Conservative broadcaster Steve Bannon on Monday pushed for a "major effort" to "bring Joe Manchin into the Republican party."
During a rant on Real America's Voice, Bannon explained how Republicans can take over the Senate by enticing the West Virginia Democrat to switch parties.
Bannon made the remarks a day after Manchin told Fox News that he does not support reforming the filibuster to pass voting rights legislation.
"Joe Manchin is not going to fold on this," he said. "I actually believe there should be a major effort led by guys like Rick Scott to bring Joe Manchin into the Republican Party right now. Bring him into the Republican Party, make sure that he's a welcome member of the Republican Party."
"Take control," Bannon added before suggesting that three other Democratic senators would have their election overturned.
"The whole legitimacy question because of the pounding, the pounding, the pounding of the 3 November movement to get to the bottom of this," he added.
Two Fox News guests argued on Sunday over whether critical race theory has corrupted the U.S. history curriculum in American schools.
Fox News host Mike Emmanuel began the discussion by suggesting that critical race theory is a "religion of division."
"One complaint that I've heard is it divides our children based on their skin color," Emmanuel said.
Right-wing talk radio host Jason Rantz agreed.
"Built into critical race theory is this idea that any sort of defensiveness against this is an example of white supremacy," Rantz asserted. "So they have created a system in which anyone who pushes back will be called a white supremacist and by that very nature it means it's going to bully people into silence."
"It's time to take back the curriculum that's being taught in our schools," he insisted.
But left-leaning Fox News contributor Richard Fowler took the position that many opponents of critical race theory do not know what the term means.
"Critical race theory is not something you actually see being taught in schools until you're getting a master's degree or Ph.D. in sociology," Fowler explained. "What parents and what students and what teachers are asking for in the K-12 classrooms is for us to be educated about the truth in American history."
"Basically, we had slaves in this country," he continued. "We treated them pretty terribly. There was a thing called Jim Crow. During Jim Crow, African-Americans were lynched. They weren't allowed to vote. They weren't given their rights. We had a failed war on drugs that impacted Black people badly. I don't understand what's wrong with teaching the truths about American history. It's what actually happened in this country."
But Rantz pushed back by claiming that schools already teach about slavery.
"That's already being taught," he replied.
"No, it's not!" Fowler objected. "That's not being taught."
"You're claiming we're not teaching about slavery?" Rantz asked. "Are you saying kids are coming out of schools, saying, 'Slavery, what is that? I've never heard of it.'"
But Fowler noted that the United States has a poor track record when it comes to teaching about slavery.
"On the Standard of Learning Exam in Virginia, there's a question that's worded that African workers were brought over here," Fowler revealed. "They weren't African workers, they were enslaved people! That means that we're not teaching the curriculum correctly because that's not the truth. These people were brought in bondage."
"There's not a single history textbook that doesn't talk about slavery," Rantz interrupted.
"When you say we treated the slaves nicely, that's not the truth!" Fowler exclaimed.
"It's fair to say that we can go in and make some changes," Rantz conceded. "But what is different is when we're talking about labeling people oppressors or oppressed, when we're talking about white supremacy as simply being characteristics that all white people have. That's not history. [Critical race theory] is getting into our classrooms."
"This is not about history," he added. "If it was about history, it wouldn't be controversial."
"Name a classroom where they're teaching about critical race theory," Fowler challenged. "Name one classroom where the teachers are educating people about critical race theory... Name one classroom where they're saying all white people are racist. I haven't seen that anywhere nor is there any evidence of that."
For his part, Rantz claimed that students in Washington are "being shown videos saying that because they are white they have privilege."
"That is a cornerstone of critical race theory," he remarked. "That has nothing to do with history. That has nothing to do with slavery. If this was purely about showing our history, this would not be controversial. This is about shaming people and calling people out on the basis of their skin color. That's racist. That's wrong."
Fowler said that Rantz was wrongly labeling history lessons like the 1619 Project as critical race theory.
"It's just educating about the truth," Fowler continued. "It's history. When did slaves get to the country?"
"But when you frame history around an opinion, that's no longer history," Rantz claimed.
"So what, it's an opinion that slaves got here in 1619?" Fowler asked.
But the Fox News host brought the segment to an end.
"We'll let you guys slug it out during the commercial break," he said.
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves (R) defended his state's controversial abortion ban by claiming that fetuses can live outside the womb at 15 weeks.
Reeves made the dubious assertion during a Sunday interview with CNN host Jake Tapper, who pointed out that the Supreme Court is expected to hear arguments against Mississippi's 15-week abortion ban. The law also has no exceptions for women and children who became pregnant through rape or incest.
"For people such as myself that are pro-life, I believe that the Supreme Court made a mistake [by upholding abortion rights] in the 1970s," Reeves said. "But that's not the issue at stake that is before the court, hopefully when the arguments are heard sometime in the fall."
"The fact is we know so much more in America today about the formation of young [fetuses] in the womb than we did when Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973," he continued. "And what we know now, Jake, is that we know that the heart partially formed at 15 weeks. We know that the [fetus] in the womb is practicing breathing. We know that most internal organs have started to form and we believe that child is viable outside the womb."
Tapper also asked Reeves about the Mississippi law's failure to provide exceptions for women and girls who become pregnant through rape or incest.
"I'm not telling any [pregnant] child in Mississippi anything," Reeves said, deflecting. "What I'm telling everyone is we believe that abortions are murdering literally millions and millions and millions of Americans across many, many years and it's a sad, sad state of affairs and we're going to work very hard to make sure that when that baby becomes viable that it is treated as a human life because that is exactly what it is."
Glenn Greenwald on Sunday insisted that he is not a "traitor" to journalism in light of his repeated appearances on Fox News.
During an interview with Fox News host Howard Kurtz, Greenwald pushed back against a
Daily Beast article that suggested he is the "new master of right-wing media."
"I think it shows how the liberal media really does think," Greenwald said. "The purpose of that article was a hit piece. And they thought, what can we say about Glenn Greenwald that would be the most, say, you know, incriminating thing we could possibly think of."
"Of course I go on Fox News!" he exclaimed. "Why would I not want to -- as a journalist -- speak to the millions of people who watch this network? It's the most-watched network in the world. But they can only see the world, even as journalists, through the prism of left vs. right."
Greenwald argued that he also does interviews with liberal hosts on YouTube and podcasts.
"So for them, my going on Fox News makes me some kind of a traitor as opposed to a journalist, who just wants to communicate with as many people as possible," he opined.
Fox News host Chris Wallace on Sunday called out Republicans for demonizing Dr. Anthony Fauci without "hard evidence" that he has been wrong about the origins of the COVID-19 virus.
During a panel discussion on Fox News Sunday, Wallace suggested to former RNC Communications Director Doug Heye that Fauci had unfairly become a target of conservatives after he downplayed theories that the COVID-19 virus escaped from a Chinese lab.
"Nobody comes out of the pandemic looking particularly good," Wallace explained. "I guess the question is why the focus on Dr. Fauci? Make the strongest case you can as to why Dr. Fauci should somehow be held accountable."
"Well, everybody should be accountable," Heye insisted. "There has been a politicization of everything around COVID. So everything has to be somebody else's fault. That's also been weaponized."
The former RNC official argued that Fauci deserved criticism because he has been "deified."
"Murals and hashtags and bobbleheads," he pointed out. "It's going to create a backlash among people who are on the other side who want to defend President Trump, want to defend Republicans in Congress. He then becomes a very easy target because he's seemingly everywhere. So it's not surprising that we'd see some kind of a backlash."
But that answer did not satisfy the Fox News host.
"You're here as a former Republican official," Wallace told Heye. "I guess what I don't understand is what is it that Dr. Fauci supposedly did wrong? And particularly with regard to the origins [of COVID]. He said he believed it was more likely that it was a naturally occurring phenomenon than a lab leak. We still have no hard evidence that it was a lab leak."
"There seems to be no hard evidence that it was used for gain of function or somehow weaponized, the virus," the Fox News host added. "What's the hard evidence against Fauci?"
"Well, I don't think there is a lot of hard evidence," Heye admitted. "I think it's let's ascribe blame and then find the evidence that suits our argument when we do later. Unfortunately, that's a lot of what happens in Washington, D.C. right now."
"And if you look at every House or Senate hearing that Dr. Fauci's at, it becomes very contentious, very quickly, if not immediately," Heye said. "And we know beforehand that certain senators, certain members of Congress are going to use him as a punching bag. Unfortunately, I don't think that helps us get to the bottom of the information that we need."
Fox News host Chris Wallace grilled Corey Lewandowski on former President Donald Trump's "inaction" during the COVID-19 pandemic.
During an interview on Fox News, Lewandowski floated the idea of a special congressional commission to investigate China and the origins of the COVID-19 virus.
But Wallace pointed out that Trump had avoided investigating China during his time as president.
The Fox News host continued: "At least two months after Donald Trump was warned by his own national security adviser that this was going to be the greatest threat of his presidency and proceeded to play it down -- as late as March 27th of last year, Donald Trump was still praising [Chinese President Xi Jinping] and still talking about how cooperative he was."
"Again, if he was so concerned about the Wuhan lab," Wallace asked, "if he wanted he had the opportunity as president, why didn't he get tough with China then when he had the opportunity?"
"We were listening to what the media has defined as the experts and Dr. [Anthony] Fauci specifically," Lewandowski replied.
"Come on, Corey!" Wallace interrupted. "Corey! Corey! Corey! Wait a minute! You're telling me that the president -- you're going to blame the president's inaction on Dr. Fauci?"
"No," Lewandowski insisted. "But look, Chris, if we're going to follow the science and listen to Dr. Fauci, he has been lifted up by the media as the foremost expert on this matter in the world. Listen to what Dr. Fauci said. First, he said masks would not be needed. Then he said banning flights coming in from mainland China were [sic] not necessary and now we know, Chris, that Dr. Fauci, through his government agency, funded at least $800,000 of government taxpayer money to the Wuhan laboratory."
"The question with all the emails coming out from Dr. Fauci is what did he know and when did he know it?" Trump's confidante added. "And did he give information to the president which we could have used to prevent a series of these deaths from occurring?"
Lewandowski went on to insist that Trump was "tough on China" because he imposed tariffs.
"We could go on on this and the fact that the president refused to wear a mask in public for over three months after the CDC recommended it," Wallace said. "But let me move on to another subject."
Fox News host Chris Wallace on Sunday challenged Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), who is refusing to support filibuster reform to pass a voting rights bill and other progressive initiatives.
"You said you oppose scrapping the filibuster," Wallace noted. "The question I have is whether or not -- and you say that you hope that will bring the parties together -- the question I have is whether or not you're doing it exactly the wrong way?"
"Hear me out on this," the Fox News host continued. "If you were to keep the idea that maybe you would vote to kill the filibuster, wouldn't that give Republicans an incentive to actually negotiate because old Joe Manchin is out there and who knows what he's going to do? By taking it off the table, haven't you empowered Republicans to be obstructionists?"
"I don't think so," Manchin said cautiously. "Because we have seven brave Republicans that continue to vote for what they know is right and the facts as they see them, not worrying about the political consequences."
The West Virginia senator insisted that many of his "Republican friends" agree with him.
"I'm just very hopeful and I see good signs," Manchin said. "Give us some time."
Wallace interrupted to point out that Republicans had recently used the filibuster to kill a commission to examine the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
"Republicans blocked that," Wallace reminded the senator. "Sen. McConnell, the head of the Republicans in the Senate, says that he's 100% focused on blocking the Biden agenda. Question: Aren't you being naive about this continuing talk about bipartisan cooperation?"
"I'm not being naive," Manchin objected. "I think he's 100% wrong in trying to block all the good things that we're trying to do for America. It would be a lot better if we had participation and we're getting participation."
"I'm going to continue to keep working with my bipartisan friends," he added. "There were 33 Democrats in 2017 that signed a letter to please save the filibuster and save our democracy. That's what I'm trying to do."
Former White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Thursday accused Dr. Anthony Fauci of lying to Americans from the White House lectern.
McEnany made the remarks while accusing Fauci of covering up the origins of the COVID-19 virus.
"There needs to be an investigation into this hugely," McEnany said. "Because right after Dr. Fauci stood at that White House podium, lied to the nation, said this originated naturally, guess what? He gets an email from the non-profit that gave the money to the Wuhan lab thanking him for using his respected voice to maybe cover up the fact that it started in a lab."
A Virginia man admitted on live television that he was part of the crowd that attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6.
During C-SPAN's Washington Journal program on Thursday, a man named Tom called in from Woodbridge, Virginia to talk about the insurrection.
"I was there on January 6th," the caller revealed. "I'm going to tell you right now -- and I work in the intelligence community and have for many, many years -- I'm telling you there were experienced agitators there that took advantage of a great deal of anxiety and passion in the country and did it on purpose to defame the presidency of Donald Trump."
"I know that for a fact," he continued. "The main thing that I wanted to come on and say is about the future of President Trump, etc. There's a lot of people out there that hope he's coming back, hope he's going to win again in 2024."
According to the caller, the "smartest thing" Trump could do would be to "keep the Trump movement alive and keep it alive across the country so that we can take our country back, county by county, state by state and then ultimately back in the federal positions."
The Virginia man then claimed that the Lincoln Project's campaign against Trump was run by Sen. John McCain, who died two years before the 2020 election.
"The Lincoln Project was completely organized and run by the campaign of John McCain," he insisted. "John McCain, political elitist, worked deliberately to destroy the Trump presidency out of personal animus and it had nothing based on what was good for the country. It had everything to do with destroying the presidency of Donald Trump because of the personal animus that many of these people had."
Former President Donald Trump's blog was shut down on Wednesday and the internet's response was brutal.
Trump spokesperson Jason Miller told CNBC that the short-lived "From the Desk of Donald J. Trump" blog was not expected to return.
Twitter reacted by mocking the former president.
"Trump's blog has been shut down permanently," Thomas Yantorno wrote. "Another failure in a endless list [of] failures, bankruptcies and financial losses. History will judge as the biggest loser in American history."
"No one cared about the Trump blog and its traffic was dismal at best," political commentator Ameshia Cross noted.
"Gosh, you'd think Trump would've wanted his blog up and running for when he's *reinstated* in Aug. #Sad," another commenter joked.
"I've had kidney stones that lasted longer than Trumps blog...and they were more bearable," one Twitter user said.
Former White House Press Secretary Kayleigh attacked Forbes magazine on Tuesday for putting Vice President Kamala Harris on the cover while snubbing Ivanka Trump.
During a panel segment on Fox News's Outnumbered program, McEnany noted that Forbes had recently coined the term Kamalanomics in a profile about the current vice president.
"Forbes has discovered a new philosophy, Kamalanomics, named after Kamala," McEnany complained, "and it's about propping up women small business owners."
"Interestingly though, we have someone who did just that," she continued. "Ivanka Trump did just that, securing $1.5 billion in relief from the private sector for small businesses, $10 billion to [community development financial institutions], which are banks that help minority and low-income communities."
McEnany added: "But I don't remember the term Ivankanomics."
Co-host Tomi Lahren also blasted the vice president.
"We expected her to do a lot more with this golden opportunity that she's been given," she opined. "I know how she operates. I know what kind of woman that she is."
"You mention the way they treat Republican women," Lahren said. "The way they treated Ivanka, the way that they treated Sarah Palin. I mean, they're propping her up, putting her on the cover of magazines. And when they put her on the cover of Vogue, she wasn't looking good enough for the woke crowd. They wanted her to be more stylish. At the end of the day, it's all about vanity."
McEnany suggested that Harris is plotting to become president by not taking a position on controversial issues.
"That's exactly what it is," McEnany observed. "I read a report about how she's trying to keep a low profile for that reason so she's not on the record on these issues, on the border. She can sneak on by and try to walk right into the Oval Office."
Fox News host Will Cain argued on Tuesday that taxes paid by white people shouldn't be used to repay Black families whose ancestors were victims of the Tulsa race massacre.
During a Fox & Friends segment about the anniversary of the 1921 massacre, co-host Lawrence Jones, who is Black, discussed the call for reparations for Black families in Tulsa.
"We need to look at the history of this and go back and see how much every family member is owed," Jones said. "Some family members don't even have the remains of their loved ones, buildings have been built over [the remains]."
"Look, a lot of the people in this town are so behind because of their heritage, where they came from, and because we have not paid that debt," he continued. "So do we need generalities of everybody needs reparations? I don't think that's the best solution. But figure out what government said they owed. Yeah, they need to pay that back."
Cain, however, insisted that survivors in Tulsa do not deserve reparations.
"You know, there is a needle that this country has to thread when it comes to race relations," Cain opined. "We need to be able to reconcile ourselves, acknowledge our past, acknowledge the sins we have committed as a country. At the same time, not undercut the underlying principles of what made America a unique experiment on the face of this Earth."
"The principles of the United States of America are not at fault," he remarked. "The modern-day movement of race relations and race reparations is to undercut the very idea of America. I'm not overstating that. It's, in fact, to undercut often the ideas of western civilization, reason, objectivity, not to live my truth, but to live the truth."
Cain added: "And as we move forward with the history, move forward into the future, we need to reconcile that history, we need to acknowledge it. But we cannot sacrifice the very founding principles of the United States of America and individuality. And things like reparations on a general scale undercut those foundations because they deny individuals and they assign you to groups and they make you guilty of the sins of your forefathers and they make you beneficiaries for the victimhood of your forefathers."
Instead of reparations, Cain said that people should "look each other through our eyes, to our souls, to our characters as individuals."
"And I'm afraid that this country is trying to make up for the sins of the past by sacrificing our principles and our future," he concluded.
Cain ended the discussion without acknowledging that the Tulsa race massacre was perpetrated by white residents.
As Punchbowl reports, the backstory on the ad is revealed in a new book on the Trump campaign from the Wall Street Journal's Michael Bender that states the ad, "Swamp creature," was derisively called the "Hannity ad" by Trump staffers who thought it was awful and "over-the top."
Punchbowl summarizes, "Multiple internal campaign emails referred to the spot simply as 'Hannity.' Another referred to it as the 'Hannity-written' spot. 'POTUS has not yet approved, but Hannity has,' read one email. 'Hannity said this is our best spot yet,' another campaign aide wrote...Inside the campaign, the spot was mocked mercilessly—mostly because of the dramatic, over-the-top language and a message that seemed to value quantity over quality."
The report notes that Trump loved the ad -- but officials in his campaign disliked the fact that it was not only bad, but also the fact that the campaign was bleeding cash at the time and it was a waste of resources.
According to Bender, Trump's campaign "deemed it so useless that they limited it to exactly one show: Hannity. … If Trump and Hannity watched the spot on television -- and were satisfied enough to stop asking about the commercial -- that seemed to be the best result of the ad. The cost of that investment: $1.5 million."
But Hannity denied the report. "The world knows that Sean Hannity supports Donald Trump. But my involvement specifically in the campaign -- no. I was not involved that much. Anybody who said that is full of sh*t," he told Bender.
