“I wasn’t part of the problem” during Covid-19, insisted CNN’s Dana Bash in an interview with Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Sunday. “Let me just say, for the record, that I am not saying that the entire Covid reaction was accurate. It was a scary time, and people made mistakes.” Bash later added that “What we were doing in Covid… is getting the best information, the best science that we can and putting it out there.”
But Dr. Anthony Fauci’s diary shows that the media was more interested in pushing specific narratives and promoting Fauci than it was in getting the “best information” to the public. On April 17, 2021, for example, Bash herself texted Fauci, “I just watched the whole Jordan thing. Again, you’re a better man than I&#8230;. As our friend Wolf Blitzer said to me yesterday – no one would have blamed you if you said simply ‘Mr. Jordan, go f&#8212; yourself.’”
Bash was referring to a House Oversight Committee hearing in which Representative Jim Jordan pointed out many of the “mistakes” Bash now admits were made.
The next day, Bash sent Fauci another text “pointing out that Vanity Fair recently had a headline that said: Jim Jordan trips over his own asshole trying to debate Anthony Fauci.”
Since Senator Rand Paul released Fauci’s diary, journalists have claimed that he had no real authority to impose lockdowns or mandates, suggesting it wasn’t their job to hold him accountable. “Dr. Fauci did not have the authority to force anyone to do anything,” the New York Times <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/1de9a5f6-7f9b-447d-a6cf-454f3904954f?j=eyJ1IjoiMjk0dHMifQ.cmJkfm0X0r0SrUjdPQSLO8z8KA2siPUsFk8HgV3kFag">stated</a>.
But his diary shows how members of the media worked to help Fauci win policy debates against President Donald Trump. As early as March 11, 2020, Fauci was aware that the press was heavily on his side, noting, “the CNN commentators (Chris Cuomo, Anderson Cooper, David Gergon, David Gregory) all discussed me as the adult in the room and the person [we] should all trust.”
In this way, the media worked to undermine the authority of the democratically elected president by upholding Fauci, an unelected bureaucrat, as the ultimate expert and truth-teller. While today they claim that Fauci had no power, six years ago they insisted he be granted nearly unlimited power.
When Trump said Fauci disagreed with a decision in May 2020, Fauci noted that “Chris Cuomo, and Jake Tapper are trying to clarify this in my defense on their shows.” In October 2020, Kaitlan Collins contacted Fauci about a campaign ad and tweeted out a statement for him, which “went totally viral on twitter [sic] and several networks and cable reported it.”
Fauci had personal relationships with several members of the press. On April 13, 2020, he noted that CNN’s Jake Tapper called him “to make sure the interview did not cause me any problems.” On July 1, 2020, Fauci wrote that he had dinner with Tapper and his wife. “Terrific couple. Friendship building.” In October, they had dinner again at Fauci’s home.
Journalists didn’t try to hide their affection for Fauci. Chris Cuomo “gave a wonderful explanation to viewers how close and good friends we are and how I checked in on him every night including weekends for weeks during his COVID illness,” Fauci noted in May 2020. “Never saw something like that on TV.”
It’s no coincidence that much of Fauci’s diary is spent recording his various appearances and interviews. Under pressure from the media, political leaders deferred to Fauci when crafting policy, including on issues like school closures, his diary <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/145efd6c-86b7-482c-b4b8-f7635507796e?j=eyJ1IjoiMjk0dHMifQ.cmJkfm0X0r0SrUjdPQSLO8z8KA2siPUsFk8HgV3kFag">shows</a>.
Rather than, as Bash claimed, sharing the “best science” with viewers, TV and print journalists aired Fauci’s views without examining the evidence. If they had examined it, they would have reported on the publicly available data Fauci privately discussed in his diary. Fauci knew, for example, that vaccines <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/85c12387-d7b7-4030-9098-eb5104e7c211?j=eyJ1IjoiMjk0dHMifQ.cmJkfm0X0r0SrUjdPQSLO8z8KA2siPUsFk8HgV3kFag">did not prevent</a>infection and transmission and that natural immunity <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/2b5df709-c1c1-49d3-90cc-0b2576248bcc?j=eyJ1IjoiMjk0dHMifQ.cmJkfm0X0r0SrUjdPQSLO8z8KA2siPUsFk8HgV3kFag">was protective</a>. These facts made vaccine mandates unnecessary, yet he <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/4ac32575-f61a-43e6-a09b-a020e21d056e?j=eyJ1IjoiMjk0dHMifQ.cmJkfm0X0r0SrUjdPQSLO8z8KA2siPUsFk8HgV3kFag">relentlessly</a> <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/a2d50c08-d88d-42bf-bfd7-7a0b31cd3cc4?j=eyJ1IjoiMjk0dHMifQ.cmJkfm0X0r0SrUjdPQSLO8z8KA2siPUsFk8HgV3kFag">sought</a> to implement them.
Years later, news outlets have failed to accurately report on Covid, even retrospectively. For instance, they ignored documents <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/4d90b8be-87d4-4ddb-ab36-06c0df3989fc?j=eyJ1IjoiMjk0dHMifQ.cmJkfm0X0r0SrUjdPQSLO8z8KA2siPUsFk8HgV3kFag">revealing</a> that the CDC received concerning reports about vaccine-induced myocarditis in 2021, and that the CDC Director lied about it. And in 2023, mainstream media outlets did not cover extensive records showing that Fauci and other scientists initially believed Covid originated from a lab in Wuhan before <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/071fc69c-b472-40f6-bb19-2e2b08a7a310?j=eyJ1IjoiMjk0dHMifQ.cmJkfm0X0r0SrUjdPQSLO8z8KA2siPUsFk8HgV3kFag">collaborating</a> to dismiss the lab leak as a “conspiracy theory.”
While news anchors like Bash may still believe that Covid was well-managed despite a few “mistakes,” it is by now undeniable that their preferred policies created enormous backlash not just against Fauci personally, but against medical institutions, the Democratic Party, and the media itself.
Much of this backlash is due to the kind of duplicitousness displayed in Fauci’s diary. Scientists and officials privately acknowledged the realities of gain-of-function research, vaccine-induced myocarditis, and natural immunity, all while giving the public entirely different messages and using censorship to enforce compliance.
The liberal media’s response to the Fauci hearing shows a broad lack of understanding, or lack of desire to understand. With defending Covid lockdowns and mandates still a political liability, it would be strategically wise for journalists to avoid doubling down. So why do they continue to insist that criticism of Fauci is baseless? Why can’t they reckon with what really happened during Covid?
In 2020 and 2021, The New York Times and Washington Post published article after article in support of school closures. They claimed Covid could <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/87cced0f-80ec-4740-b2f5-0309b35815e1?j=eyJ1IjoiMjk0dHMifQ.cmJkfm0X0r0SrUjdPQSLO8z8KA2siPUsFk8HgV3kFag">“soar”</a> if schools reopened, that it was <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/46423805-72cc-495a-97eb-3f1831066983?j=eyJ1IjoiMjk0dHMifQ.cmJkfm0X0r0SrUjdPQSLO8z8KA2siPUsFk8HgV3kFag">risky</a> for children to play together, and that virtual learning provided black families a <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/ee52dc86-25b1-4acc-a595-f959dd34929a?j=eyJ1IjoiMjk0dHMifQ.cmJkfm0X0r0SrUjdPQSLO8z8KA2siPUsFk8HgV3kFag">relief</a> from racism. They published headlines like <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/c96a5af3-f7d9-4416-93f3-35fe13a398f9?j=eyJ1IjoiMjk0dHMifQ.cmJkfm0X0r0SrUjdPQSLO8z8KA2siPUsFk8HgV3kFag">“Can We Stop Telling ‘Corona Kids’ How Little They Are Learning?,”</a> <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/d349090c-ca97-4d2a-a95b-6a23e88b0142?j=eyJ1IjoiMjk0dHMifQ.cmJkfm0X0r0SrUjdPQSLO8z8KA2siPUsFk8HgV3kFag">“The Racist Effects of School Reopening During the Pandemic—By a Teacher,”</a> <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/c272127a-2785-4a4b-bf44-b16f84308569?j=eyJ1IjoiMjk0dHMifQ.cmJkfm0X0r0SrUjdPQSLO8z8KA2siPUsFk8HgV3kFag">“Does It Hurt Children to Measure Pandemic Learning Loss?”</a> and <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/a1c9c63a-ac68-4be5-a707-431dbd7c1ef1?j=eyJ1IjoiMjk0dHMifQ.cmJkfm0X0r0SrUjdPQSLO8z8KA2siPUsFk8HgV3kFag">“Actually Wearing a Mask Can Help Your Child Learn.”</a>
This was all despite the fact that European nations had safely reopened their public schools in 2020 and education ministers in the European Union announced that they saw no negative consequences from reopening schools. As David Zweig <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/c387c76e-9078-450c-8c6c-5193f63a498a?j=eyJ1IjoiMjk0dHMifQ.cmJkfm0X0r0SrUjdPQSLO8z8KA2siPUsFk8HgV3kFag">points out</a>, no one in legacy media reported on this.
At first, when the Chinese government imposed a lockdown in Wuhan, China, many in the liberal media questioned the approach, <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/d7592799-bbab-40e9-bea6-9347ae1257c4?j=eyJ1IjoiMjk0dHMifQ.cmJkfm0X0r0SrUjdPQSLO8z8KA2siPUsFk8HgV3kFag">noting</a> that it would violate human rights and be ineffective. Democratic politicians <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/555f575b-3cbe-44fc-a08e-e8600245cfb1?j=eyJ1IjoiMjk0dHMifQ.cmJkfm0X0r0SrUjdPQSLO8z8KA2siPUsFk8HgV3kFag">encouraged</a> people to go to Chinatown and said that concern about Covid was <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/efee174c-e87b-49ff-9e9b-c09977d01ec7?j=eyJ1IjoiMjk0dHMifQ.cmJkfm0X0r0SrUjdPQSLO8z8KA2siPUsFk8HgV3kFag">racist</a>.
But when it became clear that Covid offered unprecedented power for the professional expert class, the media and the broader Left changed their approach. “Many progressives see the coronavirus response,” <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/1be47999-c7b5-4554-be92-3b6d21143db6?j=eyJ1IjoiMjk0dHMifQ.cmJkfm0X0r0SrUjdPQSLO8z8KA2siPUsFk8HgV3kFag">noted</a> NPR in May 2020, “as a chance to prove that policies they support can work and should be made permanent… Now there is a crisis, and Democrats want to use this moment to remake the system.”
Covid could thus be used for social restructuring, locking in government spending, and continuously attacking Trump as a mass killer. Before Covid, Trump had remained politically resilient. In January 2020, the percentage of Americans satisfied with “the way things are going” went up to <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/fe4735fd-16d0-4f6e-8a2c-39ab27d4d56a?j=eyJ1IjoiMjk0dHMifQ.cmJkfm0X0r0SrUjdPQSLO8z8KA2siPUsFk8HgV3kFag">45 percent</a>, the highest since February 2005. And Trump had signaled that if he achieved a second term, he would take aim at many of the Left’s core achievements, including in the areas of education and immigration.
Covid offered a chance to thwart this trajectory while cementing the authority of the managerial class over democratic institutions in the name of “safety” and “saving lives.”
The Left equated wrongthink and “misinformation” with murder, justifying unprecedented censorship. When three epidemiologists from Stanford, Oxford, and Harvard simply suggested an alternative approach in the Great Barrington Declaration, the New York Times called it “dangerous” for not supporting lockdowns. Journalists denounced dissenters and “the unvaccinated” in increasingly dehumanizing terms.
<a href="https://substack.com/redirect/ae808a81-31bc-47b3-8e97-e7e4e1dc3086?j=eyJ1IjoiMjk0dHMifQ.cmJkfm0X0r0SrUjdPQSLO8z8KA2siPUsFk8HgV3kFag">“I’m Furious at the Unvaccinated,”</a> one column was titled in The New York Times. <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/fed65b3d-1936-42f2-83dc-7137eeee445c?j=eyJ1IjoiMjk0dHMifQ.cmJkfm0X0r0SrUjdPQSLO8z8KA2siPUsFk8HgV3kFag">“Unvaxxed, Unmasked and Putting Our Kids at Risk,”</a> read another. <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/2da283db-7774-45c6-aa93-eecfce685cdf?j=eyJ1IjoiMjk0dHMifQ.cmJkfm0X0r0SrUjdPQSLO8z8KA2siPUsFk8HgV3kFag">“The Unvaccinated Are a Risk to All of Us,”</a> a Bloomberg headline stated.
The unvaccinated, explained CNN’s Don Lemon, were <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/f578a6c0-ebb5-4da9-9611-15ef58896575?j=eyJ1IjoiMjk0dHMifQ.cmJkfm0X0r0SrUjdPQSLO8z8KA2siPUsFk8HgV3kFag">“idiotic and nonsensical.” </a>It was time to “start shaming them” or “leave them behind,” he said. Wrote a columnist in the Los Angeles Times, <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/8fe97ded-98ab-4af4-a043-f216a8f0c036?j=eyJ1IjoiMjk0dHMifQ.cmJkfm0X0r0SrUjdPQSLO8z8KA2siPUsFk8HgV3kFag">“Mocking anti-vaxxers’ COVID deaths is ghoulish, yes, but may be necessary.</a>” Others warned of “compassion fatigue” for the unvaccinated and platformed doctors who said they would refuse to treat them.
Liberal politicians who the media supported denounced their own citizens. President Joe Biden <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/5a22104a-7e52-4313-a378-24e7e5884122?j=eyJ1IjoiMjk0dHMifQ.cmJkfm0X0r0SrUjdPQSLO8z8KA2siPUsFk8HgV3kFag">said</a> in the fall of 2021 that his “patience [was] wearing thin” and that we needed to “protect vaccinated workers from unvaccinated coworkers.” He declared a “pandemic of the unvaccinated” and <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/a8932eea-429a-4907-97e5-5b66354d89ed?j=eyJ1IjoiMjk0dHMifQ.cmJkfm0X0r0SrUjdPQSLO8z8KA2siPUsFk8HgV3kFag">warned</a> “the unvaccinated” that they would face a “winter of severe illness and death.”
“Do we tolerate these people?” <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/5ae06228-5b4f-4110-aade-80d5c82d7052?j=eyJ1IjoiMjk0dHMifQ.cmJkfm0X0r0SrUjdPQSLO8z8KA2siPUsFk8HgV3kFag">asked</a> Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, about the unvaccinated. They “are very often misogynistic and racist.” French President Emmanuel Macron <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/ba52db55-af3a-4c3c-ae01-5c74e4e71974?j=eyJ1IjoiMjk0dHMifQ.cmJkfm0X0r0SrUjdPQSLO8z8KA2siPUsFk8HgV3kFag">vowed</a> to put “pressure on the unvaccinated by limiting… access [to] social activities.” Someone who refuses the Covid vaccine, he said, is “not a citizen.” <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/347e4a6d-8101-4cd4-9e90-805d751c1172?j=eyJ1IjoiMjk0dHMifQ.cmJkfm0X0r0SrUjdPQSLO8z8KA2siPUsFk8HgV3kFag">Said</a> a commentator in The Washington Post, “Macron is right: It’s time to make life a living hell for anti-vaxxers.”
So-called “anti-vaxxers” and “anti-maskers” represented resistance to rule by experts, and their very survival was evidence that the experts, and the journalists who endorsed them, were wrong.
***
This is the first section of the author’s full essay. You can read the rest on Public <a href="https://www.public.news/p/journalists-are-still-defending-fauci">here</a> and <a href="https://www.public.news/">subscribe</a> to the newsletter.
Alex Gutentag is a Senior Editor for Public and writes about censorship, government abuse of power, and other topics. She has been a columnist for Tablet and a contributing editor for Compact. She is based in California.

Meet the Press – Season 73

COVID Bitter Clingers In The Media Will Never End Their Fauci Love Affair

Anthony Fauci

Chris Cuomo

COVID

Dana Bash

DW Opinion

House Oversight Committee

Jake Tapper

Justin Trudeau

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

In a stunning revelation, Dana Bash <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/rfk-jr-torches-cnn-anchor-dana-bash-press-malpractice-covid-coverage-explosive-clash">admits</a> that it&#8217;s her job to tell the American people the truth. Where has that attitude been the last five years?
On CNN&#8217;s &#8220;State of the Union&#8221; this weekend, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the network&#8217;s chief fact-checker-in-residence got into it over how America responded to the COVID pandemic, and the two obviously had grievances to get off their chests. The conversation looked less like an interview and more like a holiday dinner after one too many eggnog martinis.
Things got heated when Bash pushed the line she&#8217;s pushed for years: Trump bears the blame, governors closed things because hospitals were overrun, Fauci didn&#8217;t shut down America.
RFK correctly called BS. 
 
Fauci&#8217;s own private diary entries show him actively engineering the closures he later denied under oath. March 9, 2020, Fauci advised New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to close schools in Westchester’s Orthodox Jewish communities. Six days later, he &#8220;convinced&#8221; Mayor Bill de Blasio to close New York City&#8217;s schools (de Blasio, per Fauci&#8217;s diary, &#8220;had already decided based on what I was saying on TV&#8221;), then went further, telling the mayor he should close the bars and restaurants too. De Blasio said he&#8217;d base it on Fauci&#8217;s recommendation.
I’m sure the “most famous scientist in the world” was giggling, penning that into the burn book.
Days later, Fauci advised de Blasio to push full shelter-in-place for the entire city over Cuomo&#8217;s objections, promising to lean on the governor himself. He privately celebrated convincing Trump to extend &#8220;15 Days to Slow the Spread&#8221; into a 30-day lockdown, calling it a &#8220;good outcome&#8221; that avoided ending mitigation &#8220;prematurely.&#8221; By October 2020, on CBS, he&#8217;d said the quiet part out loud: he recommended the president shut the country down.
Yet by 2022, once the learning-loss data and the empty ICUs became impossible to ignore, Fauci pivoted: he&#8217;d had nothing to do with school closures; the &#8220;default position&#8221; was always to keep kids in class. Wrong — the diary is the receipt. He was the top-down architect leaning on mayors and governors to do his bidding, while the press treated their compliance as spontaneous local wisdom.
Now Bash is doing damage control for the media’s image, but the damage is already done. Lockdowns shuttered 3.5 million businesses, cratered childhood education, and left the U.S. with some of the worst excess-mortality numbers among developed nations, because one man&#8217;s private certainty got laundered into public consensus, and nobody in the press box asked him to show his work.
Then Bash asked what RFK would do differently when the next pandemic hits (because, according to her experts, it’s going to happen within 10 years).
RFK quickly remarked that he’d protect constitutional rights and end the censorship that silenced dissenting doctors the first time around. Bash tried to pivot. RFK didn’t let her. “That was the job of CNN,&#8221; he told her. &#8220;To put the chyrons up on how many people are dying, to get people to comply.&#8221;
“You were part of the problem. There was absolute press malpractice. Your job is a fierce skepticism towards authority, and you weren’t doing that. You were beating up people who were dissenting.”
Boom.
And he’s absolutely correct. Take the lab-leak theory for example. Fauci privately noted the Wuhan market was an “amplifier,” not the source, and scientists on a February 2020 call he joined raised serious concerns about lab manipulation at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Publicly, the “Proximal Origin” paper (shaped with input from the Fauci circle) declared a lab origin “not plausible.” CNN ran with it. Lab leak was a “conspiracy theory,” “comic book” stuff, “widely debunked,” a “Trump talking point.” Then-CNN president Jeff Zucker reportedly ordered staff not to chase it. When former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield said it was most likely a lab origin, CNN framed it as “controversial” and “without evidence.” Only years later, <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/02/28/new-york-times-msnbc-cnn-slammed-over-debunked-lab-leak-theory/">once</a> FBI and court documents leaned toward the lab theory, did the network quietly soften the ridicule.
Because ostensibly it’s their job to “tell the truth to the American people,” once the truth becomes convenient.
CNN did the same with the mortality numbers. Fauci&#8217;s own February 2020 diary put the case fatality rate at 0.2%–0.3%, closer to a bad flu once mild and asymptomatic cases were counted. Weeks later, in congressional testimony, he told lawmakers the rate was 2%–3%, settling near 1% — 10 times deadlier than seasonal flu. The scarier number is the one that stuck; CNN ran the catastrophe models and sidelined the seroprevalence data that quickly told a calmer story.
The network also frightened parents silly into vaccinating their healthy kids. Which RFK rightfully pointed out. He charged that CNN’s job was “scaring people.” From late 2021 on, CNN treated pediatric vaccination as an unalloyed moral imperative; “Kids 5 to 11 can now get vaccinated. Here’s why it’s safe.” Segments pushed shots for children under 5 the moment the FDA authorized them. Jill Biden’s CNN op-ed urged parents that the vaccine was “the best way” to protect kids. Anchors and experts framed hesitation as dangerous, citing every hospitalization while downplaying the extremely low risk of severe disease in healthy children and the emerging myocarditis signal in adolescent males.
By 2022, Florida’s health department, citing the data, said healthy five- to 17-year-olds “may not benefit.” Randomized trials showed the shots reduced short-term symptomatic infection but offered negligible absolute risk reduction against severe outcomes for low-risk kids. Transmission benefits evaporated with variants. Yet CNN kept up the pressure, treating parental caution as anti-science. RFK asked Bash to present a single study proving net benefit for children. She pivoted to “data upon data” about adult mortality and “misinformation deaths.”
A master of misdirection.
If the world does see another pandemic, it’s good to know certain scientists won’t have their First Amendment right stripped away for saying an uncomfortable truth. Take Jay Bhattacharya, Martin Kulldorff, and Sunetra Gupta. In October 2020, the trio authored the Great Barrington Declaration, arguing for focused protection of the vulnerable instead of blanket lockdowns. NIH Director Francis Collins wanted a &#8220;quick and devastating&#8221; takedown. Fauci called it &#8220;nonsense and very dangerous.&#8221; On CNN, a former Harvard professor announced that herd immunity was &#8220;another word for mass murder.&#8221; The chorus followed, branding the authors reckless cranks.
Today, Bhattacharya runs the NIH. The &#8220;crazies&#8221; keep getting promoted; the experts who got it catastrophically wrong still want the benefit of the doubt.
Look, reporters get things wrong sometimes; so do experts. But there&#8217;s a difference between an honest miss and five years of &#8220;trust the experts&#8221; deployed as a gag order, while the experts secretly admitted they weren&#8217;t sure.
Fauci privately knew mortality was far lower and later walked back school closures. CNN treated lab leak as taboo and pediatric vaccines as non-negotiable. Dissenters were “beaten up.” And now that the diaries, the excess-death data, the learning-loss studies, and the intelligence assessments are public, the same network hosts are rightfully getting grilled for gaslighting us all for years.
And RFK called them on it live, to a quivering, culpable Bash. The ultimate fact-check. And it felt good to watch.

Microplastics Event at EPA

RFK Jr. Owns Dana Bash Proving Media Fed COVID Hysteria

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. laid into CNN anchor Dana Bash during a Sunday morning interview, arguing that her network — and media across the board — had been complicit in efforts to silence anyone who raised questions about the COVID-19 pandemic orthodoxy.
Kennedy began by pointing out just how quickly Constitutional rights had been trampled as people who spoke out or refused the COVID-19 vaccines faced cancellation, getting fired from their jobs, or worse — and Bash immediately tried to move the conversation in a different direction.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
This was a long-overdue moment on CNN.
RFK Jr. called out the network on air for helping to silence dissent during COVID.
Dana Bash was getting visibly irritated, after she repeatedly tried to move the conversation away from censorship.
Then he aimed his fire at Dana Bash… <a href="https://t.co/yHmIxjgz25">pic.twitter.com/yHmIxjgz25</a>
— Overton (@overton_news) <a href="https://x.com/overton_news/status/2083918836999332300?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 2, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;We need to protect our constitutional rights. That is the primary obligation in our country,” Kennedy began.
&#8220;What does that mean?&#8221; Bash asked.
&#8220;Well, during COVID, we completely dismantled our constitutional rights. We began censoring people in violation of the First Amendment,&#8221; he explained, but Bash interrupted.
&#8220;You’re saying what not to do, I’m asking what to do,&#8221; she protested.
Kennedy pushed back: &#8220;Well, that’s something to do. That is the number one priority: we protect the Constitution.&#8221;
&#8220;Forgive me, but you’re talking about rights and I’m asking about a potential public health crisis that is coming. But I do want to … let’s …&#8221; Bash tried to redirect him.
&#8220;And one of the mistakes we made last time was suppressing those rights. So people weren’t being heard. Doctors who were saying, ‘You’re doing it wrong,’ were being marginalized and vilified,&#8221; Kennedy made it clear that he was not going to be deterred.
Bash tried once more, saying, &#8220;Again, I really want to move on …”
&#8220;Yeah, of course you want to move on because you were part of the problem!&#8221; Kennedy shot back.
&#8220;No! I wasn’t part of the problem!&#8221; Bash objected.
&#8220;There was absolute press malpractice. Your job is to have a fierce skepticism toward authority, and you weren’t doing that,&#8221; Kennedy continued, arguing that many in media were to blame for doing the same. &#8220;You were beating up on people who were dissenting!&#8221;

HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr Testifies At Senate Finance Hearing

RFK Jr. Unloads On CNN Anchor Over COVID: ‘You Were Part Of The Problem!’

RFK Jr. Unloads On CNN Anchor Over COVID: 'You Were Part Of The Problem!'

COVID-19

Media

Pandemic

Politics

Border czar Tom Homan detailed the plan to deploy Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to U.S. airports beginning on Monday to aid TSA workers in the wake of the ongoing DHS shutdown.
Appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday with host Dana Bash, Homan first explained that he is working with the administrator of TSA and the director of ICE to develop a game plan.
“First of all, are ICE agents even remotely trained to handle security at airports?” Bash asked, to which Homan replied that ICE already operates at airports, and this new wave of agents would be helping in mostly non-specialized security-related areas.
“[We’ve] got TSA agents covering exits — you know, people that enter through the exits. Certainly a highly-trained ICE law enforcement officer can cover an exit, make sure people don&#8217;t … enter the airport through the exits, and stuff like that relieves that TSA officer to go to screening and to reduce those lines,” Homan said. “So, wherever we can provide extra security.”
The border czar went on to note that he doesn’t foresee ICE agents manning X-ray machines because they’re not trained to do so. However, agents can be utilized in broad security roles allowing TSA workers to focus on specialized passenger screening jobs.
Bash pressed Homan on the exact roles ICE agents would fill, but Homan noted that discussions are “a work in progress” and will be finalized by the end of the day Sunday.
“Are there specific airports that you&#8217;re thinking about starting with, and how many ICE agents are you considering deploying to do this?” Bash asked.
While discussions are ongoing, Homan said, he believes airports experiencing the longest TSA wait times should be the priority.
Bash pressed Homan on timing: “With respect, if you&#8217;re doing this in 24 hours, how well thought out could it possibly be again?”
Homan hit back: “How much of a plan does it mean to guard an exit to make sure no one comes through that exit?”
“And we were talking about security options, and these officers are well trained in security, and they&#8217;re well trained in identification, and we&#8217;re going to do what we can to help TSA move those people to the line,” the border czar added.
Bash attempted to catch Homan at the end of the segment, asking him: “Is it just going to be crowd control, or will ICE officers also be doing immigration enforcement while they are at the airport?”
“We do immigration enforcement at airports all the time,” Homan replied. “So it&#8217;s not going to change. This is about helping the men and women with TSA. They&#8217;ve lost several hundred employees; the lines are really slow because the shutdown. This is about going to helping TSA do their mission and get the American public through that airport as quick as they can while adhering to all the security guidelines and the protocols.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
NEWS: White House Border Czar Tom Homan confirms President Trump will send ICE agents into airports across the country tomorrow. &#8220;We&#8217;ll have a plan by the end of today what airports we&#8217;re starting with and where we&#8217;re sending them,&#8221; Homan tells <a href="https://twitter.com/DanaBashCNN?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DanaBashCNN</a>. <a href="https://t.co/Ue2VNlpKw6">pic.twitter.com/Ue2VNlpKw6</a>
— State of the Union (@CNNSOTU) <a href="https://twitter.com/CNNSOTU/status/2035707177583747455?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 22, 2026</a></blockquote>
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The Department of Homeland Security shutdown has been ongoing since February 14, leaving TSA agents — as well as FEMA and the Coast Guard — without pay. As a result, over 300 TSA agents have quit and lines at major airports across the country have begun to extend dramatically.
On Friday, the <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/tsa-wait-times-update-airports-delays-friday-11709401">wait</a> at Atlanta&#8217;s Hartsfield-Jackson — the busiest airport in the United States — surged beyond two hours during the morning travel rush, and George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Texas, saw 90-minute wait times with one checkpoint closed altogether. Shocking videos circulating on social media have shown lines stretching significantly longer in recent days as the shutdown drags on.
President Trump recently blasted Democrats on <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/116268396341038197">Truth Social</a> over the shutdown: “What they have done to the Department of Homeland Security, our fantastic TSA Officers, and, most importantly, the great people of our Country, is an absolute disgrace. If the Democrats do not allow for Just and Proper Security at our Airports, and elsewhere throughout our Country, ICE will do the job far better than ever done before! The Fascist Democrats will never protect America, but the Republicans will.”

Tom Homan

Tom Homan Lays Out What Americans Can Expect As ICE Moves Into Airports Monday

Department of Homeland Security

General

Government Shutdown

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

U.S.

The 2028 presidential primaries may have just begun to peek over the horizon, but media personalities are already starting to put their thumbs on the scales as they go about interviewing those who seem likely to throw a hat into the ring.
For those who don&#8217;t spend their Sunday mornings glued to the television — and their Sunday afternoons attempting to dig through a week&#8217;s worth of network and cable news media spin — The Daily Wire has compiled a short summary of what you may have missed.
On Sunday, two competing interviews — one with Governor Josh Shapiro (D-PA) on ABC&#8217;s &#8220;This Week&#8221; and the other with Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA) on CNN&#8217;s &#8220;State of the Union&#8221; — gave viewers a glimpse of what they might expect from legacy media as the next presidential election approached.
Early polling suggests that both Shapiro and Newsom could be considering a 2028 run for the White House, and as is often a precursor to such a campaign, both have published recent memoirs in an effort to test the waters. But the tone of those interviews shed some light on how the legacy media might treat the two governors differently during a presidential campaign.
On &#8220;This Week,&#8221; host Martha Raddatz was conciliatory toward Shapiro as long as he was keeping the attack focused on President Donald Trump.
At one point, knowing that Shapiro had been at a meeting with the president at the time, she asked him to describe Trump&#8217;s demeanor when he learned that his tariffs had been shot down by the Supreme Court.
Shapiro said that Trump had been taking questions from the governors at the meeting when an aide approached and handed him a piece of paper detailing the ruling. &#8220;I think he said, ‘we lost?’, as a question, the aide nodded in affirmation.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Gov. Josh Shapiro describes what happened when President Trump found out about the Supreme Court ruling during a meeting at the White House: “I think he said, ‘we lost?’, as a question, the aide nodded in affirmation.” <a href="https://t.co/ZpBwNhvycr">https://t.co/ZpBwNhvycr</a> <a href="https://t.co/vimv2UdJcN">pic.twitter.com/vimv2UdJcN</a>
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) <a href="https://twitter.com/ThisWeekABC/status/2025595617683333368?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 22, 2026</a></blockquote>
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Raddatz went on to ask about Trump&#8217;s new plan — to use Section 122 to levy tariffs rather than the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) as he had previously — and Shapiro once again condemned Trump.
&#8220;I wish he would just adhere to the Supreme Court&#8217;s ruling and stop the pain for the American people,&#8221; he said.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro on President Trump’s plan to use Section 122 to levy tariffs: “I wish he would just adhere to the Supreme Court&#8217;s ruling and stop the pain for the American people.” <a href="https://t.co/oAxlKTXb3i">https://t.co/oAxlKTXb3i</a> <a href="https://t.co/gcKLdxKBFU">pic.twitter.com/gcKLdxKBFU</a>
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) <a href="https://twitter.com/ThisWeekABC/status/2025600792900878810?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 22, 2026</a></blockquote>
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When asked about the possibility of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) surge in Pennsylvania, Shapiro toed the party line: &#8220;We do not want that kind of chaos in our communities in Pennsylvania, so don&#8217;t come. But if you come, we are prepared to address it.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Gov. Josh Shapiro says Pennsylvania is preparing for a potential ICE surge: “We do not want that kind of chaos in our communities in Pennsylvania, so don&#8217;t come. But if you come, we are prepared to address it.” <a href="https://t.co/KOQRly9D1A">https://t.co/KOQRly9D1A</a> <a href="https://t.co/ISi98wnkw2">pic.twitter.com/ISi98wnkw2</a>
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) <a href="https://twitter.com/ThisWeekABC/status/2025602518022340772?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 22, 2026</a></blockquote>
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But then Raddatz pointed to a recent New York Times piece about a long-running feud between Shapiro and Senator John Fetterman (D-PA). Shapiro, clearly uncomfortable with the line of questioning, said only that his relationship with Fetterman was &#8220;constructive&#8221; — and would not commit to supporting the senator if he chose to run for reelection.
&#8220;I think he needs to decide if he&#8217;s running, and then we&#8217;ll make a decision from there,&#8221; Shapiro said, arguing that the feud was a fabrication on the part of journalists attempting to stir up drama.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Gov. Josh Shapiro says he has a “constructive relationship” with Sen. John Fetterman, but did not say if he would support a re-election bid: “I think he needs to decide if he&#8217;s running, and then we&#8217;ll make a decision from there.” <a href="https://t.co/dGjJbpGGuw">https://t.co/dGjJbpGGuw</a> <a href="https://t.co/uxs577D8Oy">pic.twitter.com/uxs577D8Oy</a>
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) <a href="https://twitter.com/ThisWeekABC/status/2025602050915221871?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 22, 2026</a></blockquote>
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On &#8220;State of the Union,&#8221; the tone shift was slight but noticeable. Newsom was given a lot of the same opportunities to bash Trump — &#8220;he&#8217;s flailing,&#8221; the California governor said of the Supreme Court&#8217;s ruling striking down the tariffs.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Newsom reacts to Supreme Court ruling striking down most of Trump&#8217;s tariffs: &#8220;He&#8217;s flailing&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/tI1yiSoZw1">pic.twitter.com/tI1yiSoZw1</a>
— State of the Union (@CNNSOTU) <a href="https://twitter.com/CNNSOTU/status/2025602757479084482?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 22, 2026</a></blockquote>
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But then Newsom was given far more room to sell himself throughout the interview, from questions about how he dealt with the death of his mother to a detailed explanation about his lifelong struggle with dyslexia and how he now views that as a &#8220;superpower.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Gavin Newsom on his lifelong struggle with dyslexia: &#8220;I do think it&#8217;s a superpower&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/7Q0J8d0xks">pic.twitter.com/7Q0J8d0xks</a>
— State of the Union (@CNNSOTU) <a href="https://twitter.com/CNNSOTU/status/2025602206624292896?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 22, 2026</a></blockquote>
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The most difficult question posed to Newsom was how he planned to handle it if his career and the career of his old friend — former Vice President Kamala Harris — ended up on a collision course in 2028. When Newsom <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/gavin-newsom-laughs-off-potential-face-off-with-kamala-in-2028-thats-fate-if-it-happens">dismissed the question</a> out of hand as up to &#8220;fate,&#8221; Bash simply let the matter drop and allowed him to pivot right back to talking about his book.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Gavin Newsom on possibly facing Kamala Harris in the 2028 presidential primary: &#8220;I&#8217;ve never gotten in the way of her ambition&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/PDm8CmkR96">pic.twitter.com/PDm8CmkR96</a>
— State of the Union (@CNNSOTU) <a href="https://twitter.com/CNNSOTU/status/2025602268746145959?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 22, 2026</a></blockquote>
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“That’s — you know, fate will determine that,” Newsom shrugged. “And I’ve never gotten in the way of her ambition, ever. I haven’t. And I don’t imagine I would in the future. But I don’t —”
“But if you run against each other for president —” Bash tried again.
“That’s fate,” Newsom said again, dismissing the question entirely. “You only can control what you can control. I think this entire book is that fundamental lesson. And this notion of controlling what you control, and taking responsibility for what you control, is a big part of what I try to communicate in this book. That’s the third thing, it’s like how this book will be received. It’s the third thing, I can’t control it. I can’t control whatever decisions she makes.”
As the primaries approach, the delineation will get clearer — but it&#8217;s already clear that Newsom has the media&#8217;s attention, and media outlets want to be sure he has yours too.

Gavin Newsom

SPIN CYCLE: Two Interviews Reveal How The Press Is Framing 2028

Donald Trump

Josh Shapiro

Kamala Harris

Martha Raddatz

After American troops captured Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro in the early hours of Saturday morning, Washington quickly turned its attention to his number two: Vice President Delcy Rodriguez.
Rodriguez has remained loyal since Maduro&#8217;s capture.
&#8220;There is only one president in Venezuela, and his name is Nicolás Maduro,&#8221; she said in an address to Venezuela after his capture. Rodriguez, daughter of the Liga Socialista party founder, Jorge Antonio Rodriguez,  rose through the ranks alongside her brother, Jorge, who currently serves as the President of Venezuela&#8217;s National Assembly. Upon naming her vice president in 2018, Maduro said she was a &#8220;young woman, brave, seasoned, daughter of a martyr, revolutionary and tested in a thousand battles.&#8221;
But not everyone is sold on Rodriguez.
“I don’t think we can count on Delcy Rodriguez to be friendly to the United States until she proves it,” Senator Tom Cotton <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/04/politics/video/venezuela-strikes">told</a> CNN anchor Dana Bash on Sunday.
The Arkansas Republican acknowledged that, while it&#8217;s possible Rodriguez could attempt to work with the United States, it&#8217;s unlikely.
&#8220;There are recent examples of anti-American leaders around the world turning over a new leaf,” Cotton said, citing Libya&#8217;s Muammar al-Qaddafi and his reconciliation with the West in 2003. “But they made concrete concessions that benefited the United States. Delcy Rodriguez and other sanctioned and indicted ministers in Venezuela were in league with Maduro until yesterday so I don’t think we can count on them to be pro-American at all.”
On Saturday, Trump <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsdkClL2_bg">noted</a> Maduro’s selection of Rodriguez had raised concerns, but said she was, for now, cooperating with Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
“Well, I understand she was just sworn in, but she was, as you know, picked by Maduro. So Marco&#8217;s working on that directly,” Trump said. “He [Rubio] just had a conversation with her, and she&#8217;s essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again.&#8221;
Cotton later said that her promised cooperation with the United States aligns with Trump’s remarks about Washington effectively “running Venezuela.”
“When the President said the United States is going to be running Venezuela, he means the new leaders of Venezuela need to meet our demands,” clarified Cotton.
Rodriguez also served as Venezuela’s oil minister, presiding over an industry Trump has repeatedly singled out as requiring United States oversight.
“As everyone knows, the oil business in Venezuela has been a bust, a total bust, for a long period of time,” he exclaimed at Saturday’s press conference. “They were pumping almost nothing by comparison to what they could have been pumping and what could&#8217;ve taken place. We&#8217;re going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country.”
Beyond the energy sector, Trump argued that Venezuela needs a government capable of acting in the interests of its people: “We can’t take a chance that somebody else takes over Venezuela that doesn’t have the good of the Venezuelan people in mind.”
Cotton clarified that the Venezuelan government&#8217;s recognition of a new leader does not equate to recognition by the United States.
“We don’t recognize Delcy Rodriguez as the legitimate ruler of Venezuela. We didn’t recognize Nicolás Maduro as a legitimate ruler … It is a fact that she and other indicted and sanctioned officials are in Venezuela and have control of the military and security services. That does not make them a legitimate leader.”
Trump demonstrated that lack of recognition by issuing a warning to Venezuela&#8217;s remaining political and military figures, saying, “All political and military figures in Venezuela should understand what happened to Maduro can happen to them. It will happen to them if they aren&#8217;t just, fair, even to their people.”
For now, the president says he does not think the United States will need to initiate a second attack, but that if it becomes necessary the United States is prepared: “The first wave, if you&#8217;d like to call it that, the first attack was so successful we probably don&#8217;t have to do a second, but we&#8217;re prepared to do a second wave.”

VENEZUELA-US-DIPLOMACY

Thrust Into The Spotlight, Maduro’s Number 2 Draws Washington’s Skepticism

Global Politics

Nicolas Maduro

Tom Cotton

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) apologized on Sunday for her role in &#8220;toxic politics,&#8221; saying that heated political rhetoric was something she&#8217;d been giving a lot more thought to in the wake of Charlie Kirk&#8217;s assassination.
CNN anchor Dana Bash pressed the Georgia congresswoman on &#8220;State of the Union&#8221; in the wake of a series of attacks she&#8217;d received from President Donald Trump, asking why she&#8217;d never spoken up for others who found themselves the target of Trump&#8217;s outbursts in the past.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
BASH: “We have seen these kinds of attacks or criticism from the President at other people. It&#8217;s not new. And with respect, I haven&#8217;t heard you speak out about it until it was directed at you.”
GREENE: “Dana, I think that&#8217;s fair criticism, and I would like to say humbly, I&#8217;m… <a href="https://t.co/mEURshZcfI">pic.twitter.com/mEURshZcfI</a>
— State of the Union (@CNNSOTU) <a href="https://twitter.com/CNNSOTU/status/1990068687055851867?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 16, 2025</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;We have seen these kinds of attacks or criticism from the President at other people. It&#8217;s not new. And with respect, I haven&#8217;t heard you speak out about it until it was directed at you,&#8221; Bash prompted.
&#8220;Dana, I think that&#8217;s fair criticism,&#8221; Greene replied. &#8220;And I would like to say humbly, I&#8217;m sorry for taking part in the toxic politics. It&#8217;s very bad for our country. And it&#8217;s been something I&#8217;ve thought about a lot, especially since Charlie Kirk was assassinated.&#8221;
Greene went on to say that she was trying to be more intentional about choosing her words and wanted to &#8220;put down the knives in politics&#8221; moving forward. &#8220;I really just want to see people be kind to one another,&#8221; she added. &#8220;And we need to figure out a new path forward that is focused on the American people because as Americans, no matter what side of the aisle we&#8217;re on, we have far more in common than we have differences.&#8221;
Bash went through a list of objectionable social media comments then, including some from as far back as 2020 that had promoted violent imagery, and asked Greene if she was saying she disavowed such statements. Greene noted that she had addressed those posts in the past and stood by her prior assessment.
Greene also said during the same interview that she hoped her relationship with President Trump could still be repaired.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on whether she can fix her relationship with President Trump:
&#8220;Well, I certainly hope that we can make up. And there&#8217;s you know, again, I can only speak for myself. I&#8217;m a Christian and one of the most important parts of our faith is forgiveness. And… <a href="https://t.co/GH4qT2uoHt">pic.twitter.com/GH4qT2uoHt</a>
— State of the Union (@CNNSOTU) <a href="https://twitter.com/CNNSOTU/status/1990068053803991093?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 16, 2025</a></blockquote>
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House Oversight Committee Holds Biden Impeachment Hearing

‘That’s Fair Criticism’: Marjorie Taylor Greene Apologizes For Her Role In ‘Toxic Politics’

'That's Fair Criticism': Marjorie Taylor Greene Apologizes For Her Role In 'Toxic Politics'

Marjorie Taylor Greene

Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) drew a shocked response from CNN anchor Dana Bash when he told her that the most vicious attacks aimed at him have not come from conservatives, but rather from those on the Left.
Fetterman sat down with Bash to discuss his new memoir, &#8220;Unfettered,&#8221; and she explained that she&#8217;d been struck by a claim he made in the book — namely that Democrats were consistently more cruel in their attacks than Republicans were.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
🚨NEW: John Fetterman *STUNS* CNN&#8217;s Dana Bash by telling her how Left crueler than Right🚨
FETTERMAN: &#8220;The Right would say really rough things and names &#8230; but on the Left, it was like they want me to die or that &#8216;We&#8217;re cheering for your next stroke&#8217; &#8230; they even have a gif… <a href="https://t.co/iMRyVTssgs">pic.twitter.com/iMRyVTssgs</a>
— Jason Cohen 🇺🇸 (@JasonJournoDC) <a href="https://twitter.com/JasonJournoDC/status/1988670736924336374?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 12, 2025</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;You said, quote, &#8216;I&#8217;ve drunk deeply of the venom of both the Left and the Right. And as a connoisseur, I can confirm that the most poisonous, the bitterest, is from the far Left,'&#8221; Bash read from the book. &#8220;That is pretty remarkable to hear you say that as an elected Democrat. Why?&#8221;
&#8220;It&#8217;s just been my personal experience on this thing,&#8221; said Fetterman, who has repeatedly bucked the far Left in his party on major issues such as the war between Israel and Gaza and the recent battle to reopen the federal government.
&#8220;I asked my digital team, I said, ‘We’re on all the platforms, you know, what’s kind of the harshest? What’s kind of the most personal?&#8221; Fetterman asked. &#8220;And the answer was immediate. They said, ‘Oh, Bluesky. It’s Bluesky.&#8221;
&#8220;And the difference is the Right would say really rough things and names, some names I won’t repeat on TV,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;But on the Left, it was like, they want me to die, or that ‘We’re cheering for your next stroke’ or that&#8217;s terrible that depression — &#8216;Why couldn’t the depression won?&#8217; And &#8216;I hope your kids find you.&#8217; And they even have a graphic, like a gif where they have a stroke in your head —&#8221;
&#8220;Oh my gosh!&#8221; Bash exclaimed, clearly shocked.
&#8220;And they said that — I remember one that they claimed, &#8216;oh, the doctor let us down,&#8217; and &#8216;why did they have to save his life?'&#8221; Fetterman added. &#8220;I mean, just really — I just can&#8217;t imagine people are wishing, &#8216;I wish he dies,&#8217; or &#8216;I want him to die,&#8217; you know, literally cheering for a stroke. And I don&#8217;t know what the kind of a place where that comes from.&#8221;
&#8220;That&#8217;s much different from calling me a name,&#8221; he explained. &#8220;And that&#8217;s really been consistent in that community online.&#8221;
Just a few days earlier, HBO host and comedian Bill Maher was commenting on the exact same issue with Cheryl Hines, wife of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
🚨NEW: Bill Maher, Cheryl Hines *RAIL AGAINST* Democrats over &#8220;HOW MEAN&#8221; they are🚨
HINES: “The Republicans have been very kind to me from the beginning. Even &#8230; when Bobby was running as a Democrat, they weren’t mean. And they never have been. And I can’t say that for the… <a href="https://t.co/9DiWjCh8rN">pic.twitter.com/9DiWjCh8rN</a>
— Jason Cohen 🇺🇸 (@JasonJournoDC) <a href="https://twitter.com/JasonJournoDC/status/1987904203360989235?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 10, 2025</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;The Republicans have been very kind to me from the beginning,&#8221; Hines remarked, saying that even when her husband had run as a Democrat, Republicans had not been &#8220;mean&#8221; to them. &#8220;They never have been. And I can’t say that for the Democrats.&#8221;
&#8220;I agree. And it’s sad because it’s not the Democrats we grew up with,&#8221; Maher replied, adding, &#8220;I’m not going to pretend I don’t notice how different they are. How mean they’ve become.&#8221;
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-daily-wire-sits-down-with-john-fetterman-who-doesnt-hear-from-democrats-anymore">The Daily Wire Sits Down With John Fetterman, Who Doesn’t Hear From Democrats Anymore</a>

John Fetterman

Fetterman Leaves Dana Bash Speechless As He Blows Up ‘Mean’ Democrats

Democrats

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) turned out a scathing critique of former Vice President Kamala Harris and her 2024 presidential bid, saying that she&#8217;d relied too much on the counsel of billionaires who had steered her away from speaking on behalf of American workers.
Sanders spoke with CNN anchor Dana Bash on Sunday&#8217;s broadcast of &#8220;State of the Union,&#8221; and she asked him to address a comment he&#8217;d made about Harris at a recent rally in West Virginia.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
“How do you run for president and not develop a strong agenda which speaks to the economic crisis facing working families?”<a href="https://twitter.com/SenSanders?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SenSanders</a> says that one reason Kamala Harris lost in 2024 was because “she had too many billionaires telling her not to speak up for the working class.” <a href="https://t.co/QRnwxO8znQ">pic.twitter.com/QRnwxO8znQ</a>
— State of the Union (@CNNSOTU) <a href="https://twitter.com/CNNSOTU/status/1954533959892631883?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 10, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Bash began with a clip of from the rally, in which Sanders told the audience, &#8220;One of the reasons, in my view, that Kamala Harris lost this election is she had too many billionaires telling her not to speak up for the working-class of this country.&#8221;
&#8220;Ouch,&#8221; Bash reacted before she asked Sanders to clarify.
&#8220;Well, no, I think, I mean, I don’t think that that’s — I like her, she’s a friend of mine, but her core consultants, you know, were heavily influenced by very wealthy people,&#8221; Sanders said. &#8220;How do you run for president and not develop a strong agenda which speaks to the economic crises facing working families? You know, more income and wealth inequality today than we’ve ever had. You have 60% of our people living paycheck to paycheck. You’ve got a health care system which is broken and dysfunctional, and despite spending so much, we’re the only major country not to guarantee health care to all people. How do you not talk about these issues?&#8221;
&#8220;She talked about affordability —&#8221; Bash prompted.
Sanders objected: &#8220;Well, but in a vague — I don’t want to rehash that campaign, but I think the clue to Democratic victories is to understand that you’ve got to stand unequivocally with the working class of this country. You need an agenda that speaks to the needs of working people.&#8221;
Just two months before the election, Sanders sang a different tune. He claimed then that Harris was being &#8220;pragmatic&#8221; in hiding her own Marxist tendencies so that she could win the election.
WATCH:
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🚨QUIET PART OUT LOUD🚨
Welker: &#8220;Do you think Kamala is abandoning her progressive ideals?&#8221;
Bernie: &#8220;I think she is trying to be pragmatic and do what she thinks is right in order to win the election.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/qtwmgui7vd">pic.twitter.com/qtwmgui7vd</a>
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/1832777676811034816?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 8, 2024</a></blockquote>
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US-VOTE-2020-DEMOCRATS-DEBATE

Bernie Turns On Kamala In Scathing Critique Of 2024 Bid

Bernie Sanders

CNN anchor Dana Bash selectively edited a Truth Social post from President Donald Trump during a Tuesday broadcast, leaving out the part that included a direct swipe at both her network and MSNBC.
In the post in question, Trump threatened to not endorse any Republicans who did not support the rescissions bill that would pull funding from public broadcasting giants PBS and NPR — but also jabbed at CNN and MSNBC — and Bash read the entire thing aloud, save the insult that apparently hit a little too close to home.
WATCH:
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After stopping herself from reading in its entirety Trump&#8217;s Truth Social post blasting PBS and NPR as biased (&#8220;I&#8217;m not even going to read that&#8221;), CNN&#8217;s Dana Bash insists &#8220;rural communities rely on public broadcasting still&#8221;
Such a backward view of rural America, viewing them… <a href="https://t.co/VrCrdmCcqQ">pic.twitter.com/VrCrdmCcqQ</a>
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) <a href="https://twitter.com/CurtisHouck/status/1945200325293392208?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 15, 2025</a></blockquote>
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On &#8220;Inside Politics,&#8221; Bash read Trump&#8217;s post from start to finish, omitting only the part that targeted CNN and MSNBC.
The full post read, &#8220;It is very important that all Republicans adhere to my Recissions [sic] Bill and, in particular, DEFUND THE CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING (PBS and NPR), which is worse than CNN &amp; MSDNC put together. Any Republican that votes to allow this monstrosity to continue broadcasting will not have my support or Endorsement.&#8221;
Instead, Bash pushed ahead with the narrative claiming that &#8220;rural communities rely on public broadcasting still&#8221; in addition to public education.
Trump has often taken potshots at any media outlet with which he is displeased, but CNN has been a regular target of his for a number of years.
The president sparred with Bash — indirectly — in April when he lashed out at CNN for failing to give enough coverage to his efforts to stop the flow of illegal immigration across the southern border.
&#8220;Well, they get out, but the fake news, like CNN over here, doesn’t want to put them out because they don’t like putting out good numbers … because I think they hate our country, actually,&#8221; he said at the time.
Bash, in response, said during a subsequent broadcast, &#8220;I just want to say for the record, since we heard President Trump say in the Oval Office that CNN &#8216;hates our country.&#8217; CNN does not hate our country. That should go without saying.&#8221;
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CNN&#8217;s Dana Bash: &#8220;CNN does not hate our country.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/QSnGVqMXWL">pic.twitter.com/QSnGVqMXWL</a>
— TheBlaze (@theblaze) <a href="https://twitter.com/theblaze/status/1911835715253457401?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 14, 2025</a></blockquote>
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World Premiere Of Netflix’s “The Residence” – Arrivals

‘I’m Not Even Going To Read That’: Dana Bash Edits Trump Truth Social Post Because He Insulted CNN

'I'm Not Even Going To Read That': Dana Bash Edits Trump Truth Social Post Because He Insulted CNN

CNN anchor Dana Bash suggested that climate change and President Donald Trump&#8217;s administration were to blame for the disastrous flash flooding in Texas, asking Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) to weigh in on her assessment.
Castro joined Bash on Sunday morning&#8217;s broadcast of &#8220;State of the Union&#8221; to discuss the tragic situation that was still unfolding after heavy rains caused massive floods along the Guadalupe River in central Texas — where at least 69 have now been confirmed dead.
WATCH:
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CNN’s Dana Bash identifies two possible causes for the Texas flooding tragedy in questions to Dem Rep Castro:
Climate change and the Trump administration. <a href="https://t.co/v3SHssccmA">pic.twitter.com/v3SHssccmA</a>
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) <a href="https://twitter.com/WesternLensman/status/1941851525942587399?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 6, 2025</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;How much do you think the changing climate is part of what we are seeing go on here, not just what we&#8217;re seeing in the pictures that we&#8217;re showing on the screen?&#8221; Bash asked. &#8220;But even the flood that you talked about in San Antonio in June.&#8221;
&#8220;I think climate change is obviously a part of it,&#8221; Castro agreed. &#8220;These floods are happening more often in more parts of the country and really all over the world. And so we have to face that reality and be better prepared for it and combat it.&#8221;
&#8220;And just talking about the federal government and even the local government, two Texas National Weather Service offices involved in forecasting and warning about flooding on the Guadalupe River are missing some key staff members,&#8221; Bash continued, suggesting that the Trump administration had also played a role in any issues with sending out timely warnings to the public.
&#8220;A director of the NWS Union told CNN that the Austin and San Antonio office is missing a warning coordination meteorologist due to the Trump administration&#8217;s buyouts,&#8221; Bash continued. &#8220;Do you have any indication whether those or any other cuts helped play a role in the fact that the people in the flood zone were not prepared and certainly not evacuated?&#8221;
Castro conceded that he could not say that &#8220;conclusively,&#8221; but suggested that he was at least suspicious that was the case.

Dana Bash Blames Climate Change, Donald Trump’s Administration For Texas Floods

Dana Bash Blames Climate Change, Donald Trump's Administration For Texas Floods

Climate Change

CNN anchor Dana Bash cut away from President Donald Trump&#8217;s Oval Office remarks on Monday to protest his claim that CNN &#8220;hates our country.&#8221;
Trump made the comment during an Oval Office meeting with Salvadorian President Nayib Bukele, jabbing at the network over coverage of illegal immigration, particularly at the southern border, and saying that CNN &#8220;didn&#8217;t like putting out good numbers&#8221; that reflected well on his presidency.
WATCH:
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🚨 &quot;I think they hate our country actually&quot;: <a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@POTUS</a> calls out &quot;fake news&quot; CNN for refusing to report on border crisis being fixed <a href="https://twitter.com/DailyCaller?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DailyCaller</a> <a href="https://t.co/N8mFO7btzM">pic.twitter.com/N8mFO7btzM</a>
&mdash; Nicole Silverio (@NicoleMSilverio) <a href="https://twitter.com/NicoleMSilverio/status/1911809245483315244?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 14, 2025</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;We’re a great country, but we had stupid people running this country. And I can say what they’ve done to us at the border should never and can never be forgotten. It’s a sin what they did, and you are helping us out, and we appreciate it,&#8221; Trump said.
&#8220;Actually, what you’re doing with the border is remarkable. It has dropped, what, 95%? It’s incredible,&#8221; Bukele agreed.
&#8220;As of this morning, 99 percent, 99.1 percent to be exact,&#8221; Trump replied.
&#8220;Why are those numbers not in the media?&#8221; Bukele asked.
&#8220;Well, they get out with the fake news, you know, like CNN. CNN over here doesn’t want to put them out because they don’t like putting out good numbers. They only like putting it out because I think they hate our country, actually,&#8221; Trump said. &#8220;But it’s a shame, you’re right. Isn’t that a great question? Why doesn’t the media, why don’t they put out numbers? Yeah, 99%, I mean, it’s crazy, right? We’re doing great. It’s a crazy time.&#8221;
CNN&#8217;s Dana Bash cut into the Oval Office meeting then to register her objection.
WATCH:
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.<a href="https://twitter.com/DanaBashCNN?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DanaBashCNN</a>⁩: “CNN does not hate our country” <a href="https://t.co/QpfzV8GAdl">pic.twitter.com/QpfzV8GAdl</a>
&mdash; Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) <a href="https://twitter.com/tomselliott/status/1911818570998198608?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 14, 2025</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;I just want to say, for the record, since we heard President Trump say in the Oval Office that CNN hates our country, CNN does not hate our country. That should go without saying,&#8221; Bash protested. &#8220;I’ve been here for 32 years, and I see a rhetorical device in him trying to say such a thing. That said, I want to focus on the news that we heard.&#8221;

CNN Cuts Away From Trump Oval Office Remarks To Protest: ‘CNN Does Not Hate Our Country’

CNN Cuts Away From Trump Oval Office Remarks To Protest: 'CNN Does Not Hate Our Country'

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