A Trump industrial complex of politicians hungry for power and conservative media stars chasing profit is spinning a history-defying alternative reality that is putting truth and democracy on the line yet again.
A flurry of new developments on Tuesday exposed the nexus between the political fortunes of ex-President Donald Trump, the speakership of Kevin McCarthy and Fox News, showing who really holds power in a Republican Party controlled by its most extreme elements.
- In a new outburst of falsehoods on Tuesday night, Tucker Carlson – the face of Fox News – cherry picked more excerpts of US Capitol security footage from the January 6, 2021, insurrection, in a fresh bid to blur the truth of that day of infamy in which Trump’s mob, incited by his fury, stormed the building.
- McCarthy, who gave Carlson exclusive access to the tapes, despite the Fox host’s disproven conspiracy theories about the insurrection, told CNN’s Manu Raju that he had no regrets – even though a group of Republican senators sharply criticized the decision. The California Republican’s comments only exposed his apparent political motivation to appease the extremists he needed to narrowly win the speakership in January and on whom his fragile hold on power depends.
- A fresh dump of behind-the-scenes emails and texts from the defamation suit brought by Dominion Voting Systems against Fox showed how the network’s top leaders knew claims of voter fraud by Trump and his acolytes were false. But the trove also showed how top talent and executives, including Rupert Murdoch, feared that telling their audience the truth would drive viewers away.
- This all happened in the wake of Trump’s weekend vow to win back the White House and to launch a new presidency of “retribution” against his enemies. Critics often complain that the media takes the ex-president’s demagoguery…
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