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Fearing Trump Defeat, MAGA And Far Right Figures Turn On Each Other

Fearing Trump Defeat, MAGA And Far Right Figures Turn On Each Other

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

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

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

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

Other journalists and analysts reported similarly.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Noted extremist Pedro Gonzalez also criticized the decision.

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

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

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

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters.

Kamala Harris

Harris Presidential Campaign Reignites 'Birtherism' On The Right

It’s 2024, so everyone reading this knows exactly what the deal is with birthers. We know that the Constitution requires anyone running for president to be a “natural born Citizen,” and that Vice President Kamala Harris, having been born in Oakland, California, surely qualifies.

Birtherism must be understood not as a wild conspiracy theory about where Kamala Harris and Barack Obama were born, but rather as a slur against their status as Americans. There are no good-faith legal questions about whether or not Kamala Harris is a natural born citizen, just like there were no good-faith questions about where Barack Obama’s mother gave birth to him. We all know the deal. MAGA pundits are pushing birtherism against Harris now — like they did to Obama before her — in order to signal to their audience that people like Harris and Obama are somehow less American. Regardless of your politics, these claims deserve nothing more than absolute contempt.

The biggest name currently spreading this is Trump associate Tom Fitton. You may remember that Fitton, the Judicial Watch president who is not a lawyer, reportedly advised former President Donald Trump to keep secretive government documents that the former president had stored on a ballroom stage and in a bathroom at Mar-a-Lago. (Ironically, in 2009 — years before Trump picked up birtherism and used it to help take over GOP politics — Fitton was one of the few right-wing voices who spoke dismissively about birtherism against Obama, saying he had not “seen any credible evidence Barack Obama is not a U.S. citizen eligible for the presidency.”)

Fitton links to an August 14, 2020, piece by John Eastman in Newsweek. Eastman is the intellectual architect of Trump’s attempt to remain in office despite losing the election, which culminated in January 6. (A judge has since ruled that Eastman should be disbarred for his actions.) We addressed this at the time when then-Trump campaign official Jenna Ellis reposted Fitton’s identical tweet.

The following note is on the top of the Eastman column that Fitton now links to:

Editor's note, 8/14: This op-ed is being used by some as a tool to perpetuate racism and xenophobia. We apologize. The essay, by John Eastman, was intended to explore a minority legal argument about the definition of who is a "natural-born citizen" in the United States. But to many readers, the essay inevitably conveyed the ugly message that Senator Kamala Harris, a woman of color and the child of immigrants, was somehow not truly American.

The op-ed was never intended to spark or to take part in the racist lie of Birtherism, the conspiracy theory aimed at delegitimizing Barack Obama, but we should have recognized the potential, even probability, that that could happen. Readers hold us accountable for all that we publish, as they should; we hold ourselves accountable, too. We entirely failed to anticipate the ways in which the essay would be interpreted, distorted and weaponized.

As we said in our earlier note, this essay was an attempt to examine a legal argument about the difference between "natural born" and "naturalized," the latter being ineligible to hold the office of president. In the days since the op-ed was published, we saw that it was being shared in forums and social networks notorious for disinformation, conspiracy theories and racist hatred. All of us at Newsweek are horrified that this op-ed gave rise to a wave of vile Birtherism directed at Senator Harris. Many readers have demanded that we retract the essay, but we believe in being transparent and are therefore allowing it to remain online, with this note attached.

None of this has stopped other MAGA figures online from pushing this ridiculous, bigoted argument now that Harris is poised to be at the top of the Democratic ticket. And yes, free speech gives them the right to spread this bigoted bullshit.

As the late, great Simon Maloy wrote in 2019:

The Obama-era birthers never came anywhere close to proving their accusation, and it didn’t matter one bit. The only thing they cared about was getting people to treat their obvious bullshit with a modicum of seriousness. The country’s most famous birther was challenged repeatedly to back up his outlandish allegations about President Barack Obama; he never did, but flogging the racist conspiracy theory made him a hero to the political movement that eventually elected him president.

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters.

Kevin Roberts

Project 2025 Would Ruin Medicare And Inflate Prescription Drug Prices

Project 2025 is a comprehensive transition plan organized by right-wing think tank The Heritage Foundation to guide the next GOP presidential administration. Its lengthy guidebook, Mandate For Leadership, lays out a legislative proposal that would upend Medicare as we know it, pushing seniors onto privately run Medicare Advantage plans instead of traditional Medicare.

This proposal comes even as Medicare Advantage plans have struggled, plagued by falling stock prices, overpayment, and treatment delays. Meanwhile, Project 2025 also calls for undoing prescription drug reforms included in the Inflation Reduction Act.

The difference between traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage

As long as Medicare and Social Security have existed, there have been right-wing pushes for privatization.

A private component — Part C of Medicare, now known as Medicare Advantage — was created as part of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997. Contemporaneous reporting shows that Democrats and the AARP disapproved of the effort to partially privatize Medicare because of the high user costs that would be associated with it.

The reason for those high costs is that Medicare Advantage allows private insurance companies to make a profit providing Medicare benefits to seniors.

AARP explains that regular Medicare has three parts: “Part A (hospital care), Part B (doctor visits, lab tests and other outpatient services) and Part D (prescription drugs).” Part C is Medicare Advantage, which is “essentially” like “joining a private insurance plan like you probably had through your employer.”

AARP says only 1 percent of doctors don't participate in Medicare, and participants don't need a referral to see doctors. Under Medicare Advantage, “you would have a primary care physician who would direct your care, meaning you would need a referral to a specialist.”

You can read more about the differences between Medicare Advantage and traditional Medicare here.

Medicare Advantage’s troubles in 2024

More people have enrolled in Medicare Advantage over the years, but as a Stat News piece earlier this year explained, there have been significant issues, with stock prices “plummeting,” researchers estimating seniors are overpaying by as much as $140 billion per year to Medicare Advantage insurers, and patients experiencing delays in receiving care due to insurance approvals.

Stat reports that many seniors “say they feel trapped in the program, tricked into joining with promises of quality care and low costs, only to find their treatments denied and bills piling up when they become ill.”

It also argues that the Medicare Advantage model “relies on providing as little care as possible in general, with insurers putting care approval behind a wall of delays and denials to save money and leaving patients suffering without necessary treatment” and says that “people across the political spectrum have begun to see the many flaws in the program,” leaving the model “in serious jeopardy.”

A Wall Street Journal report earlier this year also examined the fraught situation, and noted that companies may be pulling back on benefits in the next year due to increased demand for medical services and cuts in payments to plans:

The more challenging financial picture means companies will need to make some tough decisions about their plans next year—either sacrifice profit margins to continue growing or pull back on benefits to boost profitability. While there are other factors at play, if the current trends continue, plans will have to be more cautious in their offerings going forward.

“At this point, it looks pretty clear that next year’s reduction in benefits is really going to reduce enrollment growth,” says David Windley, an analyst at Jefferies.

Vox dove into Medicare Advantage in October 2023, highlighting how business practices of companies providing Medicare Advantage could leave seniors high and dry. It noted that one report from federal investigators showed “tens of thousands of Medicare Advantage customers were denied coverage for services they should have been entitled to.” The story of one 85-year-old woman was horrifying:

Earlier this year, STAT reported on the increasing use of AI algorithms by these plans to determine when to cut off benefits for a customer. The lead example of their reporting was an 85-year-old woman with a broken left shoulder, whose insurer followed an algorithm that said she should be ready to leave a nursing facility and return home within 17 days.

On the 17th day of her stay, the insurer said it would no longer cover the bills for her stay, even though her doctors and nurses observed that the woman was still in extreme pain and incapable of doing basic activities, such as dressing herself or going to the bathroom. It took more than a year, and a federal judge’s order, for the patient to receive payments for the three additional weeks she needed to stay in the nursing facility. Doctors shared other stories of patients who saw benefits withdrawn at the end of their life, leaving their families to fight over the leftover bills for years after their loved one had died.

Project 2025 wants to make Medicare Advantage the default option for all seniors

Given all of these serious issues, it's alarming that Project 2025's proposal is to make Medicare Advantage the “default” selection for all seniors.

Project 2025 calls for encouraging “more direct competition between Medicare Advantage and private plans" and says “critical reforms are still needed to strengthen and improve the program,” claiming that it provides a “richer set of benefits than traditional Medicare provides and at a reasonable cost.”

Helaine Olen explained the potentially disastrous consequences of these changes in an opinion piece for MSNBC:

Project 2025 recommends making Medicare Advantage — the private insurance offering in Medicare — the default option for enrollment. Currently, there is no default option, though what’s called “Original Medicare” is presented first. That may sound like a minor change, particularly if you’re not familiar with Medicare’s offerings. But this plan, should it come to fruition, will likely degrade not only Medicare, but health care for all Americans, no matter our age.

...

Medicare Advantage costs the government billions of dollars more annually than the traditional offering, while delivering less in the way of necessary care. Giant health care insurers game the Medicare system, profiting at the expense of taxpayers and patients alike. The government pays insurers a minimum fee per enrollee based on each enrollee’s health — something done to discourage companies from cherry-picking the healthy. But insurance companies do their darndest to make their enrollees appear as sick as possible to the federal government, so they can collect more money for them. As a result, the government spends more than 20% more for people enrolled in Medicare Advantage than they do the traditional program.

Project 2025 wants to roll back the federal government’s ability to negotiate lower drug prices

The Medicare section of Project 2025’s policy book also calls for rolling back reforms included in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 to negotiate lower prescription drug prices:

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) created a drug price negotiation program in Medicare that replaced the existing private-sector negotiations in Part D with government price controls for prescription drugs. These government price controls will limit access to medications and reduce patient access to new medication. This “negotiation” program should be repealed, and reforms in Part D that will have meaningful impact for seniors should be pursued.

We learned more about the first group of drugs subject to this negotiation in August, which include the blood thinners Eliquis and Xarelto; diabetes treatments Jardiance and Januvia; autoimmune disease treatments Enbrel and Entresto; diabetes/heart failure treatment Farxiga; blood cancer treatment Imbruvica; psoriasis/inflammatory disorder treatment Stelara; and the insulin Fiasp.

This program has been the target of MAGA media figures like Fox News host Mark Levin, who has absurdly claimed that people who really need drugs can get them for free.

A Center for American Progress analysis has found that as many as 18.5 million people could see higher drug costs as a result of Project 2025’s plan.

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters.

Jesse Watters

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 rantin 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.

Elon Musk

Elon Musk Praises Antisemitic 'Replacement' Theory As 'The Truth'

Ever in search of a new low, Elon Musk managed to find one on November 15 when he declared on X (formerly known as Twitter) that a paid X Premium (previously Twitter Blue) user’s antisemitic conspiracy theory attacking Jewish people was the “actual truth.”

The antisemitic post Musk endorsed came in response to a user writing, “To the cowards hiding behind the anonymity of the internet and posting 'Hitler was right': You got something you want to say? Why don't you say it to our faces…”

The conspiracy theory, that Jewish populations are pushing “hatred against whites” and supporting “hordes of minorities” coming into the country, is the same one that motivated the 2018 Tree of Life shooter in Pittsburgh, as noted by The Atlantic’s Yair Rosenberg. Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes and other figures linked to white nationalism are cheering on Musk.

The Tree of Life shooter, who was found guilty this year, wrote on far-right platform Gab that he blamed Jewish people in the U.S. “for bringing in an invasion of nonwhite immigrants.” (Gab owner Andrew Torba is also one of the people cheering on Musk; Gab’s X account even bragged about red-pilling Musk on “JQ” – that is, the “Jewish question.”)

How did we get from a mass shooter writing something on a platform that most people have never visited to Musk endorsing it? First, Musk himself has rebuilt X around extremists like this, making a concentrated effort to lift up extremism, even providing financial incentives.

Musk’s platform, ostensibly run by CEO Linda Yaccarino, has said that posts claiming “Hitler was right” and that there needs to be a “final solution” regarding Jewish people don’t violate the platform’s “safety policies”; run ads for major brands on Holocaust denial accounts; and apparently paid a pro-Hitler Holocaust denier a share of its ad revenue.

Indeed, Musk and Yaccarino have reinstated known white nationalists and antisemites on the platform. Musk has directly engaged with some of the reinstated antisemitic accounts and amplified conspiracy theories that were used to push antisemitism. Musk’s posts earlier this year earned the praise of a leading neo-Nazi.

Don't overlook the role of Fox News here

But the true middleman between the Tree of Life shooter in 2018 and the billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX is Fox News — and specifically Lachlan Murdoch.

In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, a Fox guest railed against the “Soros-occupied State Department.” TPM’s Josh Marshall noted that this claim was “straight out of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the foundational anti-Semitic tract.” The guest was banned from Fox; in retrospect it appears his main offense was being ahead of the curve.

Indeed, it did not take long after the Tree of Life shooting for the conspiracy theory to pop up on Fox News, with former host Glenn Beck in particular making a similar argument while appearing on Sean Hannity’s show.

The major inflection point came when then-Fox host Tucker Carlson pushed his own version of replacement theory in 2021. There was a big outrage — but Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch personally made clear that Carlson had the green light to go there. And go there he did. A New York Times analysis, conducted before Fox fired Carlson, shows that he pushed it in more than 400 episodes.

And now it’s not just Carlson. Numerous Fox personalities and others have followed his lead and made the conspiracy theory into a core plank in GOP politics.

Of course, Carlson now effectively works for Musk.

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters.

Viktor Shokin

Fox News Promotes Crooked Ukraine Prosecutor To Smear Biden

On August 25, Fox News previewed an interview of former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin by network host Brian Kilmeade that is set to air in full on August 26. In the preview segment, Shokin accused President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden of “corruption” and “being bribed” to push for the prosecutor’s removal from office in 2016.

In fact, there was widespread agreement at the time across the political spectrum in the United States and the European Union that Shokin should be fired for being soft on corruption, including State Department allegations that Shokin himself was corrupt. Additionally, at the time of his removal, Shokin wasn’t actively investigating Hunter Biden or Burisma, an energy company that had hired Hunter Biden to serve on its board of directors. Hunter Biden’s former business partner Devon Archer recently testified that it would have been better for Burisma if the Ukrainian government had kept Shokin because he was unlikely to move against the company.

Shokin’s claims are part of a longstanding smear campaign led by Rudy Giuliani on behalf of former President Donald Trump, which ultimately led to Trump’s first impeachment. Fox News knew Shokin’s claims were baseless then and continues to know it now, but the network is airing Shokin’s baseless allegations regardless.

Pushing for Shokin to be fired was the policy of not only the United States, where it was supported by leading Republicans, but also the international community


  • European nations, the United States, and over 100 members of Ukrainian parliament had pressured the Ukrainian government for months to fire Shokin. The international community concluded that Shokin was “turning a blind eye to corrupt practices” and “defending the interests of a venal and entrenched elite.” [Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 2/11/16; The New York Times, 3/29/16]
  • In 2015, U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt called Shokin “an obstacle” to anti-corruption efforts. Ukraine’s refusal to act on anti-corruption measures, including keeping Shokin, resulted in the International Monetary Fund threatening to withhold $40 billion in aid. The European Union applauded his removal. [The Wall Street Journal, 9/22/19]
  • Protests in Ukraine demanded Shokin’s removal after he launched an investigation into an anti-corruption watchdog group and had fired various anti-corruption prosecutors. The group, Anti-Corruption Action Center, had publicly criticized Shokin. [Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 3/28/16; Kyiv Post, 3/25/16]
  • In 2016, Republican Sens. Rob Portman, Mark Kirk and Ron Johnson and Democratic colleagues addressed a letter to then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, calling for him to “press ahead with urgent reforms to the Prosecutor General’s office and judiciary.” The bipartisan letter was also signed by five Senate Democrats, underlining that removing Shokin was the consensus view in Washington, D.C. — not a pet project of the Biden family. [CNN, 10/3/2019]
  • Johnson would later lead a committee that investigated Hunter Biden’s role at Burisma and failed to uncover any evidence of wrongdoing. The New York Times noted, “In fact, investigators heard witness testimony that rebutted those charges,” and Johnson acknowledged there were no “massive smoking guns” in the report. [The New York Times, 9/23/20]
  • George Kent, the State Department’s expert on Ukraine, testified during Trump’s first impeachment trial that Shokin’s corruption led to his removal. Shokin was fired over corruption allegations and was not actively investigating Burisma when he was removed. The Washington Post reported in 2019 that Kent confirmed that Joe Biden called for the removal of “a corrupt prosecutor general … who had undermined a system of criminal investigation” into Ukrainian corruption cases, and “destroyed the entire ecosystem that we were trying to create.” Kent, who was the No. 2 official in the embassy at the time, explained that Biden was following the official U.S. government position that Shokin must be removed because he was “an impediment to the reform of the prosecutorial system, and he had directly undermined in repeated fashion U.S. efforts and U. S. assistance programs.” In fact, Kent testified that the idea to fire Shokin originated in the State Department before being pitched to others, including then-Vice President Biden. [The Washington Post, 11/19/19; Media Matters, 11/12/19]

At the time of his removal, Shokin was not actively investigating Burisma, and Hunter Biden was never the subject of an investigation into the company

  • Former Deputy Prosecutor General Vitaliy Kasko said in May 2019 that the investigation into Burisma had been “shelved by Ukrainian prosecutors in 2014 and through 2015.” Shokin had stalled investigations into Burisma and its co-founder Mykola Zlochevsky. In 2014, he undermined an attempt by British authorities to freeze $23 million worth of Zlochevsky’s assets. [Bloomberg, 5/7/19]
  • Devon Archer testified that he was not aware of any Shokin-led investigation into Burisma. He also testified that he had no reason to believe that then-Vice President Biden called for Shokin’s removal “was driven by anything other than the U.S. Government’s anticorruption policy in Ukraine,” and confirmed that firing Shokin “was bad for Burisma because he was under control.” [Media Matters, 8/3/23]
  • Investigations involving Burisma targeted Zlochevsky, who had been accused of “abuse of power, illegal enrichment and money laundering,” rather than the company itself. Shokin had allegedly “dragged his feet” on these investigations, and Hunter Biden, as a board member, was not a target. [The Wall Street Journal, 9/22/19]

Fox News knew its sourcing on the Ukraine conspiracy theory was unreliable

  • Conservative writer John Solomon was a key distributor of Rudy Giuliani’s conspiracy theories regarding Shokin’s firing. From March 20, 2019 — when Solomon published his first story on the Ukraine conspiracy theory — through October 2, 2019, Solomon appeared on Fox News or Fox Business at least 72 times, including 51 appearances on Sean Hannity’s prime-time show [Media Matters, 10/17/19]
  • During that period, Fox News senior political affairs specialist Bryan S. Murphy produced an internal “research briefing book” that “openly question[ed] Fox News contributor John Solomon’s credibility, accusing him of playing an ‘indispensable role’ in a Ukrainian ‘disinformation campaign,’” according to The Daily Beast. Murphy’s research came from what was known as Fox’s “Brain Room,” which the network later disbanded, and described Solomon as having “played an indispensable role in the collection and domestic publication of elements of this disinformation campaign.” [The Daily Beast, 2/6/20]
  • Murphy’s research book also advised that Giuliani had a “high susceptibility to disinformation” that was being fed to him by unreliable Ukrainian sources. [The Daily Beast, 2/6/20]
  • Fox News continues to accuse Joe Biden of taking bribes regarding Shokin’s firing even when confronted with contradictory evidence. On August 9, a panel discussion on The Five descended into chaos after co-host Jessica Tarlov attempted to get her co-panelists to acknowledge recent testimony from Hunter Biden business associate Devon Archer. Archer “was asked, if someone concluded … that Joe Biden was bribed, would you disagree with that? ‘Yeah, I would.’ Devon Archer said that,” Tarlov said to the panel. [Fox News, The Five, 8/9/23]

Giuliani, a Trump lawyer who would later be arrested for attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 election, was the lynchpin to the entire scheme

  • Solomon’s reporting laid the groundwork for Giuliani’s investigations in Ukraine, which ultimately led to Trump’s first impeachment. Some of Solomon’s key sources were “disgraced former Ukrainian prosecutor Yuriy Lutsenko and the allies of Dmytro Firtash, an indicted Ukrainian oligarch and accused high-level Russian mafia associate,” who “have been seen as forces driving Giuliani’s efforts in Ukraine to dig up dirt on Trump’s political enemies.” [Media Matters, 10/17/19; The Daily Beast, 2/6/20]
  • Giuliani ultimately sent his findings to then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, complete with “with unproven allegations against former Vice President Joe Biden” with the goal of undermining a future Biden presidential run. Giuliani used his documents “to bolster unproven allegations that Biden pressured Ukraine in order to protect his son, Hunter Biden, who has been involved with a business interest there, and that the Obama administration was using Ukraine to help Hillary Clinton win the 2016 election.” [NBC News, 10/3/19]
  • After Trump’s phone call attempting to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was revealed, Giuliani engaged in a press strategy to redirect the focus back to the Bidens. Some mainstream outlets took the bait, with headlines like “Scrutiny over Trump’s Ukraine scandal may also complicate Biden’s campaign” and “Why Trump’s Ukraine scandal could backfire on Biden.” [Media Matters, 9/23/19]

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters.

Hannity Producer Texted Meadows To Push ‘Proof’ Of 2020 Election Fraud

Hannity Producer Texted Meadows To Push ‘Proof’ Of 2020 Election Fraud

Newly released text messages show that the executive producer of Sean Hannity's radio show, Lynda McLaughlin, asked then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows for a meeting with President Donald Trump to share “hard data” that “show[ed] proof of the fraud” being pushed by the White House, Fox News, and the entire right-wing media in the 2020 election.

CNN’s Reliable Sources newsletter reported on the text messages, taken from a new book by former January 6 committee staffer (and former congressman) Denver Riggleman; as noted in the block quote below, CNN independently verified the messages as well.

Hannity Producer's Big Ask: In early January 2021, during the politically turbulent time before Joe Biden assumed the office of the presidency, the executive producer of Sean Hannity's radio show sought to meet directly with then-President Donald Trump.

The producer, Lynda McLaughlin, texted Mark Meadows, the former acting chief of staff, with a big ask, claiming she had "hard data" which "show[ed] proof of the fraud" — evidently about the 2020 election. McLaughlin characterized the dubious information as "irrefutable" and wanted to take it straight to Trump.

"Mark -- are we able to present our data to POTUS?" McLaughlin asked.

…

The messages underscore the intimate relationship that Hannity, his team, and the right-wing media writ large shared with the Trump White House. The cozy relationship exposed in the messages lays bare that in many cases, right-wing media outlets and personalities not only positively covered the Trump White House, but actively worked arm-in-arm with it.
For instance, when McLaughlin texted Meadows introducing herself ("Hey it's Lynda from Hannity") and told Meadows she was "rallying the troops," Meadows replied by thanking her for her "wonderful" contribution and connecting her with the Trump-supporting Rep. Jim Jordan. "Jim Jordon [sic] will gladly coordinate with the House team," Meadows texted McLaughlin. "Do you need his contact?"

CNN also reported that “Meadows seemed to stop responding to McLaughlin later in the conversation, after she asked to meet with Trump.”

This is not the first time McLaughlin has been directly involved in stoking right-wing conspiracy theories of election fraud. In December 2020, McLaughlin, as part of the so-called “Data Integrity Group,'' testified to the Georgia Senate Judicial Subcommittee that the group had proof of votes being taken from Trump and given to Joe Biden.

During the hearing, McLaughlin never revealed her connection to Hannity.

Hannity later lauded his producer for her strong efforts to overturn the election.

SEAN HANNITY (HOST): On December 30th, there is this really incredible group. Lynda McLaughlin works with them, our own Lynda, Data Integrity Group, they actually gave Senate testimony on December 30th about Georgia for example, the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Elections. Let's see, the people you have involved in this seem pretty impressive to me. You've got one guy is a data scientist with over a decade experience in a lot of industries, what we have here is fraud that we can prove in this election and then I begin to look at the background and the people, one is a nine-year veteran of the US Navy, worked as an electronic warfare technicians, cryptologic technician whatever the hell that is, Arabic linguist, worked at the NSA as a mission manager, later worked as a CIA contractor at the Counter-terrorism Center. And I'm like, "wow."

On January 2, 2021, the claims were amplified by far-right The Epoch Times and its affiliated NTD YouTube channel.

McLaughlin appeared in an interview with The Epoch Times, released on its site on January 5, 2021, in which she suggests election fraud occurred in Pennsylvania as well.

Justin Mealey and Dave Lobue, other members of the “Data Integrity Group,” also appeared on Lou Dobbs' Fox Business show on January 5:


The claims from the Data Integrity Group have been debunked.

All together, this is another example of the close relationship between Fox News personalities and the Trump White House.

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters.

Bannon Associate Interviewed By January 6 Select Committee

Bannon Associate Interviewed By January 6 Select Committee

Reprinted with permission from MediaMatters

Politicoreports that Steve Bannon associate Dustin Stockton is fielding questions from the congressional committee investigating the attack of January 6. As Politico notes, Stockton was connected to the "We Build The Wall" effort that ended with Bannon, a former adviser of President Donald Trump, being arrested on his patron's yacht by postal investigators, before Trump later pardoned him.

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Why Colin Powell’s Death Shouldn’t Promote Vaccine Hesitancy

Why Colin Powell’s Death Shouldn’t Promote Vaccine Hesitancy

Reprinted with permission from MediaMatters

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell has died after contracting COVID-19. In covering his passing, The Associated Press wrote that he was fully vaccinated but has not yet included his diagnosis of multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer that hurts the ability of a body to respond to infections.

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Mike Lindell

MyPillow Conspiracy Guy Pulls Ads From Fox News

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters

MyPillow CEO and conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell is reportedly pulling his company's ads from Fox News after the network allegedly rejected an advertisement for his cyber symposium scheduled for mid-August. As The Wall Street Journal reported, Lindell "has said the symposium will prove the 2020 election was stolen from then-President Donald Trump through manipulation of election machines."

MyPillow is Fox News' single largest advertiser, after other companies have dropped ads over the years due to the network's bigotry and conspiracy theories.

Media Matters President Angelo Carusone laid out the details, including that MyPillow accounted for 18 percent of all ads on Fox News' Tucker Carlson Tonight in the first half of 2021. In 2020, there were periods when MyPillow accounted for 41 percent of that show's ad inventory.

As Carusone noted, the situation on Fox News prime time is so dire that Fox Corporation, the channel's parent company, is one of the largest paid advertisers. And now that situation goes from bad to worse, with MyPillow apparently dropping out.

(Also, for the record: MyPillow is not the only Fox News prime-time advertiser steeped in controversy. The Federal Trade Commission has charged that Balance of Nature, another top advertiser on Fox, made bogus claims that its products could ward off the coronavirus. As Media Matters has reported, such ads featured prominent right-wing media personalities, including current California gubernatorial candidate Larry Elder.)

Fox Welcomed Lindell's Deranged Conspiracy Theories — Until Now

As Media Matters and others have documented since his rise to prominence in right-wing circles during the Trump years, Lindell is a major backer of extremist conspiracy theories, ranging from calling COVID-19 vaccines the "mark of the beast" to claiming that Trump won the 2020 presidential election in a landslide (including in California).

Lindell is now trying to "prove" that the election was stolen from Trump by hosting what he calls a "cyber symposium" in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, in mid-August. He's been lashing out at Fox News recently for not promoting the event, telling Salon's Zachary Petrizzo a week ago that he was going to force the issue by placing ads on the network.

One such ad that Petrizzo highlights:

Lindell Ad, Fox News - SALON.COMwww.youtube.com

Ironically, Lindell has been welcome on Fox News until recently. Even after Tucker Carlson derided Sidney Powell's "Kraken" conspiracy theories about the election (and even after the January 6 attack), the Fox host still welcomed Lindell on his show to push the very same conspiracy theories.

As my colleague Matt Gertz wrote in February:

Since Lindell lost access to Twitter, Fox, Newsmax, and OAN have all eagerly provided him with access to their audiences. Fox star Tucker Carlson hosted him on the evening of his banning, giving the MyPillow CEO a sympathetic platform to push his Dominion conspiracy theories. In fact, Carlson, whose show's commercial blocks are a barren wasteland overwhelmingly reliant on the pillow company's advertisements, has repeatedly given Lindell pathetically sycophantic treatment.

Right-wing media have certainly welcomed the pillowman's money, and many of them are apparently still going to do the same when it comes to this ad. Just look anywhere and you'll see the sycophantic treatment, from Steve Bannon to Infowars to One America News Network to Newsmax to many others. But it's Fox News that has given Lindell his biggest perch -- and now it is reaping what it has sowed.

Fox news can't get enough of pillow czar Mike Lindellwww.youtube.com

Hannity Denies Adopting Sane Stance On Vaccination — And He’s Right

Hannity Denies Adopting Sane Stance On Vaccination — And He’s Right

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters

On July 21, Sean Hannity went on a long radio rant denying that he ever recommended his viewers get the vaccine. He later repeated himself on his Fox show.

This endorsement of vaccine hesitancy messaging from Hannity came after days of positive mainstream press for the Fox News host. Following a viral out-of-context tweet, reports in places like Politico Playbook, The Atlantic, The New York Times, NPR, and The Week framed pieces around Hannity supposedly endorsing the vaccines, even though he never did any such thing. The funniest version of this was the Fox News version, which was never shared to any of its social accounts, per Crowdtangle. (The former Republican governor of North Carolina, Pat McCrory, shared the piece and lauded Hannity, writing, "Thank you, Sean Hannity. Vaccines work and they will save lives.")

CNN host Alisyn Camerota, Hannity's former colleague at Fox, waxed poetically on multiple occasions about Hannity endorsing vaccines. Other outlets, like The Washington Post, Vox, and The Associated Press, correctly noted that Hannity's acknowledgment of vaccine science was immediately preceded and followed by anti-vaccine segments. (Longtime Hannity watchers know what a real change of position from him looks like.)

If this media cycle sounds familiar, it's because mainstream outlets had the exact same "new tone" problem with Trump, suggesting over and over, incorrectly, that he was changing his approach. Now the cliche is deployed for Trump's henchman, to the same results.

Interestingly, Hannity's anti-vax radio remarks came in response to anti-vax criticism of Hannity from the generic right-wing content mill of radio host Wayne Dupree, a Sandy Hook truther who has falsely claimed that the parents of a Sandy Hook victim were "actors" and the shooting was a "hoax."

So, not only does Hannity distance himself from the vaccines, but he's doing so to appease a far-right conspiracy theorist who has written about crisis actors. Why is Hannity acting like this? Because he's scared.

Recall that Hannity is the comparatively responsible one about vaccines on Fox News prime-time shows. And the Murdoch/vaccine problem isn't even limited to North America!

Next time, don't listen to Fox News' PR spin. Just listen to what Fox hosts say.

From Hannity's radio show:

SEAN HANNITY (HOST): For some reason, me saying take COVID seriously has finally caught up with the mob and the -- and the media. Now, I think they've got ulterior motives. They monitor this show and TV every night, and I think it has to do with the fact that -- you know, there's been this attempt to blame conservatives for the vaccine hesitancy.

And, you know for example, Yahoo News: "Suddenly Sean Hannity and other Fox hosts are urging their viewers to get COVID-19 vaccines." Suddenly? Well, first of all, I'm not urging people to get the COVID-19 vaccine, because I'm not a doctor. That is not what I said. I said to take it seriously, it can kill you. I said to do a lot of research. If you have a phone, do your research. I said to consult your doctor and doctors, and medical professionals you trust. I said to consider your unique medical history that I know nothing about. I said to also look at your current medical condition and, in consultation with your doctors, take -- don't not do this. Do the research.

...

You know, Biden suggesting that people like me had an altar call on vaccines -- no, I haven't.

...

"Sean Hannity basically begs his viewers to get vaccinated." No, I didn't. I'm begging everybody, don't mess around with this thing. Take it seriously.

...

It would be wrong of me, not knowing your medical condition, to tell you what to do. It's not right.

...

Now, we do have therapeutics. I mean, they could be saying, "Wow, studies show that people like Hannity were right on hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin and therapeutics like Regeneron," but we're never going to hear that either.

...

I am encouraging people to really, really do the right thing for them, because I don't know. And yes, enough people have died, and yeah, I want you to take it seriously, and no, I don't apologize -- and I was being pressured heavily early on to tell people what to do. I'm not qualified to tell you what to do, I'm not. I bring on doctors and experts, some of whom I agree with or disagree with so you can have more information at your disposal.
"Hannity's pro vaccine speech is welcome" -- I mean, what -- why are they saying something I didn't say? I said I believe in the science, I believe in the science of vaccinations, and then I said, but I can't make these decisions for anybody. "Hannity urges viewers, get COVID vaccine." I never said that. I said, if it's right for you, after you do all of your research, after you talk to your doctor, doctors, medical professionals you trust, I said, after -- you really need to take it seriously, and then make the decision that is best for you. So, these headlines are wrong.

...

By the way, whatever happened -- what's wrong with Wayne Dupree? I thought Wayne Dupree was a friend of ours, Lynda. Right?

LYNDA MCLAUGHLIN (PRODUCER): Yeah, started out as a caller on the show.

HANNITY: "Sean Hannity is skating on very thin ice with his supporters. Did he finally cross the line?" and he does this whole bit -- and then I'm reading it, and sweet baby James prints this out, and goes "you need to see this," because -- you know Wayne Dupree. We -- we always liked Wayne Dupree, we've never had a problem with Wayne Dupree. He's a good guy, but then he's saying, "He's very passionate about people taking the vaccine, and he's pushing it a lot on his show."

Hey Wayne, if you're gonna say something about me, get it right. I said -- let me -- let me say it slowly, so everybody hears me -- this thing has killed enough people. Take it seriously. Everybody knows about masks and social distancing and that there are three vaccines available. Everybody knows. I can't make the decision for you. But --
MCLAUGHLIN: Actually, Sean, let's do one better. Let's play what we have. I think it deserves to be played at this point.

HANNITY: By the way, should I dedicate it to our old friend, apparently, Wayne Dupree, who I've always liked?
MCLAUGHLIN: Well, let's give him the benefit of the doubt and say maybe he didn't hear it. So, Wyane we hope you are listening, and maybe you understand what's really going on here and stop listening to fake news.

...

HANNITY: Wayne Dupree, I'll accept your apology.

From Hannity's Fox News show:

SEAN HANNITY (HOST): Now a brief message from me to the mob in the media.

I have no idea why, but it was only in the last week my coverage of coronavirus, COVID-19 got the attention of the liberal press, and their attempts to paint this great network of ours which has varying opinions, which is actually fair and balanced, to paint us as a dangerous anti-vaccine network.

They watched this program and were shocked to discover what I said and what I had been saying for months, and months and months.

Business Insider reports, quote, "Suddenly, Sean Hannity and other Fox hosts are urging their viewers to get COVID-19 vaccines." Here's another headline, "Sean Hannity basically begs his viewers to get vaccinated." Another quote, "'The View': Sunny Hostin calls Hannity's vaccination endorsement 'Too little, too late.'"

These reports are all false for multiple reasons. First, I touted Operation Warp Speed since the beginning. In January 2020 I was predicting that I had so much faith in American researchers, the medical community, scientists and, as usual, it was my prediction that it would likely be American ingenuity and genius that will help us find therapeutics and vaccines and answers. And I praised the efforts of all of the scientists and medical professionals. Those involved in developing therapeutics, there are three vaccines that are now on the market, and literally dozens of others, in terms of therapeutics.

But I have never told anyone to get a vaccine. I have been very clear. I am simply not qualified. I am not a medical doctor. I know nothing about your medical history or your current medical condition. I think it's inappropriate for me to do so. Instead, for over a year now I have been warning my viewers, you make my career possible

Language has been updated for clarity.

Fox News Is Using An Internal ‘Vaccine Passport’ System

Fox News Is Using An Internal ‘Vaccine Passport’ System

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters

If you watch Fox News coverage of the vaccine rollout over the last six months, there is one thing you know for certain: Fox hosts and personalities do not want businesses to require proof of vaccination, colloquially known as vaccine passports.

But now we have learned that Fox itself requires a vaccine passport, called a "Fox Clear Pass." Ryan Grim reported it on Monday morning, and Oliver Darcy further reported:

Fox employees, including those who work at Fox News, received an email, obtained by CNN Business, from the company's Human Resources department in early June that said Fox had "developed a secure, voluntary way for employees to self-attest their vaccination status."

The system allows for employees to self-report to Fox the dates their shots were administered and which vaccines were used.

The company has encouraged employees to report their status, telling them that "providing this information to FOX will assist the company with space planning and contact tracing."

Employees who report their status are allowed to bypass the otherwise required daily health screening, according to a follow-up email those who reported their vaccination status received.

"Thank you for providing FOX with your vaccination information," the email said. "You no longer are required to complete your daily health screening through WorkCare/WorkMatters."

The concept, which was first reported Monday by Ryan Grim on The Hill's morning streaming show, is known internally as "FOX Clear Pass."

While the "Fox Clear Pass" is voluntary for employees, and other companies have similar tools, it is still remarkable, given how vocal Fox's top talent has been in criticizing the concept of vaccine passports.

To say that condemnations of vaccine requirements have been ubiquitous on Fox News is an understatement. One Fox host likened such requirements to communist East Germany. Tucker Carlson called the requirements "medical Jim Crow" and agreed with Turning Point USA's Charlie Kirk that they are like apartheid. Laura Ingraham said requirements would usher in a "brave new world." Just this morning, Florida's attorney general said on Fox Business that vaccine requirements would lead to a "segregated society."

Now we know the deep hypocrisy behind the Fox-GOP feedback loop on vaccine requirements, but don't expect them to stop.

Research contributions from John Kerr.

Kayleigh McEnany

On Fox News, Kayleigh McEnany Still Tells Absurd Lies

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters

Fox's Kayleigh McEnany, a liar who served as White House press secretary under former President Donald Trump, lied about slavery and the founders of the United States during Tuesday's Outnumbered.

Introducing a segment, McEnany claimed that "all of our main Founding Fathers were against slavery, recognized the evils of it."

KAYLEIGH MCENANY (CO-HOST): The haters never take a day off from hating, that is clear. And they never take a day off from getting the facts wrong. We know most of our forefathers, all of our main Founding Fathers were against slavery, recognized the evils of it.

This is flatly untrue.

The majority of signers of the Declaration of Independence owned slaves -- 41 of 56, according to one study.

Just look at some of the early presidents. George Washington enslaved hundreds of men, women, and children. Thomas Jefferson enslaved over 600 people, including Sally Hemings. James Madison enslaved over 100 people, James Monroe as many as 250. We could go on.

Banned From Facebook, 'Former Guy' Will Return Via Lara Trump’s Pages

Banned From Facebook, 'Former Guy' Will Return Via Lara Trump’s Pages

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters

Fox News contributor Lara Trump announced on Instagram today that she will interview her father-in-law, former President Donald Trump, for her show The Right View.

The Right Viewbegan as a Trump campaign product, but it has continued in recent weeks with videos that have been uploaded to Lara Trump's Facebook page, YouTube, and a Rumble page with her name. (The Rumble videos are embedded on the show's own website, where these social media accounts are linked from.)

Former President Trump is still suspended from Facebook after inciting the January 6 attack on the Capitol building, while the platform's Oversight Board contemplates recommending letting him back on the platform.

A thorough Media Matters review of over 6,000 of Trump's Facebook posts found that more than a quarter of them contained COVID-19 misinformation, election lies, or extreme rhetoric about Trump critics. The former president has continued spreading these lies in recent interviews.

Facebook's refusal to draw clear lines in enforcing its own policies is at the core of this mess -- it's no coincidence that Lara Trump broke the news on Facebook-owned Instagram.

​

What You Can Do To Clean Up Tucker Carlson’s Fascist Barf

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters

On Sunday's Last Week Tonight, host John Oliver documented at length the white identity politics of Fox News host Tucker Carlson. Watch:

Tucker Carlson: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)www.youtube.com


Media Matters has documented Carlson's white nationalism at length. Additionally, as noted by Oliver, Media Matters has previously published tapes of Carlson spewing racism and misogyny on Bubba the Love Sponge's radio show.

But in addition to what Oliver highlighted, there are some steps that people can take today to help hold Carlson accountable -- and the third is the most important of all.

Contact Tucker Carlson's advertisers.

You can see Tucker Carlson's leading advertisers and their contact information here.

There are advertisers that sponsor Carlson's white nationalism. We've listed them here, along with their contact information.

But the truth of the matter is that over the years, Carlson has lost many of his blue-chip advertisers. For instance: Last summer, he lost numerous major advertisers after his bigoted rants about Black Lives Matter.

What's left is mostly die-hards and ideological supporters, led by MyPillow. MyPillow's CEO is far-right conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell, who appeared on Carlson's show recently to pitch debunked conspiracy theories about Dominion Voting Systems and the 2020 election. The appearance was eventually mentioned in Dominion's lawsuit against Lindell.

There are still companies that should be contacted and pressured about their support for Carlson's show, like the pharmaceutical companies that are underwriting Carlson's attacks on COVID-19 vaccines.

Contact Fox News' advertisers.

You can see Fox News' leading advertisers and contact information for them here.

Of late, Carlson has shown up all over the rest of Fox News; in essence, he has become the network's assignment editor, with its so-called "straight news" programs running dozens of segments jumping off his commentary. (This approach ramped up after Newsmax made ratings gains against Fox shortly after the election by aggressively challenging Fox's acknowledgment that Joe Biden won the presidential election.) Fox's streaming app, Fox Nation, is also promising additional Tucker Carlson content. Really, an entire wing of Fox Corp. is being centered around Carlson's bigotry and conspiracy theories.

Even before all of that happened, the network's essence was conspiracy theories, bigotry, and propaganda. It's just intensified since the election, with Carlson at the core.

And unlike his show, which has lost blue-chip advertisers, the overall network still has big-name advertisers -- which claim to hold values diametrically opposed to Carlson's.

But the sad truth is that even if Fox News lost all its advertisers, it would still remain profitable.

Sign up for the #UnFoxMyCableBox effort.

Join the #UnFoxMyCableBox effort here.

If you really want to know who funds Tucker Carlson's bigotry, the truth is that it's people like you and me. When you pay your cable bill, a portion goes to the various channels that you receive. Fox News received roughly $20 per year apiece from most cable news subscribers, regardless of whether they actually watch the channel. That's way more than its competitors CNN and MSNBC.

This unfair advantage means Fox News would be wildly profitable even if every single advertiser pulled its ads.

But we're at a key leverage point: Many of these agreements with cable companies are expiring and being renegotiated. The more people who join together to say that they don't want their money going to Fox News, the more leverage cable companies will have to rebuff Fox's demands. That's why we started the #UnFoxMyCableBox effort -- to build a coalition of people who can speak up about being forced to fund hate like Carlson's.

Joe DiGenova

Trump Lawyer DiGenova Calls For Execution Of DHS Whistleblower

Reprinted with permission from MediaMatters

Trump lawyer Joe diGenova yestreday called for the execution of DHS whistleblower Chris Krebs, who was the director of the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) until he was fired by tweet by President Donald Trump for debunking conspiracy theories about the results of the 2020 elections.

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Rudy Giuliani, Arizona hearing

Even Fox News Skipped Giuliani’s Deranged Arizona ‘Hearing’ — Until Trump Tweeted

Reprinted with permission from MediaMatters

On Monday, Rudy Giuliani and others from the Trump campaign appeared in a public meeting with members of the Arizona state legislature to contest the state's election results. The meeting predictably featured plenty of deranged and debunked conspiracy theories about the election from the Trump campaign:

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