US Politics

ExplainerWhat did Fox News really think of Trump and the 2020 election?Revelations stem from evidence in $1.6bn defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems against the networkFox News’s reputation as an unyielding backer of Donald Trump is in tatters after revelations that many of its top executives and on-air personalities never believed his lies about the 2020 election, and even personally disliked the former US president.Tucker Carlson, who ‘passionately hates’ Trump, shows more Capitol footageRead moreThe details stem from documents released as part of a $1.6bn defamation lawsuit brought against the network by Dominion Voting Systems, a voting machine firm Trump and Fox News singled out for unfounded allegations of rigging in the aftermath of the presidential race two years ago.The case is viewed as potentially the biggest financial threat to Fox News since it came on the air in 1996, but the details that have trickled out have already reshaped views of the network and shown a broad gulf between what its top personalities tell their viewers in public and what they privately believe.Here are the key things to know:When did the lawsuit begin?Dominion sells voting machines and tabulators and has headquarters in Denver, Colorado and Toronto, Ontario. It filed its lawsuit in March 2021, claiming Fox News spread lies about the 2020 election in an effort to stop viewers from switching to other networks.The firm’s complaint singled out some of Fox’s biggest personalities, such as Maria Bartiromo, Tucker Carlson, Lou Dobbs, Sean Hannity, Jeanine Pirro “and their chosen guests”, saying they plucked “defamatory falsehoods” from obscure far-right websites and broadcast them to their tens of millions of viewers. “Fox took a small flame and turned it into a forest fire,” Dominion said.When will the case go to trial?The trial is scheduled to begin on 17 April, and expected to last five weeks.Why do we know so much about behind-the-scenes happenings at Fox News?Dominion began making evidence in the case public in mid-February as part of court filings, which included emails and text messages exchanged between Fox News personalities and executives, as well as depositions made as part of the suit.What did Fox News hosts really think about the 2020 election?Even as they went on the air to cast doubt about whether the vote went off fairly, many Fox News personalities privately doubted Trump’s claims. “He’s acting like an insane person,” Hannity, one of the network’s best-known personalities, allegedly said of Trump, according to a Dominion court filing.They also released messages from the Fox News owner, Rupert Murdoch, in which he wrote that it was “very hard to credibly claim foul everywhere”, and the then president’s insistence on doing so was “terrible stuff damaging everybody”.Carlson, Fox’s most popular commentator, took aim at Sidney Powell, a top lawyer for Trump who repeatedly claimed on air that Dominion’s machines changed votes from Trump to his Democratic opponent Joe Biden. “Sidney Powell is lying,” Carlson wrote to a producer, later calling her “dangerous as hell”.Murdoch also said that several of the network’s top stars “endorsed” Trump’s false claims, and “I would have liked us to be stronger in denouncing it in hindsight,” according to a deposition in the case.What do we now know about their views of Donald Trump?Publicly, Trump has few friends like the personalities on Fox News. Privately, some of them loathe him. The case’s filings reveal that Carlson, for instance, wrote of Trump: “I hate him passionately … What he’s good at is destroying things. He’s the undisputed world champion of that. He could easily destroy us if we play it wrong.”Murdoch felt that Trump and his attorney Rudy Giuliani were “both increasingly mad. The real danger is what he might do as president.” And on 4 January, two days before Trump riled up a crowd of supporters who went on to attack the US Capitol, Carlson wrote in a text, “We are very, very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights.“I truly can’t wait.”Why did Fox News continue promoting election lies?With competitors like Newsmax and One America News Network waiting in the wings, Fox executives apparently feared losing their dominant place among America’s conservative viewership if they broke with Trump over the 2020 election.“We need to be careful about using the shows and pissing off the viewers,” Fox News’s chief executive, Suzanne Scott, told Murdoch the day before the January 6 attack.The network’s concern with maintaining advertising revenue also comes through in the documents. “It is not red or blue, it is green,” Murdoch said in his deposition, when asked why Fox allowed the conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell to run ads for his MyPillow product on the network.Fox has released its own evidence to argue against some of Dominion’s assertions, including comments from the Fox Corp co-chairman and CEO, Lachlan Murdoch, who said he was “concerned” but “not overly concerned” by a dip in the network’s ratings after the 2020 vote.TopicsFox NewsUS elections 2020TV newsTelevision industryUS politicsDonald TrumpexplainersReuse this content More

Republican states pull out of voter rolls program amid false claims of biasThree states announce end of Eric membership citing unfounded concerns over security and political leaning of organizationThree Republican states announced this week that they would be terminating their membership with a prominent, multi-state consortium that shares voter rolls data to keep their lists up to date. The moves come amid unfounded rightwing conspiracies about the security and partisan leaning of the organization.Florida, West Virginia and Missouri said this week that they are leaving the Electronic Registration Information Center (Eric), a group of roughly 30 states on both sides of the aisle that assist one another in voter roll maintenance. The group matches member states’ voter rolls to each other to flag registrations of duplicate voters or people who have moved or died. The more states that are involved, the more accurate Eric’s services can be.Georgia Republicans race to pass laws to restrict and challenge votesRead moreIn a statement announcing its decision on Monday, Florida’s Republican secretary of state, Cord Byrd, said he is withdrawing to protect the data privacy of state residents.“As secretary of state, I have an obligation to protect the personal information of Florida’s citizens, which the Eric agreement requires us to share,” he said. “Florida has tried to back reforms to increase protections, but these protections were refused. Therefore, we have lost confidence in Eric.”Earlier this year, Alabama and Louisiana also pulled out of Eric, citing similar concerns. Alabama’s new secretary of state has denied the results of the 2020 election and supported a lawsuit brought by Texas against four other states for election “irregularities” that allegedly caused Trump’s loss.Eric has been supported by its member states, including many GOP-controlled states, since it launched in 2012 as a way to supplement the insufficient national voter registration database. It was not until last year, when rightwing conspiracy theories began to spread, that the organization began to be viewed as partisan and states began to question their membership.Far-right groups and websites, which were already actively spreading election misinformation and sowing doubt in election administration, began describing Eric as left-leaning and falsely tied the organization to liberal billionaire George Soros. The rightwing website Gateway Pundit published a series of baseless blog posts claiming that Eric was a liberal plot to inflate voter rolls and that it could allow private voter data to become public.Republican states have also begun to take issue with the governance of the organization. In his statement announcing West Virginia’s departure, the secretary of state, Mac Warner, said the Eric board of directors rejected recommended changes during a recent meeting which he claimed would have prevented partisan, non-state actors from having influence over the organization.“It truly is a shame that an organization founded on the principle of nonpartisanship would allow the opportunity for partisanship to stray the organization from the equally important principle of upholding the public’s confidence,” he said.Politico reported that the withdrawing secretaries of state also took issue with Eric’s requirement that state election officials contact eligible but unregistered voters at least every two years to see if they would like to register.Top state officials push to make spread of US election misinformation illegalRead moreIn his letter announcing Missouri’s withdrawal, the secretary of state, Jay Ashcroft, wrote that “Eric focuses on adding names to voters rolls by requiring a solicitation to individuals who already had an opportunity to register to vote and made the conscious decision not to be registered.”Trump has called for more Republican states to withdraw, falsely claiming that Eric is inflating the rolls for Democrats.Tammy Patrick, chief executive officer for programs with the Election Center, said that Eric had benefited for more than a decade from state and local officials from both sides of the aisle working together to serve the electorate.“The weaponizing of any election administration function is problematic – particularly when it is not based on factual evidence to appease a particular faction or is done under partisan pressures,” she said. “Voter list maintenance and registering voters in as efficient a manner as possible should not be viewed as partisan when done properly.”TopicsUS politicsThe fight for democracyRepublicansFloridaWest VirginiaMissourinewsReuse this content More

The US central bank is poised to cause untold hardship to millions of AmericansRobert ReichThe Federal Reserve chairman has admitted that at least 2 million people could lose their jobs if interest rates keep risingAs chairman of the Federal Reserve board, Jerome Powell is making his semi-annual policy report to Congress this week. I have an urgent question for Powell that I hope members of Congress will also ask: how can he justify further rate hikes in light of America’s staggering inequality?The US should break up monopolies – not punish working Americans for rising prices | Robert ReichRead morePowell and his colleagues on the Fed’s open market committee are considering pushing interest rates much higher in their quest to get inflation down to their target of 2%. They believe higher interest rates will reduce consumer spending and slow the economy.With all due respect, this is unnecessary – and unjust.Over the past year, the Fed raised interest rates at the fastest pace since the 1980s, from near zero to more than 4.5%. But consumer spending isn’t slowing. It fell slightly in November and December but jumped 1.8% in January, even faster than inflation.As a result, Powell is now saying he may need to lift rates above 5%. A recent paper by a group of academic and Wall Street economists suggests that he will need to raise interest rates as high as 6.5% to meet his 2% target.This would worsen America’s already staggering inequalities.You see, the Americans who are doing most of the spending are not the ones who will be hit hardest by the rate increases. The biggest spenders are in the top fifth of the income ladder. The biggest losers will be in the bottom fifth.Widening inequality has given the richest fifth a lot of room to keep spending. Even before the pandemic, they were doing far better than most other Americans.The top fifth’s savings are still much higher than they were before the pandemic, so they can continue their spending spree almost regardless of how high the Fed yanks up rates.That spending is a big reason Powell and his colleagues at the Fed are having so much difficulty slowing the economy by raising interest rates (in addition to the market power of many big corporations to continue raising prices and profit margins).Those higher rates are flowing back into the top fifth’s savings, on which they’re collecting interest. But yank up rates much more and we’ll impose big sacrifices on lower-income Americans.Powell himself has predicted that at least 2 million people will lose their jobs if he raises interest rates to 4.6% by the end of the year.The study I mentioned a moment ago concludes that “there is no post-1950 precedent for a sizable central-bank-induced disinflation that does not entail substantial economic sacrifice or recession”.Well, there’s also no post-1950 precedent for the degree of income inequality America is now experiencing.Relying on further interest-rate hikes to fight inflation will only worsen the consequence of America’s near-record inequality. The people who will endure the biggest sacrifices as the economy slows will be the first to lose their jobs: mostly, those in the bottom fifth.There’s no reason for further hikes, anyway. Inflation is already slowing.I understand Powell’s concern. What looked like a steady, albeit gradual, slowdown is now looking even more gradual. But so what? It’s the direction that counts.He should abandon the 2% target rate of inflation. There’s nothing sacrosanct about 2%. Why not four? Getting inflation down to 2% is going to cause too much pain for the most vulnerable.And Powell should suggest to Congress that it use other tools to fight inflation, such as barring corporations with more than 30% market share from raising their prices higher than the overall inflation rate – as recently proposed by New York’s attorney general.Mr Powell, if you’re reading, may I be perfectly frank? You weren’t elected to your current post. Nor were your colleagues. That’s understandable. The Fed needs to be insulated from politics. But you at least owe it to America to do your job fairly.It would be terribly unjust to draft into the inflation fight those who are least able.
Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His new book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com
TopicsUS politicsOpinionEconomic policyUS economic growth and recessionJerome PowellFederal ReservecommentReuse this content More

Rupert Murdoch feared Fox hosts may have gone ‘too far’ on 2020 voter fraud claims, court files showEmail from Murdoch among reams of new evidence unsealed in defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems against FoxRupert Murdoch said that Fox News hosts Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham maybe “went too far” in their coverage of voter fraud claims, according to an email submitted as evidence in the defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems against Fox.Dominion is suing Fox News Networks for $1.6bn, accusing the cable TV network of amplifying debunked claims that their voting machines were used to rig the 2020 US presidential election against Donald Trump, in favor of his rival Joe Biden.The reams of documents that became public on Tuesday offer a window into Fox’s internal deliberations as it covered the election. They show top executives, producers and hosts discussing concerns about the network’s reputation and casting doubt on the plausibility of Trump’s claims of election fraud.Stunning Rupert Murdoch deposition leaves Fox News in a world of troubleRead moreMore than 6,500 pages were released on Tuesday, although the full extent of the evidence is not clear as many filings are heavily redacted.In one exhibit, Murdoch, chairman of the Fox Corporation, emails Fox News president Suzanne Scott the day after Joe Biden’s inauguration, asking: “Is it ‘unarguable that high profile Fox voices fed the story that the election was stolen and that January 6th an important chance to have the result overturned’? Maybe Sean and Laura went too far. All very well for Sean to tell you he was in despair about Trump but what did he tell his viewers?”In an earlier exchange with Scott, Murdoch wrote that it had been suggested to him that the network’s primetime hosts say something like “the election is over and Joe Biden won.” Murdoch told Scott that some version of this would “go a long way to stop the Trump myth that the election stolen.”According to Dominion’s unsealed filings, Murdoch emailed a friend that the notion state legislators could change the election outcome – an idea that had been gaining traction on the right – “sound ridiculous. There’d be riots like never before.”“Stupid and damaging,” Murdoch continued, referring to a news conference by then-Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani. “The only one encouraging Trump and misleading him. Both increasingly mad. The real danger is what he might do as president.”These exhibits and other material included in Dominion’s summary judgment motion are part of the voting machine company’s effort to prove the network either knew the statements it aired were false or recklessly disregarded their accuracy. That is the standard of “actual malice,” which public figures must prove to prevail in a defamation case.Fox has defended its coverage, arguing claims by Trump and his lawyers were inherently newsworthy and protected by the first amendment of the US constitution. The network said in a statement the newly released documents show Dominion using “distortions and misinformation” to “smear Fox News and trample on free speech.”Fox has said that Dominion’s “extreme” interpretation of defamation law would “stop the media in its tracks” and chill freedom of the press.Fox’s evidence includes more context of testimony and messages that it says Dominion “cherry-picked” and “misrepresented” in its summary judgment filing.For example, Fox cites additional testimony by Fox Corp co-chairman and CEO Lachlan Murdoch, who said under oath that he was “concerned” but “not overly concerned” by declining ratings after the election.Dominion has alleged Fox continued to push the stolen election narrative because it was losing viewers to right-wing outlets that embraced it.In another exhibit, Fox News host Hannity said that during an interview with Trump lawyer Sidney Powell, he was giving her time to produce evidence but stopped having her appear on-air after she failed to deliver. Hannity has been quoted by Dominion during a deposition as saying he “did not believe” claims by Trump’s lawyer “for one second.”A Dominion spokesperson said in a statement that the “emails, texts, and deposition testimony speak for themselves. We welcome all scrutiny of our evidence because it all leads to the same place – Fox knowingly spread lies causing enormous damage to an American company.”The trial, set to begin on 17 April, is slated to last five weeks.TopicsRupert MurdochUS politicsFox NewsUS television industrySean HannityReuse this content More

White House backs bill that could give it power to ban TikTok nationwideThe bill would allow commerce department to impose restrictions on technologies that pose a risk to national securityThe White House said it backed legislation introduced on Tuesday by a dozen senators to give the administration new powers to ban Chinese-owned video app TikTok and other foreign-based technologies if they pose national security threats.The endorsement boosts efforts by a number of lawmakers to ban the popular ByteDance-owned app, which is used by more than 100 million Americans.‘Abusing state power’: China lashes out at US over TikTok bansRead moreThe bill gives the commerce department the authority to impose restrictions up to and including banning TikTok and other technologies that pose national security risks, said Democratic Senator Mark Warner, who chairs the intelligence committee.He said it would also apply to foreign technologies from China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, Venezuela and Cuba.TikTok said in a statement that any “US ban on TikTok is a ban on the export of American culture and values to the billion-plus people who use our service worldwide”.The bill would require the commerce secretary, Gina Raimondo, to identify and address foreign threats to information and communications technology products and services. Raimondo’s office declined to comment.The group, led by Warner and Republican Senator John Thune, includes Democrats Tammy Baldwin, Joe Manchin, Michael Bennett, Kirsten Gillibrand and Martin Heinrich along with Republicans Deb Fischer, Jerry Moran, Dan Sullivan, Susan Collins and Mitt Romney, Warner’s office said.Warner said it was important the government do more to make clear what it believes are the national security risks to the US from the use of TikTok.White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan praised the bipartisan bill saying it “would strengthen our ability to address discrete risks posed by individual transactions, and systemic risks posed by certain classes of transactions involving countries of concern in sensitive technology sectors”.“We look forward to continue working with both Democrats and Republicans on this bill, and urge Congress to act quickly to send it to the president’s desk,” he said in a statement.TikTok has come under increasing fire over fears user data could end up in the hands of the Chinese government, undermining Western security interests.TikTok chief executive Shou Zi Chew is due to appear before Congress on 23 March.The House foreign affairs committee last week voted along party lines on a bill sponsored by Representative Michael McCaul to give Biden the power to ban TikTok after then president Donald Trump was stymied by courts in 2020 in his efforts to ban the app along with the Chinese messaging app WeChat.Democrats opposed McCaul’s bill, saying it was rushed and required due diligence through debate and consultation with experts. Some major bills aimed at China like the Chips funding bill took 18 months to win approval. McCaul said he thinks the full US House of Representatives could vote on the bill this month.TopicsTikTokChinaAppsUS politicsInternetBiden administrationnewsReuse this content More

Boy meets Congress: Ben Savage, star of 90s sitcom, to run for California seatActor is vying for Los Angeles district represented by Adam Schiff, who is competing for Dianne Feinstein’s US Senate postBen Savage, the star of the 1990s teen sitcom Boy Meets World, plans to run for the congressional seat in California currently held by Adam Schiff, who has joined the race to replace Dianne Feinstein.‘It is exhausting’: California town digs its way out after record-setting snowRead moreThe actor is running in the Los Angeles-area district represented by Schiff, a top Democrat and former House intelligence chair. Schiff announced in January that he would seek Feinstein’s Senate seat, joining a crowded field of candidates that includes congresswomen Katie Porter and Barbara Lee.Savage announced this week he would run for Congress in district 30, where he said he is a “longtime resident”.“I’m running for Congress because it’s time to restore faith in government by offering reasonable, innovative and compassionate solutions to our country’s most pressing issues,” Savage said in an Instagram post announcing his campaign.“And it’s time for new and passionate leaders who can help move the country forward,” he said. “Leaders who want to see the government operating at maximum capacity, unhindered by political divisions and special interests.”The 42-year-old actor has a political science degree from Stanford, and interned for US senator Arlen Specter in 2003 as part of his studies, Deadline reported. Last year, Savage ran unsuccessfully for the West Hollywood city council, receiving under 7% of the votes.The 30th district, which includes northern parts of Los Angeles, is solidly Democratic. Schiff won with 71% of the vote against a fellow Democrat in November’s midterm elections, due to California’s open primary system in which the top two candidates regardless of party affiliation advance to the general election.On his campaign website, Savage emphasizes his long history of union membership and said he believes in “ensuring equality and expanding opportunities for all”. If elected, his priorities would include improving public safety, affordable housing, addressing homelessness and protecting organized labor.TopicsCaliforniaLos AngelesDianne FeinsteinUS politicsHouse of RepresentativesUS CongressUS SenatenewsReuse this content More

Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate majority leader, has delivered a scathing rebuke of Fox News and its rightwing host Tucker Carlson for “manipulating” selected footage of the January 6 riot aired on his show last night.On the chamber floor this morning, he accused the network and its star presenter of disdain towards politicians who were at the Capitol when it was overrun by a violent mob of Trump supporters, and the law enforcement officers who tried to defend it:.css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Last night, millions of Americans tuned into one of the most shameful hours we have ever seen on cable television.
With contempt for the facts, disregard of the risks, and knowing full well he was lying to his audience, Fox News host Tucker Carlson ran a lengthy segment arguing the January 6 Capitol attack was not a violent insurrection.
By diving deep into the waters of conspiracy, and cherry picking from thousands of hours of security footage, Mr Carlson told the bald faced lie that the Capitol attack,which we also with their own eyes, somehow, not an attack at all.Schumer: Last night, millions of Americans tuned into one of the most shameful hours we’ve seen on cable television. By diving deep into the waters of conspiracy and cherry-picking from thousands of hours of security footage, Mr. Carlson told the bold-faced lie… pic.twitter.com/dKEw2tJVKw— Acyn (@Acyn) March 7, 2023
.css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}He tried to argue it was nothing more than a peaceful sightseeing tour. Can you imagine, a non-violent demonstration,a perfectly fine and appropriate instance of people expressing their opinion? I so many others who were here in the Capitol, and millions and millions of Americans are just furious with Tucker Carlson and Kevin McCarthy today.
Many of my staff were here at the Capitol on January 6, their lives were put in danger, as were the lives of many of my colleagues, as well as police, maintenance staff, reporters, countless others.
To say January 6 was not violent is a lie. A lie pure and simple. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a primetime cable news anchor manipulate his viewers the way Mr Carlson did last night.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen an anchor treat the American people and American democracy with such disdain.A military veteran accused of telling an undercover FBI agent about a plan to “wipe out” the nation’s Jewish population was convicted on Tuesday of storming the Capitol during the January 6 riot.The Associated Press reports that Virginia resident Hatchet Speed, a former navy reservist assigned to an agency that operates spy satellites, will be sentenced on 8 May. He was convicted by US district court judge Trevor McFadden in a trial without a jury.NOW: U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden has convicted Navy Reservist Hatchet Speed on all counts for joining the mob that stormed and occupied the U.S. Capitol Building on Jan. 6. https://t.co/mvfXfpl5Tc— Jordan Fischer (@JordanOnRecord) March 7, 2023
Speed was found guilty on all five charges, including a felony count of obstructing an official proceeding, namely the 6 January 2021 joint session of Congress to certify Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election.The FBI recorded Speed’s conversations with an undercover agent more than a year after the riot, the AP reported. Speed told the agent that he marched to the Capitol with members of the far-right Proud Boys extremist group.We’re closing the US politics blog now, after a day in which Tucker Carlson’s ears must have been ringing loudly.The rightwing Fox News host copped a barrage of criticism, from Democrats, the White House, the family of a fallen law enforcement officer, and even Republican senate minority leader Mitch McConnell for his skewed presentation of footage of the January 6 Capitol riot.The videos were controversially gifted to Carlson by a generous congressional benefactor in the form of Republican speaker Kevin McCarthy, and he aired some of them on Monday night, portraying a violent mob of Donald Trump-incited rioters as “peaceful, orderly and meek” sightseers.Here’s what else we followed today:
The White House lambasted Florida’s governor Ron DeSantis over the introduction on Tuesday of a bill that would further restrict the state’s abortion ban, from 15 to six weeks.
Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, denounced as “a rumor” a report that the administration was considering reinstating a Trump-era immigration policy that would detain families at the southern border. But a number of Democrats say they are concerned.
Lloyd Austin, the defense secretary, made an unannounced trip to Iraq, promising to keep US military forces in the country, almost exactly two weeks before the 20th anniversary of the 2003 Iraq war that toppled Saddam Hussein.
A report claimed Democrats are growing fearful that a third-party candidate could take votes away from Joe Biden during the 2024 presidential election and hand Republican favorite and former president Trump a ticket back to the White House.
Biden laid out some of his budget plans in a guest opinion piece for the New York Times, highlighting the preservation of Medicare as a priority and bashing Republicans over benefits for future generations. The president will unveil his full budget on Thursday.
Please join us again tomorrow.Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the US Senate, has criticised Fox News for misrepresenting the January 6 riot after his counterpart in the House gave Tucker Carlson exclusive access to 41,000 hours of security footage.Asked by reporters if Kevin McCarthy had made a mistake, McConnell said: “My concern is how it was depicted, which was a different issue. Clearly the chief of the Capitol police, in my view, correctly describes what most of us witnessed firsthand on January 6.”Carlson made first use of the footage on Monday night, seeking to portray the Capitol rioters as peaceful protesters.In fact, on 6 January 2021 supporters of Donald Trump stormed the Capitol after he told them to “fight like hell” in service of his lie that his defeat by Joe Biden was the result of electoral fraud.The riot was an attempt to stop certification of that result. It failed, but nine deaths have been linked to the attack, including suicides among law enforcement.Carlson’s broadcast stoked outrage among Democrats and those who survived the attack or lost family members through it.Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate majority leader, blasted Carlson for creating “one of the most shameful hours we have ever seen on cable television” and showing “contempt for the facts, disregard of the risks, and knowing full well he was lying to his audience”.Carlson, Schumer said, “told the bald-faced lie that the Capitol attack, which we all saw with our own eyes, somehow was not an attack at all”.In what counted for strong remarks from a very cautious, not to say ruthlessly partisan operator, McConnell added: “It was a mistake, in my view, for Fox News to depict this in a way that is completely at variance with what our chief law enforcement official here at the Capitol thinks.”More:‘Sleaze-slinging’ Fox News denounced by family of January 6 officer who diedRead moreHere’s some more on Fox News’ troubles by my colleague Martin Pengelly, who has news of another complaint affecting Rupert Murdoch’s rightwing empire:A US Federal Election Commission complaint over the collusion of Fox News with the Trump campaign in 2020 could be the first of many, the complainant said, amid continued fallout from dramatic court filings in Dominion Voter Systems’ $1.6bn defamation suit against the network.Media Matters for America, a liberal watchdog, filed its FEC complaint last week, over the revelation that Rupert Murdoch personally gave Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and adviser, confidential information about a Biden campaign ad.A progressive political action committee, End Citizens United, also filed a complaint.As defined by the Harvard Law Review, FEC “campaign finance restrictions do not apply to costs associated with producing news”.Media Matters alleges that “press exemption” does not apply to Murdoch’s decision to give the Biden ad to Kushner.Saying the move was “diametrically opposed to Fox Corporation’s regular press activity”, the complaint says: “Fox Corporation, through Murdoch, appears to have engaged in the exact type of campaign activity to which the commission has repeatedly affirmed the press exemption does not apply.“Therefore, Fox Corporation cannot try to exploit the press exemption to avoid the consequences of making an illegal corporate in-kind contribution.”The complaint seeks the maximum fine permitted and “appropriate remedial action”.Read the full story:Fox News hit with election complaint after Biden ad given to Trump son-in-lawRead moreThe White House is adding its voice to a barrage of criticism aimed at Fox News and Tucker Carlson for “sanitizing” the January 6 Capitol riot by airing selected footage on Monday night.Earlier Tuesday, Democratic Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer branded the rightwing network, and its star host, “shameful” for their skewed presentation of the attack, which attempted to portray the violent Donald Trump supporters who overran the Capitol as tourists.Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, was equally dismissive at her Tuesday briefing to reporters of Carlson’s claims the mob was merely “sightseeing”:.css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Anybody who watched that video with their own eyes, in a real way, and saw what happened on that day, would disagree. The president has been very clear January 6 was the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War.
We should be focused on making sure that never happens again. We hope that keeping the Capitol and Congress safe and secure remains congressional leaders’ number one goal.
All you have to do is watch those videos and see how horrific it was, see how sad it was. It was an attack on our democracy.Her mention of congressional leaders and their priorities was presumably directed at Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy, who caused outrage by handing over about 44,000 hours of footage from the attack exclusively to Carlson.The primetime Fox host is a Trump loyalist who repeatedly pushed the big lie of a stolen 2020 election on air, despite revelations that he and other Fox presenters and executives who also promoted it knew it was false.Read more:‘Sleaze-slinging’ Fox News denounced by family of January 6 officer who diedRead moreKarine Jean-Pierre says the White House “won’t comment on rumors that are out there” about the Biden administration potentially reinstating a Trump-era rule of detaining immigrant families at the southern border.The New York Times first reported that the move was under consideration to stem an expected migrant surge once Title 42, a policy stemming from the Covid pandemic that allowed the swift deportation of migrants, is ended.“I’m not saying it is, I’m not saying it isn’t,” Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, said at her Tuesday afternoon briefing.“The department of homeland security is working through ways on how to go forward once Title 42 is lifted. I’m going to let them do their work. [The president] is going to use the tools that he has before him to make… the immigration system safe, orderly and humane.”The report angered congressional Democrats. New Mexico senator Ben Ray Luján told Punchbowl he was frustrated it didn’t come up when he and other Hispanic senators met with homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas last month.“It was a time to have honest conversations with one another,” Luján said. “And this is another one of those surprises – if it’s true – that was covered by the media. Fortunately for the media, we continue to find out decisions that are being made.”Mayorkas will hold a virtual meeting with congressional Hispanic caucus members at 5pm ET to discuss the uproar over the Times report, Punchbowl says.More on this subject:Biden’s ‘carrot and stick’ approach to deter migrants met with angerRead moreThe Biden administration has expressed its “deep condolences” to the families of US citizens who were killed in Mexico by members of a suspected drugs cartel.Speaking at her daily briefing at the White House, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said:.css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}We’re still working with Mexican officials to learn more and to have all Americans returned to the United States.
President Biden has been kept updated on this incident. Senior members of the White House has have also been engaged. We extend our deepest condolences to their families and friends.She added that US investigators were working with Mexican authorities to establish details of the incident.Read more:Two Americans kidnapped in Mexico found dead, officials sayRead moreTalking of abortion bans in Republican strongholds, Kamala Harris is backing five Texas women who are suing the state, having been denied the procedure.A statement from the vice-president’s office at the White House on Tuesday blasted Texas legislators for passing near-total block on abortions:.css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}When I convened health care providers at the White House in September 2021 in wake of Texas SB 8, we discussed the harm that doctors and nurses feared their patients would experience as a result of Texas’ extreme laws. Now, multiple women impacted by these abortion bans announced a joint lawsuit against the state of Texas, showing those fears have turned into reality. The lawsuit includes devastating, first-hand accounts of women’s lives almost lost after they were denied the health care they needed, because of extreme efforts by Republican officials to control women’s bodies.
Many extremist ‘so-called’ leaders espouse ‘freedom for all,’ while directly attacking the freedom to make one’s own health care decisions. Like the overwhelming majority of Americans, the President and I believe women – in consultation with their doctors – should be in charge of their reproductive health care, not politicians.We’re about to hear from White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre at the daily White House briefing, but she’s already made clear the Biden administration’s feelings on Florida’s six-week abortion ban proposal, introduced to the state’s legislature this morning.In a statement to the Miami Herald, Jean-Pierre says the move would “ban abortion before many women know if they are pregnant”:.css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Politicians like Governor DeSantis espouse ‘freedom for all,’ while directly attacking the freedom to make one’s own healthcare decisions. This proposal is wrong and out of touch with the overwhelming majority of Americans, including Floridians, who support a woman’s right to choose.
This ban would prevent not just the nearly four million Florida women of reproductive age from accessing abortion care after six weeks, but would also impact the nearly 15m women of reproductive age who live in states across the South with abortion bans and would no longer be able to rely on Florida as an option to access care.It’s been a furiously busy day so far in US politics, and we still have the daily White House press briefing to come.Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate majority leader, blasted Fox News, and its star rightwing host Tucker Carlson, for their “shameless manipulation” of footage of the January 6 Capitol riot aired on Monday.Carlson attempted to portray a violent mob Donald Trump supporters who carried out the deadly insurrection as peaceful sightseers enjoying a day out, and the backlash has been swift and strong.Here’s what else we’ve been following:
Florida’s loyalist Republican legislature handed extremist governor and probable White House hopeful Ron DeSantis a key policy objective by proposing a six-week abortion ban.
Lloyd Austin, the defense secretary, made an unannounced trip to Iraq, promising to keep US military forces in the country, almost exactly two weeks before the 20th anniversary of the 2003 Iraq war that toppled Saddam Hussein.
Democrats are growing fearful that a third-party candidate could take votes away from Joe Biden during the 2024 presidential election and hand Republican favorite and former president Donald Trump a ticket back to the White House. More

‘Sleaze-slinging’ Fox News denounced by family of January 6 officer who diedCondemnation of ‘so-called new network’ comes after Tucker Carlson shares footage from attack courtesy of Kevin McCarthyThe family of Brian Sicknick, the US Capitol police officer who died the day after the January 6 attack on Congress, condemned Tucker Carlson and Fox News as “unscrupulous and outright sleazy”, after the primetime host made first use of security footage from the riot bestowed by Kevin McCarthy, the Republican House speaker.Fox News hit with election complaint after Biden ad given to Trump son-in-lawRead moreA statement on Tuesday said: “The Sicknick family is outraged at the ongoing attack on our family by the unscrupulous and outright sleazy so-called news network of Fox News.”Fox and Carlson, the family said, “will do the bidding of [Donald] Trump or any of his sycophant followers, no matter what damage is done to the families of the fallen, the officers who put their lives on the line and all who suffered on January 6, due to the lie started by Trump and spread by sleaze-slinging outlets like Fox”.Nine deaths have been linked to the attack on the Capitol by supporters Trump told to “fight like hell” in service of his lie that his defeat by Joe Biden was the result of electoral fraud.Trump aimed to stop certification of Biden’s win. The process was only delayed but lawmakers including the vice-president, Mike Pence, were sent running for their lives.More than 1,000 people have been charged and hundreds convicted on charges including seditious conspiracy. Hundreds remain wanted by authorities.Trump was impeached for inciting the attack but acquitted when enough Senate Republicans stayed loyal. The House January 6 committee made four criminal referrals regarding Trump to the Department of Justice.Last month, to protests from Democrats and media groups, McCarthy made 41,000 hours of security footage available to Carlson and Fox News.Carlson had already claimed January 6 was a “false flag” attack, staged by authorities to entrap Trump supporters. On Monday night, he tried to portray those who stormed the Capitol as peaceful protesters.Saying the tapes showed “mostly peaceful chaos”, Carlson said: “Taken as a whole the video record does not support the claim that January 6 was an insurrection. In fact, it demolishes that claim.”In return, the Sicknick family lambasted Carlson and Fox News.Fox News, they said, “has shown time and time again that [it is] little more than the propaganda arm of the Republican party, and like Pravda will do whatever [it is] told to keep the hatred and the lies flowing while suppressing anything resembling the truth.“Fox does this not for any sense of morality as they have none but for the quest for every penny of advertising money they can get from those who buy airtime from them.”Recent revelations from filings in a $1.6n defamation suit from Dominion Voter Systems include Rupert Murdoch, Fox News’ owner, indicating he knew Trump’s claims were false but saying his motivation for accommodating election deniers was to stop viewers deserting.The Sicknick family also called McCarthy a “disgusting excuse for a House speaker”. Later on Tuesday, the Republican leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, was asked if McCarthy had made a mistake in giving Carlson the tapes.He said: “My concern is how [the riot] was depicted, which was a different issue. Clearly the chief of the Capitol police, in my view, correctly describes what most of us witnessed first-hand on January 6.”McConnell’s Democratic counterpart, Chuck Schumer, lamented “one of the most shameful hours we have ever seen on cable television” and said Carlson had shown “contempt for the facts [and] disregard of the risks [while] knowing full well he was lying to his audience”.Carlson, Schumer said, “told the bald-faced lie that the Capitol attack, which we all saw with our own eyes, somehow was not an attack at all”.Decrying efforts to make a martyr out of Ashley Babbitt, a Trump supporter shot dead by a police officer on January 6, the Sicknick family said Carlson was “downplaying the horrid situation faced by US Capitol police and DC Metro police who were incredibly outnumbered and were literally fighting for their very lives”.Sicknick, 42, was sprayed with chemicals, for which his attacker was jailed for nearly seven years. Sicknick died the day after the riot, after suffering two strokes. A medical examiner said he died of natural causes but his name remains linked to January 6. His body lay in state at the Capitol.Sicknick’s family said “his sense of duty and incredible work ethic were the driving force which sent him back in spite of his injuries and no doubt contributed to his succumbing to his injuries the following day.Stunning Rupert Murdoch deposition leaves Fox News in a world of troubleRead more“What will it take to silence the lies from people like Carlson? What will it take to convince people that the January 6 insurrection was very real, it was very violent, and that the event was orchestrated by a man [Trump] who is every bit as corrupt and evil as Vladimir Putin.“The Sicknick family would love nothing more than to have Brian back with us and to resume our normal lives. Fictitious news outlets like Fox and its rabid followers will not allow that. Every time the pain of that day seems to have ebbed a bit organisations like Fox rip our wounds wide open again and we are frankly sick of it.“Leave us the hell alone and instead of spreading more lies from Supreme Leader Trump, why don’t you focus on real news?”Fox News did not comment.TopicsUS Capitol attackFox NewsUS television industryTelevision industryWashington DCRepublicansUS politicsnewsReuse this content More