Fox News Embarks on a Campaign of Shameless Exaltation of Donald and Melania Trump

From its inception 28 years ago, Fox News has relentlessly pursued its mission to advance the interests of ultra right-wing politicians and policies. That mission has been unencumbered by the principles of ethical journalism or honesty. The network’s objective of promoting arch-conservativism on behalf of the wealthy and corporations has been paramount in their “reporting” at all times.

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Donald Trump baby with Fox News logo

With the emergence of Donald Trump and the cult that has arisen around him, Fox News has managed to do what many may have thought impossible. They got even worse. Their devotional embrace of Trump has exceeded the adulation of history’s most notorious cult leaders. Fox News has helped Trump to prove that he was right when he said that he could “shoot someone on 5th Avenue” without losing any support. And as a result of Fox’s reverential propaganda, Trump’s clan regards him as their only source of truth.

SEE THIS: IT’S A CULT! Poll Shows Republicans Trust Only Criminal Messiah Trump to Tell Them the Truth

This week Fox News has outdone itself. On Thursday their Fox Nation streaming network aired an awards ceremony wherein Trump was declared the “Patriot of the Year.” To be clear, that’s a choice that is honoring a convicted felon, adjudicated rapist, draft dodger, who incited a coup, and said he would terminate the Constitution, as the most patriotic person in America. You have to wonder who the runner-ups were. Steve Bannon? Vladimir Putin? Hannibal Lector?

This award could be in appreciation of Trump’s nominees to his still forming administration. At least 14 of them (so far) are Fox News hosts, contributors, or frequent guests. Among these unqualified, morally bankrupt appointments is his embattled nominee for Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth.

MORE HERE: CNN Report: Trump’s Nominees Are Largely Fox News Alum, Mar-a-Lago Patrons, and Billionaires

As if that weren’t enough, Fox News also invited Melania Trump on to chat with the “Curvy Couch” potatoes of Fox and Friends (Hegseth’s old haunt). That segment actually turned out to be their version of a right-wing Home Shopping Network where viewers could purchase grossly overpriced trinkets designed by Melania herself. Who wouldn’t want a $90.00 Christmas tree ornament by the woman who once said “Who gives a f**k about Christmas stuff?”

This combination of Trump getting a made up award by his Fox News disciples, and giving valuable airtime to Melania to cash in on the rubes who watch Fox, is just the beginning of the media supplication to Dear Leader Trump and his attempt to transform the United States into an authoritarian dystopia. And if you think it’s bad now, just wait. Or better yet, don’t wait – RESIST! If there is one thing that Trump has shown us throughout his public life, it’s that he is incompetent and defeatable. LFG!

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Trump’s Nominees Are Largely Fox News Alum, Mar-a-Lago Patrons, and Billionaires

Donald Trump fashioned his campaign to reoccupy the White House as an appeal to the common man and all those who have been forgotten by entrenched government bureaucracies. That message resonated with a tiny majority of voters who were either too naïve to detect his blatant lies, or too indoctrinated into the cult to care that they were being lied to.

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Donald Trump, Fox News, White House

Now a month has passed since the election and Trump’s real intentions are all to clear to anyone who isn’t in a self-induced coma. Those real intentions are evident in the people he has chosen to serve in his administration. And it isn’t exactly a roster of working class heroes. In fact, this nation has never seen a more disgraceful batch of unqualified bootlickers and shameless self-promoting elitists. But then, what more could be expected from the disgraceful, unqualified, bootlicking, self-promoting elitist who chose them? Trump is still doing what he does best…

SEE THIS: MAKE IT STOP! Crybaby Trump Continues His Infantile Whining Weeks After Winning the Election

On Wednesday CNN’s Harry Enten did a segment that revealed some of the characteristics that are most broadly shared by Trump’s circle of sycophants. And as anyone with more than a handful of functioning brain cells could have predicted, it’s a group that has nothing in common with the common citizens of America. To the contrary. Enten’s analysis shows that Trump’s team thus far is dominated by billionaires, Mar-a-Lago patrons, and Fox News hosts and contributors.

Enten made the rather obvious observation that “Trump is someone who feeds on people being loyal to him.” And none are more devoted than those who spend much of their time on Trump’s Ministry of Propaganda, Fox News. Including…

  1. Pete Hegseth (Secretary of Defense)
  2. Tulsi Gabbard (Director of National Intelligence)
  3. Stephen Miller (Deputy White House Chief of Staff)
  4. Michael Waltz (National Security Adviser)
  5. Lee Zeldin (Environmental Protection Agency administrator)
  6. Elise Stefanik (Ambassador to the United Nation)
  7. Tom Homan (Border “Czar”)
  8. Mike Huckabee (Ambassador to Israel)
  9. Sean Duffy (Secretary of Transportation)
  10. Sebastian Gorka (Deputy Assistant to the President, Director for Counterterrorism)
  11. Janette Nesheiwat (Surgeon General)
  12. Monica Crowley (Assistant Secretary of State and Chief of Protocol)
  13. Keith Kellogg (special Envoy to Ukraine)
  14. Marty Makary (FDA Commissioner)
  15. Kimberley Guilfoyle (Ambassador to Greece)
  16. LATE ADDITIONS:

  17. Tammy Bruce (State Department Spokesperson)
  18. Morgan Ortagus (Deputy Special Presidential Envoy for Middle East Peace)
  19. Leo Terrel (Senior Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights)
  20. Dan Bongino (Deputy Director of the FBI)
  21. Sara Carter (Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy)
  22. Jeanine Pirro (Interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia)

It would have been useful if CNN and other media had informed their viewers that Trump’s campaign promises were unadulterated bullshit before election day. Far too many voters bought into the lies, and now they will suffer as a result. Many of the more purposefully ignorant deserve to suffer. The problem is that the rest of us are going to suffer right along with them.

Our only hope for the next four years is if Democrats in Congress obstruct the worst impulses of Trump and his comrades. And it wouldn’t be a bad idea for the press to do their job and call out the Trumpists when they endeavor to betray the interests of the American people in service to the privileged upper-crusters.

Although a fair measure of the responsibility for getting politicians and the press to work on behalf of the people belongs to the people themselves. We have to let them know what we want, and that there are consequences if we don’t get it. Preserving democracy is hard work, but it’s worth it.

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Pete Hegseth’s Mommy Steps Up to Shield Him From His Life of Alcoholic and Sexual Debauchery

Predictions of the catastrophic fallout from the election of Donald Trump have been coming true at a pace that even the most pessimistic prognosticators could not have imagined. Before he has even dispensed with the inaugural oath of office to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution,” Trump’s nascent administration is collapsing from the weight of its own depravity.

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Donald Trump, Pete Hegseth

Trump has been naming the nominees for his White House staff at breakneck speed, without even the least negligible research or background checks to prevent the appointment of corrupt, unqualified, or incompetent candidates for jobs where lives are literally at stake. His primary prerequisites for service appear to be unwavering fealty to Trump and an apprenticeship at Fox News.

SEE THIS: Trump is Stacking His Cabinet with Fox News Trump-Fluffers

After the withdrawal of Matt Gaetz, Trump’s first choice for Attorney General, the nomination of Pete Hegseth to be Secretary of Defense is in danger of falling apart. Hegseth has been accused of innumerable incidents of public intoxication, financial mismanagement of veterans charities, and sexual harassment and assault.

Due to the rapidly accelerating stream of allegations against Hegseth, he has resorted to bringing out the big guns in his defense – His Mother! She ventured into the friendly environs of Fox News to mount a counteroffensive to the reports of his intemperance. She told a sympathetic Steve Doocy that…

“We really believe that he is not that man he was seven years ago. I’m not that mother, and I hope people will hear that story today and the truth of that story. So the other thing I want to say is I am here to tell the truth. To tell the truth to the American people and tell the truth to the senators on the hill, especially female senators. I really hope that you will not listen to the media and that you will listen to Pete. It was a difficult time. […]

“I want to say something about the media. Part of today is to discredit the media and how they operate. When they contact you, I let a few phone calls go. But then they call you and say – then threaten you. That’s the first thing they do. They say unless you make a statement, we will publish it as is. And I think that’s a despicable way to treat anyone.”

By saying that her son is “not that man he was seven years ago,” she is essentially affirming that the reports about him are true, but it’s okay because he has, according to her, changed. However, that’s not what some of his coworkers at Fox News say, who told reporters that they have seen him drunk at work recently. She goes on to say that she hopes people will not listen to the media reports (except this one on Fox) that are supported by numerous witnesses and associates. She just wants people to listen to Hegseth himself. Because he has no bias?

What’s more, she admits that she is there on Fox News “to discredit the media.” Then she complains that she was “threatened” by a reporter who told her that “unless you make a statement, we will publish it as is.” But that’s not a threat. It’s a standard and proper journalistic courtesy. It’s an invitation to provide a rebuttal prior to publication.

For his part, Hegseth did an interview with shameless Trump-fluffer, Megyn Kelly. And in that discussion he dismissed the reports of his bad behavior as invalid because they are “All anonymous, all innuendo, all rumor, nothing sourced.” Although, one the main sources was Hegseth’s mother, who wrote an email to him saying, “I have no respect for any man that belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around and uses women for his own power and ego. You are that man (and have been for years).” So what exactly is he saying about her as a source?

Hegseth’s mom says that she reconsidered her original email and sent him an apology shortly after. But for some reason neither she, nor he, has bothered to give that one to the press to prove it. I wonder why. Which seems odd for someone saying that she wants to tell the truth. Unless, of course, it doesn’t exist.

Note… None of this addresses the fact that, regardless of what Hegseth’s mother says, or his reported problems with alcohol and sexual assault, he remains utterly unqualified to run the Pentagon. His prior experience yakking on Fox News, and mismanaging a couple of small charities is not preparation to run an enterprise with a budget of $850 billion and over three million people.

Now that Mommy Hegseth has come to the rescue of her sleazy son, we have to ask, where the heck was Lloyd Austin’s mother? In these harrowing times, can we really afford to have a Defense Secretary whose mom hasn’t shielded him from the nefarious forces of the political opposition and the press? And now that they are facing the prospect of Trump and Hegseth and his mother, Vladimir Putin and his mother must be shaking in their boots.

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Fox News Buries Reports of Trump’s Unsavory, Unqualified Defense Secretary Pick, Pete Hegseth

One thing that can be said about Donald Trump is that he has a deep affinity for people who share his noxious personality and absence of ethical values. He consistently surrounds himself with other wealthy narcissists who are devoted to serving their own interests and greed at the expense of everyone else.

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Fox News, Pete Hegseth, Cleared

For an example of this Trumpiness in his toadies, one needs to look no further than his current nominee for Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth. The abhorrent nature of Trump is readily apparent in Hegseth’s conceited certainty that he has the experience and skills to run the Pentagon. What he does have is unwavering fealty to Trump and a Fox News resume.

SEE THIS: Trump is Stacking His Cabinet with Fox News Trump-Fluffers

Hegseth’s history as the weekend host of Fox and Friends has not only won him the attention of Trump, it has resulted in the stories of his decadent past behavior being blacked out on Fox “News.” CNN’s Brian Stelter reviewed Fox’s programming and discovered that they have utterly ignored some bombshell revelations about Hegseth…

“What’s a media outlet supposed to do when its longtime host is picked to run the Pentagon, and then a series of eyebrow-raising news stories trigger doubts about his appointment? If you’re Fox News, evidently, you just pretend the stories don’t exist. […] On Fox, Hegseth’s former colleagues aren’t raising alarms about the allegations or defending him – they’re just not talking about the issue at all.”

This is typical of Fox News, a network whose mission from its inception has been to advance right-wing politicians and policies. Among the revelations that have recently been reported about Hegseth by actual journalists are…

  • Emails by Hegseth’s mother who wrote to him “On behalf of all the women (and I know it’s many) you have abused in some way, I say … get some help and take an honest look at yourself. I have no respect for any man that belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around and uses women for his own power and ego. You are that man (and have been for years) and as your mother, it pains me and embarrasses me to say that, but it is the sad, sad truth.”
  • And that “A woman told police that she was sexually assaulted in 2017 by Pete Hegseth after he took her phone, blocked the door to a California hotel room and refused to let her leave, according to a detailed investigative report”
  • And a whistle-blower report that Hegseth “was forced out of previous leadership positions for financial mismanagement, sexist behavior, and being repeatedly intoxicated on the job.” The report detailed multiple accounts of Hegseth being so drunk he had to be carried back to his hotel room. It also revealed incidents like the one where he “had to be restrained while drunk from joining the dancers on the stage of a Louisiana strip club, where he had brought his team.”

Jane Mayer, the author of the New Yorker story about the whistleblower, was interviewed on CNN Monday, where she outlined much of the atrocious behavior by Hegseth. In addition to his alcohol-fueled debauchery, she calls into question whether someone who could not manage a small charity (actually two of them) with a handful of staffers would be able to run the Pentagon with a budget of $850 billion and more than three million people.

What this tells is that Hegseth is absolutely unqualified to be Secretary of Defense, or to be considered for any position in government. But it also tells us that he should not have been employed by Fox News either, and that they should not consider rehiring him if his nomination is rejected by the Senate, as it must be.

Hegseth is incompetent and is an unrepentant abuser of women and liquor who, like Trump, is on his third marriage, after his cheating and lying and abuse resulted in the first two failing. Although it is just that sort of deplorable behavior that explains why Trump likes him so much. They are two of a kind.

UPDATE: NBC News is now reporting that “as many as 6 Senate Republicans are currently not comfortable supporting [Hegseth’s] bid.” If only half that many say “NO” Hegseth cannot be confirmed.

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FOX News Anchor Admits Trump Tax (Tariffs) Will Raise Prices and Inflation for U.S. Consumers

The forthcoming occupation of the White House by convicted felon and adjudicated rapist Donald Trump is shaping up to be as disastrous as his harshest critics predicted. The people that he is nominating to staff his Cabinet and other high level positions appear to have been selected based primarily on their unwavering adoration of Trump.

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Donald Trump, Fox News, Hate Again

Aside from their blind loyalty, Trump’s White House supplicants share two other notable qualifications: 1) They have no knowledge or experience for the jobs that they are being tasked to perform, and 2) They have prepared for these positions by being employees or regular contributors at Fox News…

SEE THIS: Trump is Stacking His Cabinet with Fox News Trump-Fluffers

Despite this uniformity of thought, there have been moments when the Trump-fluffing Fox News shills strayed from their obedient concurrence with anything and everything that Trump does and says. One of those moments occurred Thursday when Fox News anchor Julie Banderas interviewed Gene Marks, the CEO of a business consulting firm, about whether Trump’s tariffs would raise prices for American consumers. This led to his reply and her surprisingly candid response…

Marks: It could. It just depends on how the businesses decide to absorb those price increases. Maybe they invest in technology or they reduce overhead.
Banderas: I think if American companies are forced to buy American, it is going to cost more ultimately. And then who’s going to pay for that? We are. I mean, we are going to be buying the merchandise that they are going to have to raise the costs on because they’re not going to be buying from foreign countries. So ultimately, it does come down to the taxpayer dollar.

Exactly! This is a rather simple concept that scores of economics experts have warned about ever since Trump’s threat to impose 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada, and an additional 10% on China. But somehow, Trump’s cult followers don’t appear to be able to comprehend it.

However, now at least one member of Trump’s Ministry of Propaganda (aka Fox News) has weighed in on the side of the economists. Perhaps she just couldn’t justify the flagrant lying that was required to keep up the pretense that the cost of tariffs wouldn’t be passed along to consumers. Or perhaps she didn’t want to end up out the limb that CNN’s Scott Jennings recently crawled out on, where he escalated Trump’s trade war into an actual shooting war…

MORE HERE: CNN’s Republican Shill Says Tariffs Are Not Enough, Proposes Starting a Drug War with Mexico

The facts, however, are undeniable. A recent study by the National Retail Federation found that “Consumers could lose $46 billion to $78 billion in spending power each year if the new tariffs are implemented.” They would likely exacerbate inflation and could even lead to a recession.

Not that Trump cares about any of that. His own personal wealth, and that of the other wealthy people that he has drawn around him to run his administration, insures that they will not be harmed by the ill effects of his reckless policies. The pain will be felt by the rubes that he persuaded – with the help of Fox News – to vote for him. It will be interesting to see if any of those voters hold him accountable for the financial distress they are likely to suffer.

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CNN’s Republican Shill Says Tariffs Are Not Enough, Proposes Starting a Drug War with Mexico

One of the absolute worst ideas that Donald Trump has proposed since becoming president-elect is his promise to impose new tariffs on China, Canada, and Mexico, America’s biggest trading partners. His justification for this is that it would serve as a lever to make them end the trafficking of drugs into the United States.

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General Donald Trump on CNN

Never mind that economists and trade experts agree that such a reckless and ill-considered act “would significantly increase U.S. inflation next year [and] curtail economic growth.” Trump doesn’t really care about the welfare of the American people. If he did he wouldn’t lie to them so flagrantly and frequently.

SEE THIS: OUCH! Trump’s Flagrant Lies About 14,000 ‘Criminal’ Migrants Gets a Devastating Fact-Check

If the gullible rubes who voted for Trump think that he is going to lower the price of gas or eggs, they are going to be woefully disappointed. To the contrary, his plans will increase the costs of everything from fruit to toys to shoes to cars, and more. And to rub some salt into those wounds, it won’t have the slightest impact on drug trafficking.

Which makes the following exchange about Trump’s initiatives on CNN, between economic contributor Catherine Rampell and Republican hack Scott Jennings, all the more troubling…

Rampell: Mexico has actually put a lot more border security on its southern border.
Jennings: It’s really working wonders. This is crazy.
Rampell: Yes, again, border crossings are down 75 percent. They’re back to what they were under Trump.
Jennings: If I were [Mexican President Sheinbaum], I would be prepared for my country to possibly have United States military incursions to take out the drug factories and the people who do this to us too.
Rampell: So, you think we should not only have a trade war, we should have a military war with Mexico?
Jennings: I think we have to do what we have to do to stop the drugs.

So Jennings, who has previously supported deploying the military within the U.S. to round up immigrants for mass deportation, now also wants the Army to invade our allied neighbor to South to put an end to the Fentanyl crisis at home. The minions of MAGA have become the foremost advocates of military engagements. Unless, of course, it is aimed at preventing Vladimir Putin from invading and annexing our friends in Ukraine.

Rampell was correct to note that border crossings are down 75 percent. What’s more, most of the Fentanyl coming into the U.S. is brought in by American citizens through legal ports of entry. And there is a reason for the flood of drugs into the U.S. There’s a huge market for it. Fentanyl trafficking would end if Americans would stop buying it. It isn’t an international crime problem. It’s a domestic public health problem. These and other concerns were addressed by President Sheinbaum following Trump’s tariff threat…

“Mexico’s main exporters to the U.S. are General Motors, Stellantis and Ford Motor Company, which came to Mexico 80 years ago. Why put a tax on them that puts them at risk? It is not acceptable and would cause the U.S. and Mexico inflation and job losses.” […]

“Seventy percent of the illegal weapons seized from criminals in Mexico come from your country. We do not produce these weapons, nor do we consume synthetic drugs. Tragically, it is in our country that lives are lost to the violence resulting from meeting the drug demand in yours.”

The military “solution” that Jennings proposed would be worse than ineffective. It would be objectively harmful. It would put the lives American soldiers, as well as innocent Mexican civilians, at risk. It would do nothing to reduce drug trafficking because, as long as there is a demand, the traffickers will seek to fill it. They would just raise their prices along with the legal businesses who respond to the tariffs.

Worst of all, it would destroy the relationship between the U.S. and Mexico, it’s biggest trading partner. It would accelerate inflation at home, and waste billions of dollars and military resources.

Yet somehow CNN is comfortable having a regular contributor on their air making these preposterous and dangerous proposals. Jennings is not a serious conservative commentator. He is war mongering fanatic whose opinions are not worthy of being disseminated by any reputable news enterprise. And if CNN wants to be regarded as “reputable,” they need to dispose of Jennings.

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Fox News Host Attacks Republican Senators for Supporting the Constitution – No, REALLY!

The emergence of a demagogic cult figure like Donald Trump tugs at the boundaries of American politics as the nation leaps recklessly into the realm of dystopian fiction. Who could have imagined a few years ago that the government of the United States could be led by an aspiring dictator whose public persona was wholly manufactured by reality TV and propaganda, much of which emanated from foreign sources?

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Fox News, Constitution

Unfortunately, that is the situation that this country finds itself in today. And it isn’t just Trump that is fomenting the dire circumstances that have captured the nation. Most of what was once the Republican Party has succumbed to the anti-democratic seduction of a self-professed strongman with divine providence who promises to cure all of our ills, and insists that only he can do so.

SEE THIS: Wannabe Messiah Trump Claims that Only He Can ‘End the Bloodshed and Bring Peace to the World’

Trump is now assembling the Cabinet for his upcoming reoccupation of the White House. And it is dreadfully apparent that his foremost prerequisites for service are…

True to from, Fox News is fulfilling its mission to fluff Trump on all matters. Even if doing so requires chastising otherwise devoted Trump flunkies and repudiating the Constitution. To that end, Fox’s Laura Ingraham posted a couple of messages on the former Twitter castigating GOP senators who weren’t sufficiently worshipful of Trump.

In the first message, Ingraham asked “Why does NDakota have a senator who is already undermining Pres-elect Trump?” She was referring to GOP Sen. Mike Rounds, who is actually the senator from South Dakota. What she was complaining about was that Rounds delivered a speech in which, according to Politico, he said “that there are still three branches of the U.S. government, and the Senate will guard its independence.”

OH NO! A United States senator indicated his support for the Constitution’s separation of powers doctrine. She believes that an elected representative who would exercise his constitutional duties is “undermining” the president. Because that would impose on the omnipotent powers bestowed on Trump by Gawd! Ingraham surely wasn’t going to abide that sort of usurpation of the divine authority of Trump.

The second message that Ingrahm posted asked “Why does Oklahoma have a Senator who hates Trump? Strange given that Okla. voters overwhelmingly support Trump.” This time she was referring to GOP Sen. James Lankford, whose state she managed to get right. However, her complaint was that Lankford told reporters that “he doesn’t know ‘one way or another’ if President-elect Trump and his new Department of Justice (DOJ) pick, Pam Bondi, will apply political interference from the nonpartisan department.”

MY GOODNESS! A United States senator acknowledged that the Constitution gives the Senate the duty to provide “advice and consent” to a president’s nominations to his Cabinet and other executive branch positions. It isn’t optional. It’s required. But to Ingraham it’s proof that the senator “hates Trump” if he seeks to make an informed decision. Because, once again, that would impose on the omnipotent powers bestowed on Trump by Gawd!

This is how far the GOP has declined into the abyss of Trump cultism. and their Ministry of Propaganda (aka Fox News) is along for the ride to the bottom. They are unwaveringly faithful to Trump, even when it is flagrantly contrary to the Constitution. And he hasn’t even been inaugurated yet. So buckle up, America. It’s gonna be a bumpy ride.

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Morning Joe’s Craven Capitulation to Trump is Just Cause for MSNBC to Consider Pulling the Plug

Whenever an emerging totalitarian regime starts to reveal its intentions, there are weak citizens and organizations that seek to get in front of the tyrannical train and declare their allegiance to the dawning dictatorship before it actually assumes power.

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Donald Trump, Woman, Fear

That display of spinelessness was evident when the Washington Post and other media enterprises withheld their endorsements of Kamala Harris prior to the election. It’s especially disturbing when comedy news satire programs are more credible journalists than mainstream media…

SEE THIS: The Media Still Doesn’t Get the Danger that We – and They – Are In, But the Daily Show Does

With the election behind us, it took less than two weeks for a usually reliable news network to fall under the spell of the demagogic cult leader, Donald Trump. On Monday morning the hosts of Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, opened their program with a report on their recent visit to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home/hotel. It was not exactly a story of courage or journalistic integrity (video below). Mika began…

“Over the past week, Joe and I have heard from so many people from political leaders to regular citizens deeply dismayed by several of president-elect Trump’s Cabinet selections, and they are scared. Last Thursday, we expressed our own concerns on this broadcast and even said we would appreciate the opportunity to speak with the president-elect himself. On Friday, we were given the opportunity to do just that.”

Joe said that he talked to Trump about a lot of issues, including those with which they disagreed. “What we did agree on,” Mika said, “was to restart communications” [and that] “He seemed interested in finding common ground with Democrats on some of the most divisive issues.” And if she believes that Trump has any genuine interest in finding common ground she is terminally naïve. She continued…

“We have been as clear as we know how in expressing our deep concerns about President Trump’s actions and words in the coarsening of public debate, but for nearly 80 million Americans. election denialism, public trials, January 6th, were not as important as the issues that moved them to send Donald Trump back to the White House with their vote. Joe and I realized it’s time to do something different and that starts with not only talking about Donald Trump, but also talking with him.”

First of all, Trump had less than 77 million votes, and only about two million more than Harris. It was one of the closest elections in modern times, and not in any way a mandate for Trump, or reason for Democrats to cave in. Furthermore, merely because Trump came out slightly ahead is no reason to forget the atrocities he was responsible for, including the violent January 5th insurrection, and his dozens of felony charges and convictions.

Joe suggested that “this is a president who is not seeking reelection, so maybe, just maybe now could be time for both parties to get to work.” Which is patently absurd. Trump is not thinking about reelection as a factor in pursuing his authoritarian power grab. In fact, he may not be thinking about ever having to stand for election again at all, while still staying in power.

Mika added that “Hyperbole and personal attacks will not work. My hair on fire doesn’t work. We have all seen that. What also does not work is threatening political opponents with arrest, harassment and even jail. That is a failed path.” Of course, she’s wrong. Trump succeeded with his threats and fear mongering and therefore, will see no reason to abandon those tactics now. Continuing…

“We know that this will be a consequential presidency. The question is whether it will be constructive. It will take a new approach from all sides, from both parties, and a leader who can bring them together. And only time will tell if Donald Trump can be that leader.”

Wrong again. Trump has no intention of bringing anyone together. He has said so explicitly, reiterating his threats against his critics, political opponents, and the media.

Joe closed by saying that he is “not here to defend or normalize Donald Trump.” But that’s precisely what he is doing. How else can he justify cozying up to someone he once compared to Hitler? A comment that drew a response from Trump’s spokesperson threatening that “their sad, miserable existence will be crushed when president Trump returns to the White House.”

This would be a good time for MSNBC to reconsider whether having Joe and Mika on for three hours every weekday is really a good idea while Trump and his regime are dismantling democracy. And it will be interesting to see how their network colleagues (Rachel Maddow, Chris Hayes, Jen Psaki, Alex Wagner, Nicole Wallace, etc., respond. Katie Phang has already made her feelings clear…

https://x.com/KatiePhang/status/1858520409710182606

UPDATE: CNN is reporting that “According to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter, Scarborough and Brzezinski were credibly concerned that they could face governmental and legal harassment from the incoming Trump administration.” [and that] “the incoming Trump administration could use its wide-ranging powers to punish people deemed enemies.”

So in other words, the cowards capitulated.


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Trump’s Cabinet Picks Make it Hard to Tell the Difference Between Russian State TV and Fox News

Forty years ago in 1984, with some measure of prescient irony, a song called “Nobody Told Me (There’d Be Days Like These)” by John Lennon was posthumously released that included the lyric “Strange days indeed.” Which is an apt description of current times considering how, less than two weeks ago, America was thrown into turmoil when a twice-impeached, convicted felon, adjudicated rapist, and aspiring dictator, was elected president of the United States. And that’s just the short list. Here’s a more comprehensive enumeration of Donald Trump’s noxiousness

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Donald Trump Vladimir Putin

In the intervening days, Trump has revealed a motley crew of candidates to populate his Cabinet that includes an accused sex trafficker (Matt Gaetz), a health conspiracy crackpot (Robert Kennedy Jr), a TV host who has defended war criminals (Pete Hegseth), and a suspected Kremlin sympathizer (Tulsi Gabbard). What they all have in common is a blatant absence of any requisite skills or experience to do the jobs they’ve been tapped for, and a cult-like reverence for their Dear Leader Trump. Also, close ties to Trump’s Ministry of Propaganda, Fox News.

SEE THIS: Trump is Stacking His Cabinet with Fox News Trump-Fluffers

Making this White House of Ill Repute even worse is that they have been sanctioned by the spin proctors of Vladimir Putin’s empire. Russian state TV has fully embraced Trump’s choices as noted in this report from Moscow by CNN…

Anchor Erin Burnett: Tonight celebrations on Russian state television after Trump picked Matt Gaetz and Tulsi Gabbard for highly sensitive national security roles.
Correspondent Fred Pleitgen: Kremlin controlled TV praising some of president-elect Trump’s cabinet picks, calling designated attorney general Matt Gaetz ‘a Trump loyalist,’ and also speaking favorably about Trump’s pick for director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard for repeatedly parroting Kremlin talking points on the war in Ukraine.

“‘She, from day one, clarified the reason for the special operation in Ukraine,’ the Russian anchor said, criticizing the actions of the Biden administration. Gabbard’s words in 2022, right after Russia launched it’s invasion of Ukraine, caused even panelists on Russian state TV to cynically ask whether she’s a Kremlin agent.

And if that weren’t enough, another Russian media analyst, Julia Davis, reported that “Russian state TV propagandists and government officials expressed their delight with Trump’s selections, saying that ‘All of them are totally wonderful!‘”

The similarity of these glowing appraisals of Trump’s Cabinet comrades with those by Fox News anchors and contributors is unmistakable. They are all equally impressed by his ability to recruit unflinchingly faithful flunkies who are utterly devoid of qualifications. Fox News hosts Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Jesse Watters, and others, have greeted Trump’s nominees with the very same drooling adoration. And despite their obvious character deficiencies, the Fox crew is all in on their appointments, even as Trump maneuvers to avoid actual background checks and confirmation hearings.

SEE ALSO: Dictator on Day One! Trump Nixes FBI Background Checks for his Unqualified, Anti-American Cabinet

This isn’t just a coincidence that Fox News and the Kremlin have such well aligned and positive views of Trump and his sub-par team. It is an unambiguous indication of where Trump’s loyalties lie. He has a long history of praising Putin and defending his crimes against humanity. While at the same time Trump has disparaged the U.S. as corrupt, filthy, failing, and a third world nation that is a garbage can for the rest of the planet. What’s more, Trump incessantly insults American leaders as liars and criminals who are bent on destroying the country.

The American people must not dismiss the coordinated messages that Trump and Putin are delivering. We must be vigilant and committed to resisting their assaults on our republic and to preserving democracy. The next four years are going to be challenging. And part of that challenge is to remain aware of the threats posed by anti-American propagandists both foreign and domestic.

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Fox News Asks Biden’s Press Sec if He Apologized to Trump for Saying He’s a Threat to Democracy

The unfortunate outcome of the presidential election last week is already sending spine-chilling reverberations across the political landscape as the ghastly consequences of another Donald Trump occupation of the White House become impossible to ignore.

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Fox News, Joe Biden, Fake News

The shape of Trump’s Cabinet has become deplorably clear in the past few days. His nominees so far reflect his inherent corruption, ignorance, aspirations of autocracy, and the shallowness of a former reality TV game show host. Most of his picks are closely associated with his Ministry of Propaganda, Fox News.

SEE THIS: Trump is Stacking His Cabinet with Fox News Trump-Fluffers

Trump has not yet named his choice to be his press secretary. But rest assured that it will be a brazenly dishonest purveyor of self-serving falsehoods. In the meantime, we should appreciate the press secretary currently serving President Biden, Karine Jean-Pierre.

At Wednesday’s daily White House press briefing, the noxious odor of Fox News wafted into the room as a reporter from their business network, Edward Lawrence, was called upon to ask a question. True to form, it was a preposterous question that had nothing to do with any matter of concern to the American people. Instead, he sought to manufacture a melodrama out of the morning meeting that Biden had with Trump…

Lawrence: We saw a unified front related to a transition in the Oval Office meeting. But a lot was said on the campaign trail like ‘Trump is a dangerous threat to our country and our democracy. Was there an apology today?
Jean-Pierre: I’m sorry? Apology from whom? I’ve answered this a couple of times with respect to democracy in the past week. The President is always going to feel obligated to be honest with the American people. What he says still stands. And it’s not just him. You heard this from former [Trump] staffers.

Biden had nothing to apologize for. He told the truth about Trump. And as Jean-Pierre went on to note, is was Trump’s own close associates who were the ones that raised the question of his threat to democracy. It was his White House Chief of Staff, Gen. John Kelly, his Defense Secretary, Gen. James Mattis, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, and others who said that Trump was a fascist who praised Hitler. Trump himself made statements that were overtly threatening to democracy, such as branding his critics as “the enemy within.”

Lawrence’s question also neglected to mention that Trump used the very same language aimed at Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris, who he said, without a shred of evidence, were threats to democracy. But Lawrence didn’t bother to ask whether Trump apologized. Unrattled by Lawrence’s purposeful provocation, Jean-Pierre gave a calm and coherent response…

Jean-Pierre: What we also want to be very clear about is listening to the will of the American people. There was an election. It is important to respect our institution. It is important to respect the free and fair election. And that’s what this President is doing.

America needs to prepare itself for what’s to come in the White House Press Briefing room. Axios is reporting that Trump is expected to shake it up.”

“Trump’s first administration tried to ban outlets it saw as unfavorable from off-camera press briefings. That included the New York Times, Politico, CNN and BBC.” […]

“Any efforts to expand access to daily press briefings to pro-Trump outlets, such as Steve Bannon’s War Room, would need to come at the expense of existing outlets.”

So get ready for briefings that feature folks like Bannon, Alex Jones, and Laura Loomer. The “mainstream” media reporters from the New York Times and CBS and NPR will all be banished as “fake news.” And Trump’s press secretary is likely to be someone like his former attorney Alina Habba or his daughter Tiffany. Which means the rest of the media had better grow a spine and be prepared to protect the very notion of a free press.

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Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse
on Twitter and Facebook and Instagram and Threads.

And check out my books on Amazon:

Fox Nation vs. Reality:
The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.

Thanks so much for your support.