INGRAHAM 4
ESTB 2 25 fascist 6 25 ice la mart law
SOME BAK
SEE BAD TRINITY EG RENEE GOOD
ISLAMOPHOBE EG IRAN WAR 3
SEE ANTI-COMMIE CHINA --> HYPE FEAR MAMDANI
MERRI OK
see war on xian bs
often // hannity? SEE BAD TRINITY
SAVANAH NICK S
see EXTRA JUD KILLING VENEZ SLF DEF
SEE RENEE GOOD PRETTI COMMIE
JRNL FAIL HOMAN 9 25
SEE MASS DEPORT
SEE HYPE FEAR GT REPACEMENT = CONSPIRACY
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WOW ONE DAY NUMBER 1 DISINFO 2X
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Laura Ingraham claims there is a leftist “plan” to “overthrow” the government. What in the world is she talking about?
Written by Matt Gertz
Published 10/22/26
Republicans are panicking and right-wing media are desperately churning out “fear porn” as polls continue to point to a devastating midterm environment for their party with less than two weeks remaining before election day. From presidential rallies to Fox News primetime, MAGA stalwarts are trying to bolster their party’s turnout by warning Republican voters that if they do not go to the polls, their freedom and very lives may be at stake.
That increasingly deranged environment is generating a level of demagoguery that at times becomes simply absurd.
Fox host Laura Ingraham, for example, announced on her show Wednesday that if Democrats win control of the U.S. House and Senate, a leftist cabal of activists, journalists, “top former staffers” in the Obama and Biden administrations, and even Democratic governors will carry out a plot to force President Donald Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act as a mechanism to “dissolve” the U.S. Constitution and “crush their enemies.”
The argument that the left is planning to destroy the federal government if and only if Democrats triumph in the midterms makes a lot of sense as an attempt to scare Republicans to the polls but none at all as a plot in its own right.
Questions abound: Why in the world is this plan only enacted after Democrats achieve actual congressional power for the first time in Trump's second term? If there is clear evidence of a sweeping plot including “top” Obama and Biden officials, why is the best example Ingraham can point to former Obama White House ethics lawyer Norm Eisen talking about protecting the Constitution with legal action? Why does the plan revolve around getting Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act — an outcome MAGA pundits like Ingraham herself have been lobbying for and Democrats have publicly opposed?
Lastly, why does Ingraham think this grand conspiracy is underway? We don’t really know — she cited no direct evidence for what on-screen Fox graphics described as “The Left’s Plan To Overthrow The U.S. Gov’t.”
But Ingraham’s claims align with a conspiracy theory that Jennica Pounds, a right-wing influencer who goes by the pseudonym DataRepublican and briefly worked for the Defense Department this year, floated over the weekend based on videos of activist meetings she obtained. Pounds’ claim of a leftist “operational plan” seems to be much less than advertised — but has nonetheless been trumpeted this week by prominent MAGA figures like Glenn Beck, Vince Coglianese, Jesse Kelly, and podcaster-turned-deputy-FBI-director-turned-podcaster Dan Bongino.
It’s the sort of wildly incendiary claim that should demand copious evidence before making it to the airwaves of a major news outlet — but Fox is a MAGA propaganda network devoted to Republican electoral victory at any cost.
Unpacking Ingraham’s evidence-free claim of a leftist plot
Ingraham built her conspiracy-minded edifice on a faulty foundation.
She began her opening monologue on Wednesday by using a deceptively cropped video snippet of Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) to allege that the former CIA officer had promised “punishment for young conservatives.”
While many on the right have tried to generate outrage based on that false interpretation, Slotkin had actually been discussing how providing “accountability” for mid-level enablers of the Trump administration’s corruption could disincentivize similar behavior in the future.
From there, Ingraham pivoted to arguing that Democratic victories would hasten the downfall of the republic. “If voters give Democrats control of the House and even the House and the Senate, the punishment that Slotkin alludes to will be severe,” she claimed, adding that such punishment would be “meted out not only against individuals and corporations that work with Trump, but against the democratic system itself.”
After explaining that an unnamed leftist “they” intend to “force Trump's hand and use Paris riots, perhaps, as their guide,” Ingraham laid out her understanding of the “plan.”
“Now, the radical left's current thinking is that if they're able to mobilize in huge numbers in the streets, President Trump, if it's nationwide, will decide to invoke the Insurrection Act, which allows him to deploy the U.S. military for domestic law enforcement,” she said. “Activists will then claim widespread abuses as the military struggles to restore law and order. Then the press will collaborate with activists, amplifying their wild claims with video snippets on social media.”
“Then blue state governors — this is their dream — seeing the chaos, will unite to try to override federal authority, take over federal functions, and eventually even rewrite our Constitution or just dissolve it altogether,” she continued.
Ingraham went on to claim that “this scenario is being openly discussed among top former staffers of Obama and Biden, former government employees of agencies like USAID, and of course community organizers” — but provided no examples of anyone actually discussing such a scheme.
Instead, Ingraham claimed that the plot’s adherents say they’re “reforming the government” rather than “overthrowing it,” adding, “former USAID staffer Danielle Reiff makes it sound like utopia.” Ingraham then played a brief clip of Reiff appearing on a December edition of Dr. Paul Zeitz’s Revolutionary Optimism Podcast and saying: “You have to reform your institutions so that it, you know, that becomes the foundational framework for society. And so, we're going to have to, if we want to live in peace and deeper democracy, reform our legal frameworks to foster collaboration across divides and unity and diversity.”
The Fox host later described Eisen as “one of the godfathers of this effort” because he “advances the fraudulent claims that democracy is in crisis.” But she provided no evidence actually linking him to the supposed “plan,” instead airing a clip in which Eisen is asked if he thinks of his work as part of a “war” and replies, “Yes — peaceful, lawful, vigorous battle, you do have to think of it in those terms to stop what Donald Trump began after the 2020 election and has continued a coup against the Constitution.”
Ingraham concluded her monologue by suggesting that “the real tyrant” is not Trump but “Democrats like Slotkin, who want to remake the government to crush their enemies.”
Ingraham then brought on Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO), telling him, “These conversations, this playbook, is real. They might not be able to get there in the next year or so, but they have that plot cooking.”
Schmitt replied in part that “their march through the institutions is almost complete” and “the goal is absolute and total control” with “no room for dissent.”
“When you go vote, there’s a lot of issues that are on the table that you’re voting on, but I think a central issue is what the Democrats are willing to do with power,” he added. “They’re telling us all over again, and I think it’s terrifying and why this election is so important.”
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From the October 21, 2026, edition of Fox News' The Ingraham Angle.
What “conversations”? What “playbook”? Who is supposed to be behind this “plan,” and how developed is it?
Ingraham didn’t say.
Where we think this is coming from
Jennica Pounds is a MAGA influencer with nearly 1 million followers who posts online under the moniker DataRepublican and is perhaps best known for accusing a Trump administration official who was attempting to hand her a scoop of trying to entrap her to commit a crime. Following that August debacle, she and the Pentagon disclosed that she had been secretly working as a special government employee for the Defense Department (according to Pounds, she applied for a credential as a “journalist” in the Pentagon press corps, received a press pass in April, held it until June, and joined the administration in July).
Soon after her Pentagon role became public, Pounds launched a website mapping left-wing groups called “DSA Explorer.” And on Sunday, Pounds (“fresh off her brief stint as a Special Government Employee with the Pentagon,” according to RedState’s writeup), claimed online that she had obtained access to a vast trove of transcripts and recordings of online meetings of progressive activists.
She then laid out a narrative that closely resembled what Ingraham ran with on Wednesday:
You've heard that the DSA is proposing structural reforms to America, including abolishing the Senate and imposing term limits.
What you not have heard is - there is an operational plan to put it all into action. If the Democratic Party sweeps 2026, then DSA will become “foot soldiers” in constant clashes with the administration to cross a “red line” or invoke a “doomsday scenario” - meaning, President Trump invokes the Insurrection Act, probably sometime in 2027.
Then, a lot of coordinated responses kick off, including delegitimizing the federal government itself and handing that legitimacy to Democratic governors. 2028 then becomes a vote on whether to keep America governance as-is or to burn it all down to appease a “young and brown” demographic.
But the 1-minute video snippet Pounds appended to her post does not show anything like a well-developed “operational plan” to do anything at all, much less one involving DSA “foot soldiers” plotting to force an invocation of the Insurrection Act.
Indeed, Pounds appears to be taking a series of disaggregated remarks from different people at different calls and events and weaving them together into a single coherent apocalyptic narrative. By her own subsequent admission, “almost nobody knows the ‘grand plan’ so to speak,” the various parties “simply agree to play a role.”
The video attached to Pounds’ original post, titled “April 10, 2026 - R2T core team call,” shows Reiff and Zeitz, from the podcast clip Ingraham aired, on an online video call with three other individuals. Zeitz recounts a recent meeting he and Reiff had with more influential figures at Governors Safeguarding Democracy, described as “a forum that convenes Democratic governors,” to discuss their “work around the emergency scenario planning.”
Reiff then says that they were asked in the meeting to develop “a panel of a couple of people who could talk to the governors, who could do a briefing for the governors and walk them through like the doomsday scenario and help them think through what their options are as a response,” and adds that such an opportunity would be “a huge breakthrough for us.”
That video and others Pounds released triggered a firestorm on the right, with influencers and podcasters largely adopting her narrative.
But Tim Pool, of all people, suggested she’d gotten out over her skis.
“Many people have asked me my thoughts on this and asked me what I think is going on, and I’ve said, listen, DataRepublican, with all due respect, coming out and just saying I have this data is not enough to launch a story,” he said on his show on Tuesday. “I cannot just come out and say hey, guys, someone says they’ve seen stuff the DSA is doing.”
That’s apparently a higher standard than Fox requires — because if Ingraham were aware of hard evidence of the leftist plot to destroy the country she claimed exists, she surely would have aired it. Instead, her coverage leaves so many obvious questions unanswered that it only emphasizes just how frenzied the network has become as it tries to concoct enough “fear porn” to save the GOP from electoral devastation.
Is it possible Pounds has a recording of random activists proposing something resembling her above plan? Sure, but that wouldn't be evidence of a grand conspiracy involving people with actual power and influence — and says nothing about the plausibility of such a plot, which in this author's opinion is frankly nonsensical.
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Fox News is peddling election “fear porn” about Democrats to rescue Republicans
10/16/26
10/22/26
Peter Navarro rails at Fox News personalities: “Turn Fox off”
10/20/26
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mma
Fox News is peddling election “fear porn” about Democrats to rescue Republicans
Written by Matt Gertz
Published 10/16/26
Fox News host Jesse Watters effectively summed up his network’s recent election coverage on Thursday when he said that Republicans need to churn out “fear porn” that paints Democrats as “scary and dangerous” in order to avoid calamity in the midterms.
Watters told his fellow panelists on The Five that “polling” shows “MAGA is engaged, it’s the non-MAGA faction and independents that the Republicans are worried about” in the midterms. He then pointed to an interview he conducted with Caroline Sunshine, a former Disney star turned MAGA political operative, saying, “She said you can't just go out and sell all the great stuff Trump did. It's been great, but it doesn't motivate."
“You got to go out and have fear porn,” Watters continued. “You have to say, these people are going to take your healthcare, they're going to let in the Third World, they’re going to jack up your taxes, and that’s what’s going to get people to come out to vote. You have to say, these people are scary and dangerous, you know what we're all about. And that’s really a choice."
Greg Gutfeld praised Watters’ analysis, saying, “Good for you, fear porn."
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From the October 15, 2026, edition of Fox News' The Five
“Fear porn” is an apt characterization of the tenor of Fox demagoguery as the midterms approach and polls show Democrats poised for a wave of victories even in deep red states.
The network’s stars — apparently finding that their hagiographic coverage of the Trump administration isn’t doing enough to help the president’s party — are trying to inculcate a sense of panic in their viewers. They are warning in the strongest possible terms that if Democrats take control of Congress, their prosperity, freedom, and very lives are at risk.
Watters himself, for example, warned last month that “the Democrat party and its communist base are running against America” and “want to shatter the pillars of Western civilization.”
“They want to abolish the Senate, police, ICE, and of course the border,” he explained on the September 9 broadcast of his show. “Some of them are even calling for reparations and rent control. Others have a little bit of a problem with whites, and a majority of Democrats don't prefer capitalism. It's like we're fighting the Cold War here in our own country.”
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From the September 9, 2026, edition of Fox News' Jesse Watters Primetime
For Watters’ colleague Sean Hannity, the Trump political operative with a Fox primetime show, this is “the single most important, consequential midterm election in our lifetime” and “the stakes, they couldn’t be any higher, nor could the choice be any more clear.”
“We can vote to build on the successes of President Trump, his first two years in office, or you can shred your Constitution, allow our country to be taken hostage by this new radicalized leftist democratic socialist communist movement and their far-left extremist candidates,” Hannity claimed on his September 28 show.
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From the September 28, 2026, edition of Fox News' Hannity
According to Hannity, Republicans may be “imperfect” and even “pathetically weak,” but “Democrats are completely insane.”
“They want to abolish, now, the family,” he told his Fox audience on September 17. “They want to seize your assets, they want to control the means of production, they want to control your healthcare, your food” as well as “your decisions, your children.” He went on to invoke “the 574 ‘mostly peaceful’ riots in the summer of 2020” before warning viewers not to “let perfect be the enemy of good, especially when the alternative is socialism, communism, statism, shredding our Constitution, and outright insanity.”
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From the September 17, 2026, edition of Fox News' Hannity
Fox’s Laura Ingraham warned on Wednesday that Democrats are demanding the public “submit or be crushed.” She told her viewers that voting for them due to concerns about affordability “will only make things worse” because Democrats will “keep prices high permanently,” “want a war with Russia,” and have “horrid tax-and-spend policies.”
“While voting Democrat or not at all may punish Trump politically, the people you'll really be punishing are yourselves,” she added. “Oh, yes, the punishment is coming. They can't eliminate conservatives altogether, but they can and they will make your life as miserable as possible by taxing you, canceling you, and restricting you.”
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From the October 14, 2026, edition of Fox News' The Ingraham Angle
Ingraham alleged last month that “Democrats are rethinking democracy.” According to Ingraham, “If the Democrats win the House, take the Senate, they intend to shred the Constitution and punish the country.”
She later added that the party’s leaders are “acting as mini-tyrants,” claiming: “If they had their druthers and they were in office, there would be no Fox News. They would regulate that out of existence. There would be no talk radio. There would be no alternative media.”
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09/22/26
The Ingraham Angle on Fox News, 3/2/26
Fox News’ Laura Ingraham said on her September 21 show that she opposed President Donald Trump’s war on Iran, a position that would almost certainly come as a surprise to her viewers. Those who had watched her show in early March, as the Trump administration launched its war against Iran alongside Israel, heard something very different.
“I've not been for the war in Iran,” Ingraham said. “I'm not happy with high gas prices — I see a lot of other good trends, but I'm not happy with those at all.” She added that she’d been opposed to it “from day one."
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From the September 21, 2026, edition of Fox News' The Ingraham Angle
Ingraham’s revisionist history is self-serving, as public opinion about the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran sinks and the MAGA movement lurches toward whatever form it may take after Trump is no longer sitting in the Oval Office.
It is true that prior to Trump launching the war on February 28, Ingraham was mildly skeptical of it by Fox News standards.
On January 12, Ingraham said, “We know that America does not have the best track record when it comes to regime change in the Middle East, so that can’t really be the goal here."
During an interview with Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) on January 14, she said about a war in Iran: “How does that help the average American who is still struggling to pay some bills?”
On the eve of the war on February 27, Ingraham worried about the possible spike in “energy prices, which could be affected if we get into some really protracted engagement in Iran."
Ingraham gets on board with the Iran war
None of that is a full-throated denunciation, of course, but it does evince some small degree of reluctance.
Within days, Ingraham’s weathervane had caught the breeze and her tone was markedly more hawkish. Her March 2 show was a full endorsement of Trump’s war of aggression.
“Only a few days into military strikes, none of the major objections to this action withstand serious scrutiny,” Ingraham said.
This is not a “pointless war,” she said, adding: “Trump has given us no indication that he is going to betray his supporters by asking them to make unnecessary sacrifices.”
Her guest and Trump daughter-in-law Lara Trump falsely claimed that Iran was “very clearly on the path to making another nuclear weapon,” and Ingraham fueled baseless and Islamophobic speculation “about sleeper cells in the U.S.”
On March 5, Ingraham declared: “Trump has already won in Iran.”
On March 25, she cautioned that the conflict with Iran could be creating “a series of cascading problems for the region, including maybe outside the region — political problems for the president in a midterm election year.” Later in the episode, she warned that voters are “very impatient for victory,” and polling suggests “the American people are sending a message to President Trump that it's time to put the focus back on the home front.”
But by March 31, Ingraham had fully reverted to the Fox News neocon mean.
“Why are people calling this a quagmire after a month?” she wondered. “Trump is taking some big risks. But, with big risks come great rewards. Eliminating the Iranian threat is a gift to future generations.”
Ingraham has not been the loudest voice at Fox News in favor of the Iran war. But to claim she has opposed it “from day one” is a self-serving fantasy.
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Right-wing media downplay AI safety concerns as a hoax by comparing them to climate change and “COVID hysteria”
Written by Helena Hind, Jane Lee & Evlondo Cooper
Published 09/15/26
Right-wing media are following President Donald Trump in dismissing calls to slow down AI development in the wake of multiple hacking incidents as a “hoax,” comparing concerns over AI to “climate change apocalyptic talk” and “COVID hysteria” including support for vaccines.
Reports have surfaced in recent months that rogue AI agents from OpenAI anonymously hacked into AI startup Hugging Face servers and into software service RubyGems. As Reuters explained: “Many incidents where AI agents from developers such as OpenAI and rival Anthropic have hacked or attempted to access external systems have heightened concerns over the increasing capacity of AI models and developers' ability to contain them.” On September 12, both Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman publicly called for a slowdown in AI development, with Altman announcing that his company would be delaying its initial public offering until 2027.
Trump vehemently rejected the idea of an AI slowdown in a series of Truth Social posts on September 14, calling the push for caution a “hoax,” “scam,” and a “SICK conspiracy.” Trump wrote: “The people that say AI is going to destroy the World, and that Data Centers are bad for your neighborhood, are the same people that said, just a short time ago, that the World would be extinguished by ‘Climate Change.’”
The claim that climate scientists’ predictions have failed is not borne out by the evidence — warnings about greenhouse gases causing more warming have now come to pass, with over a decade of record-breaking heat and thousands of excess deaths across Europe in climate-driven heat waves this year alone.
Nonetheless right-wing media followed Trump’s lead, comparing concerns about unregulated AI development with supposedly fabricated climate change warnings and COVID-19 pandemic safety measures like vaccines. (In reality, researchers have repeatedly proven that vaccines limited the spread of COVID-19 during the pandemic, reduced the rate of severe complications and death, and continue to be a safe, effective treatment.)
On his September 14 radio show, Fox host Sean Hannity accused former President Barack Obama of “urging Democrats to fearmonger AI just like Democrats fearmongered and flat-out lied about global warming,” claiming those concerns “turned out to be bunk.” Hannity then reassured his listeners that Trump said that “the U.S. has already put guardrails in place to regulate and prosecute AI companies.”
Dismissing AI warnings on his Daily Wire podcast, Ben Shapiro stated, “This is pretty redolent of the climate change apocalyptic talk. Like all the ice caps were going to be gone, the polar bears were all going to drown, all the rest of it.”
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From the September 14, 2026, edition of the Daily Wire's The Ben Shapiro Show.
Fox host Will Cain referenced climate change while discussing AI warnings: “Vested interests did stop nuclear [power] and set it back half a century. And that same playbook of fears played out with climate change and COVID. So now, what is so scary about AI?”
Downplaying the “AI apocalypse alarm” during Fox’s The Five, co-host Jesse Watters referenced both climate change and the COVID vaccine, asking, “If I told you the world was going to end if you didn't take this vax, what would you do? Or if the world was going to end because of global warming, what would you do? Same thing's happening here — some people get rich and we all still survive.” B/C OF LIE/HYPE?
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From the September 14, 2026, edition of Fox News' The Five
Fox’s Laura Ingraham echoed Watters’ comments later that evening, saying AI concerns reminded her of “the first several months of COVID hysteria.” She later evoked “fearmongering about climate change, same thing. Al Gore's film, Inconvenient Truth, oh my God. That still echoes in politics today.”
Hannity rounded out Fox's evening coverage with yet another comparison of AI fears to climate change and the pandemic.
Decrying “the climate alarmist cult religion,” Hannity said, “Al Gore was preaching from the pulpit of climate alarmism. … All these predictions have come and gone and the time frame he said it would happen, none of it came true.”
“We were lied to about COVID at a high level,” he added. “I just don't trust the government at all in that sense. But I trust America enough that we would use this for good.”
However, the over-the-top comparisons are not limited to Trump and right-wing media dismissing AI concerns. Joe Allen, previously the “transhumanism editor” on former Trump adviser Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast, opposed AI at a debate held in Dallas during last week's GOP midterm convention by bizarrely referencing “algorithmic immigrants.” Semafor reported:
“You look at the data center, this incubator for algorithmic immigrants,” he said. “They’ve already broken out and invaded other companies. These immigrants are out of control.”
Allen was speaking at Forum, a policy discussion staged at a stylish venue fifteen minutes from the convention center to give the new American right an opportunity to debate some of the policy issues currently dividing it— in particular, the tension between populism’s activist promises and traditional small government, and the rise of artificial intelligence.
(Allen’s opponent at the debate, Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, reportedly “compared complaints about AI to the ‘Black Lives Matter hysteria,’ and suggested they were driven by ‘psyops from China.’”)
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Each individual program had more “socialism” mentions than “Iran” mentions in August. Ingraham’s show had the most “socialism” references that month, with 203 against just 25 “Iran” references. Hannity, Jesse Watters Primetime, and The Five each had more than 100 “socialism” mentions and 50 or fewer “Iran” ones. On Gutfeld!, “socialism” was referenced 9 times more frequently than “Iran.”
They’re all speaking from the same hymnal, as a sampling from their voluminous commentary shows.
Watters warned in June that victories by two democratic socialists in Democratic congressional primaries in New York City were “dangerous,” saying of them: “You're coming for us. You're coming for our money, you're coming for our people, you're coming for our way of life. It's not socialism, guys. This is communism. You can't reason with these guys. You have to crush them. And we will.”
“We're not going to let our civilization get destroyed,” he added. “These people are going to steal from us. These people want to hurt us.”
Hannity said in July that the “extreme positions” of Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong, a self-described democratic socialist, were “the perfect illustration, representation of the socialist base, the radical communist base now, that is the Democratic Party.”
(Hong subsequently lost the primary to Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, a “moderate Democrat.”)
Discussing Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Michigan and a self-described capitalist, Gutfeld claimed in August that “America is not going to become a socialist country, but the Democrat Party could become a socialist party,” adding: “I resent having to debate over ideologies that have not only failed, but killed millions.”
“Every Democrat should be condemning this language and this movement, but they're not, because above all, they want to win and they're afraid of losing,” Ingraham added later that month. “So, for all you job creators, all you entrepreneurs out there, sorry, because if the DSA-ers tolerated by the Democrat Party have their way, it's confiscation time.”
Trump’s symbiotic relationship with the network’s coverage has been on full display.
Trump “has seized on ‘communism’ as his new favored line of attack against Democrats, having invoked the word more than 100 times since late June as he tries to rouse voters and preserve a narrow Republican congressional majority in the upcoming midterm elections,” NBC News reported on August 21.
Speaking at Mount Rushmore on July 3, the president warned of “a resurgence of the communist menace in our land” and promised to “vanquish communists quickly” and “send them into exile.”
No war but the culture war — as Iran coverage fades, a new focus on WNBA, Fauci
As the summer wore on, familiar culture war fixations joined fearmongering about socialism as major topics on Fox’s evening “opinion” shows.
The WNBA suddenly became a regular topic of discussion across the network beginning in late June and continuing through the summer (with no end in sight).
Much of the debate revolved around criticizing the league over issues pertaining to race and trans inclusion, with the network’s stars devoting significant airtime first to whether Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark received hard fouls because she is white, and eventually to a monthslong firestorm over the possibility of trans athletes in the WNBA, kicked up by comments made by the Fever’s Sophie Cunningham and subsequently accelerated by former NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom’s antics (even though, as Wired noted, “no transgender women have ever played in the league”).
The deluge of coverage led Watters to comment during a segment on The Five: “I don’t want to cover women’s basketball. … We have to do this again, really?”
Meanwhile, the Fox hosts devoted significant time to relitigating the response to the COVID-19 pandemic after Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) released over 1,000 pages of entries from former public health official Anthony Fauci’s diary written from 2019 to 2022, and Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment rather than giving testimony at a subsequent hearing before Paul’s committee.
Hannity’s show, which played a key role in encouraging Trump to attack, mentioned “WNBA” nearly twice as frequently as it did “Iran” in August (93 to 50). Gutfeld! and The Ingraham Angle also had more “WNBA” mentions than “Iran” mentions. Gutfeld!, Jesse Watters Primetime, and The Ingraham Angle had more “Fauci” references than “Iran” mentions.
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Fox News is treating the GOP's midterm convention as a very special episode of Hannity
Written by Matt Gertz
Published 09/09/26
“‘The vibes are very bad’ in Texas” is the headline of Politico Playbook’s dispatch from Dallas, where the GOP’s “Trump-a-palooza” midterm convention has Republican attendees fearing “what could transpire on the stage — and what it might mean for lawmakers back home.”
But let not your heart be troubled, Fox News has the solution on hand — more Sean Hannity.
The Fox brass has decided to give its 10 p.m. timeslot during the convention to the network figure closest to President Donald Trump, “to make sure all the key speeches and anti-Dem video montages are seen,” CNN’s Brian Stelter reported Wednesday. That’s a shift from its coverage of the 2024 Republican National Convention, when Fox assigned chief political anchor Bret Baier and The Story’s Martha MacCallum to host a nightly special featuring a panel of the network’s political contributors
Hannity’s selection is a clear signal that Fox plans to produce a GOP infomercial, and it is functionally equivalent to simply letting the Republican National Committee program the coverage. Hannity is a confidant and adviser to Trump who uses his show to propagandize on the president’s behalf. Over the years, the host has appeared in a Trump campaign video; spoken at a Trump rally; scripted a Trump campaign ad; served as a White House back channel; sought, received, and carried out marching orders from the Trump White House about what to say on Election Day 2020; and strategized with Trump family members and White House aides.
The decision also raises questions about how Hannity will treat election denial when it emanates from the convention speakers. The host carried Trump’s speech from the White House on the subject in July, then offered a brief discussion of his claims. But despite promising “a deep dive into all this documentation in the days ahead for sure,” Hannity did not subsequently return to it — possibly adhering to the reported Fox ban on such discussions that reportedly played a role in longtime host and conspiracy theorist Maria Bartiromo’s departure from the network last week.
Hannity and colleagues try to manifest a GOP vibe shift
On the eve of the midterm convention start, Hannity and his colleagues are trying to raise Republican spirits by sheer force of will, highlighting Trump’s purported successes and warning of dire consequences if Democrats muster election victories.
Hannity opened his Fox primetime show on Tuesday with a segment on the convention, promising viewers that “we will be there” and urging them not to read anything into the numerous Republican candidates in tough races who aren’t appearing at the event. He assured the audience that he “was able to get confirmation” that the candidates attending “were invited and they're the most competitive races in the country. … Not every Republican that's running for office was invited.”
He went on to give viewers a pep talk, urging them to “take nothing for granted” because “the stakes have never been higher during a midterm election” and instructing Republican candidates to “treat every single day with the proper amount of urgency.”
Hannity reeled off a list of “promises made, promises kept by President Trump and his Republican allies,” which he contrasted to “what the radical socialist Democratic Party is now offering the country. They want to completely upend our way of life. They want to strip you of your very humanity. If they get their way, you — you will have domain over nothing. Not even your own family.”
“In 56 days, this November, the choice will be very simple,” he concluded. “You can vote for Democrats who believe America is fundamentally evil and want to humble and humiliate the American people, or you can vote for liberty, freedom Republicans, albeit many Republicans, far from perfect, but they're not DSA members. And by the way, they believe in lifting everybody up through the concepts of liberty and freedom and safety and security and opportunity.”
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From the September 8, 2026, edition of Fox News' Hannity
Laura Ingraham and Jesse Watters similarly touted Trump’s leadership and emphasized that the midterm elections will be a referendum on his performance on their Tuesday broadcasts.
“Tomorrow in Dallas, Republicans kick off that first-ever midterm convention, and gavel to gavel, the Angle will be there,” Ingraham said. “We'll broadcast live from the American Airlines Center. Cannot wait. President Trump will headline both nights. Now, what's the goal? To fire up the base with his vision, the Republican vision for continued economic growth and rigorous border enforcement.”
While she spoke, on-screen text read, “History in the making in Dallas.”
Ingraham later claimed that “we always take these polls with a grain of salt … I mean, at this point, you don't even know what's what with the polls, but there does seem to be some pro-GOP movement in some of these polls, especially the ones that came out today.”
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From the September 8, 2026, edition of Fox News' The Ingraham Angle
Watters launched his own broadcast with fulsome praise for the convention and the president at the top of his show the following hour.
“We're less than 24 hours from Trump-a-palooza where the Republicans are going to hold their first ever midterm convention right in the heart of Texas,” he said. “President Trump will be there, so will JD Vance, Bobby Kennedy, and a long list of big-name Republicans. The goal of the convention: You make this election between communism and common sense, and the commies are making it too easy.”
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From the September 8, 2026, edition of Fox News' Jesse Watters Primetime
Watters then offered a paean to what he portrayed as a laundry list of Trump accomplishments — over a chyron that read, “Republicans have a record to show off.” The host’s litany included that “jobs market has never been hotter for people with just a high school diploma”; “people took home big refund checks and realized if you start a family and open Trump accounts, your children will retire as millionaires”; “we just captured the world's largest oil reserves in Venezuela”; “the border sealed, crime all-time low, and doctors aren't giving sex change surgeries to kids anymore”; and “MAHA is cleansing what we eat.”
He went on to praise the Iran war, saying, “Republicans will have to tackle high gas prices but they'll argue that President Trump stopped Iran from nuking up, killed the ayatollah, took out the world's No. 1 state sponsor of terror, and our Navy in the strait [is] bringing prices down.”
“So the election is going to come down to Republican results and whether voters are going to buy what Democrats are selling,” Watters concluded. “They have no record to run on, no new ideas, just a mix of TDS with a whiff of communism. Republicans have to lock in these gains because there's a lot at stake.”
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Watters and his Fox colleagues will be doing everything they can over the next few days — and weeks, and months — to ensure that happens.
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A Fox News host sent a dire warning to President Donald Trump and the rest of the Republican Party, saying that time is running out to avert disastrous losses in the forthcoming midterms.
During the Tuesday evening edition of her show, The Ingraham Angle, Fox host Laura Ingraham sent a "blunt" message to the president, as noted by The Daily Beast, warning him that the GOP's majorities in both the House and the Senate are at risk in November. This came during a discussion with her guest, American Majority PAC CEO Ned Ryun, who worried that the party was "whistling past the graveyard" as it disregarded the potential for certain red stronghold states to flip Democratic in the midterms.
"I think Republicans are kind of whistling past the graveyard on some of these Senate seats that they thought were safe,” Ryun said. “We got to kick it into gear over these next 10 weeks, or we are looking at not only the House but also the Senate as well."
Among the at-risk red states, according to Ryun, are South Carolina, Alaska, Nebraska and Ohio, with surprise losses in just a few of those states putting the Senate majority in serious jeopardy for the GOP. Ingraham added that she is also worried about the race in Iowa for retiring Sen. Joni Ernst's seat, set to be contested between Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson and Democratic state Rep. Josh Turek.
"I think there are a number of states that Republicans better get their act together. Iowa is one of them," she said.
"The Senate is thumbing their nose at the base over the SAVE America Act," Ryun added. "Gas is $4.10 a gallon. You know, they’re not seeing a lot of the things they voted for. The Iran war is killing us."
"Trump still considers himself an electoral asset and according to a report in The Atlantic, intends to put himself front and center in last-minute midterm campaigning," The Daily Beast added in its report about Ingraham's warning. "But Trump’s approval ratings are at historically low levels, with a Reuters/Ipsos poll putting him at 33 percent as his unpopular war on Iran sends gas prices higher at the pumps."
This cratering approval has some Republicans scrambling to get some distance between themselves and the president, especially on issues of deeper importance to their particular states. Hinson, for example, recently broke with Trump on the announcement that he would be allowing 300,000 of imported beef into the U.S. without a tariff to try and address soaring costs, causing much frustration among American cattle farmers.
"We need to focus on affordability, but I think this isn’t the way to do that," Hinson said during a recent appearance on Fox's Sunday Morning Futures.
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As the Iran war teeters on the brink, let's revisit the numerous “Mission Accomplished” moments from right-wing media in early March
MAGA media’s Iran war hawks promised a cakewalk. The conflict is about to enter its sixth month.
Written by John Knefel
Research contributions from Helena Hind, Isabella Corrao & Jane Lee
Published 07/21/26
Within days of President Donald Trump’s unprovoked attack on Iran in late February, right-wing media figures began predicting a short, easy conflict that would be over quickly. Major conservative pundits unilaterally declared in early March that the war was a “wrap-up mission at this point,” a “done deal,” and “winding down.” Instead, the war is about to enter its sixth month with no clear end in sight, with the potential for escalation seemingly everywhere.
Where right-wing media promised a cakewalk, the Trump administration has delivered a quagmire, as recent developments make clear.
The U.S. military resumed striking targets in Iran in the middle of July, following the breakdown of a largely illusory ceasefire. Iranian authorities told The Associated Press that the recent wave of strikes have killed 50 and injured over 500. Over the weekend, the Pentagon announced the deaths of three U.S. service members, and The Washington Post reported that the Trump administration is now on the verge of “all-out war with Iran after more troops are killed.” And according to The New York Times, the Defense Department has been withholding the full number of U.S. troops who have been wounded in the conflict.
CNBC reported that a maritime risk firm characterized the current state of the Strait of Hormuz as a “worse-case scenario,” with the key waterway nominally open but still a primary point of conflict between the two countries.
These grim assessments stand in stark contrast to the predictions Iran hawks made in the days after the U.S. and Israeli militaries began their joint campaign on February 28 — the pundits listed below may as well have unfurled a “Mission Accomplished” banner for all of their premature declarations of victory.
In early March, right-wing media figures predict imminent end to Iran war
Although some in right-wing media expressed early skepticism of the war, there was no shortage of hacks (and hawks) who got on board immediately.
On March 3, Fox News’ Laura Ingraham set a tone that others would soon match. “We've already knocked out so much of their capability,” Ingraham said. “It looks like this is just a wrap-up mission at this point.”
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From the March 3, 2026, edition of Fox News' The Ingraham Angle
Two days later, her colleague Greg Gutfeld speculated on The Five that “maybe there's just nobody who can declare surrender because they're dead. I don't know, but I don't see how this thing can continue much longer.”
The Five returned to the topic the next day. “Do not lie about the war,” host Jesse Watters shouted at his liberal colleague Jessica Tarlov. “You know the war is going well.”
Fox News contributor Tyrus Murdoch added: “I’m willing to say this is a done deal.”
Some prime-time hosts at right-wing network Newsmax took the same line.
“I think we're at the end of serious U.S. involvement in Iran,” said host Rob Finnerty on March 9.
The same night on the same network, Greg Kelly said, “This time next week, we may be able to declare victory and warn Iran, don't do it again. But it could be over.” Kelly’s comments were illustrated by a graphic that read “I Predict: War Over Soon.”
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From the March 9, 2026, edition of Newsmax's Greg Kelly Reports
Finnerty doubled down the next night. “The war in Iran appears to be winding down,” he said. “I think it is.”
Also on March 10, Fox News’ Sean Hannity weighed in during his Premiere Radio Networks radio show. “I am a firm believer that this is going to end very quickly,” Hannity said.
As the month drew to a close, Hannity again saw the conflict’s end in sight, telling his radio audience, “It's going to be on the verge of wrapping up no later than three weeks from today is my prediction.”
That was on March 30.
Conservative pundits claim in March that Trump had won the war
Sometimes right-wing talking heads went even further, not just claiming that the war would end soon but declaring that Trump was already the victor.
On March 5, Ingraham stated flatly: “Trump has already won in Iran.”
In response to a press briefing by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on March 13, Heritage Foundation senior counselor James Carafano said, “The reality is the U.S. has already won this war, period. Mic drop. End of statement.”
Although Kelly’s “War Over Soon” prediction hadn’t come to pass, on March 16 the Newsmax host tried to speak that reality into existence. “I think we kind of just won the war,” Kelly said, adding: “I think we got this.”
Carafano echoed Kelly on March 23, arguing that “it does make sense for the U.S. to say, ‘Hey let's wind this down.’ Look, from America's perspective, dude, we’ve already won."
It’s now been at least three and a half months since these pundits made their various rosy predictions. Contrary to their Pollyannish analysis, the war appears to be expanding, as Iran continues to bomb U.S. military bases in the region and the Houthi militants in Yemen impose a blockade on Saudi Arabia to mirror Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
In light of these developments, a recent Fox News guest offered a different timeline, drawing inspiration from operations the U.S. military conducted after the 1991 Gulf War.
“I do expect that we're going to be there a long time,” said Robert Spalding, a retired Air Force general. “You know Operation Northern and Southern Watch went on for, you know, almost 20 years, I think.”
“I think this is going to be something similar,” Spalding continued. “We're going to have to stay there.”
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Fox guest predicts the US will be in Iran “for a long time”
07/20/26
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Video by Olivia Smith & Audrey Bowler/Media Matters for America
As American cities across the Midwest and Northeast suffer from the “worst air quality in the world” due to the spread of smoke from Canadian wildfires as far south as the mid-Atlantic, several right-wing media figures are railing against health recommendations for staying safe.
As Fox correspondent Katie Byrne reported, residents in Cleveland are “really seeing some of the worst air quality they've seen in years today.” Byrne said, “Health officials are urging people to limit time outside, especially kids, older adults, and anyone with breathing problems,” noting that many of the people she’d spoken to were “taking those warnings seriously” and keeping indoors. Fox host Sean Hannity reported that breathing the air in New York city is “equivalent to smoking 10 cigarettes a day.”
In fact, experts recommend people in affected areas wear high-quality masks to prevent health problems caused by the wildfire smoke, as “exposure can trigger respiratory problems and irritate sinuses and has been linked to more severe problems. It can affect anyone, but children and those who are older or pregnant or who have preexisting conditions are particularly vulnerable.”
Despite this, several right-wing media figures are taking an absurd stand against such health advice and mocking those taking steps to protect themselves from wildfire smoke.
FINNERTY? METAXAS FREE MAN INGRAHAM GOOFY MASK
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Fox blames climate policy for Europe’s climate-exacerbated heat deaths
Fox News and Fox Business figures applied that same framing to U.S. heat coverage to make fossil fuels look like the answer to deadly heat
Special ProgramsClimate & Energy
Written by Evlondo Cooper
Published 07/09/26
As Europe reeled from a deadly heat wave, coverage on Fox News and Fox Business made air conditioning the story, claiming that climate policy had made it harder and more expensive for Europeans to survive the heat.
However, extreme heat is becoming more dangerous because of fossil fuel-driven warming, which makes climate policy more necessary. Fox networks instead used Europe’s deaths to argue against climate action, doubling down on the fossil fuel economy that is exacerbating dangerous climate impacts.
That argument is already being adapted to U.S. heat coverage. As American heat waves expose the strain on infrastructure built for a less dangerous climate, Fox figures blamed climate policy for making cooling more expensive, attacked climate mitigation and resilience planning, and defended more fossil fuel infrastructure. It is a convenient reversal: Fox casts fossil fuels as the answer to deadly heat, while eliding their role in making extreme heat worse.
Europe and the U.S. are both facing deadly heat made worse by climate change
Extreme heat is killing people on both sides of the Atlantic, and scientists have connected both events to fossil-fueled warming.
Reuters reported at least 3,700 excess deaths during the June 20-28 heat wave that gripped France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. World Weather Attribution found that climate change made the European heat wave hotter and more likely, with a similar weather pattern now producing temperatures that would have been “virtually impossible” in June 1976 and still “highly unlikely at any time of the year.”
Europe’s lack of widespread air conditioning — which is shaped by its historically cooler climate, higher energy costs, and concerns about rising power demand from cooling — helps explain the death toll, but not in the way right-wing media suggest.
Much of Europe was built for a cooler climate baseline that no longer exists. As Mark O’Connell wrote in The Irish Times, “Our societies are not built, either figuratively or literally, for the world we now inhabit.” Europe is now the fastest-warming continent, warming more than twice as fast as the global average, and extreme heat is exposing the gap between the climate its systems were designed for and the climate people are now living in.
The American heat wave showed why the story cannot stop at air conditioning. Even though the U.S. has far more air conditioning than Europe, deadly heat is still outpacing the energy infrastructure that keeps people safe.
The New York Times reported that World Weather Attribution scientists also determined that the recent heat and humidity across the northeast U.S. and eastern Canada would have also been “virtually impossible” without human-caused warming, while Axios reported the event killed at least two dozen people, including 22 heat-related deaths in New Jersey.
Air conditioning saves lives during extreme heat, and more people will need it as heat waves become more frequent and deadly. However it does not solve the underlying danger. Instead, it moves part of the risk onto the power system, which is already being stressed by hotter summers, higher cooling demand, and climate-driven disruptions. During the recent heat wave, the Department of Energy issued an emergency order for PJM, the nation’s largest grid operator, as extreme heat pushed electricity demand toward possible shortfalls.
In addition, widespread air conditioning cannot protect people working outside, people without stable housing, people who cannot afford reliable indoor relief, or people who lose power when demand peaks. The scale of the risk is already visible in the American Southwest. In Maricopa County, Arizona, home to Phoenix, heat killed at least 579 people in 2023, the county’s deadliest year on record. As United Nations climate assessments link rising extreme heat to worsening health risks in the region, more of daily life is becoming harder to sustain safely without major adaptation.
Right-wing media coverage strips this context away. Global warming is making dangerous heat more frequent, but their answer is to attack climate policy while directing people back to the fossil fuel economy that has already made extreme heat worse. More cooling will be essential, but expanding air conditioning alone is not the solution. It will need to be paired with clean power, more energy efficiency, and heat adaptation to mitigate stress on fragile grids and reduce the burning of fossil fuels that are driving these harmful impacts.
## Fox claimed Europe’s heat deaths were caused by climate policies that limited access to air conditioning
Fox’s coverage turned Europe’s heat wave into a story about air conditioning, energy restrictions, and green ideology.
Climate contrarian Bjorn Lomborg pitted air conditioning against climate action during an appearance onAmerica’s Newsroom. After anchor Dana Perino asked whether “government policies have failed the people,” Lomborg argued that Europe needed “much more air conditioning,” questioning whether governments wanted to help vulnerable people “a tiny bit in 100 years” or help “old and vulnerable people right now.” Fox News, *America’s Newsroom*, [6/26/26; DeSmog, accessed 7/7/26]
The Ingraham Anglecalled European heat deaths “the true cost of the green energy scam.” Over a chyron that read “Sweating the green agenda,” guest host Charlie Hurt said “Europe spent years treating air conditioning as the problem and now we’re having a reality check,” while guest Lawrence Newport, co-founder of U.K.-based group Looking for Growth, claimed air conditioning is “essentially banned” in “a vast number of homes across this country.” Fox News, *The Ingraham Angle*, [6/26/26]
Fox News host Sean Hannity used Europe’s heat wave to attack “climate alarmism” and European climate politics. Hannity said Europe was blaming U.S. emissions for the heat wave after embracing “socialism” and “radical climate alarmism,” while his guest, Outnumberedco-host Emily Compagno, argued that Europe was making “a ridiculous stance against climate change” rather than protecting elderly people from deadly heat. Fox News, *Hannity*, [6/29/26]
Discussing heat deaths in Europe onThe Five, Fox’s Greg Gutfeld suggested “this is a way for Europeans to unload the elderly and blame it on climate change.” Co-host Dana Perino argued that the “so-called science” has been “debunked” and said European officials had a “tool” that could alleviate the problem but “would rather their people suffer and die.” Fox News, *The Five*, [6/30/26]
Hannity blamed Europe’s deaths on “climate alarmism” and an “anti-air conditioner crusade.” He said the “brutal heat wave now gripping Europe” had caused more than 1,300 deaths, “which by the way is all thanks to the climate alarmism and the anti-air conditioner crusade that’s taken place in Europe.” Fox News, *Hannity*, [6/30/26]
## Fox is also turning American heat waves into an argument against climate policy
Fox figures treated the burden of surviving extreme heat as proof that Americans need fewer climate rules, not stronger climate actions to mitigate worsening heat.
Discussing the European heat wave on Fox News, Environmental Protection Administration head Lee Zeldin portrayed climate policy as a threat to Americans’ access to air conditioning. On America Reports, Zeldin dismissed the idea that Americans should feel “guilt or shame” over air conditioning use and attacked new environmental rules that could leave “grandma” without a working air conditioner during the summer. He added, “There’s no more hoax where we are saying that the world is about to end.” Zeldin ended by claiming Europeans were “seeing the implementation of their standards, and it’s destroying their economy.” Fox News, *America Reports*, [6/30/26]
On Fox Business’Mornings with Maria, Energy Secretary Chris Wright framed extreme heat-driven stress on power grids as a reason to loosen climate constraints on utilities. Wright said peak demand would test the PJM grid, blamed “the previous administration” for leaving too little capacity, and argued that the Trump administration was “letting utilities run their business” to prioritize reliability and ratepayers over “climate cult gods.” Fox Business, *Mornings with Maria*, [7/2/26]
Perino connected New York City’s thermostat guidance to Europe’s lack of air conditioning and blamed “liberals” for weakening the grid. After co-host Greg Gutfeld said New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani was “coming for your thermostat,” Perino pointed to Europe’s heat wave and said that at an European Union building, lower floors “were not allowed to have air conditioning” while “all the fancy people” above them could keep air conditioning. “You start rationing things,” she said, before blaming New York’s vulnerability on “liberals who took away Indian Point” nuclear facility and “only want renewables.” Fox News, *The Five*, [7/2/26]
Hannity defended fossil fuels as the source of lifesaving air conditioning during heat waves. The Fox host attacked New York City’s thermostat guidance as “a small taste of socialism,” saying “the same fossil fuel industry” Democrats want to challenge provides the electricity for “the very air conditioning systems that are protecting all of us from heat waves.” He warned that “new regulations will make everything a struggle” and drive energy bills “through the roof.” Fox News, *Hannity*, [7/2/26]
OnJesse Watters Primetime, longtime climate contrarian Marc Morano recast New York City’s heat wave and air conditioning guidance as “climate communism.” After guest host Charlie Hurt mocked New York City’s 78-degree air conditioning guidance and referenced a New York Times report linking the heat wave to fossil fuels, Morano claimed “climate communists” were relying on “scientifically fabricated fears” to “control every aspect of our lives.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [7/6/26; DeSmog, accessed 7/8/26]
## Deadly heat is exposing the lie at the center of right-wing climate politics
The recent heat waves in Europe and the U.S. show the contradiction in right-wing media's response to deadly heat. They defend the fossil fuel system that is making extreme heat more dangerous, then cast fossil fuel energy as the only practical way to survive it. Their coverage gives audiences a simpler story: The real danger is climate policy, not the fossil fuels driving the heat. But each devastating heat wave makes that story harder to sustain because the crisis they blame on climate action is the crisis climate action is meant to contain.
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Fox's deranged reaction to NYC Mayor Mamdani's affordable housing proposal
Fox personalities side with negligent landlords and rant about “wealth confiscation” and “mass killing”
Written by Zachary Pleat
Published 05/29/26
After New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani unveiled his plans to make affordable housing more available in the city, Fox News personalities and guests fixated on the plan’s efforts combating negligent landlords. They declared that enforcement against negligent landlords amounted to “public theft,” said it was a “throwback to Stalin,” and ranted that legal action to turn over properties from them to more responsible stewards will lead to “mass killing” and similar atrocities.
Mamdani proposes affordable housing initiatives, action against negligent landlords}:
NBC News: “New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani unveiled proposals Tuesday to build 200,000 affordable housing units and preserve an additional 200,000 over the next decade as part of a comprehensive housing plan.” The article continued: “The plan, dubbed ‘Block by Block, a Housing Policy for a New Era,’ includes $22 billion in new investments to build affordable housing, $5.6 billion in funding to enhance the New York City Housing Authority and a new $40-per-hour minimum wage for construction workers on city-financed projects. The proposal also outlines new aggressive code enforcement measures, investment in a city-backed home insurance provider and loosened regulations around prefabricated homes.” NBC News, [5/26/26]
Politico: “Mayor Zohran Mamdani plans to tackle ‘inequitable’ residential growth across New York City that allows many wealthy neighborhoods to add scant housing amid a massive shortage.” The article continued: “Mamdani will roll out a set of zoning and land use initiatives on Tuesday aimed at changing this paradigm, as one plank of a wide-ranging housing plan. City Hall will explore land use changes to allow residential development in neighborhoods with the lowest rates of affordable housing production, and citywide zoning reforms to permit more housing to be built near public transit, among other policy changes.” Politico, [5/26/26]
:{Mamdani’s “Block by Block” affordable housing plan includes numerous steps to take action against negligent landlords, including a formal process to seize their buildings if they refuse to comply. Chapter 1 of:{ Mamdani’s “Block by Block” plan details how the city plans to enforce regulations and code requirements against “a small group of persistent ‘bad actor’ landlords [who] have willfully and routinely neglected their buildings.” This includes plans to “aggressively use the 7A Program” to “initiate legal action to remove negligent owners and property managers from day-to-day management,” and “where appropriate, engage with lenders to force compliance or immediately begin foreclosure proceedings when landlords refuse to comply.”}:
Gothamist reported that the city is also working on formalizing procedures for tenants to purchase their buildings either sold by or seized from their landlords. New York City, The Office of the Mayor, [May 2026; Gothamist, 5/26/26]}:
In a speech outlining his plan, Mamdani said: “When necessary, we will take aggressive legal action to remove negligent owners and property managers. And for buildings that have suffered chronic neglect, we will work to transfer ownership to responsible stewards.” Mamdani continued, stating that those “responsible stewards … include community land trusts, nonprofits, or even the tenants themselves.” CBS New York via YouTube,[
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## Fox personalities and guests side with negligent landlords, claim Mamdani’s plans will lead to mass violence and death
Fox Business host Charles Payne on Mamdani’s plan to transfer ownership from negligent landlords: “This will be public theft. Public theft.” Payne added: “He’s actually hijacking a real problem; the transfer of ownership of private property from struggling landlords — mostly folks who own one or two buildings, in part because of, you know, rent controls and things like that — and he is hijacking the problem. Because this is what Democrats do very well — they take a problem, they take acute pain — then they find a way to hijack it and give it to their friends.” Fox News, *America’s Newsroom*, [5/28/26]
Fox News host Laura Ingraham on Mamdani’s plans regarding negligent landlords: “I'm thinking, do people not know where this always leads? I mean, socialism to communism always leads to mass killing.” Ingraham continued: “It just does. It leads to extermination.” Fox News, *The Ingraham Angle*, [5/27/26]
Fox Business host Jackie DeAngelis on Mamdani threatening a “property takeover”: “It feels like wealth confiscation, that’s honestly what it is.” Fox Business, *The Evening Edit*, [5/27/26]
Washington Examiner editor-in-chief Hugo Gurdon on Fox: “All socialist systems, ultimately, use force, and you can see it with Mamdani now” regarding his plans for negligent landlords. Fox News, *The Will Cain Show*, [5/27/26]
Fox anchor Sandra Smith said Mamdani’s plan to hold negligent landlords accountable “is outright blatant theft,” while guest and Republican NYC council member Vickie Paladino cited a quote she attributed to “Zohran’s good buddy” streamer Hasan Piker: “Let the streets run red with their capitalistic blood.” Piker previously explained that the quote, which was slightly different, “was in a conversation that I was having with a landlord friend of mine, and it's of course hyperbolic and it's not meant to be sincere. This is not sincere advocacy. It's not a real policy that I would ever advocate for.” Fox News, *America Reports*, [5/27/26; Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 9/17/25]
Fox Business host Larry Kudlow claimed Mamdani “is a throwback to Stalin” over plans to address negligent landlords, likening the plans to “when the Soviet Union would confiscate the means of production.” Kudlow continued: “This stupid kid is doing the same thing, because it's what he thinks is the right thing to do. I mean, it's a throwback. I mean, nowadays the modern socialist Democratic Party uses regulatory apparatus to do this kind of thing. This kid's coming in and just, he's just taking the assets and changing ownership. … It’s like setting up little soviets.” Fox Business, *The Big Money Show*, [5/27/26]
Discussing Mamdani’s plans for negligent landlords on Fox Business, Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) said: “Let’s be real and call it what this is — trying to seize private property, that is communism.” She additionally claimed: “New York City is actually the biggest slumlord in the city of New York.” Fox Business, *Varney & Co.*, [5/27/26]
Fox anchor Martha MacCallum on Mamdani possibly turning over properties from negligent landlords to tenants: “This is Marxism. It’s collectivism. It’s government apprehending all of the means of production, property, all of the things that Marx writes and talks about are exactly what we’re seeing here.” Fox Business, *Varney & Co.*, [5/27/26]
OnFox & Friends, network contributor and New York Post columnist Miranda Devine said Mamdani’s “communist prescriptions” targeting negligent landlords will lead to “bloodshed and mayhem and abject misery.” Devine added that Mamdani has an “eerie smile ... when he closes his eyes and says something really frightening.” Fox News, *Fox & Friends*, [5/27/26]
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Right-wing media defend ICE detention center amid protests over horrible living conditions
Written by Sophie Lawton
Research contributions from John Knefel
Published 05/29/26
Right-wing media are defending the living conditions at Delaney Hall, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in New Jersey, following reports of a detainee hunger strike sparking protests outside. In addition to repeating Department of Homeland Security talking points about the conditions, media figures have attacked protesters outside the facility, claiming the demonstrations are “performance art,” among other allegations.
According to NBC, one lawyer who represents multiple detainees said her clients at Delaney Hall “have been given expired food and meals with worms in them” and that some “have been released in recent months because they were not receiving medication or treatment for cancer, diabetes, depression and other conditions.”
The Department of Homeland Security has denied that a hunger strike is taking place at the facility, and both DHS and private prison company the GEO Group, which operates Delaney Hall, have rebuked claims that conditions are unsanitary or “subprime.” In the past year, reports of poor conditions at ICE detention centers have arisen across the country, including from locations such as Fort Bliss Army Base in Texas and the so-called “Alligator Alcatraz” facility in Florida.
Right-wing news pundits and podcasters have contested such reports, repeating DHS talking points claiming that conditions in immigration detention facilities are “clean and nice” and possibly offer “better meals” and “better healthcare” than detainees had previously. Further, several have argued that it shouldn’t matter whether the detainees are on a hunger strike.
Besides defending the facilities, right-wing media figures have also attacked the protesters demonstrating outside Delaney Hall, encouraging escalation from the federal government and accusing protesters of being an “organized agitator group” that aims to stir up votes for the midterm elections and set violent criminals loose on the streets.
Right-wing media dismissed the hunger strike, defended detention center conditions, and attacked demonstrators for protesting
Fox's Greg Gutfeld said onThe Five, “Maggots or not, the food is dietitian approved.” Fox News, *The Five*, [5/28/26]
OnOutnumbered, Fox host Carley Shimkus said of federal detention centers, “Let's not make this a luxury experience on the taxpayer dollar,” and questioned, “Could this be a protest that sparked for political reasons to get this back in the news cycle?” Fox News, *Outnumbered*, [5/28/26]
Fox & Friendshosts Lawrence Jones, Ainsley Earhardt, and Brian Kilmeade made various arguments against the protests, including Eardhart’s claim that “they are mad at Trump for trying to clean up the problem” of immigrants on “the streets” by putting them “in these facilities that are clean and nice.” Kilmeade also encouraged the federal government to pull resources from New York airports, saying, “Make your choice, sanctuary cities. Do the right thing or you going to pay the price.” Fox News, *Fox & Friends*, [5/28/26]
Video
Citation
From the May 28, 2026, edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends
The previous day onFox & Friends,Jones argued, “If they are choosing not to eat … we don't care.” Earhardt read aloud a social media post from DHS that claimed, “ICE has higher detention standards than most U.S. prisons that hold actual U.S. Citizens." Fox News, *Fox & Friends*, [5/27/26, 5/27/26]
On Fox Business'Mornings with Maria Bartiromo, former ICE Director Jonathan Fahey claimed that “this idea that these people aren't being fed or getting medical care is completely false, or my guess it is.”Fahey then threatened the protesters with imprisonment, saying, “These people that are basically assaulting and obstructing ICE agents are going to find out the hard way — they’re going to get to compare what it's like being in a federal detention center to an ICE detention center because a lot of these people are going to get locked up. But this is all performative nonsense designed to obstruct, to disrupt.” Fox Business, *Mornings with Maria*, [5/27/26]
Newsmax host Carl Higbie said about the hunger strike: “If they want to not eat, that's on them. I don't really care. Saves us some taxpayer money, I guess.” Higbie also claimed that “half of the people in the ICE clink are probably getting better meals and probably getting better healthcare than they did before they were picked up.” Newsmax, *Carl Higbie Frontline*, [5/26/26]
Speaking with Trump “border czar” Tom Homan, Fox host Laura Ingraham said reporting of bad living conditions at Delaney Hall “doesn't pass the straight-face test” because “this is not supposed to be a spa with foot massages and facials,” and suggested that China was “behind some of this agitation” to make “America look bad.” Fox News, *The Ingraham Angle*, [5/26/26]
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From the May 26, 2026, edition of Fox News' The Ingraham Angle
Fox host Jesse Watters replied to co-host Jessica Tarlov explaining the protests at Delaney Hall: “Who cares if there's a hunger strike for criminal illegals?” Fox News, *The Five*, [5/26/26]
A panel member on Newsmax'sThe Right Squadclaimed: “If they're electing to have the hunger strike, I mean, you know, that's of their own choosing.” Newsmax, *The Right Squad*, [5/27/26]
Megyn Kelly alleged that Democrats started protesting at Delaney Hall because they “are looking for another Minneapolis” and repeated claims from DHS that “there is no hunger strike happening” and “there are no subprime conditions whatsoever, … these are all lies for attention, either by leftists or the inmates or both.” Kelly's guest, National Review's Rich Lowry, claimed, “There's probably a large element of organic nature to it [the protest] because they hate ICE and they believe the lies about ICE, that ICE is an American Gestapo.” Lowry also praised ICE for its standards of detention, saying “it's very unlikely that these horror stories [about conditions inside] are happening.” SiriusXM, *The Megyn Kelly Show*, [5/26/26]
Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner expressed disbelief over the protests: “What do these sanctuary districts want us to do with the illegals that we have in detention centers? Do they want us to release them just out on the streets?” Faulkner also asked “for those lawmakers showing up, I mean whose side are they really on?” Fox News, *Outnumbered*, [5/28/26]
Fox host Will Cain said “this idea that these people [detained at Delaney Hall] didn't commit a crime is simply absurd. It is simply absurd.” Cain called the protesters “an organized agitator group.” Fox News, *America's Newsroom*, [5/28/26]
In an interview on Fox discussing protests at Delaney Hall, correspondent Bill Melugin asked former ICE Director Jonathan Fahey, “Do the feds need to up their posture a little bit, maybe get a little bit more aggressive?”Fahey responded, “Yeah, I think arrests need to be made.” Fox News, *America Reports*, [5/26/26]
Former FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino called the protests “performance art” and argued Democrats want people who “committed serious crimes in the United States” to be “released in their communities to rape, assault, burglarize your home, rob you, and potentially murder you, because they don't give a shit.” Rumble, *The Dan Bongino Show*, [5/26/26]
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an 5 26
In October 2025, Bloomberg News reported that Chinese President Xi Jinping and other Chinese government officials were offering to invest $1 trillion in the United States in exchange for getting a break on tariffs. But according to The Hill's Sophie Brams, a growing number of MAGA Republicans are voicing their opposition to the proposed deal.
One of them is former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia).
In a May 11 post on X, formerly Twitter, Taylor posted, "The war in Iran must be going worse than we know as the Strait remains closed. So much so that China may be allowed to build $1 Trillion in factories in the U.S. probably in exchange for help with Iran. I’m old enough to remember when MAGA was demanding China not be allowed to own any land in America. But MAGA is whatever Trump says it is, according to him, so now it’s for foreign wars and China. Shocking."
Fox News' Laura Ingraham, reporting on the deal, posted "!!" And another right-wing media figure, radio and host and former Fox News host Megyn Kelly, posted, "omg."
Conservative columnist Gordon G. Chang is vehemently opposed to the proposed $1 trillion deal.
On X, Chang wrote, "China's regime will use investments in America to subvert and destroy our country. Do not allow our enemy more bases of subversion here."
Steve Johnson, a self-described "America First/MAGA conservative," tweeted, "China is our number 1 enemy and it's not even close. It's crazy after what they did in 2020 and have been doing, that we continue relationships with them. I would label them a terrorist country if I was President. They have killed hundreds of thousands of Americans using cartels bringing in fentanyl and bring over viruses into our Country. They have Chinese national spy's in our Universities and have setup illegal bio labs as well, etc… F–– China."
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Trump retreats to the Fox-Trump feedback loop as his polling craters
Written by Matt Gertz
Published 05/07/26
With Donald Trump’s Iran war driving his public support to its lowest levels of his second term, the president retreated on Wednesday night to Fox News, the propaganda channel he can always count on to tell him that he’s a historic success.
Trump spent part of his evening live-posting about and posting video of segments on that night’s editions of Fox's The Ingraham Angle, Jesse Watters Primetime, and Hannity.
At 7:57 p.m. E.T.,Trump posted Laura Ingraham’s opening segment to his Truth Social feed.
In that segment, Ingraham, over an on-screen graphic describing the president as “Still the Champ,” denounced what she called media portrayals of Trump “losing influence,” calling them “just more wishful thinking.” She went on to say that Trump “vexes all of them because he doesn't play by their rules” and “never stopped fighting.”
Ingraham then interviewed GOP pollster Matt Towery, who called Trump “a force unequaled in the Republican Party” and claimed that “the polling that you're seeing come in on Trump is incorrect.” On-screen text during the interview read, “The MAGA Momentum Is Unstoppable.”
At 9:08 p.m. E.T., Trump posted, “Chuck Devore, Army Intelligence, was fantastic tonight on Jesse Watters. Thank you Chuck!!!”
Devore, during the segment Trump referenced, claimed:
Trump is negotiating a “strong” “deal” with Iran.
Trump’s foreign policy is “like clean up on aisles two, three and 11” and “anyone that doesn't trust President Trump or doesn't give him the respect or the consideration that I think is due, given his track record, I think that they would be sorely mistaken.”
“The economy is hitting on all cylinders now” and the spike in the price of gasoline will end soon.
“Voters are going to see” the impact of that “tremendous” economic boost by the midterm elections, giving Republicans “a pretty good chance” to hold the House and Senate.
“It's a complete wild card as to whether” the Iranian regime “survives the year.”
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From the May 6, 2026, edition of Fox News' Jesse Watters Primetime
At 9:13 p.m. ET, Trump posted that “Washington D.C. CRIME is at its lowest point in 30 years, plus!” He was apparently responding to another segment on Watters’ show which used similar language.
Finally, at 10:59 p.m. ET, Trump posted Sean Hannity’s opening segment to his Truth Social feed.
Hannity’s monologue, citing President Barack Obama’s recent interview with CBS late-night host Stephen Colbert, alleged that “Barack Hussein Obama” is “refusing to ride off into the sunset with grace and something called dignity” because the former president is “desperate for validation.”
He went on to accuse Obama of having “wrote the book on weaponization and politicizing justice,” through his purported attacks on Trump, adding that he “is now forced to witness his entire legacy go completely down the drain, compliments of the man that he tried to destroy.”
The president often makes or calibrates his decisions based on the network’s programming and posts about it in close to real time, a phenomenon I call the Fox-Trump feedback loop. And right now, his loyal supplicants are providing him with an endless stream of happy talk.
mma
//
### In Iran, the most consequential test of the Fox-Trump feedback loop yet
03/02/26 1:12 PM EST
### How Fox powered Trump’s first term — and what that means for his second
11/19/24 7:30 AM EST
### STUDY: Two years of Trump's Fox live-tweeting obsession, by the numbers
10/09/20
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Right-wing media's immigration wish list: Kill the bipartisan Dignity Act, more mass deportations, and fewer paths for legal immigration
Right-wing media are trying to pressure Republicans to move even further right on immigration
Written by Torri Lonergan & Isabella Sherk
Published 04/24/26
Right-wing media figures are rejecting recent messaging from the Trump White House to back away from calls for mass deportations and attacking bipartisan immigration legislation. These personalities have gone so far as to accuse the GOP of “pushing for mass amnesty” and “surrendering our country to foreigners.”
They are advocating for harsher anti-immigration policies — demanding that President Donald Trump enact his most extreme campaign promises for mass deportations, calling for “a 10-year ban on all immigration,” and encouraging Trump to start “denaturalizing citizens” and “removing lawful permanent residents.”
While the Trump administration slashes legal immigration, some congressional Republicans have backed away from mass deportations and cosponsored the Dignity Act}:
The Trump administration has been slashing legal immigration and targeting non-criminal “immigration violators” while telling the public its efforts were prioritizing deporting “the worst of the worst.” The administration has drastically cut visas for legal permanent residents, international students, H-1B workers, and the foreign partners of U.S. citizens. Meanwhile, CBS reported that “30,986 — or 48% — of the ICE detainees in custody as of Nov. 16 lacked any criminal charges or convictions in the U.S. and were being held solely because of civil violations of U.S. immigration law.” Cato Institute, [4/13/26; CBS News, 11/26/25]
A recent poll from Politico found that “half of Americans — including one quarter of Trump’s 2024 voters — said his mass deportations campaign is too aggressive.” However, the poll also found that two-thirds of his 2024 voters said, “Trump’s mass deportations campaign is either about right or not aggressive enough.” Politico, [4/18/26]
In March, the White House reportedly advised congressional Republicans to avoid discussing mass deportations ahead of the midterm elections.According to Axios, White House deputy chief of staff James Blair urged House Republicans “to stop emphasizing ‘mass deportations’ and instead focus their messaging on removing violent criminals.” Axios, [3/10/26]
A group of Trump allies have formed the Mass Deportation Coalition to encourage the administration not to back away from its deportation push. The coalition — which includes the Oversight Project’s Mike Howell, former Blackwater CEO Erik Prince, former Customs and Border Protection Acting Commissioner Mark Morgan, and conservative groups including The Heritage Foundation — released a playbook urging the White House to continue raiding work sites and deporting migrant workers despite pushback from voters. Politico, [4/1/26]
The Dignity Act is a bipartisan bill that would allow migrant workers who have been here more than five years to legally work in the U.S. The “Dignity for Immigrants while Guarding our Nation to Ignite and Deliver the American Dream Act of 2025” or the “DIGNIDAD (Dignity) Act” was introduced by Reps. María Elvira Salazar (R-FL) and Veronica Escobar (D-TX) in July 2025. 19 other Republicans and a similar number of Democrats have cosponsored the bill. Salazar described the legislation as “a serious, balanced solution: no amnesty, no path to citizenship, but a legal status for those who have worked, paid taxes, and contributed to our economy.” According to the American Immigration Council, “The Dignity Act would provide a path to permanent legal status — but not citizenship — for nearly all undocumented immigrants who have been in the United States since December 31, 2020.” Congress.gov, [7/15/25; Office of Rep. María Elvira Salazar, 3/25/26, 7/15/25; American Immigration Council, 7/15/25]
In April, 11 House Republicans voted with Democrats to extend temporary protected status for Haitian immigrants through 2029. CBS News reported that TPS “allows immigrants to temporarily live and work in the U.S. without fear of deportation if DHS decides their home country is unsafe due to armed conflict, environmental disasters or other extraordinary circumstances.” Haitian immigrants have been granted TPS since 2010. The bill’s Republican supporters broke with Trump, who has attempted to end deportation protections for hundreds of thousands of Haitian immigrants and reportedly plans to veto the bill if it passes the Senate. CBS News, [4/16/26; NPR, 4/16/26]
## Right-wing media figures railed against the Dignity Act, calling the bill that bars undocumented people from citizenship “amnesty”
The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh called Dignity Act cosponsor Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R-FL) an “anchor baby,” described the bill as “treasonous,” and claimed the legislation would “backdoor a mass amnesty.” The Daily Wire, *The Matt Walsh Show*, [4/9/26, 4/9/26]
Fox’s Sean Hannity complained, “We have Democrats and some Republicans even that are pushing for this idiotic, imbecilic, insane idea of the Dignity Act.” He framed the proposed legislation as saying, “Oh, never mind that you didn't respect our laws, our borders and sovereignty. Never mind that we didn't vet you. We're just going to let you into the country anyway.” Premiere Radio Networks, *The Sean Hannity Show*, [4/9/26]
On April 8, Fox host Laura Ingraham asked Dignity Act cosponsor Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), “How can you possibly look in the face of the American people and say that's dignity?” The next day, Ingraham argued that “American workers, taxpayers, and the rule of law” will lose if this bill gets passed. She also said that Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX) “nailed it” when he referred to the bill as a “double middle finger to the middle class.” Fox News, *The Ingraham Angle*, [4/8/26, 4/9/26]
Discussing the Dignity Act, Fox host Will Cain asked Lawler, “How is this not amnesty?” Cain insisted, “Whatever words you want to use, amnesty, pathway to citizenship — I know you’re not proposing that — legal status, you are creating the continued incentive for illegal immigration.” Fox News, *The Will Cain Show*, [2/4/26]
Right-wing podcaster Laura Loomer said that Republicans will “lose the midterms” because they are “talking about this Dignity Act to give amnesty to 65 fucking illegal aliens.”In February, she insisted the Dignity Act is “just another word for mass amnesty, it makes me so angry,” and said, “I think that Lawler should be primaried. I think that he should be removed from Congress.” Rumble, *Loomer Unleashed*, [4/7/26, 2/5/26]
Megyn Kelly questioned why Republicans were cosponsoring the “betrayal bill” and said, “This is no time to be talking about amnesty.” She added, “I don't care about them being in fear of deportation,” and asked, “What is this, just to create a talking point for the Democrats right before the midterms?” Sirius XM, *The Megyn Kelly Show*, [4/9/26, 4/9/26]
The Daily Wire’s Michael Knowles said Salazar is “pushing for mass amnesty” and declared that the Dignity Act is “as rancid as a bill as ever I have seen.” On The Megyn Kelly Show, Knowles said, “I have my own alternative legislation that I am proposing. The legislation is the All New Denizens Actually Leave En Masse Bill, or the ANDALE Bill.” He argued, “Mass deportations are a mainstream popular political issue. So what are these jokers, these Republicans in Congress say? They come around and they say I know what we'll do after winning the first popular election in 20 years. Let's give illegals mass amnesty. … Leave it to these people to clutch defeat from the jaws of victory.” The Daily Wire, *The Michael Knowles Show*, [7/21/25; The Daily Wire, Friendly Fire, 4/8/26; Sirius XM, The Megyn Kelly Show, 4/9/26]
Infowars host Harrison Smith said that Congress “named the amnesty bill in the Spanish language just to really emphasize how thoroughly they are surrendering our country to foreigners.” Infowars, *War Room*, [4/7/26]
On former Trump strategist Steve Bannon’sWar Roompodcast, Immigration Accountability Project co-founder Rosemary Jenks criticized the Dignity Act, claiming, “It's got amnesty for at least 10 million illegal aliens to compete with low-wage American workers.” She said, “I call this bill, instead of the Dignity Act, the SAAW Act for Screw All American Workers, because this bill hits every American worker, whether they're low-wage, medium-wage, or high-wage.” Real America’s Voice, *War Room*, [4/10/26]
The Charlie Kirk Showexecutive producer Andrew Kolvet said the Dignity Act is “a new grift to try to get more illegals coming in.” He claimed, “There are people around the president right now saying, don't ever use the word mass deportation again — the thing that we all got so excited to vote for in 2024.” Real America’s Voice, *The Charlie Kirk Show*, [4/7/26]
Podcaster Vince Coglianese ranted, “What the hell did people vote for, by a majority? A majority? They said mass deportations. They said get everybody out of the country who's here illegally. Stop breaking our laws. Stop making it chaotic. Get out. Get out. And you're picking now for amnesty? No. None. No more amnesty.” Coglianese called the Dignity Act a “dumpster fire” and said, “The goal of the bill is to give amnesty to huge categories of illegal aliens.” He criticized Republicans who support the bill, complaining, “They're going to deliver the American dream. To whom? Not to Americans. To illegal aliens. What are you idiots doing?” Rumble, *VINCE*, [2/5/26]
## Right-wing media personalities demanded that Trump double down on mass deportations
Podcaster Tim Pool complained about “the Trump administration telling people to back off of mass deportations,” claiming, “That says to me, yeah, MAGA's dead.” He continued, “If the Republican Party is now saying Joe Biden allowed in 10 million undocumented — undocumented — migrants, illegal immigrants, as we call them, if he really did that, and the Trump admin is saying we're done with this; we're not going to do it — OK. Well, then America's over.” Rumble, *Timcast IRL*, [3/17/26]
War Roomhost Steve Bannon called for “mass deportation of every illegal alien that’s here. All of them, not just the bad hombres.” Previously, in late March, Bannon had complained that Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and the White House said, “We can't even use the phrase mass deportations again.” Days later, Bannon insisted, “We cannot take our eye off the ball of mass deportations, even if the lobbyists that continue to hammer at the White House want us to stop doing it.” Real America’s Voice, *War Room*, [4/14/26, 3/23/26, 3/31/26]
In an episode ofThe Charlie Kirk Showtitled “The RINO Plot to Dump 'Mass Deportations,’” Andrew Kolvet said, “We’re going to keep saying mass deportations, because guess what? That’s what the people want.” Kolvet later complained, “If you're going to cuck out on deportations and immigration, you will depress turnout at the midterms. … You will depress our base and we will not get out and vote for you in the midterms." Real America’s Voice, *The Charlie Kirk Show*, [4/9/26, 4/9/26, 4/21/26]
Fox host Laura Ingraham told Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, “We want mass deportations, Mr. Secretary. That's what the American people voted for.” Fox News, *The Ingraham Angle*, [4/15/26]
White nationalist streamer Nick Fuentes lamented, “Trump always chickens out,” specifically complaining that the administration backed down on mass deportations.Fuentes said, “Mass deportations — where are they? Not happening.” Rumble, *America First*, [3/31/26, 4/8/26]
Laura Loomer complained that “we're not getting all of the 65 million mass deportations like we were told,” saying, “At the rate of these deportations, they're not exactly mass deportations.”Rumble, *Loomer Unleashed*, [4/7/26]
Conservative influencer Nick Sortor said he will continue to use the words “mass deportations” because “if we only go after the worst of the worst, that means amnesty for the rest.” Rumble, *The Charlie Kirk Show*, [4/7/26]
Megyn Kelly said, “We’ve gone from worst-first to pretty much worst-only, if that.” She said, “We’re going in the wrong direction in terms of the detention of illegals,” complaining that the drop in ICE detentions is “primarily driven by the decline in arrests of illegal immigrants without criminal records. It very much appears like we have moved considerably on from that group.” SiriusXM, *The Megyn Kelly Show*, [4/15/26]
PBD Podcastpanelist Vincent Oshana said, “This mass deportation has slowed down. OK? And I’m sorry, I voted for the people that do not belong here to leave.” He continued, “The rules are the rules, you have to leave if you're freaking here illegally and that's it.” YouTube, *PBD Podcast*, [3/20/26]
Mike Howell of the Mass Deportation Coalition said on Julio Rosas’Mostly Peaceful Podcastthat “only focusing on the worst of worst” is “comfort food for RINOS.” He continued, “It's a problem in that there's not that many criminal illegal aliens out of the total illegal alien population. And so, when you're focused on a small subset, you're going to get small numbers.” YouTube, *Mostly Peaceful Podcast*, [4/2/26]
The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh complained that if Trump “won’t do” mass deportations, then “I don’t think anyone else ever will.” The Daily Wire, *Friendly Fire*, [4/8/26]
The Daily Wire’s Michael Knowles said he’s sure the “abuelas are really nice, but abuela has to go too.” He said, “I want mass deportations. I don’t just want the face-tattooed criminals gone.” The Daily Wire, *Friendly Fire*, [4/8/26]
## Right-wing media figures attacked legal immigration and advocated for denaturalizing US citizens
Steve Bannon said, “We should have a 10-year ban on all immigration. People say, oh well legal — it's not legal. It's all a scam.” Real America’s Voice, *War Room*, [4/10/26]
YouTuber Tyler Oliveira posted a video attacking the H-1B visa program that claimed to expose “Texas' Indian Invasion.” Oliveira said “infinite legal immigration” will “alter the fabric of any place” and asked, “If the law has allowed Frisco's Indian population to go from less than 2% to almost 20% Indian in the last 20 years, turning Frisco into a majority-minority city, is the intent of these work visas bringing Indians to America to support our labor force or to replace it altogether?” YouTube, Tyler Oliveira, [4/5/26, 4/5/26]
Right-wing streamer Zack Hoyt, known online as Asmongold, said that “what needs to happen” is “denaturalizing citizens,” “removing lawful permanent residents,” and “scaling down the H-1B program by like 95%.” He said he would denaturalize and deport Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) “instantly” and added, “I am not satisfied in the level of aggression and force that they are using to get rid of a lot of these people.” Omar immigrated to the United States as a child and has been a U.S. citizen for over 20 years. YouTube, Asmongold TV, [4/13/26; Politico, 2/3/26]
Hoyt complained about legal immigration from India specifically, saying, “It's way too fast, way too many.” Hoyt insisted, “The problem is the system that allows these companies to undercut American workers and then get cheap foreign labor and then import them here and then bring their entire family.” He went on to accuse Trump of “selling out the American people” by supporting H-1B visas. YouTube, Asmongold TV, [4/14/26, 4/14/26]
Podcaster Benny Johnson said “Ilhan Omar’s family” is “a walking advertisement for why we should never take anyone from the Third World into our country ever again.”He complained that a “horrific” and “sick” “experiment” has been “run on us for the last 40 years that you need to flood our nation, that anyone can become an American, that paperwork Americans are just as American as you are. No, doesn't work.” YouTube, *The Benny Show*, [3/22/26]
Podcaster Vince Coglianese said, “We need a full-blown moratorium on all migration into the United States.” He celebrated data from the Cato Institute finding that Trump has cut legal immigration more than illegal immigration, saying, “Yes, I voted for all of this. And, yes, these are all massive wins.” Coglianese also criticized Congress for extending temporary protected status for Haitians, saying that we need to “purge the ranks of people who would sell us out like this” and falsely labeling Haitian immigrants with TPS as illegal aliens. Rumble, *VINCE*, [4/16/26, 4/16/26]
Fox host Laura Ingraham said it “drives me crazy” that Republicans voted with Democrats to protect Haitian immigrants in the United States with temporary protected status. Fox News, *The Ingraham Angle*, [4/15/26]
Blaze TV host Auron MacIntyre said onThe Charlie Kirk Showthat Haitians have a “high propensity toward violence” and “don’t belong in the United States.” MacIntyre railed against extending temporary protected status for Haitian immigrants, saying, “The problem with Haiti, the reason it's dangerous, is because Haitians live there.” Rumble, *The Charlie Kirk Show*, [4/16/26]
Megyn Kelly said Haitians are continuing to “be rewarded for their illegal law breaking” and that Republicans who voted to extend temporary protected status for Haitians “deserve to be named and shamed.” Kelly said, “They pretend at every turn that there are not Americans who want these jobs. I'm here to tell you there are. There are. I've known and loved some of them. So fuck you and your bullshit excuses, Rep. Lawler and Nicole Malliotakis.” SiriusXM, *The Megyn Kelly Show*, [4/17/26]
//
03/04/26 12:18 PM EST
01/30/26 6:13 PM EST
### A federal judge's ruling debunks right-wing media smears about Haitian immigrants
02/06/26
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MMA
Laura Ingraham crashes out over Virginia redistricting
04/22/26
Greg Gutfeld says Virginia redistricting reveals “a suicidal flaw of democracy: that you can vote to end it"
04/22/26
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MMA
Fox’s Laura Ingraham pivots back to pro-Trump propaganda on Iran war
Ingraham's apparent skepticism of the war was short-lived
Written by Matt Gertz
Published 04/01/26
Citation
Fox News
Fox News host Laura Ingraham ended her brief experiment with independent thought on Tuesday, offering supportive comments about Donald Trump’s handling of his spiralling war of choice in Iran as the president prepares to deliver a prime-time speech tonight that the White House is billing as “an important update on Iran.”
Ingraham recently broke from her MAGA propagandist colleagues to voice notes of skepticism about the course of the Iran war. She warned last week that further escalations risked “cascading problems for the region” and “political problems for the president in a midterm election year.” Then on Monday, she pointed out “how quickly this can spiral out of control” and questioned whether Trump had been “fully briefed about the risks of all of this from the beginning” and “able to take it all in and understand the complexity of this.”
Ingraham’s critique mattered because Trump regularly watches her network’s programming and takes action in response to what he sees from its hosts. Her warnings stood out from the blithely supportive commentary of her peers as the president contemplated a series of risky military options to stave off a U.S. strategic defeat.
Several news outlets picked up Ingraham’s Monday remarks as a signal of rising discontent within MAGA media over Iran. Megyn Kelly, a former Fox host and critic of the network’s lockstep support for the Iran war, said the comments show that Trump’s handling of it is “so erratic that even Fox News, the biggest cheerleader of this war by far, is starting to ask some questions.”
But either Ingraham rethought her position overnight or Fox executives, Trump allies, or her audience got in her ear, because 24 hours later, the Fox host’s tone had changed dramatically.
Ingraham opened Tuesday’s broadcast by parroting Trump’s “blunt message to Iran, pairing hard-line negotiations with a stark warning.”
“He's drawing the parameters of success, trying to make it clear to the American people this is not a quagmire,” she insisted. “We're not going to be here forever. Don't worry about that. And he says, essentially, the job will be done soon.”
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From the March 31, 2026, edition of Fox News' The Ingraham Angle
The Fox host sneered at U.S. allies who have refused to get involved with a war they didn’t start: “Our so-called NATO allies, I’ve been talking about this around the edges here, have proven Trump was right again. Now, when they want help, we answer the call, but when we need help, they head for the exits.”
Ingraham also offered careful praise for the president’s consideration of a potential escalation.
“President Trump is going to make sure that we are ready, our military is ready for any contingency,” she said. “He never likes to rule anything out. That’s the way he operates. I like that, it keeps everybody on their toes. And it also includes planning to take control of Kharg Island.”
Notably, Ingraham used the debate over whether the Iran war is becoming a “quagmire” to distinguish herself from Trump’s MAGA critics.
“Why are people calling this a quagmire after a month?” she asked Gregory Glaros, a former naval aviator. “If I hear the word quagmire on our friends’ and other networks, I mean, I can see criticism in America First, but quagmire, really?”
Then in her monologue, Ingraham walked back her past concerns about the potential political toll. Arguing that “Trump is taking some big risks, but with big risks come great rewards,” Ingraham said she was “choosing not to panic” about the midterm elections.
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Citation
From the March 31, 2026, edition of Fox News' The Ingraham Angle
LAURA INGRAHAM (HOST): A tale of two countries, that's the focus of tonight's "Angle."
I know some conservatives are worried that we've gotten off track. They're fretting about Iran. They wonder what happened to America First. Social media's hyping conservative infighting. Fears of a midterm wipeout. So some of you may be thinking, what was it all for? Look, I'm not underestimating any of your concerns. I share some of them. Trump is taking some big risks. But, with big risks come great rewards. Eliminating the Iranian threat is a gift to future generations. But, in the meantime, look, we'll see how it all works out. But, in the meantime, I'm choosing not to panic. After all, no one on God's green Earth has a better political sense than Donald Trump. He didn't become president of the United States twice and come this far to blow it all on a lark. So why not take a deep breath, step back, and reframe our thinking? Now, right now, no western country is freer or more prosperous or has a brighter future than the United States. And for that, you can thank the policies of Donald J Trump.
All in all, it was a broadcast that no one in the White House could criticize as insufficiently deferential to the president.
Ingraham is back in line with the jingoistic war propaganda of her fellow Fox evening hosts
Fox host Sean Hannity began his final show before the president’s “important update” by presenting a rosy picture of the war and denouncing those who failed to acknowledge its success.
“According to the president, Iran will not be lasting much longer,” he said. “Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, he says the U.S. will negotiate with bombs until Iran agrees to America's terms.
And take a look at your screen. Last night in northern Iran, a massive strike appeared to take out a massive stockpile of missiles and rockets. At the same time, oil tankers are now making their way through the Strait of Hormuz as sea traffic is picking up.”
“Now, tonight, through the fog of war, it is obvious the U.S. military is not just obliterating Iran’s ability to fight, but also their will,” Hannity later added. The host continued, citing a Harvard Center for American Political Studies/Harris poll to portray the war’s critics as out of touch: “In fact, despite nonstop cheerleading for Iran from the legacy media mob, Democrats, isolationists that are in the country, a vast majority of you, the American people, 76% believe the U.S. is crushing this rogue regime.”
Hannity did not address Fox’s own poll, which found that 58% of respondents oppose the war, 64% disapprove of Trump’s handling of the war, and 59% disapprove of Trump’s overall performance (his “highest for either term”).
“Anyway, together, America and Israel, they are dismantling the world’s No. 1 state sponsor of terror,” the host concluded. “They are preventing your children and your grandchildren from having to live in a world with a nuclear-armed Iran with a death cult that believes in convert or die. All of this while our so-called allies in NATO are nowhere to be found — that will be dealt with.”
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From the March 31, 2026, edition of Fox News' Hannity
Jesse Watters, meanwhile, spent his time gleefully recounting the Pentagon’s accounting of U.S. strikes and assuring viewers that U.S. special operations forces are well-trained for a potential mission to seize Iran’s supply of uranium that he said “would be like something straight out of Hollywood.”
Chyrons Fox aired during the segment included “The Upcoming Hours Will Be ‘Decisive,’” “The Regime Can Run, But Can’t Hide,” and “Iranian Regime Begins To Collapse.”
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Fox News’ united front in support of Trump’s Iran war may be breaking down
Host Laura Ingraham warns escalation could produce “cascading problems for the region,” political turmoil for the GOP
Written by Matt Gertz
Published 03/26/26
Four weeks after President Donald Trump launched a poorly conceived war of choice against Iran, the lockstep support for the conflict that has characterized coverage from Fox News’ star hosts is beginning to fray. The power struggle is significant — it is not an exaggeration to suggest the course of the war might hinge on which Fox shows the president is watching.
Trump is clearly approaching a decision point over whether to further escalate the war. U.S. and Israeli forces have done a lot of damage to Iranian military targets, but its regime is intact, still controls its stockpiles of enriched uranium, and has closed the Strait of Hormuz, threatening the global trade in oil, natural gas, and fertilizer. The Pentagon is sending thousands of troops to the region and reportedly prepping options for a “final blow” — some of which would involve deploying U.S. forces on Iranian soil.
When Trump is considering policy options, he often takes guidance from his loyal propagandists at Fox. This Fox-Trump feedback loop has in recent months played a role in the president’s decisions to send White House border czar Tom Homan to oversee immigration enforcement in Minnesota; prioritize the SAVE Act over all other legislation; order the deployment of ICE agents to airports; and start the war against Iran.
Against that backdrop, Fox News host Laura Ingraham warned on Wednesday’s show that further U.S. action could produce devastating unintended consequences and suggested that Trump should refocus his attention on the domestic economy and political situation.
“Iran knows it cannot win militarily, so it's using the leverage it has by prolonging the conflict,” she said during her monologue at the top of the show. “Now, what do they want to do? They want to inflict maximum economic pain on the region, on the U.S., [on] the global economy as much as possible until they think Trump relents. But the White House doesn't seem to be blinking.”
The host then aired a clip of White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt warning at her press briefing that day that “President Trump does not bluff, and he is prepared to unleash hell” against Iran.
Ingraham did not seem impressed by Leavitt’s rhetoric.
“Well, the problem is obviously unleashing hell means destroying infrastructure, which itself causes a series of cascading problems for the region, including maybe outside the region — political problems for the president in a midterm election year,” she said.
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From the March 25, 2026, edition of Fox News' The Ingraham Angle
Her air of skepticism continued throughout the show.
While interviewing Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), she noted Pentagon reports of thousands of successful missions but commented, “I mean, this is a devastating blow, yet you know, we're still there.”
“It's not even a month old, obviously,” she continued, before asking, “But are you concerned about the public and people? Again, very short attention spans, very impatient for victory, as is President Trump, I might add. But in an election year, it's easy to say politics don't matter, but at some point politics do come into play.”
And in a third segment, she highlighted the disastrous polling on the Iran war, commenting, “It looks like people are pretty impatient. The American people are sending a message to President Trump that it's time to put the focus back on the home front.”
Ingraham is inching toward the type of dissent that has been virtually absent from Fox’s coverage of the war, even as the broader right-wing media has split. Her colleagues have played key roles in convincing Trump to attack in the first place and are pushing for risky escalations. Ingraham herself briefly quibbled with Trump’s handling of an apparent U.S. strike that leveled an Iranian school, killing scores of children, but had supported the war itself, which she declared three weeks ago that Trump had already won.
But if Ingraham is getting cold feet and trying to convince Trump not to escalate a war the public has soured on, she remains an outlier at the network. Indeed, if the president tuned in for the two hours following Ingraham’s program, he saw her prime-time colleagues Jesse Watters and Sean Hannity argue not only that the war is going well and that Trump will inevitably lead the U.S. to victory, but that anyone who disagrees must want America to lose the war because they hate the president.
Watters began his show with a 10-minute monologue whose thesis was that “the Iranian regime is losing leverage fast as we continue to carry out thousands of sorties over enemy airspace.” After detailing various tactical victories, he touted a potential escalation.
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From the March 25, 2026, edition of Fox News' Jesse Watters Primetime
“[President] 47 could be eyeing a knockout — Iran's crown jewel, Kharg Island,” he said. “The Republican Guard has been preparing for battle, laying mines, booby trapping, loading up on Stingers, but retired top brass says our military is ready to shock and seize the terrain by air, by sea. We don't know if it's going to happen, but if it does happen, the Iranians won't know it's coming.”
“Iran looks like this is their last gasp, but some people would rather America lose the war because they hate Trump,” Watters concluded. “So far, this is the cleanest, most surgical and one-sided operation in American military history. Now, anything could happen, war is hell, it's unpredictable, but people in the know in Washington think we're about to close it out with a pretty big blow.”
Hannity, in his opening monologue, likewise declared: “Many on the left are now rooting for America to lose. Others seem to be hoping for another Vietnam-style quagmire. Why? Because Democrats care more about their political ambition rather than the future, safety, and security of your children and your grandchildren.”
“But tonight, President Trump is ignoring all the hysteria and pushing for peace one way or the other,” he continued. “If Iran's obliterated regime will not agree to a lasting agreement, this president has pledged he will continue to decimate their resolve through force, but that's really going to be up to them. They might unleash hell, otherwise.”
After airing a clip from Leavitt’s press briefing, Hannity added, “The message from President Trump is clear: Work with the U.S. or you will be killed.”
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From the March 25, 2026, edition of Fox News' Hannity
To which Ingraham might reply — what if killing them creates “cascading problems for the region”? As of yet, Watters and Hannity aren’t expressing any such concerns. And who the president is watching may determine the shape of things to come.
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### How Fox powered Trump’s first term — and what that means for his second
11/19/24
### Fox’s biggest hawks are thrilled with the Iran war — and floating risky escalations
03/12/26
### Laura Ingraham: “Trump has already won in Iran”
03/05/26
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As Iran war drags on, right-wing media lash out at NATO and Iranians who haven’t overthrown their government
When it comes to assigning blame for the Iran war spiraling out of control, MAGA media have found convenient scapegoats who aren’t named Trump
Written by John Knefel
Published 03/20/26
As the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran lurches into its fourth week without any clear endgame, signs of frustration are beginning to show among President Donald Trump’s right-wing media allies. These outside figures, some of whom function as kitchen Cabinet advisers both on- and off-air, still support the war, but as it continues to escalate across the Middle East they have started to find scapegoats for the elusive easy victory many were predicting.
Two primary targets are the United States’ NATO allies, which so far have refused to deploy their militaries to open the Strait of Hormuz, and the Iranian people, who have not overthrown their government. The nexus of these two seemingly distinct critiques is that ordinary Muslims are supposedly at fault in both cases, with some right-wing pundits specifically blaming European Muslims for NATO countries’ reticence to join Trump’s war. Fox News has been leading on both fronts, but former Trump adviser Steve Bannon and conservative pundit Ben Shapiro have weighed in as well.
Since March 15, Trump has criticized NATO countries for declining to join his war of aggression, saying they were “making a very foolish mistake” and claiming that the United States “will protect them, but they will do nothing for us.” (The only time NATO’s collective self-defense clause has been invoked was after the attacks against the U.S. on 9/11.) Trump has also acknowledged that Iranians looking to take to the streets would face serious danger even as he has urged protesters to “take over your government,” a call Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made as well. (Israeli intelligence reportedly determined that in the event of a popular revolt, Iranians would be “slaughtered.”)
Whether or not the exasperation voiced by right-wing media about NATO and the lack of a popular Iranian uprising foreshadows broader concerns about Trump’s and Netanyahu’s war remains to be seen. But as civilian casualties mount — especially in Iran and Lebanon — and markets sink, some of Trump’s allies may continue searching for people to blame, just so long as they aren’t named Donald Trump.
Fox News leads anti-NATO charge
Trump’s criticisms of NATO countries’ refusal to open the Strait of Hormuz migrated to Fox almost immediately.
On March 16, speaking over a chyron that read “The ‘alliance’ that isn’t,” Fox News host Laura Ingraham latched onto the talking point.
“If anyone watching tonight is surprised when America stands alone, well, you haven't been paying attention,” Ingraham said. “Now, of course as usual, liberals claim that Trump is the reason that any alliances are frayed. That is a joke.”
Ingraham went on to blame Muslims for Britain’s reluctance to get involved militarily. “As usual, they don't need to take out their wallets or risk any political heat at home, especially with the burgeoning Muslim population in the U.K,” she said, before airing footage of Trump complaining about the longtime U.S. ally. “All this proves is that President Trump was right all along about these friends — well, they’re friends who took advantage of us for about 80 years.”
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From the March 16, 2026, edition of Fox News' The Ingraham Angle
The following morning, Fox & Friends picked up the baton. “It's pretty amazing that Germany goes no, I'm not going to do anything; U.K. says no, I'm not going to help; France says I've got some in the area, I'll see what I can do; Japan says no,” host Brian Kilmeade said. He then downplayed the scope of the energy crisis before taking another shot at U.S. allies.
“We're going to be fine. It's going to be just a little — a couple more weeks that maybe there's more shooting going on,” Kilmeade said. “In the big picture, this backs up what the president has been saying about our allies in times of crisis.”
Kilmeade’s co-host Lawrence Jones added: “Not a good look.”
The same day, Bannon took a shot at “our great allies in NATO telling Trump yeah, I don’t know, this Iran thing’s not really our deal — keeping the Red Sea open, the Suez Canal, Straits of Hormuz, that's not really NATO's problem.”
He added: “It’s outrageous what the allies have told us.”
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From the March 17, 2026, edition of Real America's Voice's War Room
The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro took aim at NATO countries “exorbitant regulatory and welfare structures,” adding: “We don't need different allies. We need our allies to be better.”
“President Trump was always right to force NATO countries to pay up for their own defense,” he continued. “But if NATO countries want America to help them out in times of common need, they need to step up as well when one of the world's chief shipping lanes is closed by an internationally recognized terrorist regime.”
Back at Fox & Friends, on March 18 Fox political analyst Guy Benson joined Ingraham in laying blame at the feet of Muslims in Europe. “In a lot of these countries, there is a growing Muslim population where there are sectarian politics that are increasingly driving decisions that are being made about not offending that group of people on a whole host of fronts,” Benson said. “I think that is inescapably part of the calculus here.”
Jones said of NATO countries, “I was always raised — no one likes a freeloader.”
Jones agreed and replied that the “radicalization that’s happening in a lot of these countries” is “inspired … by Iran, the No. 1 state sponsor of terror.”
Later that morning, Jones said of NATO countries, “I was always raised — no one likes a freeloader.”
On his Premiere Networks radio program, host Sean Hannity adopted his Fox colleagues’ rhetoric in targeting European Muslim communities. “Great Britain that has sharia courts. France has no-go zones — I am telling you, Europe is collapsing before your eyes,” Hannity said. “Unfettered immigration, they don't demand assimilation. It is now an unmitigated, out of control disaster.”
Hannity suggested punishing NATO countries for thus far staying out of the military campaign, telling his audience: “I can tell you right now, this is not going to end well for Europe. It just isn't. We'll just ignore their conflicts. We'll just ignore what they go through.”
Fox’s Mark Levin — who, along with Hannity, has been one of the network’s major Iran war boosters — praised Israel and lashed out at European countries.
“Israel is a great ally,” Levin said. “They're fighting alongside us. Look at the British. Look at the French. Look at the Spanish. They're doing nothing. Effectively nothing except undermining us.”
On his March 19 radio show, Hannity used even stronger language. “We were just speaking about how our NATO allies are pathetic, didn't I just say that?” he asked his producer, adding: “I'm frankly disgusted with Great Britain and France and Germany and even Italy. … On the issue of the Strait of Hormuz, we get 1% of our oil from going through that strait — not much — and all the president said is hey, you want to help us here?” Of the European countries which haven’t joined the U.S.-Israeli war, Hannity was blunt: “There will be a price to pay in the end. Just like they have had unfettered immigration without assimilation, they will pay a price for that.”
Fox blames Iranian citizens for the lack of an uprising: “Freedom is costly, right?”
It’s not just Muslims in European countries who have supposedly let down the war effort, according to right-wing media; the Iranians living under a repressive regime and suffering from U.S. and Israeli airstrikes have as well. For these conservative pundits, Trump’s war with Iran cannot fail, it can only be failed.
Responding to her guest’s discussion of a possible popular uprising in spite of the dangers posed, Ingraham said on March 10, “They’re going to have to do it, because freedom is costly, right?”
“Our soldiers are dying in this,” she continued. “We’re paying a big price, so the Iranian people need to stand up.”
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From the March 10, 2026, edition of Fox News' The Ingraham Angle
On March 16, Fox Business anchor David Asman lamented that “we haven’t seen the popular uprising that we were hoping for — that can take years to happen.”
Fox anchor Harris Faulkner responded by invoking a longstanding Orientalist trope, arguing that Iranians are consumed by an ancient, irrational hatred of the West. “Their grievance is that they hate us, and I don’t really think that there’s a date on the calendar,” Faulkner said. “They could literally go thousands of years and still be at the point where they are now — I mean, they have been.”
“So I’m not sure we can generationally change them, but we certainly can take some things out of their hands,” she continued. “Like oil, and other things we’re so dependent upon as a country.”
Faulkner returned to the topic on March 18, prior to Trump attending the dignified transfer of six U.S. service members killed in the Iran war. Faulkner described one of the war’s aims as “to perhaps win a space for the people of Iran to step up into their own freedom.”
“We cannot do it for them,” she continued. “But we can be part of the solution in terms of making it possible.” More than 1,348 Iranian civilians have been killed since the beginning of the U.S.-Israeli campaign, according to an Iranian official.
The New York Times reported March 19 that “a small team of British military planners has been sent to the United States to help draw up options to reopen the Strait of Hormuz,” though the effort stops “short of the sort of major military action President Trump has demanded, such as sending warships to the waterway imminently.” Similarly, Axios reported that seven countries supported a vague coalition to open the strait, but that it was “largely a gesture to placate President Trump.”
Whether there is any appetite for deescalation among the parties to the conflict remains unclear. But what is glaringly obvious is that right-wing media are already seeking scapegoats for the cascading catastrophe set off by Trump's war with Iran.
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bill Melugin is Fox News’ top anti-migrant reporter}:
Melugin plays the role of a straight journalist, but he uses Border Patrol talking points to push an anti-immigrant agenda
Written by John Knefel
Research contributions from Justin Horowitz
:{:{Published 05/17/22}:
Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin and his fans in right-wing media want their audiences to think he’s a straight news reporter -- the kind of dispassionate journalist who follows the facts wherever they take him. In reality, Melugin is a far-right propagandist masquerading as a neutral, disinterested voice.
“You know what I love about him, he just calls balls and strikes,” Fox News contributor Jason Chaffetz said in December. “Bill, you do excellent work and we’re going to continue to follow your investigative reporting,” former NRA spokesperson Dana Loesch claimed on her podcast in 2020. “God bless Bill Melugin for seeking the facts,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) said on a recent episode of Fox & Friends. “He’s one of the only journalists in this country covering the undeclared invasion of the United States,” Fox News prime-time host Tucker Carlson gushed on January 26.
This explanation of his job is similar to how Melugin describes himself. “The reason why I was an investigative reporter for six years before I started at Fox News is because I like shining light where others don’t want it,” he told Chafetz in December, adding, “My job is to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted.” This framing allows him to launder pro-cop, anti-immigrant propaganda into the news cycle with a veneer of objectivity.
:{:{Melugin is ubiquitous on Fox News, having logged 421 segments since he became an official Fox News correspondent in April 2021, according to Media Matters’ internal database. As the network’s lead voice at the southern border, he will likely only appear more in the run-up to the 2022 midterm elections as Republicans recycle their predictable anti-migrant fearmongering.}:
He has appeared on Tucker Carlson’s prime-time show at least 58 times and played a prominent role in the Season Two premiere of Tucker Carlson Originals on Fox Nation. Prior to joining Fox News full time, he was a reporter at Fox Television Station’s KTTV channel in Los Angeles, and he has been making regular appearances on the cable network since at least January 2020. His job at both outlets has been to frame immigration issues and reform of the criminal punishment system in a sensationalistic way, adopting wholesale the opinions and concerns of law enforcement and restrictionist, anti-migrant activists.}:
But unlike the unhinged anti-immigrant monologues of opinion hosts on the network like Laura Ingraham and Carlson, Melugin’s contributions to the Fox News propaganda machine are news packages and live standup shots at the border. He plays the straight man to Carlson's and Ingraham’s howling comedians, and his presence on the border and posture of journalistic impartiality give his words — and therefore Carlson’s and Ingraham’s — more weight than they would otherwise have. As the old vaudeville saying goes, comedians are a dime a dozen, but if you've got a straight man you've got an act.
The terminally online may remember Melugin from his stint as Twitter’s main character in the summer of 2020 after he credulously reported that a Starbucks employee had placed a tampon into a Los Angeles police officer’s coffee cup. The cop’s claim was ludicrous from the outset, as Melugin’s own post made clear. The foreign object looked nothing like a tampon. But for Melugin, all that mattered was that a cop told him it was. A subsequent LA sheriff's department investigation found the offending object was a cleaning cloth, not a tampon.
This episode isn’t just an embarrassing example of a journalist getting a story wrong. Even the most diligent reporters need to issue corrections over the course of their career. Instead, this screw-up is a microcosm of Melugin’s entire approach to reporting. He acts as a mouthpiece for law enforcement, thereby ingratiating himself into its ranks, even at the expense of his own professional reputation. By his own admission, if he wasn’t in journalism, he would go to law school to become a prosecutor. He excels at manufacturing what left-wing activists call copaganda, and he has been handsomely rewarded for it.
The Del Rio bridge story
Melugin’s primary beat is the southern border, a region he consistently portrays as lawless, dangerous, and porous as a result of liberal politicians’ fecklessness. Migrants in his stories appear as threats — either as vectors to spread COVID-19, or as terrorists, criminals, or undesireables who will be a drain on society. In Melugin’s coverage, the U.S.-Mexico border is not simply a demarcation between countries. It is a line that divides the civilized world from the uncivilized, order from chaos, producer from parasite, deserving citizen from undeserving alien. It’s a region where under-resourced Border Patrol agents must heroically stave off invasion from unrelenting hordes of criminals-in-waiting, all while being persecuted by the Woke Industrial Complex back home.
Melugin was the key driver of one of the biggest immigration stories of 2021, the perceived crisis of Haitian migrants who had established a small camp under the International Bridge in Del Rio, Texas. There was a crisis, but it was for the Haitians who were relegated to extreme deprivation, humiliation, and stigma — not for the residents of Del Rio or for the United States more broadly.
Melugin initially used an airborne drone to cover the story, later appearing on Tucker Carlson Tonight repeatedly to discuss his footage. When the Federal Aviation Administration instituted a two-week flight restriction over Del Rio, the Texas Department of Public Safety allowed him to embed in an agency helicopter to continue his coverage. The FAA later gave Fox clearance to fly the drone again, which Melugin did, keeping the manufactured crisis in the headlines.
The Del Rio bridge story is a point of pride for Melugin, a story that forced national news outlets to cover a topic he believes they regularly ignore. “What we’re doing with the border right now — there’s no other national networks down there,” Melugin told Chafetz during an appearance on his podcast. “The only time they showed up was with the Del Rio bridge situation, with all the Haitians, and the only reason they showed up is because we were down there with the drone.”
As much as Melugin wants to portray himself as a straight reporter, he clearly favors a restrictionist approach to immigration that’s heavily reliant on criminalization of border crossing. “I’ll be frank with you, I feel like I’m banging my head against the wall,” he told conservative radio host and Fox News contributor Guy Benson in January. “I don’t know what else I have to show to wake people up. It almost seems like half the country wants to plug their head in the ground and pretend it’s not happening.”
This bias often shows up in subtle ways, like when Melugin internalizes Border Patrol lingo. He regularly refers to families as “family units,” the official, and dehumanizing, term used by the Department of Homeland Security. His reports often sound like he’s on safari, hunting prey. “Just a short time ago we had a group of runners come zipping right by us,” he said in November. “We found two of those runners hiding in a bush. Very difficult to see them.” Later in the segment, Melugin referenced a “remarkable” video published by far-right website Breitbart that showed a man trying to sink rafts migrants were using to cross the Rio Grande.
He often speaks about “got-aways,” that is, human beings who crossed the border without authorization that Border Patrol failed to apprehend. “A very, very high-level DHS source told me that since October, there have already been more than 220,000 known got-aways,” Melugin said in March. The term increased in popularity with conservatives following a September 2020 Border Patrol propaganda video called “The Gotaway,” reportedly inspired by Trump advisor and white nationalist Stephen Miller, that falsely presented immigrants as dangerous, criminal threats. More responsible reporters will occasionally use “got-away” to reference Border Patrol statements, but with Melugin the sinister connotations are just below the surface. “Just in the last six months alone here at the border there have been more than 300,000 known got-aways,” Melugin said during a segment that framed migrants as potential terrorists. “Former ICE Director Tom Homan says these terrorist numbers, these guys caught at the border last year, are a major concern.”
Melugin’s restrictionist approach frames his entire body of work, which treats increased levels of border crossing as inherently negative, and naturalizes prejudice against people from the global south. “Migrants just walking across the river, illegally entering the state of Texas,” Melugin said in March. “Border agents tell us you can expect this to get a whole lot worse if and when Title 42 drops,” he reported, referring to a racist Trump-era policy that allows officials to immediately expel asylum-seekers. He treats the release of single adult migrant men as inherently scandalous, implying that they are invaders disappearing into the shadows, lying in wait to commit violence. “We’re watching bus after bus after bus dropping off 50, 60 adult men at a time, sometimes with ankle monitors,” Melugin reported in January. “They get on a bus, they call a taxi, they go to the airport, and they’re gone.”
At the height of the interest in the Del Rio bridge story, Melugin used his on-the-ground presence to run interference for Border Patrol and sow confusion about its mistreatment of the migrants there. An iconic photograph taken by Paul Ratje appeared to depict a Border Patrol agent on horseback whipping a Haitian migrant, prompting national outrage, including from President Joe Biden. “I’ve never seen them whip anyone,” Ratje told local Texas TV station KTSM several days after it went viral. “[The agent] was swinging it, but it can be misconstrued when you’re looking at the picture.”
Melugin tweeted out that interview, claiming the photographer said “he and his colleagues never saw agents whipping anyone and the photos are being misconstrued. However, the false narrative is off and running.” Melugin’s tweet, which told a straightforward story of a photographer unequivocally distancing himself from how his work was being interpreted, was later picked up by The Federalist in a piece attacking the Biden administration for criticizing Border Patrol. The narrative that Biden was lying about the mistreatment of Haitian migrants at the border took hold and continues to be a story among anti-immigrant news outlets and organizations.
The reality of the situation, and Ratje’s feelings about his photo, are far more nuanced. Ratje told Time magazine in March that after his initial comment to KTSM saying he never saw the agents use their reins as whips, he was “portrayed” as giving the agents “a pass.” He tracked down the man in the photograph, Mirard Joseph, who attested in court documents that Border Patrol “lashed at” him. But more broadly, Joseph described his contact with Border Patrol as humiliating and dangerous and said the day the photo was taken was one of the worst of his life. Ratje’s determination to present Joseph and his family as fellow human beings, deserving of dignity and respect, stands in stark contrast to Melugin’s own coverage.
Groundwork for Carlson’s and Ingraham’s racism
The way Melugin’s coverage gets operationalized on Fox News is just as important as the coverage itself. The network’s two most open bigots — Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham — are, not coincidentally, two of Melugin’s biggest fans.
Beyond giving Melugin a central role in his paranoid documentary, Carlson regularly has Melugin on his show or otherwise references him and praises his work. Melugin’s coverage in some cases has served as the foundation for Carlson’s most extreme white nationalist programming, specifically his repeated endorsements of the racist “great replacement” theory, which holds that there is an international conspiracy by global elites to bring nonwhite people to the United States and Western Europe to seize political and cultural power through immigration.
Although Melugin had been appearing on Fox News regularly since at least early 2020, it was in September last year, during the Del Rio bridge story, that Melugin and Carlson's symbiotic relationship fully developed. Over the course of three nights, Carlson became progressively more racist, culminating in his embrace of the great replacement theory. Carlson aired a report from Melugin on the first show, and Melugin appeared as a guest on the following two nights. His dispatches over this period laid the foundation for some of Carlson's most xenophobic, openly racist rhetoric to date.
On Monday, September 20, Carlson played some of Melugin’s weekend footage from the bridge. “Bill Melugin has been on this story like nobody else,” Carlson said while introducing the footage. In the prerecorded segment, Melugin described the number of Haitians crossing the river as a “never-ending stream,” saying that the situation “is insane” and that the “federal government has to wake up.” Carlson then conspiratorially asked “how did they afford it,” the implication being that George Soros-aligned organizations were footing the bill for the migrants’ travel. He then claimed the Border Patrol chief had said only the single adult men among the migrants will be deported. “Yeah, right,” he exclaimed. “The rest will be processed and released into what you thought was your country but turns out isn't.”
On Tuesday, Melugin appeared live on Carlson’s show in the lead segment, arguably the most important real estate in all of cable news. “Look, it's hard to believe that this camp over my shoulder is actually in the United States,” Melugin said gravely. “It's more reminiscent of somewhere from the Third World, and law enforcement out here is on record as saying that.” Later in the segment, Carlson said the Haitians are “eager for the free health care, the education, the housing vouchers, food stamps, and much more that Joe Biden has promised them.” He warned his audience that “the people you just saw on your screen could very well be choosing your president at some point” and invoked the great replacement theory in all but name, saying, “This is an attempt to change the demographics of the United States in order to give permanent power to the Democratic Party.”
On Wednesday, Carlson invited Melugin back, again fueling one of his most overtly white-supremacist segments to date, as he fully endorsed the great replacement theory. “What Joe Biden is doing now will change this country forever, so again, why is he doing it? There's only one plausible answer. You're not allowed to say it out loud,” Carlson said. “In political terms, this policy is called the great replacement, the replacement of legacy Americans with more obedient people from far away countries.” Around the same time, other Fox News personalities began pushing the racist conspiracy theory as well.
From this period onward, there is no shortage of examples of Carlson using racist, dehumanizing, or otherwise bigoted language when discussing Melugin’s reporting. On December 17, Carlson argued that “demographic change underway right now in the United States” is a “direct assault to democracy,” before tossing to Melugin.
In January, Carlson used the word “invasion” multiple times in conjunction with Melugin’s reporting. The following month, Carlson suggested that the Biden administration is allowing fentanyl smuggling across the border because opioid overdose deaths are harming white people, and “their deaths may have helped the equity agenda by changing the demographics of the country in a way that benefits the Democratic Party.” He then went to a report from Melugin from the border, sourced to law enforcement, to underscore his point.
The dynamic is the same when Melugin appears on The Ingraham Angle, which he’s been on at least 15 times. “Every crime they commit, every tax dollar they consume, every disease that is spread, every cartel member that's enriched, all of it is on Joe Biden,” Ingraham said on September 20, at the height of the Del Rio bridge panic, after she cited Melugin’s reporting. Earlier that month, channeling the great replacement theory, Ingraham said Biden saw migrants as “fodder for cheap labor and easy votes.” She often characterized migrants as a public health risk, as on January 25, when she said in response to a Melugin segment, “Presumably many unvaxxed illegals can just get free rides to wherever they please.”
Fox News' coverage has clearly had an effect. A recent poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that “about 1 in 3 U.S. adults believes an effort is underway to replace U.S.-born Americans with immigrants for electoral gains.” The consequences of popularizing that racist conspiracy theory have been disastrous. On May 14, an 18-year-old man shot 13 people, killing 10, in Buffalo, New York, in a predominantly Black neighborhood. Most of his victims were Black, and in his manifesto he espoused racist, antisemitic, xenophobic, and explicitly fascist views.
Although he wrote that he had been radicalized on extremist message boards during the pandemic, the shooter’s alleged manifesto repeatedly cites the great replacement conspiracy theory popularized and embraced by Tucker Carlson, which has in turn been widely embraced by mainstream elected Republicans. In that way, the massacre mirrored racist attacks carried out in El Paso, Texas, and Christchurch, New Zealand. Fox News, and Carlson specifically, have taken this once-fringe idea and normalized it. Melugin's alarmist border dispatches are an indispensable element of the network's formula, and he bears significant responsibility for the mainstreaming of the racist great replacement theory and the consequences it entails.
The terrorist threat that wasn’t
For Melugin, people who cross the border without authorization pose an urgent danger, especially if they can be tied to the underground drug economy, or, even better, associated with the threat of terrorism. Reactionaries have promoted the idea that the southern U.S. border is a ripe avenue for terrorists to enter the country since the 9/11 attacks. That myth has been repeatedly debunked, but Melugin has been happy to resurrect it to further stigmatize migrants.
On April 18, Melugin co-wrote an article for Fox News’ website with an alarmist headline warning that Customs and Border Protection had “stopped 23 people on terrorist database at southern border in 2021.” As Media Matters documented, that story served as the basis for seven segments that day on Fox News and was picked up by far-right network competitors Newsmax and One America News Network as well.
The Terrorist Screening Database, which Melugin’s story referred to, is notoriously unreliable as an indicator of past, present, or future violent acts or tendencies. Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior policy counsel at the American Immigration Council, responded to Melugin’s article by laying out how easy it is for people to be added to the database through nothing but a chain of unrelated telephone calls. The government regularly keeps people in the database even after they’ve been cleared of wrongdoing, and experts have called for the judiciary to rule the database unconstitutional based on the fact that it’s arbitrary, shrouded in secrecy, and overly broad in its data collection and retention. In other words, the fact that 23 of the people CBP stopped were associated with that database could be, by itself, almost entirely meaningless.
Still, for Melugin, the arbitrary number 23 could be even further abstracted into fuel for xenophobic paranoia. “Those are only the ones they caught, only the ones they know about,” Melugin told Carlson on the evening his story was published. “That's a major concern, because CBP officials tell us in the last six months alone here at the border, there have been more than 300,000 known got-aways.”
Wow, what a big number. What a big number that means absolutely nothing.
The Los Angeles beat
Melugin’s secondary beat is Los Angeles, specifically crime and disorder. Like the southern border, the Los Angeles of Melugin’s coverage is a violent, dystopian land where a small band of champions — police and prosecutors, in this case — fight against all odds to preserve the thin line between civilization and a total societal collapse.
Melugin is heavily featured in the two-part Season Two premiere of Tucker Carlson Originals — one of Carlson’s Fox Nation imprints — titled “Suicide of Los Angeles.” Carlson’s Originals seem like documentaries but serve as fascist propaganda, and Melugin acted as his well-coiffed Virgil, shepherding the viewer through the hell that is modern Los Angeles. Carlson’s antagonist is LA District Attorney George Gascón, a moderate criminal justice reformer who — according to Melugin — has transformed the county into a living nightmare. “All of my best sources in all of LA are deputy DAs within the DA office, dozens of them,” he intoned dramatically. “I typically know what happens in that office before the ink dries on something, because people are so pissed off about what’s going on.” Gascon, a former police officer himself, now faces a recall election as a result of right-wing pressure.
Obviously, having sources inside the DA’s office or the police department is crucial for a beat reporter. The problem arises when a journalist’s reporting becomes indistinguishable from the press releases of those organizations. Melugin continues to rely on a stenographer model of “reporting,” running with whatever cops feed him, regardless of the truth. In 2020, for example, when Melugin was still with Fox’s local LA outlet, he tweeted out information about Los Angeles City Council member Mike Bonin that aligned with a smear campaign the LA police union had just initiated against Bonin, which Bonin called “demonstrably false.”
For years, Melugin has been happy to pass along the subjective, unfalsifiable claim that, as a result of some relatively modest reform, morale at the various law enforcement agencies he covers has never been lower. At ICE, the “morale is as low as it gets,” Melugin said on January 27. “Everybody is feeling super down and morale is in the toilet,” Melugin said again three days later on a Fox News radio show. “Morale has never been this bad. They see it as absolutely rock bottom,” Melugin said about the Los Angeles Police Department in a June 2020 radio interview. “One prosecutor told me the way it feels working for George Gascón right now, he likens it to what he imagines it felt like at the end of the Vietnam War,” Melugin said in “Suicide of Los Angeles,” which was released in April.
Unsurprisingly, this is the exact same line law enforcement officers and unions take when their power is challenged even moderately. Again, reporting that a union has issued a statement is one thing, but when the reporter privileges anecdotal concerns of cops over every other detail in the story, including the voices of activists, public defenders, immigrants, and prison abolitionists, it is stenography, not reporting. In Melugin’s reporting, public defenders and defense attorneys are dangerous radicals, and left-wing activists are coddled by the criminal punishment system. It’s not clear that Melugin has ever written a story about police or prosecutorial misconduct. (Melugin’s labor sympathies appear to be restricted to law enforcement, as he was willing to cast the LA teacher’s union in an extremely negative light during negotiations to resume in-person classes.)
On the rare occasion that he does present a perspective other than that of the police, he typically undercuts it immediately. In a radio interview on April 2, Melugin said Black Lives Matter activists were pleased that Gascón was planning to disband, or at least downsize, the Hardcore Gang Unit, because they felt the unit engaged in racist policing. “One of the prosecutors I talked to in that unit says that argument is BS,” Melugin immediately clarified.
Melugin has been lavishly rewarded by law enforcement for his copaganda. He is a regular beneficiary of leaks, including for the Tucker Carlson Originals episode. The fact that he’s able to obtain privileged or classified information, and then disseminate it, further perpetuates his reputation as an investigative journalist. It just so happens that virtually every leak he gets paints cops in a positive light and reformers or activists in a negative one.
Melugin’s bad data
No one would confuse Melugin for a rigorous statistician or political scientist, but his misrepresentation of data is egregious even by cable news standards. He’s happy to omit research when it doesn’t fit his predetermined, anti-immigration narrative, as one example from last year illustrates.
On September 22, Melugin reported that a Border Patrol source told him the migrants under the International Bridge at Del Rio were being processed and released with “notices to report,” rather than the stricter “notice to appear.” Melugin then tweeted: “When those migrants never show up to immigration/court dates, there is no more law enforcement interaction, no way to track them. They are gone into the shadows in the U.S.” As Media Matters noted at the time, all the available evidence contradicted Melugin’s innuendo that migrants skip out on their hearings. As the American Immigration Council’s Aaron Reichlin-Melnick noted in response to Melugin’s tweet, from 2008 to 2018, 83% of migrants appeared for their hearings.
Melugin is also happy to present data, or leaked government documents, stripped of context to convey a similar sense of danger and foreboding that migrants present. In February, Melugin claimed there had been a “huge surge” in Border Patrol encounters in Del Rio when compared with January 2021. Reichlin-Melnick responded to that tweet as well, arguing that Melugin’s framing was misleading, that numbers were not in fact surging, and that the year-over-year comparison served only to manufacture a perceived crisis.
“You look like a white supremacist”
In the aftermath of the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, protests against rising fascism and racist institutions erupted throughout the country. Melugin, still a reporter at the local KTTV channel, covered an August 2017 march in LA and was accused of looking like a white supremacist by the demonstrators. To be fair, in the video Melugin just appears to be doing his job, and although he wasn’t wearing his own press credentials, his photographer was. Melugin grew understandably upset at the accusation, countering, “You know nothing about me.”
It’s a fair point, and, sartorial missteps notwithstanding, the protesters that day were ungenerous to Melugin. Had they been able to see what his coverage over the next 4 ½ years would look like, they may have been on firmer ground. Either way, if Melguin doesn’t want to be characterized as a white supremacist in the future, he should probably stop working for a company run by them.
*Correction (5/19/22): This piece originally stated that the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally was in Charlottesville, North Carolina, rather than Virginia.
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OMFG ANTI-COMMIE WATERS INGRA HANTY BEFORE SEE BAD TRINITY
MMA
MAGA media demand Trump put down the Minnesota “revolution”
Written by Matt Gertz
Published 01/30/26
A week after Border Patrol officers gunned down nurse Alex Pretti on the streets of Minneapolis, MAGA media’s biggest stars are portraying locals who oppose immigration enforcement officers’ brutal tactics as China-backed “revolutionaries” seeking “the complete overthrow of Western civilization” which they are urging President Donald Trump to put down at all costs.
Horrific videos of Pretti’s killing by masked agents of the state whose activities he had been filming spurred a backlash against the Trump administration’s immigration policy, with polls showing eroding support and some Republican officeholders and right-leaning streamers expressing dismay.
Even some commentators on Fox News, which initially plowed ahead in depraved service of the administration’s absurd argument that Pretti was a terrorist threatening the officers’ lives, backed down a bit. After Fox & Friends host Brian Kilmeade urged the president to send former Fox contributor and White House “border czar” Tom Homan to take control of the situation on Monday, Trump took Kilmeade’s advice, spurring premature media claims of a “pivot.”
But in this tug-of-war over the president’s brainbox, MAGA stars quickly regrouped and urged Trump not to back down, reverting to the language of war that has characterized right-wing media discussions of Minneapolis for weeks. And the tenor of their coverage has only become more disturbing over the course of the week.
Fox host Laura Ingraham, in her opening monologue Thursday night, claimed that the “mobs you've witnessed in Minnesota and in other far-left-wing pockets of America” are composed of “revolutionaries” who “smear and dehumanize as a prelude to the executions.”
Ingraham went on to argue that “behind all this” is “a national network of socialists, communists, and Marxist-Leninists” whose “goal is to destabilize the West and undermine trust in our institutions and eventually dismantle capitalism and replace it with a Marxist communist framework that eliminates private property in favor of state-owned enterprises.”
“So how do you defeat these well-funded, well-organized revolutionaries?” Ingraham asked. She replied to her own question, claiming, “We defeat the revolution by staying the course, by prosecuting criminal conspiracies to impede ICE and also their funding networks, and by reminding Americans that their safety and U.S. sovereignty will not be negotiated away, not now, not ever.”
Video
Citation
From the January 29, 2026, edition of Fox News' The Ingraham Angle
Ingraham further argued that the anti-ICE movement has “Chinese fingerprints all over it.”
The following hour, Fox’s Jesse Watters described Minneapolis as “antifa’s new favorite city” and local protesters as an “ICE watch mafia” with its “own socialist supply lines, logistics, and financial benefactors.”
“They're calling Minnesota a testing ground for a domestic revolution,” he added. “This is more than just about immigration. It's about the complete overthrow of Western civilization.”
Democrats want “more Renee Goods and Alex Prettis,” he added. “They think if they can stack enough bodies, Trump's going to back off.”
Video
Citation
From the January 29, 2026, edition of Fox News' Jesse Watters Primetime
Watters later hosted MAGA streamer Tim Pool, who argued that “the terrifying thing about Minnesota” is not that federal officers keep killing civilians, but that “we're looking at a leftist base in this country that are being radicalized.”
“My concern is that there's, there's a bloodlust” among the protesters “that's not going to be satisfied,” he added.
Watters went on to say that “there's a certain faction of the left that wants the violence” and suggested that the media “has a little bit more responsibility in situations like this to calm things down.”
Then on Sean Hannity’s program, the host likewise denounced what he termed “the well-coordinated, well-funded, quote, resistance to ICE investigations in Minnesota,” which he claimed is engaged in “an attack on our very system.”
He went on to describe Democrats’ “current anti-ICE outrage” as “pure political theater,” adding that “ultimately, they want to dissolve our borders and fundamentally transform a country and the people that they despise.”
Video
Citation
From the January 29, 2026, edition of Fox News' Hannity
The vitriol on Fox’s evening shows is somehow less ominous than that coming from right-wing figures off its airways, though.
Tucker Carlson, who hosts one of the nation’s most popular podcasts, argued on Wednesday’s installment that in
, “we are watching the destruction of the social fabric of the government and potentially of the nation.” He explained that the video of Pretti’s killing “represents chaos” and added: “Chaos is worse than illegal immigration. Chaos is worse than police brutality. Chaos is worse than anything. Chaos equals death. The death of people, the death of the weak, the death of countries.”
Carlson
that Minnesota activists “want the chaos,” adding: “This is proof that what you're watching is not a series of protests about immigration. What you're watching are the beginnings of a color revolution, of a kind of insurrection against federal authority.” He further claimed that if that revolution is not stopped, the result will be “civil war” and “killing at scale.”
“We have to hold the line,” Steve Bannon likewise argued on Wednesday. “There can be no de-escalation at all. You don't need to bring down the temperature. Raise the temperature. Put them under pressure. They're the ones that are cracking.”
“This is an inflection point,” he added. “You blink now and you're going to blink forever. You bend the knee now, you'll bend the knee forever. If we stand in the breach and say, screw you, we're fighting for the country, right?”
And Nick Fuentes, the increasingly prominent white nationalist streamer, argued that if the “radical intervention” Trump is overseeing does not succeed, “all of white civilization just collapses.”
“You have to put yourself in the position of your grandchildren and great-grandchildren in the year 2100 and look around at your majority-minority country that looks like South Africa, where it's just trash and graffiti and filth and homeless people and vagabonds and criminals,” Fuentes explained. “And then you have to go back in time to now when we can prevent it. And then think about what you're willing to do to stop this. And then killing a stupid fat lesbian and a male nurse doesn't seem so bad, does it?”
“Do you know what 'Sieg Heil’ even means?” he concluded. “It means ‘hail victory.’ And not to go like full Nazi or something, but there is no substitute for victory. We have to win; they have to lose.”
//
### After 36 hours justifying the killing of Alex Pretti, Fox News suddenly changes its narrative
:{:{01/26/26}:
:{:{01/25/26}:
### Fox’s absurd attempt to cast Tom Homan as Trump’s good cop on immigration
01/27/26
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MMA
January 29, 2026, edition of Fox News' The Ingraham Angle
LAURA INGRAHAM (HOST): Peter, you wrote a whole book about how China is infiltrating the United States, the silent coup. And this has Chinese fingerprints all over it in my view, and it's not like you're going to have a direct line to the CCP. But given what you've witnessed and the revolutionary goals on the websites of some of these organizations, what's your sense?
PETER SCHWEIZER (GUEST): Yeah, there's no question there's an international component to it and China's involved. There is an organization linked to the CCP in China called the Center for the Study of Marxist Parties in Foreign Countries. And what they do is they track these political activities. And they've been running articles, analyses on their website in China, which is restricted, talking about color revolutions in the United States and how it might happen. They cover groups like the Party for Socialism and Liberation. They cover groups like the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, both who are neck deep in this action in Minneapolis and have been involved in many other protests.
The Freedom Road Socialist Organization has pledged its allegiance to the CCP. They have fraternal party ties, which means they're very close. And the political director of that party, Mick Kelly, lives in Minneapolis. He's been investigated in the past by the FBI for possible involvement for direct terrorism. He was never charged. But these are radical groups, same thing with PSL, sympathetic, tied to China. Its members have flown to China. So, this is part of something that China directly encourages, wants to see happening. And they are monitoring the situation in the United States as it relates to all kinds of social unrest like this.
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mma
Fox News’ biggest stars are desperately trying to turn the Trump administration’s execution and subsequent smearing of ICU nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis into a story about how the political left is out of control.
Video analyses conducted by several news outlets show masked Border Patrol agents engaging, assaulting, restraining, and gunning down Pretti (who had been recording their activities on his phone) over a matter of seconds on Saturday morning. High-ranking administration officials subsequently branded him a “domestic terrorist” who had intended to “massacre” the agents, citing Pretti’s possession of a legally carried handgun that he never drew during the altercation.
Fox initially ran with and even went beyond the administration’s justifications for killing Pretti. But the network pivoted beginning Sunday evening as burgeoning outrage made their arguments untenable, with some commentators conceding that videos disproved the official statements and suggesting the administration shift tactics.
Monday night’s Fox programming provided a synthesis of the two narrative threads. Network hosts suggested that more investigation was necessary to determine what had happened to Pretti, and called for a retrenchment of sorts. But much of their focus was on attacking what they deemed a Democratic “insurgency” against the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement tactics.
Fox host Jesse Watters condemned Gov. Tim Walz, telling viewers that he “has not made any effort to chill out his citizens” and has instead “been in open rebellion against the federal government” and “activated a Minnesota insurgency.”
“This insurgency is more sophisticated than you think, and it relies on a supportive population,” Watters added, claiming that “these people are giving aid and comfort to foreign criminals” and that “like jihadists, their leaders don’t care if they die.”
“This movement is lethal to the country,” Watters concluded. “Renee Good and Alex Pretti would be alive if Minnesota would stop attacking the Trump administration for doing what voters put him in to do.”
:{:{Video}:
Citation
From the January 26, 2026, edition of Fox News' Jesse Watters Primetime
Laura Ingraham described immigration enforcement protesters as an “open-borders mafia” who “prattle on how they are protecting their neighbors, but they don't bat an eye when their neighbors' daughters are raped by an illegal or run over by an illegal with, you know, his second DWI.”
She added that “the hard-core communists who give the octane to these mobs have one overriding goal … to destabilize America by frustrating a key pillar of the Trump agenda. Now, of course, that's border enforcement.”
Ingraham went on to say that “certain elements” in Minneapolis were “hoping to provoke ICE” and “some, not all, hope to witness, I think, a violent response, then they would clip it for social media and then they can blast it out.”
“So the more tragic, in this warped mindset, the better,” she added. “The more fodder for their demand that ICE withdraw from the city and immigration arrests end immediately. They think they have that, this image, in the death of Alex Pretti.”
:{:{Video}:
Citation
From the January 26, 2026, edition of Fox News' The Ingraham Angle
And Sean Hannity insinuated that the media and “the left” were engaged in a “rush to judgement” regarding Pretti’s killers. Then, interviewing FBI Director Kash Patel, Hannity sought assurances that the administration was keeping its investigative resources focused not on Pretti’s killers, but on targeting his fellow activists.
“What do we know about this encrypted message group?” Hannity asked, referencing Signal chats used by Minneapolis activists to track immigration enforcement operations. He added, “When you have well-organized groups like those that are going after law enforcement, I would imagine that will fall under the purview of the FBI.”
Patel, who had previously divulged launching a probe of the messaging groups in response to a MAGA influencer’s post, replied that “this Signal chat is something that we, the FBI, are looking at and spearheading.”
:{:{Video}:
Citation
From the January 26, 2026, edition of Fox News' Hannity
This rhetoric, intended to dehumanize and criminalize Minneapolis activists, echoes years of demagoguery on Fox and throughout the right-wing media about the violent threat purportedly posed by the left — most recently following the killing of Renee Good by ICE agents on January 7.
//
01/25/26 11:50 AM EST
### After 36 hours justifying the killing of Alex Pretti, Fox News suddenly changes its narrative
01/26/26 12:40 PM EST
01/16/26
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MMA
Right-wing media are describing pro-immigrant Minnesota activists using the language of war
“Civil war,” “insurgents,” “a guerilla tactical playbook” — these are just some of the ways MAGA pundits are describing civil resistance to Trump’s ICE rampages
Written by John Knefel & Sophie Lawton
Published 01/16/26
Right-wing media figures and outlets are using the language of war to characterize protests against the presence of violent Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Minnesota.
The fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good by an ICE agent in south Minneapolis on January 7 touched off a new round of protests in the region and across the country. President Donald Trump responded by threatening to invoke the Insurrection Act, which allows for the domestic use of the military against U.S. civilians in certain circumstances, days after Fox News host Laura Ingraham practically begged him to do so.
While some in right-wing media have referred to anti-ICE demonstrations as an “insurrection” since at least October, the overall tenor of right-wing rhetoric has escalated dramatically in recent days. Right-wing pundits have reacted to the pro-immigrant demonstrations by casting Minneapolis residents as “insurgents” who are using a “a guerilla tactical playbook” and looking to spark a “civil war” or engage in “violent terroristic extremism.” Here are some of the most egregious examples.
### Right-wing media call Minneapolis protesters “insurgents” and “terrorists” waging “guerilla warfare”
Fox’s Laura Ingraham opened her January 12 show with the phrase “an insurgency, not a protest,” and claimed that “insurgents besieged a hotel in Minneapolis where they thought that ICE was staying.” She went on to say that “they want to deliver vigilante justice” and asked her guest, Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX): “could the Insurrection Act come into play?” Another guest described the Minneapolis crackdown as a “war … about the idea and concepts of what a citizen is.” Media Matters, [1/13/26]
Fox News host Jesse Watters said: “This is a Minnesota insurgency. They’re conducting guerrilla warfare against federal agents.” He added: “If the federal government doesn’t assert authority over this rebellion, the republic is going to fracture.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [1/15/26]
Fox’s Emily Compagno said that a purported protester instruction manual was like “a guerilla tactical playbook — it’s about how to assault, how to engage in felonious behavior.” Fox News, *Outnumbered*, [1/14/26]
Livestreamer Tim Pool referred to the protests as “violent terroristic extremism.” He also demanded that Trump “invoke the Insurrection Act. Round these people up.” YouTube, *Timcast*, [1/15/26]
Referring to a film depicting the battle of Mogadishu in Somalia in 1993, MAGA influencer Benny Johnson said: “If it doesn't get under control Somali warlords, pirates, and fraudsters are going to bringBlack Hawk Downto Minneapolis. Stealing government weapons is an actual insurrection.” He also said that it is “time for Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act.” YouTube, *The Benny Show*, [1/15/26; BBC, 2/9/25]
MAGA podcaster and former Trump adviser Steve Bannon portrayed activists as violent, saying: “They're going to break into cars and take guns and take weapons and get ammo. Implying —and now they're all, every, you see these protests, they're throwing these firecrackers, they're almost like mini-bombs.” He later called for government escalation: “Mass deportations now. Insurrection Act first, troops second, mass deportations third.” Real America’s Voice, *War Room*, [1/15/26]
:{:{The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh called on Trump to “wage war against the terrorists” and to “bring RICO and terrorism cases” like he “should have done after Charlie Kirk’s murder.”}: Walsh said: “They see her [Renee Good] as a casualty of a much, much larger war that they want to fight, and they’ll eventually get what they’re looking for unless the Trump administration immediately dismantles all of the groups that are organizing these attacks on federal law enforcement.
They're all over the internet operating with impunity and with substantial financial assistance in many cases. Shut it down. Bring RICO and terrorism cases. Do what you should have done after Charlie Kirk's murder. Wage war against the terrorists because as the Renee Good case demonstrates very clearly, they're already waging war against us.” The Daily Wire, *The Matt Walsh Show*, [1/12/26]}:
Newsmax’s Rob Schmitt Tonight featured a graphic that read: “DECLARATION OF WAR AGAINST ICE.” Newsmax, *Rob Schmitt Tonight*, [1/14/26]
### Right-wing media accuse protesters, Democratic politicians of provoking a “civil war”
Daily Wire host Andrew Klavan claimed Democratic Gov. Tim Walz committed “essentially an act of civil war” when he considered deploying the Minnesota National Guard. Klavan went on to state “I’m not sure he can’t be arrested just for calling on it, for implying it.” The Daily Wire, *The Andrew Klavan Show*, [1/9/26]
Streamer Asmongold agreed with a chat comment on his stream that said Walz “is causing a civil war between the state and the feds.” Asmongold also claimed “they need to charge this guy for sedition. … Same with that mayor in Minneapolis, they need to arrest both of them and put them up on the most extreme charges possible.” YouTube, *Asmongold TV*, [1/15/26]
Megyn Kelly said, “We heard some of the most inflammatory rhetoric about the feds from a sitting governor since, like, the Civil War.” SiriusXM, *The Megyn Kelly Show*, [1/15/26]
On Newsmax’sThe Right Stuff, panel member Chris Plante asked, “At what point do we declare that Minnesota is engaged in civil war against the United States?” He continued: “They’re declaring war against the federal government, they’re crying the 10th Amendment like they did in the lead-up to the first Civil War that the Democrats created. They’re violently attacking the federal government. … Enough is enough — Insurrection Act.” Newsmax, *The Right Stuff*, [1/15/26]
The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh said that Walz had been “preparing the entire state for their Fort Sumter moment,” referring to the opening battle of the American Civil War. Walsh said Walz has “been priming Minnesota to go to war with the federal government.” Walsh also claimed “the residents of Minnesota are waging a campaign of terrorism against federal law enforcement, which is carrying out lawful orders.” The Daily Wire, *The Matt Walsh Show*, [1/15/26, 1/15/26]
On Fox News, MAGA legal activist and Article III Project founder Mike Davis characterized Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey as “confederates” who are committing “textbook insurrection” and “textbook seditious conspiracy.” Davis also suggested calls to arrest ICE agents “could lead to deadly force being used by ICE agents against state and local law enforcement. Are these Democrat politicians really trying to cause a civil war here?” Fox News, *The Will Cain Show*, [1/15/26]
OnWar Room, Steve Bannon asked guest Naomi Wolf about the “revolt” against ICE; Wolf claimed, “It's really dangerous because these liberal frustrated white women are being weaponized and spun out by people who definitely want civil war in our streets.” Real America’s Voice, *War Room*, [1/13/26]
Fox News host Laura Ingraham claimed that Frey was “urging police to fight ICE agents. Again, it’s insanity but not if this is what you want, right, not unless this is what you really want is civil war in the streets.” Fox News, *The Ingraham Angle*, [1/15/26]
:{:{On his Infowarof Minneapolis] want the police to fight ICE,” adding, “That’s literal civil war.”:(style="background-color:#ffbb16ff"):}:** [Infowars, *The Alex Jones Show*, [1/15/26s show, Alex Jones said Frey claimed “the citizens \]}:
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YIKES OMG
// [## LAURA INGRAHAM LABELS MINNESOTANS PROTESTING ICE “INSURGENTS”
01/12/26 8:17 PM EST](https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/laura-ingraham-labels-minnesotans-protesting-ice-insurgents)
MMA
Fox’s Laura Ingraham is practically begging Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act
Ingraham described pro-immigrant activists as “insurgents” and an “insurgency” multiple times over the course of her January 12 show
Written by John Knefel
Published 01/13/26
Fox News’ Laura Ingraham described pro-immigrant activists in Minnesota as “insurgents” and as an “insurgency” multiple times over the course of her January 12 episode. At one point, Ingraham floated the idea of President Donald Trump invoking the Insurrection Act, which authorizes use of the military against civilians in the United States under certain conditions, such as to suppress a rebellion.
Ingraham’s comments come after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and killed Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis on January 7, sparking massive protests around the country. The agent fired at Good three times as she was attempting to drive away from him, according to independent analyses from The New York Times and The Washington Post. The Times and Post analyses contradict a statement from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, amplified by Fox News, which falsely claimed Good was attempting to ram her car into the agent. Right-wing media have almost universally defended the killing and disparaged Good, frequently blaming her for her own death.
Ingraham’s rhetoric illustrates the degree to which conservative media are looking for Trump to escalate his attacks against protesters and immigrant communities more broadly. It also shows how the war on terror, and its logic of counterinsurgency, has evolved into a campaign the Trump administration is now waging against broad swaths of the American public.
“An insurgency, not a protest,” Ingraham said, describing reactions to the Minneapolis shooting in the first moments of her Monday evening show. She continued with that framing over the course of her opening segment, sometimes by airing bombastic social media posts and ascribing them to the entire movement protesting ICE’s killing of Good.
“A Chinese propagandist on TikTok is telling insurgents here to start compiling lists of likely Trump supporters and other cooperators,” Ingraham said. After playing the clip, Ingraham added: “If this isn’t promoting an armed insurrection, I don’t know what is.”
“It starts with treating the patriots as enemies,” she continued. “Look what happened over the weekend — insurgents besieged a hotel in Minneapolis where they thought that ICE was staying.”
Video
Citation
From the January 12, 2026, edition of Fox News' The Ingraham Angle
“Now, this resistance, this insurgence is organized and well-executed,” Ingraham added. “It's meant to undermine our entire federal system, but we know Democrats don't care about Renee Good because to them she was just collateral damage.”
As Ingraham continued her monologue, the Fox host cast the anti-ICE protesters as violent threats. “The insurgents, they don’t care about double standards,” Ingraham said. “They are committed to ridding the country of Trump and his agents by any means necessary.”
“They want to deliver vigilante justice,” she added.
After detailing media coverage that was critical of the Trump administration, Ingraham said the negative press “fed the burgeoning insurgency — they wanted it to feed an insurgency.”
Her opening remarks concluded, Ingraham stayed on the topic with her first guest, former Border Patrol agent Ammon Blair.
“Do you believe in this situation that the Democrats care about really what happened to Renee Good or is she just, you know, she's like a prop in their insurgency play?” Ingraham asked.
Blair responded in kind, referring to a “war” between ICE and the public who opposes it.
“Yeah, she's just a catalyst to continue their movement to the eradication of citizenship — look, at the end of this, this is what this war is about,” Blair said. “The war is about the idea and concepts of what a citizen is.”
Video
Citation
From the January 12, 2026, edition of Fox News' The Ingraham Angle
Ingraham’s next guest was Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX). She began by asking for his “thoughts on where we are — could the Insurrection Act come into play?”
Roy responded by saying “of course the president should use the Insurrection Act from 1807” and claiming that “we, the average American, want that.”
Video
Citation
From the January 12, 2026, edition of Fox News' The Ingraham Angle
Right-wing media figures have long fantasized about invoking the Insurrection Act. One notable example is Jeffrey Clark, who Trump attempted to install as acting attorney general in January 2021 while Trump was attempting to overturn the previous year’s election results. In July 2023, Clark appeared on the podcast of former Trump adviser Steve Bannon and explained that he’d advised Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act during the racial justice protests in the summer of 2020. Clark was a senior official at the Justice Department at the time. He currently works for the second Trump administration in the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.
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### Laura Ingraham calls it “borderline illegal” for Democratic politicians to call ICE agents “thugs”
12/04/25
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Key Trump officials appeared on Fox networks more than 1,300 times in the first 300 days of his second term
Written by Isabella Sherk & Harrison Ray
Research contributions from Tyler Monroe
Published 12/04/25
:{:{Key officials in President Donald Trump’s second administration appeared on Fox networks over 1,300 times during his first 300 days back in office. Trump “border czar” Tom Homan led all officials with at least 133 appearances, while Fox News' Hannity led shows in airing the most appearances by Trump officials, with at least 158 interviews. Trump officials appeared on Fox networks on 290 (97%) of the administration's first 300 days.}:
## Key Trump administration officials appeared at least 1,361 times on Fox networks
Media Matters looked at Fox appearances by key nominated or confirmed Trump officials during the administration’s first 300 days. Trump's “border czar” Homan remained the most prominent administration official on the networks, appearing at least 133 times in total (he had logged 59 appearances when we assessed the first 100 days). White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller (82 appearances), National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett (75), and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin (74) followed. Trump himself has appeared on Fox News at least 26 times.
Top 10 key Trump officials on Fox networks (Clickhere for the full list)
:
## Fox shows are a trusted platform for Trump administration interviews
Hannity far outpaced all other Fox shows, with at least 158 appearances by key Trump officials. At least 23 unique Trump officials appeared on the show, led by Miller (35 appearances), Homan (21), and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt (16).
Prime-time host Sean Hannity consistently served as a loyal booster for both his guests and the Trump White House, dedicating an entire section of his recent interview with Vice President JD Vance to praising the president’s “discernment” and claiming Trump’s energy levels are “beyond.”
Video file
Video
Citation
From the November 13, 2025, edition of Fox News' Hannity.
After Hannity, The Ingraham Angle had the most appearances (121 appearances), followed by Fox & Friends (111). In total, 436 (45%) of the 959 officials’ appearances on Fox News were on the network's evening programming (shows starting between 6 p.m. ET and 11 p.m. ET). Meanwhile, 587 (61%) of the appearances were on Fox News' opinion shows rather than the network’s supposed “news side.”
On Fox Business, Mornings with Maria Bartiromo (128 appearances), Kudlow (103), and Varney & Co. (76) featured the most appearances by key Trump officials. Fox Business served as a pliant venue for Trump's economic messaging, providing officials with a sympathetic platform to defend the administration's controversial and chaotic economic moves.
Top 10 shows on Fox networks with most appearances by key Trump officials
## Former Fox employees who are now administration officials appeared at least 315 times
Several of the Trump officials featured on the Fox networks were also former Fox employees: former contributor Homan (133 appearances); former host-turned-Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy (65); former contributor-turned-FDA Commissioner Marty Makary (38); former contributor and White House national security adviser-turned-Ambassador to the United Nations Michael Waltz (28); former contributor-turned-Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard (27); and former Fox & Friends Weekend co-host-turned-Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth (24). In total, nearly a quarter (23%) of all key Trump official interviews across the two networks came from these 6 former Fox employees.
(Trump has tapped many other former Fox employees to be part of his second administration as well.)
## Methodology...
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smugly dumb
fellow Victor Davis Hanson discuss the COP30 conference, ...
Marc Morano scorches COP30 conference: 'This is a disaster' [Video] - AOL.com
AOL.com
An annual United Nations climate summit being held in the Amazonian city of Belém in Brazil is slated to include talks and appearances by California ...
INGRHAM Marc Morano scorches COP30 conference: 'This is a disaster' Video
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Fox praised and validated Trump's legally questionable boat strikes in the Caribbean
Some at the network have been pressing for further US intervention – even regime change in Venezuela
Written by Jack Winstanley & Emma Mae Weber
Published 10/29/25
Fox News has celebrated the Trump administration's lethal strikes against supposed drug smuggling boats in the Caribbean, despite concerns from legal experts over the strikes’ legality and bipartisan warnings from congressional members that they have seen no evidence to support the administration's claims that the strikes are targeting drug traffickers.
Along with championing the strikes — many of which have targeted boats coming from Venezuela — as “pretty spectacular” and a “great move” and praising the administration’s “aggressive” approach, some Fox figures and guests have gone so far as to suggest they would support regime change in Venezuela, claiming that the Maduro government is “part of the cartel.”
\Trump’s attacks on boats in the Caribbean draw legal questions from experts and legislators
The Trump administration has conducted numerous strikes in the Caribbean, attacking at least 13 boats and killing at least 51 people, claiming they are targeting the drug trade. President Donald Trump said of the strikes, many of which targeted Venezuelan boats, “It is violent and it is very — it’s amazing, the weaponry.” He has also hinted at further escalation, saying, “The land is going to be next.” Trump additionally authorized covert CIA action in the region, while the buildup of U.S. military assets in the region grows. The Guardian, [10/28/25; AP News, 10/24/25; YouTube,
; Twitter/X, 10/23/25; The New York Times, 10/15/25, 10/8/25]
:{:{Numerous legal experts say the killings are illegal.As The New York Times writes, “A broad range of specialists in laws governing the use of lethal force have called Mr. Trump’s orders to the military patently illegal. … The administration insists that the killings are lawful, invoking legal terms like ‘self-defense’ and ‘armed conflict.’ But it has offered no legal argument explaining how to bridge the conceptual gap between drug trafficking and associated crimes, as serious as they are, and the kind of armed attack to which those terms can legitimately apply.”}:
NPR noted that the Trump administration “has designated several South and Central American drug cartels and gangs as foreign terrorist organizations, but Congress has not authorized the use of force against them” and quoted a former State Department legal adviser, who said, “Outside of armed conflict, there is a word for the premeditated killing of people, and that word is 'murder.'" He added, “And just because the administration puts together this fig leaf of a legal justification does not legitimize these premeditated killings in the Caribbean.” The New York Times, [10/24/25; NPR, 10/24/25]}:
Trump has repeatedly claimed that the strikes are saving thousands of Americans from drug overdoses, but there’s no evidence to support the claim. According to Trump, “Every boat that we knock out we save 25,000 American lives.” Trump has used this figure multiple times to defend the strikes, but the administration has not provided evidence showing drugs were destroyed during the attacks. Additionally, as PolitiFact notes, drug experts have said it is difficult to calculate how many lives are saved as a result of drug interception efforts but that Trump’s claim is “mathematically dubious.” “For Trump’s statement to be accurate, the drugs on five boats would have been responsible for 125,000 deaths, nearly double the number of overdose deaths in one year,” PolitiFact wrote. PolitiFact, [10/16/25]
The strikes have drawn bipartisan concern, as legislators question the Trump administration's claims and their lack of supporting evidence. On Fox News Sunday, according to The Hill, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) stated that Congress has seen “no evidence presented” to support the administration's claims that the targets are drug traffickers. Similarly, Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) stated that the evidence he has seen in support of the strikes “does not back up” the administration's claims that the boats were transporting fentanyl. The Hill, [10/26/25]
## Fox figures and guests cheered on the strikes and celebrated the administration's actions
Fox host Laura Ingraham called the strikes “pretty spectacular” and concluded, “I love this” and “Trump is actually trying to do something.” Former Army Special Forces member Jim Hanson said the “reward” for bringing “that poison into our country” is “getting turned into an oil slick on the Caribbean.” Jason Redman, a former Navy SEAL, applauded the U.S. for taking the “lead” and said we have to “break the will” of “individuals who are willing to go out in those boats and smuggle drugs into America.” Fox News, *The Ingraham Angle*, [10/24/25]
In the week prior, Ingraham stated that “Trump's working overtime on issues that really matter,” such as “taking out deadly threats before they even arrive on our shores.” Ingraham played a video of a boat being bombed, adding her own “boom” sound effect. After playing a bleeped clip of Trump saying Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro “doesn’t want to f— around with the United States,” Ingraham concluded, “Bombs and the f-bombs. At least we know President Trump will never stop trying to save American lives.” Fox News, *The Ingraham Angle*, [10/17/25]
OnAmerica’s Newsroom, former FBI agent Dan Brunner called the strikes a “great move,” adding, “Let’s go on offense. Let’s push the envelope.” Brunner added that “we need to utilize” the FBI, Homeland Security, and CIA. He said: “We’ve got a lot of experience in conducting investigations into these cartels. … Blowing up a boat, yes, that stops that shipment. But we need to find out where all the shipments are coming from and going through the root system.” Fox News, *America’s Newsroom*, [10/17/25]
After a guest argued Trump should “keep pushing forward” as it's “the only way these traffickers will stop,” Fox host Lara Trump replied: “I think a lot of people agree with you. … Fortunately we have a president who is doing just that, meeting them with strength.” Trump also praised her father-in-law for dubbing his targets “ISIS of the Western hemisphere,” saying, “What a great name for these narco-terrorists. That’s exactly what I think they should be identified as.” Fox News, *My View with Lara Trump*, [10/25/25]
Host Jesse Watters described a strike by saying: “Trump just smoked another coke boat in the Caribbean, and he’s just getting started.” In the segment that followed, correspondent David Spunt reported: “We can confirm the Pentagon deploying massive help in support of the operation to root out drugs being smuggled into the United States.” The chyron read, “Pentagon drops the hammer on smugglers.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [10/24/25]
OnAmerica’s Newsroom, former acting Drug Enforcement Administration Administrator Derek Maltz called fentanyl “a weapon of mass destruction” and said he’s “very thankful” for the administration's “aggressive” approach. He also claimed that “of course it's fair game” to attack cartels on land. Fox News, *America’s Newsroom*, [10/24/25]
OnFox Noticias, guest Jesus Romero claimed that Trump is deploying “a military contingent to carry a message, not only to President Maduro, but also to all the criminals.” Romero added, “This is the message, and this is the response of the president of the United States“ to “return peace and tranquility and to stop the flow of drug trafficking into the United States.” Fox Deportes, *Fox Noticias*, [9/26/25]
## Fox justified the strikes and repeated Trump's unproven claim that they save large numbers of American lives
Fox & Friendsco-host Ainsley Earhardt repeated the claim that “every boat that we strike is 25,000 American lives that have been saved.” Earhardt elaborated, saying, “We’re talking about … fentanyl pills, we’re talking about fentanyl powder, illegal guns, methamphetamine, cocaine, pounds of heroin.” Co-host Lawrence Jones, taking aim at naysayers, added, “You are going to have to choose a side. Are you going to be on the side of the cartels, which is the new ISIS, or are you going to be side of the American people?” Fox News, *Fox & Friends*, [10/24/25]
Host Laura Ingraham claimed, “Countless American lives will be saved because of our aggressive posture.” Ingraham praised Trump, saying he is “working overtime … targeting drug cartels that poison and kill hundreds of thousands of Americans with fentanyl and cocaine.” Fox News, *The Ingraham Angle*, [10/23/25]
OnThe Story with Martha MacCallum, Derek Maltz claimed of the cartels: “We’ve never had any terrorist organizations, even if you combine Al Qaeda, ISIS, Hezbollah, killing this many Americans.” He also argued of the supposed drug trafficking, “It's not even just a threat to our country, but once again President Trump is helping keep the world safe.” Fox News, *The Story with Martha MacCallum*, [10/20/25]
Fox Noticiashost Rachel Campos-Duffy said, “If you are a criminal trafficking lethal drugs into this country that kill its people, you will face lethal consequences.” She added that “President Trump is not sorry” about the boat strike. Fox Deportes, *Fox Noticias*, [9/4/25]
## Fox hosts and guests called for further violence and US intervention – with some even supporting Venezuelan regime change
OnThe Five, co-host Jesse Watters said the boat strikes are “more about regime change in Venezuela,” adding later, “There is going to be major action against Maduro pretty soon.” Watters said the action might be “a layup” and if it is, and “Maduro is deposed, we’re basically Monroe Doctrine-ing — we call it the Don-roe doctrine-ing — out of Latin America and China and Russia,” which would add up to Trump “wielding a lot of power internationally.” Fox News, *The Five*, [10/16/25]
Jim Shedd, a former DEA agent, argued on Fox that “we should be striking the Venezuelan military outposts.” Shedd added that “the national guard of Venezuela and the Venezuelan army and the air force has to be destroyed because they are co-conspirators in the distribution of narcotics into this country, which has been causing death and havoc for decades.” Fox News, *The Story with Martha MacCallum*, [10/24/25]
OnFox Noticias, Jovel Alvarez, an independent journalist, said, “I hope that President Donald Trump takes the initiative to remove Maduro from power.” He added that Trump could “practically” become the “liberator of Venezuela.” Fox Deportes, *Fox Noticias*, [10/15/25]
OnFox & Friends, retired Gen. Jack Keane said of Venezuela, “I think it’s high time we went after this thing that was polluting our population so much.” Keane argued that the Venezuelan government is “supporting the cartel in the sense the government is part of the cartel. Because they take the revenue from that source.” Fox News, *Fox & Friends*, [10/24/25]
OnSunday Night In America with Trey Gowdy, after Rep. Maria Salazar (R-FL) mentioned that Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Machado is planning to “open the oil rigs” to U.S. companies, host Trey Gowdy mentioned that “she may be leading that country here in the not-too-distant future.” Fox News, *Sunday Night in America with Trey Gowdy*, [10/26/25]
OnFox Report, Manhattan Institute fellow Daniel Di Martino described Trump’s actions against Venezuela as “the same as fighting ISIS,” arguing the U.S. needs “to do everything possible.” He said: “And if that means striking inside Venezuela where Maduro is, who is a cartel leader, that the U.S. government doesn't recognize as president, this is the same as fighting ISIS, except that they’re actually bringing drugs and terrorism to America directly right now.” Di Martino also claimed, without citing evidence, that “80% of Venezuelans support” the strikes. He added that he is “very happy about hearing about the CIA operations in Venezuela, about bringing the carrier.” Fox News, *Fox Report with John Scott*, [10/26/25]
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### Right-wing media's campaign for military intervention and regime change in Venezuela
:{:{09/05/25}:
09/05/25
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October 22, 2025, edition of Fox News' The Ingraham Angle
LAURA INGRAHAM (HOST): The words they're using -- fight, push, resist -- they're signaling very clearly that it's war time and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson thinks he's a general.
...
Johnson dismantled tyranny. ICE-free zones are the answer. We're on the front lines, okay, general. General idiot. Sure sounds like he's calling for insurrection to me. And they're already promising their post-war tribunals.REP GARCIA
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How Fox News has justified and celebrated ICE’s violent immigration crackdown in Chicago
As ICE targeted immigrant communities, Fox whitewashed its abuses
Written by John Knefel
Research contributions from Ben Van Bloem, Harrison Ray, Payton Armstrong, Jack Wheatley & Sophie Lawton
Published 10/21/25
October 9 marked one month of “Operation Midway Blitz,” the Trump administration’s effort to target and harass immigrant communities in Chicago with military-style raids and violent enforcement to advance its mass deportation plans. Fox News has responded by celebrating and justifying the violence Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have unleashed on Chicago residents regardless of citizenship or immigration status.
Fox inaugurated the operation by embedding a reporter with ICE agents in a move reminiscent of the height of the global war on terror, signaling to its audience that Chicago was a battlefield that required a militarized crackdown. Over the subsequent four weeks, Fox dutifully fulfilled that expectation with coverage that painted civic resistance to ICE as proof that Trump’s authoritarian tactics were needed, while simultaneously whitewashing the agency’s worst abuses.
### Fox News celebrates ICE’s raid on a Chicago apartment building, even as the official story falls apart
On September 30, ICE initiated a raid on a Chicago apartment building that began with agents rappelling from a Black Hawk helicopter and ended with residents — citizens and noncitizens alike — reportedly imprisoned in unmarked vans, grouped by perceived race, ethnicity, or immigration status. Parents were separated from their children, some of whom were zip-tied to other kids, according to a witness. In at least one instance, an agent pointed their gun in the face of a grandmother who lives in the building, she said. Agents destroyed family belongings and lobbed flash-bang grenades as they ransacked the building.
In a different context, it would have been the stuff of right-wing paranoid nightmares. But this was a building in Chicago that houses Black and immigrant families, and Fox found it worthy of praise.
In a segment teasing coverage of the siege, Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner said the security forces had zeroed in on “a Chicago apartment complex … targeting members of the brutal Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang,” adding: “Seems like a good thing."
The ICE claim that the raid would yield TdA members, which Faulkner parroted, turned out to be wrong. According to MSNBC’s reporting, only one of the people arrested was “verified” as part of Tren de Aragua, and ICE didn’t provide evidence to back up even that assertion. (ICE has repeatedly claimed people are members of TdA, only to have its accusations fall apart under scrutiny.)
The next evening, host Laura Ingraham repeated the false ICE talking point that the raid turned up gang members.
“TdA gang members in Chicago got a surprise this week, an unexpected drop-in that involved a Black Hawk helicopter and hundreds of federal agents,” Ingraham said.
Video
Citation
From the October 1, 2025, edition of Fox News' The Ingraham Angle
Ingraham also falsely claimed that the building raid was proof that Trump was “fixing the criminal mess” in Chicago.
MSNBC found that of the 37 people arrested, only eight had criminal charges and it isn’t clear how many — if any — had been convicted.
Faulkner returned to the story on October 2, reiterating the false characterization of the building.
“The political left is also pushing against a massive federal raid on an apartment complex taken over by members of the violent Tren de Aragua gang,” she said.
Video
Citation
From the October 2, 2025, edition of Fox News' The Faulkner Focus
The storming of the apartment building wasn’t the only violent incident Fox chose to celebrate. On September 19, a federal agent in a Chicago suburb threw Democratic congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh to the ground during a protest outside an ICE facility.
Ingraham praised the assault.
“A similar situation in Chicago today where absolutely unhinged agitators worked to form a blockade — they don't have actual jobs, but that is their job — in front of an ICE facility, including a Democrat congressional candidate who was thrown to the ground by an ICE agent,” Ingraham said. “Good work.” (Abughazaleh formerly worked at Media Matters.)
### Fox News justifies ICE's violent tactics
Even when Fox personalities didn’t overtly celebrate ICE’s abuses, the network has justified the Trump administration’s brutal tactics. Such coverage frequently clustered around high-profile events with dramatic footage, such as the storming of the apartment building. Other notable incidents included federal agents using tear gas, pepper ball projectiles, and rubber bullets on protesters on September 19 and again on September 26.
:{:{On September 19, host Laura Ingraham played a clip of Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss describing getting tear-gassed, to which Ingraham responded that his “constituents seem to be the illegal alien gang members, predators, sexual deviants, felons that they end up protecting.” Fox News, *The Ingraham Angle*, [9/19/25]}:
Describing the same event, Fox host Jesse Watters said the protesters“went loco” and “slashed tires,” adding, “Mostly peaceful protests are no bueno in the golden age. One day they’ll learn.” Watters introduced footage of ICE’s brutal tactics by mocking the protesters, saying it “didn’t work out for them.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [9/19/25]
Fox anchor Harris Faukner aired imagery of federal officers using chemical munitions at the September 19 demonstration, saying, “Of course they have to disperse that crowd.” Faulkner also asked over the footage: “What happened to peaceful protesting?” Fox News, *The Faulkner Focus*, [9/22/25]
Fox anchor John Roberts argued that ICE officers were “forced to shoot pepper bullets and tear gas to keep things under control” during a September 26 protest at an ICE facility. Fox News, *America’s Newsroom*, [9/26/25]
Correspondent Mike Tobin made a similar claim that same day onThe Faulkner Focus, arguing that ICE “needed to make space” for an official vehicle even while he himself suffered effects from the fumes. Tobin added: “Pardon my delivery, I’ve just — the aftermath — aftereffects of the tear gas. Also it seemed that there were a few individuals that they wanted to detain. So they cleared out the crowd. They zeroed in … on a couple of people. They put them face down and bound them on the pavement and took those individuals into custody.” He also displayed a rubber bullet the federal agents had fired at the crowd. Fox News, *The Faulkner Focus*, [9/26/25]
Watters said “the Feds had to bring out the tear gas” over the weekend of September 26 because “antifa agitators have been rioting” outside their facility. Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [9/29/25]
OnSpecial Report, Tobin adopted law enforcement’s framing of the midnight Chicago apartment raid by claiming that “criminal illegal immigrants” had “taken the place over.” Tobin: “In the dark of night, federal agents storm an old apartment building on Chicago's South Side. They had developed information that criminal illegal immigrants had taken the place over. So a joint operation with the FBI, ATF, Border Patrol, and ICE brought in federal manpower to take control of the apartment.” Fox News, *Special Report with Bret Baier*, [9/30/25]
In two notable cases, Fox appeared to justify federal agents shooting two people, killing one of them, by repeating government claims that were soon undercut by local reporting.
### Fox News repeats government claims justifying federal agents shooting two people, one fatally
On September 12, an ICE officer in a northern suburb of Chicago shot and killed Silverio Villegas González following a traffic stop. A Department of Homeland Security statement claimed the officer had been “seriously injured,” which was later contradicted by police body camera footage in which the officer is heard saying his injuries were “nothing major.” A witness also told the Sun Times that they “didn’t see Villegas González dragging one of the agents behind his car,” and NBC News reported, “No videos show the actual shooting or the ICE agent being dragged and injured, making it difficult to corroborate DHS’s account of what happened.”
Fox framed the fatal shooting by repeating the unsubstantiated government claims.
As the news broke, Fox anchor Martha MacCallum presented DHS’ version of events without qualifications.
“An ICE officer severely injured during a traffic stop in Illinois," MacCallum said. “ICE says that the suspect dragged the officer as he tried to get away.”
Video
Citation
From the September 12, 2025, edition of Fox News' The Story with Martha MacCallum
Weekend anchor Jon Scott said González “tried to flee the scene in a car, dragging the agent by his bumper,” adopting DHS’s initial characterization. “The agent wound up shooting and killing that alien.”
Then on September 28, Fox & Friends Weekend co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy repeated the characterization, saying, “We saw an ICE agent dragged with his vehicle.”
Two Fox hosts had a similar approach to an October 4 incident in which a Border Patrol agent shot Chicago woman Marimar Martinez five times. According to her attorney, footage apparently contradicts initial government allegations that Martinez had rammed her car into the agent’s vehicle — which the government then moved more than 1,000 miles away, despite its likely role as key evidence in the case. Several of the government's claims appear to be undercut by the criminal complaint against Martinez.
Jesse Watters repeated the government’s unverified version of the event.
“So you’re saying she didn’t ram the ICE officer’s vehicle with her car and trap it?” Watters asked co-host Jessica Tarlov. She had referenced press coverage that undercut the government’s version of events, to which Watters replied: “We don’t have that — I’m just not going to take your word for it.”
Video
Citation
From the October 7, 2025, edition of Fox News' The Five
Ingraham claimed officers had been “nearly run over” and called it a “coordinated ambush of federal officers.”
Beyond the Chicago area, the Trump administration has surged — or threatened to surge — federal immigration and police forces, the National Guard, and the military into Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Portland, Memphis, Baltimore, New Orleans, San Francisco, and New York City. Many of those cities have already resisted Trump’s onslaughts. Wherever he sends his forces next, Fox is sure to follow, cheering his administration along the way.
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MMA
Star Fox host Laura Ingraham is now in business with the president’s son
Written by Matt Gertz
Research contributions from Tyler Monroe
Published 10/20/25
Fox News star Laura Ingraham spent years railing against the purported corruption caused by the business interests of President Joe Biden’s son. But now she’s going into business with Donald Trump Jr., federal records show, a wildly and obviously unethical conflict of interest that no credible news outlet would tolerate.
Ingraham and Donald Trump Jr. are among the directors of “Colombier Acquisition Corp. III,” a special-purpose acquisition company which is seeking to raise $260 million in an initial public offering in order to acquire another company, according to a registration statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday and first reported by Bloomberg. The firm’s CEO is Omeed Malik, co-founder and managing partner of the venture capital fund 1789 Capital, which invests in companies aligned with the MAGA movement and has “grown into a financial powerhouse” since November, when Trump was elected president and his son became a partner. Several other executives and directors for the SPAC are also 1789 Capital employees, the filing shows.
No credible news outlet would allow a conflict of interest of this magnitude
The SPAC’s prospectus positions the company as a way to benefit from “the market’s excitement to fund the next chapter of American Exceptionalism by investing in the Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Growth (‘EIG’) economy, a set of era-defining business and investment opportunities that we believe will build the next period of American prosperity.” It continues: “These opportunities are rooted in America-first cultural shifts after the 2024 U.S. election, a resurgence of merit-based investing in growth equity, a focus on market-based solutions for America, and a celebration of America’s most prominent founders. Opportunities in the EIG economy include but are not limited to companies that reindustrialize the American economy and enhance American prosperity and security.”
Ingraham’s bio in the document identifies her as “the host of ‘The Ingraham Angle,’ an hour-long cable news program, which launched in October 2017, on Fox News (weeknights),” a program which “features Ms. Ingraham’s analysis of politics, business, legal matters and the culture, along with her interviews with prominent individuals in those fields.”
The potential conflicts of interest created by Ingraham’s roles with the SPAC and Fox are legion:
She stands to financially benefit from a business plan that is explicitly tied to the success of the MAGA movement.
She stands to financially benefit from the sprawling business interests of the president’s son, which otherwise could have been fodder for critical reporting.
She seems to have received the opportunity due to her loyalty to the MAGA cause, which creates the implication that failure to remain loyal would prevent future such opportunities.
She is slated to chair the SPAC’s compensation committee, meaning she could directly control payments made to the son of a president she covers on her show.
The SPAC’s prospectus cites its team’s “unique access to celebrities, technologists, tastemakers, investors, and entrepreneurs,” which “will assist in our target sourcing efforts,” as well as their “track record of building and boosting brands by partnering with influential figures with large followings”; applied to Ingraham, this language corrupts Fox’s booking process by suggesting a potential secondary rationale for appearances on her show.
Notably, Ingraham regularly claimed the business dealings of Hunter Biden in the years prior to his father’s presidential election implicated Joe Biden in rampant corruption. Hunter Biden’s name was mentioned during at least 164 episodes of Ingraham’s Fox show in the less than two years from January 3, 2023, when Republicans took control of the House of Representatives after promising to use their power to investigate those business interests, through Trump’s election on November 5, 2024, according to a Media Matters review of the Kinetiq video database.
Ingraham claimed during one such program, in June 2023, that Hunter Biden’s clients were “sophisticated players” who were “prepared to pay millions” because “they believed they would get certain benefits in return from the U.S. government.”
“Every single person in the White House press room knows how all this works,” she added. “The only defense that they have is that we can’t prove that Biden himself did lobbying or was directing Hunter’s business.” Ingraham concluded by bemoaning that “these foreign interests are now encouraged to believe that America is for sale” and arguing that “one pillar of the 2024 campaign for Republicans should be, the Bidens are getting richer while your family is getting poorer.”
Video
Citation
From the June 26, 2023, edition of Fox News' The Ingraham Angle
A few short years later and President Trump’s son is overseeing a business empire which includes not only the venture capital funding through 1789 Capital but also foreign real estate deals; massive crypto investments; and nebulous advisory roles with several companies. And Ingraham has looked at the various financial schemes involving the president’s family and decided to join him and cash in.
Again, no credible news outlet would allow a conflict of interest of this magnitude, roughly analogous to if Hunter and MSNBC star Rachel Maddow were to have gone into business together during the Biden administration. But don’t expect the Fox brass to step in: Once you’ve put the president’s daughter-in-law on the payroll and given her an hour a week to produce propaganda for the administration, you’ve acknowledged that you are in a different line of work.
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OMFG TERROR
NO TXT JUST VID NO TRANSCRIPT
INGR id BOTH AS JRNLISTS ANN-TIFA FRIEND
ATTACK ON STUDENT MINN CHRLIE ASSAS TRIUMP, CATH SCH? ...NO TIME TO LOSE FELOINY CONSP STATE DEPT DECL INTL ARM OF ANTIFA TERROR ORG; OPEN UP TO SANTIONS; SAV BIDEN IGNORE JRNL AND STREETS; ANDY BRITALLY ASSAULTED; DOM TERR ORG ; JRNL DEMONIZED BY LAMESTREAM, ALSO IGNORE VIOLENT STR THUS VINDCATED; PRO HAMAS FREAS IN HY, PPL TIRED OF TERROR BEG FOR NAT GD; PRTOZ MAYOR JOHNSON CALLED TUMP NAZI IS THAT INCTE VIOL; ANTIFA SHOCH TROOPS FOR DEMS, ATTACK POL OPP; YOU ARE ON HIT LIST BRAVE TO COME TO DC
Inside the road to dismantle Antifa: 'We don't have any more time to lose' | Fox News Video
Inside the road to dismantle Antifa: 'We don't have any more time to lose'
Journalist Andy Ngo and Frontlines TPUSA contributor Savanah Hernandez discuss their experiences reporting on rioters on 'The Ingraham Angle.'
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MMA
Laura Ingraham says the indictment of Letitia James is “like Christmas morning”
10/09/25
https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/laura-ingraham-says-indictment-letitia-james-christmas-morning)
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MMA
Calls for retaliatory prosecutions are the next phase in the right’s rewriting of January 6
Written by Matt Gertz
Published 10/08/25
The MAGA right’s cynical effort to rewrite the history of January 6 reached a new but seemingly inevitable low this week, as right-wing media figures, the GOP, and the Trump administration teamed up to demand retribution against those who attempted to impose consequences on the perpetrators of the event.
In late 2020, President Donald Trump and his allies in the Republican Party and right-wing media attempted to overturn the results of the election that he had lost, using false claims of widespread voter fraud. That campaign’s final phase relied on Vice President Mike Pence to refuse to certify the electoral count based on a nonsensical legal theory. When it became clear Pence would not cooperate, a mob of Trumpists — summoned to Washington, D.C., by the president who told them “we will never concede” — assaulted scores of law enforcement officers as they stormed the U.S. Capitol, sending Pence and the assembled Congress into hiding and delaying the counting of electoral votes.
This January 6 insurrection faced widespread public condemnation in its immediate aftermath. But right-wing propagandists, led by then-Fox star Tucker Carlson, went to work dismantling what turned out to be a fragile consensus. In the insidious counternarrative they created, January 6 was either righteous or something of a nothingburger, and the true scandal was the subsequent efforts to punish its perpetrators. Four years later, that version of events is the dominant one on the right, with special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment of Trump over his role treated as part of a Democratic plot. And as a result, efforts to achieve accountability for the crimes of January 6 have become partisan almost by definition.
Fox News star host Jesse Watters said the day after the storming of the U.S. Capitol that “people that think it wasn't that big of a deal” were wrong. “You can't smash windows, spray police with chemical agents, assault police officers, loot, and vandalize.”
But this week, Watters declared that “the Democrat reaction to January 6 was worse than January 6.” Watters pointed to the new revelation served up by Trump law enforcement appointees that Smith had received the phone records of several Republican senators from the period around January 6 as part of his criminal investigation of the events and baselessly concluded that “what they were probably trying to do is cast this wide net to create some grand criminal conspiracy and indict the entire Republican Party.”
Watters then demanded retribution against Smith and other federal law enforcement figures involved in the January 6 investigations. “This guy should be in prison,” he said. “And what they need to do is either appoint a special counsel or have some sort of Senate select committee to go up, do hearings, put Wray, put Garland, put Smith under oath, and if they lie, you throw them in prison.”
Video
Citation
From the October 7, 2025, edition of Fox News' The Five
Legal reporters and experts have noted that seeking phone records of Republican officials who might have been in communication with Trump around the time of January 6 was an obvious step for the investigators, who ultimately indicted the president over what they alleged were attempts to use “unlawful means of discounting legitimate votes and subverting the election results.” But that conclusion presumes that investigators should have been investigating at all, and the current position of the Trumpist right is exactly as Watters pitched it: After Trump’s return to the presidency, he pardoned January 6 perpetrators and purged law enforcement who helped prosecute them.
On Tuesday night, Fox hosts and the Republican guests they hosted pushed falsehoods about Smith’s probe in order to justify retaliatory investigations into his effort. The sequence of events is roughly analogous to the crusade by Trump, congressional Republicans, and propaganda outlets like Fox to secure investigations into special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election. That resulted in years of content for Fox’s stars — but the resulting four-year probe failed to garner prison time for a single person.
Here we go again.
Jack Smith did not “spy” on Republican senators in a scandal “worse than Watergate”
Fox stars Watters, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham all used the same false characterization on Tuesday as they sought to stir up outrage about Smith’s January 6 probe.
Watters claimed that the “big story” was “that Joe Biden's FBI was spying on top Republican senators”; Sen. Josh Hawley, one of the senators whose records were included, subsequently told the host that the FBI “got wiretaps essentially” against them. Ingraham claimed the senators “were all spied on” in “an attempt at partisan surveillance.” According to Hannity, Smith had been “using the federal government to spy on several U.S. senators.”
Hannity and Ingraham also ran with with Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley’s (R-IA) absurd characterization of the report as “WORSE THAN WATERGATE”: Ingraham termed it “arguably worse than Watergate,” while Hannity claimed more definitively that the report was “worse than anything alleged against Richard Nixon during Watergate.”
These claims are baseless and absurd.
The Watergate scandal featured operatives associated with Nixon’s reelection campaign attempting to break into the offices of the Democratic National Committee on the orders of a White House official, most likely in an effort to place equipment to actively surveil the president’s partisan opposition for explicitly political purposes. This is obviously very different from legitimate investigative steps taken as part of a duly promulgated criminal investigation.
And the FBI document at the root of the claim does not say anything about active or real-time surveillance — it references only a “preliminary toll analysis on limited toll records associated with” nine members of Congress.
The records were reportedly obtained from major telephone providers responding to a subpoena Smith obtained. And according to Grassley, the record the FBI reviewed “shows when and to whom a call is made, as well as the duration and general location data of the call” but “does not include the content of the call.”
Fox uses false premises to call for criminal investigations
All three shows featured calls for further investigations into Smith’s probe.
“It's time Pam Bondi appoint a special counsel to investigate Jack Smith, Merrick Garland, and Chris Wray,” Watters declared. “At the very least, we should have a Senate special select committee hold hearings and have these goons testify under oath, and if they lie to Congress, off to prison. As they said, no one is above the law.”
Hawley, in his interview with Watters, likewise called for “a special prosecutor who's going to go at this hard,” adding, “We need hearings in public. Put these people under oath. Start with Jack Smith. Let's hear from Merrick Garland. Let's hear from Christopher Wray -- and anybody who broke the law needs to be prosecuted.”
“I think the time has come for criminal prosecutions,” Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) told Ingraham. “I think indictments should be coming here. We can't tolerate this and the Democrats try to act like President Trump's weaponizing. It's not what's happening.”
And on Hannity’s show, FBI Director Kash Patel declared that such probes were ongoing.
“We're just warming up,” he said. “But we are running our investigations to the ground. We are finding every single person involved. We will not leave a single room locked.”
“This is what Donald Trump was put in place to do,” he concluded. “And I'm honored to be his FBI director to lead this charge. And the men and women at the FBI, we're all in on this mission.”
That doesn’t include, of course, the FBI agents fired or reassigned because they worked January 6 cases. Because for this administration and the propagandists who support it, those who tried to get accountability for January 6 are the saga’s true villains.
//
They did it and will do it again – if no one stops them
07/22/22 11:12 AM EDT
### How Fox News and the right-wing media made Jan. 6 revisionism great again
01/03/24 8:57 AM EST
10/07/2
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A Trump-appointed judge just demolished right-wing fearmongering about Portland
Written by Matt Gertz
Published 10/06/25 MMA
Fox News propagandists cheered last month when President Donald Trump directed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to send 200 National Guard troops to Portland, Oregon, claiming the move was necessary because, in host Jesse Watters’ words, the entire city “has been under siege by antifa for four months.” But a Trump-nominated federal judge blocked the deployment on Saturday, noting that protests in the city have been “small and uneventful” for months and writing that the president’s order “was simply untethered to the facts.”
After Trump deployed the National Guard to Washington, D.C., in August and suggested he would do the same in other U.S. cities, right-wing media spent September trying to turn Portland into the president’s next target. They created and fed the narrative that Portland is a “chaotic city” consumed by “civil insurrection” in which “every weekend is war.” While news reports from the city portrayed the protests as minor, MAGA pundit Steve Bannon told his audience, “Antifa's burning down Portland every night. … They've taken control of Portland.”
The president responded to the overheated commentary of his most zealous supporters. In a September 27 post to Truth Social, Trump ordered Hegseth to send troops to protect “War ravaged Portland” from “Antifa, and other domestic terrorists,” and claimed he was “authorizing Full Force, if necessary.”
But after Hegseth directed 200 members of the Oregon National Guard to the city over the objection of Gov. Tina Kotek, the state of Oregon and the city of Portland sued in federal court, arguing that the president had exceeded his legal and constitutional authority.
District Court Judge Karin Immergut — a stalwart of the GOP legal community who worked on Kenneth Starr’s investigation of President Bill Clinton, served as a U.S. attorney under President George W. Bush, and was nominated to the bench by Trump himself — agreed. On October 4, she issued a temporary restraining order which blocked the deployment.
Trump-appointed judge: Portland protests “were small and uneventful”
Immergut wrote in her ruling that Trump had not met the standard under the statutory authority he invoked, which only allows the president to federalize National Guard units in cases of invasion, rebellion, or when the federal government has been rendered otherwise unable to execute the law.
She explained that contrary to Trump’s depiction of the situation in Portland, her review determined: “As of September 27, 2025, it had been months since there was any sustained level of violent or disruptive protest activity in Portland. During this time frame, there were sporadic events requiring either PPB monitoring or federal law enforcement intervention, but overall, the protests were small and uneventful.”
The judge added that the federal government produced “only four incidents of protesters clashing with federal officers in the month of September preceding the federalization order,” calling these “inexcusable, but they are nowhere near the type of incidents that cannot be handled by regular law enforcement forces.”
She further wrote that the standard the federal government tried to set “would allow the President to call in the National Guard whenever one law enforcement office receives support from another office, which is a routine aspect of law enforcement activity. If the President could equate diversion of federal resources with his inability to execute federal law, then the President could send military troops virtually anywhere at any time.”
Immergut concluded that Trump lacked the statutory authority to federalize the guard in this case “because the situation on the ground belied an inability of federal law enforcement officers to execute federal law,” adding: “The President’s determination was simply untethered to the facts.”
That’s not how Fox presented Portland to its viewers
Fox hosts pulled out the stops to present the city as a violent hellhole crying out for the federal intervention the president had ordered.
“Left-wing terror is at record highs,” Watters declared on his September 29 broadcast. “They're shooting at Teslas, Trump, Charlie, and ICE. After sending in the Guard into L.A. and D.C., Trump is going for round three — Portland.”
“This weekend, he directed the secretary of war to send 200 National Guardsmen to protect war-ravaged Portland, and he is authorizing them to use full force if necessary, because federal facilities in Portland have been under siege since the start of the summer,” Watters continued, adding, “Every weekend, antifa has been on the warpath.”
Watters claimed two nights later: “Portland has been under siege by antifa for four months. The Guard is there to get things under control, but Portland Democrats say they want to deport the Guard because the protests are mostly peaceful.”
On September 29, host Laura Ingraham similarly claimed that Portland was “getting a dose of Trump-style safety” because an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility and “the areas around it have been under siege regularly in Oregon, and it continued this past weekend.” She added that Oregon was “rushing to court siding with criminals and against public safety.”
The same night, host Sean Hannity accused Oregon and Portland of “typical radical, predictable left-wing sanctuary state and city lies” because officials there supposedly won’t acknowledge that the “city’s on fire” and consumed by “a whole lot … of violence, lawlessness if you ask me.”
Their arguments are wildly overstated on the facts. But there’s so much more at stake, as Immergut pointed out in her ruling.
“This country has a longstanding and foundational tradition of resistance to government overreach, especially in the form of military intrusion into civil affairs,” she wrote. “This historical tradition boils down to a simple proposition: this is a nation of Constitutional law, not martial law. Defendants have made a range of arguments that, if accepted, risk blurring the line between civil and military federal power—to the detriment of this nation.”
Fox’s star hosts apparently disagree, and are standing with Trump as he tries to send the nation hurtling toward martial law.
//
### Right-wing media cheer for Trump to deploy National Guard to other American cities after DC
08/14/25 10:52 AM EDT
### Right-wing media’s dystopian Portland coverage feeds into Trump’s threats to deploy National Guard
09/29/25 5:48 PM EDT
10/06/2
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Laura Ingraham says James Comey's Russia investigation “was a travesty and justice must be done”
Written by Media Matters Staff
Published 09/25/25
Video
Citation
From the September 25, 2025, edition of Fox News' The Ingraham Angle
LAURA INGRAHAM (HOST): We have to think about it this way, too, regardless of how this all turns out, the director of the FBI helped spearhead one of the most damaging episodes of American criminal justice that we have ever seen -- injustice, I should say. Taking it upon himself to try to unseat a sitting president of the United States with these bogus, B.S. cases that they tried to, you know, gin up in the public's mind, affect public opinion, and ultimately hobble this president. That's at the bottom of what all went on here. And there were a lot of people involved. But he was at the top of the food chain here. Barack Obama was the other, but he was at the top chain here. And I think justice must be done, lest no one have faith in the FBI anymore. If nothing comes of everything that we know happened, then what are we?
FITZGERALD: Well, I'm retired FBI and I certainly agree with that. I would be very much bothered if this wasn't taken to its logical conclusion.
I'm going to go back to 2017, the Women's March in January of that year. Right after Trump was inaugurated or right around that time. I'll never forget Mrs. Comey and two of her daughters were interviewed by chance, by CNN directly identifying themselves, who they were. They have every right to do that, First Amendment, all that. But you really think the wife and daughters of the FBI would stay away from making controversial statements about the upcoming Trump administration. But we knew that was just one adjacent part of what their husband/father was doing. It was also Crossfire Hurricane going on inside the FBI. And we all know where that went, winding up with him possibly committing perjury in front of Congress.
INGRAHAM: This was a long, winding set up of a duly elected president of the United States. And it was a travesty and justice must be done.
MMA//
09/26/25 12:02 PM EDT
### Media Matters weekly newsletter, September 26
09/26/25 10:50 AM EDT
09/25/2
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How Fox covers for Trump administration malfeasance
Monday night was a perfect case study
Written by Matt Gertz
Published09/23/25 MMA
The job of a Fox News evening host isn’t to cover President Donald Trump and his administration, it’s to give them cover. The network’s stars are shameless propagandists who employ a variety of tactics to hide the president’s misdeeds from their viewers. Their Monday night programs, which followed days of administration chaos and corruption, perfectly encapsulate how this process works.
Trump and his supporters, in just a few short months, have ushered in an unprecedented and radical transformation of American political life. A president who won office in large part by exploiting voter discontent over rising prices has exacerbated that problem through unilateral tariffs while simultaneously consolidating power, crushing dissent, enriching himself and his allies, and dismantling and remaking agencies that secure goals like public health.
The result is that any given day can feature several instances of wildly scandalous behavior, any one of which might have sunk a previous administration.
On Monday night, four such stories were circulating: Trump pushed out a U.S. attorney who had refused to prosecute his political opponent on insufficient evidence and replaced him with a crony; several outlets reported that his Justice Department appointees quashed a probe into a White House adviser who had been recorded taking a cash bribe; there was ongoing fallout from his top media regulator publicly threatening media companies over airing Jimmy Kimmel’s show; and at a White House event the president and his advisers issued a warning over Tylenol usage based on an unproven link to autism.
Any of those stories, explained in context, could prove devastating for the president and his team. But Trump has maintained high approval ratings with his supporters — and thus maintained lock-step backing from congressional Republicans — in no small part because his base gets information through the filter of right-wing media. And much of the right-wing media, fearing a revolt from their audiences, isn’t inclined to provide information that conflicts with their biases.
Here’s how each of those scandals played out Monday night on the panel show The Five and the eponymous programs of Laura Ingraham, Jesse Watters, and Sean Hannity.
### Fox ignored Trump replacing a defiant prosecutor with a crony
What happened:On Friday, ABC News reported that Trump was “expected to fire” U.S. Attorney Erik Siebert because Siebert had refused White House demands to bring mortgage fraud charges against New York Attorney General Letitia James, who previously prosecuted Trump, because investigators did not find incriminating evidence against her. After Siebert left office, Trump publicly called on Attorney General Pam Bondi to “act fast” on prosecutions against James, former FBI Director James Comey, and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) in what The New York Times called “an extraordinary breach of prosecutorial protocols that reach back to the days following the Watergate scandal.” The president subsequently appointed Lindsey Halligan, a White House aide and longtime Trump legal adviser with no experience as a prosecutor, to replace Siebert; she took office as acting U.S. attorney on Monday.
Fox’s response: Fox’s stars spent the years of Trump’s first term and Joe Biden's presidency complaining of a two-tiered system of justice in which federal law enforcement agencies were persecuting the right while letting the left off the hook. In reality, Republican and Trump-appointed officials kept finding sufficient evidence to prosecute Trump and his allies and didn’t find enough to do the same against his foes. But now that Trump is loudly and publicly demanding politicized prosecutions — and pushing out his own appointed prosecutor when he refused to play along — the same voices have gone silent: The story was not mentioned Monday on The Five or the programs of Ingraham, Watters, and Hannity.
Many such cases: Fox hosts have similarly ignored stories about Trump’s relationship with deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein; Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. killing research into next-generation vaccines; statements by an immigrant the Trump administration sent in error to a notorious foreign prison who says he was beaten and sexually assaulted by guards; reports that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth sent information derived from a classified email over an unsecured group chat; and an exodus of top Defense Department staffers over concerns with Hegseth’s management style.
### Fox excused Trump regulator threatening media companies
What happened: Two days after ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel inaccurately suggested that the alleged killer of Turning Points USA founder Charlie Kirk was part of “the MAGA gang,” Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr publicly threatened ABC’s affiliates and its corporate parent, Disney, with regulatory retribution. Nexstar, a large affiliate network which needs Carr’s approval for a corporate merger, subsequently said its affiliates would immediately preempt Kimmel’s show; soon after, ABC announced that the program was suspended indefinitely. On Monday, after widespread criticism of the administration’s effort to curtail speech and ABC’s capitulation, Disney said Kimmel would return to the air on Tuesday.
Fox’s response:Several Fox hosts used the news that Kimmel was returning to the air to claim that his initial removal had been a business decision unrelated to administration pressure. Hannity claimed that while those “on the left” had been “melting down” and falsely blaming Trump for Kimmel’s suspension, it was now proven to have been “a decision by ABC Disney, not the government.” Watters called it a “show-biz decision” and aired a chyron stating “ABC benched Kimmel, not Trump.” Ingraham agreed with guest Raymond Arroyo’s claim that “ABC deciding to put Kimmel back on, it does lay to rest this narrative that somehow the government was orchestrating his removal from the air.” Fox host and former Trump White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said on The Five, “The government didn't decide it because he’s back tomorrow, so quite clearly the government didn’t force this.” Their talking point aligned with arguments that Republican politicians and Carr himself had offered about the case as they backpedaled away from its free-speech implications.
Many such cases:Fox hosts similarly made excuses when Trump tried to fire Federal Reserve board member Lisa Cook over a pretext; when Trump failed to release Epstein documents as he promised; when a Democratic senator was violently removed from a Department of Homeland Security press conference; when a foreign government gifted Trump a plane valued at $400 million; when the administration sent people in error to a notorious foreign prison; and when top Trump aides discussed plans for military strikes in an unsecured text chain — and inadvertently included a journalist in the group.
### Fox aided Trump advisor caught in bribery scandal
What happened: MSNBC and other news outlets reported over the weekend that the FBI had recorded White House border czar Tom Homan accepting a bag of cash from undercover agents in September 2024 as part of a corruption investigation, and that the probe was subsequently scuttled by Trump law enforcement appointees. Homan, at the time a Fox contributor and a close Trump adviser pegged for a key administration role on immigration if Trump were elected, had reportedly indicated to the agents that he could help them win government contracts. In statements, top officials from the FBI, DOJ, and White House claimed the probe had not uncovered evidence of illegal activity — but notably did not deny that Homan had been recorded taking a bag of cash from undercover agents.
Fox’s response: Fox hosts regularly provide administration officials and other appointees an opportunity to field friendly questions that help them spin damaging stories. Ingraham gave Homan that treatment on Monday. After offering him softball questions about a new California law banning ICE agents from wearing masks and how the administration can “speed up” mass deportations, she asked him to respond to the story from “our always reliable MSNBC” that “you took $50,000 in cash in a bag from an undercover FBI agent to help them win government contracts in Trump's second term.” In his minute-long response, Homan denounced the “hit piece,” claimed that “nothing illegal happened,” and touted his own “sacrifices” and work for the president — but notably did not deny taking the bag of money. For her part, Ingraham let Homan ramble and ended the interview rather than asking a follow-up question to clarify that point.
Many such cases: Fox hosts similarly aided Kennedy after he purged top leaders from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Hegseth after he shared attack plans over an unsecured text chain.
### Fox cheered Trump pushing unproven Tylenol-autism link
What happened:Researchers have found that autism is largely a heritable condition and that the increase in cases over the years is due primarily to a broadening of the diagnostic criteria. But at a Monday event at the White House, Trump, Kennedy, and other top health aides “launched a broad offensive against the mainstream understanding of autism, claiming without new evidence that acetaminophen — the active ingredient in the common pain reliever Tylenol — was a cause of the disorder,” as The New York Times put it. Health agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration, previously called such evidence inconclusive, and the drug is “considered one of the few safe options to treat pain or fever during pregnancy.”
Fox’s response: Ingraham on Monday touted the administration for “sounding the alarm” over a link between Tylenol and autism in response to how “the number of children with autism has spiked unbelievably over the last number of years.” She then hosted Trump health officials Mehmet Oz and Marty Makary to tout the “growing body of evidence” in support of the administration’s position and to denounce contrary findings as “false.” Watters likewise highlighted the White House’s “major medical bombshell” before turning to another Trump health official, Jay Bhattacharya, to praise the administration for supporting “prudent medicine” and providing a “judicious evaluation” of the evidence.
Many such cases: Fox hosts similarly cheered after Bondi reportedly ordered federal prosecutors to launch a grand jury probe into various Obama administration figures on spurious grounds; Trump ordered strikes on Iranian nuclear targets; the president enacted various unilateral tariff shifts; and the Trump administration implemented a mass purge of FBI agents.
MMA //
### The Trumpist media is demanding politicized justice
06/14/23 1:24 PM EDT
### Jimmy Kimmel and the MAGA strong-arming of American media
09/18/25 12:00 PM EDT
### Fox averts its eyes from former employee Homan reportedly receiving a bag of cash
09/22/25
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mma
Laura Ingraham predicts there will be an economic boom “January to June of next year”
09/05/25
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MMA
Laura Ingraham: “Tariffs work. Always have, always will.”
07/10/25
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PROJECTION DEFLECTION
mma 7 25
July 7, 2025, edition of Fox News' *The Ingraham Angle
LAURA INGRAHAM (HOST): Even otherwise, reasonable people, if they're led to believe by trusted news and political sources that Trump is truly evil and that he is truly a fascist, fascist country, then isn't armed rebellion the only answer? That deranged individual wearing full tactical gear who tried to ambush the border patrol today in McAllen, Texas, yeah, apparently thought so. Now, this is what Democrats knew would happen. They knew it. And, yet, they never tamped down the rhetoric, not after city blocks were burned during the Floyd riots, not after the Trump assassination attempts.
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// watters gutf Laura Ingraham says Senator Alex Padilla was performing “a carefully choreographed stunt” at DHS briefing
06/12/25
https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/laura-ingraham-says-senator-alex-padilla-was-performing-carefully-choreographed-stunt-dhs)
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MMA
Right-wing media call for “overwhelming force” and arrests in LA protests
Written by Chloe Simon & Reed McMaster
Published 06/12/25
Protests in Los Angeles have been ongoing as Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids continue to target migrant communities. In response, right-wing media have urged the Trump administration and law enforcement to crack down harder on protesters, called for Democratic officials to be arrested, and suggested the protesters were funded by outside groups.
Fox News host Laura Ingraham and others encouraged President Donald Trump to employ the Insurrection Act against protesters while Daily Wire host Matt Walsh said Trump should use “overwhelming force.” Fox host Sean Hannity and War Room host Steve Bannon have called for arrests of Democratic officials, and The Daily Caller blamed a “Pro-Chinese Communist Millionaire” for funding the protests.
Protests erupted after the Trump administration conducted ICE raids in LA and sent in troops
In late May, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller demanded ICE officials begin targeting migrants at places of work, specifically noting stores like Home Depot and 7-Eleven. In an emergency meeting, Miller reportedly berated officials, according to three current and former immigration officials. One told The Washington Examiner, “They’ve been threatened, told they’re watching their emails and texts and Signals. That’s what is horrible about things right now. It’s a fearful environment. Everybody in leadership is afraid. … There’s no morale. Everybody is demoralized.” One official said Miller asked, “Why aren’t you at Home Depot? Why aren’t you at 7-Eleven?” Washington Examiner, [5/30/25]
Protests erupted in LA following ICE raids on businesses in the area on Friday, June 6, and have continued after the Trump administration sent in the National Guard and Marines. The protests spread from the garment district, where agents were first spotted searching for migrants, and have been “largely peaceful.” The New York Times, [6/11/25]
CNN reports “Trump is building a political case to use American troops not in a foreign conflict, but at home, to bolster his mass deportation sweeps.”CNN described Trump’s strategy as “conjuring a narrative of invasion and insurrection,” adding: “He’s exaggerating disorder in the relatively contained unrest, looting and protests in Los Angeles. And he’s implying that, to keep the country safe, he’s ready to deploy soldiers across the country.” CNN, [6/11/25]
## Right-wing pundits urged Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act, arrest protesters, or utilize “overwhelming force” to put down protests
Fox News legal analyst Kerri Kupec Urbahn suggested the protests could give Trump a path to invoke the Insurrection Act. She claimed, “What the Trump administration could do, and there’s gonna be a lot of conversation about that publicly and I'm sure it’s happening right now behind the scenes, is invoking the Insurrection Act, which allows the United States government to send in military when there is an obstruction happening of federal law enforcement with or without the state's consent. So I think that may be where this is headed if this doesn't quiet down.” Fox News, *America’s Newsroom*, [6/9/25]
In an op-ed for The Daily Wire, host Matt Walsh wrote, “The only solution, of course, is to treat them like the terrorists they are. Use overwhelming force to put down the riots.” He added: “Charge and convict the rioters and send them to prison for years. … Any illegal foreign invader involved in a riot should be shipped immediately to Guantanamo Bay.” The Daily Wire, [6/9/25]
Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk suggested invoking the Insurrection Act. He claimed, “Los Angeles does not feel like a protest, what's happening there. It's an entire city that's declaring open rebellion to American sovereignty and authority.” Rumble, *The Charlie Kirk Show*, [6/9/25]
Fox News host Laura Ingraham argued it would be Trump’s “right” and “obligation” to invoke the Insurrection Act if he feels the U.S. “is being threatened from within.” She said, “Now Democrats are pretending to be outraged about the prospect of Trump invoking the Insurrection Act. Which, of course, is his right. I’d say it's his obligation to do if — and it's his call — if he feels the United States is being threatened from within by violent, seditionary forces.” Fox News, *The Ingraham Angle*, [6/10/25]
White nationalist streamer Nick Fuentes urged the Trump administration to use the protests “to federalize a National Guard and send it into the cities. Take over law enforcement. And above all else, use it to arrest thousands of people every day to be deported.” He also added, “If we're not doing that, then we're wasting our time here. It's just a big stunt.” Rumble, *America First with Nick Fuentes*, [6/10/25]
Zach Hoyt, one of Twitch's most popular streamers who goes by “Asmongold,” called for the Trump administration to enact martial law and put protestors in “little camps.” Hoyt stated, “They just need to completely fucking, like, stomp this shit out.” He added, “Bring in the military, bring in the National Guard, fucking martial law, curfews — arrest all these people. Make the little camps where you can hold them in. Do the entire fucking thing.” Twitch, ZackRawrr, [6/9/25; The Atlantic, 4/25/25]
## Some commentators demanded Trump arrest Democratic politicians such as Gov. Gavin Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass
War Roomhost Steve Bannon called for Bass’ arrest and accused officials of “getting in between ICE and other law enforcement.” He stated, “Right there, LAPD. The mayor is involved in this and having the stand down. She ought to be arrested today. Immediately.” Real Americas' Voice, *War Room*, [6/9/25]
On his radio show, Fox News host Sean Hannity said Newsom “should be arrested for obstructing U.S. immigration law.” Premiere Radio Networks, *The Sean Hannity Show*, [6/9/25]
In an interview with “border czar” Tom Homan, Trump ally Laura Loomer asked if he would criminally charge Democratic politicians like Newsom or Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) for “obstructionist behavior.” Loomer: “Are you having any discussions with DHS, with the DOJ, or with the Trump administration to possibly bring criminal charges for harboring of illegal aliens by people like Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, or mayor Karen Bass, or people like Nancy Pelosi or Maxine Waters, because this would really fit the bill of what you described as obstructionist behavior. It's incitement, in my opinion. They are inciting violence by fanning the flames of violence against ICE officials and people like yourself. What qualifies as obstructionist behavior, and will we see any Democrat lawmakers or the governor himself be criminally charged?” Rumble, *Loomer Unleashed*, [6/9/25]
## Some right-wing figures also suggested the protesters were paid and funded by China, billionaires, or church groups
Fox & Friendshost Brian Kilmeade alleged that “the opposition” in Los Angeles includes groups “supported by the state, the government, and the Chinese government.” Kilmeade later claimed that “they are getting paid.” Fox News, *Fox & Friends*, [6/10/25]
Bannon: “This thing is organized, it’s another huge thing financed by the Walton family and all these billionaires.” Real America’s Voice, *War Room*, [6/10/25]
On Bannon’s podcast, conservative personality Ben Bergquam claimed Catholic Charities and Lutheran Social Services are behind the LA protests. He stated, “As soon as you start going after the organizations that are behind this, whether that's Catholic Charities, or Lutheran Social Services, or any of these organizations. The communist groups in our country that are working intentionally to undermine this nation, the liberation theology pastors in our country, all of this, that's the root of it.” Real America’s Voice, *War Room*, [6/9/25]
The Daily Caller published an article headlined “Group Stoking Anti-ICE LA Riots Tied To Pro-Chinese Communist Millionaire.” The piece went on to allege that the “Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) spoke out in support of the mob rioting against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) over the weekend, posted to X to call for more action on Sunday and created signs that protesters were seen carrying. The PSL shares personnel overlap with groups funded by American tech mogul Neville Singham, whom The New York Times described in August 2023 as sitting at the center of a ‘lavishly funded influence campaign’ promoting pro-Chinese Communist Party (CCP) propaganda.” The Daily Caller, [6/9/25]
---
mma
06/10/25 2:01 PM EDT
### Steve Bannon: “All ten million have to go, not just the criminals and the insane asylum”
:{:{06/10/25}:
### Newsmax host on Democrats: “At what point are they declared to be a terrorist organization?”
06/10/25 9:24 AM EDT
06/09/25 7:55 PM EDT
June 9, 2025, edition of Fox News' The Ingraham Angle
LAURA INGRAHAM (HOST): And Biden and Mayorkas, they basically tacitly agreed. They opened the border and they gave benefits to 10 million illegal aliens. The goal? Well, made a lot of those protesters happy, right? Those organizations, but the goal was to resettle America with new people in order to transform it completely in ways that you really can't do at the ballot box, at least when you're that radical. So, what they essentially believe is that all of us need to do penance for the sins of taking this land from native people, for slavery, for what we did to women and so on and so forth. And, by the way, the penance never ends.
### Sean Hannity says Gavin Newsom “should be arrested”
06/09/25
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mma
lie about medicare cuts BBB
Laura Ingraham says American universities have “sold their souls to the CCP”
06/03/25
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colbert called out z on reframe of epa mission BS
mma
How Fox manufactured legitimacy for Zeldin’s destructive climate and environmental rollbacks
Special ProgramsClimate & Energy
Written by Evlondo Cooper
Research contributions from Harrison Ray
Published 03/13/25
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin has used his extensive appearances on Fox News and Fox Business to justify freezing environmental programs and slashing climate-related funding. A Media Matters analysis found that Zeldin has made at least 22 appearances on cable news since his confirmation on January 29, with 21 of those on Fox networks.
This pattern of strategic media appearances has enabled the Trump administration to reframe essential climate initiatives as corrupt and wasteful while avoiding substantive media scrutiny of its climate and environmental rollbacks, shielding it from the consequences of these harmful policy shifts. Moreover, Zeldin has used these appearances to create a feedback loop in which harmful narratives aimed at climate funding are repeatedly echoed by Fox personalities until they become conventional wisdom across the network.
Fox provided Zeldin a shield from scrutiny, echoing past Trump EPA media strategies}:
Zeldin's Fox-heavy strategy has allowed him to avoid tough questioning and push misleading talking points without rebuttal. Zeldin's Fox appearances have been largely friendly and laudatory, with hosts rarely probing the consequences of cutting climate and environmental programs or challenging his characterization of climate initiatives as wasteful.
Zeldin made at least 21 appearances on Fox News and Fox Business since his confirmation on January 29, including 2 appearances each on Varney & Co., The Story with Martha MacCallum, Mornings with Maria, and Sunday Morning Futures. He has appeared on The Ingraham Angle at least 3 times. This approach directly echoes former Trump EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, who in 2017 appeared on Fox News twice as often as he did on CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, and NBC combined. Media Matters, [8/15/17]
During his sole CNN appearance during the studied period, Zeldin faced direct questioning about specific EPA actions and workforce reductions — a stark contrast to his numerous Fox appearances, where such scrutiny was consistently absent. This emerging pattern resembles the approach of Pruitt, who overwhelmingly favored conservative media outlets during his tenure at the EPA. CNN, *CNN Newsroom*, [2/4/25; Mother Jones, 7/14/17; Media Matters, 8/15/17]
On March 12, Zeldin announced the most aggressive environmental rollbacks in EPA history, including rescinding pollution regulations and eliminating environmental justice programs, framing these actions as essential to lowering energy costs despite the widespread environmental and public health risks. Under his leadership, the agency has also moved to repeal the endangerment finding which underpins federal climate regulations, proposed slashing EPA staff by 65%, and paused the implementation of key pollution rules limiting “forever chemicals” in Americans’ drinking water. Fox has largely failed to ask Zeldin about these major actions. The New York Times, [3/12/25; The New York Times, 2/20/25; Inside Climate News, 2/16/25; Reuters, 2/27/25; Union of Concerned Scientists, 1/21/25; The Associated Press, 2/27/25; Inside Climate News, 3/2/25; Bloomberg Law, 3/10/25]
## With Fox’s help, Zeldin framed EPA policy rollbacks as economic necessity
Zeldin and Fox hosts repeatedly framed environmental deregulation as a purely economic decision, shifting the conversation away from environmental protection to discussions of government efficiency and business growth.
During Zeldin’s appearance on the February 25 episode of Varney & Co., host Stuart Varney pivoted the conversation toward the administration’s efforts to “speed up the permitting process for companies investing in America” over a chyron reading “EPA prioritizes deregulation, promotes investments.” Fox Business, *Varney & Co.*, [2/25/25]
During Zeldin's February 27 interview on The Evening Edit, host Elizabeth MacDonald characterized his EPA cuts as focusing exclusively on eliminating “this shocking amount” of wasteful government spending, saying: “You are working to cut EPA spending by about two-thirds because you're finding waste.” Fox Business, *The Evening Edit*, [2/27/25]
## Fox and Zeldin politicized climate funding to justify cuts
Fox hosts and Zeldin reframed climate and environmental initiatives as corrupt political projects, feeding into Fox’s larger misinformation loop.
During his February 18 interview on Mornings With Maria, Zeldin bragged about canceling environmental justice funding, claiming federal grants were directed toward “left-wing ideologues” instead of addressing legitimate environmental concerns for communities in need. “It’s absolutely incredible,” Bartiromo said, demanding, “What were the Biden officials doing other than being asleep at the wheel?” Fox Business, *Mornings with Maria*, [2/18/25]
Speaking with host Maria Bartiromo during the February 23 episode of Sunday Morning Futures, Zeldin suggested that grant recipients were selected based on political connections rather than merit and stated, “It’s a clear-cut case of waste and abuse. The entire scheme is criminal, in my opinion.” Fox News, *Sunday Morning Futures*, [2/23/25]
Zeldin used his Fox appearances to create a feedback loop in which these talking points were introduced, echoed by hosts, and then repeated in later segments — laundering false claims and misleading narratives into conventional wisdom spread across Fox networks.
## Fox provided a platform for Zeldin to inject, recycle, and amplify misinformation about climate programs
A key example is Zeldin's misleading claim that $2 billion in climate funds were improperly awarded to an organization linked to Democratic politician Stacey Abrams, implying she personally received EPA funds. (Abrams was senior counsel for Rewiring America, a member of the Power Forward Communities coalition; there is no evidence she personally received EPA grant funds.) This specific accusation targeting Abrams later evolved into broader claims characterizing all climate funding as corrupt political payoffs to Democratic allies and donors, demonstrating how targeted accusations expanded into wholesale attacks on climate and environmental programs.
February 18: Zeldin planted the seed for his attack on Abrams on America Reports, claiming that Biden's EPA structured the grants around “drastically reducing accountability and oversight” and alleging that it included "$20 billion going out the door up front." He framed protests against federal spending cuts as proof that “a lot of left-wing organizations … are beneficiaries of the money.” Fox News, *America Reports*, [2/18/25]
February 20: On The Ingraham Angle, host Laura Ingraham explicitly suggested that Abrams criticized cuts to federal agencies because she personally received government funds, stating, “She’s worried about them getting DOGE’d — maybe it's because she was profiting from the EPA,” over a chyron reading “Stacey Abram’s Slush Fund.” Zeldin reinforced the claim, emphasizing that Power Forward Communities received $2 billion in grants after Abrams' affiliated group had only received $100 the previous year. He framed the funding as corrupt and implied mismanagement, further fueling the broader narrative that climate funding was being funneled to Democratic allies. Fox News, *The Ingraham Angle*, [2/20/25]
February 21: Fox News’ Special Report repeated this framing of the EPA’s climate funding, with correspondent Steve Harrigan reporting, “Lee Zeldin claims the money was basically a slush fund to reward left-wing political groups, including one where Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams worked as senior counsel.” Fox News, *Special Report*, [2/21/25]
February 23: Zeldin sharpened the claim on Sunday Morning Futures, suggesting that the organization receiving the funds had no track record of handling large budgets. “This group in 2023 only received $100,” he claimed. “This isn't even like it’s a longtime group that has some reputation of handling large budgets. They received $2 billion in 2024.” Fox News, *Sunday Morning Futures*, [2/23/25]
February 26: Fox & Friends enabled Trump administration officials to amplify the claim, with White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt telling viewers: “You look at what Lee Zeldin has found at the EPA — $20 billion that the Democrats pushed out the door in the final weeks of Joe Biden’s presidency, $2 billion of that went to an NGO that was run by Stacey Abrams. So there is real fraud taking place in our federal government.” Fox News, *Fox & Friends*, [2/26/25]
March 6: Zeldin reiterated the claim on Jesse Watters Primetime, broadening it further: “It's going to people who are in the Obama and Biden administrations, it’s going to donors.” He added, “It's not going directly to remediate that environmental issue, to deliver clear air, land, and water. It's billions — tens of billions of dollars — going through their friends.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [3/6/25]
March 12: On The Ingraham Angle, the host escalated the framing of climate funding as Democratic fraud, amplifying Zeldin’s earlier claim that “$20 billion of your tax dollars were parked in an outside financial institution in a deliberate effort to limit government oversight.” She also explicitly called for criminal prosecutions, asserting that Democrats used the EPA to funnel money to political allies. Zeldin reinforced this narrative, tying his regulatory cuts — including the repeal of the Clean Power Plan 2.0 — to ending government waste, claiming that “you have self-dealing, conflicts of interest, unqualified recipients,” and alleging that a Stacey Abrams-linked group had signed agreements that “tied EPA's hands behind their back.” Fox News, *The Ingraham Angle*, [3/12/25]
## Fox’s propaganda shields Zeldin’s climate destruction from accountability
Fox News has played a pivotal role in manufacturing legitimacy for the Trump administration’s climate and environmental rollbacks. By allowing Zeldin to spread questionable claims about climate funding, amplifying his misleading narratives, and repeating unverified accusations as established facts, Fox has functioned not just as a shield but as an active participant in the Trump administration’s attempts to reframe climate funding as corruption and environmental deregulation as necessary reform.
At the same time, Fox hosts consistently failed to challenge Zeldin on policy rollbacks targeting key environmental protections. Despite appearing on Fox twice after the Supreme Court’s March 4 ruling weakening the Clean Water Act, Zeldin was never asked about how the decision could impact the EPA’s ability to regulate pollution. Similarly, Fox did not press Zeldin on reports that he urged the Trump administration to reconsider the endangerment finding, the EPA’s determination that “planet-warming greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare,” which forms the legal basis for regulating emissions.
This strategy doesn’t just obscure policy impacts — it actively misleads the public. By laundering misinformation through repetition and friendly framing, Fox creates an echo chamber in which attacks on climate programs are treated as fact while the real-world consequences of slashing climate funding are ignored, effectively shielding Zeldin from accountability for the full scope of his EPA agenda.
As the Trump administration advances its fossil fuel agenda, from gutting the Clean Water Act to dismantling the legal foundation for climate regulation, Fox's selective coverage ensures that the consequences of these policies remain hidden from public scrutiny — allowing the real impacts of these destructive environmental rollbacks to remain largely unexamined.
:{:{## Methodology...}:
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AN 3 25
During a mid-March interview with Fox News' Laura Ingraham, Vice President JD Vance aggressively defended President Donald Trump's passion for tariffs. Trump, Vance claimed, inherited a major economic crisis from former President Joe Biden, and Trump's policies will turn the economy around.
But Vance's claims come at a time when Trump is getting the United States into an all-out trade war with Canada and other longtime allies and the stock market has investors worried. On March 11, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 427 points. And economist Paul Krugman views Trump's policies — from tariffs to mass deportations to extensive layoffs of federal government workers — as a recipe for a major recession.
Vance's claims on Fox News are getting a brutal and comprehensive fact-check.
READ MORE:'A stupid fight': Conservative blasts Trump for action 'too absurd to believe'
On X, formerly Twitter, University of Michigan economist Justin Wolfers posted, "Mr. Vice President @JDVance, I'm sure you don't mean to mislead anyone, but the hard data suggest that in fact you've inherited a stronger economy than any administration in your lifetime."
Vance told Ingraham, "There is, as the president has said, a recognition that we have to accept — which is that Joe Biden left this economy in a disaster."
But Wolfers posted a chart showing that in fact, Trump inherited a very low "misery index" from Biden — one that, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data, "was lower than any other president in at least half a century."
Journalist Aaron Rupar, tweeting Ingraham's interview with Vance, commented, "JD Vance turns reality upside down."
READ MORE:'Discontent': Trump in big trouble with majority of voters — here's why
The New York Independent fact-checked Vance as well, laying out a lot of data.
The Independent tweeted, "Remember this. Here's Biden's America: — Unemployment at 40-year low for two straight years. — Stock market at an all time high, 401(k)s flourishing — 2.7 million new jobs created in 2023 and 17 million overall; — Bank failures under Trump: 16 Bank Failures under Biden: 5."
The Independent also noted, "—The $2.2 trillion Inflation Reduction Act was the biggest climate bill in history — The $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan gave Americans cash to cope with the pandemic downturn — The $280 billion CHIPS Act aims to position the U.S. to outcompete China in producing semiconductors and other advanced tech."
The Bulwark's Tim Miller, a Never Trump conservative and former GOP strategist, tweeted, "Explain to me how the Biden economy was the worst in history, every metric has deteriorated in the two months since he left, and yet somehow the fundamentals of the economy are strong now? @JDVance."
Writer Greg Cantwell tweeted, "The stock market hit record highs and unemployment reached record lows under Biden. Plus, no stupid f------g trade wars."
READ MORE: 'Our cushion is gone': Ohio farmers worry Trump won't pay up on promised funding
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mma
Right-wing media cheer Trump administration’s arrest of Mahmoud Khalil
The Trump team is trying to deport a permanent resident of the United States and revoke his green card, and right-wing media are celebrating the effort
Written by Gideon Taaffe & Jack Winstanley
Published 03/13/25
Legal resident Mahmoud Khalil was arrested and detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement following his activism for Gaza at Columbia University, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio shared a story about him online, writing, “We will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported."
Such arrests are a policy goal of the Heritage Foundation and Khalil's arrest reportedly followed some online targeting of him. Right-wing media have responded to his arrest by calling for more arrests and deportations, arguing that the administration needs to “send a message” and that students are “going to lose."
ICE arrested Khalil after the Trump administration cracked down on college protests
Mahmoud Khalil was detained by ICE following his pro-Palestinian activism at Columbia University. According to his attorney, ICE agents initially claimed his student visa had been revoked, but when Khalil noted he is a lawful permanent resident with a green card, they detained him anyway. Khalil’s wife, who is a U.S. citizen, was also threatened with arrest. The Washington Post, [3/9/25]
The Department of Homeland Security told CBS News that Khalil’s arrest was “in support of President Trump's executive orders prohibiting anti-Semitism” and claimed he “led activities aligned to Hamas,” but it did not provide any charges or alleged crimes. The executive order called for the deportation of “pro-jihadist” protesters. Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote on social media that the U.S. will revoke green cards of anyone who “supports Hamas.” According to legal scholar Steve Vladeck, “To sustain the lawfulness of Khalil’s arrest, the government has to identify the specific basis on which it believes that Khalil is subject to removal.” CBS, [3/10/25; NPR, 1/30/25; The Daily Beast, 3/10/25; One First with Steve Vladeck, 3/10/25]
Khalil is being held in a Louisiana detention center, and his lawyers have objected to that location. Khalil’s lawyer called his move to Louisiana “a blatantly improper but familiar tactic designed to frustrate the New York federal court's jurisdiction, and isolate Mahmoud far from his lawyers, his home, and his local community of support.” A U.S. district judge ordered Khalil to remain in the U.S. “to preserve the court's jurisdiction” and is scheduled to oversee a detention hearing on Wednesday. NBC News, [3/10/25]
## Deporting activists such as Khalil is a policy goal of the Heritage Foundation’s “Project Esther” and reportedly followed online targeting
Project Esther, a Heritage Foundation-backed plan to “combat antisemitism,” calls for “Foreign HSO [Hamas Support Organizations] leaders and members” to be “deported from the U.S.” The Jewish magazine Forward notes, “The plan’s first targets are pro-Palestinian organizations like Students for Justice in Palestine, American Muslims for Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace.” The Heritage plan also suggests that these organizations are “dedicated to the destruction of capitalism and democracy” and benefit “from the support and training of America’s overseas enemies.” According to the plan, such organizations have “infiltrated their ideology into the U.S. education system across all levels. ... The U.S. education system fosters antisemitism under the guise of ‘pro-Palestinian,’ anti-Israel, anti-Zionist narratives across universities, high schools, and elementary schools, often under the umbrella or within the rubric of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and similar Marxist ideology.” Heritage Foundation, [10/7/24; Forward, 11/19/24]
Khalil’s detention and his arrest was reportedly preceded by a series of online posts that identified him as a protester and “SUSPECTED FOREIGN NATIONAL.” At least one of the posts tagged Rubio and asked him to “revoke Mahmoud Khalil’s visa.” Drop Site News, [3/9/25]
## Right-wing media and guests cheered the arrest and argued that the Trump administration “needs to go further” to tamp down pro-Palestinian protests
OnFaulkner Focus, former Fox contributor Leo Terrell, who is on the White House task force combating “anti-Semitic harassment in schools and on college campuses,” stated that Khalil’s arrest “is the beginning of a series of victories.” Terrell added, “This arrest of this individual is an indication and should serve as a deterrent that the Trump administration is not going to allow individuals on a student visa with a green card to commit antisemitic behavior on our college campuses.” Fox News, *The Faulkner Focus*, [3/10/25; Department of Justice, 2/3/25]
On Newsmax, right-wing political activist Kennedy Goetz argued that if you support pro-Palestinian protests, “your visa should be provoked,” after she was asked about whether Khalil's green card should be revoked.She also said that “if you come into our country, it is a privilege, and it is an absolute privilege to be a United States citizen.” Newsmax, *The National Report*, [3/10/25]
Fox News’ Aishah Hasnie said the Trump administration has to “send a message” and “make an example of somebody” to get college protests to end. Hasnie continued, “You can’t keep behaving this way, especially if the universities don't do anything about it.” Co-anchor John Roberts commented that the student protests are “trespassing at the very least along with potentially giving support and comfort to a terrorist organization.” Fox News, *America’s Newsroom*, [3/10/25]
Right-wing radio host Hugh Hewitt called Khalil’s arrest “a warning shot as well to anyone supporting Hamas,” despite admitting the government has “not produced evidence showing he has made a specific statement of support of Hamas.” Hewitt explained that the Trump administration is testing the waters with Khalil, saying, “I think they've begun with Mr. Khalil. He has the highest level of protection that a noncitizen can have, legal permanent resident.” Fox News, *America’s Newsroom*, [3/11/25]
OnFox & Friends, co-host Lawrence Jones noted to attorney Chris Swecker that Trump administration officials “haven't even explored the criminal element” regarding Khalil yet. Swecker argued that “they need to go further” and stated that the arrest “sends the right message,” adding, “Resources need to be devoted to this, and I think this is just the beginning, Lawrence. I think this was just a shot across the bow.” Fox News, *Fox & Friends*, [3/11/25]
Fox host Brian Kilmeade warned, “Students, you are going to lose,” due to the Trump administration’s “relentless” actions, adding that no Democrat is “going to stand up for you.” Jones, added, “If the Democrats want to make this kid their martyr, I don’t think it’s going to go well for them. I want them to target the rest of them.” Fox News, *Fox & Friends*, [3/11/25]
On Newsmax, The Daily Wire’s Andrew Klavin said that Khalil is “better off getting out of here” and he hopes “all the people who were with him who are not American nationals are sent home in a big, big hurry.” Host Rob Schmitt also called Khalil a “serious pro-Hamas agitator” and commented that he hopes ICE “can get this guy and many more out of this country.” Newsmax, *Rob Schmitt Tonight*, [3/10/25]
Conservative writer Brigitte Gabriel celebrated the arrest on X, stating “ONE DOWN!” Twitter/X, [3/9/25]
During a panel discussion of Khalil’s case,The Fiveco-host Greg Gutfeld claimed, “You can deport him. He doesn't have to be a criminal.” Gutfeld also baselessly claimed that Khalil “has seen some USAID money.” Fox News, *The Five*, [3/11/25]
Fox News host Laura Ingraham claimed, “There are a lot more Mahmoud Khalil's out there.”She added, “And they are living here. They are working here. They are studying here on student visas, on work visas, and it is their goal — the left's goal — to normalize this notion of foreigners coming here and then advocating for the overthrow of our government.” Fox News, *The Ingraham Angle*, [3/11/25]
//
04/25/24
04/24/24
### Right-wing media equate Palestinian flag with Nazism and support for Hamas
12/14/23
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mma
Laura Ingraham celebrates far-right AfD party's surge in Germany
02/24/25
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Right-wing media cheer Trump's anti-Christian bias task force after years of laying the groundwork
Right-wing commentators have spent years claiming that the Biden administration was “waging spiritual warfare against Christianity” and that “the left wants to drive Christians out of the public square”
Written by Payton Armstrong
Published 02/27/25 mma
A task force created by President Donald Trump to eradicate alleged “anti-Christian bias” is drawing praise from right-wing media figures — some of whom have spent years baselessly claiming that Christians are a persecuted group in the United States, even though experts say there’s no such widespread bias.
Right-wing commentators celebrated Trump’s task force as “a cultural resurgency” and declared that “this is the counter-revolution against their color revolution that occurred in the summer of 2020.”
In one instance, Christian nationalist media figure Lance Wallnau joined Steve Bannon’s podcast to praise the task force as the first step in the “recapturing of institutions,” naming education, media, business, and government among the institutions he wants to infuse with “the ideas of Western civilization, which is the ideas of Christian civilization.” This appears to be a reference to the Seven Mountain Mandate popularized by Wallnau, which instructs Christians to impose fundamentalist values on American society by conquering the “seven mountains” of cultural influence in American life: government, education, media, religion, family, business, and entertainment.
Experts have argued “there is no widespread anti-Christian bias in our society" and that Trump’s anti-Christian bias task force is actually “enshrining Christian privilege in our society.”
Trump issued an executive order on “eradicating anti-Christian bias,” but experts say “there is no widespread anti-Christian bias in our society”
Trump first announced the task force during a speech at the National Prayer Breakfast in early February, saying it will “protect Christians” and bring “our country back together as one nation under God,” and he later issued an executive order listing examples of supposed bias under the Biden administration.The executive order — titled “Eradicating Anti-Christian Bias” — claimed that “the previous Administration engaged in an egregious pattern of targeting peaceful Christians, while ignoring violent, anti-Christian offenses.” The executive order claimed, “The Biden Department of Justice sought to squelch faith in the public square by bringing Federal criminal charges and obtaining in numerous cases multi-year prison sentences against nearly two dozen peaceful pro-life Christians for praying and demonstrating outside abortion facilities.” The Hill, [2/6/25; White House, 2/6/25]
The Associated Press reported that “critics said Trump is claiming to see persecution in distorted case descriptions, a calendar coincidence and other situations that, while raising concerns, don’t add up to a pattern.”As noted by the Associated Press, “Christianity is by far the largest faith in America, and Christian conservatives have a strong grip on the levers of government.” The Associated Press, [2/13/25]|}:
On CNN, religious extremism expert Matthew Taylor argued “there is no widespread anti-Christian bias in our society,” noting that claims of anti-Christian persecution can “become a pretext for them persecuting actual minority groups.”Taylor urged that “we need to recognize that there is no widespread anti-Christian bias in our society,” and said, “It's striking that given the widespread realities of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, and as you said, mosques and synagogues tend to have more attacks than churches per capita, there's no task force on rooting out anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. Instead, this is enshrining Christian privilege in our society.” CNN, *CNN Newsroom*, [2/9/25]
Multiple Republican-led states have moved to require Bible instruction or a display of the Ten Commandments in all public schools.Last year, Louisiana became the first state to require all public schools to display the Ten Commandments. Soon after, Oklahoma’s state superintendent directed all public schools to teach the Bible, including the Ten Commandments, and conservative media figures promoted the policy as a way to “impose Christian values” and encouraged other states to follow suit. At the start of the 2025 legislative session, Alabama Republican lawmakers proposed mandates to display the Ten Commandments in public schools and give students the “opportunity to participate in daily prayer” or risk losing some state funding. PBS, [6/19/24; New York Times, 6/27/24; Media Matters, 7/8/24; AL.com, 2/15/25]
Right-wing media and extreme anti-LGBTQ groups have a long history of conflating criticism of anti-LGBTQ positions with anti-Christian hostility.They’ve said that Democratic senators have anti-Christian bias for questioning federal judicial nominees’ anti-LGBTQ statements or ties to bigoted groups, and they’ve described basic legal protections for LGBTQ people as anti-Christian. Media Matters, [11/8/19, 5/20/14]
### During the Biden administration, right-wing media personalities baselessly claimed Christians were targeted by the government and “the left”
* When Transgender Day of Visibility coincided with Easter in 2024, right-wing media figures — especially on Fox News and Newsmax — claimed that the Biden administration was attacking Christians.Right-wing media used the day to warn Christians that they were under attack after Biden’s statements recognizing Transgender Day of Visibility, with Fox’s Jesse Watters arguing that Biden is “waging spiritual warfare against Christianity.” Between Fox and Newsmax, the networks combined aired more than 4 hours of coverage and nearly 80 segments, slamming Biden for his “demonic” remarks which they said amounted to an “attack on Christian faith.” Media Matters, [4/2/24, 4/2/24]
On his network, former Fox News star Tucker Carlson hosted anti-abortion protester Paul Vaughn — who was arrested for blocking access to a clinic — and falsely claimed that Vaughn was facing prison time for merely singing hymns and praying.Carlson said that Vaughn “had dared to pray and sing hymns in the hallway of an abortion clinic. In other words he did what the Biden administration really fears, he prayed. And for doing that, he faces 11 years in prison.” USA Today fact checked Carlson’s claim, noting that: “Vaughn was arrested for physically obstructing access to an abortion clinic, not for praying,” highlighting that “the law in question explicitly protects First Amendment speech and also includes language ensuring free access to houses of worship.” [Tucker Carlson Network, *Tucker Carlson [vid] Uncensored,
; USA Today, 4/1/24]
Carlson again falsely claimed that Vaughn was facing felony charges “from the Biden administration for praying at an abortion clinic and daring to sing hymns,” adding that “from the perspective of the people who run the country there’s really just one enemy, and that’s faithful Christians.”During a Tucker Carlson Uncensored clip posted on X, Carlson said: “If you’re interested in who they really hate, well, look at what's happening. So Christian churches across the country have been burning and no one in the government is doing anything about it. Look at how Christian churches were treated during Covid … we talked the other day to a guy who is facing 11 years in prison, federal felony charges from the Biden administration, for praying at an abortion clinic and daring to sing hymns. So if you are a faithful Christian — not a fake Christian, David French Christian, but an actual Christian, of the kind this country has always had, of the kind this country was created to harbor actually — you are seen as an enemy by the people who run it.” Twitter/X, [4/18/24]|}:
Fox host Laura Ingraham repeatedly lamented the supposed anti-Christian bias of the Biden administration, including in an interview with Vaughn where she suggested that “singing hymns and peacefully expressing your traditional Christian beliefs can get you thrown behind bars.” During the interview, Ingraham’s show displayed a chyron that read: “Liberals fighting to wipe out Christian values.” FoxNews.com, [1/31/24]|}:
Ingraham also complained that then-Attorney General Merrick Garland was not addressing a “growing anti-Christian bias in the United States and criminal activity geared towards Christians.” The chyron read “to the left, Christians are the emerging enemy” and Ingraham claimed that “pro-life centers across the country” and “churches have been attacked,” adding that to the left, “if you’re a Christian, a bible-believing Christian, you’re a terrorist.” Fox News, *The Ingraham Angle*, [3/29/23]
Following a deadly shooting at a Christian private school in Nashville, Tennessee, Ingraham claimed the Biden White House and “the left” had been “ginning up anti-Christian sentiment” by allegedly teaching kids “to treat Christians as haters and mortal threats to their existence.”Ingraham told her audience: “Isn’t it also the case that the left in America — and even this White House — is ginning up, without saying the words necessarily, but ginning up anti-Christian sentiment by referring to trans activists as heroes and their bravery for standing up against the intolerant class, the haters. So these kids are learning to treat Christians as haters and mortal threats to their existence.” Fox News, *The Ingraham Angle*, [4/11/23; Media Matters, 4/12/23]|}:
Sean Davis, CEO of The Federalist, argued that by charging anti-abortion protesters under the FACE ACT, “the Biden regime clearly desires to make being a pro-life Christian a crime.” As documented by Media Matters, anti-abortion figures baselessly accused the Biden Department of Justice of weaponizing the FACE Act against protestors convicted of harassment at abortion clinics. Twitter/X, [6/21/24; Media Matters, 6/11/24]|}:
### Right-wing media spent years launching hyperbolic accusations of Christian persecution, especially amid growing LGBTQ inclusion
When the European parliament displayed an LGBTQ Jesus, Steve Bannon lamented that “the Judeo-Christian West” is “anti-Christian by its leadership,” suggesting there will be “Diocletian” level persecution.He warned: “If you're prepared to accept it, it's going to get first-century Rome anti— it's going to get Diocletian. You're going to get to Diocletian anti-Christian and you're going to get there pretty quickly.” Real America’s Voice, *War Room*, [5/5/23; FoxNews.com, 5/7/23]
While hosting Jack Phillips — a Colorado baker who had been sued for refusing to make a trans-themed cake — Fox’s Laura Ingraham declared that “the left wants to drive Christians out of the public square.”Ingraham added: “You don't even have a right to have a small business if you're a Christian today. You certainly don't have any conscience right, you have no religious rights, you have no First Amendment rights, if you clash with what they believe to be, you know, the supremely protected among us.” Fox News, *The Ingraham Angle*, [1/30/23; Associated Press, 10/8/24]|}:
Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk has relentlessly claimed that Christian values in the U.S. are under attack, claiming that they could be thrown in prison.At a 2023 TPUSA pastor’s summit, Kirk warned pastors that “if we continue theological disputes and don't focus on liberty, then we're going to be having those theological disputes from prison.” Ahead of the 2024 election, Kirk claimed that pro-choice Democrats would “create a secret police that will audit, intimidate, raid every single” pregnancy center in the U.S., saying that when that happens, “we'll be like, wow, I really wish that we Christians would have bought ourselves a little more time so that our nonprofits, our leaders, wouldn't go to federal prison.” NPR, [10/24/24; Media Matters, 4/27/23; Real America’s Voice, The Charlie Kirk Show, 8/16/24]|}:
Tucker Carlson suggested that the “trans movement is targeting Christians,” citing the Covenant school shooting.Carlson claimed that “the trans movement is the mirror image of Christianity and therefore its natural enemy,” declaring that “Christianity and transgender orthodoxy” are on a “collision course” and claiming that “one side is likely to draw blood before the other side.” Rolling Stone, [3/28/23]|}:
On Fox News, Oklahoma state superintendent Ryan Walters lamented that a Harris/Walz administration would “trans the kids“ and “push all faith out of the public square,” as now-White House faith director Paula White-Cain bragged that Trump was “promising in his second term to do even more for Christians as he shares the same values.”White-Cain called for national “revival” and “turning our hearts back to God” and Walters declared that a Harris/Walz administration would be the “most anti-Christian administration in American history.” FoxNews.com, [8/10/24; Religion News Service, 2/21/25]|}:
On Sebastian Gorka’s Salem Media podcast, Breitbart’s Thomas Williams said that the U.S. is a “post-Christian society, but in many ways an anti-Christian society.”Gorka — who is now the counterterrorism chief in Trump’s administration — replied, “right,” and Williams added, “We are a Judeo-Christian nation by its foundation, and in the value system that understands what the family is, what society is.” Salem Media, *America First with Sebastian Gorka*, [6/14/23; CBS News, 1/7/25]|}:
* Fox host Emily Compagno labeled the U.S. an “anti-Christian, anti-Judeo-Christian society.”Compagno cited backlash to a graduation speech from Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker that reportedly attacked the LGBTQ community and told “women to forget about a career and serve their man instead.” Fox News, *Gutfeld!*, [6/11/24; OutSports, 5/13/24]
Former Trump DOJ official Jeff Clark told Bannon that a second Trump administration needed a “beefed up” religious liberty task force to fight anti-Christian sentiment in the U.S., citing a story he heard about a “school district that was prohibiting bus drivers even from wearing Christmas regalia.” Responding to a campaign speech where Trump pledged to create an anti-Christian bias task force if elected, Clark said: “That's wonderful to announce, especially in an increasingly anti-Christian world. I mean, I'd seen a story about a school district that was prohibiting bus drivers even from wearing Christmas regalia to entertain the students a little bit. I mean things have gone into bonkers land. And look, in the first Trump term, we did have a religious liberty task force. And I think we need an even more beefed up one.” Real America’s Voice, *War Room*, [12/20/23; Fox News, 12/19/23]|}:
### Right-wing media heaped praise on Trump’s task force, celebrating Trump “proudly defending our heritage as inheriting the values of the Bible”
Charlie Kirk applauded the task force’s creation, declaring that “this is the counter-revolution against their color revolution that occurred in the summer of 2020.” He said, “We are proudly defending our heritage as inheriting the values of the Bible,” adding, “This is a cultural resurgency. No longer should you be afraid to share your faith. No longer should you be afraid to share your political values. This is the counter-revolution against their color revolution that occurred in the summer of 2020, and it is ascendant.” Real America’s Voice, *The Charlie Kirk Show*, [2/6/25]
On her show, Ingraham celebrated that “we have a president who believes our nation has a divine destiny” and displayed a chyron declaring: “Trump restores faith in America.”Ingraham then hosted a teacher, Marisol Arroyo-Castro, who claimed she had been suspended for having a crucifix in her classroom. Ingraham told Arroyo-Castro that “they see you and your presence as a threat,” and said, “I don’t think it’s constitutional.” Fox News, *The Ingraham Angle*, [2/6/25; CT Insider, 1/30/25]
Praising the task force announcement, right-wing commentator Michael Knowles said, “I love that he [Trump] is saying anti-Christian hostility, anti-Christian bias in the government” rather than “squish Republicans” who say “we want to just generally and universally speaking protect all religions.”Knowles elaborated, saying, “There aren't really threats against all general religions kind of broadly, man. That's not the problem. America wasn't founded on the principles of just kind of all the religions generally, universally, man. The specific problem that we saw explode during the Biden administration was bias against Christians. … That's the problem that has to be addressed, and that's the specific problem Trump is addressing, and I love it.” Daily Wire, *The Michael Knowles Show*, [2/7/25]
Steve Bannon celebrated the announcement and hosted media figure Lance Wallnau — a “prophet” and self-described Christian nationalist — with the two discussing right-wing Christians’ “recapturing of institutions” including “education, of media, of business, of government.”Bannon and Wallnau discussed how the task force can be used “to seize the institutions of the federal government” with “the ideas of Western civilization, which is the ideas of Christian civilization.” Wallnau said that “there are three arteries that make this happen: legislation, litigation, and the shaping of public opinion,” adding, “because people like you, as long as we can shape the public opinion, the secret sauce is you've got to work with the awakening that's happening and move with it in such a way that you litigate and you legislate, but never get too far ahead of public persuasion.” Real America’s Voice, *War Room*, [2/7/25; Media Matters; 9/27/24; Rolling Stone, 9/29/22]|}:
Video
Citation
From the February 7, 2025, edition of Real America's Voice's War Room
After Trump’s speech announcing his intent to create a task force, Bannon suggested that the president needs to “make sure they're going throughout the government because the administrative state is absolutely anti-Christian,” claiming that “the deep state is demonic.” Real America's Voice's chief White House correspondent Brian Glenn added, “Certainly we have seen how demonic this previous administration has been in terms of allowing religious freedom.” Real America’s Voice, *War Room*, [2/6/25]
Fox host Jeanine Pirro praised the task force’s creation and attacked the FBI and the Biden administration for supposedly targeting Catholics, a claim that was found to be baseless after an internal investigation.Pirro noted that Trump “went to two prayer breakfasts this morning and he talked about eradicating anti-Christian bias,” and complained about “when the FBI director Christopher Wray came out and really told us no one at the FBI was targeting Christians and Senator Hawley came out and they found that leaked memo that the FBI was investigating Catholics and priests were gone to so they could then inform on parishioners who were considered domestic terrorists.” The New York Times reported that “Republicans claimed the bureau’s memo was evidence of an anti-conservative strain among F.B.I. ranks, but an internal investigation failed to uncover any ‘malicious intent.’” Fox News, *The Five*, [2/6/25; New York Times, 4/18/24]|}:
//
### Trump and his MAGA allies increasingly embrace extreme prophetic media
05/30/24
10/18/24
07/08/24
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MMA
Laura Ingraham sounded the alarm about the need for Congress to assert its authority against a “tyrant” “would-be dictator” in the White House — in 2014
Shockingly, Laura Ingraham and her Fox News colleagues’ concerns about executive orders may vary depending on which party holds the White House
Written by Alicia Sadowski, Jane Lee, Isabella Corrao & Helena Hind
Research contributions from Chloe Simon & Sage Hodil
Published 02/14/25
The beginning of President Donald Trump's second term have featured an aggressive and legally dubious expansion of executive power. A piece by the New York Times editorial board warning of a potential constitutional crisis said, “President Trump is trying to expand his authority beyond the bounds of the law while reducing the ability of the other branches to check his excesses.” While Fox News personalities have been celebrating Trump's authoritarian impulses, they previously characterized executive actions during the terms of former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden as “fascistic" and “dictatorial."
Laura Ingraham’s words were particularly acute, warning of the “homegrown tyranny” of a “king.”
In a 2014 blog post that Media Matters unearthed from an archive of Ingraham’s website, and which appears not to have been previously reported, she implored Congress to use “traditional instruments of Congressional authority.” Echoing current criticisms of Trump's unconstitutional barrage, Ingraham wrote: “Stop yielding more and more power to a man who evidently feels that there are no legal constraints on his authority to rewrite our laws and our Constitution.” She also wrote that, “The issue now is whether Congressional Republicans will knuckle under to the President, or whether they will act to protect our freedoms, our sovereignty, and our system of government.”
Ingraham and her Fox colleagues decried an “imperial presidency” and was a president who was a “tyrant”
Then-radio personality, now current Fox News host Laura Ingraham claimed Obama wanted “to just be king for a day” and was “annoyed with the checks on his power.”Mediaite, [1/28/14]
In a “Shut Up & Blog” post on her website, Ingraham repeatedly called Obama a “tyrant” and “would-be dictator,” and instructed Congress to restrict his power using “traditional instruments of Congressional authority.” Lauraingraham.com via archive.org, [11/19/14, accessed 2/12/25]
Ingraham wrote:
Going forward, there should be no question of giving the tyrant any more power, such as the power to negotiate binding new trade agreements that could affect an array of U.S. laws and regulations. And every spending measure should be carefully scrutinized to ensure that Congress is not giving the tyrant more power that he can abuse to the long-term detriment of this country. The tyrant's appointees should be subject to close and careful scrutiny, as the history of the last few years proves that they are motivated by partisanship and they cannot be trusted to cooperate voluntarily.
…
It's time to govern, and stop yielding more and more power to a man who evidently feels that there are no legal constraints on his authority to rewrite our laws and our Constitution. The Founders knew that it was possible for a charismatic would-be dictator to win his way into the White House, and they gave Congress and the states lots of weapons to defend themselves against such a tyrant. There's no point now in bemoaning the fact that our President wants to be a tyrant – he is what he is. The issue now is whether Congressional Republicans will knuckle under to the President, or whether they will act to protect our freedoms, our sovereignty, and our system of government.
Ingraham likened Obama's immigration action to “homegrown tyranny” of a “king.”Ingraham continued: “Memo to the Republicans: You must resist homegrown tyranny. This is the closest thing I have ever seen in my lifetime to soft dictatorship.” Courtside Entertainment Group, *The Laura Ingraham Show*, [11/20/14]
Video
From the November 20, 2014 edition of Courtside Entertainment Group's The Laura Ingraham Show
LAURA INGRAHAM (HOST): Imagine if that's just what we started to do. What do you think the Democrats would do? Well, let's — let's — let's expand it out to social issues. Oh, well, we have a lot of people who believe that their First Amendment rights have been violated in protesting near abortion clinics, prayerful protests. You know something? I know the Supreme Court has said this, that, or the other thing. And I know some of these, localities and states, they have some view about how close you can get to the front of an abortion clinic.
But you know something? We're I'm actually, as president, as the king — as the new king, I am going to establish my own boundary, my own limitation because I think it's unfair for these people who've had their First Amendment rights trampled upon to be kept out of a particular zone of privacy. So I'm gonna give a reprieve to them for any prosecution. No federal prosecution. No federal penalties. No federal anything.
We can keep doing this. I can keep going down a list, and you could do it with Obamacare. As king, the new king, new Republican king, I'm gonna say any individual that chooses not to buy health insurance, guess what? You're not gonna be subject to that IRS penalty. You're not gonna be subject to extra withholding. You are not gonna be penalized in any way because the system is broken.
Congress hasn't done what I demand that it do, which is to repeal Obamacare. So I, as the chief executive, am going to prod Congress along. And when you do what you're supposed to do, Congress, then my executive order, I'm gonna rip it up. Obamacare, First Amendment issues, environmental issues, taxation issues. Where does this environmental issues, taxation issues. Where does this end? Does it ever end? At what point do we roll back this homegrown tyranny?
I wrote a piece on the website, how the GOP must resist this homegrown tyranny. Must. Not — not might, not maybe, must. And this means every element of resistance must be employed. I know everyone is going to jump to impeach, impeach, impeach.
I mean, you could impeach the president in the House of Representatives, you're not gonna be convicted in the Senate. Not gonna happen. Okay? So you could impeach the — I — I'm — I'm — I've not not been in favor of that. I don't think I think he's that would be his his saving grace.
You impeach Obama, that's the biggest gift you can give Obama. That is he he's begging you to impeach him. I mean, at this point, that would be the only thing I could see that would rescue Obama is an impeachment proceeding.
Ingraham: “For eight years, George W. Bush, the establishment of the GOP, was mute during the tyranny of the Obama administration.” Fox News, *The Ingraham Angle,*[3/6/18]
Video
From the March 6, 2018, edition of Fox News' The Ingraham Angle
Van Susteren and Karl Rove wondered if Obama was “acting like a dictator” because of his immigration executive orders.Fox News, *On the Record*, [1/14/14]
Host Sean Hannity said Obama had instituted an “imperial presidency” and was ruling by “executive fiat.” Fox News, *On the Record with Greta van Susteren*, [1/28/14]
GRETA VAN SUSTEREN (HOST): All right. Well, you just heard Laura Ingraham say that the president is annoyed and refers to his imperial presidency.
SEAN HANNITY (GUEST): I agree. She is 100% right. You know, we have separation of powers, coequal branches of government. For example, if Congress passes a law and the president signs it into law. Like Obamacare, he cannot unilaterally just decide oh, I'm not going to abide by certain provisions of the law.
…
I think they can complain. I think they got to use the courts. I think they need to speak more loudly. I think they need to inform people that we have coequal branches of government. I want louder voices. Because here's the problem, if you have an imperial presidency, he's ruling by executive fiat. That is not how our framers designed our Constitution and our Constitution matters. Otherwise we are shredding it
. We shred it and the country itself is hurt.
### During the Biden administration, Biden was called a “dictator” for issuing executive orders
Fox host Sean Hannity: “With the stroke of the pen, we’re losing tens of thousands of jobs. We've got governance by executive order on a level we have never seen in our history.”Fox News, *Hannity*, [2/1/21]
Video
From the February 1, 2021, edition of Fox News'Hannity
SEAN HANNITY (HOST): Senator, you see the agenda. With the stroke of a pen, we're losing tens of thousands of job. We got governance by executive order on a level we've never seen in our history. We have trouble getting the COVID vaccine out to people. We have some real problems in the country. And on top of that, they're gonna now offer amnesty to 11 million people or path to amnesty at a time when Americans are out of work at the highest levels because of the pandemic and now because of the stroke of a pen of Joe Biden. What do they do? What do Republicans do to counter this to keep these jobs?
Host Mark Levin: “Biden's over 40 executive orders and actions violates separation of powers. We don't have a president who dresses up legislation as an executive order.”Fox News, *Hannity*, [2/3/21]
Hannity: “Joe’s ruling by executive order is basically ignoring an entire branch of government.”Fox News, *Hannity*, [2/5/21]
Co-host Lisa Boothe said Biden was “acting as a tyrant” for signing an executive order protecting access to reproductive healthcare following the overturning of Roe v. Wade.Boothe stated: “He's essentially acting as a tyrant, not wanting to respect the Supreme Court.” Fox News, *Outnumbered,*[7/8/22; CNN, 7/8/22]
Video
Citation
From the July 8, 2022, edition of Fox News' Outnumbered
Levin said Biden has “perfected the ability to rule like a dictator” by signing a historic number of executive orders.Westwood One, *The Mark Levin Show*, [9/23/22]
Levin also claimed that forgiving student debt via executive order is “unconstitutional,” “fascistic,” and “dictatorial.”He stated: “When Joe Biden issues an executive order giving up debt that is owed to the United States taxpayer, that is an unconstitutional act, that is a fascistic act by an out-of-control man who thinks he's got this kind of power … these kinds of dictatorial powers.” Westwood One, *The Mark Levin Show*, [2/28/23]
Mark Levin calls Joe Biden's student loan debt forgiveness "fascistic” and “dictatorial”
February 28, 2023
Audio
From the February 28, 2023, edition of Westwood One's The Mark Levin Show
MARK LEVIN (HOST): President doesn't have any powers of this kind. None. And so when Joe Biden issues an executive order, giving up debt that is owed to the United States taxpayer, that is an unconstitutional act. That is a fascistic act by an out of control man who thinks he's got this kind of power. He signs executive orders left and right. And of course, he's cheered by the Marxists in the country, whether they be historians or media types or nut jobs in Congress. They hate the Constitution to begin with. But then they claim the Constitution gives a president these kinds of dictatorial powers.
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mma Laura Ingraham calls Massachusetts “a hotbed of child predators”
02/13/25
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MMA
As the Trump administration effectively shuts down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Fox News is near silent
Written by Harrison Ray
Research contributions from John Knefel
Published 02/10/25
Fox News has mentioned the Consumer FInancial Protection Bureau only a handful of times since Russell Vought, a key architect of Project 2025, took over as acting director on February 7.
Last week, President Donald Trump appointed Russell Vought — a principal architect of Project 2025 who had been confirmed by the Senate to lead the Office of Management and Budget — as the acting director of the CFPB. Upon assuming his role, Vought ordered the CFPB's 1,700 employees to cease nearly all work and closed the agency's headquarters on February 10. He also halted approval processes for proposed rules, ongoing investigations, and public communications, effectively neutralizing the bureau's operations. Vought's actions so far at CFPB tracks the stated objectives for the bureau in Project 2025, a conservative policy blueprint designed to hollow out federal agencies.
The CFPB, established in 2011 after the 2008 financial crisis in an effort to protect consumers from predatory financial practices, has long been a target for conservatives who view it as a site of government overreach. Dismantling the agency removes essential safeguards for Americans, like the Biden-era protections against surprise overdraft fees, reforms to the student loan servicing market, transformations in mortgage lending rules, and the enforcement of repayments to victims of fraud from banks and money transmitters.
Despite the serious ramifications of Vought's appointment, from February 7, when he took over as acting director of the bureau, through 3 p.m. on February 10, Fox News almost entirely ignored the story. In total, the network personalities mentioned the CFPB just 5 times for a total of about 40 seconds.
Fox's coverage mostly centered around the announcement of Vought’s appointment, with little acknowledgement of the Project 2025 architect's imminent efforts to undermine the bureau.
## Methodology
Media Matters searched transcripts in the SnapStream video database for all original programming on Fox News Channel for any of the terms any of the terms “CFPB,” “consumer,” “financial,” “protection,” “bureau,” or “Vought,” or any variation of the term “Russ” from February 7, when Russell Vought took over as acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, through 3 p.m. on February 10, 2025.
We timed segments, which we defined as instances when the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is the stated topic of discussion, or when we find significant discussion of the bureau. We defined significant discussion as instances when two or more speakers in a multitopic segment discuss the bureau with one another.
We also timed mentions, which we defined as instances when a speaker mentions the bureau without another speaker in the segment engaging with the comment, and teasers, which we defined as instances when the anchor or host promotes a segment about the bureau scheduled to air later in the broadcast.
We rounded all times to the nearest minute.
// MMA
Project 2025 architect begins dismantling the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau following years of right-wing media attacks
Right-wing media have targeted the CFPB even as it has saved working Americans tens of billions of dollars
Written by John Knefel
Research contributions from Isabella Corrao
Published 02/11/25 MMA
The new head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — a former top architect in the controversial transition plan known as Project 2025 — reportedly told its employees on February 10 to “not perform any work tasks this week,” at least temporarily shuttering an agency that has been the target of right-wing media attacks for years.
Russ Vought, who also serves as the director of the Office of Management and Budget, wrote over the weekend that the CFPB “will not be taking its next draw of unappropriated funding because it is not 'reasonably necessary' to carry out its duties.”
The CFPB has saved working Americans tens of billions of dollars since it was founded in 2011, including more than $6 billion in annual overdraft fees alone from 2019-2023. Calling it “one of Wall Street’s most feared regulators,” The New York Times reported on February 9 that the bureau’s success has put it “squarely in the Trump administration’s cross hairs.”
It has clawed back $21 billion for consumers. It slashed overdraft fees, reformed the student loan servicing market, transformed mortgage lending rules and forced banks and money transmitters to compensate fraud victims.
It may no longer be able to carry out that work.
…
In less than 36 hours, Mr. Vought threw the agency into chaos. On Saturday, he ordered the bureau’s 1,700 employees to stop nearly all their work and announced plans to cut off the agency’s funding. Then on Sunday, he closed the bureau’s headquarters for the coming week. Workers who tried to retrieve their laptops from the office were turned away, employees said.
Now, Vought appears to be fulfilling a Project 2025 promise — and a longtime right-wing media goal — by taking an axe to the CFPB.
Vought and Project 2025 envision massive White House power grab
Prior to joining the Trump administration, Vought founded the Center for Renewing America, one of more that 100 conservative organizations on the advisory board of Project 2025. He also wrote the chapter in Project 2025’s policy book, Mandate for Leadership, on the Executive Office of the President of the United States, calling “to bend or break the bureaucracy to the presidential will.”
Vought laid bare Project 2025’s broad ambitions in a secretly recorded video last year, saying that he and his collaborators had prepared “about 350 different documents that are regulations and things of that nature that are — we’re planning for the next administration.”
The Trump administration has already begun following through on Project 2025’s goals, and dismantling the CFPB is no different. Mandate for Leadership refers to the bureau as a “highly politicized, damaging, and utterly unaccountable federal agency” that is “unconstitutional,” writing that the “next conservative President should order the immediate dissolution of the agency—pull down its prior rules, regulations and guidance, return its staff to their prior agencies and its building to the General Services Administration.”
In his dual role at the top of OMB and the CFPB, Vought is well-positioned to enact this sweeping agenda, and he is already taking steps that would amount to a massive power grab for Trump’s White House.
Vought and his colleagues at the Center for Renewing America are leading supporters of a radical theory that the executive branch can unilaterally refuse to spend money allocated by Congress. Toward that end, Vought issued an OMB memo that temporarily froze all federal funding. (The memo was later retracted after widespread backlash.)
Vought outlined his extreme vision for expansive control in a recent interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
Video
Citation
From the November 18, 2024, edition of The Tucker Carlson Show on The Tucker Carlson Network
“There are no independent agencies,” Vought said, specifically mentioning the CFPB among others. “So there may be different strategies with each one of them about how you dismantle them, but as an administration, the whole notion of an independent agency should be thrown out.”
Right-wing media have long attacked the CFPB
Right-wing media figures have targeted the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau since its inception in the wake of the Great Recession.
In 2015, The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board attacked the CFPB for its multiyear investigation into racially discriminatory car financing practices. The Journal’s board called the effort an “outrageous regulatory campaign” and called on Congress to implement additional hurdles to the CFPB’s enforcement capacity. The CFPB ultimately clawed back tens of millions of dollars for racial minorities who had been subject to higher-than-average loan rates across several lenders.
In November 2017, Fox News anchor Dana Perino invited a guest on to criticize the CFPB without disclosing that they represented clients opposed to the bureau’s regulations. Right-wing blog The Federalist published an article the same day with the headline: “This Is The Perfect Time To Destroy The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.” A day later on Fox News, never-Trump conservative Jonah Goldberg referred to the CFPB as a “hate crime against the Constitution.”
More recently, right-wing media figures targeted a Biden-era initiative at the CFPB that went after predatory credit card gouging schemes and other junk fees that cost working people in the United States more than $10 billion every year.
The Trump administration has already begun following through on Project 2025’s goals, and dismantling the CFPB is no different
“This morning he's [President Biden] talking about late fees, and he's talking about corporate America, and it's companies' fault that people are facing inflation,” Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo said. The next day she again criticized Biden’s focus on “late fees,” directing her viewers’ anger toward undocumented immigrants instead of credit card companies.
On February 5, Fox published an opinion piece calling for Trump to “delete Elizabeth Warren’s failed experiment once and for all,” claiming that “CFPB is doing more harm than good, and its dissolution is not just a policy preference but an economic necessity.”
As news of Vought’s takeover broke, several conservative outlets cheered what they saw as the demise of the CFPB. The Daily Wire framed Vought’s actions in its headline as the “Latest Trump Admin Move To Cut Government Waste.” Conspiracy theory website The Gateway Pundit celebrated: “The corrupt agency which was the ‘brainchild’ of Senator Elizabeth ‘Pocahontas’ Warren (D-MA) could be on its last legs.” The think tank Vought founded also weighed in, publishing a white paper titled: “The CFPB Should Be Shut Down.”
On Fox News, host Laura Ingraham defended the good name of several financial institutions against the intrusions of the CFPB.
“Now, to give you a sense of how partisan that place has become, in December its chief rushed to file several lawsuits against the payment platform Zelle, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo, alleging this amorphous failure to protect consumers,” Ingraham said. “It's ridiculous. And it amounts to another shakedown of business by anti-capitalist crusaders. That’s all it is.”
Video
Citation
From the February 10, 2025, edition of Fox News' The Ingraham Angle
Ingraham was a lonely voice at Fox News celebrating the news, despite network figures campaigning against the CFPB for years. A Media Matters study found that between Vought’s appointment to head the agency on February 7 and 3 p.m ET on February 10, “network personalities mentioned the CFPB just 5 times for a total of about 40 seconds.”
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mma see pardon trump anno 2 25
Right-wing media figures rushed to defend President Donald Trump’s decision to issue pardons or commutations to over 1,500 people who participated in the January 6 insurrection at the United States Capitol — including those convicted of violence against police.
They offered a number of arguments to support their defense: They baselessly claimed legal efforts to hold participants accountable were “show trials” or unfair compared to legal repercussions for the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, said the pardons are justified because of former President Joe Biden’s pardons, and diminished the violence on January 6 by recasting those criminally charged as “ordinary patriots.”
Other right-wing figures defended the clemency by noting that Trump had campaigned on the issue, declaring, “Promises made, promises kept."
Right-wing media figures spent years urging pardons for January 6 participants, which Trump granted on the first day of his second term
Trump issued pardons or commutations on the first day of his second term to over 1,500 participants in the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, including those convicted of violent offenses against law enforcement officers. Trump had stated ahead of his presidency that he intended to issue pardons to some January 6 participants “in the first hour” of his second term. The Associated Press, [1/21/25; The Guardian, 1/6/25]
Right-wing media figures have spent years creating a revisionist history of January 6, claiming that Trump supporters were “set up” and casting attempts to hold participants accountable as politically motivated. Right-wing media figures, initially led by former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, sought to downplay the extent of the day’s violence and substitute a revisionist counternarrative that declared January 6 participants as the victims of a false-flag operation perpetuated by the federal government. When participants were charged with crimes, right-wing figures suggested the prosecutions were evidence that “the major critics of the left have been targeted by lawfare” and referred to defendants as “political prisoners.” Media Matters, [5/21/24, 2/24/21, 1/3/24; The Associated Press, 1/4/24]
Right-wing media also specifically pushed for pardons for January 6 participants for years. Right-wing media figures have been defending January 6 participants since at least February 2022, suggesting that Trump should “pardon every January 6ther," or at least “pardon those people who were nonviolent on January 6.” Media Matters, [1/20/25, 1/10/25]
Prior to Trump’s issuance of the pardons, right-wing media lashed out against now-Vice President JD Vance, who told Fox News that violent January 6 defendants “obviously” should not be pardoned. Following Vance’s January 12 interview, where he suggested the pardons would be selective, right-wing media figures urged the president to “pardon everybody,” recycling claims that the Capitol riot was a “setup” by law enforcement. Media Matters, [1/28/25, 1/22/25]
## Right-wing media justified January 6 pardons by claiming that the government “showed mercy” or “nothing happened” to Black Lives Matter protestors in 2020
Right-wing media figures have continued to baselessly claim that Black Lives Matter protesters were treated with leniency compared to January 6 participants even though news outlets have debunked the claim and reported that over 17,000 arrests were made in the first two weeks of the BLM protests. Additionally, a reportfrom the City University of New York Law School’s Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility Clinic determined that the Trump administration engaged in an “aggressive assertion of federal jurisdiction” over the protests and that many of the federal penalties were “clearly harsher” than applicable state law.
Right-wing host Dan Bongino claimed that “the process used to target [J6ers] was clearly political,” arguing that “absolutely nothing happened” when BLM protestors allegedly attacked police at the White House. Bongino stated: “But there is zero doubt that when the White House was attacked by BLM and antifa and Secret Service agents and uniformed division officers I know personally were hurt and wounded, that absolutely nothing happened to these people at all. So you can have two simultaneous thoughts at the same time, and I want you to pay attention to this. You can and should say, ‘I am absolutely, resolutely against attacks on law enforcement for doing their job,’ period there. But I am also against a greater danger, which is a weaponized Justice Department that picks and chooses when they take this stuff seriously and targets political opponents for it. And that’s what happened here.” Rumble, *The Dan Bongino Show*, [1/22/25]
Fox News host Laura Ingraham complained about outrage over January 6 pardons, saying, “Where was their demand for jail time and their outrage when the George Floyd rioters burned down American cities?” Fox News, *The Ingraham Angle*, [1/21/25]
Defending the pardons, Fox host Sean Hannity falsely claimed that the government “never prosecuted” Black Lives Matter protestors for the 2020 protests. Hannity lamented that there were “574 riots in the summer of 2020, we had dozens of dead Americans, thousands of injured cops, billions in property damage, we have videotape evidence — they never prosecuted these people.” Premiere Radio Networks, *The Sean Hannity Show*, [1/22/25]
Right-wing pundit Larry Elder claimed that “absolutely nothing happened” to BLM protesters who attacked cops. Elder: “In the summer of 2020, you got people who were battering police officers and absolutely nothing happened to them.” Newsmax, *Rob Schmitt Tonight*, [1/21/25]
Fox host Jesse Watters praised the January 6 pardons while claiming that Democrats “showed mercy to BLM after they ransacked and firebombed cities.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [1/22/25]
Fox & Friendsco-host Lawrence Jones claimed that “there were no charges” for the BLM protests. Jones added: “So, I don't want anybody targeting cops. But I think what ended up happening, according to some of the reports, and I can pretty much confirm it, is when there was some debate going on who to pardon and they kept going back and forth and he said, just pardon them all. I'm not going to do this. If this is your effort to delay me getting the J6ers pardoned, the people that were overcharged, which a lot of legal scholars agree, then I'm just going to pardon them all.” Fox News, *Fox & Friends*, [1/23/25]
## Right-wing media justified the pardons by claiming that the January 6 trials were politically motivated and unfair and that the sentences were excessive
Watters praised Trump for issuing a pardon for a man who received 20 years for “punching a cop at a rally that got out of control,” adding, “These guys got squeezed into pleas.”He said: “We don't think you should be able to punch a cop in the face and get away with it, but 20 years is a long time for punching a cop in the face. And these guys got squeezed into pleas.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [1/22/25]
Fox host Will Cain claimed that investigations into January 6 participants were “an attempt to cook the books within the DOJ and the FBI to suggest that domestic terrorism was on the rise.” He also stated that, “Real people had their lives ruined. Real people sat and rotted in jail. And Donald Trump, today, for those real people, brought justice.” Fox News, *The Will Cain Show*, [1/21/25]
During Fox News’ inauguration coverage, Ingraham defended the pardons by claiming “these people were never had the real chance to put on a proper defense” and “documents were destroyed.” Ingraham noted Trump had granted “1,600 pardons for J6ers who were arrested,” adding, “And a lot of them were sentenced to two, three, four, five years in jail. His point is, documents were destroyed, which they were, and these people were never had the real chance to put on a proper defense. That was really big.” Mediaite, [1/20/25]
Ingraham also justified Trump pardoning participants because “a lot of them served years in jail already.” She added, “We know sex assaults of convicts are, you know, go to jail all across this country for a couple of years. Some of these people have been in jail for already four years.” Fox News, *The Ingraham Angle*, [1/22/25]
Former GOP congresswoman Michelle Bachmann said onFlashPointthat January 6 “was like a prayer meeting” and complained that there were “1,500 people who've been in jail serving time is far in excess of what murderers and rapists have to serve in jail.” Bachmann added, “People were preaching the gospel on the streets. It was like a family reunion. The happiest people you would ever see. There was no discontent on the Capitol Hill that day.” Victory Channel, *FlashPoint*, [1/21/25]
Right-wing conspiracy theorist Mike Cernovich wrote, “Not one J6’er got a real trial so Trump had to release them all.” He added, “Anyone who has a problem with this can talk to the judges and prosecutors who did Stalin era show trials.” Twitter/X, [1/21/25; Media Matters, 8/21/18]
Right-wing figure Dinesh D’Souza, who has pushed election denial conspiracy theories, called the pardons in an X post “a just outcome” because the trials were “show trials.” He also claimed that “when the process is thoroughly corrupted, everyone is presumed innocent after the fact.” Twitter/X, [1/21/25; Media Matters, 5/4/22]
Former Fox host Bill O’Reilly claimed that “there was prosecutorial misconduct directed at some people who got into this fracas and got punished far beyond their crime.” Premiere Radio Networks, *The Sean Hannity Show*, [1/24/25]
## Right-wing media figures compared Trump’s pardons to Biden’s preemptive pardons for potential targets of the Trump administration
Prior to exiting the White House, then-President Joe Biden issued pardons for Dr. Anthony Fauci, retired Gen. Mark Milley, members of the House January 6 committee, and several of his family members in an attempt to protect them against potential reprisals by the incoming Trump administration. Following Trump’s January 6 pardons, right-wing media figures have equated the pardons issued by Biden and Trump, ignoring that the Trump administration had publicly telegraphed its intent to target many of those pardoned by Biden.
OnFox Noticias, co-host Julie Banderas questioned why the media is “so focused on the Jan. 6 pardons and not the criminal pardons granted by Joe Biden.” Fox Deportes, *Fox Noticias*, [1/22/25]
Discussing the potential political fallout of Trump pardoning January 6 participants convicted of violence, Newsweek deputy opinion editor Batya Ungar-Sargon invoked Biden’s preemptive pardons. She said that “what Biden did in terms of pardoning was so utterly egregious and is going to become a massive albatross around the neck of his party in a way that these really aren't for Donald Trump.” The Free Press, *Honestly with Bari Weiss*, [1/24/25]
Fox anchor Bret Baier likened Biden's preemptive pardons of his family to Trump's pardon of January 6 participants, saying, “What about that, the pardon back and forth between the two presidents?” Fox News, *Special Report with Bret Baier*, [1/21/25]
## Right-wing media figures glossed over violent offenses by January 6 participants, saying Trump pardoned nonviolent “ordinary patriots” who were set up by law enforcement
Right-wing media figures have justified Trump’s blanket January 6 pardons by glossing over pardons for those convicted of seditious conspiracy or violent crimes. Approximately 140 police officers were injured that day, and several armed individuals and extremist groups were present.
Newsmax’s Greg Kelly excused the pardons as “Donald Trump pardon[ing] vulnerable, not very powerful, regular, ordinary patriots” and claimed that “to the extent he [Enrique Tarrio] did anything wrong, it was a setup, a total and complete setup.” Kelly claimed that Trump pardoned the vulnerable and powerless. He also argued that Tarrio — the leader of the Proud Boys who was convicted of seditious conspiracy — was “just a guy who was being a guy, exercising his constitutional rights.” Newsmax, *Greg Kelly Reports*, [1/20/25; NBC News, 1/22/25]
Lawrence Jones suggested Trump pardoned people who “didn’t attack officers" or engage in “any actual violence,” failing to mention that several of the pardons went to those who did attack officers. While discussing Trump’s January 6 pardons, Jones alluded to the fact that both Trump and Vance previously implied the pardons would be for people who “didn’t attack officers, if there wasn’t any actual violence.” Fox News, *Fox & Friends First*, [1/21/25]
Fox News legal editor Kerri Urbahn failed to note that violent offenders were also pardoned when she emphasized “incredibly harsh sentences and penalties for mostly, for most of them, relatively minor offenses." Instead, she highlighted what she implied was over sentencing of “relatively minor offenses like trespassing, misdemeanors, and the like” and called the pardons “great.” Fox News, *Fox & Friends*, [1/21/25]
Lara Logan, who has pushed conspiracy theories, responded to a post about Stewart Rhodes, leader of the Oath Keepers militia, receiving a pardon and wrote that he was “set-up” and “it was complete BS.” Twitter/X, [1/21/25; CBS News, 1/22/25; Media Matters, 3/28/22, 10/21/22]
## Right-wing media figures defended the clemency as a campaign promise Trump fulfilled: “Promises made, promises kept”
Rumble host Donald Trump Jr. shared a video of Trump signing the pardons, commenting, “Promises Made, Promises Kept… And we are only just starting.”He also posted, “President Trump has just signed an executive order granting full pardons to about 1,500 J6 prisoners!” Twitter/X, [1/20/25]
Pro-Trump troll Laura Loomer posted, “God bless the J6 patriots and President Trump for pardoning them! Promises made, promises kept!” Twitter/X, [1/20/25]
OnOutnumbered, Fox News contributor Steve Hilton said, “The Trump pardon, whatever you think of them, it's the delivery of an election promise.” He added, “He said he would do this in pretty much every rally. He’s doing what he said. Biden said he would never do anything like this. It's the exact opposite. Trump is doing what he said. Biden is doing the opposite of what he said.” Fox News, *Outnumbered*, [1/21/25]
Lawrence Jones celebrated the clemency: “Promises made, promises kept on day 1.” He said of Trump: “I think he made pretty clear and JD Vance kind of doubled down on it, if you didn't attack officers, if there wasn't actual violence, and you were caught up within the system, you were overcharged, you’ve done enough time, and he — promises made, promises kept on day 1.” Fox News, *Fox & Friends*, [1/21/25]
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mma
09/27/24
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mma 9 24
Fox News is helping Republicans spin fracking as a major election issue
The network mentioned fracking 544 times in the lead-up to Kamala Harris’ CNN interview
Special ProgramsClimate & Energy
Written by Allison Fisher
Research contributions from Ilana Berger
Published 09/05/24
Fox News is helping the right elevate fracking as a supposedly major election issue by continuing to litigate Kamala Harris’ position even after she and her campaign have stated that she no longer supports a ban on the natural gas extraction procedure. By keeping the focus on Harris’ position, Fox is distracting from important context about the controversial technique and its relevance to voters.
According to Axios, shortly after Harris announced her bid for the presidency, Republicans started “circulating Harris' endorsement of a fracking ban during her short-lived 2019 White House run — even though she walked it back after becoming President Biden's running mate.”
Then, during the August 29 joint CNN interview with Harris and running mate Tim Walz, one of the first questions from Dana Bash was about her position on fracking, with the CNN anchor describing it as “a pretty big issue, particularly in your must-win state of Pennsylvania.”
An analysis by Media Matters found that from July 27, when Kamala Harris’ campaign stated that she does not support a ban on fracking, to the August 29 interview, Fox News mentioned fracking 544 times, compared to CNN’s 201 mentions and MSNBC’s 30.
Because Fox is driving the discussion around fracking, it has often focused on whether Harris supports the practice and how her position would affect her electability in Pennsylvania.
News networks would better serve their audiences by explaining the climate impacts or local environmental threats associated with fossil fuel extraction, how local voters actually feel about fracking, how energy both clean and fossil fuel-based has fared under the Biden-Harris administration, and even whether a presidential candidate could actually ban fracking.
## Fox News shows no sign of stopping its attacks on Harris’ fracking position even as both she and her campaign have stated she doesn’t support a ban
Fox News has suggested that Harris will be hostile to the oil and gas industry regardless of her stated position.
On the August 15 edition of Fox & Friends, co-host Ainsley Earhardt said, “She wanted to ban fracking, her entire career. Now all of a sudden she’s saying I’m not gonna ban fracking. … She wants to get into the White House on January 20 … and then not change anything. She wants to go so liberal. So just don’t get caught up in her flip-flops, because she does not believe this in her heart. She is — look at her voting record.”
On The Ingraham Angle, Fox host Jeanine Pirro suggested that Harris has not changed her fracking position from 2019, saying: “That was just five years ago. Kamala's agenda was clear as day. Radical and progressive. But suddenly she doesn't believe in any of that anymore,” listing positions including fracking. “Will the real Kamala Harris please stand up? … How can the Trump campaign ensure that voters see the real Harris?”
Pirro’s guest, former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy added: “So it doesn’t matter if she changes her words. We know what her actions are.”
After Fox & Friends aired a clip of Harris talking about fracking, guest Andre Beliveau of the Commonwealth Foundation said, “She can backtrack or flip-flop all she wants. The record of the Biden-Harris administration the last four years is quite clear and that record has included — I mean, it's been Green New Deal-ism. It has been a pause on LNG exports.”
After Harris’ CNN interview, some Fox News figures said her position on fracking can’t be trusted.
While the interview was still airing, Pirro and Fox contributor Joe Concha attacked the vice president’s response on Hannity, with Concha claiming that “she's lying” about her position on fracking. The following day,Fox & Friends co-host Lawrence Jones questioned whether she was just going along with Biden’s position and would ultimately revert back to her 2019 stance.
The network also helped spread misinformation aboutBiden’s position on fracking in 2020, and it dominated the conversation then too.
During the week leading up to that election, the network also pushed the false narrative that Pennsylvania would likely be won or lost depending on how voters interpreted the candidates’ stance on fracking. And during the 2022 midterms elections, Fox attacked Pennsylvania Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman for his stance on fracking,conflating his previous support for a fracking moratorium — a temporary prohibition — with an outright, permanent ban.
Even though the playbook has been exposed, Fox News continues to use it to shape the national media coverage of the issue.
## Rather than obsessing about her position, networks could provide valuable context about fracking
* Presidents cannot ban fracking on private and state land, where the vast majority – 90% – of fracked-gas production is done. “While there are several ways Harris, if elected president, could halt fracking on federal lands using executive power, she wouldn’t be able to unilaterally ban it on private land,” Bloomberg explains. “Under a 2005 law, the Environmental Protection Agency has almost no regulatory power over fracking. Changing that would require an act of Congress.” Bloomberg, [7/27/24; PolitiFact, 9/1/20]
Under the Biden-Harris administration, U.S. oil and gas production is at an all-time high – including in Pennsylvania — and its policies are supporting major energy projects in the state. As reported by Axios, the state is “part of the multibillion-dollar hydrogen ‘hubs’ program under the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law,” and the “EPA announced nearly $400 million in grants for climate projects there under the Inflation Reduction Act.” Reuters, [3/28/24; U.S. Energy Information Administration, accessed 8/2/24; Axios, 7/23/24]
Public support for fracking in Pennsylvania is not a given. After Harris’ recent CNN interview Pennsylvania-based journalist Nick Field wrote, “I can not emphasize enough that - unless they happen to work in the fracking industry - Pennsylvanians don't care about fracking.” A 2020 survey conducted by YouGov found support for fracking in the state was evenly split, though Pennsylvanians who live in rural areas or identify as Republican were more likely to back it. Twitter/X, [8/29/24; YouGov, 10/19/20]
Real issues with fracking are almost entirely ignored in election horse race coverage. In the final week of the 2020 election cycle, cable news coverage failed to meaningfully cover the well-documented environmental and climate issues associated with fracking. This cycle, the media can add to the list of issues the fact that the industry has not delivered the wealth promised to many communities burdened with fracking wells. Media Matters, [11/19/20; Environmental Health News, 2/12/21]
## Methodology...
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an ah may
Democratic incumbent President Joe Biden and presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump have agreed to two debates: the first hosted by CNN in Atlanta on June 27, the second by ABC News on September 10.
June 27 is early for a presidential debate, as the Republican National Convention won't be held until July 15-18 in Milwaukee — and its Democratic counterpart isn't until August 19-22 in Chicago. Biden's supporters view the June 27 debate as a golden opportunity for the president, as it will give him a chance to hammer Trump issue by issue and, they hope, improve his poll numbers. Many polls released in May have showed Biden narrowly trailing Trump by single digits in key swing states.
But some far-right pundits at Fox News are furious about the debates, including Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity and Jesse Watters.
READ MORE:Biden 'heavily' investing in these 3 states that are 'key to the whole election': analysis
Ingraham complained that Biden needs a "game changer" performance and is hoping to get it "with the help of" CNN hosts Dana Bash and Jake Tapper.
Watters sarcastically commented, "Both moderators say Trump's Hitler, so the debate will be fair and balanced. Is Tapper going to cut the cameras away from Trump to fact-check him? We'll have to see."
Watters also attacked ABC News' George Stephanopoulos, saying that he "praised the deep state and said Trump's a threat to democracy" and adding, "I’m sure they'll be calling balls and strikes.”
READ MORE:[Biden campaign hammers Trump over infamous COVID comment
Hannity slammed Tapper as a "radical left-wing partisan talk show host" who is "masquerading as a journalist" and claimed that CNN "is filled with left-wing hacks who we know hate" Trump.
The Daily Beast's William Vaillancourt observes, "It didn’t take long at all for some of Fox News' most-watched hosts to frame next month's debate between President Joe Biden and Donald Trump, which was announced Wednesday morning, as unfair to the presumptive GOP nominee."
Although Fox News hosts have been attacking CNN and ABC News as too biased to be hosting the debates, they haven't had a lot to say about the controversy that surrounded the right-wing cable news channel's coverage of the last U.S. presidential election.
Fox News was sued by Dominion Voting Systems and its competitor Smartmatic after promoting the false, thoroughly debunked claim that their equipment was used to help Biden steal the 2020 presidential election from Trump. In 2023, Fox News agreed to a $787.5 million settlement with Dominion, although Smartmatic's $2.7 billion lawsuit against Fox News is ongoing.
READ MORE:[How Fox News' Trump trial coverage became an exercise in 'unintended hilarity': columnist
In an op-ed published on May 16, the Daily Beast's David Rothkopf doesn't agree with far-right claims that CNN and ABC News are too biased to be hosting the presidential debates. But he does argue that the debates could be a golden opportunity for Biden, as Trump is "out of practice" when it comes to debating as well as "bad at it."
Moreover, Rothkopf argues, the debates give Biden a chance to hammer Trump on issue after issue.
"In the view of those close to Biden," Rothkopf writes, "Trump's got a serious problem on the issues. He's on the wrong side of the American public on many of the policy questions most important to them. For example, Trump keeps proclaiming he is the one responsible for the repeal of Roe v. Wade. "
Rothkopf adds, "Almost two-thirds of all women and over six out of ten men support legal abortion according to a recent Pew report.… (Trump) loves Vladimir Putin, for example. In a Pew poll last year, 91 percent of Americans indicated they have an unfavorable view of Russia, with 62 percent having views that are very unfavorable."
READ MORE:Mary Trump: Here's why Ivanka and Don Jr. haven't show up to their father’s 'tawdry' trial
Trump still knows how to fire up his hardcore supporters at MAGA rallies. But Rothkopf stresses that the debate format is problematic for Trump given his lack of self-discipline.
"Trump's defective character is so clear, and the danger he presents is so great, that the current president will have a hard time looking worse in comparison," Rothkopf writes. "The contrasts between the two men and their beliefs could not be starker."
*Read the Daily Beast's full Fox News coverage at this link and David Rothkoph's Daily Beast op-ed here (subscription required).
READ MORE: Fox News suggests Trump 'force' court to throw him in jail — by quoting him
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mma
Clay Travis: “We’re in a real war. Legal warfare is afoot and it’s time to return fire.”
:{:{05/31/24}:
05/31/24 7:45 PM EDT
### Jesse Watters predicts “there will be a revolution” if Donald Trump receives jail time
05/31/24 6:10 PM EDT
### Sean Hannity calls Judge Merchan “the most corrupt judge I've ever seen in my lifetime”
05/31/24 4:09 PM EDT
05/31/24 3:17 PM EDT
### Project 2025 plans to dismantle the federal agency that tracks hurricanes
05/31/24 3:07 PM EDT
05/31/24 2:21 PM EDT
### CNN and MSNBC fact-checked Trump's complaints about his guilty verdicts. Fox News repeated them.
05/31/24 1:01 PM EDT
05/31/24 12:42 PM EDT
05/31/24
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border is basically the only gop issue for 2024?
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omg
https://www.alternet.org/laura-ingraham-renewables-maui-wildfire/
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Giddy with ignorance, Fox's Laura Ingraham enjoyed a deep belly cackle at what she thought was President Biden's expense, mocking him for referring to the Webb telescope as, uh, the Webb telescope. (As in the powerful James Webb Space Telescope that can offer details not captured by other telescopes.)
"Did he call it the web telescope? Isn't it the Hubble? Is he thinking of web Hubble? I don't understand!" the confused faux news host said, bursting into such a fit of laughter, she had to wipe away the tears. (See video below, posted by Andrew Lawrence.)
Guest Raymond Arroyo joined in the merriment, nodding and laughing as he agreed with the outrageousness of somebody calling the Webb telescope the Webb telescope. "Yes, yes, who knows?"
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