Benny Johnson Bak

11 23 not sure what happend, this from WB no lnx

bennyj1123

benny johnson tpusa

freq mma 2 23 but no tag yet

sorta neglected, just links

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MAGA media figures demanded and even teased immigration action against Rep. Ilhan Omar — and then DHS raided her home

Written by Reed McMaster & Ben Van Bloem

Published 10/14/26 11:03 AM EDT

Updated 10/14/26

Right-wing media figures have long spread conspiracy theories against Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN). During the second Trump administration, this has manifested in calls to deport Omar, an American citizen, citing as supposed evidence the conspiracy theories that have spread for years. In September, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told MAGA podcaster Benny Johnson that Omar was under investigation, months after Vice President JD Vance told Johnson a similar story. When Mullin made his comments, right-wing media erupted in objection, demanding action instead of investigations.

Roughly a month later, DHS raided the congresswoman’s home. Right-wing media figures celebrated the raid, with podcast host Katie Miller reportedly even posting “promises made, promises kept” — the exact line Fox host Tomi Lahren had used to concerning Mullin’s remarks earlier to demand federal government action against Omar — while Johnson took credit: “This will be our crowning achievement for life.”

• Federal agents searched the home of Rep. Ilhan Omar
  • Right-wing figures have long spread conspiracy theories about Omar, including one “based on some of the least credible evidence ever put forward in right-wing media” that she married her brother. According to The Bulwark, the claims “certainly wouldn’t stand up in court. The whole thing, in fact, boils down to a single anonymous post on a Somali-American web forum.” Furthermore, an investigation into Omar’s financial disclosures was dismissed earlier this year, and previous federal investigations into these topics have also ended without any charges. [Media Matters, 7/25/19; CBS News, 9/9/26; The Bulwark, 9/14/26]

• • On October 12, agents with Homeland Security Investigations, a subsection of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, executed a warrant on Omar’s D.C. home. The New York Times reported, “The search warrant, executed 22 days before Election Day, lists a series of potential immigration crimes under investigation, including false statements and fraud in immigration paperwork, as well as a general conspiracy charge, according to a person familiar with the document.”
  • The search by DHS agents broke with longstanding Justice Department policy to avoid similar investigative steps against candidates within 60 days of an election that could affect the results. Donald Trump cited this policy during the 2024 elections to claim that the DOJ was acting improperly in investigating him. Omar denies the allegations and has criticized the raid on her home by DHS agents as an attempt by the Trump administration “to target political enemies and weaponize law enforcement.” [The Guardian, 10/12/26; The New York Times, 10/12/26]

• • In March, Vice President JD Vance told MAGA podcaster Benny Johnson, “We think Ilhan Omar definitely committed immigration fraud against the United States of America.” Vance said, “That’s the thing that we’re trying to figure out is what are the legal remedies now that we know that she’s committed immigration fraud — how do you go after her, how do you investigate her, how do you actually do the thing, how do you build a case necessary to get some justice for the American people?” Discussing Omar again during a White House press conference in May, Vance reiterated that “it certainly seems like something fishy is there.” [Fox News, 3/29/26; CBS News, 5/19/26]
  • In September, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told Johnson that there is an “ongoing investigation” into Omar and raised the possibility of deportation. Around the same time, White House “border czar” Tom Homan also said that “things are going on” with Omar but refused to give details about the “ongoing criminal investigation.” Homan told Fox News, “If someone committed an immigration violation, if someone committed marriage fraud or anything like that, regardless if they're a congressman or not, no one's above the law. So, I'll leave it at that. We'll let HSI, Homeland Security Investigations, continue the investigation.” [The Associated Press, 10/12/26; Fox News, 9/13/26]
  • Mullin’s remarks sparked backlash to the administration in right-wing media for taking insufficient action against Omar. According to The Bulwark, “Like many of the pledges that people in Trump world make to prosecute and deport the president’s political enemies, this pledge has also run into legal hurdles and an actual reality that is not very accommodating to their goals. And it appears that Mullin is now set to take the blame for the absence of any action. Right-wing media influencer Laura Loomer, who once traveled to Minneapolis in her own fruitless attempt to prove Omar married her brother, fumed after the Mullin interview that Omar was somehow being protected from deportation. … Perhaps no one was angrier with Mullin than Fox News host Tomi Lahren. On Saturday, Lahren devoted much of her show to claiming the DHS secretary was using Omar’s case as a sideshow to distract from the perceived lack of larger-scale deportations. ‘If they want to do an investigation, do an investigation,’ she said. But whether Omar married her brother wouldn’t ‘get people out to vote,’ Lahren said. ‘What’s going to get people out to vote for Republicans is promises made, promises kept.’” [The Bulwark, 9/14/26]

Right-wing media figures have cryptically referred to “something happening” to Omar for months

• • On September 1, Johnson said that he had been hearing “rumblings” about Omar and said, “The vice president has told me on the record that something’s about to happen.” Johnson said, “I'm hearing a lot of rumblings about Ilhan Omar. She's grown suspiciously silent on social media. The vice president has told me on the record that something's about to happen. So has Tom Homan. … And we've been sort of, like, asking around and doing our best to use our sources, and we are assured that something is about to happen with Ilhan Omar and her family.” He also asked his guest, Sean Davis of The Federalist, “What would that mean to the political zeitgeist — the Third World parasitic ecosystem that lives on the underbelly of America — what kind of message would that send to denaturalize, deport, or even just criminally charge Ilhan Omar?” Davis responded that “she needs to be sent back” and added, “That whole community needs to go back — Somalianism is incompatible with America.” [YouTube, The Benny Show, 9/1/26]

• • In May, The Charlie Kirk Show co-host Andrew Kolvet argued there are “bad things” in Omar's future and claimed she “probably engaged in immigration fraud.” He said, “She's got no good answers for it because Ilhan Omar is legitimately a scourge on our Congress. That's exactly right. She is a disgrace to the city of Washington, D.C., and to the American people. She probably engaged in immigration fraud. She's engaged in some other issues that are causing her complaints with the ethics complaints within the House. So Ilhan Omar has got, I think, some bad things in her future.” [Rumble, The Charlie Kirk Show, 5/21/26]

• • In August, host of conspiracy theory podcast X22 Report David Marc Fishman insisted there's an investigation into Omar and said, “I do believe” they will have enough evidence to indict her. He said, “They're investigating Ilhan Omar. They're collecting the evidence. And if they have enough evidence, which I do believe they will, they will then forward this on and there'll be an investigation into Ilhan Omar. There'll be a grand jury that will be looking at this and there will be an indictment as time goes on, just like with everybody else.” [Rumble, X22 Report, 8/13/26]

• • On his radio show, Fox host Sean Hannity told a caller that an investigation into Omar was underway in July, months before the September announcement. He said, “I can tell you this: There is an investigation going on. I don’t know why it’s being slow-walked. You're raising a fair and good question, and it’s irritating to me too.” [Premiere Radio Networks, The Sean Hannity Show, 7/23/26]

• • Podcaster Tim Pool suggested “something is happening” regarding an investigation into Omar weeks before Mullin admitted to it. He said, “They are not going to release information which will compromise any investigation. And this, my friends, is the disappointing part for so many that want there to be some kind of enforcement action against Ilhan Omar. This does not confirm it. Something is happening, which I would say is good, but we don't know for sure.” [YouTube, Timcast, 8/24/26]

After the DHS raid on Omar’s home, right-wing media celebrated and Benny Johnson took credit

• • Podcaster Katie Miller, wife of White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, reportedly wrote “promises made, promises kept” above an article on the DHS raid of Omar's home before reportedly deleting the post. [Bluesky, 10/12/26]

• • Benny Johnson opened a show after the raid by asking his audience “Are you excited? To send Ilhan Omar back to her indigenous peoples? That is what's about to happen. We were right. Forgive us. We're going to gloat just a bit today. It's going to be insufferable, I’m so sorry, but we’ve been waiting for this.” [YouTube, The Benny Show, 10/12/26]

• • Newsmax host Carl Higbie opened his October 12 show by celebrating the DHS raid on Omar's home, saying, “I hope they were blasting Creed while they did it.” He later added that it “couldn't happen to a better person.” [Newsmax, Carl Higbie Frontline, 10/12/26]

• • The Charlie Kirk Show co-host Blake Neff said it would “be tremendous” if the government could “strip the citizenship from Ilhan Omar,” while co-host Andrew Kolvet referred to the raid as “Christmas in October” and said her denaturalization would be “great for the whole country.” Neff said, “If you could actually denaturalize, strip the citizenship from Ilhan Omar because her arrival here was fraudulent from the start. … It would be tremendous.” Kolvet followed up, “It was like Christmas in October, or was it Halloween? You know, with Ilhan Omar, let's go with Halloween. … Anyways, that's the breaking news. She's getting raided. We think it's about a paperwork issue, which could lead to a denaturalization process being pursued with her, which I think would be great for the whole country.” [Rumble, The Charlie Kirk Show, 10/12/26, 10/12/26]

• • Reacting to a Fox News report on the search of Omar’s home, conservative podcaster Dave Rubin said, “This is not a woman who loves America. This is not a woman who should be in America. … This is a bad lady, and finally it appears that we’re going to do something about it.” Holding a box with Omar’s picture on his desk, he said, “You know, it's funny, we have this as the Ilhan Omar puke bucket, but this story is — I may put tequila in it and just drink out of this thing.” [YouTube, The Rubin Report, 10/12/26]

• • Johnson called the administration's actions against Omar his “crowning achievement for life.” He said, “Today is Wednesday, October 14, 2026. Are you celebrating with us? Are you going to celebrate, Omar-mas? I will. Ilhan Omar scandal breaks wide open, and we were part of it, and that's exciting for us. This is our — we tried — we did get Jimmy Kimmel ripped off air. We view that as a massive success for this program. This will be our crowning achievement for life. We may hang it up. We may have to hang it up after this. You're not going to get better than this.” [YouTube, The Benny Show, 10/14/26]

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MMA

September 1, 2026, edition of The Benny Show, uploaded to YouTube

BENNY JOHNSON (HOST): But this is the fundamental question of our time, and it's a curse on us, and it makes me so angry at older generations. And I love y'all. This is not gonna be some boomer hate screed. But you don't understand what was destroyed. And it's impossible because it's so hard for — this is why, like, the whole victimhood stuff is such trash — so impossible to put yourself in somebody else's position. It really is very hard for somebody to do this. So I'm not going to ask you to do it, but, like, think about what's been destroyed.

I have to homeschool my kids. Because I can't trust that they're not going to be indoctrinated or abused inside of the public school or killed, you know, right? Obviously, like, killed by a gang of like Third World miscreants that want to scalp a white kid. That didn't exist when I was growing up, when the boomers were raising their kids, except maybe the worst conceivable schools in the worst conceivable parts of the most downtrodden bombed out cities in America. Maybe you could find a public school like that. Now it's every public school, every one. Institutional trust is at absolute zero. That's why homeschooling is exploding.

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MMA

John Solomon is spreading another flimsy election fraud claim

Solomon, a right-wing media personality and the leader of a Trump White House task force, is reviving a closed case from Arizona in 2020

Written by Sophie Lawton

Published 08/07/26

After another failed scramble to prove President Donald Trump’s claims that China interfered in the 2020 U.S. presidential election, White House task force leader and right-wing media personality John Solomon is now attempting to retry a Maricopa County, Arizona, election website hacking case that was investigated, reported on, and closed years ago. NBC News reported that the case was highlighted by the White House yet “did not offer any evidence that any election was stolen or affected by widespread fraud.”

Solomon has been leading the effort declassifying intelligence documents the Trump administration is using to claim the U.S. election system is not secure. On July 16, Trump delivered a much-hyped primetime speech fearmongering about what those documents had uncovered. Afterward, Lawfare wrote that the speech “was most notable for what it did not contain: evidence that any malign activity affected the result. Much of what he described was already known. None of it showed that votes were changed, fraudulent ballots were counted, or the election was stolen. None of it showed that intelligence officials had concealed such evidence."

On August 6, Solomon published a story to his website, Just The News, on a “hack” of the Maricopa County voter records just before the 2020 election, writing that the Department of Justice under then-President Joe Biden had failed to prosecute the alleged hacker “even after the FBI got the suspect to confess, according to declassified documents made public Thursday by the White House.”

MAGA podcaster Benny Johnson summarized the story during an interview with Solomon, saying, “More than 600,000 voter files ripped off Arizona site in 2020 by hacker — the DOJ caught him, the hacker confessed, and then nothing happened.”

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From the August 6, 2026, edition of The Benny Johnson Show streamed on YouTube.

While speaking with Johnson, Solomon spun up hypothetical scenarios of election interference that did not occur in 2020, suggesting “a foreign power or a bad actor” could alter voter registration data or cast fraudulent absentee ballots. Solomon also claimed that “until Donald Trump finally made it public, we were kept in the dark” about voter files being hacked.

In an interview with former Trump strategist Steve Bannon, Solomon spun the story further claiming it was proof “that great, giant sugar pill we were force-fed at the end of the November 2020 election that we had just endured the most secure election in U.S. history … was absolutely not true.” Solomon told Bannon “Today, we learned that in Maricopa County — where we were told don’t look here, nothing to see in Maricopa County — on the eve of the election, the United States intelligence community … detected a major breach in Maricopa County, the largest county in Arizona. It indicated that 600,000-plus voter files were stolen by a hacker.”

“There were some concerns that those hacks may have gone through foreign locations,” Solomon continued. “The FBI jumped on the case — the FBI proved exactly what the intelligence community believed happened.”

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From the August 6, 2026, edition of Real America's Voice's War Room

In reality, the case was reported by the media in 2021, after Trump began spreading false claims about the Arizona election results — including suggesting “the election server was hacked” and “the voting system was breached.”

FactCheck.org explained that “the county said there was no hack, and it isn’t possible for hackers to change votes because the ballot tabulation equipment is a ‘closed air gapped system,’ meaning it isn’t connected to the internet.” The July 2021 report also shared a Maricopa County social media post that claimed, “The event in question involved an individual inappropriately accessing and downloading publicly available info. The website is in no way connected to the Election Management System.”

That same month, the Arizona Daily Star reported that a subcontractor working on the state Senate's audit of Arizona's election administration spoke about “problems” that were “related to a breach of the voter registration system the county itself reported,” claiming “that shows that at least one element of the county’s election system had been ‘hacked.’” The article went on to explain that “county election officials said all that was accessed was a site where people could register to vote, not the actual server where voter registration records are stored. All that anyone obtained was someone’s voter registration number, with no access to personal information, they said.” (The audit ultimately confirmed Biden’s victory in Maricopa County and “found no evidence of fraud in the 2020 election.”)

The FBI's official record when the case was closed in 2023, which was uploaded by Solomon’s Just the News, stated:

On November 2, 2020, Maricopa County Recorder's Office (MCRO) notified FBI Phoenix that an intruder that had scraped approximately 633,000 voter records, including 930 sensitive voter records, from the MCRO's website. … [The individual] admitted to developing a PowerShell script to scrape voter data after discovering the vulnerability in the MCRO website. After MCRO fixed the vulnerability, [the individual] got scared and deleted the data he'd scraped.

The FBI concluded that “investigators did not find indications of a domestic or foreign influence on [the individual]'s actions,” and the investigation was closed after “federal, state, and local prosecuting offices” all declined the case.

Even Solomon's own story noted that “voter registration files do not include ballots, and there's no evidence votes were changed in the incident,” before creating hypothetical scenarios that “if bad actors gained access to such files they could hamper the ability of voters to cast ballots in the future.”

Despite Solomon's claims that “today, we learned” about this supposed election interference, his latest story looks like just another desperate rehashing of old information to fearmonger about the upcoming midterms.

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On Steve Bannon’s War Room, John Solomon scrambles to substantiate Trump’s claims of Chinese election interference

07/31/26 3:35 PM EDT

What you need to know about John Solomon, the man driving Trump's latest election fraud nonsense

07/16/26 6:00 PM EDT

Misinformer John Solomon, who reportedly pushed for Trump’s prime-time speech, has spent months claiming China interfered in the 2020 election to help Joe Biden

07/16/26

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MMA

March 23, 2026, edition of The Benny Show, posted to YouTube

BENNY JOHNSON (HOST): With every passing moment, the apocalypse grows nearer. I'm not trying to be glib here. We literally watched a massive ballistic missile take out a massive chunk of the Old Wall in Jerusalem in the shadow of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Western Wall, the Dome on the Rock, the Church Of The Holy Sepulchre. Look at this. This could have killed a lot of people if they were worshiping there, Muslims, Jews, and Christians. Obviously, this is the most holy site in all of the world. You can see the damage that was done, how it just took out a huge chunk of the wall, the roadway. And if this was the — I mean, like, the mosque is, like, thousands of years old. Right? I think it was built in, like, 600. Dude, they would be toast. Iran could have, like, actually bombed one of the holiest places in all of Islam. Of course, they would have, blamed, I guess, everyone but themselves, like, uniting the Muslim world, I guess, would be the idea here.

Anyway, this is something that's been happening all throughout Israel. But of course throughout Jerusalem, where you can see puffs of smoke and debris on this, without question, well, you know, the site of Solomon's old temple. And you can see, I mean, that's, you know, the ballistics flying just right over the top of these holy sites. It just makes you nervous because, you know, it's what they say in Revelation. It's what said in Revelation — right? — that there's gonna be a third temple built. It's gonna be desecrated by the antichrist. And so it has all — you know, all religions sort of like looking at these holy sites and these holy spots. Of course, as Christians, we should care about these things mainly because we should care about, you know, peace at least in our time. You can see the, Dome on the Rock on fire. And so I don't know.

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// BOEBERT HILLARY PIX?

MMA

Right-wing media figures are getting briefed on the Iran war before Congress

Benny Johnson and Brian Kilmeade appear to have more information than just about any elected representative

Written by John Knefel

Research contributions from Sophie Lawton

Published 03/02/26

A defining feature of President Donald Trump’s second term is its symbiotic relationship with media allies, both at traditional right-wing outlets like Fox News and among the newer cohort of MAGA podcasters and online influencers — in some cases, these figures know more about Trump’s upcoming policy decisions than members of Congress. That dynamic was fully on display in the lead-up to the unprovoked bombing campaign the United States and Israel launched against Iran on February 28.

Prior to Trump’s initiation of the war, MAGA streamer Benny Johnson and Newsmax host Greg Kelly appeared to have insider information about when the first round of strikes would occur. Beyond them, Fox News host Brian Kilmeade and contributor Jack Keane claimed to have been involved in high-level briefings on the campaign.

Johnson, who was fired by Buzzfeed for plagiarism in 2014 and later disciplined by the Independent Journal Review for publishing false information, appears to have had unusually close access to officials in the Trump administration responsible for the decision to go to war.

On February 21, Johnson told his audience, “We are going to war with Iran. … I've been asking — I think that the cake's been baked.” It was unclear at the time whether he had inside information or was speculating, as he later added, referring to the publicly reported military build up, “the maps don't lie, OK? It’s happening.”

Johnson returned to the subject on February 27, just hours before the U.S.-Israeli campaign began. He began his show saying he’d just been “on the phone with top-level — let’s just say very high-level administration officials — moments ago to discuss what the plan is” for attacking Iran. Later in the same episode, Johnson claimed that he’d been talking with someone who is at the “top, top level of the administration, and we were yelling at each other — not yelling, but having polite conversation — about, like, what’s about to pop off in the Mid East.”

Ultimately, Johnson told his audience, “This is not a drill. It is actually happening,” adding: “I think in the next 24 hours we are going to see the world change. It may be the next 24 minutes, we're not exactly certain."

Newsmax host Kelly was even more precise. “A very well-informed person told me” the attack on Iran will happen Friday “after Wall Street closes,” Kelly said February 26.

By contrast, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), who sits on both the Senate committees on intelligence and on foreign relations, told reporters on February 28 that he was “learning like you are as the news unfolds exactly what's happening." The Trump administration reportedly briefed some congressional staff the following day, with a full briefing to Congress scheduled for March 3.

Johnson and Kelly weren’t the only right-wing media figures enjoying extraordinary access to high-level information. Over at Fox, Kilmeade — a weekday Fox & Friends host who came in to cover a weekend shift — said on March 1 that he “was fortunate enough to be in a briefing with high-ranking Trump officials” a day earlier.

The same morning, Keane offered more granular detail, implying a high degree of insider information. “The [Persian] Gulf states are adequately defending themselves,” said Keane, a retired general and former Army vice chief of staff. “Three of them are preparing for combat, offensive operations. One has already started and two others are about to get going. I'm not going to talk about who they are, but that is being coordinated with Adm. Cooper and Central Command. These will be coordinated, selected targets, and they will contribute to the offensive nature of what’s taken place."

Keane’s comments on Fox the next day suggested he’d been provided with high-level briefings that everything is going smoothly. “The military has got a plan here that I have been privy to understand and it is very comprehensive,” Keane said. “And we're going to stick with that plan until the conditions of these military objectives are met. So far, the plan is exceeding all expectations."

The access to White House war plans that Johnson, Kelly, Kilmeade, and Keane appear to have is even more noteworthy given that the Pentagon tightly controlled its first press briefing of the war on March 2 — having already largely replaced the traditional Pentagon press corps with a series of lackeys, grifters, conspiracists, and cranks. According to CNN’s Brian Stelter, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth — formerly of Fox News — “only answered questions from his chosen outlets” and had a “pre-selected list of questioners.” Those approved outlets didn’t include Hegseth’s former employer, whose correspondent was relegated to the back row and not called on for a question.

All administrations leak and try to manage public opinion through press operations. But the alignment of messaging and interests between the Trump White House and its media allies is unlike anything the United States has seen in recent memory. Sometimes that looks like providing right-wing influencers with embeds alongside Trump’s deportation agents; other times it looks like inviting MAGA media trolls to the White House to discuss antifa. Now, it looks like some of the most slavish voices in right-wing media are getting better information more quickly than members of Congress as the United States and Israel unleash yet more destruction in the Middle East.

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MMA Benny Johnson on Steve Bannon's relationship with Jeffrey Epstein: “Steve Bannon needs to answer for all of this”

02/26/26 11:39 AM EST

2. ### Benny Johnson: “Are we going to war with Cuba? Yes, most likely.”

02/26/26 11:10 AM EST

3. ### Fox host warns that if Mamdani doesn't do anything about people throwing snowballs at NYPD it will lead to “Game of Thrones where everyone is just robbing everyone, taking their purse”

02/26/26

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MMA

1. ### Steve Bannon calls the Supreme Court ruling against Trump's tariffs “wrong” and “terrible”

02/20/26

1. ### Benny Johnson: “The US Supreme Court has ruled against President Trump on tariffs. That's not good. This is a big no no. ... Yikes.”

02/20/26

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1. ### Benny Johnson: “We were the Grand Central Station for arrest Don Lemon”

01/30/26 1:05 PM EST

2. ### MAGA “prophet” claims God told her that JD Vance, Pam Bondi, Mike Johnson, and Susie Wiles are part of the “deep state” and are trying to “deceive” and “sabotage” Trump

01/30/26 12:57 PM EST

3. ### Benny Johnson: “I think that would be awesome, in fact, to have, like, a little prison colony out on some ice rock” in Greenland

01/30/26 12:52 PM EST

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MMA

1. ### Sean Hannity says ICE should stop “going into Home Depots and arresting people”

01/26/26 4:56 PM EST

2. ### Fox News contributor: “I was taken back by the White House who initially put out what I defined as misrepresentation of what took place there when you look at the video”

01/26/26 3:52 PM EST

3. ### Megyn Kelly: Minnesota protesters are “terrorists” who must “behave well and submit immediately”

01/26/26 2:16 PM EST

4. ### After 36 hours justifying the killing of Alex Pretti, Fox News suddenly changes its narrative

01/26/26 12:40 PM EST

5. ### Discussing Minnesota, FBI Director Kash Patel says “some of the best reporting” has been through Benny Johnson and Cam Higby: “As soon as Higby put that post out, I opened an investigation on it”

01/26/26 12:25 PM EST

6. ### Right-wing streamer Asmongold on Alex Pretti shooting: “There's literally no excuse for it”

01/26/26 12:19 PM EST

7. ### Benny Johnson on Alex Pretti shooting: “A left-wing protester attempted to pull this Sig Sauer handgun on federal officers and commit a mass murder”

01/26/26 11:27 AM EST

8. ### Fox contributor claims that Alex Pretti pulled a gun on an ICE officer

01/26/26 11:24 AM EST

9. ### Fox’s Trey Gowdy points out double standard of defending Kyle Rittenhouse and criticizing Alex Pretti

01/26/26 11:23 AM EST

11. ### Newsmax's senior judicial analyst on Alex Pretti shooting: “To me, their shooting is indefensible”

01/26/26 10:54 AM EST

12. ### Alex Jones blames Alex Pretti for his own death: “He came with a gun and stuck himself in the middle of a riot”

01/26/26 10:34 AM EST

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MMA

January 24, 2026, edition of The Benny Show, posted to YouTube

BENNY JOHNSON (HOST): You need to pray for Border Patrol, federal law enforcement, and ICE right now as Minneapolis is about to pop off. Another deadly shooting.

This time, a left-wing protester attempted to pull this Sig Sauer handgun on federal officers and commit a mass murder, potentially killing many of them because there were quite a few around during an arrest situation where a left-wing agitator, probably a professional paid agitator, 51 years-old, was reaching for this firearm.

Federal law enforcement put him down, but a Border Patrol member shot and killed an individual in Minneapolis, Minnesota in the intersection of 26th Street, Nicollet Avenue. This is the same avenue that the Quality Learning center is on. Goodness gracious. What started it all, and now we're learning so much more about what the left is willing to do.

This would be the second time that a leftist paid protester, agitator, terrorist has been killed in self-defense by federal law enforcement for attempting to commit murder. Renee Good tried to run over federal officers, and this individual tried to shoot federal officers. You can see here in this video -- what you'll see is federal officers tussling, attempting to apprehend the agitator and then the individual showed his firearm. And you can hear the discharge of a weapon. And the reactions from inside of whatever establishment was filming this -- again, well, stop resisting arrest. Stop fighting federal law enforcement.

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1. ### Discussing Minnesota, FBI Director Kash Patel says “some of the best reporting” has been through Benny Johnson and Cam Higby: “As soon as Higby put that post out, I opened an investigation on it”

:{01/26/26

2. ### Benny Johnson on Greenland: “President Trump ruling an empire. We are an empire once more.”

:{01/22/26

3. ### Many right-wing media figures fell in line after Trump renewed threat to acquire Greenland

01/21/2

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mma

January 7, 2025, edition of The Benny Show, streamed on YouTube

BENNY JOHNSON (HOST): We have some clips, some, like, really cool stuff. I wanna play you this clip of Donald Trump witnessing a exfiltration by Delta Force that happened at Fort Bragg because we were part of the Seal team operation here, and it's something that is kind of remarkable.

I had no idea that I was witnessing history when we were actually riding on the back of these Humvees. Here's President Trump watching these military black op helicopters come rolling in at Fort Bragg. And I'm no hero here. We were simply filming in the back of one of the Humvees, but we got a chance to chill out with the Army Rangers and the Delta Force operators that were running this operation. This happened in the summer.

And as you can see here, the exact same helicopter platforms, the exact same special operators that raided Maduro and his compound — that looks actually eerily like what you have here in Fort Bragg. That's me in the back of the Humvee. You can see that — so we're in the back of that vehicle right there.

And this is the operation. This was happening in July, and I was witnessing from the back of that car right there. Yeah. I just had my camera. Right? Like, they'd let me tag along. President Trump was way over here.

But I witnessed what was about to happen in Venezuela. This was the dry run. It's epic. The details of that raid was remarkable.

Little did I know that I was watching the prep for what was about to happen to Nicolás Maduro, the most famous communist dictator in all of the world, most famous and powerful communist dictator in all the world because he sits ashore America.

Venezuela is not a real place. I want to just, like, talk through really quickly how important this Venezuelan raid was for us, our hemisphere, and the future of America. Something that's near and dear to my heart.

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MAGA media link Trump's overthrow of Maduro to 2020 election conspiracy theories | Media Matters for America

MAGA influencers are suggesting that the United States overthrew Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro in retaliation for Venezuela, via election technology companies, purportedly rigging the 2020 U.S. election against President Donald Trump — a false conspiracy theory that the president appeared to endorse following Saturday’s military strikes.

Benny Johnson, a MAGA slop artist with close ties to the Trump administration, claimed on Sunday that “Nicolás Maduro might be Trump's final revenge for the election theft of 2020.”

“Smartmatic and Dominion Voting Systems were the voting systems being used at this time [in 2020] and in these states and all around the world,” he said. “They are Venezuelan by design and by systems, storage facilities and through their actual technology. These systems, I have on extremely good authority, can and do rig elections around the world.”

Johnson claimed to have a source who says that Maduro “told him directly that he has direct hard evidence of the election of 2020 being rigged, that he knows exactly how it was done, that they had a hand in it, but it wasn't really Venezuela running the op. It was probably more likely China. And that he is in possession of all of that evidence.”

Smartmatic and Dominion have sued several right-wing outlets and activists that promoted conspiracy theories tying the companies to the purported 2020 election theft. Fox News, which currently faces a $2.7 billion lawsuit from Smartmatic, ultimately settled a similar suit from Dominion for a record $787.5 million in 2023; filings in the case show that Fox executives and stars privately acknowledged that the election had not been tainted by large-scale fraud, even as the network broadcast false claims tying Dominion to Venezuela and suggesting it had rigged the 2020 vote.

But both companies may be less willing or able to defend themselves as these conspiracy theories reignite. Dominion settled several other suits against Trump allies during its October 2025 purchase by (and at the reported behest of) Liberty Vote, an election technology company helmed by a former Republican official with ties to Trump Justice Department official Ed Martin. The same month, the DOJ indicted Smartmatic for allegedly bribing a Philippines official.

Trump has repeatedly referenced the purported role Venezuela played in his yearslong derangement over the 2020 election he falsely claims was stolen from him — most recently in the early hours of Monday morning.

Amid a stream of posts and reposts on his Truth Social platform suggesting that the 2020 election had been rigged in Nevada, Colorado, Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, the president highlighted QAnon influencer Chad Vivas’ claim that “the CIA outsources election rigging technology like Smartmatic and Dominion from Venezuela.” Vivas, known online as “KagDrogo,” suggested it was not “coincidence” that Trump had been promoting claims “about Dominion voting machine fraud” right after Maduro’s capture.

Several right-wing accounts with large followings highlighted Trump’s posts as “confirming” a connection between the U.S. attack on Venezuela and the purportedly rigged 2020 U.S. election.

While Fox hosts largely stayed away from conspiracy theories about election technology companies following the lawsuits, hardcore election deniers like former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne and MyPillow founder Mike Lindell remained fixated on Dominion. In the fall of 2025 — as the Trump administration escalated its pressure on Maduro, surged U.S. Navy ships into the Caribbean Sea, and destroyed boats it alleged were carrying drugs while murdering those onboard — the purported Venezuela connection took on new life.

“There’s never been as necessary a war since the Civil War, that we go down and take care of Venezuela,” Byrne told host Emerald Robinson in an October 7, 2025, appearance on her show on Lindell’s LindellTV network. “It’s more important than World War I or World War II to the viability of the United States. The U.S. was overthrown, and Venezuela’s technology was part of it.”

Allegations of a Venezuelan role in the purported theft of the 2020 U.S. election reportedly jumped from the fever swamp to the hyper-partisan Trump Justice Department. On November 21, 2025, The Guardian reported U.S. attorney for Puerto Rico Stephen Muldrow, “a staunch Republican and Trump supporter,” had been briefed on “the old voting conspiracy and the allegations that Venezuela helped rig elections worldwide” by former CIA officer Gary Berntsen (who claims to have first convinced Trumpist lawyers Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani that the 2020 election was stolen) and Venezuelan expatriate Martin Rodil.

Berntsen and author Ralph Pezzullo rehashed the allegations in an interview with far-right podcaster Lara Logan which that same day. And on November 23, 2025, Trump himself reposted Logan’s post about that interview, commenting, “We must focus all of our energy and might on ELECTION FRAUD!!”

With Trump himself apparently convinced by the conspiracy theory, it seems plausible that the federal government will start putting the screws to Maduro, who appeared in a New York courtroom on Monday alongside his wife to plead not guilty to charges of drug trafficking, to get him to confirm it.

Benny Johnson is already telling his viewers that Maduro will “sing like a canary” about his purported accomplices and “how they stole the election.”

“Who will he give up?” Johnson asked Sunday. “Soros? China? Left-wing NGOs? Left-wing billionaires?”

“He'll sing,” Johnson added ominously. “He'll tell them everything. They got his wife. This is why they took him alive. I learned all this from my conversation, and it really checks out, quite frankly. It really checks out.”

MMA

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1. ### MAGA influencer Benny Johnson’s job is to have no principles. Business is booming.

11/25/25 9:58 AM EST

2. ### It wasn’t just Sidney Powell. Fox repeated the same Dominion lies.

01/21/21 1:40 PM EST

3. ### FLASHBACK: When Pete Hegseth endorsed the military executing captured alleged combatants

12/01/25

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MOJO

December 17, 2025

How Benny Johnson Went From BuzzFeed Plagiarist to MAGA’s Chief Content Creator

He says he did “some very bad things.” But in Trumpworld, that’s a plus.

Anna Merlan

Senior ReporterBio

Not long ago, plagiarist-turned-MAGA-influencer Benny Johnson stood in a parking garage underneath Chicago’s Trump International Hotel and Tower. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem emerged; the two embraced, then loaded into SUVs to drive outside the city to ICE’s Broadview detainment facility. Johnson filmed the road in front of him for a video, which he posted to his 6 million subscriber YouTube channel, snapping his fingers in excitement. Upon arriving, demonstrators—whom Johnson referred to as “left-wing orcs”—were being watched by armed, masked agents who looked, he said admiringly, “ready to conquer Baghdad.”

Johnson seamlessly blends fawning Trump coverage, PR, rage-bait, and apologism.

When the cut to a group of handcuffed protesters, looking glum, Johnson beamed: “These are exactly the kind of people we want to be pissing off.”

Johnson trailed Noem through the building as she spoke to underlings at their desks, “raising the esprit de corps,” he declared. Throughout his tour, Johnson repeatedly claimed that the facility had been “attacked” so many times that it had been necessary to install a “sniper’s nest.” A rooftop shot shows Noem, her mouth stretched into a deep frown, gazing at a turret-mounted gun aimed at the street. “These are very dangerous times,” Johnson added.

“What’s going on homie?” Johnson asked, turning to an ICE agent in a black balaclava and orange sunglasses, his face completely hidden. He shook the officer’s hand vigorously. “We’re here to support you guys.”

Johnson’s role that early October day was somewhere between adoring observer and fringe participant, as captured in a video in his typical style: reasonably professionally produced, with the jumpy, fast-talking, quick cuts beloved by influencers; studiously provocative; and slavishly devoted to the Trump administration.

In the journalism world, Johnson is best known for leaving two publications in disgrace after his plagiarism was discovered, and for taking—inadvertently, he has said—money from a Kremlin-backed media organization, and for being a hard partier, a difficult boss and colleague, and an almost surreally dedicated self-promoter. (“I met him once at a party,” says a colleague of mine. “His whole vibe is so weird that I thought at first he might be fucking with me.”)

Now, he’s something like the administration’s propagandist and content creator in chief, with his work seamlessly blending fawning coverage, PR, rage-bait, and apologism. While ostensibly an independent vlogger and podcaster, Johnson’s role is premised on access to—and lavish posts about—both administration initiatives like Noem’s raids or touring Alligator Alcatraz with the president, and more social engagements, like watching UFC fights ringside with Trump, smoking cigars at the vice presidential residence, and a Christmastime tour of the White House with his family. All of this more or less lives up to Johnson’s social media tagline: “Your front seat to the golden era.”

Reporters and others who have watched Johnson’s evolution aren’t exactly surprised by where he’s ended up, describing him as “a charismatic motherfucker,” as one former colleague put it, a political and social chameleon, and someone whose work seems untethered by normal moral and ethical considerations.

“It’s ended at the place where it was inevitable that he would end,” says one person who socialized with him in DC about a decade ago.

His politics then were “sort of a libertarian inflected conservatism,” another person who knew him at the time says, “skeptical of power and government. And it’s absurd to look at him now.”

“The thing you need to know about Benny is he’s a chameleon,” says a former colleague from BuzzFeed News. “Drop him into any environment and he’ll reflect that environment because he wants to be liked.”

Johnson’s particular notoriety is a useful key to understanding a core value of the Trump administration: shamelessness. The president’s circle is full of people with notable—and, in many cases, ongoing—public scandals. For Johnson, like so many others, not running from their past is a feature, not a bug.

“One of the great virtues to have is that you got caught doing bad things and not giving a fuck,” says John Stanton, a former DC bureau chief at BuzzFeed News, who was involved in the outlet’s 2014 decision to fire Johnson. “That’s the definition of Donald Trump’s career. He’s been caught over and over again. I think they value that greatly.”

“His whole vibe is so weird that I thought at first he might be fucking with me.”

Another thing Trump values is intense toadying, and Johnson today has no qualms about being in open alignment with power. He depicts himself as part of a battle for the future of America, one with Trump fearlessly at the helm and his fellow pro-Trump media members manning the guns. Their targets are Democrats, the mainstream media, LGBTQ visibility, political correctness, immigration, and any other object of hate the president might identify on any given week.

“True freedom is a functional, peaceful, orderly society where you can get a piece of the American Dream,” Johnson tweeted recently. “We must protect and fight for it at all costs. This is our generational battle. This is our Normandy and Iwo Jima. The enemy is already inside the gates.”

The results are making themselves felt. Johnson has cast himself as an heir to the throne of his former boss, slain Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk. Johnson’s wife, Katelyn Rieley Johnson, has bragged that he got Jimmy Kimmel pulled off the air after the late-night host discussed Kirk’s death. In a podcast within a week of the shooting, Johnson, who has said he was a close friend of Kirk’s, seemed to get FCC Chair Brendan Carr to endorse a claim that Kimmel’s monologue had been a “clear cut violation” of policy against “news distortion.”

“Look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr told Johnson. “These companies can find ways to change conduct, to take action on Kimmel or, you know, there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.” ABC’s suspension soon followed.

Johnson is pushing the boundaries of even what the Trump wing of the Republican Party is willing to say. He’s launched an attack on H-1B visas, those granted to skilled workers in specialty occupations, and called for a halt to legal immigration too. He’s also one of the far-right voices amplifying unproven claims that welfare fraud among Somali immigrants in Minnesota has funded the terrorist group al-Shabaab.

“Your tax dollars are being stolen and shipped over to people who hate us and want us dead,” Johnson tweeted. “You should be furious. This is a direct result of careless immigration policies. We must ramp up mass deportations and halt all legal immigration.”

More and more overtly, Johnson is depicting nonwhite VID] immigrants, an increasingly stark and baldly racist us-or-them approach. And he’s using the tips and tricks of virality and traffic-mongering he learned at places like BuzzFeed to do it.

Johnson, 38, is trim and nondescript, with sandy brown hair, black-rimmed glasses, and an absolutely immobile forehead. His speaking style is usually bland, a mildly incredulous cadence and lowered volume that can be reminiscent of Tucker Carlson under light sedation. In what seems like an effort to sound younger, he sometimes greets his viewers with “yo,” or proclaims things to be “wild.”

Johnson’s company, Benny Media, produces an extraordinary amount of content: His YouTube channel churns out one to four videos a day. His five-day-a-week podcast, The Benny Show, interviews members of Congress, Cabinet members, various Trumps, and conspiracy peddlers back to back, an unbroken stream of boosterism and suspicion. Johnson tweets relentlessly (4 million followers) and posts versions of his YouTube content to Instagram (2 million followers) and TikTok (just over 325,000). The effect is a wall of content, a one-man Fox News.

Johnson’s value to the administration is rooted in his sycophancy; he reliably depicts them in the heroic, tough, battle-ready light they want to be seen. This has led to unintended consequences: In November, a 233-page opinion from Sara Ellis, a Chicago-based federal judge, cited Johnson’s videos eight times while demonstrating that Noem and Greg Bovino, the senior US Border Patrol official who’s become the face of Trump’s anti-migrant crackdown, illegally encouraged force against demonstrators.

“For example,” Ellis wrote, Johnson’s footage captured Noem as she “admonished agents at Broadview to go hard against people for ‘the way that they’re talking, speaking, who they’re affiliated with, who they’re funded with, and what they’re talking about…,’ statements that Bovino then echoed.” Ellis dryly noted that Noem stood for an interview with Johnson with a group of “arrestees as a backdrop,” people who were later released without charges. In a tweet, Johnson dubbed these people, falsely, “Democrat domestic terrorists.”

Johnson puts out videos that appeal to both racist and conspiratorial viewers.

Johnson also puts out videos that would appeal to both racist and more overtly conspiratorial viewers: a video mocking Black EBT recipients upset about losing SNAP benefits during the government shutdown, for instance, or one that expressed support for the baseless theory promoted by Candace Owens that France’s first lady, Brigitte Macron, was born male. (The Macrons have sued Owens and others who spread the claim.) Johnson has amplified a similar false story about Michelle Obama, and also is not above making his own pure, grotesque outrage bait: After his visit to Chicago, he posted an AI-generated video of himself in a Batman suit, punching people in sombreros and an Asian woman. (Johnson later deleted the tweet.)

“He’s always on,” says Keith Edwards, a left-leaning YouTuber who has tracked Johnson’s rise. “It’s a superpower. It’s probably a bit of dysfunction as well.”

“He’s able to say and do things that I think are just kind of beyond the pale,” Edwards adds. “Going on ICE raids, saying things that are clearly not true…It’s a level of relationship with the truth that I just think is abysmal. He doesn’t really have one.”

The Trump administration and its allies have backed and promoted Johnson to new heights, and his enemies are also now the enemies of the state. In October, Attorney General Pam Bondi stood aside Johnson and helped announce charges against a 69-year-old San Diego man who allegedly sent him a letter expressing a wish that someone would murder him like Kirk. Bondi cast Johnson as an heir to Kirk’s legacy: “Benny is a well-known media personality carrying a message very similar to Charlie’s, grounded largely in faith and love of country.”

Ever on-message, he explicitly blamed the threat against him on the Democratic Party. “This is what happens when a party abandons faith and morality,” Johnson tweeted that day. “It is the same Godless hatred that threatened my family, murdered Charlie, attacked churches and ICE agents, and tried to assassinate President Trump.”

The White House gave Johnson a place of honor at an August press conference—the briefing room’s daily “new media” seat—from which he falsely claimed his onetime home in Washington, DC, had been set on fire in 2020, seeming to suggest it was a targeted attack. According to the New York Times, Johnson also claimed in a subsequent YouTube video that his house “was burned to the ground.” While there was an “intentionally set” fire on his block, according to DC’s fire department, firefighters contained the “blaze to [the] home of origin,” which was actually his neighbor’s. Johnson sold the supposedly destroyed house in 2021. At the press conference, Johnson also falsely claimed his security camera had captured murders on his block, when none had been recently reported. (There had been a nearby shooting the day before the fire, which left three people with non-life-threatening injuries. A suspect with a long history of drug-related crimes was later arrested for the shooting; his lawyer declined to comment.) Today, Johnson, his wife, and their four young children are based in Tampa. In, he described moving to Florida as a personal escape from the “communist” leadership and lawlessness of East Coast cities.

Johnson fired back at the Times story on Twitter/X, sharing security footage of smoke emanating from a window of his old house and his wife fleeing, their baby in her arms. Johnson called the paper’s reporting “dehumanizing propaganda” and proof of the “Left’s goal…to never grant sympathy to regular Americans, even if they’re innocent children. Evil bastards.”

Alas, Johnson has complained that trouble followed him to Tampa. This month, he tweeted that a man showed up at his door “ranting about me” before going to the house of another Florida-based conservative figure, Phillip Buchanan, who goes by Catturd online. According to federal court records, the man, identified as Andrew Aiyar, has been charged with posting a threatening tweet saying he intended to kill the wife of another conservative podcaster, Matt Walsh, “with a meat cleaver.”

“I don’t like to speak publicly about this kind of stuff because it involves my family and their security. I’m sick over it,” Johnson wrote. “But I have an obligation to amplify this case as it is one of multiple ongoing criminal prosecutions for threats against my family. Over the past year I’ve watched my President get shot in the head and my friend get assassinated. Things are spiraling wildly out of control. There are real-world consequences for psychotic rhetoric and lies amplified online. Enough.” Aiyar’s lawyer did not respond to a request for comment.

It wasn’t all that long ago that Johnson was throwing back shots with the same mainstream media he now denounces as evil. Unlike many figures in Trump’s media ecosystem, Johnson’s early career included work at news outlets with track records of real reporting. After beginning as a blogger for The Federalist, in 2012 Johnson, then writing for The Blaze, started courting Ben Smith, BuzzFeed News’ founding editor-in-chief. As a form of flattery, Johnson told Smith during a conversation on the floor of that year’s Republican National Convention that he was, according to Smith’s 2024 memoir Traffic, “religiously copying our work” for The Blaze.

Johnson was active in a hard partying, ideologically diverse, and sexually libertine DC scene.

As Smith writes, he was looking to hire a right-leaning writer who would allow fellow conservatives to “see themselves in BuzzFeed.”

“Benny represented, to me, an untapped new well of traffic,” Smith wrote, “a new identity to plumb.” Smith, now the editor-in-chief of Semafor, writes that he allowed his eyes to “skate over” what he describes as Johnson’s “race-baiting” posts on the New Black Panther Party, an obscure group that Johnson implied had influence over President Obama. “I certainly didn’t run his work through,” Smith admits, “plagiarism-detection software.”

At first, Johnson’s presence at BuzzFeed was a hit. “He was one of the reporters who consistently drove a lot of traffic at a time when that really mattered,” a former DC friend says. “He’d do these buzzy stories,” they added, that didn’t necessarily push any ideology. A particularly popular one from 2013 focused on the “running of the interns,” a Supreme Court coverage ritual where young broadcast news workers sprint freshly issued opinions to on-camera reporters waiting outside the building, vying to be first. The listicle was heavy on photos, light on text, and undeniably charming.

At the time, Johnson was omnipresent on the DC circuit, knocking down drinks with an ideologically diverse group of journalists and political operatives, united in their mission of trying to get into the most exclusive parties. (When only a few people showed up to his 2013 birthday, he was devastated, one person remembers.) The scene was hard partying and sexually libertine, another person from those circles recalls, even among the more politically conservative figures. “There was a lot of sex happening,” they said, including right-leaning people who were somewhat openly bisexual. “A psychoanalyst would have a field day.”

Even then, though, Johnson didn’t let his guard down much, even with people he spent a lot of time drinking with. “He wasn’t a person that it felt possible to get close to,” one journalist who knew him then says.

Johnson was productive, racking up more than 500 stories in a year and a half at BuzzFeed News, earning the title of Viral Politics editor. There was, however, trouble in paradise: “Benny was always the target of progressives on Twitter,” Smith wrote in his book, “who saw him as a dangerous protofascist.” In July 2014, after Johnson accused the Independent Journal Review, a recently formed conservative site, of plagiarizing his work on former President George H.W. Bush’s socks, two pseudonymous Twitter users built a case that Johnson had himself been recycling text from Wikipedia and Yahoo Answers. After their findings were picked up by Gawker’s J.K. Trotter, Smith initially defended him as “one of the web’s deeply original writers.” But BuzzFeed began investigating Johnson’s work and realized that at least 15 stories had been plagiarized, including some that relied on content published by other news outlets. As Stanton recalls, “that’s when it was like, ‘We’re gonna fire him.’” The number of plagiarized stories BuzzFeed uncovered ultimately reached 41.

BuzzFeed suspended Johnson while the investigation took place. “Unbeknownst to us he went to the beach with his girlfriend,” Stanton says, “and turned off his phone.” To deliver the news of his firing, Stanton resorted to calling his girlfriend. When she handed the phone to Johnson, Stanton recalls, he said his detractors were “jealous, and after him, and people didn’t like him because he was conservative.” Then Johnson said “YOLO” and hung up.

“Put aside the moral implications or reasoning that he has for being who he is, he was clearly attempting to make a name for himself and become famous, and he took a bunch of shortcuts to do that knowing that could have bad blowback on his colleagues—and it did. People questioned their reporting,” Stanton, now editor of New Orleans’ altweekly Gambit, says. “He never apologized to his co-workers for putting them in this tough spot.”

“He’s quite talented. He could’ve done good stuff,” says another one of his BuzzFeed editors. “But he was too lazy to do the work.”

Johnson was silent on social media for about a month before announcing that he’d taken a social media editor job at the National Review—one of the places he’d plagiarized from. The ironies compounded, when, within a year, he joined the Independent Journal Review as “content director.” In 2015, Ben Terris described the move in a Washington Post profile as a triumphant comeback, noting that Johnson had escaped what’s usually a journalism career death sentence. “Benny rebounded unusually quickly” after BuzzFeed, Terris wrote, “fielding offers within weeks of his dismissal from media organizations eager to get a piece of the addictive new breed of storytelling perfected by this 29-year-old.”

But by the following year, Johnson had precipitated what media reporter Oliver Darcy, then writing for Business Insider, called “a crisis” at IJR after being accused of plagiarism, again, by his colleagues; he also faced charges that he was mercurial, dictatorial, and verbally abusive to people working under him.

“I hadn’t been screamed at like that since I was probably seven years old on the playground.”

“Johnson—who once compared himself to Walt Disney, two people said—frequently berated the video team over what was characterized as minuscule details,” Darcy wrote. “Multiple sources said Johnson loudly hurled profanity at team members for small mistakes, fostering a distressing work environment. The behavior eventually led to Johnson receiving a formal verbal reprimand from the company’s human-resources department.”

Johnson was demoted after the Business Insider story, and, by 2017, had left IJR too, following his role in a story that baselessly claimed former President Obama was somehow behind a court ruling blocking Trump’s first-term anti-Muslim travel ban. By 2019, he made a clean break from news outlets by signing as chief creative officer at Kirk’s Turning Point USA, and, around 2020, co-founded Arsenal Media, a PR firm to help conservative politicians and media figures go viral. That job also produced bad press, when an investigation from *The Verge* again depicted him as “bullying and humiliating” staffers.

Johnson could be “very abusive, very toxic, screaming at people, like using profanity, vulgarity, making women cry, like pushing them to the edge,” one anonymous worker told The Verge, elaborating that they “hadn’t been screamed at like that since I was probably seven years old on the playground.”

While Arsenal Media still exists, Johnson is no longer part of it or Turning Point USA, relying instead on his own eponymous media company to make money. At least one major source of Johnson’s funding, however, has dried up. In September 2024, two Russian nationals were indicted for allegedly bankrolling Tenet Media, a Tennessee-based company that, as part of a plot to stoke domestic division, funneled nearly $10 million to conservative influencers, including Johnson, Tim Pool, Dave Rubin, and Lauren Southern.

The Justice Department said the content creators who had ended up as part of the foreign influence operation hadn’t been told of the company’s Russian funding, and Tenet Media’s talent said they were unaware of the true source of their hefty paychecks. In a statement at the time, Johnson said he and the “other influencers were victims in this alleged scheme. My lawyers will handle anyone who states or suggests otherwise.”

These days, Johnson has fashioned an identity as a conservative dad and devoted husband, a model of traditional values. (“Benny is a man of simple tastes,” his website bio reads, one who “enjoys sitting down with a glass of whiskey and a pipe, preferably after a meal featuring as much meat as he can fit on the grill.”) For the last few years, his wife has made her own efforts to become a social media personality, using her previous career as a registered nurse to rebrand as “Nurse Kate,” “a health and wellness advocate” who also promotes vaccine suspicion and what she’s called a “trad wife” lifestyle; she recently appeared on Fox News to call for an end to infighting in the MAGA movement.

Johnson has become more overtly anti-LGBTQ over VID] time, about Pride Month “shoving rainbow-colored vomit down your throat,” as he put it. This has raised eyebrows, given that a former BuzzFeed colleague of Johnson’s, the author Saeed Jones, has posted online that the two men once “made out” at a booze-soaked 2013 company Christmas party. (Jones did not respond to requests for comment.) “I’m not naming names,” Jones added, but “I wasn’t even the only guy Benny made out with THAT night.”

“I personally believe Benny Johnson should get as much conservative dick as he wants, and I’m happy for him.”

At least two gay men in progressive media have commented on this apparent hypocrisy. In September, Keith Edwards made a video, which has amassed more than 600,000 views, rounding up evidence of Johnson’s bisexuality or homosexuality. In addition to Jones’ tweets, it includes allegations from far-right influencer Milo Yiannopoulos and a 2017 incident where Johnson complained about an ad on Military Times’ site promoting a gay cruise, seeming not to realize it was likely targeted based on his own web browsing history.

“I’m allergic to hypocrisy,” Edwards says. “I personally believe Benny Johnson should get as much conservative dick as he wants, and I’m happy for him. But you have to be truthful about who you are. Otherwise you’re damaging people like you who don’t have the ability to hide.” Progressive talk radio host Michelangelo Signorile, who’s written a book arguing for outing closeted political figures, responded to Edwards’ video on his blog, writing that “if this is true, it’s certainly relevant for the media to confirm it and report on it, as Johnson is part of a movement doing enormous damage to the LGBTQ community and is a powerful player who helped elect a president who is promoting vile hatred against queer people.”

Rumors about Johnson’s sexuality have also become ammunition in a fractious battle, as the MAGA movement has been convulsed by a power struggle kicked off by Kirk’s death, the lack of a clear successor to Trump, and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s emerging apostasy. In December, Johnson and his wife appeared to threaten to sue Yiannopoulos—a self-proclaimed “ex-gay” man—for repeatedly tweeting that Johnson is closeted. In return, Yiannopoulos tweeted that “I have receipts, and the truth is a total defense against any claim of defamation or libel.”

For anyone who might wonder about the gap between the stories they’ve heard about Johnson and the image he now presents, Johnson has credited Charlie Kirk with helping personally set him on the straight and narrow.

“I was unmarried,” Johnson said during an October speech at a Moms for Liberty summit that he posted to TikTok. “I was a degenerate. I was every bit addicted to alcohol and some very bad things. And through Charlie’s example in my life, he Christ-centered me.”

As Johnson continues his Trump-and-Kirk-and-Christ-aided comeback, some observers have questioned the authenticity of his social media followings. Progressive YouTuber David Pakman, for instance, accused him in August of using ” to boost his subscriber count far beyond what his videos’ viewership would suggest. (A YouTube spokesperson told the Times it “did not find any evidence of inauthentic traffic, including inauthentic channel subscriptions.”)

But what can be discerned about Johnson’s audience from the comments they leave on his videos is that they skew older—baby boomers who found their way online and eventually into the deeper end of the conspiracy pool. His content is still packaged, more or less, as news, and it is accessible on platforms that they can find; he focuses heavily on issues those viewers care about, like alleged voter fraud and the perceived unfairness of previous prosecutions against Donald Trump.

One of the few times Johnson ever showed signs of going off-message was during the first round of controversy over the Trump administration’s failure to release the Epstein files in full, even as he repeatedly insisted that Trump was not in the files himself. But at the same time he suggested he was unsatisfied by the administration’s lacking disclosure, Johnson was running cover, assuring his audience on July 14, for instance, that FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino—who’d threatened to quit over a feud with Bondi over releasing the files—was working hard on something “very important.”

“Trump Team is ‘back together and locking in,’” Johnson wrote, putting his words in quotes without making it clear whose words he was quoting.

But Johnson has mostly worked to echo the administration’s evolving line on the files. When Trump, under growing public pressure, ginned up a new Epstein investigation targeting prominent Democrats and said the House GOP should back a bill demanding their release, Johnson was on-message, writing that “every shred of evidence pointsdirectly at Democrats.”

“He has a ten or 15 year career to make a lot of money, and then you’ll watch him get crazy.”

He’s been rewarded for that loyalty, again, by both the Trump administration and the larger MAGA sphere. Johnson, whose podcast is sponsored by an online home mortgage lender, recently announced that he’ll be partnering with a conservative property developer as a spokesperson for “Make Housing Great Again.” (The Trump-linked America First Policy Institute, sponsor of the initiative, did not respond to a request for comment on whether he will be paid. Johnson also did not respond to a detailed request for comment for this story.) In Johnson’s words, the “fight for homeownership” is a “fight for the survival of our culture and civilization.”

“The average first-time homebuyer in America is now 40-years-old. That is far beyond the optimal age to get married and start a family,” Johnson told Fox News. “This is a generational betrayal, and we must reverse it for our children and for their future. This was the final policy priority of Charlie Kirk. We will deliver and save the American Dream.”

Many people who know Johnson ponder his longevity should the Republican party ever move on from Trump.

“Some of these influencers in DC are getting so close to the administration it’s backfiring on their brands,” a person familiar with conservative media told me while discussing Johnson.

“He has a ten or 15 year career to make a lot of money and then you’ll watch him get crazy,” someone who knew him in conservative media predicts. “At a certain point that becomes useless to people in serious political circles. Assuming that the Trump thing is a blip in history, I don’t see the classic Marco Rubio type using Benny for distribution. The candle burns bright and then it burns out.”

“I don’t know that anybody will have any kind of good reason to be nice to Benny if and when the worm turns and all the authoritarians are out of favor,” agrees Stanton, the former BuzzFeed editor. “I don’t think he’s got that kind of shelf life. But I’m not sure that matters anymore.”

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mma

December 11, 2025, edition of The Benny Show, posted to YouTube

BENNY JOHNSON (HOST): Mr. Attorney General, thank you so much for being on the show today. Those are, like, we just had Barry Loudermout on. He's running the January 6 committee. It's just like a complete barn burner. I know that you're here serving as our state AG. But if you don't mind, can I ask you about an a national issue, which is some of the concurrent investigations that are going on, whether it be Thomas Crooks, or Tyler Robinson, or the pipe bomber? What would be your advice in order to get the American public read in on so many of these issues that seem to be kind of fraying the country right now? Right?

JAMES UTHMEIER (FLORIDA'S ATTORNEY GENERAL): My advice would be to investigate to the fullest. Ask every question. Thank you, Benny, for continuing to ask these questions. I think the American people have lost faith and credibility in law enforcement. They hear about inquiries, investigations that don't actually go anywhere. Things just get swept up the rug. We stop asking questions. And at the end of the day, we don't give the American people the answers they need. The questions you're asking are the right ones. There's a lot that doesn't make sense. People can call us conspiracy theorists, but I think you're on to something that's massively important, for our country and its history.

JOHNSON: There's no such thing as a conspiracy theory. I mean, that's a slur.

That's a slur that was made up after JFK was shot. And what did we learn just a month ago based on Anna Paulina's investigation here from the great state of Florida? Well, we found out that the CIA has been withholding a document that proves that they bumped into Lee Harvey Oswald in Mexico, that they were working — at the very least, they were working in tandem with him on various operations. This has been proven. We have the documents now. And so it's actually — you're a conspiracy theorist if you don't think that there was some type of intel involvement and at least the operation — operability of Lee Harvey Oswald. They've now just completely admitted it. The records are there. The documents are there. And so, yeah, who was right all along? Right?

UTHMEIER: Yeah. The deep state for decades has been hoping that people at home will not ask questions, that they are not smart enough to figure out the truth. And, again, God bless you for digging into it. Representative Luna is doing a great job on many fronts. And, here in Florida, where we see wrongs that need to be righted, we will dig in, and and we will absolutely investigate and prosecute to the fullest. You got my word on that.

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mma tag Benny Johnson | Media Matters for America

Benny Johnson is a right-wing influencer and podcaster who previously worked for Newsmax, Turning Point USA, and other conservative organizations. He regularly trafficks in conspiracy theories and misinformation. In September 2024, Johnson was revealed to be one of several prominent MAGA influencers who were unwittingly working on behalf of Russia.

The Latest

1. [

Benny Johnson: “H-1Bs should be banned. There should be no H-1Bs in America.”

11/12/25 11:34 AM EST](https://www.mediamatters.org/benny-johnson/benny-johnson-h-1bs-should-be-banned-there-should-be-no-h-1bs-america)

2. [

Benny Johnson says if you don't believe in God, then “you're not an American, actually”

11/07/25 12:06 PM EST](https://www.mediamatters.org/benny-johnson/benny-johnson-says-if-you-dont-believe-god-then-youre-not-american-actually)

3. [

Media Matters weekly newsletter, November 7

11/07/25 10:49 AM EST](https://www.mediamatters.org/media-matters-weekly-newsletter/media-matters-weekly-newsletter-november-7)

4. [

Benny Johnson: “You can live like a king off food stamps”

11/03/25 12:59 PM EST](https://www.mediamatters.org/benny-johnson/benny-johnson-you-can-live-king-food-stamps)

5. [

Myths and facts about SNAP

10/31/25 4:52 PM EDT](https://www.mediamatters.org/congress/myths-and-facts-about-snap)

6. [

Benny Johnson says “little birdies” tell him Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John Brennan, and James Clapper are facing “real legal trouble” and it will be “heating up quite quickly”

10/17/25 11:03 AM EDT](https://www.mediamatters.org/benny-johnson/benny-johnson-says-little-birdies-tell-him-barack-obama-hillary-clinton-john-brennan)

7. [

Calling their opponents “demonic,” some right-leaning online shows are embracing “spiritual warfare” rhetoric

10/15/25 3:58 PM EDT](https://www.mediamatters.org/steve-bannon/calling-their-opponents-demonic-some-right-leaning-online-shows-are-embracing)

8. [

Media Matters weekly newsletter, October 10

10/10/25 10:57 AM EDT](https://www.mediamatters.org/media-matters-weekly-newsletter/media-matters-weekly-newsletter-october-10)

9. [

Right-wing media have long called for Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act. He's now considering it.

10/09/25 1:45 PM EDT](https://www.mediamatters.org/justice-civil-liberties/right-wing-media-have-long-called-trump-invoke-insurrection-act-hes-now)

10. [

Benny Johnson: “You shouldn't be allowed to, like, go be a judge here if you were born in another country ... There's a good argument to be made that you shouldn't be allowed to serve in Congress.”

10/09/25 11:53 AM EDT](https://www.mediamatters.org/immigration/benny-johnson-you-shouldnt-be-allowed-go-be-judge-here-if-you-were-born-another-country)

11. [

On Newsmax, Benny Johnson claims Portland “has been conquered by antifa”

10/08/25 9:24 AM EDT](https://www.mediamatters.org/benny-johnson/newsmax-benny-johnson-claims-portland-has-been-conquered-antifa)

12. [

Media Matters weekly newsletter, October 3

10/03/25 10:52 AM EDT](https://www.mediamatters.org/media-matters-weekly-newsletter/media-matters-weekly-newsletter-october-3)

---

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November 19, 2025, edition of The Benny Show, streamed on YouTube

BENNY JOHNSON (HOST): So all Democrats vote to protect Stacey Plaskett, and our weak ass Republican leadership cuts a deal in order to protect a Republican that should be able to stand on his own two feet, right, against these allegations. You, the American people, should be outraged by this from both parties, says Marjorie Taylor Greene, and you should be asking many questions. For example, why does Plaskett, who's a nonvoting delegate from The US territory, serve on the House Intelligence Committee, Ways and Means Committee, Budget Committee? Because of the money. Because she literally — because that's where all the money laundering happens, obviously. Those are very powerful influential committees. She can't even vote on the House floor. Corey Mills serves on the House Armed Services Committee, Foreign Affairs, and subcommittees of Intelligence. So why did both sides work together to stop Plaskett and Mills' censure resolutions last night in order to protect both Plaskett and Mills? Members of Congress, like me, never ever receive such protections and never will. Instead of working to pass legislation that supports policies you voted for, passing our appropriation bills and solving real crises like health care, Congress is trapped in the quicksand of the swamp with no intention of getting out.

Moving along to Anna Paulina Luna. And I'm well aware that Marjorie Taylor Greene has burned quite a few bridges in MAGA and back and forth, that Trump has rescinded his endorsement of her and so on. So let's move over to Anna Paulina Luna. Maybe you're like, well, that's like — that's not — we don't want to hear from Marjorie. Fine. If that's what you think. She's telling the truth there, by the way. Her and Tim Burchett. Here's Anna Paulina Luna. I refuse to vote to protect a corrupt Republican the same way I will not vote to protect a corrupt Democrat. If a member brings forward a legitimate censure for corruption against another Republican, I will vote for it. Get the house in order at GOP.

Tick tock. Tick tock. Tick tock. What a nightmare. How can you possibly — how can you possibly say that you are against pedophiles — GOP leadership, House leadership — get me my Mike Johnson clip immediately. We went to the House, and we interviewed Mike Johnson, and he sat as far away as I am from you right now. And by that, I mean, you know, the camera's really close to me, but whatever. You're welcome to come into the studio and watch the show anytime. I sat across from Mike Johnson, and that dude was like, this is despicable. Nobody deserves to be protected. Get it, like, get it out. Get it out. Get it out. OK? Here's what Mike Johnson had to say to me. Here we go.

...

JOHNSON: So, then he goes on to, like, talk about the tributaries and things that had been done. And listen. I'm happy to cheerlead when good things happen, but this is not a good thing.

Dude lied to my face. It makes me pissed off because you can't sit there and say — and I just played you Marjorie Taylor Greene and Anna Paulina Luna's clips. Like, you can't sit there and say, yeah. I'm in favor of punishing the people that were clearly accelerating and creating the conditions for this pedophile to have such heavy control over our body politic and then not censure the member of Congress who did that. You cut a deal to protect the Democrat that works with the pedo — that was in bed with the pedophile trying to get Trump? It's indefensible. How can you do that? What a betrayal of every principle that we have. Do we have any principles?

//

1. ### MAGA media figures are furious over Trump's immigration apostasy

11/14/25 4:21 PM EST

2. ### Media Matters weekly newsletter, November 14

11/14/25 10:55 AM EST

3. ### Benny Johnson: “H-1Bs should be banned. There should be no H-1Bs in America.”

11/12/25

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not much talk tenet

Benny Johnson (columnist) - Wikipedia

benny Johnson (born May 27, 1987)^[1][2] is an American conservative political commentator^[3] and YouTuber.^[4] He has contributed to several conservative media outlets such as Breitbart News, TheBlaze, National Review, and The Daily Caller.

Johnson was associated with BuzzFeed but was fired in 2014 due to several instances of plagiarism, where he used text from sources such as Yahoo Answers and Wikipedia without giving due credit.^[5] Johnson has also worked for Turning Point USA and hosted for Newsmax TV.

Career

After attending the University of Iowa,^[6] Johnson began contributing opinion pieces to the website Breitbart in 2010. From 2011 to 2012, Johnson was a full-time worker for conservative website TheBlaze, founded by Glenn Beck.^[7] From 2012 to 2014, Johnson was a staff writer at BuzzFeed, until he was fired for plagiarism.^[8]

[](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Benny_Johnson_%2812555523704%29.jpg)Johnson speaking at the 2014 International Students for Liberty Conference in Washington, D.C.

In September 2014, Johnson became digital director at National Review (NR). In 2015, Johnson left NR to join the Independent Journal Review (IJR) as a creative content contributor.^[9] A month after his relationship with the IJR was terminated in October 2017,^[10] Johnson joined The Daily Caller.^[11][12][13]

In 2019, he became a chief creative officer at Turning Point USA.^[14] In 2020, Johnson was a host on Newsmax TV.^[15][16] Johnson runs three YouTube channels: "Benny Johnson", "Benny On The Block" and "Benny Brews".^[17] Johnson also hosts a podcast called "The Benny Show". His main YouTube channel, titled "Benny Johnson", has amassed 6.01 million subscribers and 4 billion views as of September 2025.^[17]

Plagiarism and other accusations

In July 2014, Johnson was suspended from BuzzFeed when an online investigation exposed plagiarism in his posts. His writings "periodically lifted text from a variety of sources", including Yahoo Answers, Wikipedia, and U.S. News & World Report, "all without credit".^[5][18] The plagiarized work comprised almost 10 percent of his work; he was subsequently fired from BuzzFeed and apologized for the plagiarism.^[5]

In March 2017, IJR staffers accused Johnson of plagiarizing an article about then-House Republican Conference chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers.^[19] Later in the same month Johnson was suspended by the IJR after his involvement in an article which asserted that judge Derrick Watson's partial blocking of Executive Order 13780 was connected to former president Barack Obama's visit to Hawaii. Johnson had been warned that the IJR could potentially be promoting a conspiracy theory, but assigned the story anyway.^[19][20]

Again in March 2017, Johnson was reported to have been verbally abusive and driven numerous staffers away from the IJR due to his management style;^[20] he was subsequently demoted.^[10]

In August 2017, Johnson wrote an article containing the most controversial tweets of what he thought was the Boston antifa Twitter account, but it was actually a fake account intended to lampoon antifa. Initially an editorial note was added, and the article was later removed.^[21][22][23]

In April 2022, The Verge published an investigation on Arsenal Media, a conservative boutique co-founded by Johnson. Former employees and contractors described dubious corporate practices, including payments delayed for months, contracts with political campaigns rife with self-dealing, and overworked and underpaid jobs. Johnson has been described as "very abusive, very toxic, screaming at people, like using profanity, vulgarity, making women cry, like pushing them to the edge."^[24]

In August 2024, two Russian state media employees were charged with secretly funding almost $10 million to a Tennessee company for the production of political videos to benefit Russia by influencing the United States. The company's description matches that of Tenet Media, which had employed Johnson and other right-wing influencers, with him responding that "myself and other influencers were victims in this alleged scheme", with a request being made for him to produce content for a "media startup", and that he had a "standard, arms length deal, which was later terminated."^[25][26]

In August 2025, Johnson responded to a Truth Social post by President Donald Trump by posting a video on X (formerly Twitter) with the caption: "Here's a mass shooting and murder in my front lawn, followed by my house being set on fire with my wife and infant child inside." The claim was later proven false. A subsequent profile in The New York Times, citing official police and fire department reports, confirmed that the incident had in fact occurred at a neighbor's residence. Johnson had sensationalized details of the episode and falsely presented it as having taken place at his own home.^[27]

Personal life

Johnson is married to Katelyn Rieley,^[7] with whom he has four children as of 2025.^[28][29]

Assassination threat against Johnson

On October 10, 2025, US Attorney General Pam Bondi hosted a press conference featuring Johnson and attended by his wife Katelyn, spotlighting the arrest of a man who sent a letter to Johnson's home threatening his life. The arrested individual described in the letter that he hoped for Johnson's "extermination" and that Johnson should be "strangled with an American flag", among other details. Johnson used the press conference to argue that violence, including assassination, has been mainstreamed by the Democratic Party.^[30][31]

References

1. Johnson, Benny [@bennyjohnson] (May 27, 2019). "Today is my birthday. It is also Memorial Day" (Tweet). Retrieved July 24, 2024 – via Twitter.

2.. youtube.com. May 4, 2025. Retrieved May 4, 2025.

3. "'Fauci anklagen': Twitter-Chef knöpft sich US-Chefvirologen vor". Der Tagesspiegel (in German).
4. Sato, Mia (July 13, 2023). "Twitter says it will start paying creators this week". The Verge. Retrieved December 14, 2023.
5. Gold, Hadas; Shutt, Jennifer (July 26, 2014). "BuzzFeed fires Benny Johnson for plagiarism". Politico. Retrieved March 29, 2017.
6. Votzmeyer, Colin (September 21, 2022). "UI student arrested for disorderly conduct, disturbing lawful assembly at event in Iowa Memorial Union". Daily Iowan. Retrieved July 20, 2024.
7. Terris, Ben (June 9, 2015). "Benny Johnson got fired at BuzzFeed. You will believe what happened next". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved March 29, 2017.
8. Rothstein, Betsy (December 18, 2012). "For a Fun Time at D.C. Buzzfeed, Call Benny". Ad Week. Retrieved April 19, 2017.
9. Gold, Hadas (February 3, 2015). "IJReview hires Benny Johnson". Politico. Retrieved March 29, 2017.
10. Fischer, Sara (October 20, 2017). "Scoop: Benny Johnson out at Independent Journal Review". Axios. Retrieved October 20, 2017.
11. Calderone, Michael (November 17, 2017). "Moore's anti-media campaign -- Big deal frenzy -- Fixing mass shootings coverage -- Vanity Fair 'panic' -- WaPo expands media desk". Politico. Retrieved November 18, 2017.
12. Nwanevu, Osita (November 17, 2017). "Today in Conservative Media: Mike Pence Was Right About Being Alone With Women". Slate Magazine. Retrieved May 8, 2022.
13. Darcy, Oliver. "Reliable Sources with Oliver Darcy: Tuesday, May 2, 2023". CNN. Retrieved July 6, 2023.
14. Concha, Joe (February 6, 2019). "Daily Caller reporter Benny Johnson joining Turning Point USA". The Hill. Retrieved February 7, 2019.
15. Petrizzo, Zachary (November 22, 2020). "Newsmax's Benny Johnson Claims President-Elect Office Is a 'Fake Office' Made For Biden (Nope, Trump Did It Too)". Mediaite. Retrieved December 27, 2020.
16. Folkenflik, David (November 30, 2020). "Newsmax rises on wave of resentment towards media — especially Fox News". NPR. Retrieved December 27, 2020.
17. "Benny Johnson". youtube.com. Retrieved May 27, 2025.
18. Bucher, Chris (March 21, 2017). "Benny Johnson Suspended: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know". Heavy Sports. Retrieved February 10, 2025.
19. Mullin, Benjamin (March 21, 2017). "Report: Benny Johnson was accused of plagiarism (again)". Poynter. Retrieved October 6, 2018.
20. Darcy, Oliver (March 21, 2017). "Inside the identity crisis at the Independent Journal Review, the outlet that has become a powerhouse in the Trump era". Business Insider. Retrieved March 23, 2020.
21. Feldman, Brian (August 21, 2017). "How to Spot a Fake Antifa Account". Intelligencer. Retrieved January 6, 2021.
22. Montgomery, Blake (September 7, 2017). "Here's A Guide To The Antifa Network That's Trying To Solidify A Nazi-Punching Movement". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved January 6, 2021.
23. Chiel, Ethan (August 22, 2017). "Right Wing Publications Can't Stop Getting Duped By Fake Antifa Accounts". GQ. Retrieved January 6, 2021.
24. Kelly, Makena (April 20, 2022). "This firm made Republicans go viral — now it's falling apart". The Verge. Retrieved February 10, 2025.
25. Suderman, Alan; Swenson, Ali (September 5, 2024). "Right-wing influencers were duped to work for covert Russian influence operation, US says". Associated Press. Archived from the original on September 5, 2024. Retrieved September 5, 2024.
26. Lynch, Sarah N.; Goudsward, Andrew; Bing, Christopher (September 5, 2024). "US charges employees of Russia's RT network in crackdown on election influence efforts". Reuters. Thomson Reuters. Archived from the original on September 4, 2024. Retrieved September 5, 2024.
27. Bensinger, Ken (August 30, 2025). "He Plagiarized and Promoted Falsehoods. The White House Embraces Him". The New York Times. Archived from the original on September 1, 2025.
28. "KARI LAKE & BENNY JOHNSON WILL ADDRESS FAITH & FREEDOM COALITION'S "ROAD TO MAJORITY" POLICY CONFERENCE 2023". ffcoalition.com. June 13, 2023. Retrieved July 24, 2024.
29. Johnson, Benny [@bennyjohnson] (September 15, 2023). "🚨BOY DAD OFFICIAL🚨 ANNOUNCING Mr. Theodore Johnson" (Tweet). Retrieved July 24, 2024 – via Twitter.
30. Mallin, Alexander (October 10, 2025). "Man charged after allegedly threatening right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson". abcnews.go.com. Retrieved October 13, 2025.
31. Reilly, Ryan J.; Ebner, Victoria (October 10, 2025). "DOJ charges man with sending threatening letter to pro-Trump influencer Benny Johnson". NBC News. Retrieved October 13, 2025.

External links

• Official website
• Media related to Benny Johnson at Wikimedia Commons
• Benny Johnson at IMDb

Categories:

• 1987 births
• Living people
• 21st-century American journalists
• 20th-century American male writers
• American political commentators
• American political podcasters
• Blaze Media people
• BuzzFeed people
• Commentary YouTubers
• Journalists from Iowa
• News YouTubers
• Newsmax TV people
• Iowa Republicans
• People from Cedar Rapids, Iowa
• University of Iowa people
• YouTubers from Iowa
• 21st-century American male journalists

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ggl 11 25

ggl 11 25

Latest posts from @bennyjohnson

1:06

I asked the former Capitol Police Chief about The Blaze’s report that the January 6th pipe bomber may have been a Capitol Police officer.

He demands that, given the information in these reports, officials be upfront and either confirm or deny the claims.

"I want to see some

240+ likes ·

18 minutes ago

bennyjohnson

X

1:31

Former Capitol Police Chief calls for an immediate investigation into Nancy Pelosi, demanding she be questioned about her role on January 6th and her refusal to approve his several National Guard backup requests.

He lays out exactly what he would ask her:

"I'm calling her rep

770+ likes ·

48 minutes ago

bennyjohnson

X

12:38

Florida's Next Governor Byron Donalds throws his full support behind capping all immigration and completely abolishing the H-1B program.

He emphasizes that America already has the talent, they just haven’t been trained right — the issue is the education system, which must be

910+ likes ·

1 hour ago

bennyjohnson

X

0:14

NEW: Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt says President Trump’s signing to reopen the government could happen tonight:

"The people's government will soon be back open for business. We hope that signing will take place later tonight.”

1.1K+ likes ·

2 hours ago

bennyjohnson

X

6:03

Former Capitol Police Chief drops BOMBSHELL truth about the January 6th pipe bombs: They were deliberately designed and planted to be found, a setup to distract and pull security from the Capitol:

"There is no doubt in my mind it was an operation. Look at the two pipe bombs,

2.1K+ likes ·

2 hours ago

bennyjohnson

X

People also ask

What is Benny Johnson doing now?

Is Benny Johnson part of Turning Point?

What led to Benny Johnson's dismissal from BuzzFeed?

What is Benny Johnson's background?

Feedback

Benny Johnson (columnist)

Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Benny_Johnson_(colu...

Benny Johnson (born May 27, 1987) is an American conservative political commentator and YouTuber. He has contributed to several conservative media outlets ...

Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson)

Instagram · bennyjohnson

2.2M+ followers

2M followers · 1.6K+ following · 18767 posts · @bennyjohnson: “Your Front Seat to the Golden Era ⚡️ ”

benny johnson from www.instagram.com

Videos

Benny Johnson addresses death threat sent to his family ...

YouTube · 10 Tampa Bay

1 month ago

YouTube · 10 Tampa Bay

8:14

If anyone is sending a threatening communication through the mail like they did to Benny Johnson we're going to find them and we're going to prosecute them.

Benny Johnson got death threat days after Charlie Kirk murder

YouTube · FOX 13 Tampa Bay

1 month ago

YouTube · FOX 13 Tampa Bay

15:10

Just days after Charlie's assassination Benny received a letter at his home where he and Kate are raising their beautiful beautiful young family.

Speaker Johnson on the Benny Johnson Show

YouTube · Speaker Mike Johnson

Jul 15, 2025

YouTube · Speaker Mike Johnson

17:36

Bondi: Man arrested over death threats against Benny Johnson

YouTube · LiveNOW from FOX

1 month ago

YouTube · LiveNOW from FOX

13:13

With mailing threatening communications it is a crime and if convicted he is going to prison.

Feedback

View all

Benny Johnson | C-SPAN.org

C-SPAN

https://www.c-span.org › person › benny-johnson

Most common tags: Media, Republican Party. Appearances by Title:c. January 1, 2024 - Present Host, Benny Show Podcast, The

Benny Johnson | Tampa FL

October 10, 2025### Attorney General Bondi Remarks on Combating Political Violence Threats

At a U.S. attorney’s office in Tampa, Florida, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that a man was charged in connection to a…

July 11, 2025### Benny Johnson Speaks at Turning Point USA Summit

Podcast host Benny Johnson spoke during this portion of the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit in Tampa, Florida.

December 20, 2024### Benny Johnson, Jack Psobiec and Others at Turning Point USA Conference

Conservative activists spoke at Turning Point’s AmericaFest conference in Phoenix, Arizona. Among the speakers were podcast h…

July 20, 2016### Role of the Internet in 2016 Election

Benny Johnson of the Independent Journal Review talked about the role of the internet in the 2016 election, including how it …

Facebook · Benny Johnson

2.6M+ followers

Benny Johnson, Tampa. 1748988 likes · 741319 talking about this. God, Family, America 🎙️ Host - The Benny Show I make videos.

Benny Johnson joins me for a fiery conversation about ...

Facebook · Chris Cuomo

870+ reactions · 2 months ago

1:31:24

Benny Johnson joins me for a fiery conversation about Trump's legacy, media bias, and the growing divide in American politics.

Benny Johnson

YouTube · Benny Johnson

6.1M+ followers

Share your videos with friends, family, and the world.

Benny Johnson - Benny Media LLC

LinkedIn · Benny Johnson

8K+ followers

Benny is CEO of Benny Media Group. Host of the 'Benny Show' Podcast, 'Benny On the Block'… · Experience: Benny Media LLC · Education: University of Iowa ...

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xian natl

“Benny Johnson gave a sinister take on ‘Romans 13’ at Charlie Kirk’s Memorial” – Pat Kahnke | Culture, Faith, and Politics ▶️ – Portal Cioran Brasil 🇧🇷

[### Benny Johnson: "This pope was woke by every measure ...

Media Matters for America

:{:{https://www.mediamatters.org › benny-johnson › benny-...}:

https://www.mediamatters.org/benny-johnson/benny-johnson-pope-was-woke-every-measure-i-could-see)}:

Apr 21, 2025 — Let me begin by saying that I am not a Catholic. I have a deep appreciation for the Catholic tradition. However, that's not the tradition that I ...

Benny Johnson: Charlie Kirk Helped Save My Life

YouTube · The Heritage Foundation

850.8K+ views · 1 month ago](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ayeLO2LQuUQ)

Charlie was a martyr in the true Christian sense and he gave his life for what he believed in.

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[## Benny Johnson says if you don't believe in God, then “you're not an American, actually”

11/07/25 12:06 PM EST](https://www.mediamatters.org/benny-johnson/benny-johnson-says-if-you-dont-believe-god-then-youre-not-american-actually)

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AN 10 25 RUPAR

Eric Trump’s controversial remarks — declaring that his father is guided by God and praising what he describes as a divinely orchestrated series of events leading America to this moment — are being blasted by a group of hundreds of national security experts.

“I can’t tell you how many things are lining up,” the President’s son told right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson.

“I mean, think about the fact that this book came out on Charlie Kirk’s birthday, on the same day as we have peace in the Middle East,” he said, of his new book. “You know, I mean, so many different factors are all coming together at once in the most unthinkable, unbelievable journey.”

“Look how much better humanity and our world is,” under Trump, he claimed.

“You know, we’re saving Christianity. We’re saving God, we’re saving the family unit. We’re saving this nation. I mean, you know, DEI is out the window, Benny. You know, I mean, you no longer have Colin Kaepernick kneeling for the national anthem,” Trump continued. “You no longer have Budweiser going, woke as h–, all of this is dead.”

IFrame Content

IFrame Content

IFrame Content

IFrame Content

Trump claimed a resurgence in church attendance, and “a return to people, you know, valuing their children, and valuing society, and believing in the white picket fence, and what the American dream represents, and what the American dream stands for, and American exceptionalism, and peace around the world, and that people can coexist with one another without having to, you know, pick up arms and destroy each other for no reason whatsoever, other than, you know, incompetent, and, you know, and egotistical governments.”

“It’s a beautiful time, and he will go to heaven for all of that,’ he said of his father. “God absolutely guided this journey.”

The Steady State, a group of over 330 former national security officials, slammed the Trump scion’s remarks.

“Eric Trump is not talking politics,” they wrote. “Instead, he’s declaring a new moral order.”

“Framing Trump as God-guided and destined for heaven, he claims America has been ‘saved’ from DEI, protest, and pluralism. This is prophetic, authoritarian language,” they warned.

“Dissent becomes evil, and their victory becomes divine destiny.”

Former Obama head speechwriter turned political commentator Jon Favreau remarked, “We’ve moved rather quickly from ‘God saved Trump’ to ‘Trump is saving God,’ which I guess is the foundation of the new MAGA religion?”

Author Jennifer Erin Valent, winner of a Christian writers’ award commented, “No one ‘saves’ God. Every Christian should know that and be repulsed by the very assertion.”

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benny goes false flag

: Mike Lee Is A Real Piece Of Sh*t - by Evan Hurst}:

_Wonkette_

https://www.wonkette.com › mike-lee-is-a-real-piece-of...](https://www.wonkette.com/p/mike-lee-is-a-real-piece-of-sht)

38 minutes ago — Elon Musk, Charlie Kirk, Mike Cernovich, they've all lied about Boelter. ... D'Souza tweet with the picture of the “No Kings” fliers ...

Well, folks, they caught the motherfucker. We don’t know exactly what took so long to find the Christian nationalist anti-abortion activist Trump supporter who impersonated a cop and assassinated Democrats in Minneapolis on Friday night, with plans to target many more, but they caught him. Maybe they were just looking the wrong places? We would have checked Republican politicians’ houses first, but that’s just us.

Anyway, they found him in a field.

Again, who this guy Vance Boelter is, it’s not shrouded in mystery, and it’s been out in the open from the beginning. He’s one of them. He’s just a typical Republican voter who decided to assassinate some Democrats. You’d think MAGA would be proud of what it’s wrought. And some of them are, to be sure.

But then there are piece of dogshit Republican senators like Mike Lee who have been lying since the beginning.

caption...

Why so ashamed, bud?

You’d think considering Mike Lee’s extremist record,he might already be lobbying Donald Trump for any extra pardons he’s got lying around for Boelter.

Vance Boelter is a registered Republican.He’s an anti-gay, anti-abortion pig. He’s a conservative Christian preacher. Basically all the red flag characteristics that say “Here’s a guy you shouldn’t leave your kids alone with,” but that MAGA Americans find godly and manly. Again, why is Mike Lee so ashamed? He has a lot in common with this guy! Surprised they aren’t taking up a collection for this guy’s legal defense in Mike Lee’s church. He just reminds us so much of Mike Lee (or any other white Republican loser, they really do all look alike).

As Tim Miller from The Bulwark notes,a bunch of Republicans and MAGA conservatives have taken this tack, instead of embracing this guy who is just like them in so many important ways. Elon Musk, Charlie Kirk, Mike Cernovich, they’ve all lied about Boelter. Previously (?) Kremlin-funded weirdo Benny Johnson claimed Boelter was a “left-wing Tim Walz appointee.” Today Benny is rambling about how the murders are a “leftist false flag.” Also something about “I’m sorry, but these are the same agencies that brought you the Whitmer Fednapping, that brought you January 6, that brought you the Epstein cases, that brought you Ghislaine Maxwell. These are the same people. These are the same people.”

Uhhhh okeydoke. We guess Kash Patel and Pam Bondi are now card-carrying members of the Deep State voices in Benny Johnson’s head community.

Musk tweeted that “the far left is murderously violent.” Laura Loomer said that “Walz’s goons are now assassinating lawmakers who support legislation Walz opposes.” (There’s a whole conspiracy theory they made up surrounding this that involves healthcare legislation in Minnesota, it’s too stupid to type, but you can read it if you want.)

:{:{How Did Evil Russians Manage To Fool Dave Rubin, Tim Pool, AND Benny Johnson? Wow!}:

[Evan Hurst](https://substack.com/profile/9485412-evan-hurst)

·

September 5, 2024

[Read full story](https://www.wonkette.com/p/how-did-evil-russians-manage-to-fool)](https://www.wonkette.com/p/how-did-evil-russians-manage-to-fool)

Mike Lee also had another tweet about it that said “Nightmare on Walz Street.” Ohio Republican Senator Bernie Moreno — another Republican dude with a lot in common with Vance Boelter — tweeted this, a retweet of another right-wing liar connecting “No Kings” fliers found in Boelter’s car with Randi Weingarten and teachers unions somehow.

He hasn’t removed it. None of the posts and tweets we’re referencing in this post have been removed.

[

Sherrod Brown's Gross Republican Opponent Pretty Sure Women Over 50 Too Old To Vote On Abortion

[Evan Hurst](https://substack.com/profile/9485412-evan-hurst)

·

September 24, 2024

[Read full story](https://www.wonkette.com/p/sherrod-browns-gross-republican-opponent)](https://www.wonkette.com/p/sherrod-browns-gross-republican-opponent)

A mouthy extremist Republican state senator in Tennessee named Brent Taylor, who represents a tiny slice of Memphis, a city that otherwise cannot stand him, posted a Dinesh D’Souza tweet with the picture of the “No Kings” fliers, because that’s how debased and pathetic he is. He then proceeded to babble like a dementia patient for 9,000 paragraphs about leftist violence:

The Left's violence masquerading as free speech is a stain on our republic, and it’s escalating at a terrifying pace. From assassination attempts on President Trump—twice in two months—to torching cars at Tesla dealerships during Tesla Takedowns. Members of “Progressive” groups like this have now turned to a call to arms.

Los Angeles burns under their orchestrated chaos, with anti-ICE riots seeing Molotov cocktails, looted businesses, and attacks on federal agents, all while Governor Newsom and Mayor Bass fumble, blaming others for their failures. […]

This is the Left’s legacy: burning cities, targeting conservatives, and excusing violence as “resistance.” Their hypocrisy is glaring—silent on their own extremists while attempting to demonize the Right. It’s time to call this what it is: a dangerous, unhinged movement that threatens our way of life.

Ahem OK sure, pal. Below that are comments from Memphis voters telling him to go drink piss in hell, which is something Memphis voters say to Brent Taylor a lot. (He’s a big buddy of Todd Starnes, which should tell longtime Wonkette readers what kind of guy we’re making fun of here.)

[

Todd Starnes Writes Love Letter To Donald Trump's Penis

[Evan Hurst](https://substack.com/profile/14358125-evan-hurst)

·

July 27, 2015

[Read full story](https://www.wonkette.com/p/todd-starnes-writes-love-letter-to-donald-trumps-penis)](https://www.wonkette.com/p/todd-starnes-writes-love-letter-to-donald-trumps-penis)

Again, there was never any mystery who this murderous piece of shit is. The story, from the beginning, was Typical, Unremarkable Trump Voter Assassinates Democrats. He’s an anti-abortion Christian extremist, which is no surprise, because that’s a really common thing to find in a terrorist profile. There were anti-abortion extremists all over the place among the domestic extremists who attacked the Capitol on January 6. Far-right extremists are the greatest domestic terrorist threat to the United States, and have been for a long time, no matter how much the Trump Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security try to cover that up so they can blood libel people who aren’t white.

This is their dude, y’all.

Why they lyin’?

It couldn’t be shame causing them to do this, because white conservative Christian men and the people who serve them don’t have the capacity for that.

We guess they just find it extremely politically inconvenient right now, since everybody hates Trump and his agenda and his incompetent Cabinet, and Trump’s North Korean birthday parade was more poorly attended than a common wiener dog race at the county fair.

Not a great time to remind America just how much they hateall religious conservative Republican extremists, we reckon!

Everybody Hates Trump, And His Little Nazi Loser Friends Too}:

[Evan Hurst](https://substack.com/profile/9485412-evan-hurst)

·

Jun 12

[Read full story](https://www.wonkette.com/p/everybody-hates-trump-and-his-little)](https://www.wonkette.com/p/everybody-hates-trump-and-his-little)

Also Republican politicians are simply bad people who are going to hell when they die, and that’s why they’re doing this.

We probably needn’t try to psychoanalyze it any further.

---

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MMA Benny Johnson claims Mike Pence and Mike Pompeo were “colluding with the deep state to destroy” Trump with COVID

05/06/25

---

punked by putin

By ERIC TUCKER, MATTHEW LEE and DAVID KLEPPER

Updated 6:58 PM PDT, September 4, 2024

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration seized Kremlin-run websites and charged two Russian state media employees in its most sweeping effort yet to push back against what it says are Russian attempts to spread disinformation ahead of the November presidential election.

The measures, which in addition to indictments also included sanctions and visa restrictions, represented a U.S. government effort just weeks before the November election to disrupt a persistent threat from Russia that American officials have long warned has the potential to sow discord and create confusion among voters.

Washington has said that Moscow, which intelligence officials have said has a preference for Republican Donald Trump, remains the primary threat to elections even as the FBI continues to investigate a hack by Iran this year that targeted the presidential campaigns of both political parties.

• AP’s Role:The Associated Press is the most trusted source of information on election night, with a history of accuracy dating to 1848. Learn more.

“The Justice Department’s message is clear: We will have no tolerance for attempts by authoritarian regimes to exploit our democratic systems of government,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said.

One criminal case disclosed by the Justice Department accuses two employees of RT, a Russian state media company, of covertly funding a Tennessee-based content creation company with nearly $10 million to publish English-language videos on social media platforms including TikTok and YouTube with messages in favor of the Russia government’s interests and agenda, including about the war in Ukraine.

The nearly 2,000 videos posted by the company have gotten more than 16 million views on YouTube alone, prosecutors said.

RELATED COVERAGE

Right-wing influencers were duped to work for covert Russian influence operation, US says

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Russian missiles blast Ukrainian military academy and hospital, killing more than 50, officials say

The two defendants, Kostiantyn Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva, are charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering and violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act. They are at large. It was not immediately clear if they had lawyers.

The Justice Department says the company did not disclose that it was funded by RT and that neither it nor its founders registered as required by law as an agent of a foreign principal.

Though the indictment does not name the company, it describes it as a Tennessee-based content creation firm with six commentators and with a website identifying itself as “a network of heterodox commentators that focus on Western political and cultural issues.”

That description exactly matches Tenet Media, an online company that hosts videos made by well-known conservative influencers Tim Pool, Benny Johnson and others.

Johnson and Pool both responded with posts on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, calling themselves “victims.” Calling Russian President Vladimir Putin a “scumbag,” Pool wrote that “should these allegations prove true, I as well as the other personalities and commentators were deceived.”

In his post, Johnson wrote that he had been asked a year ago to provide content to a “media startup.” He said his lawyers negotiated a “standard, arms length deal, which was later terminated.”

Tenet Media’s shows in recent months have featured high-profile conservative guests, including RNC co-chair Lara Trump, former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and U.S. Senate candidate Kari Lake.

In the other action, officials announced the seizure of 32 internet domains that were used by the Kremlin to spread Russian propaganda and weaken international support for Ukraine. The websites were designed to look like authentic news sites but were actually fake, with bogus social media personas manufactured to appear as if they belonged to American users.

The Justice Department did not identify which candidate in particular the propaganda campaign was meant to boost. But internal strategy notes from participants in the effort released Wednesday by the Justice Department make clear that Trump was the intended beneficiary, even though the names of the candidates were blacked out.

The proposal for one propaganda project, for instance, states that one of its objectives was to secure a victory for a candidate who is currently out of power and to increase the percentage of Americans who believe the U.S. has been doing too much to support Ukraine. President Joe Biden has strongly supported Ukraine during the invasion by Russia.

Intelligence agencies have previously charged that Russia, which during the 2016 election launched a massive campaign of foreign influence and interference on Trump’s behalf, was using disinformation to try to meddle in this year’s election. The new steps show the depth of those concerns.

“Today’s announcement highlights the lengths some foreign governments go to undermine American democratic institutions,” the State Department said. “But these foreign governments should also know that we will not tolerate foreign malign actors intentionally interfering and undermining free and fair elections.”

The State Department announced it was taking action against several employees of Russian state-owned media outlets, designating them as “foreign missions,” and offering a cash reward for information provided to the U.S. government about foreign election interference.

It also said it was adding media company Rossiya Segodnya and its subsidiaries RIA Novosti, RT, TV-Novosti, Ruptly, and Sputnik to its list of foreign missions. That will require them to register with the U.S. government and disclose their properties and personnel in the U.S.

In a speech last month, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said Russia remained the biggest threat to election integrity, accusing Putin and his proxies of “targeting specific voter demographics and swing-state voters to in an effort to manipulate presidential and congressional election outcomes.” Russia, she said was “intent on co-opting unwitting Americans on social media to push narratives advancing Russian interests.”

She struck a similar note Thursday, saying at an Aspen Institute event that the foreign influence threat is more diverse and aggressive than in past years.

“More diverse and aggressive because they involve more actors from more countries than we have ever seen before, operating in a more polarized world than we have ever seen before, all fueled by more technology and accelerated by technology, like AI, and that is what we have exposed in the law enforcement actions we took today,” she said.

Much of the concern around Russia centers on cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns designed to influence the November vote.

The tactics include using state media like RT to advance anti-U.S. messages and content, as well as networks of fake websites and social media accounts that amplify the claims and inject them into Americans’ online conversations. Typically, these networks seize on polarizing political topics such as immigration, crime or the war in Gaza.

In many cases, Americans may have no idea that the content they see online either originated or was amplified by the Kremlin.

Groups linked to the Kremlin are increasingly hiring marketing and communications firms within Russia to outsource some of the work of creating digital propaganda while also covering their tracks, the officials said during the briefing with reporters.

Two such firms were the subject of new U.S. sanctions announced in March. Authorities say the two Russian companies created fake websites and social media profiles to spread Kremlin disinformation.

The ultimate goal, however, is to get Americans to spread Russian disinformation without questioning its origin. People are far more likely to trust and repost information that they believe is coming from a domestic source, officials said. Fake websites designed to mimic U.S. news outlets and AI-generated social media profiles are just two methods.

Messages left with the Russian Embassy were not immediately returned.

Associated Press writers Dan Merica and Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington, Ali Swenson in New York and Alan Suderman in Richmond, Va., contributed to this report.

-----

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Right-wing media are pushing the “irresistible,” “electric” Tucker Carlson as Trump’s VP

Charlie Kirk: “Tucker understands the philosophical, intellectual base that motivates the muscular class”

WRITTEN BY BOBBY LEWIS

PUBLISHED 11/16/23

Last week, former President Donald Trump said that “I guess I would” consider former Fox host Tucker Carlson for a vice presidential nomination, setting off a wave of enthusiasm among Trump’s extremely online right-wing media fan base. Carlson, who privately said that he hates Trump “passionately,” has apparently not commented on the trial balloon.

In addition to vocal support for a Vice President Carlson from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA,) Salem radio host and close Trump ally Charlie Kirk has been a fervent proponent of the idea. Calling Carlson “tough,” “principled,” and “electric,” Kirk fantasized about the X vlogger as an “irresistible” pull for young voters and suburban women. Many voices in right-wing media also love the idea -- though some, notably including Donald Trump Jr., just don’t think Carlson would be interested.

“Who is the second most trusted, the second most popular, the second smartest and principled person in the conservative movement?” Kirk asked last week. “If he was still alive, it would have been Rush Limbaugh. I think we all agree with that. It is without a doubt Tucker Carlson.”

Kirk’s enthusiasm could be described as fanboying, and it continued throughout the show.

“Tucker Carlson might be the smartest person in the movement. He is a loyal family man.” “He’s real. He’s honest. He’s a true American.” “He is irresistible online. He’s smart. He’s tough.” Picking Carlson for vice president “would literally be a hack — it would break the matrix.” Sneering with excitement, Kirk asked, “Could you imagine Tucker Carlson at a press gaggle?”

“You’ve got the alpha beast Trump, and you got a VP that is probably the smartest, smoothest, person in the conservative movement that has our trust.”

:{:{Video}:

CitationFrom the November 10, 2023, edition of Salem Radio Network's The Charlie Kirk Show

Kirk came back to the idea on November 13, celebrating the “hundreds of thousands of tweets in favor of it over the weekend,” as well as Trump’s ringside appearance at a UFC fight, with an entourage including Carlson.

“Who else other than Donald Trump and Tucker Carlson can get this kind of hero's welcome at a UFC fight? … What Tucker and Trump present is cultural power and a cultural phenomenon in a political space,” Kirk beamed. “It’s a completely different dynamic. … Tucker understands the philosophical, intellectual base that motivates the muscular class.”

Kirk is not alone in his enthusiasm, which has begun spreading throughout conservative media:

Sean Davis, a co-founder of The Federalist, told Kirk he loves the idea: “I love it. I love Tucker. I think it’d be great. I think it'd be great for America. He's one of the only people who says all the things that we all think but aren't allowed to citedsay.”

Podcaster and serial plagiarist Benny Johnson “Elon’s razor” -- a reference to X owner Elon Musk -- “the most entertaining outcome is always the right one” to say that Trump and Carlson are “your ticket right there,” adding that “Tucker Carlson with Secret Service protection … and access to the military” is a “thing I want.”

Daily Wire host Michael Knowles said that he has “floated this idea for years at this point” and “if I were Tucker, two years ago, I probably wouldn't want this,” but now that Carlson no longer has his Fox News perch and salary, “he’s got less to lose,” and “who else could run with Trump that the base loves? … He represents the Buchanan wing of the party. He represents the conservative wing of the conservative party.”

On November 14, Johnson asked Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX) about this on The Benny Show, to which Nehls responded that he likes the idea and doubts that any of the primary candidates could be Trump’s vice president, “but Tucker Carlson, he really, really could -- he just speaks a lot of truth. And he’s real. And I think the American people love him.”

Despite the excitement from some, other right-wing media voices aren’t so sure Carlson would even join the ticket. On Newsmax’s Chris Plante: The Right Squad*, guest Marc Lotter acknowledged that Carlson is “probably one of the smartest people around” and it would make an “epic” ticket, however fellow panelist and guest Jason Nichols said, “I don’t think that that’s something he wants to do. I think he likes his life.” Co-host Chris Plante agreed that Carlson likely “wouldn’t want any part” of a Trump White House.

Even one of Trump’s own children, Donald Trump Jr., sees a Trump/Carlson ticket as highly unlikely, though he does like the sound of it. Responding to viewer comments on his podcast Triggered, Trump said that “I don’t think he would” accept a vice presidential nomination, because it’s “not his thing.”

However, Trump added, if Carlson would accept, he “would be my first, second, third, fourth, and fifth choice for VP if I could decide right now.”

“He’d be great on a lot of issues,” Trump said, “and it would also drive the other side insane.”

---

ref beast

serial plagiarist Benny Johnson has left his job as a reporter for The Daily Caller to join Charlie Kirk’s right-wing nonprofit Turning Point USA.

On Wednesday afternoon, The Hill confirmed that Johnson will join TPUSA, a national pro-Trump student activist organization founded by Kirk, 25, a frequent Fox News guest and outspoken Twitter presence.

In a Tuesday memo, the Caller’s editor in chief said Johnson will leave the publication, noting that he got the most traffic of any writer “by a long shot.”

“His indomitable spirit is an example for all, his thirst for politics is absolutely insatiable, his creativity is unprecedented ... at least in the center-right,” Geoff Ingersoll wrote. “I’m glad we got to work with him for as long as we did.”

Ingersoll made it a point to later clarify on Twitter that Johnson was not fired.

The move to the conservative student-focused meme factory is the latest twist in Johnson’s strange media descent that began when he was fired in 2014 by BuzzFeed for repeatedly copying others’ work.

Several online sleuths discovered multiple instances in which Johnson—then a for BuzzFeed—lifted phrases wholesale from other websites. BuzzFeed editor in chief Ben Smith initially defended Johnson’s reputation and his canon—which included such work as “The Story of Egypt’s Revolution in ‘Jurassic Park’ Gifs”—by telling Gawker that “Benny Johnson is one of the web’s deeply original writers, as is clear from his body of work.”

But then at least 40 more instances of plagiarism were discovered. Not only did he rip off content from other media outlets but he also copied wording verbatim from About.com, Yahoo Answers, and Wikipedia. He was then promptly fired. His reputation for groan-worthy trolling and shoddy journalism has since become so well-known that years later Smith publicly apologized for being partly responsible for Johnson’s career.

After being fired by BuzzFeed, Johnson found a brief home at National Review Online before moving on to conservative startup blog Independent Journal Review, where he was eventually demoted and then fired over a series of reported mishaps that included: Publishing baseless conspiracy theories, allegedly violating company ethics and being a poor manager, and, ultimately, plagiarizing yet again.

Johnson, 32, has since then seemingly traded remorse for a career of trolling the mainstream reporters and outlets who spurned him by lurching further and further rightward, incessantly “owning the libs” with posts engineered to go viral among the MAGA audience or playing court-jester at a Turning Point USA conference in which Johnson donned an American flag suit and fired a t-shirt cannon while rambling about “meme wars.”

“Benny is bringing his humor, wit, and creative force of nature to Turning Point USA as our new Chief Creative Officer. It’s a natural partnership and we could not be more thrilled,” Kirk said of Johnson’s hiring in a statement to The Hill.

---

Turning Point USA's Benny Johnson: A “mongoloid horde” of “woke intersectional failures” could ruin American cities

03/01/23 2:41 PM EST

Charlie Kirk: “Our prison population is probably not big enough”

03/01/23 1:26 PM EST

Newsmax's Benny Johnson: “Perhaps exclusively white Americans with rare exceptions” fought to end slavery during the Civil War

02/28/23

https://www.mediamatters.org/google/youtube-newsmax-host-benny-johnson-claims-merrick-garland-loves-baby-murder-and-child

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https://www.mediamatters.org/newsmax/benny-johnson-federal-government-rigging-trials-against-january-6-defendants-which-real

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https://www.mediamatters.org/google/turning-point-usas-benny-johnson-mongoloid-horde-woke-intersectional-failures-could-ruin

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// gamergate incursion?

https://www.mediamatters.org/google/newsmaxs-benny-johnson-black-national-anthem-should-be-illegal-you-shouldnt-be-able-do-there

https://www.mediamatters.org/ben-shapiro/ben-shapiro-complains-about-all-women-flyover-during-super-bowl

https://www.mediamatters.org/health-care/anti-choice-figures-twist-rihannas-pregnancy-and-powerful-super-bowl-performance-anti

https://www.mediamatters.org/daily-wire/daily-wire-host-complains-about-lift-every-voice-and-sing-performance-super-bowl-it-libs

---

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https://www.alternet.org/tucker-carlson-2658998824/

---

On Wednesday, December 21, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with President Joe Biden in the White House and gave an English-language speech during a joint session of Congress.

This was Zelenskyy’s first visit to the United States since Russian forces, on orders from President Vladimir Putin, launched an all-out invasion of Ukraine on February 21. During his speech before Congress, Vice President Kamala Harris and outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stood behind Zelenskyy while holding up a Ukrainian flag in solidarity with his country.

But some far-right MAGA Republicans were not happy to see Zelenskyy getting a warm reception from Biden, Harris, Pelosi and other Democrats. And libertarian/conservative journalist Cathy Young calls out those MAGA Republicans in a biting article published by The Bulwark on December 22 and headlined, “Putin’s Useful Idiots: Right Wingers Lose It Over Zelenskyy Visit.”

READ MORE: George Will: Why Americans should 'give thanks' for Volodymyr Zelensky’s 'pugnacious individualism'

Young observes, “Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s surprise arrival in Washington on Wednesday for a meeting with President Joe Biden and a speech before Congress has unhinged the always-seething anti-Ukraine Trumpian right, triggering a deluge of snark and grievance…. ‘National conservative’ pundit and Newsweek opinion editor Josh Hammer, who played the ‘obviously, Putin is a thug and Ukraine is the victim here, but….’ game in the early days of the war, went full Putin this time around.”

Hammer, on December 21, tweeted, “Raise your hand if you are personally DONE with the Ukraine gravy train.” And Republican activist Donald Trump Jr., on Twitter, posted, “Zelenskyy is basically an ungrateful international welfare queen.”

“To top it off, Hammer, who shares Zelenskyy’s Jewish heritage, also accused the Ukrainian president of being a bad Jew — unseemly under any circumstances, but all the more so considering that only a few days earlier, Hammer had been spotted at a New York Young Republicans’ Club Gala in the company of various alt-right types with, shall we say, a complicated relationship to antisemitism,” Young writes. “Among them: Rep. Marjorie ‘Jewish Space Lasers’ Taylor Greene, the founders of the white nationalist website VDARE, and erstwhile Jew-baiting troll Jack Posobiec.”

Young notes that the Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh said of Zelenskyy, “Get this grifting leech out of our country please,” while Fox News’ Tucker Carlson mocked Zelenskyy as a “Ukrainian strip club manager” and said of his visit to the U.S., “It may be impossible to imagine a more humiliating scenario for the greatest country on Earth.”

READ MORE:Watch: Tucker Carlson lashes out at 'aging' Republicans 'in their orthopedic shoes' for opposing Vladimir Putin

MAGA conspiracy theorist Benny Johnson and Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk slammed Zelenskyy for wearing casual attire during his speech before Congress.

Young writes, “A few other right-wing pundits, including career plagiarist-turned-conspiracy-theory-peddler Benny Johnson and Turning Point USA grifting leech Charlie Kirk, homed in on the really important stuff: Zelenskyy’s outfit…. Of course, Zelenskyy’s clothes were meant to visually convey the fact that he’s in the middle of a brutal war. When you’re just back from a visit to the front lines in an area that looks like a ghost warscape from World War I come back to life, you’ve earned the right to make that particular fashion statement — even on a visit to Washington, D.C.”

The libertarian/conservative journalist goes on to offer some reasons why many MAGA Republicans have such intense “hatred” for Zelenskyy.

“The question of why the Trumpian populist right is so consumed with hatred for Ukraine — a hatred that clearly goes beyond concerns about U.S. spending, a very small portion of our military budget, or about the nonexistent involvement of American troops — doesn’t have a simple answer, Young explains. “Partly, it’s simply partisanship: If the libs are for it, we’re against it, and the more offensively the better. And if the pre-Trump Republican establishment is also for it, then we’re even more against it. Partly, it’s the belief that Ukrainian democracy is a Biden/Obama/Hillary Clinton/‘Deep State’ project, all the more suspect because it’s related to Trump’s first impeachment.”

Young continues, “Partly, it’s the ‘national conservative’ distaste for liberalism — not only in its American progressive iteration, but in the more fundamental sense that includes conservatives like Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher: the outlook based on individual freedom and personal autonomy, equality before the law, limited government, and an international order rooted in those values. Many NatCons are far more sympathetic to Russia’s crusade against secular liberalism than to Ukraine’s desire for integration into liberal, secular Europe. Whatever the reason, the anti-Ukraine animus on the right is quite real and widespread.”

READ MORE:'Propaganda that empowers Putin': Conservative says these Fox News hosts have become Kremlin mouthpieces

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https://www.mediamatters.org/newsmax/newsmaxs-benny-johnson-people-suspended-twitter-claim-be-reporters-they-are-not

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an 12 22

Basketball star Brittney Griner is back in the United States after her December 8 release from a Russian prison. Griner, who spent almost 10 months imprisoned in Russia, was serving a nine-year sentence on a drug smuggling charge but was released as part of a prisoner exchange; the United States agreed to release Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout in exchange for Griner’s release.

Civil libertarians all over the world described Griner’s arrest and imprisonment as politically motivated, as it came during a time of considerable tensions between the United States and Russia. On February 17, Griner was detained after Russian customs officials found less than a gram of medically prescribed hash oil in her luggage. And in August, Griner was sentenced to nine years in prison.

Griner’s release was applauded by countless civil libertarians and critics of the War on Drugs. But a long list of MAGA Republicans, on the other hand, are furious that the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) player was released. And libertarian/conservative journalist Cathy Young vehemently calls them out in a biting article published by The Bulwark on December 16.

READ MORE: James Carville: Right-wing ire over Brittney Griner is because she 'is not white and is not straight'

“Since just about everything is potential fodder for culture wars these days,” Young argues, “it’s no surprise that the return to the United States of basketball player Brittney Griner, detained in Russia on a drug charge earlier this year, turned into another such skirmish. What is notable, though, is the extent to which American far-right punditry has been almost literally reciting Kremlin propaganda talking points — and putting identity politics over basic solidarity with a fellow American.”

Young describes Griner as a former “hostage” of the Kremlin.

“Bringing American hostages home — and there is little doubt that Griner, arrested days before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, was being held hostage — is surely a cause for patriotic celebration,” Young writes. “But many commentators on the right touted the trade as evidence that the Biden Administration was Woke Central: Griner is Black and gay — gay-married, even! — and spoke out against the American anthem being played at WNBA games during the summer 2020 racial justice protests. That two other Americans, ex-Marine Paul Whelan and history teacher Mark Fogel, still remain in Russian prisons — the former on spying charges, the latter in a marijuana-possession case very similar to Griner’s — became further evidence of wokeness run amok, or a decision based on ‘DEI’ (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) policies.”

Young cites specific examples of anti-Griner comments from the far right. On December 8, Donald Trump, Jr. tweeted, “The Biden Admin was apparently worried that their DEI score would go down if they freed an American Marine.” And Matt Walsh, that same day, tweeted, “Unfortunately Marc Fogel and Paul Whelan made the mistake of being white men. The rules of intersectionality dictate that the black woman gets freed first. That's one of the primary factors driving this, whether we want to admit it out loud or not.”

READ MORE:Tucker Carlson pushes bizarre, racist theory about Britney Griner’s release from a Russian prison

Newsmax’s Benny Johnson said of Griner and the Biden Administration, “They knew they had to appeal (to) the left-wing, woke wing of their party. They wouldn’t allow a Black woman, lesbian woman, drug addict, America-hating woke, to be kept in prison in Russia. One of ours. Not the Marine. Not the person who served this country. No, no. One of ours. Somebody on the identity-politics spectrum who’s notched every single victory that you could ever hope for inside of the vector of woke politics.”

Young points out that similar rhetoric has been coming from the Russian media. For example, RT’s Margarita Simonyan, during an appearance on Russia’s TV-1 program “Evening with Vladimir Solovyov,” commented, “I found it very amusing, though not surprising, that Bout was finally traded for Griner, not Whelan…. (Whelan) is a hero, a decorated Marine covered in medals. He only has one — no, two — no, three, problems. First problem: He’s white. Second problem: He’s a man. Third problem: It seems he’s hetero. This is something that just can’t be forgiven these days…. American voters were given a choice: A hero who suffered in the service of his country…. or a black lesbian hooked on drugs who suffered for a vape with hash.”

Young also notes that in the prisoner exchange, the Biden Administration didn’t choose Griner over the other American prisoners being held in Russia; the Kremlin’s offer was “Griner or no one” — a fact that “right-wing propagandists in the United States” overlooked when they “recycled Kremlin talking points.”

“Also not mentioned: Trevor Reed, another former U.S. Marine and one-time Russian prisoner who happens to be white, male, and heterosexual,” Young writes. “Despite these three strikes, Reed — detained in Moscow in 2019 on probably bogus charges of assault on two police officers — was freed in late April in a swap for Russian pilot and convicted drug trafficker Konstantin Yaroshenko, a highly inconvenient fact for the ‘woke points’ narrative…. For the overwhelming majority, Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan are both Americans. You’d think the ‘All Lives Matter’ gang could grasp that.”

READ MORE:Adam Schiff warns Americans risk being captured and 'used as a political chip' in Iran, North Korea, Russia

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

matt g

no lnx many vid]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

no lnx vid

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

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

WRITTEN BY ERIC KLEEFELD, BUSHRA SULTANA & SHELBY JAMERSON

PUBLISHED 08/24/22

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

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

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

Video

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

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

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

Claims that Fauci is stepping down to avoid oversight

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Calls for congressional Republicans to investigate Fauci

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Attacks on Fauci’s character

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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not exactly punked?

https://www.mediamatters.org/abc/abc-takes-bait-and-suspends-veteran-correspondent-over-bad-faith-right-wing-hit-job

2/26/20

ABC News suspended veteran correspondent David Wright on February 25 after he gave reasonable criticism of the network while being secretly recorded in a video later released by Project Veritas. The organization has a well-known reputation for videotaping media figures and progressive activists and releasing bad-faith, edited videos to push a right-wing agenda.

The video, which Project Veritas on February 26 after teasing it the night before, features Wright offering criticisms of ABC’s coverage of the Trump administration and other political issues. It has clearly been edited to portray Wright’s comments in a negative light.

In the heavily edited video, Wright was critical of the broadcast news business model and suggested that the network still hasn’t figured out how to properly cover Trump. He claimed that ABC fails to give Trump credit for things he does right while also failing to “hold him to account”; chooses more exciting, “TV-friendly” stories over practical issues that matter to voters; takes Trump’s coverage bait in a way that enables him; and overcompensates for the false accusation from groups like Project Veritas that mainstream media pull for the Democratic Party.

Wright also complained that drama surrounding Trump dominates the news cycle and the “voters are poorly informed.” He criticized ABC’s “self-promotional” relationship with Disney, saying that the network often blends news with commercial interests: “You can’t watch Good Morning Americawithout there being a Disney princess or a Marvel Avenger appearing.”

Many of these comments are consistent with criticisms other journalists have made of political media in the age of Trump, and thus there was swift condemnation of ABC for its decision to suspend Wright.

Others were furious that Wright was suspended after he expressed support for progressive policies and said he considers himself a socialist, calling his suspension “absolutely outrageous” given a lack of progressive voices in mainstream media.

Project Veritas, founded by James O’Keefe, has a long history of secretly recording videos and then deceptively editing and releasing them in order to paint its subjects as negatively as possible and catch them in a “gotcha” moment. Veritas targets organizations that it claims have a “liberal” association, and its operatives often approach targets using a false name to coax information from them through casual conversations.

O'Keefe's goal is typically to obtain footage that can be edited in a way that embarrasses or delegitimizes targeted organizations, often seeking to expose “liberal bias” in the media. Past targets have included NPR, The New York Times, and CNN, and as a result, many news organizations are aware of Project Veritas’ motives when these videos are released.

Wright has been a journalist with ABC for nearly 20 years, covering the White House and reporting from the Middle East and Europe. His reporting has earned him an Emmy and a Peabody Awardfor work related to Iraq and the 9/11 terrorist attacks, respectively.

The reasonable nature of Wright’s criticisms of a business model that prioritizes generating ratings over informing viewers, combined with Project Veritas’ well-known reputation and bad-faith tactics, make ABC’s decision to suspend Wright and reassign him from political reporting to “avoid any possible appearance of bias” concerning.

Conservative media outlets like Fox News and The Federalist and figures such as Turning Point USA’s Benny Johnson have already pounced on the footage to advance the right-wing narrative that ABC is a biased source that does a poor job of informing viewers -- and by suspending Wright, the network has fallen for it too.

Update (5:45 p.m.):O'Keefe and Sean Hannity agreed that ABC News should not have suspended Wright[aUDIO]

O'KEEFE: This guy Wright is just being honest. He's just talking about how ABC's pushing Disney products on Good Morning America. He called himself a socialist. He calls Trump a bad name, the d-word, in this tape. He also seems to say that they don't give Trump credit -- they don't give him enough credit. He actually says this about Trump, that they don't give him enough credit for the things that he does right. So he's simultaneously kind of trashing Trump, calling himself a socialist, but also saying Trump does some good things and we don't talk about it, we don't care about voters, we don't cross the Hudson River, this guy says, to look at what voters care about. So he's just being honest, he's been suspended for being honest, and for that I think it was wrong to suspend him. I think he was just telling the truth, Sean.

SEAN HANNITY (HOST): Well, I think so too.

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