Axios founder Mike Allen is reporting that Carlson is planning to go to war with his former employers and that it is going to get ugly very soon.
According to his report, "Tucker Carlson is preparing to unleash allies to attack Fox News in an effort to bully the network into letting him work for — or start — a right-wing rival."
Carlson's attorney Bryan Freedman told Axios, "The idea that anyone is going to silence Tucker and prevent him from speaking to his audience is beyond preposterous."
The report notes that Carlson and Twitter honcho Elon Musk have been in contact and that "Carlson is busy plotting a media empire of his own. But he needs Fox to let him out of his contract, which expires in January 2025 — after the presidential election."
"We're told Carlson has been contacted by outlets — including the right-wing Rumble and Newsmax — that offered to pay him more than his Fox contract," Allen wrote.
One confidante of the fired Fox host gave a preview of what to expect, telling Axios that Carlson "knows where a lot of bodies are buried, and is ready to start drawing a map."
Rep. James Comer (R-KY), chair of the House Oversight Committee, worried on Sunday that the Department of Justice might indict Hunter Biden on gun charges before a press conference could expose his alleged corruption.
During an interview with Fox News host Maria Bartiromo, Comer said he gave the FBI until Wednesday to release documents about Biden.
"What if they decide to indict Hunter Biden for having a gun illegally before your press conference?" Bartiromo wondered.
"My message to the Department of Justice is very loud and clear," Comer replied. "Do not indict Hunter Biden before Wednesday when you have the opportunity to see the evidence that the House Oversight Committee will produce with respect to the web of LLCs, with respect to the number of adversarial countries that this family influence peddled in."
"This is not just about the president's son," he added. "This is about the entire Biden family, including the president of the United States."
Comer claimed to know "exactly what this family was doing."
"And by all accounts from the media reports that we're getting, what they're looking at charging Hunter Biden on is a slap on the wrist," the lawmaker complained. "It's a drop in the bucket. So Wednesday will be a very big day for the American people in getting the facts presented to them so that they can know the truth."
"As happens with these shootings, it almost immediately turns to the political conversation about gun reforms," the Fox News host said. "One state senator pointing the finger at you and the GOP there in Texas saying there are loose and dangerous gun laws."
Bream pointed to findings from a recent Fox News poll on gun control.
"When you ask people what they would favor, background checks for guns, enforcing existing gun laws, legal age to 21, requiring mental health checks, flagging people for danger to self, all of those score at more than 80 percent," she said. "Are there things that you would consider in Texas or that you think Congress should consider at a federal level along those lines?"
Abbott side-stepped the "loose and dangerous" gun laws in his state.
"At the state level, listen, this is something that we've been grappling with over the past year, and there are some potential easy solutions, such as passing laws that we're working on right now to get guns out of the hands of dangerous criminals and to increase penalties for criminals who possess guns," he noted. "What we've seen across the United States over the past year or two, and that is an increased number of shootings in both red states and blue states."
The governor pointed to mass shootings in California as proof that gun laws are ineffective.
"I think that the state in which the largest number of victims have occurred this year is in California, where they have very tough gun laws where 11 people died," he opined. "And so one thing that we can observe very easily, and that is there has been a dramatic increase in the amount of anger and violence that's taking place in America."
Bream did not ask a follow-up question about the lack of gun regulations in Texas.
Fox News host Rachel Campos-Duffy suggested marijuana and fatherlessness were to blame for a deadly mall shooting in Texas.
During an interview about the shooting in Allen, Republican congressional candidate Tre Pennie called for strengthening background checks for gun purchases.
"I know we've given a lot of credence to our Second Amendment laws, and I'm a Second Amendment pro-gun right guy, but I will tell you, we cannot allow criminals to be running around here with guns, with body armor, and not know who they are," Pennie said. "I think it's time that we start looking at mental health laws, start looking at gun protection laws. We gotta do what we gotta do to make sure that the right people have the guns."
"You know, Tre, I totally agree," Campos-Duffy replied. "I think everything needs to be on the table."
The Fox News host complained that Christian students had been shot in Nashville, but the so-called manifesto had not been released in that case.
"I think we ought to look at the issue of fatherlessness. We also ought to look at weed," she continued. "We know that cannabis increases psychosis by five times. So I think everything should be on the table, including what you say, you know, maybe improving background checks. But thank God there was a guy with a gun there to take this guy down."
Lawyers for Fox Corp. have sent a cease and desist letter to media watchdog Media Matters for America, asking them to stop releasing never-before-seen footage of recently fired Fox News host Tucker Carlson making controversial comments off air , Newsweek reported.
"FOX demands that Media Matters cease and desist from distribution, publication, and misuse of Fox's misappropriated proprietary footage, which you are now on notice was unlawfully obtained. We reserve all rights and remedies," the law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati Professional Corporation wrote in a letter to Angelo Carusone, president and CEO of Media Matters for America.
Media Matters has released clips of leaked videos that apparently were recorded on the sets of various Fox News programs. Three videos show Carlson talking about sex in a matter the organization called "creepy."
"FOX did not consent to its distribution or publication; and FOX does not consent to its further distribution or publication. This proprietary material was given to you without FOX's authorization," the law firm said in the letter.
Media Matters responded to the letter accusing the network of trying to "silence free speech."
"Reporting on newsworthy leaked material is a cornerstone of journalism. For Fox to argue otherwise is absurd and further dispels any pretense that they're a news operation," Carusone said in a statement to Newsweek. "Perhaps if I tell them that the footage came from a combination of WikiLeaks and Hunter Biden's laptop, it will alleviate their concerns."
Carlson was fired by Fox on April 24 for unknown reasons.
WASHINGTON — Some of hip-hop’s biggest names are back on Capitol Hill. Just their names. The superstars — from Grammy-winning Young Thug to his alleged rival YFN Lucci — are currently in prison, in part, over their lyrics.
The racketeering cases putting chart-toppers behind bars are replete with salacious allegations of “murder, assault and threats of violence,” according to prosecutors. But the cases fall apart without the lyrics, according to the artists, their attorneys and advocates.
“It hurts when an indictment – the charging document – states rap lyrics as a basis for the issuance of the indictment,” Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) told Raw Story outside the U.S. Capitol. “Of course, the jury gets the indictment when they go out to deliberate. When you have that kind of decision making going on at the front end of a prosecution, you're almost guaranteeing at the back end what's going to happen.”
That’s why Johnson teamed up with Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) and industry leaders to re-introduce their R.A.P. – Restoring Artistic Protection – Act, which would limit prosecutors' ability to use artist’s own lyrics against them in court.
The legislation applies to all musical genres, although as its name indicates, the R.A.P. Act is especially aimed at today’s hip-hop generation. (The feds, after all, never went after Johnny Cash for shooting a man in Reno, supposedly, just to watch him die.)
For decades now, the FBI has tied rap to gang culture, accusing some artists of laundering money through record labels to fuel their lawless lifestyles.
More than 500 hip-hop artists have had rap lyrics used against them in court, according to a new Hulu documentary, “Rap Trap: Hip Hop on Trial.” The targeting dates back decades: In 1989, the feds sent an ominous letter to N.W.A. over their hit, F— tha Police. In 1993, then-Snoop Doggy Dogg beat a murder charge, even after lyrics of his song “Murder Was the Case” was played for the jury. In the early 2000s, as Wu-Tang Clan was upending hip-hop, the FBI was compiling a thick file that accused members of being a gang laundering money through music.
Since the early aughts, trap music — slower, grittier, realer — has outshined its gangsta rap predecessor. Birthed out of contemporary southern culture where the trap — or “drug” — house is the biggest job creator in miles, is attracting federal attention.
Creatives emerging from these communities — some where it’s easier to get guns than fresh veggies — have different stories to tell. Their songs paint vivid and violent portraits of the everyday life of millions of Americans living in government-sponsored-blight-turned-warzones. Today’s raw lyrics have been weaponized against a slew of today’s top artists, includingTekashi 6ix9ine,Fetty Wap,Casanova andKay Flock.
To prosecutors, it’s a front. They say YSL stands for Young Slime Life gang. Last May, Fulton County, Georgia’s tough-on-crime District Attorney Fani T. Willis — a Democrat who’s investigating former President Donald Trump over whether he attempted to illegally tamper with her state’s 2020 presidential results — slapped Young Thug (born as Jeffery Williams), Gunna (or Sergio Kitchens, who has since taken anAlford plea) and26 other YSL affiliates with state RICO — racketeer influenced and corrupt organizations — charges.
Georgia investigators allege YSL is actually a deadly “criminal street gang” affiliated with the California-born Bloods gang. Prosecutors accuse the defendants of racketeering, murders, home invasions, trafficking, carjackings and weapons charges. Young Thug alone is accused of illegally possessing a sawed-off shotgun, machine gun and silencer.
Willis says YSL’s beef with studio and street rivals, YFN Lucci (Rayshawn Bennett, per his birth certificate) has resulted in upward of 50 murders or gun fights between the two crews in the past eight years. She’s also used RICO, social media posts and music videos in a against 26 members of the Drug Rich 220-count indictment tied to 13 home invasions in the Atlanta area – including the likes of Mariah Carey’s $5 million pad – some of which allegedly involved kidnapping, attempted murder, aggravated assault, terroristic threats and illegal weapons.
And prosecutors are using the artist’s own tweets, videos and lyrics to make their case against them.
a year before YSL, the Atlanta DA charged YFN Lucci & crew—YSL’s alleged rivals—with a RICO
he's been in jail ever since, almost 2 years, & still has no trial date bc it was bumped in favor of Thug's
“I’m in the VIP and got that pistol on my hip, you prayin that you live I’m prayin that hit, hey, this that slime s—,” part ofthe 88-page indictment reads. “F—, f— the police (f—’em), in high speed,” “huindred [sic] rounds in Tahoe,” “I’m prepared to take em down,” “got banana clips for all these niggas actin monkey”.
The bonkers — and livestreamed — court proceedings are made for TMZ. Evidence has leaked. One YSL defense attorney was arrested. The judge tossed one prospective juror in jail for three days for filming part of the proceedings. Another potential juror skipped town, then was assigned a 30-page essay (10 primary sources and 10 secondary sources required) on the importance of jury duty.
While some of the defendants cut plea deals — including Gunna — jury selection alone for 14 members of YSL has now stretched into its fifth month. Once the court settles on what suffices as a jury of YSL’s peers, the trial itself is expected to last six- to nine months, with the state promising it has some 300 witnesses. Young Thug says the case and system are racist, through and through.
"You know, this isn't about me or YSL," Young Thug said from prison in a video recorded for a stadium full of fans at last year’s Summer Jam, which he had been slated to play. “I always use my music as a form of artistic expression, and I see now that Black artists and rappers don't have that freedom.”
It’s not just an overzealous DA, as her critics claim. It’s also a federal issue. Less than a month ago, on April 5, the federal Department of Justice used RICO charges and hip-hop lyrics to build a case that resulted in Devon Powell — known as ‘Smuppy’ on Baltimore’s streets — receiving a 20-year prison sentence.
Democrats say this practice must stop, and they’ve seen some progress, at least at the state level.
In 2014, for example, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled in most cases rap lyrics can’t be used against defendants.
Last year, California became the first state to pass a law protecting artists from their own lyrics. In New York, the state Senate passed a “Rap Music on Trial” bill — which still allows prosecutors to use lyrics, but only if they provide “clear and convincing evidence” they were meant literally — but it still needs to make its way through the state Assembly.
Back at the Capitol, Johnson is a lawyer by trade who serves on the House Judiciary Committee. On paper, at least, the committee oversees the nation’s courts. He’s hoping the committee’s effort will impact some of the current cases slowly grinding their way through the system.
“I think jurors, or potential, prospective jurors are not immune from this kind of information. They are being educated on cutting through to get to the wheat from the chaff,” Johnson says.
Many in Hollywood also have these musician’s backs. Rap music is “folk music,” according to actorFran Drescher, president ofSAG-AFTRA, the Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.
The actor of “The Nanny” fame was at the Capitol last week, lobbying lawmakers alongside representatives of the Recording Academy and for two back-to-back Grammys On the Hill 2023 lobbying days. They came to plead with lawmakers to protect artistic freedom, arguing the issue cuts to the heart of democracy.
“It is their right to express themselves, because they're expressing the voice of people,” Drescher says.
It’s not just about prison. Music is life to Bowman, a member of Congress now in his second term. He says hip-hop’s been essential to keeping hope alive in impoverished Black communities nationwide.
“Our creativity is our humanity. And our art is our air. If you crush our art, you take away our air – you choke us off from breathing and participating in a democracy,” Bowman says. “I would not be here without the movies and music that inspired me.
“Imagine being a young Black teenager in New York City and watching the movie ‘Do the Right Thing’ directed by Spike Lee? The story ofRadio Raheem. The story ofSal’s Pizza. The story ofno Black people on the wall. Now I'm in Congress in 2020 walking around asking, ‘Where the hell are the Black people on the wall?’”
In the 1980s, asTipper Gore was in Washington wagingher successful battle to slap warning labels on albums she deemed offensive, the Bronx representative was a kid being inspired on the streets. Bowman says he’d be nothing — and certainly not a federal lawmaker — without the classic hip-hop that was the soundtrack of his youth.
The tropes about “gangsta” rap from the 1980s and 1990s persist today. While dangerous on one level, painful on another, Bowman says the tropes have always been laughable.
“I could differentiate betweenNWA’s music and how I should behave in society. I didn't want to go mimic what they were saying. I knew it was them expressing what was going on in their community and them sensationalizing certain things,” Bowman says of the group’s lyrics book filled with references to sex, drugs and general mayhem. “That's what artists do. That's what Stephen King does. That's what George Lucas does.”
Before being sent to Washington, Bowman served as a teacher, guidance counselor and middle school principal. He now sits on the powerful House Education and Workforce Committee whose actions reverberate in classrooms coast to coast. Even with his devotion to American education and public schools, Bowman says hip-hop was his best teacher growing up.
“It's not just rhythm and poetry. It's foreshadowing. It's personification. It's literature. It's compare and contrast. It’s education. When KRS-One made ‘You Must Learn,’ I learned more from that song than I did my entire K to 12 education experience,” Bowman says, before rapping some of the lyrics from memory:
Eli Whitney, Haile Selassie,
Granville Woods made the walkie-talkie
Lewis Latimer improved on Edison
Charles Drew did a lot for medicine
“I guarantee you I just said something in those six bars that many of you didn't even know,” Bowman says, “because the K-12 school system did not do it, so hip-hop had to come and do it.”
It’s not just rap – and also Trap – music. Fran Drescher warns, allowing prosecutors to use artist’s lyrics against them has broad implications throughout society.
“If we continue to see a little bit of our rights taken away here and a little bit of our rights taken away there – not even just about music, but about books, about so many things, women's rights, gay rights, people of color, everything, voter rights,” Drescher says. “We have to be highly attuned to this, because otherwise we become like the frog in the pot of water. Oh, realizes that he's dead before he even jumps out of the pot.”
For Angelique Kidjo, freedom of expression is what drew her and millions others to America. The singer songwriter hails from the West African nation of Benin and says the notion of arresting someone based on their writings is something she’d expect in repressive countries such China or the strongmen many African nations have endured over the decades.
“The First Amendment is colorless – it’s colorblind. It’s for all of us,” Kidjo says. “[Under] the First Amendment of the Constitution, everybody has the right to speak freely.”
Music was everywhere on Capitol Hill last week, as dozens of artists, advocates and industry representatives were simultaneously pushing the HITS – or Help Independent Tracks Succeed – Act andthe American Music Fairness Act. And they’re pushing lawmakers to overhaul ticketing in this new Ticketmaster-Live Nation dominated world of bots, resellers and staggeringly high-priced ticket fees; money that artists never see. American music’s going through digital convulsions — and if artists aren’t paid we don’t have this conversation, because the feds can’t prosecute superstars we never heard of, right? — The R.A.P. Act is their top priority.
Besides the First Amendment, Johnson says grassroots momentum fuels them. He’s brought evidence to back his claim. Earlier this year, Hulu dropped the painfully eye-opening “Rap Trap: Hip-Hop on Trial” – an expose on the racism infused into anti-hip-hop.
Johnson says the effort is even attracting conservative support. That’s because, in part, hip-hop is what everyone’s kids listen to these days. In Missouri, Republican state Rep. Phil Christofanelli is pushing his colleagues to pass the R.A.P. Act locally. A similar effort is underway in Louisiana, and Johnson says he expects Republicans here in Washington to get the memo.
“They understand the commercial aspect of it,” Johnson says. “Rap music is the top music genre, in terms of sales, generating the most income. You don't want to cut that off. Money talks.”
Though, this time, it’s not all about the Benjamins. It’s about art. It’s about inventors. Dreamers.
“We're made up of storytellers, creators, all different types of artists, and we must allow all of these artists to continue to create their art,” Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. told the small number of congressional reporters covering the event being live-streamed to more than 4,000, presumably outside the Beltway. “To continue to create their magic, to create their inspiration.”
CNN contributor and former D.C. Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone alleges the network declined to run an op-ed critical of its decision to host a Donald Trump town hall next week, Puck News reports.
The cable network is scheduled to host the town hall May 10. CNN Anchor Kaitlan Collins will moderate the event.
Fanone, who was badly beaten in the Jan. 6 insurrection, blasted the network for giving the former president who is currently under investigation for his role in the attack on the Capitol. Fanone received an electrical shock to his neck and was beaten with a flagpole in the attack on the Capitol.
Fanone told Puck News that “allowing Donald Trump an open forum on a major television news network is the moral equivalent of putting an AR-15 in the hands of someone mentally unstable.”
Puck reports that the Trump town hall is part of CNN chairman and C.E.O. Chris Licht’s efforts to broaden its audience to attract more conservative and centrist viewers.
Fanone also pitched the op-ed to The New York Times and The Washington Post and offered to participate in a debate.
Airing the Trump town hall reflects the challenges networks face in presenting a diversity of opinions in politically polarized times.
Puck’s Dylan Byers writes: “Of course, there’s no way for Licht to reposition CNN as a nonpartisan, all-voices-welcome mass-market news network without treating Trump the same way the network treats the other candidates. Surreal as it may be, Trump is the Republican frontrunner, and that is a fact all media organizations have to reckon with."
“Indeed, one of Licht’s primary critiques of his predecessor, Jeff Zucker, has been the way he programmed the Trump show, first enabling the candidate’s early stardom with empty podium footage and then repositioning as the network de la resistance against the president and all his perfidy. But that critique arguably under-appreciates just how challenging it is to cover a candidate who lies and misleads with apparent impunity and nevertheless commands the loyalty of at least a third of the nation.
“Licht will now be forced to wrestle with that challenge first hand, and he will have to walk a fine line: remaining noncombative while also adhering to basic journalistic principles of accountability in truth—and, of course, making it interesting enough to command an audience that, one year in, doesn’t seem particularly excited about what he’s selling. Good luck.”
A decision by CNN to host Donald Trump for a town hall next week -- despite his efforts to lead an insurrection -- is drawing scrutiny from New Republic analyst Alex Shephard who claimed the press needs to be cautious about giving a forum to the former president who appears to be increasingly "unhinged."
As he noted, CNN has already taken a beating over the decision to give the recently indicted Trump a prime-time forum and questioned how the media will handle him as he makes a third run for the Oval Office.
Pointing out that the former president might skip the Republican Party's 2024 presidential debates because he has such a large lead in the polls, that will mean the cable networks will be clamoring for Trump in other venues because he is ratings gold.
"CNN’s decision to air an interview with Trump was, unsurprisingly, met with criticism given—well, you know—Trump’s whole deal. Trump is the undisputed frontrunner for the Republican nomination for president. But he is also dangerously unhinged. He fomented an insurrection. He has spent the last 2.5 years saying that he won an election that he obviously lost. He is an authoritarian. He is now calling his main rival for the GOP nomination [Ron DeSantis] a pedophile," he wrote before adding, " ... the decision to air the town hall nevertheless raises an important, thorny question for all media outlets as the Republican primary begins: Just how should we cover Donald Trump?"
"Since Trump left office—and lost his Twitter account—the news media had blessedly stopped following his every move like a hungry terrier in search of his favorite chew toy. This required a quality for which cable news is not well known: discipline. The Trump years may have been very lucrative, both in terms of audience and revenue, for most media companies. But the post-Trump period was a much healthier news environment," he explained.
With that in mind, Shephard added the the market for all things Trump has cratered and there is a hope that the networks will consider their past with Trump while considering how much rope they will extend to him.
"While still popular with a significant segment of the Republican base, there is elsewhere a palpable sense of exhaustion with Trump—he simply doesn’t garner the same insane level of interest that he did seven years ago. Networks are also more sensitive to (again, deserved) criticism of the huge mistakes they made during the 2016 election cycle," he wrote before warning, "There is, however, no small amount of concern that the larger headwinds facing many outlets—declining audiences, for a variety of complex and not-so-complex reasons—could incentivize bad behavior again."
He concluded, "In this context, CNN hosting a town hall with Trump is fine—it may not be laudatory, but certainly not journalistic malpractice. Trump is the GOP frontrunner. He is also deranged. As long as CNN holds him to account, the network is simply doing its job. Should they fail, it will not pass without comment."
The Lincoln Project released a new video on Wednesday that skewers Fox News with sarcasm.
The video, titled "Trusted," is a mock public service announcement takes the conservative network to task over its decision to part ways with far-right host Tucker Carlson, claiming it indicates the network has “gone woke.”
“You trusted Tucker, you trusted Fox, and now, Rupert Murdoch has canceled Tucker and is purging conservatives,” the narrator says.
“This hurts the MAGA movement. It hurts Donald Trump. It hurts you.”
And in the aftermath of Carlson’s dismissal, the video claims it won’t be that easy for right-wing viewers to find misinformation.
“Where are you going to go for real reporting now?” the narrator says sardonically.
“Real news about wokeism, antifa, drag queen dangers, COVID treatments, our important fresh analysis, news on George Soros and the dangers of white replacement."
“Fair and balanced? Not anymore.”
The video suggests that “RINOs” may now have influence inside the Murdoch Empire.
“Maybe they've given in to Washington ‘RINOs,’ maybe Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell got to Rupert,” the narrator says.
“Maybe it was Ron DeSantis. All of them hate Trump with a burning passion.
“But now, Tucker's gone.”
The video concludes with a call for the MAGA movement to ditch Fox News.
“Why are Republican candidates still kissing Rupert Murdoch’s ring and giving him millions of dollars for ad space.
“It's time to say we're done with Fox News. Fox has gone woke. Now they need to go broke.”
Hopes that Fox News viewers will come flocking back to the conservative network after an April filled with chaos may be misplaced, suggests a political analyst.
Following the $787.5 million paid by Fox to settle Dominion Voting Systems' defamation lawsuit, network executives turned around and fired Tucker Carlson, the host of their most popular prime-time show. That has sent evening ratings into an ongoing death spiral.
According to a report from Newsweek, Thomas Gift, the founding director of the Centre on U.S. Politics at University College London, said the network will continue bleeding viewers as they turn to alternatives like Newsmax.
As Gift explained, the network has thrived in the past after popular hosts like Bill O'Reilly were booted, but this time things are entirely different.
"It's hard to overestimate Carlson's importance to Fox News. The massive ratings that he was able to bring in, combined with the precipitous drop in viewership at the 8 p.m. EDT hour since he left, is reflective of just how much Carlson had become the face of the Fox News franchise," he stated.
Continuing in that vein, he added, "The network's leadership seems to think he's replaceable, but that might prove overly optimistic. Just because in the past viewers have stuck with Fox News after, for example, the departure of Bill O'Reilly or Megyn Kelly doesn't mean they'll continue to do so post-Carlson. That's especially true now with the growth of so many new alternative outlets, like Newsmax, where viewers can get their right-wing fix."
El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser confronted Fox News host Brian Kilmeade for broadcasting a false narrative about President Joe Biden's visit to his city Wednesday.
During an interview on
Fox & Friends, Kilmeade argued that El Paso had removed migrants from the city for Biden's visit earlier this year.
"And the crazy thing is, when the president came, you guys cleaned up the streets," Kilmeade opined. "So he saw a sanitized El Paso, not the one that you have to deal with every day."
"Well, let me explain something," Leeser replied. "That was a very incorrect statement."
"When the president came, the numbers had gone down, and you were able to see they had gone down," the mayor noted.
"Mr. Mayor, you cleaned up the streets for the president," Kilmeade argued. "That was not a candid look of El Paso."
But Leeser continued to push back.
"No, sir," he said. "That's a very incorrect statement. It's a shame that you would put out that type of statement."
"In December, the [immigration] numbers went down all the way through to just recently, and the numbers have increased recently," Leeser remarked.
Kilmeade called on Leeser to complain to the Biden administration.
"We're very thankful that President Biden came and met with the Border Patrol, the people that are providing the services to NGOs and all," Leeser asserted.
"You are aware that the immigration process and program did not just break recently," Leeser said. "It's been broken for many, many years prior to this administration."
Kilmeade claimed immigration was up "200 plus percent since this administration took over and broke it."
"Unfortunately, that's a very false narrative," Leeser lamented. "We really need to figure out the work together."
Watch the video below from Fox News or watch it at this link.
Following a panel discussion on MSNBC's "Morning Joe' over whether Donald Trump will make appearances at the Republican party's 2024 presidential debates, host Joe Scarborough wondered what could derail the Trump train headed to the general election in November.
After pointing to a number of scandals dogging the former president, as well as his part in inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection, longtime political insider and "Morning Joe" regular Mike Barnicle said that the media needs to step up.
Pointing to the Trump town hall on CNN next week, Scarborough prompted, "This is a question that people are going to have to be answering over the next year and a half because it looks like Donald Trump will be the nominee of the Republican party. It's way too early to tell but certainly doesn't look like he has any comers right now that will be strong enough."
"I will say upfront, I have known [CNN head] Chris Licht for a long time and he helped us start the show," he continued. " A lot of people are talking about whether CNN should set up a town hall meeting with the likely GOP nominee because, you know, the guy is an insurrectionist and he tried to overthrow the United States government, and he's not just any other presidential candidate."
"There are people saying you don't provide that sort of normalcy and others are saying he's going to be the nominee," he added. "Where do you draw the line with an insurrectionist, and a guy that promotes violence, openly promotes violence? What does the media do?"
'You have him on and you press him on all the points you just raised," Barnicle shot back. "You don't give him any wiggle room. You don't let him do his 'bend the facts' routine, and you point out the fact that he did try and overthrow the American government, actively tried to overthrow it."
"You point out that he's a liar," he exclaimed. "You point out all the flaws and keep pointing them out. I don't know if you can do that in the context of a town hall meeting."
On Wednesday morning, MSNBC's "Morning Joe " host Joe Scarborough explained that he is still stunned by the number of commentators still standing up for Fox News personality Tucker Carlson and then made his case by showing a 2-minute supercut of the fired TV host's on-air racist comments to make his point.
Reacting to new revelations from the New York Times about text messages that Carlson made that alarmed Fox News lawyers -- including admitting a certain amount of glee at watching an Antifa protester being assaulted by pro-Donald Trump partisans -- Scarborough had his producers run the clip twice.
As he introduced the clip, he stated, "I want you guys to play that clip again, and I want you to play the clip because I want these people who are defending Tucker Carlson, I want them to see once again what they're defending. Play the clip."
What followed was Carlson questioning whether white supremacy even exists and asking, "Remember the great replacement theory was a conspiracy theory?" among other ugly comments.
After watching the clip, a grim-faced Scarborough stated, "I have no words."
