I was in the middle of finishing up my weekly newsletter/podcast when the news broke that the FBI raided Donald J. Trump’s home in his Mar-a-Lago resort. I knew if I put off the newsletter/podcast my workload would get completely backed up so I decided to just finish it as quickly as possible and then catch up when I could.
I decided to start at “The Five” and capture every show until “The Ingraham Angle” as I wasn’t sure exactly when Fox News announced the incident. This would be six hours of media total so it would take a minute to capture everything and go through it.
The following is a breakdown of the insanity that was Monday August 8th, 2022 - The day Trump may have figured out - when the government said it wanted its classified documents back it meant it.
It was also the day that Fox News threw everything they had back into the cult of Trump. They might have grown tired of the non-stop whining, the never-ending investigations, and the bratty tantrums but like hell they were going to let senile old Biden take him down.
The Five - 5PM
The raid hadn’t happened yet. This was the calm before the storm
Special Report with Bret Baier - 6PM EST
Total airtime of coverage - 40 minutes (several commercial breaks)
Footage dedicated to the raid - 2 minutes and 30 seconds
Substitute host - Mike Emanuel
The news of the raid was announced in the last three minutes of the program or at about 6:57 p.m. EST. At the time the news broke three journalists were weighing in on the Inflation Reduction Act - Jeff Mason of Axios, radio host Hugh Hewitt and Josh Kraushaar, of Reuters. As the news broke all three just looked stunned.
The host Emanuel asked them to weigh in and the best they could muster was
“The biggest threat to his political future and a possible 2024 presidential campaign could be coming from Merrick Garland, and it looks like it may be coming very soon,” said Kraushaar.
Primetime with Jesse Watters - 7PM EST
Total airtime of coverage - 55 minutes (Two short commercial breaks)
Footage dedicated to the raid - 44 minutes
Watters decided to go with his scripted monologue about how Paul Pelsoi Jr. accompanied his mother on her trip to Taiwan. In the segment it appeared Watters tried to connect Pelosi’s son to some sort of scandal but there was no real evidence of any wrongdoing.
Watters didn’t announce the breaking news alert until 11 minutes into his program.
I suspect he went with his opening monologue to give his producers a chance to contact guests and adjust the entire program.
Watters looked slightly panicked as the show he’d planned on for that evening’s broadcast was basically in a dumpster.
He started his coverage of the raid by reading out the statement Trump had already given the press.
He then immediately moved on to his second guest, nationally syndicated radio host and former NRA spokesperson, Dana Loesch. Loesch was more than capable of filling airtime with her rants against the Department of Justice, the FBI and what she called the double standard towards former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Hunter Biden.
As Watters cycled through his guests Fox News reporter Mike Emanuel would break in and give updates, which he would repeatedly do for the next four hours.
The most animated guest on Watters Primetime was Fox News personality and former Secret Service member Dan Bongino.
“America, they're laughing at you. The left thinks this is hilarious if you doubt me just go to any of their goofy platforms Twitter elsewhere right now they think this is hilarious. You know what's really hilarious? You going out tomorrow if you're not registered to vote and doing it? That's really hilarious. This is gonna get really ugly,”said Bongino.
He wasn’t wrong. About half the country was laughing at this. I’m sure a few folks probably threw parties to celebrate.
About thirty minutes into his program Watters read a second statement.
“There's more from the statement from the President. He says the political persecution of President Donald J. Trump has been going on for years with now the fully debunked Russia, Russia, Russia scam, impeachment hoax number one, impeachment hoax number two, and so much more. It just never ends. It is a political targeting. At the highest level, Hillary Clinton was able to delete and acid wash 33,000 emails after they were subpoenaed by Congress. Absolutely nothing has happened to hold her accountable,” said Watters.
Here’s a condensed edit of “Jesse Watters Primetime.”
Tucker Carlson Tonight - 8PM EST
Total airtime of coverage - 1 hour (No commercial breaks)
Footage dedicated to the raid - 1 hour
Guest host - Will Cain
Cain opened with the same statement that Watters read along with the exact same graphic which he repeated in the last five minutes of the program.
The emphasis on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” was “resources deployed” a phrase Cain repeated throughout the episode. Multiple guests complained that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was not investigated for her private server or deleted emails. Clinton of course was investigated for both.
“How do you explain the devotion of resources to this to what we're watching unfold today and tonight, and the total lack of a devotion of resources and that really doesn't do it justice because the FBI didn't just declined to investigate Hunter Biden, said Cain. “They spun it as disinformation. So how do you explain that disparity?”
Hunter Biden was brought up 13 times in one hour. Hillary Clinton was discussed 12 times, it never occurred to Cain or any of his guests that Donald J. Trump may have done anything illegal or not followed the instructions of the Department of Justice.
Steve Bannon, former advisor to President Trump, called into the show. Bannon was just convicted of defying a subpoena by the January 6th Committee.
“The FBI right now is the Gestapo. The FBI is the Gestapo, whether it's out in Colorado, putting a gold star mother like Tina Peters in chains, Peter Navarro in chains, it's absolutely I've seen this in obscenity, and we're gonna have to fight fire with fire the way to do win elections, when am overwhelmingly and then use the appropriations process to choke down the FBI in shutdown the Justice Department and get to the bottom of who approved this. This is this is so outrageous.”
Bannon is suspected of coordinating with hate groups on the January 6th attack on our nation’s capitol and has known ties to extremism and white supremacy.
Hannity - 9PM EST
Total airtime of coverage - 1 hour (No commercial breaks)
Footage dedicated to the raid - 1 hour
Sean Hannity started his show by using the exact same phrasing former President Donald J. Trump used in his statement.
“It’s a dark day for the Republic,” said Hannity and “DOJ is not being used as a weapon.”
“Has our Department of Justice been turned into a political weapon,” asked Hannity “If they can do this to President Trump, what do you think they could do to the rest of us?
Eric Trump, the son of Donald J. Trump, appeared for an extended segment where he mostly complained about what he perceived was political persecution,
“No family in American history that has taken more arrows in the back than the Trump family,” said Eric Trump.
His comment was especially tone deaf and insulting towards the Kennedy family as both John F. Kennedy and his brother Bobby Kennedy were assassinated while in office.
Eric Trump’s pity party continued for nearly 13 minutes.
“I’m probably the most subpoenaed person in the history of the United States,” said Eric Trump
I’m sure appearing in court or answering depositions is probably not the most enjoyable endeavor but most Americans aren’t born into millionaire families. Eric Trump’s career trajectory includes working for his father and facing legal trouble for lining his companies pockets from a charity meant for children with cancer.
In the grand scheme of things the Trump family was hardly the St. Sebastian of the political world.
Several of Hannity’s guests made comparisons to the new IRS agents that are part of the Inflation Reduction Act.
Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House, was especially maudlin and heavy handed with his fear mongering.
“The law doesn't matter. What matters is power. What matters is favoritism. What matters is whether your team is paying off the right people. And that was very sick and tragic. And to the American dream,” said Gingrich.
Radio host Clay Travis made the worst prediction that has since been repeated by multiple guests and Fox News personalities.
“They will manufacture evidence. They've done it before. Why do we trust that what they say? Is there a Lago they actually found there? I don't either,” said Travis
Even if hard evidence is linked to Donald J. Trump, Fox News will just invent a narrative that this was all some sort of plot to frame the former president.
The Ingraham Angle - 10PM EST
Total airtime of coverage - 1 hour (No commercial breaks)
Footage dedicated to the raid - 1 hour
Igrham opened her show with “The Angle” which is her signature term for an extended monologue on any given subject. On Monday night it was “The Revenge of the Deep State.”
Ingraham also repeated a theme that has since dominated the right-wing media ecosystem.
“The search warrant served on Mar-a-Lago had Trump’s name on it, but the real target of this investigation isn’t Trump. The real target of this investigation is you,” Ingraham said as she pointed to the camera.
Another message that was promoted across the Fox News platform was the false link between FBI agents and the IRS. That somehow the new additional IRS agents that were part of the Inflation Reduction Act were part of a scheme to add more federal law enforcement to intimidate Trump voters specifically.
“The next move is auditing those who disagree,” said Ingraham.
The IRS has been chronically understaffed and underfunded for years and it’s difficult to argue that a bill that was agreed up by both houses of Congress over a period of months was somehow part of a plan hatched by the fictional “Deep State.”
The Inflation Reduction Act is basically a pared down version of the failed “Build Back Better” bill that has been scrutinized, picked apart and shaved down since the first day it was introduced.
Ingraham leaned into her conspiracy theory about the IRS turning into a jackbooted forced intent on crushing Republican voters more than the other hosts. The term IRS was used 15 times during “The Ingraham Angle.”
Overall her messaging was the similar to the other hosts just a bit more polished since her writers and staff had more time to hone their delivery.
Coming up…
I’m trying to catch up to the footage this week. I didn’t want to NOT do my deep dive into Monday’s coverage since it was so compelling. I should have more clips for my followers on Twitter and my regularly scheduled newsletter/podcast for Monday.
I am always amused when the say they’re actually after me, I’m not a wealthy grifter who loves to lie. I’m also not a loser like Trump
Super great!
Hunter Biden is so popular over there!
Love your format! Love your work!