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No Problem! Fox Hosts Unfazed By False Arrests And Torture Of Innocents

Fox News propagandists are employing a variety of defenses in response to revelations that the Trump administration has sent people in error to a notorious foreign prison, from alleging that migrants don’t deserve due process to attacking other news outlets for reporting on the “one-offs” to arguing that such mistakes are acceptable because “a lot of people in this country” are “arrested for things that they didn’t do."

The Trump administration last month sent more than 260 largely Venezuelan immigrants whom it alleges are members of Tren de Aragua and other gangs for imprisonment in El Salvador's Terrorism Confinement Center. The administration is acting in part through the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which allows wartime deportation without a hearing, after President Donald Trump issued a proclamation declaring Tren de Aragua an invading force.

There would be any number of moral and legal problems with transferring individuals from U.S. custody to a foreign prison notorious for abuse, in potential violation of a judge’s order, and under the questionable justification of a rarely used 200-plus-year-old statute that has previously been invoked only during a war declared by Congress — even if those individuals had all been convicted of serious crimes in U.S. courts.

But adding to the dystopian nature of the Trump administration’s policy is that family members and lawyers for several of the people deported to the foreign hell-prison without due process say they have no criminal history or links to any gang — and the administration’s lawyers have claimed in court that they are unable to recover an immigrant who was in the U.S. legally and was, by their own admission, sent to the prison due to “administrative error."

If the Trump administration can do this to a legal resident, it can, through malice or incompetence, do it to anyone.

But to watch Fox in the Trump era is not to wonder whether its personalities will defend the latest atrocities from the administration — it's merely an exercise in finding out how they will do it.

Fox excuse 1: Critics sympathise with “illegal alien gangbangers”

After lone Democratic co-host Jessica Tarlov highlighted the “numerous cases confirmed of people in that mega prison who should not be” on Friday’s edition of The Five, her co-panelists attacked her for sympathizing with criminals.

“Jessica, you're showing more sympathy to these illegal alien gangbangers than you showed to American citizens when you mistakenly let 10 million people in,” Jesse Watters replied.

“Maybe you should have the pictures of the victims of these people,” said Jeanine Pirro. “And it's real deterrence, so the American people and you can see it."

“There are people who will always argue on behalf of the criminal element, but they will be the first to cross the street if they see them come their way,” Greg Gutfeld added. “If one of these liberals were ever to run into these thugs, they would have a literal bleeding heart."

Fox excuse 2: These reports are “false sob stories” impugning “great law enforcement”

Fox anchor Harris Faulker asked Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin to respond to “critics [who] are saying that innocent people are being swept up in the illegal gang member deportation operations,” during a Monday interview.

McLaughlin responded that the administration has “very intense scrutiny and intelligence assessments for these members of Tren de Aragua that we send to El Salvador and to other prisons,” and complained that “the mainstream media is absolutely doing the bidding of these vicious gang members that they are sharing false sob stories."

“Of course you will be careful who you scoop up and who you don't scoop up right away,” Faulkner agreed. “It is old-fashioned great law enforcement that’s being carried out."

“You mentioned false sob stories and other actions by some in the liberal media — and I guess by ‘some,’ I would need for somebody to show me an example of them not doing it at this point,” she added. “Is that kind of a distraction?"

Fox excuse 3: “It’s just a gay barber,” it is normal for people to be unjustly imprisoned

On Monday’s edition of The Five, Tarlov described the plight of one of the deportees who, while being beaten by guards during his entry to the prison, reportedly sobbed, “I’m not a gang member. I’m gay. I’m a barber.” The individual may be Andry José Hernández Romero, a 31-year-old asylum-seeker with no removal order or criminal history who had been held in an immigration jail due to government concerns about his wrist tattoos of “a crown, with the words ‘Mom’ and ‘Dad’ inked next to them in English."

Tarlov’s co-hosts were not interested.

“You've been talking about this gay barber from El Salvador with some stupid tattoo for weeks,” Watters replied. “It's just a gay barber."

“Yeah, come on,” Gutfeld interjected. “He’s not into you."

Watters continued, “He's an innocent guy who got swept up in deportation and hopefully we get it figured out and straightened out, but a lot of people in this country, Jessica, get arrested for things that they didn't do, get falsely accused, falsely convicted. That doesn’t mean you just stop arresting people."

“I have nothing against the gay barber — gay barbers usually give the best haircuts,’ he added. “We should bring him back just for that."

Fox excuse 4: “Other networks” are “only focused on the one-offs”

Some on Fox are suggesting that the media is deliberately covering people erroneously sent to the Salvadoran prison to hurt Trump.

“I do find the coverage interesting, if you turn to the other networks, they are only focused on the one-offs, they’re not focused on the criminals, and they’re not focused on the victims of illegal immigration, the people that have been assaulted,” Fox & Friends co-host Lawrence Jones said on Tuesday’s show.

“And you know why that is — that’s because border and immigration is Donald Trump's No. 1 issue and they don't want to talk about that,” replied co-host Steve Doocy.

Fox excuse 5: Due process takes too long

Another argument on Tuesday’s Fox & Friends claimed that deporting people to El Salvador without due process is necessary because the U.S. court system takes too long to work.

Comparing “using the Alien and Enemies Act” to seeking a court deportation order, Jones complained that “it is a long process before you get a final deportation order."

Jones continued, “This is why the administration is saying, ‘Do we wait until we are out of office where we have no control — you want us to wait four years before we start getting the gang members and criminals out?’"

“I mean, it just doesn't make any sense,” he added.

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters.

Trump's State Media Struggling To Justify His Economic Failure

President Donald Trump’s propaganda outlets are struggling to articulate a clear message as his sclerotic rollout of tariffs trigger widespread economic turbulence.

U.S. stock markets tumbled on Monday after Trump told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo that he could not rule out the possibility of a recession. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 both suffered their worst day of the year, losing more than 2%, while the NASDAQ Composite fell 4%, its worst day since September 2022.

“The rout extended a miserable month for markets that has seen all three major indexes wipe out their gains since the US presidential election in November,” CNN reported. “The widespread selloff was mostly driven by anxiety about the impact of Trump’s tariffs.”

Here’s how the MAGA stalwarts on Fox News and Newsmax responded on Monday night.

Fox’s Watters and Hannity pretended the market fall didn’t happen

On Monday night, Fox prime-time host Jesse Watters did not mention the stock market decline outside of a passing comment about “a few rocky days on Wall Street,” instead focusing his attention on stories about how Democrats are “living a nightmare,” former first lady Michelle Obama’s forthcoming podcast, and Trump “cleaning up Biden’s mess.”

But the collapse did not go entirely unaddressed on Watters’ show. For the night’s final segment, Watters sent a producer to “explore” the political views of Gen Zers by interviewing spring breakers on the beach in Florida. When the producer asked the bathing suit-clad young people to identify the issue most important to them, one guy answered, “The stock market crashing.”

Fox host Sean Hannity didn’t send a producer to the beach, so on his program the market decline went unmentioned — his lead story was a “Hannity investigation” of “Biden’s Spending Spree.”

Fox’s Ingraham gently warned Trump about his tariffs’ potential political impact

Fox host Laura Ingraham opened her Monday program with a monologue criticizing Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) for, among other things, her “potty mouth.” But after that was over, she turned to the second-most-important story of the day: The economy.

Ingraham began the segment by noting the “rocky ride for the markets today,” which she attributed to how “businesses hate uncertainty, and for many the fentanyl tariffs, they just don't compute.”

The host walked a tightrope during the subsequent interview with Fox’s Maria Bartiromo, offering some mild criticism of the impact of Trump’s economic policy, which she carefully caveated by making clear that she supported the president’s goals.

Ingraham portrayed herself as “very pro-tariff” and a strong supporter of Trump’s China tariffs in his first term, adding that the public can’t “process” “the fentanyl tariffs on Canada and Mexico, and then China gets only 10%, then we're doing a summit with China.”

She later argued that the public needed to wait to see the benefits from the tariffs, saying, “People don't also understand right at this moment, or maybe they can't see, or they don't really care, some of these businesses, is the economic boom that will happen when manufacturing returns.”

But she added that the lag could have political consequences, asking, “Will the voters in the midterms, depending on how long this uncertainty goes on, maybe it's not so long, the voters in the midterms, will they be patient? That, I think, is the question.”

Newsmax’s Schmitt and Kelly said that Trump knows best

The hosts of Fox competitor Newsmax apparently saw the stock market drop as an opportunity to portray themselves as the most sycophantic Trump supporters.

Rob Schmitt made the case that the market collapse was actually a good sign.

“It is important to remember as you look at the markets, that as most Americans were gutted by inflation these last three years, those same markets as indicators were skyrocketing,” he said, “So perhaps stocks need to take a nosedive so the working man can get a little relief from all of this inflation.”

And Greg Kelly argued, as his show’s on-screen text put it, that “Trump Has Always Known What’s Best For The U.S.” and that viewers are “Better Off Listening To Trump Since He’s Proven To Always Be Right.”

“Everybody needs to calm down a little bit, and have some faith,” he said, claiming that “the mainstream media, the establishment, Democrats, a lot of RINOs out there, they want people to be panicked so all this stuff gets reversed.”

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters

Fox Guest Ranting About Migrant Crime Has His Own Violent Rap Sheet

On February 28, Fox News host Jesse Watters hosted “James Lee” on his show to discuss the murder of Laken Riley on the campus of the University of Georgia. Watters did not disclose, however, that Lee is actually James DePaola, who has had multiple run-ins with the law himself, including when he became violent over a grilled cheese sandwich his wife had made, prompting his 12-year-old daughter to call the police.

On February 28, Athens-Clarke County Mayor Kelly Girtz held a press conference. The Atlanta Journal-Constitutionreported that the press conference had been interrupted multiple times by protesters, including James DePaola.

Law-enforcement officers did not remove anybody from the room while Girtz spoke, but police asked Athens resident James DePaola several times to wait his turn to speak.

“We the people are tired of this lawlessness,” Depaola told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution after the press conference ended. “We are being put last.”

DePaola also spoke to Flagpole.com at the press conference.

Later that day, Watters hosted “James Lee” on his show and played footage of DePaola interrupting the press conference, praising him for his actions. (Watters’ full “migrant crime spree” segment can be viewed here. Watters likens his guest to Rick Santelli's rant in 2009 that kicked off the tea party. His guest concludes by telling Watters that “You don't get the credit you deserve as a patriot and a real journalist.”)

He can also be seen shortly before the four-minute mark in a video of the press conference posted by NBC News, when the camera pans away from the lectern.

James Lee certainly appears to be James DePaola, as others have begun to notice.

The Georgia Gazettehas a picture of a “James Lee DePaola” related to a 2023 booking at Whitfield County jail. The picture appears to be the same man.

The site also has a booking picture from a 2020 booking in Gwinnett county.

But before advising Fox News on immigration policy, DePaola was previously best known for violently threatening his wife after deciding that she had used too many slices of cheese on his grilled cheese sandwich, leading to his young daughter calling the police. As Time reported in 2016:

A man wanted just two slices of cheese on his sandwich, so when his wife used three slices in his grilled cheese sandwich, he became irate.

Angered at the sight of all the extra cheesiness, James DePaola became agitated and violent, yelling at the woman, Michele DePaola. According to WSB-TV, DePaola then ripped the landline out of the wall so his wife couldn’t call the police and reportedly screamed at her intensely. The couple’s 12-year old daughter who witnessed the incident called the police to the scene, according to Athens-Clarke County police.

James DePaola was charged with obstruction of a 911 call and criminal trespass/damage to property over what the police now refer to as “the grilled cheese incident”. DePaola has a history of “abusive behavior,” and was often “excessively critical and controlling of day to day things in life” like sandwiches, apparently.

Fox5 Atlanta posted a booking picture of DePaola at the time, making clear he is from Athens-Clarke County; the site also mentioned that two of his other young children were present when he threatened his wife.

While this may be Jesse Watters’ ideal guest, we cannot recommend that news outlets take public policy advice from someone violently triggered by an unexpected slice of cheese.

The real question is why Fox News didn’t tell its audience DePaola’s full name.

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters.

They Yap About Taylor Swift, But They're Telling Us About Themselves

You don’t have to be a follower of Taylor Swift or a fan of professional football to notice the very strange crusade that so-called “conservatives” have been waging against them. Those icons of music and sport, as American as they could possibly be, are suddenly tarred on right-wing media outlets as secret instruments of a plot by powerful hidden forces – in the Pentagon, the White House, or somewhere in “the deep state,” whatever that means.

It is now possible to watch otherwise normal-seeming people on television, including several with their own nightly shows, spreading insane rumors about Swift and her boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. In a calmer time, anyone who persistently shouted such lurid nonsense would have been a candidate for long-term residence in what was euphemistically called “a nice home,” without access to sharp objects. With deinstitutionalization, they are now paid astronomical salaries to declaim their fantasies on Fox News and its cable competitors. (This is considered progress.)

For weeks, the airwaves and the digital space have been aflame with attacks on Swift and Kelce, promoting the notion that these two attractive, talented, and amazingly successful people are not what they seem to be. Consider the recent rant by Jesse Watters, a primetime host on Fox News, who insinuated that Swift isn’t a legitimate musical sensation, but merely a tool propped up by Pentagon military intelligence for mass manipulation. Watters called her a “psyop,” jargon for a government propaganda tool or event designed to influence public opinion and political behavior.

“Have you ever wondered why or how she blew up like this?” he asked, questioning her popularity as a musician. "Well, around four years ago, the Pentagon psychological operations unit floated turning Taylor Swift into an asset during a NATO meeting. What kind of asset? A psyop for combatting online misinformation." Of course, like so many other events reported breathlessly by Fox fake news, that never happened. It was just a figment of Watters’ monkey mind, which he tried to pass off with a deceptively edited video clip.

It isn’t hard to see what inspired the vile slagging of Swift and Kelce (who also committed the offense of getting vaccinated against COVID-19, just as all the Fox hypocrites did when the company required it). She appears to be a Democrat and a supporter of reproductive rights, an opponent of racism, and perhaps worst of all, a symbol of female power and independence. She has backed a few Democratic candidates, including Joe Biden in 2020 – and Republicans dread the prospect that she’ll do it again this year. Ominously, from their perspective, she has already prodded tens of thousands of her fans to register as voters.

Indeed, the right-wing loonies are warning that the Super Bowl has long been “rigged” for the Chiefs to win, leading up to a romantic Biden endorsement by Kelce and Swift. Pretty sick and, dare I say, un-American.

The craziness is so stupid that it’s almost funny. Even some conservatives are begging for it to stop, because they fear the political consequences of angering the Swifties, as well they should. But it isn’t funny at all.

What thugs like Watters are telling Swift is that she will be punished for disputing their authoritarian and misogynist ideology. Her adversaries have not only viciously insulted her, but circulated AI-faked explicit nudes. Naturally, Watters seized on the faked photos as another opportunity to mock and shame a female body. (Don’t you hope he gets a chance to meet Travis Kelce in person someday?)

Whether Swift endorses Biden or not, she has performed a great service, simply by impelling the worst people in America to show who they really are – and how their uncontrollable hatred poisons everyday life in this nation. Let’s not forget.

Joe Conason is founder and editor-in-chief of The National Memo. He is also editor-at-large of Type Investigations, a nonprofit investigative reporting newsroom formerly known as The Investigative Fund, and a senior fellow at Type Media Center.

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