposes anti-LGBTQ language to demand the imprisonment of the Daily Wire’s other enemies — in this case, a teacher giving students a sex ed lesson. Walsh played a clip of a teacher describing some of the basics of human sexual anatomy and then explaining that some big box stores sell sex toys.
“I can keep saying it and sounding like a broken record, but I will say it every time — that woman should be in prison. That should be a prison sentence,” Walsh said. “That’s the next step, the next phase — or it should be, for Republicans. There’s been a real effort to ban this kind of discussion from classrooms, which is good, but next we need to start saying that the teachers who engage in this behavior are sexual predators.”
“You are preying sexually on kids. You need to go to jail for that” Walsh added. “We will know that some semblance of sanity has been restored to this country when we see a video like that, but instead of just cutting off, it ends with police officers walking into that room, putting that disgusting predator in handcuffs, and carting her out of the room, and then throwing her into a jail cell. Throwing her into a cage like an animal.”
Far and away, Walsh directs most of his carceral demands at LGBTQ communities. On June 6, he reacted to a video of the West Hollywood Pride parade by saying every participant, and potentially every spectator, should be imprisoned for life. “In a functioning, civilized society, everyone involved in that parade — really a combination of public indecency and child abuse — would be arrested and never let out of prison.”
In March, Walsh laid out a typically vengeful fantasy of how to deal with parents who brought their children to an all-ages drag show.
Video
CitationFrom the March 2, 2023, edition of The Matt Walsh Show
“There are varied motivations for all of these adults,” who either performed at or attended the show, Walsh said. “But one thing that they all have in common is that they should all be sitting in a prison cell right now, and we will know that we have restored some semblance of sanity and dignity in our culture when — but not until — we start seeing law enforcement officers swarming these kinds of events, handcuffing every adult in the room, and frog marching them out of the building and into a prison cell.”
He then endorsed submitting drag performers to the very real threat of sexual violence at the hands of other incarcerated people or guards. “You can take the drag perverts, in their thongs, and just throw them right in the jail. We’ll see how sexually expressive they want to be in that environment,” Walsh continued. “And then you take the kids away from the parents, and you throw the parents into jail right alongside them.”
“That’s how we have to respond, because these perverts are not going to stop on their own. They will only get more brazen,” he concluded. “We have to stop them aggressively, by force, by law. And that’s why we need every Republican presidential candidate for 2024 to promise a federal ban on these child drag shows.”
Walsh isn’t the only Daily Wire host who frequently demands that parents lose custody of their children and face prison time if they have attended an LGBTQ event. On March 3, Knowles called for “the heavy hand of the state” to separate families, jail parents, and shutter businesses that host drag events.
Knowles called for “the heavy hand of the state” to separate families, jail parents, and shutter businesses that host drag events.
“I don't see how these parents should be permitted to keep their children,” Knowles said. “They're abusing their children. They're sexually abusing their children by taking them to these events.”
“I don't see how whatever company is hosting this should be allowed to keep its doors open,” he continued. “All of this should be shut down by the heavy hand of the state. All of these people, other than the children, should be arrested and some of them should face pretty severe consequences.”
Knowles used the phrase again on June 8, also targeting LGBTQ people and organizations that support them. “We need the heavy hand of the state to go in, as our duly elected representatives, and break up that Pride cartel,” he said.
In May, Knowles reacted to a TikTok post calling for civil disobedience from trans people and their health care providers to protest anti-LGBTQ laws in Mississippi. “If they do that, then we need to give them what they ask for,” Knowles said. “If they do that — say, ‘We’re gonna break the law, consequences come what may’ — we need to throw them into prison. And that’s going to be the next step.”
Video
Citation From the May 19, 2023, edition of The Daily Wire's The Michael Knowles Show
“Signing the legislation is really really great, and it’s good stuff for the Republican governors who have done that and legislatures that have done that, but now, when people break the laws, when they peddle porn to kids in elementary schools, when they trans the children — we’re getting reports that in Texas Children’s Hospital some of these quacks perform sex change procedures on kids as young as 11, OK?” Knowles continued. “When these people break the law, we need to throw the book at them.”
Knowles then mischaracterized former Marine Daniel Penny’s killing of Jordan Neely, a Black unhoused subway performer, to further articulate whom the law should punish and whom it should protect. “We’re now living in a system in which if you’re a good American Marine who has served your country, you’re a good patriot and you protect people from a career-violent criminal with dozens and dozens of arrests, including for assault, and you protect them from a guy who’s saying, ‘I’m going to kill an F, I’m gonna kill, I don’t care, I’m prepared to die,’ you’re gonna go to prison — they’re going to throw the book at you.”
“But if you chop off kids’ genitals, you’re not even going to get a slap on the wrist, OK? We’re living in that system right now,” Knowles concluded. “And we need to flip that situation. We need to live in a system that does not punish people for doing good things, but encourages them to do good things. And we need to live in a system that punishes people for doing bad things — very, very bad things, in this case.”
Fellow Daily Wire host Owens has also called for people who provide gender-affirming care to trans youth to be imprisoned and prevented from practicing medicine. On May 16, Owens discussed a video from a TikTok personality named Zaya who described the challenges she faced following bottom surgery.
Owens has also called for people who provide gender-affirming care to trans youth to be imprisoned and prevented from practicing medicine
Owens blamed Zaya’s transition on the so-called social contagion effect — an anti-trans fiction that has been debunked — concluding that “Zaya was then harmed by a doctor who should be in prison. I believe that if you are chopping off people’s penises you should probably be in prison and you should not be allowed to practice medicine at all.”
Like her Daily Wire colleagues, Owens doesn’t limit her calls for harsh prison sentences to LGBTQ communities. She joined Knowles in invoking Neely as an appropriate target of state power, arguing that his previous arrest record showed the state had been too lenient in doling out punishment, and that subjecting Neely to custodial measures amounting to torture would’ve been in his own self-interest.
“So, yes, if he had been locked up and in solitary confinement — which is where I would have put him if I was running that city — then he would still be alive. He would be,” Owens said. “Someone that has 44 arrests over 10 years is someone to me that does not deserve another chance, OK? He should have been locked up permanently about 40 arrests ago.”
In addition to Owens’ extreme and tyrannical proposition that four arrests should result in lifetime imprisonment, it’s worth underscoring how dictatorial her concept of judgment and sentencing is. She imagines how she would respond “if I was running that city,” articulating a revealing conceptual slippage that transforms an elected mayor into a totalitarian ruler who also occupies the role of judge and jury.
The Daily Wire’s desire to control adults’ behavior extends to their imagined subjects’ media consumption habits as well. On at least two occasions this year, Walsh has called for a ban on pornography. In one instance he proposed imprisoning people in the industry.
On May 3, Walsh discussed a Utah law mandating age verification to access Pornhub in the state. Industry representatives and free speech advocates opposed the law on the grounds that the law was unconstitutional and counterproductive to its stated goals of protecting minors. Walsh responded to the objections by calling for a total ban on pornography under threat of prison.
“It behooves you, if you’re a porn enthusiast or if you’re someone who is involved in the porn industry — it behooves you to figure out a way to keep this filth away from kids, because if you can’t figure it out then the next step is that it’s all banned,” Walsh said. “And then anyone involved in Pornhub goes to prison. How about that?”
“I’d be fine with just skipping right to that part, but if we’re not, then I think this is a reasonable compromise,” he continued.
Walsh returned to the topic on May 30 in a segment dedicated to porn’s supposed responsibility for the purported decline of testosterone in men in the United States, and what he argued was the lower birth rates that resulted from it.
“If our political leaders wanted to take a serious step to increase fertility rates, by the same token, they could start passing laws to help free the population, especially the young male population, from the stranglehold that the porn industry has on it,” Walsh said.
The overt desire for centralized, discretionary carceral power also finds expression in the Daily Wire’s collective adoration of El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele. Just as Knowles found common ground with Uganda’s anti-LGBTQ law, Daily Wire hosts have repeatedly praised Bukele, a right-wing authoritarian who has dramatically expanded his country’s carceral system by building a so-called “mega-prison” under the pretext of addressing gang violence.
Daily Wire hosts have repeatedly praised Bukele, a right-wing authoritarian who has dramatically expanded his country’s carceral system by building a so-called “mega-prison”
Knowles celebrated the new prison — which is rife with human rights abuses — at least three times this year, including arguing in February, “We in the United States need to follow the lead of the government of El Salvador.”
Owens echoed him in early March. “You would think that America should look at this and applaud it and say, ‘We need this,’ because crimes are getting so insane in America,” she said.
Days later, Walsh struck the same note. He began by discussing a Financial Times report that found the prison was “overcrowded by design” and if filled to its expected capacity would provide space that “is a fraction of what is expected for humane incarceration and less than half the minimum required under EU law to transport midsized cattle by road.”
Video
CitationFrom the March 8, 2023, edition of The Daily Wire's The Matt Walsh Show
After playing footage from inside the prison aired by CNN, Walsh commented, “This is actually justice,” before affirming the prison’s cruelty as a desirable feature.
“Prisons are not supposed to be comfortable,” he added. “They are supposed to be the kinds of places that you really don’t want to go to. It’s supposed to be a punishment. You’re supposed to suffer when you’re in prison. That’s what punishment is meant to do. It is meant to cause suffering.”
“Not just suffering for its own sake but for a purpose — and the purpose ultimately is justice,” he continued. “There is no such thing as justice if you are not causing suffering to evildoers.”
The next month, Walsh pushed for authorities in the United States to construct “50 new prisons” to produce exactly that type of suffering. “And if you don't have the money for it,” he suggested, “then raise the taxes in these cities.”
The Daily Wire’s totalitarian drive to outlaw same-sex marriage and adoption, criminalize gender-affirming care, and "ban transgenderism entirely”
Sometimes the Daily Wire hosts’ threats of state violence are implicit, rather than overt. The network’s on-air talent frequently calls for bans of various sorts — typically of books or events associated with LGBTQ communities and identities, or of institutions that provide health care to trans people. In these cases, the repressive apparatus of the state looms in the background, its coercive power unstated but omnipresent.
On June 8, Walsh hyped a hoax he performed on a healthcare provider for trans people, then laid out his desired consequences. “Several states now have more than enough justification to issue subpoenas to these telehealth providers to see just how fraudulent their operations really are, and how far this goes,” he said.
Back in early February, Walsh responded to Minnesota trans activist Amber Mom expressing her fear that her state — which she described as relatively accepting — could pass bans on trans health care and her resulting desire to “flee the country.” To Walsh, that was a desirable outcome.
If Mom is “doing that, you know, in part in response to some of the laws that were — that are being passed around the country, then I consider that another great benefit of those laws,” he said.
Later that month, Knowles praised an anti-trans bill in Kansas that, in his words, was “a beautiful bill because it doesn't just say don't trans the kids,” but because “it bans transgenderism for all practical purposes in the state for everybody.”
“I love this bill because it is so much more aggressive than the other bills we've seen,” Knowles added, repeatedly using the phrase, “You have to ban transgenderism entirely.”
In addition to the existing onslaught of state bills targeting LGBTQ communities, Knowles frequently advocates for even more extreme laws.
On May 21, Knowles argued against adoption rights for same-sex couples, saying “we should outlaw” surrogacy.
Three days later, Knowles elaborated on his point. He read a paragraph in a news item about two married Black women who were struggling to find a Black sperm donor, and reiterated his arguments for prohibiting same-sex adoption while strongly implying that same-sex marriage should be illegal too.
“Whatever laws we need to pass to make that paragraph unintelligible, or less intelligible than it already is, to make it implausible in society — we need those laws,” Knowles said. “‘A woman and her wife’ — that is not real. That is not a semantically meaningful phrase. That is not the sort of thing that ought to be culturally accepted or understood, and it certainly shouldn’t be legal.”
He added that donating sperm is “extremely disordered and obviously should be illegal.”
“How are we going to fix that?” Knowles asked later in the segment. “Are we going to fix that by boycotting the sperm banks? Are we going to fix it by boycotting USA Today? No. We can wield our cultural and commercial power. The only way to fix that is by wielding political power.”
“The only way to fix that is by changing the law and then enforcing the law and then having the law be a teacher and changing the culture in the process,” he concluded.
During the same show, Knowles implored the conservative movement: “The Pride flag symbol, we need to make that toxic,” and then “to bring in the cavalry, we've got to come back in with more political force to ban some of this stuff and to say no.”
The next day, Knowles celebrated Montana’s new law banning drag shows for children, commenting: “That’s great news. Keep it up Montana.”
In addition to pushing to use state power to control acceptable family formations and social functions, Knowles repeatedly expresses his desire for the state to ban books. In April, Knowles defended banning books and LGBTQ events, as well as sodomy laws, by appealing to the United States’ history of discriminating against gay and trans people.
“Banning books is very American. Banning drag shows is obviously very American,” Knowles said.
“All sorts of weird sexual behaviors were illegal in the United States until the Supreme Court invented some right to do weird sex stuff in the mid-2000s, OK?” he added. “So, it is deeply, deeply American to proscribe this sort of weird behavior.”
The examples go on. “If the book is being banned by just and wise and prudent authorities, then maybe don't read the book,” he said in January. DeSantis’ book bans are “something he deserves praise for,” Knowles said in March. In May, he appealed to biblical precedent to support not only banning books, but burning them as well.
Punishment, conformity, and control
The Daily Wire’s articulated philosophy is one of discipline, punishment, and conformity, rigidly and ruthlessly enforced by state power. The mechanisms of achieving the Daily Wire’s desired society are prisons and police, to be deployed against internal enemies who challenge these hosts’ authoritarian, theocratic vision of society.
Walsh, Knowles, and Owens are very clear about the future they want. Those who want something different — a society that is more just, more equal, and more free — need to be just as clear in their opposition.
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https://www.mediamatters.org/matt-walsh/daily-wires-matt-walsh-defends-tucker-carlsons-racist-text-message
https://www.mediamatters.org/matt-walsh/daily-wires-matt-walsh-were-filling-military-cross-dressers
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https://www.mediamatters.org/matt-walsh/youtube-strips-ad-revenue-matt-walsh-show-after-repeated-vitriol-against-dylan-mulvaney
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youTube strips ad revenue from The Matt Walsh Show after repeated vitriol against Dylan Mulvaney
Walsh has been leading an effort to boycott Bud Light for its collaboration with the TikTok star, whom he previously called “weird and artificial”
Special PROGRAMS
LGBTQ
WRITTEN BY ARI DRENNEN
RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM ALYSSA TIRRELL
PUBLISHED 04/20/23
In a speech at the University of Iowa, self-described “theocratic fascist” and Daily Wire host Matt Walsh complained that his YouTube channel had been stripped of advertiser revenue, which he said was bringing in more than $100,000 per month. An independent estimate suggests that Walsh’s YouTube revenue could have been as high as $1.6 million per year.
YouTube confirmed the demonetization, with a spokesperson writing, “We suspended monetization on Matt Walsh’s channel due to repeated violations of our YouTube Partner Program policies, which include our Advertiser-Friendly Guidelines. These policies apply equally to all creators, regardless of political viewpoint, and channels that repeatedly violate these policies are demonetized."
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The demonetization, which was announced before the speech in a Twitter thread by Daily Wire CEO Jeremy Boering, reportedly comes in response to Walsh’s increasingly vitriolic campaign against Dylan Mulvaney, which escalated after the transgender TikTok star announced a collaboration with Bud Light.
Speaking before an audience of college students, Walsh announced that rather than stop his tirades against Mulvaney, he would make his show free to all viewers on the Daily Wire+ app and would upload episodes toTwitter, suggesting some kind of deal with Twitter CEO Elon Musk. “I truly see the fight against gender ideology as the last stand for Western civilization,” Walsh said. “Because if the sane side loses this, it's over. It's over after this."
Walsh has targeted Mulvaney in a series of increasingly vicious attacks over a period of several months, beginning with a rant in which Walsh told the trans influencer, “You are weird and artificial, you are manufactured and lifeless, you are unearthly and eerie.” The monologue led to backlash within right-wing media and was cited by one Daily Wire writer in her decision to leave the company. But Walsh doubled down, saying that he “would rather be dead” than have a trans child. And then, at the start of April, Bud Light sent Mulvaney a can of beer with her face on it.
Walsh, who previously made comments supportive of teenage pregnancy, has a history of spreading anti-trans vitriol. As documented by Media Matters, between mid-February and mid-March, Walsh also repeated his statement about preferring death to a trans child; misgendered and deadnamed a trans woman featured in a Hershey’s chocolate ad (in Canada); defended his colleague Michael Knowles’ call to eradicate “transgenderism … from public life entirely” by claiming to be “in a war against the most deranged ideology ever invented by the human race,” which he called a “parasite”; and called the trans community “a suicide cult.”
YouTube’s hate speech policy promises to “remove content promoting violence or hatred against individuals or groups” based on ... “gender identity and expression” and/or “sexual orientation.” Social Blade indicates that two Walsh videos had already been demonetized in April when the Daily Wire host led a boycott against Bud Light for collaborating with Mulvaney. If Walsh’s contract contains provisions similar to those found in the contract offered to Louder with Crowder host Steven Crowder, which stated that being demonetized would lead to a 25% cut in his salary, the loss of YouTube revenue is a huge financial blow to Walsh.
The Daily Wire+ app continues to be available in the Apple App Store and the Google Play store.The Apple App Store’s content guidelines lay out a prohibition on “defamatory, discriminatory, or mean-spirited content, including references or commentary” targeting gender or sexual orientation, especially if the app or content “is likely to humiliate, intimidate, harass, or harm individuals or groups.” The Google Play terms of service similarly forbid “apps that promote violence, or incite hatred against individuals or groups based on race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, age, nationality, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, caste, immigration status, or any other characteristic that is associated with systemic discrimination or marginalization.”
Walsh’s move to uploading his show to Twitter comes at a convenient time for the Daily Wire host. Twitter, which was acquired by Elon Musk in 2022, recently updated its terms of service to remove its previous prohibition on targeted misgendering and deadnaming of trans people. Musk recently launched an effort to reassure nervous Twitter advertisers and to convince those who previously abandoned the platform to return. In one recent interview, Musk claimed that Twitter was open to advertiser feedback but that “freedom of speech is paramount.”
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'The worst case of blackface': Matt Walsh's racist attack on Justin Pearson
Brandon Gage April 12, 2023
Right-wing Daily Wire host Matt Walsh called Tennessee State Representative Justin Pearson (D-86th District) a "gutless fraud" and accused Pearson of "doing blackface" as Nashville officials were voting to reinstate him to his office on Wednesday afternoon.
Pearson and State Representative Justin Jones (D-52nd District) – both of whom are Black – were expelled from the chamber last week by Republicans because they protested the GOP's lack of action to prevent gun violence following the deadly mass shooting at the Covenant School in late March.
A third legislator, State Representative Gloria Johnson (D-90th District), who is white, was spared. Jones was reinstated on Tuesday.
READ MORE: 'Miscarriage of justice': Metro Nashville council reappoints Justin Jones
On Easter Sunday, Pearson delivered a Resurrection-themed sermon at the Church of the River in Memphis in which he blasted his right-wing colleagues for their unprecedented assault on the democratic process.
"The Republican-led supermajority of the Tennessee assembly sought to have a political lynching of three of its members because we spoke out of turn against the status quo of the government after the tragic deaths of six people at the Covenant school in Nashville," Pearson said. "The movement for democracy lives or dies in Memphis. The movement to end gun violence lives or dies in Memphis. We’ve seen those who want to kill the movement in the Republican-led supermajority."
Pearson compared Governor Bill Lee to Pontius Pilate, the biblical Roman official who condemned Jesus Christ to crucifixion.
"Because we walked to the well of the house out of turn, resolutions were unjustly and undemocratically filed against us on these trumped-up charges," Pearson stated. "Because we spoke out against the empire of the NRA of the gun lobbyists; because we demanded an end to gun violence, an end to the proliferation of weapons on our streets, an end to the funerals we attend day after day and week after week and month after month and year after year — because we did that, the Republican-led General Assembly with the support of folks even in this district like Mark White, from our own community, thought it better to get rid of our democratic representation in District 86 than to actually solve the problem."
READ MORE: Tennessee lawmaker: 'Partisan' GOP efforts to oust him were a 'gross miscalculation'
Pearson also penned a blistering CNN editorial on Wednesday in which he admonished Republicans for their "gross miscalculation" in having him removed.
"The spectacle was a gross miscalculation by Republicans in the chamber," Pearson argued. "It turns out that most Americans care deeply about democracy. Most people care about equality and progress. And over two-thirds of Americans — including four out of 10 Republicans — support the kind of common-sense gun safety laws that Rep. Jones, Rep. Johnson and I were protesting in favor of, in the wake of the senseless March 27 Covenant School massacre."
Pearson's powerful oratory triggered a vengeful reaction from Walsh, who launched a racist attack against Pearson:
You know, he doesn't, he, he doesn't really sound like a 1960s civil rights figure, which is what he is trying to sound like and look like. Uh, he sounds like he's doing a parody of one. You know, this is, this is the worst case of blackface that we've seen since Justin Trudeau, except that Pearson's actually Black and he's still doing blackface. Nevertheless, he, he is performing and we know he is performing because now we know what he sounded like before theperformance. It's not at all a convincing performance, of course, in fact, I didn't think I'd see a performance less convincing than Bill and Mulvaney's portrayal of womanhood until Pearson came along. Pearson's really given him a run for his money. This is what the left promotes and encourages – empty performance taken to comical, almost surreal extremes. You know, they give us heroes and leaders who are cartoons. Who are hollow and paper thin, who are, it always turns out conniving, cowards, gutless frauds, andself-aggrandizing performance artists.
Watch below or at this link.
READ MORE: Judges axe Tennessee GOP's halving of Nashville Metropolitan Council: report
FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES
'Fascism, full stop': Progressives in Congress condemn expulsion of Tennessee Democrats ›
'Can’t expel truth': Ousted TN lawmaker Justin Pearson highlights hypocrisy of 'country built on a protest' ›
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https://www.mediamatters.org/charlie-kirk/charlie-kirks-conspiratorial-fearmongering-and-retaliatory-fantasies-reach-dangerous
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Charlie Kirk's conspiratorial fearmongering and retaliatory fantasies reach a dangerous new level
Kirk: "We are living in an enemy-occupied country. They have taken over the government and we have to think as dissidents.”
WRITTEN BY SOPHIE LAWTON & JACK WHEATLEY
PUBLISHED 04/03/23
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In late March, Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk repeatedly told his audience that they must take action against a demonic and tyrannical force that is targeting them for their conservative political views. While Kirk is no stranger to extreme rhetoric, his noticeably more incendiary and alarmist rhetoric is primarily in response to three news stories from the past week — the March 27 school shooting in Nashville, Tennessee; recent reports that the IRS visited the home of journalist Matt Taibbi; and the March 30 indictment of former President Donald Trump by a New York grand jury.
Trump indictment
As reports of Trump’s indictment in New York emerged on March 30, Kirk held a special livestream to speculate about the news and reasoning behind the sealed charges. Kirk claimed that the indictment is a distraction from the shooting in Nashville and is actually a “designed campaign” to goad conservatives into violence. Kirk stated, “They would love nothing more than for people to act uncharacteristic. They need to try to incite you to right-wing violence to justify their mass takeover of the country.”
Kirk also called for retribution against his political opponents, who he claimed are “acting like Stalinists,” and said “we must make them pay a price and a penalty” by indicting Democrats. “They crossed the Rubicon,” Kirk claimed. “They have declared quote-unquote the Roman Civil War.”
Video
CitationFrom the March 30, 2023, edition of Real America's Voice's The Charlie Kirk Show
As a guest on Thursday night’s edition ofThe Ingraham Angleon Fox News, Kirk took to spreading more conspiracy theories following the news of Trump’s indictment. Kirk again insinuated that the left and the “national security state” are “almost trying to incite the American conservative community to act uncharacteristic” and carry out right-wing violence which, in turn, would be used to presuppose the creation of “a Patriot Act 2.0, and that could then further justify their power grab across the country.”
Later on in the segment, Kirk claimed that Trump’s indictment was an act of revenge by those still upset over his election in 2016, saying that “it seems as if there is this bloodthirsty appetite and desire at the highest level of the Democrat eliteto quote-unquote get Trump.” Kirk went on to claim there’s a “kind of Stalinization of the American criminal justice system” that he hopes independent and moderate voters will recognize before the upcoming presidential race. Fox host Laura Ingraham agreed and added, “It’s like Stalin’s purges, right? That’s what we’re seeing.”
Addressing his audience the day following Trump’s indictment, Kirk said the only way to “bring the country together” and “heal” is for conservatives “to win,” then told his listeners that winning will include “a lot of our side going to jail, a lot of their side going to jail.” Kirk reminded his audience to stay peaceful though quickly reverted to inflammatory rhetoric, saying, “The country we grew up in has ended, a new country is born. Who’s going to control it? If we want it, we can win.”
In the same March 31 episode, while introducing an interview withDonald Trump Jr., Kirk told his listeners, “You should be angry today. And this is a time for action, and this a time to realize that the country we love has slipped away and we have to get it back.”
Video From the March 31, 2023, edition of The Charlie Kirk Show
Nashville school shooting
In the wake of the tragic school shooting in Nashville on March 27, Kirk unleashed vile attacks on the LGBTQ community following police reports that the shooter was transgender.
On his March 28 show, Kirk claimed that activists are becoming “trans jihadists” in the name of “this lie of a quote-unquote trans genocide” adding that “people think they’re on kind of a holy crusade.” He said that “there’s a lot of violent fantasies, unfortunately, among the trans radicals,” and went on to specifically blame the transgender community for the tragic attack in Nashville, claiming that they have “a violent undercurrent that tragically manifested in three dead kids and three dead teachers yesterday.” (Labeling all transgender people as violent is a common anti-trans trope.)
In his Tuesday episode with guest and Pizzagate conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec, Kirk read a statement from a group called the Trans Resistance Network referencing the shooting in Nashville and claimed the group “is blaming us, is blaming Michael Knowles, blaming Matt Walsh, blaming Jack Posobiec, blaming all of us for the massacre of children.”
After discussing the Nashville shooting again on his March 29 podcast, Kirk told his audience, “The trans movement is almost on a jihad.They have been told that people like us want them deadand I’m afraid they’re on some sort of unholy crusade,” adding, “We have to stop it immediately.”
Supposed IRS targeting
IRS agents reportedly made a recent house call to Substack journalist Matt Taibbi, according to a statement from Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Republicans on the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government based on Taibbi’s own claims. Kirk told his audience that the supposed IRS visit to Taibbi was just the beginning of a “targeted campaign to chill speech” and that the government will be visiting “Real America’s Voice listeners and viewers, grassroots conservatives” first. Kirk called the visit “Stalinistic, Maoist behavior from the Biden regime.”
After once again referring to the IRS visiting Taibbi as “the Stalinization of America” during his March 29 show, Kirk called it “full outright Gestapo behavior.” He then told his audience that “we are living in an enemy-occupied country. They have taken over the government and we have to think as dissidents.”
Video From the March 29, 2023, edition of The Charlie Kirk Show
Kirk’s fearmongering about the government targeting “political enemies,” specifically conservatives, included claiming that “the IRS is one of the most dangerous” and “powerful government agencies that is able to ruin your life,” telling his audience that “political force” will be used to “try and crush you.”
Kirk also suggested the government planned the IRS visit to scare Taibbi out of testifying against “the liberal quote-unquote street gang,” claiming, “If you want out, they beat you up, they kill you.” Kirk questioned, “You have to wonder did somebody plan the IRS visit so Matt Taibbi would reveal his sources? Did they do the house call to his front door the day he was going to testify for the purpose that he would break? Was it the equivalent of waking up with a horse’s head in your bed, how the mob used to operate?”
Other extremist comments
On his March 29 podcast with guest Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), Kirk defended the Second Amendment by claiming someday Americans may need guns to fight against a “tyrannical, usurpatious government.” Kirk claimed that “the last 100 years shows 150 million people slaughtered because they were disarmed.”
At a Turning Point Faith event that same day, Kirk suggested that conservatives know evil is happening but are afraid to act on it because “the cost is being called something they wish they would not be called. Racist, bigot.” Kirk then said that “racism and bigotry mostly comes from the left,” saying. “We are such a decent, not racist country, that the incentive structure is to fake your own hate crime.”
At the same Turning Point event, Kirk compared the existence of transgender people to “homeless encampments” and said, “We should not have tolerance for public degeneracy or depravity of our streets.”
During an earlier live event on March 28, Kirk went on a rant about how the “woke mind virus” is a product of Satan sent to “destroy the greatest nation ever to exist in the history of the world.”He encouraged American pastors “excommunicate … the demons of the woke,” stating, “Evil should not be tolerated in the American church.”
Video From the March 28, 2023, Turning Point Faith event, livestreamed on YouTube
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At the March 28 Turning Point Faith event, Kirk also attacked universities and academics, claiming their actions are “rooted in anti-whiteness” and that “I think they’re trying to start a race war in this country.” Throughout his seemingly endless stream of extreme comments, Kirk also issued calls to action to his listeners.
At the same event, when asked about critical race theory, Kirk called the educational theory a “tumor” in our schools that happened because “good people have allowed evil to spread.” Kirk then called on the audience to be part of stopping such “evil,” claiming it will ”require good people with courage and boldness to stand up against what seems to be an overwhelming force and to say stop.”
“CRT has spread, andnow it’s time for us to remove the tumor,” Kirk concluded.
Video From a March 28, 2023, Turning Point Faith event streamed live on YouTube
Kirk used the “tumor” metaphor again when discussing a recent Wall Street Journal poll showing a decline in patriotism in America. Kirk claimed this generation of Americans are “the most depressed, most suicidal, most alcohol-addicted, most drug-addicted generation in history.” He then told his listeners, “Sometimes you need to get harsh, honest news and then have a battle plan, a plan of attack to remove the tumor” — implying the need to remove unpatriotic people from the country.
vid From the March 27, 2023, edition of The Charlie Kirk Show
Kirk has not specified what he means when he tells his audience to “stop” transgender people or critical race theory, but he’s also promoted preparing for future events by investing in gold and “buying a lot of bullets.”
Video From a March 28, 2023, Turning Point Faith event livestreamed on YouTube
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https://www.mediamatters.org/matt-walsh/matt-walsh-turning-point-usas-america-fest-audience-good-be-here-my-fellow-right-wing
https://www.mediamatters.org/matt-walsh/matt-walsh-truth-matters-more-your-life-and-more-mine
https://www.mediamatters.org/matt-walsh/daily-wires-matt-walsh-fantasizes-about-police-officers-violently-assaulting-drag-queen
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MATT WALSH (HOST): It is quite -- quite, quite sad that the guy, the international arms smuggler who we traded back to Russia appears, based on what he said, to love America more than the woman we traded for. OK, those are sentiments that you're never going to hear from Brittney Griner. She wouldn't even be able to express it. Both because she lacks the articulation required but also because she just doesn't see America -- she hates America. She really does.
When you refuse to -- when you say, I'm not going to go onto the court when the national anthem is played, that is -- I mean that can only be driven by pure scorn and resentment for your home country. You would never hear that from Brittney Griner. Instead we hear it from the Russian guy, the guy that we're trading back to Russia. So, we're sending away the person who loves America more and bringing in the person who hates America.
Now, now, look, what you're hearing there -- there's a reason why they did the interview in English, right? Is this, perhaps, a ploy on the part of Russia? Is that, you know, a part of this? That's probably the case. But even so, it's still quite sad that the woman we're bringing in would never say anything like that. And everything he said is true. Whether he really believes any of that, I have no idea. But what he said is true.
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- david Mack @ BuzzFeed: A Special Counsel Will Decide Whether To Charge Trump With Crimes.
- Caroline Kitchener, Amy B Wang and Michelle Boorstein @ The Washington Post: Trump would act ‘like a little elementary schoolchild,’ former spiritual adviser says.
- Michael Luciano @ Mediaite: Jesse Watters Tells Americans to Procreate So We Don’t Need ‘Foreigners to Have the Babies’.
- Daniel Desrochers @ The Kansas City Star: Pompeo goes after Trump while mulling presidential bid, says he’s ‘tired of losing’.
- Media Matters: Matt Walsh claims genetically modified food is partly to blame for the existence of trans people.
- Liz Scheltens @ Vox: Why so many “election deniers” lost in 2022.
Tags: Donald Trump James Robison Jesse Watters Matt Walsh Mike Pompeo Round-Up
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aha rw media = grift info extraction
mma 11 22
As he gears up for a potential 2024 showdown with former President Donald Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has enlisted a leading right-wing outlet for advertising: Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire. The Republican governor paid over $100,000 since last year in fundraising expenses to the site, which has aired commentary supporting DeSantis over Trump.
DeSantis and his associated PAC Friends of Ron DeSantis have paid $110,429.01 for fundraising expenses and list rental to the site since July 2021, according to a search of campaign data with the Florida Department of State. The Miami Herald noted some of DeSantis’ payments to the Daily Wire and other right-wing outlets in April.
Shapiro co-founded The Daily Wire, which publishes podcasts, videos, and commentary pieces. The site frequently pushes anti-LGBTQ, racist, and bigoted content.
The Daily Wire and its personnel have recently been friendly voices for DeSantis, who won his 2022 reelection bid.
Shapiro, as summarized by the website he co-founded, has “faulted Trump” and “made no secret of his support for DeSantis.” He also said in September that DeSantis is a “very effective governor” and a better potential president than Trump.
After Trump tried out the nickname “Ron DeSanctimonious,” Daily Wire host Matt Walsh tweeted: “DeSantis is an extremely effective conservative governor who has had real policy wins and real cultural wins. Trump isn't going to be able to take this one down with a dumb nickname. He better have more than that up his sleeve.”
And the Daily Wire has featured pieces such as “Trump Launches Unprovoked Attack On Ron DeSantis For His Handling Of COVID Pandemic”; “With Trump The Big Loser In ’22 Midterms, DeSantis Now Frontrunner For ’24”; and “‘Original’ Trump Backer Michael Savage: ‘DeSantis Is The Future … This Is About A Nation, Not About Any Man.’”
The National Republican Congressional Committee,which is the House Republicans’ official campaign arm, has also heavily advertised in the Daily Wire,paying $321,100.18 from 2021 to 2022 so far for list rentals.
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https://www.mediamatters.org/matt-walsh/daily-wires-matt-walsh-criticizes-elon-musk-meeting-black-and-jewish-advocacy-groups
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mma 10 22
no pix
last Friday, the Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh held a rally in Tennessee against gender-affirming care, a follow-up to his targeted misinformation campaign against Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital. Footage from the rally, which included speeches from Walsh, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), and other media figures and local politicians, shows that it attracted a cadre of extremists, including members of the violent Proud Boys extremist group and multiple protesters brandishing signs explicitly calling for violence against medical professionals. Following the rally, Walsh called the protesters “normal decent Americans” while Blackburn said she was “proud” to have participated.
Walsh, an opportunist who has committed himself to an anti-trans crusade, recently claimed to be “building a nationwide organized movement” to target hospitals and medical providers with harassment after helping to drive harassment against Boston Children’s Hospital. After the facility reported threats against doctors and staff, Walsh continued to target the facility, which later received more than one bomb threat. In September, Walsh targeted Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital with similar false claims and mischaracterizations of procedures offered to minors, falsely claiming the hospital would “castrate, sterilize, and mutilate minors as well as adults.”
The efficacy of gender-affirming medical care for trans youth, and the serious psychological risks of denying that care, have been shown by numerous studies, and such care is supported by every major medical organization in America.
Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital responded to Walsh by saying it did not provide gender-affirming genital surgeries for trans youth but would temporarily cease other gender-affirming surgeries for minors, despite such surgeries having very low rates of regret. Following the success of his targeting of Vanderbilt, Walsh announced the rally at the Tennessee state capitol on October 21, which was billed as “The Rally to End Child Mutilation.”
Walsh’s rally attracted extremists, some of whom explicitly called for violence against medical professionals
Leading up to the rally, Walsh, who has a history of promoting or defending political violence, continually targeting healthcare providers and the LGBTQ community, comparing doctors who provide gender-affirming care toNazis, calling for police to “[break] down the doors” of establishments hosting drag events, and tweeting he was “not just reporting” on the trans health clinic at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital but was “going to put a stop to it.”
Footage of the rally streamed by Walsh and local news outlets on YouTube showedmultiple attendees at Walsh’s rally directly calling for violence against doctors, with one attendee’s sign reading “Doctors who mutilate children should be killed.”
[pix]
the sign was visible at the front of the crowd for the duration of the rally, including during speeches by Walsh and Blackburn. The man holding the sign, who can be seen cheering for Matt Walsh during a speech byTea Party activist Matt Meckler,was also recorded by local media confronting counter-protesters before the rally yelling, “No mutilators, mutilators go home.”
Footage from a
of the event also captured an attendee positioned further back in the crowd holding a sign that said, “mutilate the mutilators.”
Following the bomb threat made against Boston Children’s Hospital, Walsh claimed that “no critic of gender ideology gains anything or has any incentive to make a threat.”
Footage from the rally also shows a number of members of the violent extremist group the Proud Boys, one of whom can be seen flashing a white nationalist hand signal as he passed counter protesters.
[pix]
the rally also attracted fringe Christian fundamentalists who held oversized signs declaring, “homo sex is sin,” and that “hellfire awaits” gay people and “baby killers.” Another protester near the front can be seen holding a sign declaring, “We are at war,” with the other side reading, “No justice, no peace, free the J6’ers,” referring to those arrested for participating in the January 6 insurrection.
Walsh and other speakers at the rally used incendiary language directing anger at medical professionals
In addition to Walsh, speakers at the rally included GOP state politicians from Tennessee, who earlier this year passed multiple anti-trans bills (helping to perpetuate mental health crisis among trans youth in the state), and Blackburn, who used the confirmation hearing for Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson to push anti-trans talking points. Other speakers included Tulsi Gabbard,Dr. Colin Wright, and Chloe Cole.
During the rally, Walsh engaged the crowd with incendiary language, asking the audience, “As Tennesseans, do we believe in castrating children? Do we believe in that? Do we believe in drugging and mutilating kids?” Walsh added, “They believe in it.” He continued, saying, “I'm not going to leave it to my kids to fight this fight. We don't leave it to our kids. We stand up and we fight. It isn't our kids’ battle,” before going on to characterize his “fight” as “a battle of good versus evil.”
In her speech, Blackburn directed the attention of the extremists in the crowd to Vanderbilt, saying Walsh and the Daily Wire did an “amazing job” targeting Vanderbilt, referencing “what was taking place just down the street right here in Nashville.” Later in her speech, Blackburn said she was going to “carry this movement to take care of our children, to end this child mutilation.” As she neared the end of her speech, Blackburn said, “Look, you all arehappy warrior freedom fighters, and you are not going to let the left get their way with our children.”
Vanderbilt’s proximity to the crowd’s location was also referenced by State Rep. William Lamberth (R-TN), who said during his speech, “If not for Matt and his team, a certain university medical center just down the road would still be performing child mutilation surgeries.”
Walsh and other speakers reacted to the rally by targeting counter protesters and lauding the anti-trans protesters
Immediately following the rally, Walsh, who last year called Kyle Rittenhouse a “victim” after Rittenhouse shot dead multiple people at a Black Lives Matter protest, tweeted a photo of the crowd where the sign calling for violence against doctors is visible, with Walsh simply captioning it, “We are winning.”
Blackburn tweeted after the rally that she was “proud to defend Tennessee kids from these dangerous procedures today.” Tulsi Gabbard wrote in her newly-launched Substack newsletter that there were “a handful of very noisy protesters who were there to support continued child mutilation” at the rally, but made no mention of those calling to murder doctors.
During his podcast on Monday, Walsh targeted the counter protesters at the event, calling them “satanic leftist zombies'' and “emotionally disturbed freaks and losers,” and claimed some of them were “of the paid variety.” Walsh contrasted them with his supporters.
In the end I have to be grateful that thedisgusting hellspawnsdid show up because it provided exactly the kind of contrast that I want people to see. On one hand, you have normal decent Americans of all ages and demographics speaking out against one of the great atrocities of our time, and on the other hand you have a bunch of screeching goblins who have no argument to present, no point to make, and are only interested in silencing the other side by whatever means necessary.So it's just up to each member of the public to decide whose side they want to be on. You see that footage, you decide, who do you want to line up with?
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https://www.mediamatters.org/matt-walsh/mock-rnc-ad-segment-matt-walsh-castigated-republican-party-its-role-american-civil-war
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an 10 22
Right-winger Matt Walsh compares drag shows to 'cancer' and calls for mass arrests of performers
Brandon Gage October 20, 2022
Right-wing Daily Wire commentator Matt Walsh on Thursday said that drag shows should be criminalized when kids attend, that performers are pedophiles and groomers, and that progressivism is a "cancer" metastasizing within the fabric of Western society.
Walsh began by expressing bigoted bewilderment over basic terminology:
Now, a few things here are confusing. Well, more than a few things, but focusing just on these for a moment. For one thing, the pronoun situation is all over the map, okay? It's not clear of the various people mentioned here, which are actually females, though they all use female pronouns. I mean, it doesn't really make a difference I suppose, the child is being exploited either way, the adults are creeps and degenerates and worse either way, uh, but that is a confusing aspect of this.
Also, I was not previously familiar with the term 'drag mom,' though from context it seems that this is just another way of describing a professional groomer. The quote 'drag child' is handed over to the drag mom to be groomed and conditioned. It seems to be essentially a sort of pedophilic, predatory farm system that the groomers have set up.
LGBTQ+ individuals – particularly gay men – commonly refer to their friends as girl, her, ma'am, and she. It has nothing to do with one's gender identity or sex. Walsh's subsequent allegation is both false and selectively ignorant. A drag mom is an experienced industry performer who coaches an aspiring queen.
[READ MORE: 'It is now my turn to speak': Drag performer targeted by right-wing activist files defamation suit
Nevertheless, Walsh continued:
So, what can be done about this? That's really the question. We've established that this is happening and it's only getting worse over time. Progressivism does what the name suggests, what the label suggests, it's progressivism so it progresses, except that it progresses in the same sense that, say, cancer progresses. It keeps spreading and getting worse and eating away at our civilization until it is stopped or until it destroys its host. And just like cancer, stopping it is not a gentle or a painless process. The farther along the cancer is, the more aggressive you have to be in fighting it. Culturally, we are approaching, if we haven't already reached, a terminal state, which means we have to be all the more aggressive, which calls for two things.
He then suggested that drag performers should be locked up as pedophiles if children are present (which is up to parents):
First, obviously involving children in drag events in any capacity should be outright criminalized everywhere. There is no other way. You know, this doesn't stop until police are breaking down the doors at these places and carting the adults away in handcuffs. Charge them all as pedophiles. Throw them in prison, and whenever they get out, if they do get out, put them on the sex offender registry for life. That man in the first clip dancing around with his skirt up should be treated legally as a child predator. That's the level of protection that our children are owed and the people sexualizing and exploiting them are owed that level of punishment. This is something that needs to start in red states. And if Republicans take over the White House, it should be handled on the federal level as well.
Watch below via Media Matters for America or at this link.
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mma 9 22
While children’s hospitals were facing a deluge of violent threats in August from an online campaign of intimidation and misinformation fueled by anti-LGBTQ trolls, Fox News repeatedly provided a platform for the individuals responsible for the harassment to amplify their attacks. Over the course of two weeks, Fox News — the most-watched cable network in the country — spent more time and ran more segments targeting three different children’s hospitals over false claims about gender-affirming care than CNN or MSNBC combined spent discussing the attacks.
Led by conservative social media figures including Chaya Raichik and Matt Walsh, an online campaign began by targeting Boston Children’s Hospital and Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C., with false claims that they were providing hysterectomies for trans youth. The unsubstantiated claims were debunked by independent fact-checking websites and refuted by the hospitals, which did not stop right-wing media figures from taking up the attacks to malign all gender-affirming care for trans youth as “mutilation.”
In reality, these hospitals do not provide genital surgery to trans youth. Rather, they follow the standards of care established by national medical organizations, offering medically necessary care that is supported by every major medical organization in America.
Fox News amplified the architects of the harassment campaign that resulted in threats of violence against at least three different children’s hospitals
Amid the influx of threats against children’s hospitals, Fox News adopted the attacks as part of its ongoing effort to demonize trans health care for political points and at the expense of trans children.
Between August 18, when the network’s first segment attacking Boston Children’s Hospital aired, and August 31, when Fox aired its most recent segment, attacking Chicago’s Lurie Children’s Hospital, the network aired 7 segments and spent more than 20 minutes vilifying the hospitals. Notably, three of the Fox prime-time shows featuring the attacks are in the top 10 most-watched cable news programs in the country — Tucker Carlson Tonight, The Ingraham Angle, and Jesse Watters Primetime.
And while other Fox News prime-time shows similarly repeated anti-trans attacks on the children’s hospitals, Tucker Carlson’s program has been the most responsible for amplifying the misinformation campaign and the figures behind it.
On August 18, the day after Vice News reported that far-right extremists were threatening to execute doctors at Boston Children’s Hospital over lies told about their gender-affirming care program, Carlson invited Chris Elston onto his show. Elston, a Canadian anti-trans extremist whose tweet kicked off the attacks on Boston Children’s Hospital, erroneously claimed gender-affirming care was “the biggest child abuse scandal in modern medicine history,” while Carlson called the care “sexual mutilation of children."
[vid]
a week later, Fox News ran 5 segments attacking D.C.’s Children’s National Hospital after it was targeted with a similar smear campaign prompted by Raichik, whose Twitter account “Libs of TikTok” has been instrumental in fueling Fox News’ anti-LGBTQ messaging. After the hospital reported its staff had received threats of violence, Carlson invited Raichik onto the August 30 edition of his show.
During the segment, Carlson falsely claimed Children’s National Hospital was “castrating young people, minors for no legitimate purpose whatsoever” and asserted that Raichik was “committing actual journalism."
[vid]
the night Carlson’s interview with Raichik aired, Boston Children’s Hospital was targeted with a bomb threat.
The next night, propagandist Chris Rufo earned a spot on Carlson’s show after falsely claiming that Lurie Children’s Hospital was promoting “‘trans-friendly’ sex toys for children” based on a resource document provided exclusively to teachers.
Carlson opened the segment by saying, “Most people trust children's hospitals implicitly. They just didn't know the details — but thanks to the internet, we now do.” He went on to claim that “some of these hospitals are performing horrifying experiments on children,” including “things you think would be crimes but that apparently aren't and that are going on in children's hospitals in the United States." [vid]
fox News’ attacks on children’s hospitals have outpaced mainstream cable network’s coverage of the threats
Coverage of the targeted harassment and threats against multiple major children’s hospitals from CNN and MSNBC lagged behind Fox News’ attacks against the same facilities. Not only did Fox spend more time (over 20 minutes) attacking and spreading misinformation on children’s hospitals over gender-affirming care than the other two networks spent covering the attacks (less than 19 minutes), but no show on either mainstream network has aired more than one segment on the attacks. Meanwhile, Tucker Carlson Tonight alone has aired 3 segments attacking the hospitals. In fact, Carlson’s show spent more time (just under 12 minutes) attacking children’s hospitals than CNN spent discussing the attacks across all programming (just over 5 minutes). MSNBC spent just over 13 minutes discussing the story.
While Carlson repeatedly hosted guests pushing anti-trans misinformation against gender-affirming care, only one show segment on either CNN or MSNBC interviewed a medical professional. The August 18 edition of MSNBC’s The 11th Hour With Stephanie Ruhles**poke with a doctor about the struggle of providing essential health care for trans youth while facing a barrage of threats.
Methodology
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