This reporting appears as one of several scooplets featured in this week’s edition of Confider, the newsletter pulling back the curtain on the media. Subscribe here and send your questions, tips, and complaints here.
Fox News executives are “full-on freaked out” about the leak of never-aired clips of Tucker Carlson’s interview with Kayne West, Confider has learned, and the network is closing in on the “mole” who was the source of the embarrassing breach.
A few weeks ago Carlson interviewed West, who now goes by the mononym Ye, and touted him as a brave truth-teller dismissed by liberal elites for his increasingly far-right beliefs and stunts like wearing a “White Lives Matter” shirt to Paris Fashion Week.
Despite the Fox News celebration of West’s supposed intellectual heft, unaired snippets leaked to Vice’s Motherboard showed the rapper and fashion mogul peddling openly antisemitic tropes and bizarre claims about “fake children” being used to manipulate his kids. These more embarrassing, newsworthy remarks never made into the final broadcast of Carlson’s chat with the rapper. (The interview was also before Ye threatened online to go “death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE” before being banned from multiple platforms.)
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Fox may be closing in on the leaker, but it’s now almost a week since Vice published the videos. This is a notable detail because in 2012, the last time the network dealt with a major video breach, it found and escorted the leaker—Bill O’Reilly’s then-associate producer Joe Muto—out of the building in less than 24 hours.
“This new leaker learned from my mistakes,” Muto told Confider. “The main reason I got caught is that I wasn’t covering my digital trail particularly well. They’re obviously doing a better job than I did if they haven’t been found yet.”
Following Muto’s leaks to Gawker, the network instituted stricter security protocols for accessing video, making it more difficult to access sensitive outtakes like the Ye ones. “It seems this leaker has found a way around that,” Muto remarked.
If you’re the Kanye video leaker, or anyone else at Fox with some juicy info, we’d love to hear from you. Email us at confider@thedailybeast.com.
A Fox News spokesperson declined to comment.
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Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, the Democratic nominee for Senate, on Sunday fired back at Fox News host Tucker Carlson over comments mocking his tattoos during a show earlier this month.
“All your stupid little fake tattoos, it’s a costume, of course. Duh, it’s not real,” Carlson said of Fetterman during his show’s opening monologue on Sept. 7, when he portrayed Fetterman as weak on fighting crime.
Fetterman, in an op-ed for NBC News, called the monologue “unhinged” and explained how the nine tattoos on his right forearm indicate the dates when someone died violently in Braddock, Penn. while Fetterman served as mayor.
“Gun violence and violent crime might be a joke to someone like Carlson, but they are very real to people in towns like Braddock,” Fetterman wrote.
“My decision to mark these deaths with tattoos was inspired in part by their permanence — the fact that these people, their stories and my town will be with me forever,” he added.
Fetterman is hoping to flip Pennsylvania’s Senate seat this November as incumbent Sen. Pat Toomey (R) retires. Fetterman faces Republican nominee Mehmet Oz in what is expected to be a close race, although polling generally indicates Fetterman has a slight edge.
In the op-ed, Fetterman detailed some of the victims’ stories represented by his tattoos, including a man who was shot dead while delivering pizzas and a 23-month-old girl who was found dead after her father sexually assaulted her.
Fetterman said gun violence in the town is what drove him to run for mayor. He also tattooed “15104,” Braddock’s ZIP code, on his left arm.
“I get that etching art permanently onto your body isn’t how most politicians would express their connection to their communities,” he wrote. “But I didn’t care about what anyone else thought. It felt right to me.”
Fetterman’s unconventional style goes beyond his tattoos. The Pennsylvania Democrat is also known to wear hoodies and shorts during campaign events, rather than a suit and tie.
Carlson in the Sept. 7 monologue also took aim at the fashion choices.
“By the way, only rich kids wear hoodies to political events,” Carlson said. “‘Oh I’m a working man, I’m wearing a hoodie.’ No working man actually wears a hoodie to a political event.”
The Hill has reached out to a Fox News spokesperson for comment.
Fetterman also took aim at Oz in the article for NBC, saying the celebrity doctor was at the time “peddling miracle cures” and living in a New Jersey mansion, criticisms the Fetterman campaign has frequently lobbed in the general election race.
“I’m the only candidate in this race who has fought violent crime and won,” Fetterman wrote.
“Quick question, how was your weekend?” Stephen Colbert said at the top of his Late Show monologue on Monday. “I certainly had an interesting one, because some of my staff had a memorable one.”
From there, Colbert proceeded to break down all of the previously unknown details about the seven Late Show staffers who were arrested on Capitol Hill last week while filming a comedy piece about the Jan. 6 committee hearings.
“Here’s what happened,” he explained. “Last week, I heard from my old colleague Triumph the Insult Comic Dog. Triumph offered to go to D.C. and interview some Congress people to highlight the Jan. 6 hearings. I said, ‘Sure, if you can get anyone to agree to talk to you, because—and please don’t take this as an insult—you’re a puppet.’”
Colbert confirmed that both Democratic and Republican members of Congress agreed to talk to Triumph, the long-running comedy creation of writer Robert Smigel—and he and the Late Show crew spent two days shooting footage at offices across the street from the Capitol building. “They went through security clearance,” he said, and shot all day Wednesday and all day Thursday, invited into the offices of the Congress people they were interviewing.
It was at the end of their second day on Thursday when “Triumph and my folks were approached and detained by the Capitol Police,” he continued. “Which actually, isn’t that surprising. The Capitol Police are much more cautious than they were, say, 18 months ago, and for a very good reason. If you don’t know what that reason is, I know what news network you watch.”
According to the host, everyone was just “doing their job,” they were “very professional” and “very calm.” The Late Show crew was “detained, processed, and released—a very unpleasant experience for my staff, a lot of paper for the Capitol Police, but a very simple story.”
“Until the next night, when a couple of TV people started claiming my puppet squad had, ‘committed insurrection’ at the U.S. building,” he said, referring to absurd comments made by Tucker Carlson and others.
“First of all, what?” Colbert said. “Second of all, huh? Third of all, they weren’t in the Capitol building. Fourth of all, and I’m shocked I have to explain the difference, but an insurrection involves disrupting the lawful actions of Congress and howling for the blood of elected leaders, all to prevent the peaceful transfer of power. This was first-degree puppetry. This was hijinks with intent to goof. Misappropriation of an old Conan bit.”
Colbert said it was “predictable” that people like Carlson would make such outrageous claims. “They want to talk about something other than the Jan. 6 hearings or the actual seditionist insurrection that led to the deaths of multiple people, and the injury of over 140 police officers,” he said. “But drawing any equivalence between rioters storming our Capitol to prevent the counting of electoral ballots and a cigar-chomping toy dog is a shameful and grotesque insult to the memory of everyone who died, and it obscenely trivializes the service and the courage the Capitol Police showed on that terrible day.”
“But who knows, maybe there was a vast conspiracy to overthrow the government of the United States with a rubber Rottweiler,” he joked. “We all know the long history of puppet lawlessness. The Great Muppet Caper, the Fraggle riots of the 1980s.”
“In this case, our puppet was just a puppet doing puppet stuff,” he assured viewers. “And sad to say, so much has changed in Washington that the Capitol Police do have to stay at high alert all the time, because of the attack on January 6th. And as the hearings prove more clearly every day, the blame for that actual insurrection all goes to Putin’s puppet.”
There’s been no word yet on when the piece that Triumph and crew were filming last week will air on the Late Show, but when it does, it is certain to be one for the ages.
For more, listen to Robert Smigel onThe Last Laugh podcast.
For the last time on Saturday night, Pete Davidson stopped by the “Weekend Update” desk to say goodbye and talk about how improbable it was that he ever became one of SNL’s most famous cast members.
“Hello, Colin and Che and millions of people only watching to see if I bring up Kanye,” Davidson began, referring to his very public feud with girlfriend Kim Kardashian’s ex.
“I never imagined this would be my life,” he said, describing the 20-year-old who joined the show in 2014 as being “a skinny kid and no one knew what race I was.” He then joked, “Now everyone knows I’m white because I became hugely successful while barely showing up to work.”
Noting how much has changed during his seven seasons in the cast, Davidson said, “In three years, Fox News went from calling me a monster for making fun of congressman Dan Crenshaw’s eye patch to also making fun of his eye patch.”
“Tucker Carlson called him ‘eyepatch McCain,’” he explained. “That’s two veterans in one insult! Jeez, Colin, your dad’s a dick.”
“In fairness to what I said, because clearly it still bothers me, I was simply making a joke about someone’s appearance without realizing the medical condition behind it was a sensitive issue, which is a SNL alumni tradition,” as the photo of Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars popped up behind him drew groans from the crowd. “On one hand, I don’t like that people think they can just run up on stage and hit a comedian. But on the other, it’s how I know all my shows will now be sold out.”
Davidson explained that when he first auditioned for SNL, producer Lorne Michaels told him, “I don’t think you’re right for this show, so let’s screw this up together.”
“And that’s exactly what we did,” Davidson said. “And that’s why people who don’t think I deserve the job shouldn’t hate me, since we have so much in common. If anything, I should inspire hope that literally anyone can be on Saturday Night Live. Seriously, you see a guy bumming cigarettes outside a 7-Eleven at 2 a.m., that’s not some meth head, ‘That’s the next Pete Davidson!’”
He got visibly emotional as he closed things out by thanking SNL for “always having my back and allowing me to work on myself and grow.”
“And thank you to Lorne for never giving up on me and never judging me, even when everyone else was,” Davidson continued. “And for believing in me and allowing me to have a place that I could call home with memories that can last a lifetime.”
For more, listen and subscribe to The Last Laugh podcast.
Donald Trump acknowledges SpaceX founder Elon Musk after the successful launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in May, 2020.Photo: Joe Raedle (Getty Images)
Free speech is great and all, unless what they’re saying about you is false.
Elon Musk is calling a story published by the New York Post ‘false’ after the outlet originally reported that former President Donald Trump quietly ‘encouraged’ Musk to buy Twitter. The article released Thursday claimed that, according to an interview on Fox Business Network with ex-congressman and Truth Social CEO Devin Nunes, Trump essentially gave Musk a solid pat on the rear to send him off on the races for his Twitter deal, saying the former president “actually said to go and buy it,” with the goal of creating a “family-friendly, safe environment.”
The following day, Musk went to Twitter to stamp out the news, saying “this is false.”
Nunes is probably not a very solid source on any subject, so the claim itself is dubious at best. Still, Musk’s firm denial is a noted bit of irony from a “free speech absolutist” who has no problem making problematic and harmful comments about subjects like mental health.
Trump has publicly said that he will be staying off Twitter despite comments by Musk that the new platform will become a bastion of “free speech.” If you’ve been following along, then you know that Trump has been permanently banned from Twitter after the Jan. 6 insurrection over concerns he’d further incite violence.
Other conservatives have been making wild claims that Musk’s turn as head of Twitter will allow them back on the platform after being banned for various violations to the platform’s terms of service.
The idea that Musk will be allowing anyone to say whatever they want without censor has led to a flood of conservatives getting back onto the platform, some of who had logged off after claiming Twitter’s rules quashed “free speech.”
Some on the right, like Tucker Carlson, falsely implied that Musk’s Twitter purchase had already allowed them back onto the platform, even though all he had to do was delete one offending tweet. Mike Lindell, AKA, the MyPillow Guy, was giving himself a pat on the back for rejoining Twitter Monday only to be banned again in a mere three hours.
Meanwhile, Musk’s apparent plans for Twitter include a heavy emphasis on “hardcore software engineering, design, infosec & server hardware,” according to a recent tweet.
Although he’s emphasizing the idea that people are chomping at the bit to get onto Musk’s new Twitter team, even as the deal is not fully formed, current employees are nervous that all their efforts to curtail misinformation on the platform will be reversed if Musk takes charge.
Musician Kid Rock slammed Dr. Anthony FauciAnthony FauciSome states pull back on daily COVID reporting Hvistendahl: Reports that U.S.-funded lab leaked COVID-19 are ‘dangerous’ Fauci says US unlikely to see surge from new COVID-19 variant MORE in a Fox News interview, telling host Tucker CarlsonTucker CarlsonFree flow of information crucial in troubled world Five things to watch for during Zelensky’s address to Congress Panel on ‘The View’ calls for DOJ to probe Tucker Carlson over Putin rhetoric MORE, “F— Fauci,” when asked about the leading infectious disease physician.
Carlson responded to his comment, saying “you speak for many when you say that.”
Kid Rock, whose real name is Robert James Ritchie, added that he believed all the “bullshit” at the beginning of the pandemic and was “spraying off UPS packages” and doorknobs.
“A couple moths of that shit and I’m like, what? So this is pretty much knocking out overweight, unhealthy people?” he added. “I’m like, I’m good.”
The full interview will air on Fox News Monday night at 8 p.m. ET.
The conservative rocker has long been critical of Fauci and COVID-19 mitigation policies. He previously released an expletive-filled anti-Biden anthem where he repeats the phrase, “Let’s go, Brandon.”
“Wear your mask, take your pills. Now a whole generation is mentally ill,” says one line in the song.
Fauci said last year that conservative attacks against him were “attacks on science.”
“It’s very dangerous,” he said on MSNBC, “because a lot of what you’re seeing as attacks on me quite frankly are attacks on science, because all of the things that I have spoken about consistently from the very beginning, have been fundamentally based on science.”
In another teaser for Monday’s interview, Kid Rock was asked “Why haven’t you been canceled?”
“I am uncancelable,” Kid Rock said while wearing a “We The People” hat.
“I’m not in bed with any big corporate things. At the end of the day, there’s nobody I’m beholden to — no record companies, no corporate interests, no nothing. You can’t cancel me,” he said. “I love it when they try.”
The 51-year-old musician is vocal supporter of former President TrumpDonald TrumpNow is the time to rebuild America’s refugee resettlement program Is a post-Trump media world beginning to take shape? Major government surveillance revelations fail to make a big splash MORE and praised him in another preview of the interview released on Monday.
“See now, if you watch a Joe BidenJoe BidenBiden to visit Poland during Europe trip Former DC judge, Penn law professor to introduce Ketanji Brown Jackson at hearing US concludes violence against Myanmar’s Rohingya was genocide: report MORE interview, and you watch a Trump interview, there’s no comparison. And Trump speaks off the cuff. I understand what it’s like, sometimes you get it wrong. But I would way rather hear somebody come from here [the heart] and get it wrong once in a while,” he added.
Monday. 8pm ET. Fox News. pic.twitter.com/l2YSLEyJVo
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) March 20, 2022
Kid Rock shared an anecdote of standing next to Trump in the White House, watching him read one line from prepared notes and then ad-libbing after that. “That’s why I liked him from the beginning,” Kid Rock said.
His interview comes on the same day of the digital release of his new album, “Bad Reputation.”
Republicans are pushing President BidenJoe BidenFormer chairman of Wisconsin GOP party signals he will comply with Jan. 6 committee subpoena Romney tests positive for coronavirus Pelosi sidesteps progressives’ March 1 deadline for Build Back Better MORE to be tougher on Russia over its aggression toward Ukraine, but their isolationist far-right flank is denying them unity on the issue.
Some of former President TrumpDonald TrumpFormer chairman of Wisconsin GOP party signals he will comply with Jan. 6 committee subpoena Overnight Defense & National Security — Pentagon tells Russia to stand down Billionaire GOP donor maxed out to Manchin following his Build Back Better opposition MORE’s closest allies have questioned why the U.S. would side with Kyiv over Moscow at all and expressed skepticism that it’s worth pouring American resources into the conflict.
Top GOP leaders espousing the party’s traditional hawkish views have urged the Biden administration to impose sanctions and bolster Ukraine’s military capacity to counter Russia’s troop buildup along their shared border in recent weeks after its past invasion of Crimea in 2014.
But Republicans more closely aligned with Trump — who during his presidency at times expressed pro-Russia sentiment — argue that America should stay out of it.
“Despite claims by war hawks on both sides of the aisle, it is not in our national interest to spill American blood and treasure in Ukraine. A nation that cannot effectively secure its own border and protect its own territorial integrity cannot be responsible for doing so for nations in Eastern Europe,” said Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.).
“Russia invading Ukraine is not an immediate threat to the security of the American people, homeland, and way of life. The flow of dangerous drugs, crime, and criminals over our sovereign border is,” echoed Rep. Paul GosarPaul Anthony GosarJan. 6 committee subpoenas leaders of ‘America First’ movement Lawmakers coming under increased threats — sometimes from one another McCarthy says he’ll strip Dems of committee slots if GOP wins House MORE (R-Ariz.).
Others are suggesting, without evidence, that Biden’s actions to side with Ukraine could benefit the business interests of his son, Hunter, who previously served on the board of a Ukrainian energy company. Rep. Marjorie Taylor GreeneMarjorie Taylor GreeneGOP efforts to downplay danger of Capitol riot increase The Memo: What now for anti-Trump Republicans? Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene says she’s meeting with Trump ‘soon’ in Florida MORE (R-Ga.) argued that Biden is “compromised” and renewed her regular calls for his impeachment.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnellAddison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellThe Hill’s 12:30 Report – Presented by Facebook – Actor John Krasinski films outside White House Biden’s Supreme Court choice: A political promise, but also a matter of justice Let’s ‘reimagine’ political corruption MORE (R-Ky.), however, said this week that he thinks Biden is “moving in the right direction” to deter Russian aggression.
The Defense Department announced Monday that 8,500 U.S. troops were placed on “heightened alert” for potential deployment to Eastern Europe to bolster NATO defense forces, though Biden has emphasized he will not be putting puts on the ground in Ukraine itself. That came after Biden met with Defense Department officials at Camp David over the weekend to discuss his options.
Biden said Friday that he’ll be “moving U.S. troops to Eastern Europe” in “the near term.”
“What I’ve been hearing since then is encouraging, that they’re prepared to take steps before an incursion, not afterwards,” McConnell said at a news conference in Kentucky.
The GOP divide was further exemplified by a combative appearance by Rep. Michael Turner (Ohio), the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, on Fox News host Tucker CarlsonTucker CarlsonConservative pundit who left Fox News signs with NBC Soros group pushes back on Tucker Carlson documentary Is it journalism if the ‘news’ is crafted to fit audiences’ biases? MORE’s primetime show.
Turner had signed a letter with several other Republicans in November urging the Biden administration to deploy a U.S. military presence in the Black Sea to deter a Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Carlson, one of the most influential figures on the far right, asked Turner to explain to viewers “why it is in America’s interest as their kids risk their lives in Ukraine.”
“I mean, who’s got the energy reserves? Who is the major player in world affairs? Who is the potential counterbalance against China, which is the actual threat? Why would we take Ukraine’s side? Why wouldn’t we have Russia’s side?” Carlson asked.
“Ukraine is a democracy. Russia is an authoritarian regime that is seeking to impose its will upon a validly elected democracy in Ukraine. And we’re on the side of democracy,” Turner responded.
“I am for democracy in other countries, I guess, but I’m really for America,” Carlson said.
“Sure you are,” Turner replied.
When asked to reflect on that interview and other Republicans echoing Carlson’s argument, Turner expressed frustration that the idea of siding against an authoritarian regime was up for debate. And he warned that it could undermine America’s standing abroad as an advocate for democracies.
“This debate about, you know, who should we be for is very, very disappointing,” Turner told CNN’s Jake TapperJacob (Jake) Paul TapperPelosi says she will run for reelection in 2022 Biden frustration with Fox News breaks through surface The Hill’s 12:30 Report – Presented by Facebook – Biden’s public moment of frustration MORE on Thursday. “If you look at our foreign policy, if you look at our basic values, as a democracy, it’s fairly easy to understand that we don’t support authoritarian regimes. We don’t support people using tanks to change boundaries. And we support democracies and Ukraine as a well-known ally with the United States.”
“We’re the light of freedom and liberty. And when we cease to be for that, then our own values are at risk,” he added.
Carlson’s influence isn’t limited to putting a squeeze on a divided GOP.
Rep. Tom MalinowskiThomas (Tom) MalinowskiMeeks leading bipartisan trip to Ukraine amid Russia tensions Democrat says Tucker Carlson viewers telling his office US should side with Russia Momentum builds to prohibit lawmakers from trading stocks MORE (D-N.J.), a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee who served as an assistant secretary of State and represents a competitive swing district, said he’s been hearing from Carlson’s viewers expressing sympathy with Russia.
“My office is now getting calls from folks who say they watch Tucker Carlson and are upset that we’re not siding with Russia in its threats to invade Ukraine, and who want me to support Russia’s ‘reasonable’ positions,” tweeted Malinowski, who was part of a congressional delegation that traveled to the Ukrainian capital this week.
Lawmakers in both parties are in discussions about legislation to impose sanctions on Russia, including some that would be enacted immediately and others that would take effect if it actually invades Ukraine. Top Democrats in the House and Senate have both introduced sanctions legislation, but they’re also eyeing potential changes to bring Republicans on board.
House Majority Leader Steny HoyerSteny Hamilton HoyerClyburn calls for full-court press on voting rights Biden talks climate and child care provisions of Build Back Better agenda with top CEOs The Hill’s Morning Report – Biden: Russia attack ‘would change the world’ MORE (D-Md.) advised lawmakers on Friday that “we will continue to monitor developments in Ukraine and work closely with the Biden-Harris administration to deter Russian aggression in whatever ways are necessary,” but did not say specifically if sanctions legislation would be considered in the coming weeks.
In the meantime, House GOP leaders are trying to score points on an area where the party is more unified when it comes to Ukraine: Resentment over Trump’s first impeachment in 2019, which was related to his efforts to pressure the Ukrainian government to launch an investigation into Hunter Biden’s business interests.
After the Biden administration and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky released competing takeaways of a call held Thursday, House GOP Conference Chairwoman Elise StefanikElise Marie StefanikCanceling student debt is a women’s issue — we hold two-thirds of the burden Supreme Court declines GOP challenge against House proxy voting Mask rules spark political games and a nasty environment in the House MORE (N.Y.) and the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jim JordanJames (Jim) Daniel JordanReps ask Capitol Police Board for information on ‘insider threat awareness program’ Are the legal walls closing in on Donald Trump? Biden: A good coach knows when to change up the team MORE (Ohio), called for releasing the call transcript.
“President Biden’s weakness on the world stage has emboldened America’s enemies, abandoned our allies, and put us in the midst of an international crisis. Now, the Biden administration is playing a game of ‘he said, she said’ regarding yesterday’s call with President Zelenskyy,” Stefanik and Jordan said in a joint statement on Friday.
NEW YORK (AP) — Texas Sen. Ted Cruz had desperation written on his face.
The conservative ideologue and potential 2024 presidential contender appeared on Fox News Channel’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight” show Thursday to apologize for describing the Jan. 6 insurrection as “a violent terrorist attack on the Capitol” a day earlier, the eve of its anniversary.
“The way I phrased things yesterday, it was sloppy and it was frankly dumb,” Cruz told Carlson, a powerful voice in GOP politics whose show is among the most-watched on cable news.
Cruz insisted that he had misspoken, though he has consistently described the riot by Donald Trump supporters as a terrorist attack in interviews and statements over the last year.
But Cruz’s capitulation to outrage from the Republican Party’s far right flank underscores the power it increasingly holds over leading GOP politicians and the influence held by conservative TV hosts like Carlson, who reach millions of viewers every night. And it shows how lawmakers like Cruz, who was once considered one of his party’s most conservative voices, now face pressure from a new guard of hard-liners who swept into power with the backing of Trump’s base.
Cruz has been increasingly open about his interest in mounting another run for the GOP presidential nomination, noting that historically “the runner-up is almost always the next nominee.”
Carlson had used his previous night’s show to excoriate Cruz for his “terrorist” comment. Others piled on.
“Shame on Ted Cruz,” said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, a first-term lawmaker and Trump supporter who has peddled numerous conspiracy theories and was recently barred from Twitter for her anti-vaccination comments. She called Cruz’s initial comments “irresponsible” and disrespectful of “MAGA patriots.”
“I’m so done with Ted Cruz,” echoed Trump ally Sebastian Gorka on Twitter.
Cruz, along with other Republican Party leaders, had previously described the events of Jan. 6 as “terrorism” without blowback.
“The attack at the Capitol was a despicable act of terrorism and a shocking assault on our democratic system,” Cruz said in a statement released by his office a year ago Friday. “The January 6 terrorist attack on the Capitol was a dark moment in our nation’s history, and I fully support the ongoing law enforcement investigations into anyone involved,” he said May 28.
As recently as December, in an interview with The Associated Press, Cruz said that on Jan. 6, 2021, “we saw a terrorist attack on the Capitol.”
He went on to say “anyone who commits a crime of violence should be prosecuted, and that anyone who violently assaults a police officer should go to jail for a very long time. That’s true whether you’re right wing, left wing or you got no wings whatsoever.”
Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell has described the attack in similar terms. “American citizens attacked their own government,” he told the Senate after it acquitted Trump in its impeachment trial. “They used terrorism to try to stop a specific piece of domestic business they did not like.”
There is nothing surprising about that characterization. The FBI defines domestic terrorism as “Violent, criminal acts committed by individuals and/or groups to further ideological goals stemming from domestic influences, such as those of a political, religious, social, racial, or environmental nature.” In the Jan. 6 attack, Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in an effort to halt the peaceful transition of power and certification of President Joe Biden’s win.
But many, especially on the right, have resisted attempts to label violence as terrorism, especially when it is committed by white people.
Carlson, who has promoted the racist “Replacement Theory” that elites are trying to replace majority white populations with nonwhite immigrants, pressed Cruz on his characterization of the Capitol assault.
“You called this a terror attack when by no definition was it a terror attack,” he said. “That’s a lie. You told that lie on purpose and I’m wondering why you did.”
Cruz said he had long used the term to describe anyone who attacks police.
“It was a mistake to use the word yesterday because the Democrats and the corporate media have so politicized it,” he said.
Carlson and others have noted that no one in the assault has been charged with “terrorism.” But there is no federal law that provides for an explicit charge of domestic terrorism.
Federal law makes it a crime to give material support to designated foreign terrorist groups, which gives law enforcement agencies the ability to arrest people who donate money or otherwise aid such organizations, even if they haven’t harmed anyone or threatened violence themselves. No comparable law exists for people aligned with U.S.-based extremist groups, which enjoy expansive free speech protections.
Members of two extremist groups, the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, face the most serious conspiracy charges in the Jan. 6 riot. Individual rioters have been charged with assault and other violent crimes for their attacks on law enforcement. More than 100 police officers were injured, some critically.
Republicans have also taken issue with “insurrection” to describe the events of the day, because none of the rioters so far has been charged with treason or sedition, crimes that would fit with an insurrection attempt.
Those charges are extremely rare. Prosecutors may be reluctant to bring them because of their legal complexity and the difficulty in securing convictions. Overzealousness in applying such charges historically has also discredited their use.
___
Associated Press writer Colleen Long contributed to this report from Washington.
Kyle Rittenhouse slammed Joe Biden for “defaming” his character when the president tweeted out a video suggesting the teen is a white supremacist.
“It’s actual malice, defaming my character for him to say something like that,” Rittenhouse told Fox News’ Tucker Carlson during an hour-long interview that aired Monday night.
Rittenhouse, who was acquitted on all charges last Friday in his highly-publicized murder trial, was responding to a question from Carlson about how he felt over the president’s comments.
Biden, when he was a presidential candidate in September 2020, had tweeted that “there’s no other way to put it: the President of the United States refused to disavow white supremacists on the debate stage last night,” referring to then-president Donald Trump.
The post, which includes a 50-second clip, refers to a question Fox News host Chris Wallace asked Trump during a presidential debate about whether he was willing “to condemn white supremacists and militia groups” in the wake of unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and other American cities.
Kyle Rittenhouse did an exclusive interview with Tucker Carlson.Fox NewsKyle Rittenhouse carries a weapon in Kenosha, Wis., Aug. 25, 2020.Adam Rogan/The Journal Times via AP
The clip includes an image of Rittenhouse, 18, wielding a semi-automatic rifle.
Rittenhouse, in Monday night’s interview, also blasted Biden over his post-verdict prepared statement, where the president said he was “angry and concerned” over the trial’s outcome.
“Mr. President, if I could say one thing to you, I would urge you to go back and watch the trial and understand the facts before you make a statement,” Rittenhouse said.
Kyle Rittenhouse slammed Joe Biden for “defaming” his character.AP Photo/Susan WalshA tear rolls down the cheek of Gaige Grosskreutz as he testifies about being shot in the right bicep, during the Kyle Rittenhouse trial in Kenosha Circuit Court, Monday, Nov. 8, 2021.Mark Hertzberg/Pool Photo via AP
A jury cleared Rittenhouse of charges of homicide, attempted homicide and reckless endangerment on Friday in the deaths of Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, and the wounding of Gaige Grosskreutz, 27, on Aug. 25, 2020.
He was 17 when he brought a semi-automatic rifle and a medical kit to Kenosha in what he said was an effort to protect businesses as riots broke out over the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a black man who was left paralyzed from the waist down, on Aug. 23.
His attorneys argued that the teenager acted in self-defense when he opened fire.
The high-profile case created debate over whether Rittenhouse used his legal right to use weapons during the violence in Kenosha or whether he was a dangerous vigilante who escalated the tension.
Today, in “News We Can’t Wait To Hear Tucker Carlson Repeat At A Much Louder Volume Tomorrow” news: Sesame Street resident Big Bird has now received the COVID-19 vaccine.
The famed Bird (category: Big) announced the news on his official Twitter account today, informing his various Follow-That-Birders that, although his wing is feeling a little sore, he’s happy that the vaccine will “give my body an extra protective boost that keeps me and others healthy.”
This sensitive medical information (brought to you in apparent defiance of the letters H, I, P, A, and A) was released as part of a CNN Town Hall designed to help explain the COVID-19 vaccines to kids, who just became (at aged 5 through 12) eligible for the Pfizer version of the vaccine. Big Bird also talked with CNN’s Erica Hill and Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who reminded the over-sized avian that he had actually received many vaccinations in his life—presumably in reference to the standard set that kids in the U.S. get at a young age. (We don’t actually know what vaccines you give a large, simple bird.)
All in all, Big Bird’s jab feels like a pretty standard version of the Sesame Street mission statement, which aims to make clear and easier to understand many of the scarier aspects of being a living person, or giant bird. Big Bird wasn’t the only Street-er to get the treatment, either: monster-person Rosita also got her first dose this weekend.
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Anyway, this is mostly interesting to us in so far as it divides the American psyche pretty cleanly in two: On the one hand, you have your Joe Rogan/Aaron Rodgers types, guzzling horse medicine in an effort to boost their “immunity.” And on the other, you have a large foam bird, giving the nation’s youth actual useful medical advice. Truly, ours is a land of beautiful contrasts.
Oh! And for the love of god, don’t read the Twitter replies to Big Bird’s message. You knew that, right? It’s goddamn grim down there.
